Nancy, this hair is for you!

B. definitely still sports the "whalespout" or "pineapple" often, but I've been putting it off to the side so it ends up falling to the back with gravity, but the comment yesterday made me revisit this look for her.....she absolutely looks younger this way, and it will forever remind me of the first moment we saw her and of our first weeks together.

Happy Birthday Wee-Wee

Last night we decided to get gussied up and to take Auntie Louise, aka "Wee wee" out to Pho Evergreen for a birthday dinner. My big sister turns 53 today, and when she and Bea get together, it's a mutual adoration party! We enjoyed their best-in-the-entire-world wonton soup, scallion pancakes, calamari, tofu curry, delicious salmon and noodles dishes, and finished it off with banana and strawberry flambe for dessert. What a feast. And even better than the food was the reception that we get from the Vo family. Such a great night.

Here's what the camera sees these days....

Latest Obsessions

Here are the two books that fill much of Beatrice's time with me recently. The UNICEF book is one I've had for years, a duplicate of a school copy which I use for our International Week each year. The French book is a recent Christmas present from our friend "Uncle David." (We are going to Paris this summer, so he thought this would be appropriate, but at this point we're just focusing on the English words.)Each morning,I lift Beatrice out of bed and she immediately wants to get down to run to the landing where one of these books is awaiting her. She sits in the near dark, with her hair covering her eyes, and flips through it slowly, often staying on one page for many minutes. When I call her into the bathroom, ten to twenty minutes later, to get her changed and dressed, she often resists and/or insists on carrying the book (which she can barely do alone due to its size and weight) to the bathroom with her. I have to promise her that I will read with her after she's done getting ready to get her through. Honestly, it is amazing what a little bookworm we have, and we are thrilled about it. I see her receptive vocabulary increasing daily and I'm shocked at what she recognizes when she's asked to find things. That's pretty much her favorite thing with these two books in particular. Pointing at pictures, counting the numbers, having us say the colors, etc. Her expression is slowly but steadily increasing as well. She's using about 40 individual words on her own at this point. It is miraculous to witness this tiny little person use her mind and express her thoughts.

Beatrice, meet Dr. King

I just read the I Have a Dream speech to Beatrice before putting her to bed. I have a book form of it that takes about ten minutes to read. She sat quietly through it, though there wasn't a picture anywhere, then refused to let me take it away when it was done, instead bringing it to bed with her and putting it under her head like a pillow. I intend to read this to her every year on this day. I defy anyone to read it aloud and not at least choke up. On the back cover there's a photograph of Dr. King dwarfed by a giant waving American flag. I showed her his photo and told her a few seconds worth of info. I told her his story has a sad ending that I'll tell her when she's older. How will I explain that? Today I feel keenly aware of all the sad lessons that Beatrice will someday learn. In due time she will learn about hatred, ignorance, violence, and all the 'isms. For now though I am grateful for this precious time and this age of wonder that is twenty months, a time when I am and I have all she needs, as well as all the answers. A time when a peek-a-boo brings utter bliss to her face, a bowl of noodles brings thirty minutes of joy, a new book offers endless happiness, a hug can comfort anything, and falling asleep between Mama and Daddy is pure ecstasy. These truly are the best of times.

Reserve Seating

When we were in Hanoi, we saw hundreds of little plastic square stools outside. People of all ages used them to sit and eat on the street corners, outside shops, even in church for extra seating. They were no more than a foot off the ground and leave people in pretty much a supported-squat position, a bit higher if you stack two or more together. At my elementary school a couple of teachers have some similar ones to those we saw and I often see little kids in the hall sitting on them reading books. I think of Hanoi every time and have mentioned to the teachers how they're used in Vietnam. Of course they find it unbelievable that adults would be able to or choose to sit on these non-luxury furniture items. They're really handy,really cheap, and if your American knees work well enough, your American lower back is in good shape, and one's American tush can actually fit on it, then this small bit of colorful plastic is pretty much a must-have item in one's home!

Well for many months now Beatrice turns a variety of items into a seat for herself....her cardboard nesting boxes among her favorites. As a matter of fact, she and Daddy play "pho stall" as he squats near her while she's on her box and they pretend to eat soup out of bowls with chopsticks. Well tonight she made me laugh when she turned one of the 3" wide wooden blocks she plays with into a seat for herself. She actually centered that little bum of hers on it for a few minutes. In another pose, which didn't come out well in the camera, she has one block as a seat and the other as an ottoman for the leg she straddled out sidewise. I hope this creativity, practicality, resourcefulness, and amazing sense of balance and flexibility stay with her throughout her life!

