Bah Mime!

This past Wednesday evening I was getting bear ready for her usual bath. Daddy was still out of town, so it was just the two of us, together, prepping for bath time. I sang a little tune for bear, as I usually do when we're doing things like baths and diaper changes... Today's tune went something like "It's BATH TIME for bear, bath time for bear..." etc. And as I sang, bear began to chime in too! She has been singing for me lately and I wasn't too surprised when she chimed in with her own little chorus of the bath time song, only she said bath time as "bah mime!"

The following evening bear surprised me a lot more (regarding bath time!). Following a nice stroll to Starbucks, we all hung out in the living room playing with bear. It was about an hour before bed time and I figured we'd skip bath time tonight because bear didn't really get dirty during the day. As 5 PM hit, bear started saying "bah mime!"... "Bah mime!" It took me a few minutes to figure out what she was saying... It didn't really hit me until she started gesturing bath time, a sign I did not teach her... she made it up herself a few months back (taps her chest two times with her right hand). Bear then tried to take her shirt off. Unable to coordinate her two hands correctly (and also lacking the fully developed motor skills for such a task...), she skipped out on taking off her close and headed for the bathroom. Chris and I, at this point, were very tired and still comprehending the fact that bear had just said two words together (and she did not imitate us, she said it fully independent ~ hurray!!!), we essentially looked like to lazy sloths lounging in an afternoon haze... With Chris being out of town and all the running around we did with uncle Josh, I had minimal energy left to do anything. Chris was also exhausted due to completing a full week of work within 3 days while being in Nevada. Both of us stared at one another waiting for the other to get up and follow bear. Our delay seemed fine as we thought the bathroom door was closed so we felt no need to rush. But we were wrong! And, as the two of us laid there playing bathroom chicken, we soon heard the door fling open, followed by the pitter-patter of knees and hands on the cool tile floor. By the time we made it into the room, bear was already in her little blow up tub. She looked right up at us and said "bah mime!...bah mime!...BAH MIME!..." And, well... of course we gave her a bath! What good talking!

Now bear wants to take baths all of the time! This morning bear said "bah mime" again and snuck into the bathroom while I was doing my hair. She was very upset when I took her out of her little tub and brought her back into the living room. I quickly distracted her and before I knew it, she was banging on the front door, looking back at me, and saying "bye bye!"

Bear requested to sit like a big girl at Starbucks :)

From Disney to LA and back again...

So I've been lagging on the posts lately... but only because we've had so much going on! Bear is learning new words and sounds almost every day.

Things we can say as of today (started speaking in this chronological order):

Mama

Dada

buh-bye

hat(haaa)

ball(bow)

baba

(for the sheep in "Brown bear brown bear")

more (moe)

[just started today(7/28/20)]

Words we've attempted:

Juice

all done

(We hear her attempt words often-- can't remember them all)

New Signs:

bird/duck

(used today while seeing a duck in a book)

Today uncle Josh left us to return back to NY. He spent almost a full week visiting, so we had a jammed packed few days of exploring a decent portion of LA and Orange County! We spent a good portion of Josh's visit at Disneyland.

Chris bought bear and I the premium year round (every day of the year we can go to Disney at any time that we want to!!!) pass to both Disneyland and California Adventure. I now plan on taking bear to Disney once a week! Just entering the parking lot and walking around Downtown Disney makes me feel like a kid again. I am so blessed to be able to take bear whenever we feel like going. No need to make big plans, or leave town, the most magical place on earth is located 20 minutes north east of home! I am really looking forward (besides the general excitement of it all) to Christmas time at the park! Bear will be 16 months at that point, fully walking and a lot more aware of Christmas (at least a lot more aware than she was last year!). With all of the special events that they have for the holidays, I know it will make SoCal feel more Christmas-ey when we visit. I am so excited! A year ago I had never been to either Disney and now we can go anytime that we want! And, even for such a little bear, there is a lot to do at both parks. We are also fortunate enough to have amazing neighbors who go to the park weekly too~ So bear's little friend T. will be there to play with from time to time. And lets be honest, playing at Disney is a lot more fun than playing at the park!

As for Chris, he's still out of town on business during the weeks so it was really nice to

have someone else here in the house to keep us company. Having an extra set of hands certainly wasn't bad either! Acadia was great with Josh the entire visit, though she seemed to think Josh was a sucker for her cuteness and wouldn't stop begging him to play or give her attention, as she thinks only Chris and I know what's she's up to. And of course she assumes that Josh came to visit just to see her...

Every morning that Josh was here we continued our usual morning routine: when bear wakes up at 6 am sharp we change, pack up and head out for Acadia's 45 min. walk (with catch time included). I'd try hard to keep quite as we worked on getting out of the house (a surprisingly strenuous event that happens between wake up and walk "take off") so Josh wouldn't be disturbed. When I wasn't able to keep full tabs on Acadia she would sneak away and lick Josh in the face; it's Acadia's personal morning wake up call... she'd do it to us too but our bed is too high off the ground...

