Cat Tails

This morning Bea was thisclose to sticking Si's (my brother's cat) tail in her mouth! Yuck! That would not have been a good taste for her, I'm sure. So after my Mom and I pulled Si's tail out of the way, Bea was content to pet Si with her hands and her foot. It was pretty funny. She giggled a couple of times while petting him with her foot. She had her hands and her foot full of hair though. Unfortunately the whole tail in the mouth thing happened so fast that I wasn't able to get a picture of it. They should invent some kind of camera that's always ready to go. Anyways. The Fourth is coming up and we'll be heading to 'Noodles' for a family members wedding and also visiting family friends. (Who seem more like family.) Izak will get to see the real London Bridge! :) I'll try to take a lot of pictures and post them this weekend!

My little monkey...

Strike that...

After speaking with the daycare lady for the 100th time, (and I'll probably be speaking with her for 100 more.) Bea will be starting on the 14th of July. A Monday, that makes a little more sense. I'm still not looking forward to it, but I'm slowly coming to terms with it.

Rolling!

I caught it on my camera phone! Bea rolling over. Also a picture of Bea and Rugger's loungin' around the house. :)

July 15th

Is the day that Bea starts day care. (sniff, sniff) We (me, Izak, Mom and Bea) interviewed the lady and her facilities yesterday and sure it's not as clean as I hoped it would be. But she helped take care of my brother and she's so close to where I work and her price is good. (Well, I don't really know that for sure, but I'm taking other people's word on it.) She has a slot open. I can't pass that up right? We can always try it out and see. I think there is like a two week 'probation' period. When we got there Bea started to cry. But I mainly think it was because a. she had been woken up from her nap, and b. it was relatively noisy in there and I'm sure she didn't know what to think. (Plus she was ready to eat again.) Once she calmed down the girls there were really nice to her. And I mean the little girls. They let her play with their things and they let her join their little tea party. I asked all the questions I could think of and of course I have more now. Someone said to go with you 'mother's intuition' but I don't think I can. I really just don't want her to go period. Ever. So of course I would love to say, 'thanks, but no thanks.' But I do have to work. Things are slow now but come the fall they will pick up like they always do. I know that this is just another step in her life that she (and I have to take.) Like letting her sleep in her own room in her crib. I didn't want to do that either. I just want to keep her little and with me forever. And we all no that is not possible. So I just have to do it. You know. I know that if something stuck out to me that was REALLY bad or whatever at the daycare then I wouldn't have a problem not putting her there. But maybe that is the problem? That nothing jumped out at me to make it seem like that it's not the place for her. Does that make any sense?? So we'll see how it goes. I'll probably be crying all day that day. Maybe I'll just let her go for a half day that week... I don't know. I guess it's better to just wait and see.... I cried a little on the way home, after the interview. I guess I'm going to end up just like my mom, always crying at 'special' events or days in my daughter's life. And my daughter will go through phases where she'll say, 'Mom! Don't cry it's so embarrassing!' to 'Mom, stop crying or you'll make me cry.' :*)

Stop the chirping!

Soooo yeah. Our smoke detector is still chirping. It had stopped at some point in the day yesterday but it woke us up this morning and when I got back from work it was still chirping... can we say headache?

Oh and speaking of work, I made good time getting ready despite Bea waking up early and all. Once I'm at my desk I smell something...yeah it was me. My shirt more specifically. It's totally clean I know it is because I washed it and hung it to dry, which is were I got it from, the 'dry' rack. But I don't know what happened. Was it too long in the wash?? Why does it smell funky? So yeah. I was itching to get home to change. Ick. Maybe I need to start packing a 'back up' outfit for me... like I do for Bea. :)

