...a little wave: easter 2010

for easter weekend, we went out to mems' and teed's house. this was the first time that bebe really had some sense ahead of time what we were doing, and it was also the first time she's become genuinely excited in anticipation. for the entire ride out, of her own volition and with little or no coaxing from us, she repeated the mantra 'mems' and teed's.' she occasionally substituted for the other people we said she'd see- aunt marge, uncle ben, nana, and ramona. it was going to be a full house!

and while we like to say that when bebe has an audience she really rallies, there does appear to be a dark side to it. while she may be ready and willing to play, laugh, make faces, screech for no apparent reason at the top of her lungs, etc., the cost is often a wave of aggravation she rides somewhere in the background. it manifests in big ways- crappy sleep schedules for instance, and in little ways- refusing to wear clothes. under the worst circumstances, it's the little and big all together.

but thankfully, easter weekend was not the worst case. for the most part, beebs slept like a champ, ate pretty well, and was in mostly good spirits and high energy. on the other hand, trying to get her into the car to go buy new shoes, trying to get her into the shoe store, trying to measure her foot, and trying to get her dressed most of the rest of the time were all instances met with meltdowns varying in intensity.

on the clothing issue, when we're home and she doesn't want to wear clothes, we let it go. it's not that big a deal that we force her to get dressed if she's just going to be lounging around the house. in fact, daddy feels the same way and will often stroll leisurely from one end of the apartment to the other completely "nakik" as bebe calls it, while mommy scrambles after him, frantically pulling shades or smashing light bulbs out of lamps and howling "the neighbors will see you!!!"

all i can say to that is that if our pervy neighbors stand around at their windows hoping to catch a glimpse of me in the buff, well then,

enjoy the show.

the point of this run-up is that we of course planned to have bebe appear in a cute little easter dress, only to have her fight like hell at the last minute. eventually mommy some how got her to change her mind, and the result was adorable, to say the least.

her one caveat was that she be able to go straight to the dog bed to roll around once she was dressed. oh, bebe.

she added a binky baby to her posse for the weekend, and had a little trouble carrying all three around at once:

"okay, babies. it's time for 'bebe's choice.' i just can't carry all of you, and that means that one of you will have to stay behind. whichever one of you that turns out to be will most likely have to endure ramona's slobber, her stinky dog breath, and maybe even some teeth."

"oh emma. it looks like you drew the short straw. be brave. i'll come right back for you as soon as i put josh and binky baby down on the couch, provided i don't get distracted by any shiny objects, or food, or television..."

"AHHHHHH! i just can't do it! i'll shield you all with my little body!"

beebs has had a massive hair growth-spurt.

since she peeled it off before we even got to her easter basket, these are the only pics i got of her in her first easter biggurl dress.

"alright, binky baby. it looks like emma and josh are asleep. just stay quiet and act like nothing out of the ordinary is going on."

"you're my newest baby, and therefor you temporarily displace my old favorites. i'm not even two, so my sense of loyalty is pretty non-existent. i say we make a break for it. when ramona sees that we left emma and josh behind, she'll go for them, which will allow us to get away. loyal, no. diabolical, yes."

"looks like the coast is clear..."

"let's go!"

"don't look at me. those dolls are covered in kid germs."

hey bebe! what are you doing over here, hiding in the kitchen?

"hiding? who's hiding?"

well, i saw emma and josh just sitting on ramona's dog bed. how come they're not with you?

"dunno' what you're talking about."

really? because i see that you have binky baby there. but no emma or josh.

this is her guilty but defiant stance.

"i want to go over and get them, i really do!"

"the problem is that as soon as i put my feet down on the floor, ramona will come running over to lick my face!"

"then i have to climb back up into the chair where it's safe."

i don't find pleasure in telling you this, but if she wanted to, ramona could hop up into that chair. i've seen her do it.

"why do you tell me things like that? this whole thing is your fault to begin with!"

in this case bebe is referring to the fact that a little while ago, i made a point to explain to bebe how funny it was to have both a lion and a zebra on her water bottle. she asked why and i explained to her that there they both were, hanging out like buddies, when in real life the lion would try to eat the zebra all up. bebe took it on her own to assume the lion would also like to eat her all up, which may i just say is, in fact, true. at the time i neither encouraged nor discouraged her in this line of thinking. she then went on, in the following days, to put it together that most animals of the four-legged variety would like to eat her up. this unfortunately included her old pal ramona. remember the disney movie "the fox and the hound?" quick re-cap:

the baby fox and the baby hound meet in the forest and play, becoming fast friends. all through their childhoods and early adolescence they become close pals, never knowing that they go together like peanut butter and poop, instead of peanut butter and chocolate. then, in the end, the hound kills bambi's mom by starting a forest fire that smokey the bear has to put out. i forget what happens to the fox. anyway, they were natural born enemies, only they never knew it. just like bebe and ramona!

so now bebe is not feeling so great about ramona. which i would argue is healthy. then again, i was bit in the face by a dog as a small child (true story, still have the scars- emotional and physical) so i don't trust them to begin with.

in the end, the dress came in handy. she stuffed it with a pillow and threw it on the floor as a decoy. this way, everyone got something they wanted (which i'm pretty sure is the theme of another disney movie...)! bebe got to go back to being nakik and ramona got a chew toy. ta-dah!

"so, uh, where's the candy?"

our families rock easter like it's christmas part two, which, if you think about it, it is.

we do presents and candy and put up an easter tree and sing easter carols, and not really. but there are presents and candy.

this is probably the only solid pic of uncle ben that i got all weekend, which is funny because he was bebe's number one guy. she just walked around repeating "uncle ben!" all weekend long. and while most of her words are a little jumbled, she says his name with perfect pronunciation. she literally went from "buh-been" to "uncle ben" over night. it was kind of freaky. it may have had something to do with easter being an anniversary of sorts, as two easters ago nana and i (and bebe in utero) were first introduced to uncle ben!

thanks to mommy finding some candy she could eat, bebe got her first real taste of processed sugar.

she was pretty happy, and thankful, like at thanksgiving. only this time, no indians were harmed in the eating of the jelly beans.

she got a new little baby which she named "happy baby."

i got a new book titled "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." ramona got some attention from nana.

since teed had a seat for opening day at fenway, we had a big dinner saturday night, and sunday we had a brunch.

look at this delicious spread! mommy's a good cook, and she comes by it honestly. thanks for always feeding us so well, mems!

and like everyone, bebe needed some potty time after the big meal:

some careful re-positioning halfway through. good thing the potty's still empty.

bebe spends a lot of time on the potty these days, with mixed results. sometimes a little pee, sometimes a little poop, sometimes mixed. results. see what i did there?

and i just can't help but take pictures of her while she's asleep. it's one of the only times she sits still:

have i mentioned that i love this kid?

when we got back home to bebe's house, we got to have easter all over again!

grammy and grampa glen and auntie ash and uncle trev had all sent along easter baskets filled with goodies. we actually had them earlier in the week and had to put them away so bebe wouldn't get into them before sunday.