A year ago today and onward.

And we've reached 11 months! Wow, just a year ago we were still wondering what bear would look like, would she have blond hair or brown hair? Blues eyes or brown? My nose of daddy's nose? We also pondered what her temperament and personality might be like; would she be shy or outgoing? But most concerning: we wondered if she was really a girl... we had heard a few stories and were worried that Chris' hard work in bear's room -- perfect chocolate brown and bubble gum pink stripes, with a crisp white chair rail to break the stripes away from a sweet ballerina pink coating on the top half-- was all for nothing. A princess room for a prince? Luckily we did get our princess!

This week bear celebrated her 11 month

birthday by taking quite a few falls, we now have 3 bruises on

our face to show for it. Poor thing! Her coordination is developing just a little slower than her eagerness to explore the new world, located two feet off the ground and higher. And, on top of all the bumps and bruises, bear cut two new top teeth last night! It seems like the other two are on their way as well (per the water fall of drool flowing out of her mouth)!

I, being totally unaware that two teeth were making their grand entrance, left bear to cry it out last night as I assumed she had just decided she didn't want to go to bed. After screaming for 20 minutes (unusual for bear!) I went into the room. During my return to bear I found a surprise in her diaper as well as the first top tooth that cut through. While I held her feet up to change her, she took the opportunity to champ down on my finger! Once bear decided to let go of my finger I felt her gums. So this is why you're fussy, I thought! The first tooth had already pushed through and I could feel the tooth next to it getting close.

After a diaper change, some gum messaging, a little Tylenol, and a small bottle I put bear back down. Again she screamed, this time for a half an hour so I decided to let her come out and join us in the living room while we ate dinner. As soon as bear saw daddy's dinner, she immediately pulled herself up to the coffee table and began stealing peas off of daddy's plate (her new favorite thing to eat!). She couldn't get enough! After polishing off daddy's peas and my peas

I moved her to the high chair and gave her her own serving of

veggie rice and she continued to go to town. Something about the roundness and the greenness of the little veggies gets bear all

excited! Shortly after dinner daddy put bear back down, she fussed again but was finally able to fall asleep . She would wake up two more times through out the night :( Both times I rocked

her back to sleep and slowly put her back into her crib. It was clear that she really wanted to be sleeping but was in too much pain. This morning she was very sleepy, she had giant baby bags under her eyes which were bright pink from all of the eye rubbing she had done through out the night. After a nice long morning nap she seemed to be a little more refreshed!

Following morning nap we went to Sign & Sing class. During snack time we found out that bear loves animal crackers... who doesn't like animal crackers?? She sat contently through snack time with the kids, munched on her animal crackers, and listened to two stories. Lately at nap time and bed time bear will take her bottle and listen really nicely to whatever mommy picks

to read. Since she love Elmo, I recently pulled out a more advanced book (it had been sitting in my stash of toys that I use to use for work). Each page had a full paragraph, more appropriately fit for a two year old, but bear sat contently and listened to the story as she admired Elmo.

So long for now!

xoxo

I'll trade Pooh for a furry red monster.

So not too much has been going on lately. We are about 2 and 1/2 weeks through daddy's out of town work schedule. Bear will be 11 months next week-- holy guacamole-- and we've already started planning her little birthday celebration. I ordered her birthday cake from the same bakery that made our amazing wedding cake, Sweet Sensations Bakery. It will be a Winnie the Pooh themed cake and I can't wait to see it! The best part though is that we will be able to spend her birthday in Maine, which is very special to us. With in a three day period bear will celebrate her

first birthday with all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course both grandmas and grandpas! All we'll be missing is Acadia, who will be vacationing at PetSmart's doggie hotel.

Next week we start our little ducklings swim class. I am so excited to get bear in the water! I love swimming and I hope she enjoys it, too! When bear was about 1 month old we took her to Palm Springs and let her splash her little feet in pool. She smiled the whole time, it was very obvious to us that she loved being in the water. I hope it has a similar effect on her when we start swimming class on Monday. I grew up taking swim lessons every summer and swam competitvely through out middle school and high school, and competed for my college diving team during my freshman year. I love swimming and plan on teaching bear on my own once she's old enough, but for now we'll learn from a teacher who can teach us how to

help bear get more comfy in the water.

~**Bear's favorite item in her toy box: Books!**~

In more immediate news: earlier this morning bear took her first cruising crash while pulling herself up with one of the chairs in the kitchen. The chair tipped back as bear pulled up and BOOM, she went right onto the floor :( I felt awful! I have to take some blame as I shouldn't have trusted the cheap Ikea chair to hold bear steady while she explored the kitchen. Poor bear-- bad mommy! Following her crash I decided to turn on Sesame St. and cuddled with her on the couch. One of the best things about bear (when she's not on the move) is th

at she's a cuddle bug. She cuddles with all of us as well as her soft Pooh and Minnie Mouse dolls. And lets not forget her soft soccer ball, which bear use to cuddle with, too until Acadia decided to rip that ball a new one while we were out shopping this afternoon... Acadia can't talk but she can always find an effective way of expressing her feeling when she's left behind... Sorry Acadia, you can't come shopping.

Any ways, on a regular morning we watch the last 15 minitues of Sesame St. so we can catch "Elmo's World," which I turn into "_ _ _ _'s world"(<----- Place bear's real name here) when I sing the song to her. Bear is in love with Elmo! She picks him out whenever we are in a toy store. And, if I tell her "It's time for Elmo," she comes to the TV and plops herself on my lap :D. Bear claps along with me as I sing with Elmo and his friends. As bear grows we'll start to watch more of the full show. I look forward to watching and interacting with her and the show once she can start to really understand TV.

Well that's all for now. Keep posted for updates on our swimming adventures!

