Happy Birthday Bea!

HOORAY! 

YIPPEE! 

BEA IS THREE!!

Today we celebrate the amazing miracle that is Sweet Beatrice Starling! 
Three years ago she came into the world and made us a family of four. We spent today celebrating Beatrice and kicked off a whole week of birthday fun!  

***

When Bea woke up in the morning, she realized right away that the big day was here. "Today's my birfdy" was instantly followed by "please I open pwesents." Josie ran down and grabbed one and she was opening in bed just after sunrise. 

By the time we had our first cups of coffee down, she had torn through all her gifts on what was turning out to be a beautiful sunshiny, happy day! (Not surprisingly to those who have been following along, her gifts were largely Frozen-themed this year. So there were a couple new dolls to add to the collection among several new books.)

Happy Birthday messages poured in from near & far. And from friends of all shapes & sizes.

Josie headed to ballet with Louie and Beatrice & I soaked up some much-needed sunshine outside while we waited for them to pick us up for a trip to the WATERPARK!

This sort of captures the essence of Beatrice ;)

Long story short, about this time last year we headed off on a Spring Break roadtrip to Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin with an overnight stay at an indoor waterpark. The girls had a BLAST. Up til this point, we hid the fact that such places exist closer to us than a 7 hour drive. We haven't yet decided if revealing this secret was a good or bad idea in the long run, but it did end up being an ideal solution to the fact that when we asked Bea what she wanted to spend her birthday doing, "go to da waterpark" came out of nowhere.

CocoKey Resort is just north of Cincinnati - about 20 minutes from us. If you haven't yet experienced the joys of such a place, here's a pano & a few pics.

Where's Josie?

 The girls were SOOOOOO excited!

What a FUN way to celebrate Bea's big birthday!

There was even an arcade.

Between the two of them, the girls hit every water slide in the park more than once. Josie tackled the big, big ones that even scared me & Bea stood on her tippy-toes to ride to 40 inches & over water slides that she saw Josie enjoying.  There isn't video of any of those (in an effort to save my phone from certain death), but I did get these gems from the kids area. WEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee!

We had to leave the water park action a little earlier then we would've liked to, because we had a school event we couldn't miss that evening. We came home to a special surprise from Grandma & DD who got to pick up where we left off with the birthday celebration. Bea was SO excited. In fact, funny story actually. When I told Bea at the waterpark that it was time to go home, she let out an ear-piercing, foot-stomping here-comes-the-three-year-old-meltdown of a "NOOOOO! I'm not going ANNNNYYYYYWHERRRRRRE!" When I told her we were going home to see Grandma & DD, the screams *instantly* switched over to "Oh, Okay, Yay!" and she skipped off towards the exit. (Stinker.)

After opening presents from Grandma & DD and face-timing in the Four Austins for some birthday fun, it was time to don the traditional birthday crown and blow out the candles on Bea's homemade pink cake from Grandma. She was eager, to say the least.

Does it get any better than grandparents?!

Lou & I headed to the school gala and the girls headed to dinner with my folks. The report from dinner was that Bea fell asleep in the booth with a tortilla chip in her hand, and Josie wasn't far behind her. They were exhausted. Totally wiped out. (And so were we, truth told, but that didn't stop us from literally closing the bar down with some school families who snuck away post-gala.)

We spent the rest of the weekend soaking up some sun before it would turn cold again, putting some new presents to good work and preparing for next weekend's big (Frozen-themed) birthday bash.

How cool is this chalk mandala maker? (Thanks Carrie for the hot tip.)

This moment was actually a little bittersweet. My parents bought this at a yard sale for the grandkids a couple years ago & Josie is definitely just weeks away from no longer fitting inside it. I had to push them up the hill because the two of them weighed too much to power it.

Here's Josie on the scooter we bought her the day she turned three. She was very excited to show now-three-Bea how to use it.

