great beach day with great nana

this morning, i told bebe that we were going on a trip to see her great nana, who was going to take us to the beach.


"the beach????"



"i'm ready, i'm ready, lemme at that sand!"

well, a few hours later, after finishing our breakfast, getting dressed, and driving down to connecticut, we were finally at the beach. at the beach club, no less, guests of one of great nana's friends.

we had some lunch together. after a while, bebe got down on the ground where it was more comfortable, and demolished a pear, while great nana looked on. (to see what this looks like in close-up, check out josh's recent post.)

that's the ocean behind her. it was foggy, but warm, and since we knew it was pushing upwards of ninety degrees in boston, we sure were glad to be at the beach, fog or not!

here's bebe being silly inside mrs. parella's cabana.

and here she is, doing what she does best.

little beach bum.

we got back just in time to pick up our csa share, and settled in to eat some fresh berries out on our porch.

a perfect summer day.

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one year stats

bebe had her one-year well baby visit today.


she weighs 20 lbs 8 oz (38th percentile) and is 29.75 inches tall (67th percentile).

dr. bastian said he is "very pleased" with her. i said, so are we!

(he didn't check them, but i'm pretty sure her choobies are in the 99th percentile.)

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working for a living

bebe has been getting really into vehicles recently. she loves trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles, and trains, all of which we see on a regular basis. she makes a "vroom vroom" sound for trucks and the most hilarious screechy siren noise for fire engines. she also has a lot of fun playing with vehicles of various kinds.

mems and teed gave her this awesome ride-on dump truck for her birthday. it makes horn, ignition, and dumping sounds!

and one of her favorite things to do at the playground down the street is mow the lawn.

what happens when you try to photograph three one-year-olds at the same time:

we had a birthday buddies playdate today for the first time since they all turned the big 0-1. it was pretty much total chaos -- but fun chaos! bebe and morrie are both walking and nj took her first steps the other day. everyone always wants whatever toy someone else is holding. morrie is in L-U-V with nora jane but the fact that he outweighs her by 12 pounds makes his amorous advances not entirely comfortable for the little lady. bebe alternates between wanting to give kisses and huggles and wanting to get as far away as possible (which of course means in mama's arms).

mood swing

beach bum

we went up to the beach again yesterday. bebe had a blast playing in the sand, wading in the ocean, and eating picnic food (including some really spicy sesame noodles).

going to the beach is one of our very favorite things. we love watching our daughter enjoy it as much as we do!

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birthday part(y) two

today we went up to grammy and grampa glen's house for bebe's birthday party, part two. there were balloons, watermelon, a beach ball, two dogs and two kittens, not to mention a chocolate cake and lots of presents. in other words, all of her favorite things. lots of favorite people, too -- besides grammy and grampa, there was also auntie jamie, auntie ash and uncle trev, uncle seth, great-gram, great aunt diane and great uncle chuck and cousin eric, great-great aunt rosy, and helen, a friend from across the street. bebe sure is going to be disappointed next weekend when there's no party, no cake, no presents, no throngs of adoring fans!

unfortunately, i took very few pictures today. josh took a bunch, which he'll be posting sometime soon, and so did auntie ash, who just got a fancy new camera -- you can check them out on her blog. in the meantime i'll just share this one sequence, where bebe in enthralled by the antics of one of the new kittens, jackie chan (his partner in crime, bruce lee, didn't make it into any of these shots).

what you can't tell from the photos is that she is squealing with excitement at the top of her lungs. this noise of hers tends to scare cats away, and sure enough, chan took off.

where'd he go, beebs?

there he is! thanks, uncle trev!

presenting the winner of the best cat ever award

if you knew our cat tiny b.b. (before bebe), you would be as shocked as we are at how well he is tolerating her presence in our family. but you didn't know him before, because he is so terrified of anyone other than josh or me that he hides under the bed when we have company -- which should really tell you all you need to know about how astonishing it is that he lets her love on him all day long and, from time to time, even seems to enjoy it.

(this last picture is bebe waving at a truck that she heard outside on the street. not related to the cat love, but too cute not to include in today's post.)

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