The Sweetest Thing

On Sunday I had to host at the theatre and I left Izak and Bea alone together. I told Izak that I would have my cell on silent if he needed to reach me. And I was totally anticipating having to leave my hosting duties to help calm Bea down. But to my surprise he didn't call or text. When I came home I expected to hear Bea screaming her head off. I opened the garage door hesitantly, the only sound I heard was the t.v. I walked in slowly and what I saw amazed me. It was Izak on the floor, sitting Indian style, Bea was cradled in his lap while he gave her a bottle. They both looked at me like this was an every day occurrence. I wish I had had my camera then. I would have snapped a quick picture. I will never forget it. Tonight, as we sat down to dinner, Bea was in her highchair armed with toys to occupy her, she and Izak were making faces at each other. He would call her name and show her a mouth full of his food and she would laugh. He's already teaching her bad habits! :)

What's up with THAT?

I had a very interesting morning today. Izak woke me up and told me that somehow the garage door was opened all night! Luckily our cars were still there and nothing was taken out of the garage, but then again, what is there to take besides the cars? I mean, who leaves valuable stuff in the garage? Unfortunately the cats hadn't run away. (That's a long story as to why I'm slightly irritated with the cats. Maybe that will be another blog.)

After I took my shower I went to go eat breakfast. At some point during the morning my smoke detector started chirping at me. That can only mean that the batteries are flat right? My ceiling is far to high for me to get at myself, so I had to leave it chirping. And that got on my last nerve. In the meantime I was getting a whole chicken ready to go in the crock pot. Normally I make Izak take the insides out of the chicken, because I just think that's gross and I don't like to touch the tiny heart and liver. But I forgot to tell him to do that! So I had to do it. I think this was the second time I've taken the insides out and I just don't like it! The neck thing and the other little bits in there just gross me out for some reason.

All that to say that I wasn't enjoying my Monday morning. Somehow I made it to work so we'll see what the rest of the day has in store for me.

I have a picture of Bea at the graduation party. We ended up leaving early because Bea was getting hungry and it was so hot! You can see in this picture how she looks warm... at least to me. She's really interested in bottles, water bottles more specifically and whenever one of us has one she always watches us drink and tries to grab at the bottle herself. She did this at the party too so I was trying to give her little sips of cold water to cool her off a bit. I think she got most of it on the front of her dress though.

Hairspray works every time.

The movie I mean. If it's not the Bee Gees that put Bea to sleep it's Hairspray. She really likes it. I like to think because she first heard it in the womb. My Mom and I went to see it when it was out in the movie theatres. Her favorite songs are: 'Good Morning Baltimore' and 'I Can Hear the Bells.' (Okay so I'm not sure if those are the exact titles but you know what I mean.) She not only likes to listen to the music she likes to watch it too. She also enjoys Sponge Bob Square Pants. (Is that one word or two?) My mom discovered that one. Oh and I think Izak knew that one as well. :) 

Today we're hanging at my parent's house while Izak and a friend watch rugby. (The game.) Plus, later we're going to a high school graduation party for a girl I used to babysit when I was in high school. It's so crazy! I just can't believe it. It's like you're babysitting them and then you go off to college or whatever and then when you come back they're all grown up. Scary! And I know I've said this before, but I am not looking forward to Bea's teenage years. I'm really hoping she'll miss all the crazy stuff... like what's all this crap about a teenage pregnancy pact? Hello??!! Ugh.

Oh and I did it again with the laundry. I threw in a load of towels Friday morning to get washed. And I noticed the stuff in the dryer wasn't totally dry so I started the dryer again, and went off to work. At some point in the day I created a memory of sticking the towels in the dryer. When I got home, I just assumed the towels were still in the dryer, and I know that a load of towels usually takes two turns in the dryer just to make sure they get really dry. So I started the dryer again and went off to my parent's house where we were invited for dinner. When we got home, Izak wondered where the towels were. I told them they were in the dryer. He came back into the room with a load of clothes and said that the towels were still in the wash! Its really amazing to me how I manage to wear clean clothes every day! 