Bea's 3rd birthday was SO much fun, and it's just the beginning of a really fun week to come. But, there's one last thing I have to share here that has been on my mind since I recently read the words of a childhood friend. Like so many of us do, I reflected on the photo at the top of this post with the thought that it is so hard to celebrate birthdays each year because it means that another year has flown by and our little sweeties are growing up all too quickly before our eyes. She is a childhood friend who had her own miracle babies (TWINS!) born within a few weeks of Bea and spent the last year battling cancer in one of her sweet boys--facing what is no doubt one of the greatest fears that all parents hold in their hearts. This sweet friend reminded me that there is nothing worth lamenting around a child's birthday. The alternative is a birthday that comes and goes without a child to blow out the candles again this year.  I will truly never look at birthdays the same again.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET SWEET BEATRICE.  Watching you grow up too fast is the best job on the planet!

happy birthday beba!

happy birthday to bea.

happy birthday to bea.

happy 3rd birthday to beba.

happy birthday to bea.

(lots & lots & lots of birthday fun has been happening here. consider this the placeholder for a report to eventually follow.)

Sisterly Surprise.

Remember that day a few weeks ago when the girls got deep into the closet and pulled out these matching dresses? I snapped a few pics on my iphone. Tonight, as I was clearing out my Canon for tomorrow's big birthday festivities, I happened upon these three gems that I didn't even remember taking.  They capture a certain sisterly sweetness that put a smile on my face & I couldn't resist sharing this surprise from my camera. Enjoy.

It started with a party invitation...

A few weeks ago Josie got a birthday party invitation for a little guy who moved to a new school this year. She and little guy were always good little buddies, so she was really excited to be included!  That excitement turned to THRILLED when she read on the card that in lieu of gifts, each party guest should make an alien costume instead! Josie's little mind instantly got to work and she was sketching out ideas within minutes. As luck would have it, we got a big blast of snow that week and a couple extra days off of school, so she knew she'd have some time to get pretty elaborate with it.  Her goal was to not have to buy anything and to only use things we had around the house. And, with the exception of the silver fabric I bought to remedy her problem of trying to get a million pieces of aluminum foil to stick to a box, she succeeded!

Here is how her costume turned out! Pretty awesome, right?!

The costume consists of: pipe cleaner antennae, an old zebra mask covered in foil, egg cartons for extra eyes, silver ribbon decor cut from a gift bag, elastic from my sewing basket for straps, an amazon box covered in silver fabric, and christmas tinsel tentacles--all on top of her Plex pajamas. She was SO proud of how it turned out! Here she is at the party - where they had a giant UFO piñata that released silver balloons!

The close-up "alien robot face."

But, the story does not stop here. 

There's the trophy from DD who, saw the picture down below on instagram and read an abbreviated version of the story that follows, and had to do something to make sure Josie knew how special she was.

And there's this story about our sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet Josephine. There is a whole back story worth documenting here --the story of what the alien costume actually brings to mind for those of you who follow along. 

See, during the week of the alien costume, Beatrice was really sick. She has this thing (which the doctor says is normal, although rare) that whenever she gets a cough, she vomits. Basically the force of the cough makes her gag. So, whenever she has a cough like she did this particular week, nights are really really rough. As soon as she lays down, she coughs and as soon as she coughs, we have another set of sheets to clean and crying 2 year old to console. So, it was one of those weeks. A week when Josie was super excited and motivated by the challenge of the alien costume and it was a week where pretty much every afternoon I promised her that after Bea was in bed, we'd have a good couple of hours to work on it together. Then, for the third night in a row, "after Bea was in bed" never came.  

And that's when Josie finally cracked. 

It wasn't a "snap." It was definitely a "crack." All at once, after almost 3 years, the absolute first instance of "but what about me?" finally came pouring out of her. If you know Josie, you know she is one of the kindest hearted, most gentle, loving little beings on the planet. She's the kind of sister who, when a frustrated Bea launched Josie's bowl of raisins across the room, silently picked them all up, then brought me the bowl and told me she wasn't mad at Bea because Bea is still learning. She's the big sister who will stop whatever she is doing and go help Bea wash her hands or get a snack. The big sister whose little life as a 3 year old marched on without an active mom while I was on full-time bedrest with in utero Bea. The big sister who has always put Bea's needs first and who, up until this particular night, always let us put Bea's needs first too.   