A stink bear...

So this past week was the first of our nine work weeks without daddy. Over all it went pretty well... until about Wednesday evening :) While talking with daddy on the phone bear pulled herself up to the coffee table for the first time, which opened a whole new door to her explorative world. I am so excited that she is now pulling up, and this morning she began to "cruise" a little while in her crib, though she eventually resorted to dropping (literally, she just let herself plop on her diaper covered tush) and then crawled to the other side of the crib where I was enticing her with Tigger. This pulling up thing is a mixed bag of excitement, anxiety and a little frustration. Excitement in the fact that my little bear is progressing into toddler hood, anxiety because I'm terrified of the all the bumping and bruising possibilities and frustration because. Well. I can no longer just relax a little during play time because bear can now get into just about anything if I don't keep my eyes 100% on her.

So the first week without daddy had gone very well. I tried my best to not let Acadia drive me nuts. We took long walks twice a day, played long games of catch at the park and even dropped her off at doggy day camp mid week so she could play with her friends. Would this give me a break from her naughty attention seeking behaviors through out the week? No! I knew things would remain the same no matter what I did for "kay-kay." But I still felt bad that her Christopher wasn't home at night to play with her so I tried hard to make her extra happy! It's also very hard to stay mad at the eternal puppy when she's so darn cute!

**Acadia sunbathes**

The week continued, mostly uneventful until Thursday afternoon... That morning, following some much uninvited puppy naughtiness, bear and I met with the neighbors at the park and then went to lunch. It had reached 1 PM and I knew bear had had enough and I was a little concerned that she might not go down for her nap at this point because we had passed her normal nap time. But I figured we could at least try for a nap and she was surprisingly quiet (usually fusses if we are off on nap times) at least until about 20 minutes into her nap. I heard her cry and whine on and off but waited her out for about 15 minutes and then gave in when her cries began to escalate. When I first entered her room she was sitting way in the far corner of the crib, and by the time I made it across the room and up to her I had realized that her dipper was off, fully open (and looked as if it hadn't been worn at all) and laid flat out next to a big stain of pee and you know what which was also all over the crib sheets, bumper and wooden bars of the crib. Also included was a nice poopy hand print at the top handle of the crib, obviously stamped there while she stood and cried for me to come get her... if only babies could talk...

I then looked at her and was even more shocked when I saw that she had poop all over herself! Poop on her face as if she had just had a poop facial, poop on her arms, tummy, t-shirt, legs... every where! Poop as if she had crawled through the poopy trenches... oy!

About two baths later, two hot loads of laundry and a full scrub down of her crib we were back to a clean princess room with a clean princess in it. Thankfully by the time I had finished everything it was nap time again (we still get three naps if our other naps were not so good). Mommy took a nap too!

Even though this was a tiring day, it did make me laugh a lot :)

Happy Mother's Day -- tomorrow is my very first one!

Not such a little bear anymore!

Bear is about 10 months and a half, here are some things she has accomplished:

Over the past two weeks she began to pull her self up on to her knees. On Tuesday she started crawling all the way up on her hands and knees when we were at the park, as if she had been doing it her whole 10 months of life, she did not struggle or strain, with out any warning bear just started to crawl with her tummy fully off the ground. Then, after about 5 crawling steps, she resorted back to her army crawl and we've been seeing her switch on and off between the two styles ever since. On Thursday, after her last nap she surprised both daddy and I buy pulling up to stand all by her self. We were so excited that we both were able to witness this moment! Daddy was most excited because he will be leaving us during the week for work for the next few months and we both know he may miss out on some things.

Bear still loves the outdoors! As soon as we get out she points and babbles for a leaf. Yesterday while running bear kept whining... I thought she might be a little hungry but decided to wait it out a little. She's generally easily distracted while we're outside and almost never requests to eat unless she's starving and tired. About half way into my 3 mile loop I realized the bear had been whining because she wanted a leaf. It hadn't occurred to me to look in on her, the whole time she had been pointing out to the trees for a leaf. I quickly pulled down a eucalyptus leaf for bear and started back up on our 3 miles, keeping a close eye on her in case she decided to taste the leaf.

Bear's eating is amazing! She is willing to try anything. This past week I made her Annie's Mac & Cheese with broccoli hidden amongst the noodles. She also tried my chili yesterday and pretty much polished it off for me. On Friday night we all went out to dinner... pretty early... as Chris would say, "We've joined the blue hairs..." which is true, we were the youngest people in the place for dinner at 5 PM. I gave bear some baby goldfish to snack on (I know... they're not organic- gasp! They're only for special occasions!). Bear loves goldfish! She snacked on them happily and danced to the music that was playing. She bobbed up and down to the beat, very content in her little high chair, she'd take 1/2 a bite of a fish in between dance beats and then chew away while looking at the neat decor, lights and waitresses. I wanted to burst out with laughter, it was honestly one of the cutest things I have ever seen, but I was afraid that if a laughed too much or too loud she might stop. When bear looked the opposite direction I took a few seconds to let out some quiet giggles. She is such a special girl! I don't want to forget this moment!!!

This past week we've been running more with daddy. It's become a full family affair, Acadia included, too! It's been great for me because it's motivating me to get my mileage up and it's been great for Chris because it's motivating him to get out and start running again. Chris lost some motivation for training following his last marathon. He was unable to run this past Huntington Beach Marathon due to a knee injury, on top of that I think he's just a little burnt out with work & the demands of long distance running. Nor is there enough time in the day for him to work, run and spend time with bear before she heads off to bed (at 6PM sharp). On Monday daddy will start working out of town during the week, hopefully we will all keep up with our running even though we won't be able to do it together. I'm also hoping that Acadia doesn't drive me too crazy while daddy is out of town.

So long for now!