"Hey Josh, It's time for my walk, then we play catch and after that we eat... maybe I'll share some kibble with you... get up!"~ I'm guessing this is what Acadia was thinking...

Over the weekend when Chris was home, Josh and I took off to hang out at Disney for the adult rides. Tower of Terror was by far our favorite, I'm dying to go on it again!!! I could ride it all day I think... We also spent a day in LA checking out the regular tourist traps: The walk of Stars and the Hollywood sign. On our way up to LA we stopped right out side the main city in search of Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and we were lucky enough to find it! It was fairly well hidden in the middle of a huge industrial/factory area. It was the only building that looked brand new and well kept. We did not see Rob or any MTV stuff. If we lived closer I'd probably start stalking the area, waiting to see some camera's... it's a good thing LA is, at minimum, a 45 min. drive...

At the end of our LA tour we drove by "The Ivy." I, sadly, watch TMZ regularly and I knew that paparazzi hung out in front of the cute little picket-fenced (with ivy...) restaurant in Beverly Hills. It was neat to see the place but no luck regarding celebrities or paparazzi.

Later in the week, when Chris headed out to Nevada, we took Josh to our favorite new Cafe! It's a 100% green cafe and they have a play area for kids which is enclosed! Bear explored toys while Josh and I ate and drank coffee. Bear also took a lot of mini snack breaks every few minutes to sit with mommy and sneak a few pieces of my chocolate donut. Aaaaah, the life of a toddler! Playing and donuts...

After our cafe stop we visited Oakley's head quarter's which is located pretty much around the corner from us. The location of the building is pretty amazing, it opens up to a nice view of Saddleback mountain (the horribly long and pain-

ful mountain Chris and I climbed 3 years ago only to find the top covered in satellite and cell phone towers...yuck, fortunately you can't really see them from afar...). At the top of the long hilly drive way, an army tank is parked to the side of the road with "Oakley" printed across it. There were also a variety of other army like cars parked around the building, painted with Oakley's branding on it. The building itself looks like it's straight from a video game or a futuristic Sci-Fi movie. There is an "O" store right in the lobby and you can try on any pair of glasses without requesting that it be unlocked first...

To the side of the entrance, was a very

nice dirt racetrack for remote control cars and a bunch of the employees were enjoying their break by racing their cars... Or maybe they get paid to do this? Either way, it looks like working for Oakley is a lot of fun!

Our last day with uncle Josh was spent at Disney for one

last ride and then a late afternoon trip to Huntington Beach.

Our neighbor happened to be at Disney that day too and offered to watch bear while we went on a few rides. Bear certainly didn't mind leaving mommy for a bit as she was able to play with her best friend T. I don't think she even noticed that I left :).

I was then able to go on splash mountain with Josh (we originally planned for Josh to go by himself), the only adult ride we weren't able to ride over the weekend. We had a lot of fun but we were freezing by the time we made it back to bear.

Later that day we took Josh for a late lunch at Huntington beach. It was too chilly (for us) to go swimming so we hung out on the pier and had lunch at Ruby's~ Which provides the only perfectly clear view of the ocean in probably all of Orange County.

Before we knew it, it was departing day. We got up, got ready, and dropped him off.

Hopefully he will come back soon!

bear's world

Here are some fun facts about bear:

Our first two words: mama & dada ~ Mama was first but daddy is surpassing mama by far-- we seem to be favoring daddy lately. I think bear misses him a lot since he's gone for work so much! Bear will chase after daddy when he leaves in the morning and then bangs on the door, after Chris shuts it, and yells "dada."

We know 3 body parts: foot (or feet), mouth, and tummy :). We also know ear, approximately and hair sometimes. We are also very fond of our toes!

Bear & Acadia clean the windows

Bear has learned that shoes & socks are for our feet and a hair brush is for our hair. Thus, when we see one of these items, bear tries to put them on or styles her hair by using the back of the brush :).

Bear has figured out that wipes are for cleaning and will clean herself, the floor, or her hands when she finds one.

Bear knows the sign for "yes," a sign I've used maybe twice, about a month ago... it showed up again two weeks ago when I said "yes" without signing. She also knows the sign for motorcycle which is pretty much the same as yes-- she uses it any time she hears a motorcycle, helicopter, lawn mower... etc. It really means -- "mommy I heard a loud noise..."

Bear knows that we reach daddy through the phone during the day. If she finds my phone she will pick it up, put it to her ear (approximately) and say "dada... dada...dadeeee... DADA!"

Bear, on-top of regular crawling and cruising, is also gorilla crawling (crawls with feet/knees off the ground). She does it pretty fast and generally reserves this mode of crawling for outside on pavement, hilly areas, or when wearing a dress.

That's all for now!