A Car Short

Izak's car is in the shop. Unfortunately it will remain there until Monday mid morning. (?) Nothing big, his passenger side window is messed up and they've ordered the part which will be in Monday. So instead of wasting the gas driving all the way out there to Exeter and back again, to get the car and then doing it again on Monday. Plus paying additional labor fees, we've, or I've just opted to leave it there. He took my car to work this morning. I've driven my Mom and my Dad's cars today. Just a little car juggling. I don't think it's that big of a deal because, once I'm at work I'm at work. I don't need a car. Mom's at home with Bea and since it's so hot out she doesn't really need a car either. It will get worked out somehow. It can just get a bit confusing especially remembering to take certain things out of each others cars like the garage door opener or whatever else you might need, but you just don't think about it. You know? Izak and I both have been talking about switching cars. At least for the summer months. (Mainly to see how I like it.) His car is such a gas guzzler. I just don't think I could get used to climbing up in his truck to get Bea's carrier out. But then again, pretty soon we'll be getting a bigger car seat for her so it might not be that bad. We'll just have to see won't we? I guess I would be safer in a truck... ???

New Daycare for Bea?

I've been calling this one daycare on and off to see if they have any openings. I called before Bea arrived and I was put on a waiting list. I then called sometime after Bea made her entrance into this world and they were still not taking infants. At the time I was fine with it because I still had some time before my maternity leave ended. On sort of a whim yesterday I called again. And what luck, (er or bad luck) they actually have a slot open! And they are willing to take her. Most of the people on the waiting list have been on it for a year or so and they've probably already found alternate care. That's how 'lucky' I am. Of course I have mixed feelings, but I know, if it's a good place this will help Bea out in the long run. I have a interview with them next Tuesday. So we'll see from there. After all, I am a product of daycare, and as far as any mistreatment I encountered it was merely being 'forced' to eat beans or I wouldn't get my dessert. (I never ate the beans mind you!) I was just as stubborn then as I am today. :) My brother went to this lady, who now has a place of her own-before she worked for someone else, and he turned out okay... er.. maybe it's too soon to tell? Just kidding Dave! You know I love you! I think the worse thing that happened to him was the owner's dog bit him in the FACE! I would and will be freaked out if that ever happens. But these are all things that I can look for when I go to visit her facilities. One plus, so far of this place, is that they are literally 'across' the street from where I work. So if I ever get to where I just can't handle it or something I can always pop on over there. I'm sort of leaning more towards them because Bea will need some kind of structure as she gets older. And unfortunately my mom won't always be able to watch her. I'll let you know what happens next Tuesday!

Top off

This morning Bea was getting a little fussy so I gave her a 'top off.' Normally this makes her a little drowsy and she falls asleep in my arms. Today was different. She normally eats for ten minuets but today she pulled away at seven minuets. She kind of just sat there in a daze. I stood up and put her over my shoulder to burp her. All of a sudden I hear this loud burp and what sounds like a swoosh of liquid coming up from her tum tum. Then I heard and saw her heave once and all the milk was out in a flash. I sort of arched my back so as not to get her puke all down my back and it worked. Instead all the puke splashed out onto the floor. All over. I'm pretty sure that whatever she took in, in those seven minuets of drinking was now on the floor. Oh well. She wasn't at all upset with the fact that she'd just thrown up her mid morning snack. In fact she seemed her usual happy self. I just felt bad that she had puked. I would have taken a picture of the puke on the floor, but I figured no one really wanted to see that. ;)

Bea and her 'brother' getting along...

Beatrice makes friends with her feline brother Neko. He makes her laugh. And he's so good about letting her grab his fur, he just sits there and lets her.

Father's Day Prep

Father's Day has come and gone. It was Izak's first. He got a few hand made gifts and a few not so handmade. I don't have any pictures to post of Bea and Izak on Father's Day... nor any of my Dad and Bea on the actual day. We were just all so busy swimming, watching t.v, and just relaxing, or at least trying to. But early Sunday morning Bea and I got up to make Grandpa a homemade Angel food cake. (I make him one twice every year, one for his birthday and one for Father's Day.) This year I added homemade whipped cream too! It was delish. Here are some pictures of Bea helping me out in the kitchen.