But, on this night she broke my heart. When her "Please Mommy, tonight?" was met with the sound of a coughing Bea and an "I'm sorry, Josie, we'll try again tomorrow," what started as a little whimper grew to big giant sobs from a deep deep place in a matter of moments. She explained, in words broken up by gasps of air between guttural tears, that she "just.wants.more.time.with.me!" Genuinely, she asked, she pleaded, "Why does what I need always come after what Bea needs?"

The question actually stopped me in my tracks. In fact, this happened a month ago and I haven't written about it before now, because I'm still processing it all and still working to determine how to never let her feel like this again. This "my needs always come second." 

There's a lot to it. The weight of the realization. The shift in perspective. How proud I am of her that she shared her feelings. How much I want more than anything in the world for them both to know just how important they are to be individually, and together. 

And above everything else, how hard it is to be a parent and how every bit of it is worth it. 

The longest short month of the year.

What a blur.  February was an intense wave of wonderful occasions like my birthday and visiting guests, a homemade holiday, more and more and more snow, respite at home and the rush, rush, rush of the usual routine.  It knocked us out with illness and overwhelmed us with winter.  Yes, home and work each presented a slew of challenges, but it is finally March! And we survived (albeit not without tears and tantrums of both the adult and child variety).


Here are the highlights of the shortest month of the year that, somehow, felt like the longest...





Bea got into the make-up, more than once!

Josie almost always has a book in her hand.

Winter weather has meant lots of soup and chili.

This happened with Josie. And I was "pinch-me giddy" the whole time.

Snow. More snow. And fun "Waterlogue" app interpretations of snow.

The girls are training to become Fairy Godmothers.

We're back in "get back to it" mode, and Josie has picked up on my extra workouts and expressed a lot of interest in going running this spring. Lou outfitted her in Old Navy's finest and she is SO excited!

MUCH of February was spent watching the Sochi Winter Olympics. The girls really really enjoyed the events and Josie was really into the Olympic stories. (In case you're wondering, Bea wants to be a ski jumper and Josie wants to be a gold medal skeleton runner.) While there's no photo of any of that, this next one is definitely related.  Our side stairs were so frozen with ice and snow that Lou & I just had to sneak away one afternoon and see if it would work like a luge. It DID! And we laughed SOOOOOO hard about the whole thing!

Venus is still crazy and has added the new habit of meowing until she gets milk in the morning, so that's fun. ;)

The girls have spent more than one snowy afternoon going through their closets and playing dress-up. In this case, Josie squeezed Bea into a 12-18 month dress so they could still match. Hilarious. Adorably hilarious.

My birthday extended across the whole month! :)

The sweeties have been sickies.

With a string of snow-bound Wednesday mornings, Bea & I have been doing lots of cooking together. On this particular morning, we made yummy yummy chick pea curry.

Valentine's Day came and went. Tasked with making homemade valentines for school, I decided to make paper with the girls for the first time. Ha - it's even messier with little ones, but I hadn't done it in YEARS and doing so reminded me how much fun it is to do! The valentines turned out great.

Our "Miami Merger" valentine arrived right on cue. And, sweet Lou, who swears every year that we are not celebrating, actually spoiled the heck out of me. (Poor buddy, I got him tickets to see Josh Ritter for Valentine's Day, but then we couldn't go because the stomach bug took down Josie just hours before the show.)

Josie created one of my very favorite works of art yet.

Beatrice is OBSESSED with Playdoh. Obsessed. Like wants to take it with her when she leaves the house obsessed.

And it snowed. In fact, the total for Dec-Feb in Cincinnati was 40+ inches of snow! Spring will come eventually, right?

Our Mother-Daughter February book club meeting focused on Galileo this month and, in honor of his 450th birthday, we went to a party at the Observatory. It was really cool to see all the girls in attendance. They were genuinely interested in the physics experiments and WAY into the astronomy. (That's Josie craning her neck to see the Galileo thermometer.)