The harbor and the trout

It's been two weeks now and our North East vacation is quickly coming to an end. A lot happened over the course of the past two weeks. After driving 6 hours

from Maine to upstate New York we setteled in and woke up the next morning just in time to start prepping for bear's 2nd first birthday party.

I spent all day Monday (our first full day in NY) making ladybug

cupcakes (an activity I shortly regreted-- one year olds don't really

care what their cupcakes look like... and if you're bear, you might not even make it past 6 PM in order to get one of the special cupcakes that

mommy spent a full day making) for bear, inbetween chasing her around grandma and grandpa's house, for fear that she might try to dive off the

staircase in an attempt to make it to the downstairs hallway.----> Just typing that last sentence gives me a small heart attack...

The party was a bit of a mess... bear was over tired and totally off schedule thanks to a Sunday full of traveling, with no naps, and then add the three hour time change that we had been trying to get use to over the past week in Maine, ack!

Before all of our guests had arrived, bear started rubbing her eyes and quickly went into over tired mode. Over tired mode when our schedule is really goofed up is like watching a baby who was just given a pound of chocolate.

In attempt to avoid a blow up or an awful evening of tossing and turning. We decided to open gifts up quickly and then let bear head to bed. Bear enjoyed all of her gifts but she loved grandma and grandpa's gift the most. And of course it was the last gift we opened... right before I told bear "it's night night time..." Wow, did she scream! She screamed and cried louder and harder than I have ever heard her fuss before.

Combine a brand new exciting toy that lights up, has tons of buttons and plays music... with over tiredness, time change, and diaper and PJ time, and you have yourself one angry bear! And it didn't stop there, bear fought going down all together and then woke up a half hour later to remind me how unhappy she was! It was only the beginning of our NY part of the trip and we were certainly off to a rough start...

Fortunately, things seemed to turn around when bear decided to surprise me with her first, real "mama." It happened the day following our explosive birthday party. We were sitting out on the front lawn so bear could explore all of the flowers as well as grandma and grandpa's neighborhood. The neighborhood is very different than ours and I think bear was curious by all of the grass, green trees and distance between all of the houses. As I sat with bear, explaining to her all of the new things that she was seeing, she decided to turn around, crawl back up to my lap for a hug. And just before she gave me one of her amazing cuddly hugs, she said "ma-ma." My heart smiled... I praised bear with lots of claps, kisses and hugs. 12 months and 4 days and our first word is: MAMA!

A few days later we headed north to Amish country, not to visit the Amish they just happen to live there and this is probably the best way to describe where we were. Our actual destination was Trout lake but the surrounding area is mostly farm land and lakes. The reason for the trip was for a family members wedding. So all of us plus most of our extended family packed up and hung out on the lake the wedding weekend. It was a jam packed eventful first few days/weekend that we spent up on the lake. Our camp was the site for the rehearsal dinner so everyone was working hard in preparation for the dinner. Saturday was then spent at the wedding. When the 4th arrived we were all extremely tired and finally had some time to relax. The wedding was amazing, bear and I just wish that we were able to spend more time celebrating with everyone else but an early bedtime sent us home before the real party started.

Even though we missed out bear had a lot of fun! She especially loved all of the attention she got from everyone staying up at the lake with us. Bear would growl back and forth playful with the groom and happily waved and smiled at everyone she came in contact with. But most exciting of all, bear enjoyed swimming in the lake! The whole trip to NY opened bear's eyes up to swimming. She didn't show her real excitement for swimming until she saw her cousins splashing about and jumping into the water-- thus emerged the swimming fanatic, in bear.

My overall favorite part of the trip was searching for the local Amish so we could buy one of their amazing baskets! It took about an hour and a half to locate one of the houses where they sell their baskets and other amazing hand made items. We were tipped off by one of the clerks at Price Chopper (one of the 5 stores in the town... which took at least 20 mins. to get to) and I felt slightly like we were searching for something illegal, esp. when my aunt started asking the teenagers working in the store if they knew where we could find any baskets...

I enjoyed visiting the little barn/shop located on the front lawn of this particular Amish family. Some sell items from their home and others set up shop at random corners throughout the town at various days and times.

The barn was filled with all different types of baskets-- I contemplated a while over the cute lunch basket or wine basket (which would be so cute to take wine in for an evening party-- but I knew I would never use it since our party days are far behind us...) The lunch basket had a top that fit perfectly and was big enough for a small picnic for the three of us (or four of us- Acadia). The middle of the basket had purple wicker woven into it which made it even more special than I already thought it was. I couldn't resist! It's hard to find things that are made well, I plan on taking good care of this basket!!!

It was also a neat visit for me because it allowed me to peak into their world briefly. A few years ago I might have mocked the Amish but today I admire them. They work hard and live simply and that takes strength-- I would imagine it is more fulfilling then most would think. I suppose I will never really know though, everything always looks better from a distance...

Any how, by the time you read this we'll be back home in SoCal!

xoxo

~bear's mom