Bea inspects the new Angel food cake pan I bought.



Bea helps me measure in the sugar... Bea examines the 'soft peaks' of the egg whites...

Time to fold in the cake flour!
The finished product!
Eaten...
Later that night we discovered that Bea could suck on her big toe!

Some 'Father's Day' pictures...

Happy Father's Day Oupa!

Trouble

I can't seem to post any pictures! I was going to write a Father's Day blog but I'm having difficulties... so I'll be back with something.

In other news my cousin had her baby early! Jayden David Payne was born today 6lbs. 10oz. Shoot I forget how long he was... Bea is fussing in the background. Gotta go!

The poor kid in school

I just wanted to touch on the subject of laundry again. Not only is it never ending in my house, I also hardly find the time to put my clothes away once they are clean. It's a cycle of a pile of dirty clothes on the floor to a pile of clean clothes at the foot of my bed to being worn and then back onto the floor. Sometimes I will find the time to fold them half ass and put them on the floor of my closet or wherever I can set them in my closet. Today, I'm wearing a shirt that was in the clean pile of clothes at the foot of my bed. It's wrinkled. But I was never one for ironing. I used to be when I was younger, like way younger when I was in elementary school or high school. Now I'm like whatever. I only ever iron if I'm going to a special event. But I sort of feel like the poor mismatched girl in school today. Mainly because I looked down and noticed I had a small dab of toothpaste dropping on my chest. What has become of me!? And since I work in a casual office atmosphere I don't really feel the need to dress up. Plus it's summer people who wants to dress up in the heat we've been having. I totally get that Suave commercial, where it has the woman going through stages in her life. Where she looks hot single, then she gets married and still looks hot then she gets pregnant and doesn't look so hot, then she pops out that kid and looks even less hot and so on. I guess I think it's funny because it's true. I mainly wear my hair in a pony tale because a) it's hot outside, and b) I don't want my daughter to pull/puke in my hair. I guess I kind of look at my clothes the same way. I don't want to wear something really nice because I might get puked on. I hardly wear earrings any more for fear that my daughter will accidentally get a hold of one and rip it out! Oh well. I wouldn't trade it. I know that this too shall pass. It's just one of those phases of being a mom. :)

And P.S: I LOVE the Tide stick and the Shout wipes. I don't know what I would do without them!!

'Auntie' Brandy makes Bea laugh...without the squeaking

Of course my mom is the one moving the bee, but Brandy discovered that doing such would make her laugh.

Beatrice's First Star Crush

A couple of weeks ago Bea and I were watching t.v. She was sitting in my lap and a couple of minuets had passed and I wondered what she was doing. Was she really 'watching' t.v or perhaps she had fallen asleep. Luckily my camera was close at hand so I picked it up and tried to angle it to get her expression. This is what I got:

We were watching The Tudors on Showtime and this guy:


was what she was smiling at. Could this be her first star crush? She smiled every time this guy had a scene. She's already into older men... the tall, dark and handsome type. I just know I'm going to have my hands full when she gets older. :)

Dankie 'Uncle' Sergio!

Beatrice just wanted to thank Sergio for her new bee stuff! She loves them.

See you later...

I swear to God that Beatrice just said her first phrase... 'see you later.' Okay it was more like 'see ya latah.' And add a gruff monster sound to it... :D Too funny.

