A bear after her daddy's heart

So bear is almost 10 months old. She is becoming a little person, expressing her likes and dislikes, sharing her food with Acadia, exploring the house and the great (lawn/park) outdoors on her own, and giving us wet baby kisses when she wants some affection. She is a bright little baby girl. I am certainly hoping and believing that communication is going to be her strongest skill. Her pointing and imitation skills are very strong. Over the past week she has even begun to imitate verbally with some "da," "pa" and "ba" sounds. Her babbling is increasing as well, she tells us stories all day long with all of her different sounds. When it's getting late and she's a little tired her raspy gremlin voice comes out, making the silliest sounds I've ever heard! It's an instant clue that it's time to get ready for bed.

This past Friday we joined the neighborhood kids outside. There were two soccer balls out on the grass, a pink one that no one was playing with and one that our neighbor's son was playing with. Bear army crawled over to the pavement which cut between the two sections of grass that everyone was playing on. She hung out on the pavement for a few minutes, up on all fours and rocked back and forth for at least a full minute, as if she was trying to start her own engine. She teased us all with the possibility that this might be the moment when she decides she's ready to try crawling on her knees. But no, bear would not advance her army crawl on this lovely afternoon. Which is just fine, she will get there when she's ready. After a few minutes bear moved on to the next section of grass and headed right for the pink soccer ball. She got so excited once she had the soccer ball! She sat right up, lifted the ball towards the sky and screamed with excitement! After about 10 minutes of literally drooling on the pink ball, she spotted the other ball that was being played with. So bear began her travels across the lawn towards a downward hill to where the little boy was playing with the ball. The boy had a fisher price basket ball hoop out and was playing very aggressively with the ball. You would think this would deter sweet little bear but it seemed to make her more interested. I did not want her to get too close to the little boy as was pretty unaware of his surroundings. Luckily (for me) the little hill bear was heading towards dipped into a very tiny (baby) ditch creating a small gravitational pull back towards mommy. This tiny hill, on top of a hill, quickly sent bear rolling back to where she had started. I was concerned that she might have been scared by the event that had just taken place but all I saw was laughing once her roly poly adventure came to a halt. The roll left her facing up towards the sky and she was squealing with baby happiness. Bear then rolled herself back onto her tummy and attempted the trek over the small hill, in the hopes to descend the other side to her treasured dirty ball... I let her attempt the climb again but stopped her hike before she rolled herself down the large hill. I knew this hill would give bear more of a fright and possibly some bruises if I didn't stop her. She got a little frustrated when I returned her back to the flat grass where all of the little girls were playing. Fortunately, at the time, bear seemed to forgot all about the ball when she spotted all of the neat girly toys laying out on the grass and pavement. I plopped her down next to two of the girls and I began to continue chatting with the neighborhood parents... but before I could get in a full sentence bear was back at it again. She wanted that ball and was army crawling as fast as she could to get to it. We played this game at least 4 more times until it was time to head in, eat dinner and get ready for bed.

I am so amazed at how much bear loves being outside! She would spend all day out there if she could. She is already trying to tell me when she wants to go outside by tapping me on the chest (when I'm holding her) to get my attention and then pointing at the front door. We're so happy that she's expressing love for nature already! I hope this isn't a faze!

All shook up on Easter's afternoon

This past Saturday we made the long trip back home. We only had one minor delay on our way out or Albany, sitting on the run way for a half hour which ended up being longer than the first flight itself... We were then blessed with the only open neighboring seat on the plane, thus bear could spread out and have plenty of room to touch and drop whatever.

We got home late and went right to bed. I was exhausted and fighting an awful cold. One cup of NyQuil later and suddenly it was Sunday morning. Happy Easter! Or should I say Shake, rattle, and role.

Easter Sunday as a whole was uneventful, daddy brought us early morning presents. Tulips for mommy and an Easter Tigger for bear. We then had a nice breakfast and went on a mid-day walk with the whole pack.

On our return I sat with my exercise ball at the computer. I was looking at dinner ideas online when the first roll hit. Feeling the start of an earth quake is always delayed. You feel it but the brain doesn't fully grasp it right away. And, already being on a bouncy ball, I wasn't quite sure if the earth was shaking or I was just some how bouncing myself. I stared at my foot and watched it bounce away from the floor. Is the earth shaking again (we had another one about 2 weeks prior at 4:04 AM)? Chris and I figured it out at about the same time, grabbed bear and went to the door way. We thought it had stopped, but we were very wrong! The hardest shake started and we headed outside and joined our neighbors who were leaving their homes at the same exact time as us. No one was quick to return back into their houses. Earth quakes are surreal, I was in complete fight or flight mode during the whole quake but once it stopped for good I started to truly comprehend how I felt about the whole thing. Nervous along with the endorphins, from the shock of the quake were still running through my body. Bear, completely unaware of what had just happened, blissfully romped around in the grass as we chatted with our neighbors. Chris, having the ever handy iphone immediately looked up the quake information on his phone. At the time it was measured as a 6.9 just south of the Mexico boarder, rocking the majority of Southern California. We learned later that it was actually 7.2.

It took about an hour to refocus on dinner and we eventually moved on to the grocery store. The first item on my list: lots of bottled water! We did not pass one person in the store with out bottled water in their cart. Each earth quake is a reminder that the big one is coming. I thank God for every little quake because we are blessed to have missed a major one. Every little shake gets us more prepared. All of our large furniture and TVs are strapped down (which will also come in handy if bear decides to turn our whole entertainment center into a jungle gym). We also have lots of canned food and water, and an escape plan that includes the dog. All we need to do now is to restock some first aid stuff.

I hope that these precautions will work more like Murphy's law. If we're prepared maybe the big one will never really happen? Cross your fingers for us! In the mean time... it's time to enjoy this beautiful day.