a bit about bea

i haven't written much about bea for a long time and i want to write some things down so i can remember them.

-bea is 18 months old and started nursery 2 weeks ago. she went once in utah in brad's parents' ward, so she's been a total of 3 times. i told myself i'd never be the type of parent that sneaks out {abandoment! consistency! surprise! oh no!} but that is literally the only way she'll stay in there happily. she's 2 for 3 so i think we're getting there.

-ironically, this week is shark week and it is also the week that bea has decided she is absolutely OBSESSED with fish, or as she calls them, "glub glubs", which, when she says it, sounds much more along the lines of "yluh yluh". it started when she found the koi pond app(s) {yes there are 2} on my phone. and also i think it's because she finally got into this finding nemo puzzle that is way beyond her years that i've literally had lying around since before she was born and played with it for hours so i started to show her youtube clips of finding nemo. she couldn't get enough of those, so i finally caved and bought "momo" {momo is obviously nemo, and dory is "dohdoh"} on the appletv and we have watched it like 6 times since tuesday. we also went to the library on wednesday and got a book about glub glubs. and, much to our pleasant surprise, the norwalk library has a fish tank in the kids' section! score! she always wants to eat goldfish because, fish. and whenever she walks by the tv she remembers that finding nemo exists and she points to it and says "YLUH YLUH!!!!!" i was able to use her fish library book today as leverage for the potty, which brings me to...

-potty training! we are slowly getting our foot in the door with potty training. this summer was crazy with traveling and what not but bea started to consistently wake up not-poopy, which was a little hint to us that she might be ready to experiment with the potty. when we finally got to our new place we got her both a toddler potty seat and a little potty for the floor and we use them just when we think about it. i have her sit on it before she gets in the tub and after i take her out of bed in the morning but other than that i'm not too bothered about it yet. she's pooped in it once and peed in it twice. she mostly just sits on it and sings and claps. it's unbearably cute.

-she does NOT like swimming/getting wet/baths. the bath thing she waffles on. last week she was down with the "tubby" but this week it's been a nightmare. but she's pretty solid about avoiding water at the pool, beach, and splash pads. she'll stomp around in puddles but that's about it.

-she continues to be a crazy eater for the most part. baby girl can put it down. she has almost all of her teeth with a few stragglers here and there

-she is tall and lean for her age as of her last checkup. i still haven't gotten our new insurance cards so i haven't brought her in for her 18 month yet, but she has pretty consistently been in 75th for height and 50th for weight

-we're kind of getting the bully thing under control. she doesn't just like randomly hit kids (or me) much anymore so that's a relief. but when she's in a certain mood, she will greet anyone and everyone with a scowl and a "NO!" or if you're lucky, a "NO! MINE!" on the plane coming back from utah when i had her by myself, we pre-boarded, and every person who walked by after we had taken her seat she assumed was going to try and sit by her instead of me, so she scowled at each and every one of them, slapped their arm and screamed "NO! MOMMY!" luckily, her disposition is more often cheery than not, and she just gets moody like that when she is tired or stressed.

-she's at the point with her talking that she has too many words to really count but she isn't stringing sentences together much. this week, she added "ok" to her vernacular, so instead of saying just "momo pease!" it's "momo pease, ok?" which is just adorable.

-she is a dancin' FOOL. any device that is capable of making music gets pointed to on an hourly basis while she squeals "DANCE! DANCE!" which sounds a lot like "DITZ! DITZ!" she dances a lot like elaine from seinfeld. the elbows come out and she kind of rocks side to side. it's hilarious. if she doesn't like the song after 2 seconds she squeals "no pease!" indicating that she would like us to skip that song. also, every once in a while she'll randomly say "bobot!" and do a very cute version of the robot, music or no music. dad taught her that one. she has a little wall-e doll that she calls her "bobot" that she loves to play with in the car.

-she still needs her binky and blankie to sleep, but she doesn't carry them around during the day, which is nice.

-we still get stopped on a daily basis for people to tell us how cute she is. now that we're close to the city again, i'd like to get her set up with an agency that will actually get her work. the last agency we used was a disappointment, they had ONE infant/toddler casting call in the year we were with them! which i guess is to be expected when you're not in new york or LA. luckily they only take a commission and didn't charge us to sign, so it really wasn't any skin off our nose, just kind of annoying. i've got some decent leads on agencies in the city, and we can try for wilhelmina when she turns 2 (they don't do infants-23 mos). but if bradley has his way, none of that will happen haha

-when she gets slap happy after a second or third wind, she goes on really cute hugging sprees and just runs around, collapsing into anyone's arms, saying "AWWWWEEEE!!!!" with a big grin on her face. it's hysterical, she is like a really happy drunk person.

-she likes to wear hats and say "hat!" she has this one veiled cap thing my mom brought back from turkey that she likes to put on and dance around singing "na na naaa na na, na na na na na na naaa" {there's a place in france...}

-she LOVES "bookies". there was a day this week {the day i finally unpacked the rest of her books} where she literally spent the entire day reading {and eating}. it was magical. she would just follow me wherever i was and plop down on the floor next to my feet, stretch out her legs and lay a book across her lap and just bury herself in it. i love that she shares my love for books.

-she recently realized that the alphabet song {her favorite song} and actual letters are related, so now whenever she sees letters anywhere, she points and says "ACs!!!! ACs!!!!!" she loves letters and anything to do with them. maybe that's why she loves books so much

-she just learned what buttons are, probably because of all the elevator riding we've been doing in our new home. except she can't say button, she just says "butt". so whenever we get to the elevator, it's all "BUTT! BUTT!" and dancing around. i love it.

-she loves sesame street, mainly because of cookie monster {whom she used to be terrified of}. she points to the ipad asking for "cookie" all the time, only less so now that she's obsessed with "momo". but that doesn't stop her from sleeping with her stuffed cookie monster in her crib at night.

-she still LOVES dogs. whenever grandma facetimes with us now, she immediately asks for the "woowoo". she loves to point them out wherever we go and pants like a dog and says "woo woo!! woo woo!!" for this reason, i really want to get a dog but then again, no.

-she is a little obsessed with buckles. anytime she sees anything with a buckle, she points and says "buckle!!" and immediately buckles it if it is not already buckled. her favorites are the ones in shopping carts. her first order of business upon getting in the cart is always to fasten the buckle. same goes for her car seat, high chair, and stroller.

that's all i can think of for now. i just really feel like i need to write this stuff down so i can have it for later! there's just so much to soak in and store and just know i'll kick myself if i can't tell bea what she was like as a toddler when she's older because i just can't remember. #responsibility