Thank Heaven for The Bee Gees

Beatrice loves them! When ever she's a little fussy and not wanting to nap or go to bed I just switch on the Bee Gees and she's out like a light. I don't get it, but I'm glad for it! It all started a couple of weeks ago. Bea was in her swing and she was starting to get fussy. It was nap time so I was trying to get her to fall asleep. I quickly flipped through the channels hoping to find some baby show on, instead I saw Flashdance. 'Why not?' I thought at least I could watch something while I was rocking her to sleep. I clicked onto the channel that Flashdance was SUPPOSED to be on. It was Saturday Night Fever instead. It had just started and the opening music that was playing was the Bee Gees. Bea immediately calmed down to watch/listen. I was amazed. I wondered if it could be a fluke. Perhaps it was a young John Travolta that caught her attention...when the music changed she started acting fussy again. Luckily I have the Bee Gees on my ipod so I quickly turned them on and before I knew it Bea was asleep. And it's worked ever since too! I keep thinking that the day will come and it won't work, but so far so good. Thank the Lord for the Bee Gees! ;)

'Mommy brain' strikes again??

So this morning I thought I would be my usual bad ass multitasking self and do a load of laundry while I got ready for work and waited for Bea to wake up. I put the load in the washer, detergent, turned the machine on and voila, I'm ready to go eat breakfast! So I'm eating and working on my previous blog and I hear Bea waking up. I quickly finish my bowl of cereal and realize that the washer machine must be done because I don't hear it. 'Cool!' I think to myself, I can have this load drying and I'll be way ahead of the game. I walk out to put my clean load of clothes into the dryer and guess what... I'd left the washing machine lid open. Meaning, nothing got washed. It was all just sitting there soaking. Yeah. I felt like such a dumb ass. Oh well. So much for trying to get ahead of the game. And by the way is it just me or is the laundry seriously never ending??

Swimming!

We took Beatrice 'swimming' a couple of weeks ago when the water was really nice and warm. She loved it! We took her again on Sunday, the water wasn't nearly as nice as it was a couple of weeks ago but I think she still had fun in her floating turtle that grandma got her.

These are pictures from a couple of weeks ago.

These are pictures from last Sunday.

And she rolls....

She did it! Bea rolled over today, twice! I haven't gotten it on camera or film yet, but as soon as I do I will post some pix! :)

Curious

I would just like to say that those of you who received an email from me telling you of this new site, I have no memory of writing the subject as 'It's a blogger's world...' I mean how crazy is that!? I don't remember doing it! Was I half asleep at the time? I don't have a problem with that as a subject line I just don't honestly remember writing that. And I just think that's a little creepy, non?

2 a.m wake up call

And it wasn't from Bea. It was from our pup Ruggers...

Isn't he a cutie?? The dog... not Izak, but Izak's a cutie too... anyways... I heard movement around 2 a.m this morning. Rugby's collar makes a lot of noise. I sat up in bed to see Rugby running out of the bedroom. I woke Izak up to tell him that Ruggers wanted to go out. I'm normally pretty good at hearing Rugby before he does anything but I guess this time I was late. Rugby had suffered too from the lack of groceries in the house. We had run out of dog food so one morning Izak gave him some cat food as a supplement... well... that cat food made it's way out of his system this morning. There were little drops of butt juice on our carpet, on Izak's side of the bed and a little bit in the main room. So Izak had to clean it up this morning. It's really hard trying to go back to sleep with the smell of Resovle in your nostrils. Oh well, it's not like this was the first time this happened. And previously it's been A LOT worse.

Baby Kiss!

We took this last night.

Adventures in Tanning

First of all I feel like I have to say that this next post is not about Bea. I sort of intended this blog to be about whatever. Yes, mainly about Bea for her South African grandparents, I just don't want to get boxed in and I don't want people to be like... 'whatever I thought she was going to be writing about her kid..' So that being said, it's my blog and I'll write what I want. So here's the story.

