Beatrice, Month Six

Today Beatrice is half a year old! This month she has hit a few developmental milestones here and there but the real change is just in her constantly evolving personhood. Compared to six months ago (or even one month ago) she is just so much more of an individual now, with the rudiments of a distinct personality. Whereas once her face mostly registered only happy/neutral or unhappy/crying, she now has a range of real, recognizable emotions, including boredom, amusement, frustration, delight, curiousity, and suspicion.

The highlight of the month was the baby's first Thanksgiving and her chance to finally meet her uncles Travis and Aubrey and many other friends. Beatrice and I also took a week-long vacation to the Bay Area to visit the Blocks while Dev was out of town on a business trip.




This month we also ventured out to a baby sensory learning group (don't ask) but Beatrice adored all the chaotic, noisy activity. At one point Beatrice was simultaneously bombarded with recorded music, live drumming, hand-held percussion instruments, and ribbon dancing, and she seemed to enjoy it all. The class leader declared she had never met a baby who was so hard to unnerve. That will come in handy.

Beatrice continues to add new foods every week - fruits, vegetables, and meats - and so far she loves them all uniformly. In fact, dinner time is now the highlight of her day.

Beatrice continues to try out new vocalizations - most of them sound like the typical consonant-vowel pairings of baby babble, but her neatest trick is the bird-like trilling she has taken to making.

She also loves petting (ie., grabbing) Shackelton, Cromwell, and Odin.

She is also working on crawling - she can scoot efficiently across the entire length of a room. But only backwards. If you place a desired toy in front of her, she will work with all her might to reach it while slowly receding from it. Like so many things involving babies, it's both sad and incredibly funny. (Video coming soon!)

Find more Beatrice month six photos on Flickr and Facebook.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent this year at Sam and Lilli's house celebrating our ninth annual Thanksgiving party, which this year featured the triumphant return of Adult Fry and the unholy creation of a chidurkey (an inverted turducken). It also featured MSG waffles, which might just be the worst thing I've ever eaten. Twice.

This year was particularly exciting, though, because it was Baby's First Thanksgiving. For years to come, she'll think Thanksgiving is like this for everyone. I can't wait until her kindergarten teacher asks the class to draw a picture of what their family does to celebrate Thanksgiving and Beatrice draws a picture of a bearded lunatic deep-frying a road sign.

That's the best thing about babies: they have no context.

1500 servings of MSG.

A meeting is called.

This should never happen.

This man is NSF certified.

It's not important what this is.

Happy Halloween!

We've had a busy month of Halloween-related activities, starting with our annual Block family trip to the apple farms near Placerville in northern California.


We also went to a pumpkin festival in Pasadena with Mina, James, and Rosemary,


and to see the fall foliage at Descanso gardens.

Then Dev and I helped out with the Mom's Club children's Halloween party on October 24.

The following day we had some friends and family over to have an all-pumpkin dinner and carve jack o' lanterns.

Then at last it was Halloween itself - we had a big open house with friends from all over the city while also handing out candy to the many trick or treaters in our neighborhood. More than thirty people dropped by plus a total of seven babies.

Rosemary in costume as an Indian princess,

and I made Louis an ultrasound costume.

And of course, I also made Beatrice's costume, a stack of pancakes.

Shackleton was a middle manager.

Cromwell was an old-timey motorist.

Dev was a ghost (again).

And I was Medusa.
See more of our fall and Halloween photos on Flickr and Facebook, including some great photos of our party guests and their costumes.

Beatrice, Month Five

The big news this month (besides Halloween) is SOLID FOOD. That's right, we're into the big time with rice cereal and even the occasional dabble into oatmeal. Beatrice is surprisingly enthusiastic about what is, in essence, a flavorless gruel - she even insists on holding the spoon and trying to feed herself. A mess ensues.

Also - she's sitting! Sort of. She can sit on her own for a limited time when placed in that position, but her big break came the other day when for the first time she lifted herself from a reclining position to a sitting one on her own, held herself steady for about 20 seconds, and then tipped slowly forward until she wound up on her stomach.

She's also been enjoying some forays into object permanence - she likes to sit in her highchair and throw her plastic cups over the side, then peer after them and try to find where they've landed.

Beatrice is engaging more with the dogs this month, reaching out to pet them and following them with her eyes as they lope around the house causing trouble. The other day she was crying pretty hard until Shack came up and licked her face - she stopped crying in an instant. Good dog.

Most of her time, though, is spent grabbing her feet and stuffing them into her mouth. Accomplishments abound!

Beatrice with her cousins Rosemary and Louis:

And last but not least, Beatrice celebrating with Lucas and Veronika at a Russian Orthodox church festival featuring our favorite Russian folk band Limpopo:

(Beatrice is wearing a pumpkin hat from a previous engagement.)

As always, you can find many more photos on Flickr and Facebook.

Congratulations Mina and James!

Mina had their son Louis James Kumar Spindler at 3:28pm on Monday October 12. He is 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long. We visited them at the hospital yesterday - Louis is doing well, very healthy and rather serene, all in all a good baby.