Carnegie Hall, here we come!

Here's a sample of Beatrice's "singing," her latest talent debut. It started in church on Sunday. We purposefully sit right next to the folk band, as their music drowns out her/our subtle noises, and it keeps B. entertained for much of the mass. She just loves any and all music and even seems to have an "ear" for it, as much as a 1 1/2 year old can that is. She still asks to play the piano almost daily, and quickly signs "more" when I stop singing to her (she's the only person who wants more!) She has taken to watching concerts on PBS, and applauded spontaneously last week after an opera singer's aria during an Andre Rieu special. Cracked me up. She loves watching anyone play any instrument live and her head immediately turns when a new sound starts in, like last week at church when a rain stick was added in, she immediately responded. Same thing with the flute. Anyway, this past Sunday I noticed she was "singing" right along as I sang for many songs. Tonight, putting her to bed, I started humming a lullabye and she joined right in, so I promptly got the camera to capture a bit of it on record.



Above are a couple of other photos that were in the camera yet to be downloaded. One is of her beloved purple blanket (being used as a burka in this photo), her first and only comfort item. The other was taken during another pre-bathtime naked stint. Anthony once played (sax) a gig with his college band in the buff, now Beatrice is showing off her artistic skills while nude. Like father like daughter! What I will always remember about this moment though is that it was taken about two seconds before she peed right on the rug. One other noteworthy thing going on with her of late is that she's very interested in numbers. She loves any and all books with numbers and counting in them, likes tracing the numbers and pointing to pictures one at a time as I count. She also has taken to carrying a Sharp pocket calculator around with her. Good grief, I think we have a future engineer on our hands! She only says the number "two" spontaneously after I start with "one," but can repeat the others somewhat understandably up to ten, with "nine" seeming to be a personal favorite and the best pronounced. She gets lots of practice with her "n" sounds with saying "no no " a hundred times a day. Oh yeah, one more thing, I gashed my left calf to the left of my kneecap after school today with a hunk of glass sticking out of the garbage bag as I was putting the trash/recycling out. I ended up with four stitches and am just fine but I learned a couple of new things about Beatrice through this. First of all, she had a keen sense that something was wrong. I stayed ultra-calm, didn't yell, swear, or cry (which makes it a different afternoon than most :) but her reaction to the situation was amazing. She just watched me intently, stayed very quiet, and kept a little distance from me until Anthony arrived home. At that point she wanted to be on my lap. When I came home later and showed her my wound, while Anthony uttered "yuck!," she stared very carefully and interested, wanted to touch it, and was just plain fascinated. She then proceeded to lift up her pant legs to check to see if her legs looked like that and seemed disappointed that they weren't. Anyway, I'm just fine, she's fine, and if the accountant/engineer/nudist camp owner/artist/musician careers don't pan out for her, she may just end up in medicine.

Peace/Sunshine

Three years ago, we adopted "Snuggles," a 2-ish-year old lab mix found roaming in the Florida panhandle. We renamed her Sula,which means either "peace" or "sunshine" depending which internet site you believe, and ever so slowly she revealed her "gentle soul" to us and learned to trust. We always refer to her as our first baby and our first adoption, and she taught us so very much. While she has certainly challenged us with her aggression toward other animals, she has become our dream-come-true as a house dog and best friend. As I was looking through photographs to post here, I realized I have exponentially more shots of Sula and Bea than of Bea with either Anthony or me. She really is always right by her side. Most recently Sula is "enjoying" being adorned with necklaces and hats. She also loves being fed her two meals a day by Beatrice, as well as some nuts as a snack. Every once in a while she gets some pretend food offered to her, which is confusing to only one of the duo. I am thrilled that Sula will be a large part of Beatrice's childhood memories.

6:30 a.m., noon, and 7:30 p.m.

Sledding Around the Yard

Friends Martha and Erik came over yesterday, along with their beautiful 5-month old son Ethan, who is just a couple inches and pounds shy of his 14-months senior friend Beatrice. I wasn't sure how B would feel about sharing her new sled, or about having his 18+ pounds piled on top of her, but neither one of them complained and the adults had a blast.

Tutu, Sledding, Amaryllis, and Duet