I'm not supposed to sweat or bathe for the next five to six hours. That is because I've just been spray tanned! Um, alright, need more of a background for that?? Here goes...being half Italian didn't help me much in the skin tone department. I do not have olive skin, as you might be able to tell from the pictures. That being said I was never one to really try to tan. I mean I'd try half heartedly but I would always burn. Red as a lobster burn too... but anyways. I never cared for lathering on sunblock and sweating out in the sun just to become a golden bronze. So I tried tan in a tube (dubbed so by Tutu) but only on my legs back in the day. Then I graduated to tanning beds thanks to Dez. But that was soooo hot! And I'd freak out that the alarm wouldn't go off and that I'd die in there or that I wouldn't be able to open the coffin that I was in and I would still end up dying in there. Or that I would open my eyes despite the little goggles and burn my eyes and become blind. I know I'm paranoid! I tanned for my prima's wedding and in all the pictures I'm the whitest one! What's up with that!? So after that I decided to take it easy and try the Jergen's natural whatever it's called... yeah. It didn't so much work either. Maybe I wasn't putting it on enough? Who knows. I was just about to give up on the whole tanning business when I was at one of the salons I go to for a pedicure and my manicurist (or would it be pedicurist?) Told me about how this girl spray tans, and the technician just happened to be there so I was chatting with her and getting the low down and such. It was uber affordable and the girl seemed really nice so I thought to myself... why not? Sure I'd have to decide to either go all natural, no tan lines. Or cover up. Of course I opted for covering up, it's not like I'm going to be in a bikini on the beach ANY time soon. (Or in a bikini EVER) :) I'm just doing it for a little bit of color. And believe it or not in some weird way being tan makes me feel healthier?? I dunno why but it does. So I stink of tan stuff right now and I'm just waiting to see how it turns out. But so far.... I think I like it! ;)

The best sound in the whole world...

is my Bea's laughter. Before she was born it was her heartbeat. But now... you just can't beat the sound of her laugh! It's genuine. Listen and look for yourself:

*Please excuse the quality, I was filming on my phone!

Wiggle Worm

Beatrice is such a wiggle worm! She's always trying to scoot along on her back and she changes her position in the blink of an eye. One minute she'll be on her mat horizontally and the next she'll be vertical. She's so fast at it, it's amazing. She's so close to turning over too! Look:

Groceries

As soon as grocery stores get online or someone comes up with some sort of delivery service I'll be all over that! This week Izak and I have both been lazy and we haven't gone to the store. It all started with my lunch meat. I was out of it Sunday night. But I certainly didn't want to go to the store and I didn't want to ask Izak to go so I made my back up lunch. Egg salad (thanks to Lola.) I also noticed that I was running low on milk and cereal, but I figured I could make it last. So, I had egg salad for two days, somehow managed to sneak away and get fast food (ick) on Wednesday, thought ahead and grabbed some sandwiches at Togos while out with friends for Thursday's lunch... but Friday? Yeah, I'm trying to bum a lunch off my boss. The milk held out all week but this morning I was out of cereal. :( So I had to eat oatmeal... I had planned to go to the store during the week but either Bea was fussy or I was tired. So what's a girl to do?? Get online service!!! But when!? WHEN!?! And all this makes me think of all those super moms like my prima and friend Dez who MAKE their kid's baby food. How do they find the time!? I can barely get dinner on the table! And when I do get dinner on the table it's just the 'meat' of it. No veggies, no side dishes... Someone help me get organized and motivated! :) Anyways... here are some sweet pictures of Bea to leave you with a smile on your face.

(Not sure how these pictures will turn out, I took them on my phone.)

Copy Cat

So I'm joining the blogging world. I'm directly quoting that from my prima Binz. Who started blogging because her sis and my sis started blogging. But Lola was the first (in the family) and now here I am doing the same. I mainly thought about blogging so my in-laws in South Africa would be able to read directly what's happening in the life of their American granddaughter. Instead of waiting to find out on the weekend. Plus I thought they might like to see more pictures that they could just save to their computer. Instead of me having to rely on the South African post. (Which isn't very good.) But don't get me wrong Mom and Dad, I will still send you guys pictures! :) So lets see how this works. I know I haven't ended it well, but I just want to make sure I know how to do this before I start writing novels! ;)