Witto Bee...

That's what we call our baby most, we just can't help but roll out a little baby talk for our Witto Bee. She is just up to soooooo much! I haven't really documented the more recent things she's doing, and it's all so exciting! I don't really have time to blog because I'm so busy keeping little things out of her mouth, steering her away from the stairs and persuading her not to suck on any part of the kitty. EVERYTHING goes in the mouth, and if you had a room full of toys and things over the choking hazard size, she would waste no time going for the one minuscule little thing that should not go in her mouth and put it in her mouth. She is just a little vacuum, and sometimes I just let her eat the tissue or paper pieces if I figure she can get them down easily enough.

 She started crawling the third weekend in October! She was pulling herself around for a few weeks and then she'd get up on her knees and rock back and forth...and eventually she just took off crawling. I guess she was seven months old.

 My Bets is a MESS MAKER. She loves to use her poky little fingers to move mushy things around, and don't think you can leave a bowl of carrot puree close by because she has a radar for things you don't want her to touch..."bleep, bleep, bleep, your mommy left the carrot bowl within reach...go, go, go!" says the radar. I love having a Vita-Mix this time around for quickly making all her food without having to steam, peel or dice. She mostly eats organic peas and carrots, and I like to make them tastier by adding grapeseed oil and sea salt. I also added a cucumber to both to make them less dense in texture. She loves little finger pinching snacks like puffed grains and those freeze dried fruits.

 Betsey gets herself into all kinds of weird corners and she doesn't know what to do to get out of some of them. She was pretty hard to get to in this picture...and this was taken around 8 months when she started pulling up to a 1/2 stand on shorter items. I had to rescue her from this one.

 Ahhhh the standing up in bed trick. I lay her down and she literally just melds to the sheet and sucks her binkie and lets her eyes roll back in her head...but it's all a huge act! She'll be quiet for like ten minutes and then she starts to cry because she's gotten herself in a standing position but she doesn't know how to get back down...and did I mention she is tired because she's a baby and really needs her sleep!? I go in there and lay her back down sometimes more than six or seven times per nap, but she just gets right back up and invites people over.

We were all crowded around watching her take to the stairs for the first time. She did this the beginning of November and boy was she thrilled! She went up a stair and then stopped and slapped the stairs and giggled with joy. She now gets all the way to the top!!!

Betsey is pulling up on everything in sight. She just really doesn't know how to get back down...and I don't think she wants to know. Doesn't she look like a bruised mess in this picture? She took a little beating over Thanksgiving with lots of little cousin feet on the same floor she is crawling

Ahhhhh, isn't she beautiful? I have to say that babies dismayed me completely until this little one came along. She's not staying little, and it's hard to swallow! Here are some silly little games she is playing lately that I can't get enough of. I know all babies do them, but I still have to write it down. She loves to press her head into my lips when I hold her and attach my lips to her cheek. She'll pull away and then move her head and press a new spot onto my lips for a kiss. MORE PLEASE! I LOVE it when she does this, I could kiss her all day with this game. Sometimes she initiates this by just pushing her head against mine when I'm holding her. I don't think she's really going for a kiss, just doing the head touching game, but what if she is wanting kisses? She is also doing the mimic game in several ways. She will just make eye contact and then shake her head like she's saying "no" and if you do it back, she'll do it again and you just take turns imitating each other. She also does this with some sounds, like scrunching up the nose and breathing short, hard breaths out...back and forth. Last week at church, she was standing up on the bench flirting with the people behind us the whole time, and there was a woman who played the mimic game with Betsey for quite a while. It was so cute!

Even though Ruby and Alice just adore her, they are much older and when Betsey is in the tub, I think about how she needs someone to play in the tub with, she can't do that alone! She needs a sibling that doesn't just want to give in to her every whim, someone who will be her best friend and grow up interested in the same things as her. Even when she is old enough for her "five years old Disney trip", her sisters will be 10 and 13!!! They won't really get amped about a signature from Mickey Mouse, so she'll need someone to wait in line with. Never fear Betsey, there's one more in me in a couple of years...if I have my way!