spring cleaning

since it's officially spring today, i thought i'd do a little spring cleaning- go through some old stuff that piled up in the queue but never made it to the blog, some lesser milestones of the past eight months. since i'm a slob and have stuff piled up all over the place, this might be bigger than the average post. but since pictures of bebe are like little golden coins that shine and dazzle you with their inherent worth and non-depreciating value, for today, and in honor of spring time, consider yourselves wealthy beyond measure...

it seems like so long ago that the only way we could get beatrix to sleep was to swaddle her. this worked for a while, but as she got stronger and more coordinated, she was able to houdini herself out of even the tightest wraps. finally, over thanksgiving weekend in long island, she broke free for good:

that's exactly the way we found her after her morning nap. one up top, one down below, and pretty pleased with herself for the effort.

hey bebe!

"yeah?"

you must be pretty proud of yourself for getting both arms out of that swaddle.

"well, i have to say it feels pretty good."

your mother and i are proud of you, of course...

"but you're probably a little worried about what comes next?"

well, like most things in life, we're talking about a method of control, one that in this case has become obsolete. this generally leads to greater and more complicated systems of overt control. and as we all know, the best systems of control are the ones where the controlled subject fails to notice the control mechanisms as they function behind the scenes, giving the illusion of free will, for example. and since we're moving away from that to larger, more obvious systems of control, we're headed for the inevitable clash and failure of control predicated upon the notion of-
oh, do you have a question bebe?

"may i go to the bathroom?"

of course you can.

"ahhhhhhh...."

anyway, this is what bed time is like now:

we read a book

we sing some songs

and then it's off to dreamland!

we started to have auntie jamie come a few days a week so that mommy could lock herself in the bedroom and send daddy emails about how much she just wants to be with her baby.

they get along great and we're happy to have someone we love and trust take of someone we love but totally don't trust.

there's been lots of naked bottom time along the way...

and for christmas all bebe wanted was to get a peppertoni into her face. merry christmas you weird little elf!

mommy is so great at so many things, and she does such a great job at taking care of both of us. but like icarus, flying too close to the sun and thus punished by the gods, mommy occasionally oversteps her boundaries. case in point: the exersaucer. mommy felt confident she could put this together and have bebe exersaucering in no time! well, she was right about the "no time" part. as in, "how much time did bebe spend playing safely in the exersaucer today?" answer: no time.

daddy came home to find bebe unscathed, but the exersaucer in ruins.

"but i followed the directions!!!!!!!"

daddy's a little bit better at building things, and this is one of the ways in which mommy and daddy are so well suited for one another. together they're good at everything!

so after a few minutes of reading and adjustments, bebe was in fact zooming and bouncing and exersaucering...

lastly, as the weather begins to slowly warm towards the milder highs of the spring, it's time to start saying goodbye to all the great winter hats. this one is my fave, although now that i think about it, i loved them all...

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!!!!!!