Bee's Blueprint: 6 Months

Happy 6 month birthday, Phoebe girl! In our house, it is unanimously believed that this has been the fastest 6 months of our entire lives. I mean, whoa. Where do I even begin? I want to freeze this little lady so I can remember her exactly how she is in this moment. The way she stores golf balls in those cheeks. Her skinny little ankles. The way she smacks her lips and pulls her bottom lip in. Her sour pucker face when she is expressing displeasure. How she squeals and kicks her feet in excitement when I come into the room. And whines when I walk out of sight. The way she smiles with her whole face, whole body. The way she crosses her feet. The way she cuddles into her daddy's neck when she's tired. How her hair sticks straight out and up. Goodness me. She is a sweetheart. Phoebe is now sitting up on her own like a champ. When she's on her tummy she pushes up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth, sometimes lunging forward or scooting backwards. Her tear ducts are still clogged and it seems everywhere we go people ask why she's been crying. Other than the annoyance of having them wiped constantly, it doesn't seem to bother her much. Bee loves any sound you can make with your mouth; kissy noises, whistling, quacking, whatever you can come up with, she will laugh and giggle. It's fun to see her sense of humor emerging!
6 Month Stats:
15 lbs 4 oz (30%)
26.5 inches tall (75%)

Summer Days of Yore

(Photo Credit: 3 yr old Anna Banana who knows how to work a smart phone like a pro)

This week I've been really missing summer morning walks with my lady friends. It's a bit too cold in the mornings to drag these little monkeys out of doors these days. But this summer we carved a rut to the H-Rock deep enough it should still be visible come spring. I'm convinced being outside every morning helped keep any postpartum blues at bay and I soaked up lots of sun and wonderful new mommy advice when I desperately needed it. Plus, even if I didn't accomplish much else other than diapering, feeding, and wiping up puke the rest of the day I still felt like I had done something for myself. Three cheers!

Neaking on Bee

This picture is grainy and dark and just bad, but I snapped it candidly one evening and unexpectedly it brings tears to my eyes every time I look at it. Several times a night after bee has gone down for bed, Brad will scrunch his shoulders up to his chin and whisper "let's go "neaking" on bee!" while pulling me toward him with his pointer finger. We sneak into her room and watch her sleeping in the dark. After we have sufficiently examined her perfect little body, making note of her tiny clenched fists and phantom binky sucking, we each take a turn kissing her head, trying not to wake our sleeping beauty. Sometimes the kiss will cause her to stir, which sets off giggles from that ridiculous place inside we never knew existed before being parents. We run back into our bedroom and burst into hushed laughter as we fall onto our bed. The final consensus: she is amazing and we love being her parents. 

A little makeover, if you will

You  may notice that we've been under a little bit of construction over here. My genius and ridiculously good looking brother has been busy sprucing up the place. Thank you Tom! What do you think? My old blog header embarrassingly still said 2011. Doh. I'm still working out a few kinks and being indecisive about that silly sidebar thing. Typical. While this blog is mostly for a small readership of family and friends I appreciate anyone who checks in on us from time to time to say hello. Thanks for reading! I love being able to share little bits of our life story here and having an audience encourages my writing to be better. I'm hoping this new look will inspire me to write even more. My motivation here is simply to make a record of the sweetness and challenges that make each of our lives worth living. The Hive is a nod to our baby girl whom we have lovingly nicknamed Bee. Thank you for being here, really.

Indian Summer

We've had such a beautiful autumn and this week the temperatures have been high enough to still enjoy being outside. This particular Sunday afternoon was gloriously sunny and warm and we took Bee to the park to swing. She pretty much loved it. Takes after her momma ;). Seeing these two together does something to my heart. I just love them.