A whole lot of fun in 24 hours or less

Missy's eye is finally, mostly better. Yay! She is wearing a sleeper that was mine when I was a baby. Evie told me the "Bunny is cute" I think so too, but mostly because it is on my princess.

Everett is learning how to be careful with Bea and it is so sweet to watch. He loves when she is down on his level. He will sit and talk to her and hold her hand. I think she likes it too!

My babes.

You can just tell he is thinking about how tiny her fingers are.

This morning I made a "dramatic play" kitchen in the breakfast nook of our kitchen. Everett got really into and played there for over an hour this morning. Score one for the mama.

In the little plastic storage drawers (which double as stove and pretend refridgerator and sink) are wooden food, wooden utensils, pots, pans, hotpads and cloth napkins. His little table is the perfect height, although he isn't quite into inviting his teddies and Donald for a tea party yet.

This weekend my friend Amy came with her adorable munchkins and we had an slumber party. It was SO much fun. We took the kiddos to the park and Everett and Charlotte shared a ride in the blue stroller. Evie hung on to Charlotte for most of the walk. They play so well together and are hilarious to listen to.

Pierson, in the red stroller, is a cutie-pie. Poor baby had to be the "monster" all weekend though as the older two would run screaming through the house.

Where do they get so much energy? Neither of them eats enough to be as fast or active as they are!

Even with the camera set to "action" mode, I had trouble catching pictures of any of them because they were constantly in motion.

I love this picture of Amy, she reminds me of those Native American "storyteller" sculptures surrounded by all the kiddos.

Charlotte told her mama that she needed a baby sister-- I told her I had to wait ten years before I got mine!

Here is my beautiful princess! She will be seven weeks old on Wednesday! I can't believe it my baby is almost two months old.

Fall is in the air, which is whipping through the trees

The last rose of summer against the fiercely blue October sky.

Evie and I have been taking nature walks. He is very interested in the changing leaves.

As we are all still sickish, we have been wearing fleece and sweat pants round the clock. Perfect attire for front-yard adventures.

I love the electric yellow of freshly fallen elm leaves.

Everett loves to collect sticks and leaves for our nature collection. I love the shadows and light in the picture.

The vine on our house is turning the most beautiful colors. I am blown away by the variety of color and texture.

This is a particularly lovely stick, can't you tell?

I love fall produce. Hooray for squash and yams and more squash!

This is our current bowl of Fall goodness. Everett has helped me pick up most of the treasure on our walks.

These are the last of the gorgeous zinnias from my Oma's garden. They have brought many a smile.

My very sweet friend Cristen, who has a beautiful baby boy a month older than Bea, made me these awesome cupcakes for my birthday! They were fantastic and the pretzel on top was a huge success!

I just like the play of light on the glass against the old wooden stairs.

This picture doesn't come close to capturing the glittering, shimmering, wonder of this spider web. But I did get the spider in the picture which I thought was pretty neat.

And of course October means apples, lots of apples.

Cristen also brought me these sunshiney mums. They are Fall to a tee.

The man I love

Sometimes I get all smooshy and romantical. Right now I have just finished watching Mama Mia (for the millionth time) with Evie. He loves to sing along with the cast. So cute. Anyway, with Russ a little farther away than usual, it made me miss him even more than I did when I woke up. So cute daddy pictures seemed like a good antidote.

Everett certainly misses rough-housing with his dad. I am just not as good at that.

And few people have Russ's patience for putting the train table together. I love how much Evie looks like his dad.

Look at my beautiful husband and the gorgeous baby he gave me!

The princess misses her daddy too, but of course doesn't quite express it the same way.

One month at six weeks

These are a bit late, but between Russ leaving and a triple round of icky colds, I haven't quite felt up to blogging. However, I did take lots of pictures for Bea's one month birthday!

In the two weeks since I took these pictures, our princess has become even more interactive. And now instead of half-smiles, we are regularly graced with coos, giggles, and smiles. I will have to get some new pictures to document this delightful progress. But these are pretty adorable!

My mom brought this soft puppy for Bea and started taking pictures with it when she was born. She asked me to continue every month through the first year. So here is the one month puppy picture. I took a bunch but this is the only one in which Beatrice isn't upset.

Just looking at these, I know I need to put some newer picture together fast. She has already grown so much.

While she didn't make it to 10 lbs for her first check-up she is a respectible 9 lbs and 13 oz.

She was "yawning so wide we could look down her neck." Well not quite, but that is what we always said about my brother Derek when he was a baby. It is from a Dr. Seuss book--anybody want to venture a guess as to which one?

Look at those mysterious eyes. She is such a calm baby. The daisy blanket that seems to be in every picture is my favorite for swaddling. I wrap her up like a baby burrito at least once a day.