Swimming!

~Getting ready for the pool~

~Look at me, I'm cute!~

~In the water~
~hmm...I'm not sure about this...~

I went swimming for the first time this weekend at Great Uncle Mark's & Great Aunt Jeannies! It was super fun. Okay...I guess it wasn't really swimming it was more like floating around. Nevertheless...it was a GRAND OL' TIME! ;-)

Aunt Jemima!

Don't I look uber adorable in my new scarf? I think so! :)

New Car Seat!

Mommy got my new car seat out this week. Finally, I can sit facing forward like a first-class citizen! Mommy couldn't figure out how to get it all to work, so I took the instruction book & figured I would offer my expertise! Eventually, we got it all done! ;)

10 things I love about Bethany:

Here is a top ten list of things I love about Bethany.

(with pictures...when I have them!)

10. I love the way she sings as we ride/stroll around the neighborhood. She is always talking to somebody (or something!)

9. I love the way she sings along with us as we sing the alphabet. She tries to hit all of the "eee" notes (ex. d, e, g, p...etc.!) She really does sing along with us.

8. I love the way she "helps" fold the laundry. She loves getting into all of the clothes & throw then on the floor. She thinks it is a riot! ;)

7. I love the way she plays hide-n-seek with us. She takes her blankie, covers her face for a minute. We, of course, get confused and can't figure out where she went...then she unveils herself to our suprise!

6. I love her SQUEAL when we chase her around the house. It is hilarious.

5. I love the way Bethany really owns our house. She knows how to get stuff in & out of her toy box. She is learning our routines for bath time, dinner time, etc. It is pretty amazing to watch her learn & grow.

4. I love the way Bethany comes up to us & snuggles us, or tries to sit in our laps!

3. I love the way Bethany says ni-ni when she is tired. She will go pick up her blankie & rub her big ole' blue eyes & mumble ni-ni. It is adorable! Plus...she's extra adorable in her big girl jammies!

2. I love they way she leans in and gives kisses. She won't do them at every request. But when she is in the mood...she will lean it and give you a sweet kiss. It will melt your heart

1. I love the way she carries around her baby around the house. *yes, sometimes upside down* She also loves to offer it to others for them to give the baby some loving!!

Getting up from Naptime!

Aaarrrggg....leave me be! I am sleepy!

Gotta have my blankie!

Hey! Maybe you can hold me now...

Playpen!

Well, the new "PC" term isn't playpen anymore. This sounds restrictive and uninviting. They now call these contraptions Play yards. Now, doesn't that sound like a place you want to be? Sometimes Bethany walks on over to the playpen...err...play yards and suggests she wants to go in. It is nice to have available for instances where you can't watch Bethany 100% of the time. But if you put her in there when it isn't on her terms....watch out!!!!

Taking Off!

Bethany has really taken off with her walking. She has come a long way since her first steps in early April. With in the last two weeks, she really has started going, & going, & going. She is able to get to a standing position without pulling up on anything. She is able to change directions mid-step & is testing out her running abilities! She is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

Her walking-crawling ratio is probably 60/40. With her favoring walking to the old-school-crawling!.

Giddy-UP Zebra!

What a beautfiful couple!

Happy Mother's Day!

Yeah! Today is Mother's Day. Mommy got lots of fun stuff! :o)

First was a new cross necklace. Her original one fell off recently. So, Daddy and I replaced it with a new one. However, if she "loses" this one, we will start questioning her!
Next, she got a nice sign to hang in our house. She's been wanting one like this for a while!

Fun Snacks

Mommy's always giving me fun snacks!
I love the Gerber CHEESY CRUNCHIES!!!!! They are DEE-LISH!

Mommy's blizzard is Fantabulous! Yum, Yum, YUM!!!

101, 6, 0

101- That was my fever on Saturday night. It made Mom & Dad a tad bit worried. But it turned out that I was just cutting another tooth. I was acting totally fine and eating. However, I was just a little hot. Sunday morning I woke up all calm, cool & collected. I now have 7 teeth (4 on top & three on bottom).

6- That is the number of consecutive steps I can take. If you are lucky, I will do it while you are watching. However, if you ask for me to do it, it is highly unlikely I would actually walk for you.

0-That is the number of times I have said "mama". Sure I will babble & some of my babbles will sound like mama. However, I have yet to called the female-like figure in my house "mama." I do make sure I call Daddy by his name. This is just one of my many ploys to drive the folks to the loony bin. I have 18 years to implement my other plans...but be warned...they exist!

Up, Down, All Around!

Let me down!!!

*wiggle, wiggle, squirm, squirm*

I can drink this on my own!

I need a break!
After all, being cute is hard work!Wanna snack?
I'll share if you're lucky!
Okay...I'll let you cuddle me, again!!!

Toy Box!

I'm just getting my toys out of my toy box.

It's a blast to take every single one out.

Perhaps, I'll play with Homer.
Hmm...I've made a big enough mess here.

Time to move on to a different area of the house!
What else can I destroy?????

Cheese!!!!!

There's an OUTSIDE!!

I love being outside!

I especially love my Winnie-the-Pooh Mobile. It is the coolest thing EVA!

My Chair!

This is My Chair! I dare you try to take it from me!

Good Luck to those who try!!!!

Move over Burger King...A Princess is in town!!!

Stepping in the Hippo!

Notice instead of pushing the Hippo, Bethany is stepping inside the Hippo. She loves to climb inside of it. Or sit inside of it. Rarely does she push is correctly!!!

Baby Scrunch Face!

Bethany LOVES to make this scrunch face. It is a rather new thing. But it cracks me up!!! She looks more like her Dad now, than ever before!!!!

Future Cubs Fan??

Update: Words, Walks and Wows!

Her first Bookmobile!

Coming to get you!

Fall down!

What a cutie!

Words: Bethany has amazed us with her verbal abilities! She has an official working vocabulary. We wait until there is sufficient evidence that she truly associates her babbles with a meaning. So these are words we know for sure she says with a purpose (in order of them first being spoken!)

• All Done (Sounds like, Ah DA!). This is her one and only sign she'll do!
• Dad! (DA)
• Bye (Ba!)
• Uh-oh! (she says this for everything she drops or things she sees on the ground...bird poop included)
• Hi!

Despite the fact that I was the one who carried Bethany around nonstop for 9 months, I got to go through the joys of pregnancy (heartburn, backaches, lack of sleep) and I was in labor for 21 hours--She won't say Mom. How heartbreaking! In order to get my attention she goes "EH!" This is rather impersonal as it is the same noise she makes to get everyone's attention (strangers and all)!

Walks: Bethany has officially taken her first steps. We consider her first steps an unassisted step with a follow-up step with the other foot. This seems like a reasonable definition! She isn't always interested in walking. She recognizes the fact that crawling is so much faster! However, she does like to practice walking & is taking more and more risks! ;-)

Wows: This is for all of her other *amazing* abilities that we would like to brag about. One is that she has really figured out how to work a lot of her toys. She knows how to make them noisy and the action-reaction properties that many of them possess. Another WOW is her amazing ability to squeal!!! Good grief does this girl has some lungs on her. It is hard to imagine that she was sick when she was born when she belts out some of these screeches that makes your ears bleed! She is known as the ring-leader in her day care, causing the rest of them to start squealing obnoxiously, too!

(P.S. I would like to officially state that I did try on SEVERAL occasions to up-date the blog sooner! Our Internet has been acting fishy lately. We are working on getting a faster provider that won't cost us an arm & leg! But our dial-up has been having issues whenever I try to log-on!)