Fall.

Clara's first major outing was to the Atlanta History Center, so that she could experience a rare fall day here in Atlanta. We had a hellish summer, and then it got cold quickly, so we didn't want to miss our tiny window of opportunity to be outside without choking on smog, sweating to death, or getting frostbite.  Yay, climate change!

Bethany, being our child, loves the History Center.  She is now old enough to get a kick out of the little playhouse (see above).  It is approximately the size of our actual house, but the ceilings are lower, and we have heat and air conditioning.  Otherwise, it feels just like home.

One of Lindsey's friends nicknamed BEB "nature girl," and it continues to be true.  She LOVES being outside, regardless of how uncomfortable the temperate or precipitation may be.  One of her favorite things this summer was to ask to go outside and catch rain in her hands.  Keep in mind that it only rained about five times all summer, so most of this asking was happening when the sun was blazing.  Go, imagination!

This was how Clara visited the History Center - snuggled up to Daddy in the Ergo.  We LOVE that thing - best money ever spent.  Anyway, she did get hungry, and I did have to nurse her on a bench shortly before a whole tour group came by.  We could call that lactivism, but really, it was more like poor planning.  :)  Otherwise, she pretty much missed out on the whole experience.  We did learn that she likes to be outside, so I'm thinking we have TWO nature girls at our house.

                                

As part of my ongoing quest to win mother of the year, I bought this child's Halloween costume at Target.  Lindsey helped me realize that my homemade bee suit was not a reality for people having intense procrastination issues and a baby due in mid-October.  We settled for this, which Bethany loved, and was very easy to deal with when she didn't want to be a bee anymore.  She is, though, very good at buzzing. This is all part of my master plan to send her to Georgia Tech.  Mwhahaha.

Yup, Clara has a bee suit, too!  Love the consignment sale bargains.  Mostly, I bought it for the ridiculous hat.  She looks a bit more like the Hamburglar than a bee, but whatever.  It's not like she went trick or treating.  :)

The newest member of the family.

 Clara Lydia Brown was born on October 15, at 3:53 a.m.  She weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.  In our family, that is a TINY baby.  Fear not, though - at her one week check up, she weighed just shy of 9 pounds.  :)  We'll see if that continues.  We arrived at the hospital at about 2:30 a.m., got into our room just before 3:00, and I pushed for less than ten minutes.  Let's all pause for a prayer of thanksgiving that this baby wasn't born on the highway. 

Bethany is thrilled to be a big sister.  She wants to hold, kiss, and hug Clara all the time.  She also likes to decorate her with stickers.  Mama is not such a huge fan of that last thing.  Unlike Bethany, Clara does not view sleep as a mortal enemy.  I think she is within the "normal" range - nothing freaky like sleeping through the night - but a far cry from big sis.  Or, rather, just a lot LESS crying than big sis.  Life with newborn and toddler is interesting, but we are taking it one day at a time.  Some days are just a lot easier than others!

 

Here are Mom, Dad, & Clara just before leaving the hospital.  We'll see if I can remember to get these pictures every month.  No promises...

Oh - and if you visit the MonkeyBean Photos website, you can see Miss Clara's amazing newborn portraits.  She already doesn't look like that anymore.  Crazy.

More Singing.

When I was tiny, my dad created a new version of a familiar tune.  My brother and I both loved this "game," and now Bethany loves it, too.  This was about two days before Clara was born - but I was already having contractions.  In fact, I'm having one at the end of this.  If you look carefully, you can watch me turn bright red.  Fun times!

Bethany sings!

Bethany's Uncle Dr. Pete is living in Singapore, where he is teaching for two years.  The 12 hour time difference makes it hard to talk to him, so we recorded this little cinematic masterpiece so he could see one of her newer skills.  Ignore the fact that you have to listen to me, too.

School Girl.

Here we have our sweet girl on her first day of "pre-school."  You can see her happening lunchbox, and she's wearing her backpack.  (Yay for teachers who are willing to work with our cloth diapers!)  The backpack is a duck, but she insists on calling it an owl.  The first day was great, and every day since has been, as well.  She took to it naturally, and apparently likes to help the other children by feeding them and telling them where to sit for snack and lunch.

Here she is this morning.  I am coveting her dress for myself, by the way.  It's finally less than 157 degrees outside, so she gets to look like she's actually going to school, not the beach.  Those little shoes are actually Keds, and are therefore appropriate for P.E.  She visits Coach on Thursday, and loves it.  Her throwing arm is improving rapidly, which is a bit scary.  I had envisioned her as more of a soccer player than a softball player, but we'll see what pans out.

Why not.

