The Good News First

The good news is that Beatrice is back to napping again.

The bad news is that she - not that cat - is the one opening the van doors. Miss I-have-opposable-thumbs keeps stealing my car remote and playing with it. Problem solved.

The other bad news is that Beatrice has a bad cold. Poor girl. I'm off to LA for the day in a few minutes. So poor Sarah B too.

Way too young for this

Today Beatrice woke up at 5:30am and went to bed again at 5:30pm. Nary a nap in between.
This is so not happening tomorrow. BeBe is way too young to go napless.

Topless yes. Napless no. If she is "one of those babies" as Sarah B put it today, then I'm giving Sarah B (and me and Zack) contractual rights to start drinking at 2pm everyday.

Perhaps the problem was that from 5:30am to 6:00am today Beatrice got all excited about going skiing. She LOVES her goggles. [Please note, we did not buy these silly things - they were a freebie from some baby company]

Let's all hope for a nap tomorrow.

Maybe the cat did it

We don't have a cat. But there is one next door. And Beatrice loves nothing more than going and looking for "Kitty-kitty-kitty" - in the driveway, next door, under the van. Once she finds him/her/it, she is usually content just to squat and watch said cat. Maybe squeal at it. But she's not particularly fond of it coming too near to her. (Zack and I are not big cat fans. Nor is Sarah B, so this love of cats is solely on Grandma Elizabeth's shoulders.)

Well today the cat came to the backdoor while we were eating lunch. Beatrice was in heaven. Eating and the kitty - two of her favorite things at the same time!!! Who knew life could be this good?

Shortly afterwards we decided to venture outside to do some errands, as there was finally a break in the rain. We left the house to find that the back of the van was open (how long had it been left open??? in the rain??). We debated the possibilities throughout our two-hour foray to the grocery store and beyond. Then we finally came home to discover the front door wide open! Nothing stolen, nothing out of place. Just a wide open front door.

Perhaps we both need more sleep, but my bet's on that cat.

Dancing Queen

Put music on and Beatrice will start dancing. Especially if it's got a banjo in it. Or a good beat. It takes her a minute to find the beat, but once she has it - she's off! Bouncing and clapping.

In other news, Beatrice has spent this last week of solid rain doing lots of things inside. Laundry is always a favorite (as it turning anything into a phone).


Bea's hair has also started curling in the back. Mohawk in the front, curls in the back - quite a look!

But with the inclement weather, we have started getting looks from Beatrice, like those below, which pretty much say to me, "Seriously Mommy, I'm bored!"

Other fun pictures that Sarah B took during the week when I was at work:

Madonna's Closet

Another perk of our trip to LA this weekend was yet another shipment of clothes for Beatrice from her cousin Eleanor. Madonna's closet grows! Yes, that t-shirt really says, "Rub my tummy for luck"!
While Beatrice enjoyed unfolding all of her new clothes, she liked the sorting toy best, as her Auntie Megan knew she would. We enjoyed dressing her up (obviously).


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In other news, it's actually taken me until Friday to post all of our weekend activities. I'm usually much more on the ball than this, but my new shift to "3 days a week" of work has somehow translated into about 4.5 days of work this week spread out over 6. Seriously, I must figure out the whole "part-time" thing. It is tough. No lie. Perhaps if I rub Beatrice's tummy for luck...

Happy 95th Birthday Great-Grandpa Don!

We drove down to LA to help Zack's Granddad Don celebrate his 95th birthday. It was quite a party. The party itself was in Pasadena (where we almost got run over by "the little old lady from Pasadena" in her sports car), at a beautiful site overlooking one of the great bridges of LA.

Best of all we got to hang out with lots of Jarvis's (is the plural form really Jarvi??), family and friends at Don's house beforehand and at the party. Anna (and Megan) joined us there too; Eleanor (and Colby) was unfortunately too sick to come, but Beatrice and Anna made quite a pair with Great-Great Aunt Betty!

The only problem was that the party was from 2-5pm. And at 4pm Beatrice does a bit of a Cinderella, turning from "oh look at sweet little girl dancing" to "oh wow, her parents are going to have a time with her, aren't they?" And we did. (These were actual quotes overheard.)

We did manage to get one semi-nice picture of the 3 of us, but look at the other one where Beatrice is giving us her "seriously, it's 4:30pm, what do you expect from me" look.

Don was roasted by friends (and his kids!) at his birthday party. I was outside with Crazy-pants for most of it, which is probably ok, as much of it was X-rated anyway. They also had a band, which Beatrice loved. Though I think she was honestly confused why the man with the banjo wasn't Granddaddy Bill.

Some of my favorite pictures from the day - Megan & Anna. Take a look at the second photo - they have the exact same shocked look! "Oh no, he didn't!"

Damien and Tamieka in SB

The Australians invaded Santa Barbara this weekend! Damien and Tamieka flew out from NYC to visit for the weekend, which officially puts them in the running for the longest travel to shortest trip ratio. We certainly had fun with them!

We all went for a nice long walk on our beach. We obviously haven't been down to the beach in a while, because we hadn't noticed that our sandy beach is now ROCKY. Those big storms took all the sand away from our little point.





Beatrice was very patient, but by the end of our walk she was ready to get down! (see below)

Beatrice had a great time out of her backpack. She did NOT want to leave.

After our long walk we enjoyed In-N-Out Burger (yum) and a trip to the Mission.

In other Beatrice news, she has started "hiding" by going under her table. Gave me a heartattack the first time I couldn't find her! And she's drinking - finally!

Thanks for visiting D & T! Watch out for us in NYC soon.