The highlight of the night was DEFINITELY when the clouds finally parted and we got a peak into the 20+ foot telescope (the oldest working one in the world is just miles from our house, ahem). We saw Jupiter & Jupiter's four moons - the ones Galileo discovered and that was just COOL.

When the petals all starting wilting on my birthday bouquets, Josie and I made the biggest flower mandala yet! It took us over an hour and it was really great to do it together.

Like I said about Bea and the make-up. Ha.

So glad I captured this little gem on video. 

We spent MLK Day at my parents, since Lou still had to work and I had the day off. We spent the day hanging out in the hot tub and getting taken care of by Grandma & DD. That was awesome. Bea is ready for the Bengals Superbowl-bound season!

Did I mention it snowed a lot? Lou found a new spot near our house with bigger and more daring hills. The girls LOVE going sledding with Lou because they get away with way more dangerous stuff. This dates way back to that Owl's Nest Park sled ride when I was on bedrest and Josie first developed the need for speed.

Bea's eyes look whacko because she was wearing make-up...again, or maybe still.

The girls continue to BEG and PLEAD about getting a dog. In the meantime, they are lucky to have babysitters with great pups! Check out big Hank the Great Dane. 

And these sweeties. They LOVE this little Dachshund (clearly).

A strange thing happened at the end of the month, it randomly shot up to 60 something degrees! But since the ice and snow was so deep, it didn't melt all the way. That meant we got to sled in the warm weather - AKA my kind of sledding!!!

Even with the warm temps, we had to shovel to entice the snow to melt.

Mandala-master Josie surprised me by turning my wilting roses into a little mandala on the kitchen counter.

One of the fun highlights from the month was a visit from my Getting Smart homegirl Caroline. Her hubs Ryan was in town for airline training (Congrats Captain Ryan!!!) and that meant they spent the weekend with us. It was SOOOO fun having Caroline here at the Getting Smart Midwest Headquarters. She was here for the most beautiful day in MONTHS. The entire city spilled out into the great outdoors. 

It was a GORGEOUS day at Eden Park.

We had a really wonderful dinner in Over the Rhine Restaurant Row at Quan Hapa (even if we couldn't get a reservation until 9pm). Lou learned that vegetarians cannot eat balut and we all experienced the joy of the "street pancake."

Caroline gave Josie a tennis lesson.

And we wore Bea out with a trip to Nordstrom Rack.

Caroline took my all-time favorite photo of me and Beatrice!

And we sent these lovelies on their way with bellies full of Zipburgers.

The snow melted (but is now back) and there are little signs of Spring here and there.

There are also signs of a certain someone turning three VERY soon. Here she is in the bathtub where "look I spelled my name" happened.

This happened days later - her first attempt to write her name. See it? 

Speaking of Bea, here is how I found her after a really busy work day that had to go on well after the babysitter left. They were so quietly playing upstairs, so I plugged away in the office. I came up to find Beatrice standing in a puddle of water that led all the way into the bathroom where she had filled various things up in the sink to make a "Playdoh pool." She was dipping dolls into wet Playdoh water and painting herself with the colored water it made. Hilarious. (Much more hilarious AFTER I spent 30 minutes cleaning up the water.)

In case you're wondering, here's how I found Josie that same afternoon.

And speaking of Playdoh, here's another favorite past-time at Casa de Schneider these days - making doll costumes.

Yes, Bea is pushing some limits lately and we never know quite where we are going to find her.

She's really growing independent, growing more creative and just plain growing up. And moments like this when she dons a dress purchased for her big sister who can no longer squeeze into it just about break my heart. 

And speaking of heart, this sweet girl just continues to shine and thrive and blow us away with her beautiful spirit.

So, with that, February was nutso, but we survived it all. And if there's one lesson to be learned from these 28 days of insanity, it is this...

(For the record, we can do easy things, too. Let's do some easy things in March, mmmk?)