Baby Bea's First "Quick Quote"

Those of you who have been here for awhile are familiar with the little "Quick Quote" series I started with Josie years ago in an attempt to capture those little gems that come out of the mouths of babes.  Well, sweet Bea had her first couple of quick quotes.  She's experimenting with more and more words, so I expect that the verbal flood gates are about to open.

A little context: Josie loves The Fresh Beat Band. Bea loves music, so Bea loves The Fresh Beat Band. It's the only show they both enjoy equally. Bea is so enamored with the show that it inspired her first quick quote. When the tell-tale starting notes of the closing theme music came on, Bea pointed to the TV, looked at me and said "UH-OH!"  

(She has since done this several times, saying Uh-Oh whenever her favorite songs end. Uh-oh is a pretty frequent phrase all around - like the classic baby game of throwing stuff on the ground then looking up innocently to say Uh-Oh like it was all just a huge accident.)

Bea's second quick quote came when we were on the swings the other day in the backyard. Bea is now big enough to stand on the 2-person "viking ship" with Josie if you hold on to her.  We were very impressed by Bea's big-girl-ness and kept saying "Wow Bea".  Well, that's all it took. "WOW!" is a new favorite word. She says "WOW" when she swings, slides, etc.  Sweet sweet girl.

Three Days of Summer's Start: Part Three

MONDAY

You would think with all of the fun we packed into Saturday and Sunday that we would be totally out of steam by Memorial Day Monday.  We decided to push everyone's limits a little and let the good times roll on.  Monday morning started with a bike ride through Camp Dennison on the bike trail. It was kind of one of those ideas that was better in theory than in practice. With a little later start than we planned, we hit the trail in the middle of Bea's naptime and had to wake her up in the car to plop her in the trailer. It was a zillion degrees so both girls were dying in their helmets.  All told, it was only an hour long trip, which was shorter than we had planned, but we still had a great time.

Getting ready to roll:

Bea points to the bike, because she wants to ride that instead of the trailer (silly goose):

A stop at the Schoolhouse General Store:

After a very "American" trip to Frisch's Big Boy for lunch (where the girls ate their weight in soup & salad bar fruit), we headed back home and back into the sprinklers. Lou found this totally 1950s sprinkler in our basement and we decided to kick it old school.  Fearless Bea went face-first and Josie jumped through it dozens of times!

(The child eats, trust me, she's just all ribs here because she was holding her breath from the cold water)

Even Lou got in on the action. His grimace in some of these pictures is more from the insanely strong squirts of water! We all had a blast.

(Truth told, I had more than a few passes through it myself but the camera was safely secured on the dry porch by then. I gotta say, Lou and I really do make it a priority to act like kids as often as we possibly can.  It's a summer priority! And it's these silly, soggy, everyday giggly moments with the girls that have come to be the ones we cherish most of all!)

Three Days of Summer's Start: Part Two

SUNDAY 

One of the biggest highlights of our long weekend was our Lemonade Stand.  Josie has been begging and begging (and begging!) to set one up for months on end. We really do live on the perfect corner for it, and we had a feeling neighbors would cooperate.  On Sunday we had the time to devote a few hours to creating the stand, perfecting our fresh-squeezed recipe and selling the goods. Priced at just 25 cents (now that's a bargain for fresh & organic), Josie earned about $5.  Most of her profits came in the form of tips!   Josie decided to re-invest her money back into her "ice cream truck" fund. 

Here are some photos from "Josephine's Lovely Lemonade Stand."

First, she juiced. And the sweet little thing did all of the lemons all by herself. (Tip: Soaking the lemons in hot water first makes the juicing part really easy & makes the most juice.)

Bea had her own important filling & spilling work while Josie was busy. (Note: Get used to seeing Bea in nothing but a diaper. 'Tis summer my friends!)

Next, we painted. This is the big Amazon box we get every couple of months that holds all of our diapers, wipes, toilet paper & paper towels. It moonlights as a tunnel when it's not being a Lemonade Stand. It was Josie's idea to use this as the stand weeks ago, and her little vision finally became a reality.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS!  Josie was hysterical yelling "Le-mon-ADE!" to all the passers-by.  It worked. We even offered drive-thru service.

Oh, notice above a few of the little details. Josie asked me to write "Fresh-Squeezed Super Duper Uper" at the top to describe her lemonade. She also insisted on "setting the table" with a cup of flowers and a placemat to decorate.  The pitcher is a montessori-style one so she was able to pour the lemonade to customers herself. 

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Bea got in on the action, when she wasn't busy stealing the cups to dip into the water table.  She spent most of the day in her swimming diaper. Funny thing is, while she's definitely not talking all the way now (mostly just animal noises and the common baby words), she was totally trying to yell "Le-mon-ADE" with Josie. It kept coming out in these adorable little unintelligible three-syllable bursts: "Di-bud-AME," "wi-la-BAY," "bi-da-LAPE".  Lou swears she got really close at least once.

The rest of Saturday was spent celebrating and sweating. We made it to only ONE of the THREE barbecues we had on the calendar. It was SO hot and the girls ran out of steam really early after being outside all day and all afternoon. They were both in bed by 7!  Ahhh...Summer!

Three Days of Summer's Start: Part One

It's true, Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to summer.  Suddenly, it seems perfectly normal to  let the baby run through the yard naked and to drink directly from the hose. Popsicles become a food group and showers are put off until after a long day outside ends instead of before a long day inside begins.  We definitely jam-packed our three-day weekend with good ole' fashioned summertime fun.

Here is the first of our three-days start to summer. (All 95 degrees of it!)

SATURDAY

The first part of our day took place at the Cincinnati Nature Center.  We had a great hike, a picnic and some time at the Nature Playscape.

This was the plan:

But this is what actually happened.  We assumed Bea would love the backpack, because Josie loved it at her age. But, something about seeing Josie traipsing around the forest led to Bea's insistence that the backpack was akin to a straight jacket. So...we spent much more time doing this:

In fact, this photo pretty much sums up everything that is our sweet girls these days. Josie is all-adventure all-the-time.  And, because Bea wants to do everything Josie does, she is all-adventure too. Little Bea has big ambitions (which can really frustrate her sometimes, poor thing).  Here she is trying with all her little might to climb like Josie.

 It really was a beautiful day. It's so nice to get out with both girls now that Bea is totally mobile.

Josie was thrilled to see real frogs!

And pollywogs!

In the epic battle, of Baby vs. Sun Hut...

 

 Baby Won!

Hey LOOK! We did it. May Mission: Accomplished (A photo of me with both girls!)

That's Josie with her pet "Roly Poly" bug

And the turtles were great!

A fun little discovery at the end of our hike:

Really, I just look at the two of them together so often and just marvel in amazement at how lucky we are!

Once home, we busted out the sprinkler and baby pool and summer was official "on!"  Really, nothing says "summer" more than a sprinkler and baby pool. Am I right?

 

Bea loves, loves, loves (and I mean loves) the water.

 
And Josie loves it, too. In fact, so do Louie & I.  Lou is on the other end of this big stream of water. How funny are they?!

This is Bea at her second favorite spot in the yard  - the roof water rain-catch barrel.  She loves filling up her bucket and watering the flowers - all day, every day.  Problem is, she loves this so much that she totally emptied the whole thing over the last week. (Sorry Mother Earth.)

All told, I think these two photos sum up Saturday the best.  I hope your holiday weekend started just as spectacularly!