Rather than apologize for over a year of non-blogging, I figured I'd just jump back in. My darling cousin Beth has inspired me to at least record the big events for our family, so you can have that to look forward to.

Here is our big girl on her first day of "summer camp." She's started a little preschool program two mornings a week, and went to camp to give us an idea of whether or not she'd like it. She loved it, and continues to be very excited about going to "school." We're very fortunate.

Our biggest announcement is that Bethany's little sister Clara is due to arrive on October 12th. In case you're counting, that will make them 22 months apart. We figure that we'll sleep sometime in the 2020s.

In other news, Bethany is off and talking like a pro. I was very proud of her ability to say, "no, thank you," until that became her super polite and hard to ignore method of getting out of doing things like cleaning up after herself. Fortunately for me, she still loves to do laundry.

Bethany is also a serious writer. She doesn't really seem to draw that much, but she loves to write. Her favorite things to write are "Daddy," "Mama," and "cracker."

Bethany's other favorites include singing all the songs from Music Class, reading books about animals, designing clever methods of avoiding sleep, anything involving water - especially baths, and brushing her teeth. One hilarious thing right now is that she uses the word "yours" to refer to things that are hers. "Brush yours?" means she wants her teeth brushed. This is very confusing, and I'm hoping she figures it out before she goes to college.

Our last big bit of news is that my cousin Laura is getting married in February, and sweet Bethany is going to attempt to be a flower girl. At the very least, she will be in the pictures. We'll see if she makes it up the aisle! Big congratulations to Laura & Chris. We love you both very much!

Sewing. I'm doing it.

True fact:
I took exactly six weeks of "Home Ec" in 8th grade.
True fact:
We did not sew a blessed thing.
True fact:
We "cooked." At home. And brought our dishes to school as homework, because our class met in a kitchenless trailer.
True fact:
I signed up for my first online class ever to motivate me to move beyond the straight stitch on my admittedly fancy machine. Click on that little picture to the right if you'd like to join me.
True fact:
I made that rectangle up there. I used the sewing machine to do it. Go me.

Bethany - Seven Months.

Bethany being six months old has been, without a doubt, the most amazing period of her life so far. She's learned so many things in a short amount of time. The weekend we went to Florida she learned how to clap and blink. We don't see much blinking any more, but the clapping continues, and is beyond precious. (Of course, I might be biased.) Here she is, immediately post-clapping. You can see the glee. ;)
We've had the opportunity to see lots of friends this month. Kenzie (above) is the daughter of our dear friends Erik & Naomi. Kenzie is a big Bethany fan, and worked hard to help her sit still for this picture. She also tried to help Bethany learn to dance. Let's just say we're still working on that particular skill set.
Uncle Dr. T. was in Atlanta for a wedding, and we got to spend a bit of time with him one evening. Bethany loved to look at him and smile at him, but this is about as close as she wanted to get. Bethany has now met almost all of the Tulane crowd, so the three slackers (ahem, Bear, Wascom, & Raegen) need to get their act together and come visit!!
Our little girl is a stander-upper. She's liked this for a long time, but now she's to a point where she can support most of her weight without collapsing while we hold her. This is fine, except when we need her to sit in our laps and all she wants to do is stand. She does not handle disappointment well, and generally lets everyone in the vicinity know that we are refusing to meet her standing needs.
To celebrate our nation's independence, Bethany decided to become an independent sitter. She's pretty good at it, and still has the occasional head-bonk. Combining clapping and sitting might just be her favorite hobby.
(I just love this picture.) Bethany's favorite part of Goodnight Moon is "the quiet old lady whispering hush." She thinks it's spectacular, and usually gives us a big smile, then goes about her business trying to eat the book.
Baby pool = massive failure. Enough said.
Aunt Julie & Aunt Melissa came up to Atlanta to take some of Bethany's six month portraits. We were SO glad to see them, and the portraits are gorgeous, as per usual. You can see those here and here. We are forever grateful to have friends like the two of them. :)
Since BEB has become a sitter, bathtime has gotten more interesting. This is the day she first realized she could sit up in her whale tub. You can guess how she's feeling. The slobber is just a bonus for you.
More friends! This was a great day. :) Two of my friends from Macon, Laura & Jenn, brought their daughters, Susanna & Allie, to play with Bethany. They are a bit older, but Bethany was entranced by them, and just could not figure out what she was supposed to do. It was probably the calmest I've ever seen her. Here are Susanna & Allie in Bethany's room - the group would not cooperate to get a good picture of all three girls.
And the (terrible) family shot - more fun to look at the camera than at the mirror, I'm afraid.

Phew. I'm exhausted just reliving all this. Maybe next month we'll have a tooth to show you!