Beatrix's First Food

We officially gave Beatrix her first food the other day.  I say officially because I know she has gotten snippets of food here and there off the floor a few times before now.  Anyway, it was homemade greek yogurt.  It went ok.  She is over nine months old, so older than we fed any of the other kids. I really just don't see the point in it right now and I don't have a lot of extra time to be dealing with baby food.  But I know that eventually she will need to transition into eating table food with us so we do need to start sometime.

Beatrix 9 Months Old

Beatrix is nine months old.  She crawls now and has two teeth right on the front bottom.  She kind of did an army crawl before but during this last month she has perfected the proper crawling form.  It kind of stinks for me because now she is much faster getting around than she used to be.

We haven't officially fed her food yet, but she has definitely gotten food samples that she finds on the floor, in particular near Calista's seat.

 She wasn't being very cooperative for these photos because she kept crawling away.

Sleeping hasn't changed much this month.  I'm still feeding her once or twice in the middle of the night.

Beatrix is 8 Months Old

I totally forgot to post these pictures on the blog.  Oops.  Beatrix is 8-months-old and ready to go trick-or-treating.  

She is not really going to be a witch but I thought this little set up is cute.  She is ready though, we told her we needed her to be able to sit before trick-or-treating and she can do it.  I want to pull her around in a wagon so sitting is needed.

Beatrix is really a good baby.  We just love having her around the house with us.  She really isn't that much work at all and just feels like my little buddy who goes everywhere with me.

She is totally scared of strangers, which usually isn't a problem because she is with me or Bob all the time.  Whenever someone else does try to hold her it doesn't go well.  That is ok though, she is perfectly happy to look and smile at you as long as you don't get in her face and try to pick her up.

Beatrix Crawling

She's Mobile!

7 Months Old

Beatrix is seven months old! 

She is on the verge of both sitting and crawling but can't quite do either yet.  She is a pro at rolling over and doesn't stay on her back very long.  When on her stomach she can turn in a circle and always ends up going backwards.

She really didn't want me to take these pictures.  But I've been doing so well at getting them done right away that I didn't want to wait for her to be in a better mood.

We haven't given her any food yet, but she really likes to watch us eat and she does put everything she can get her hands on into her mouth, including her two middle fingers.

She really likes toys in general and is interested in getting things.  It's nice because now she can play a little more on her own.

I love this sweet girl!

Beatrix Rolling

Beatrix  can official roll over!  She has done it a few times now.  This isn't a video of her first time.  I actually didn't even see her first few rolls.  There were a couple times when I put her down for tummy time only to look at her a minute later and see she was on her back.  She doesn't do it on purpose yet, but I think she will soon.

Beatrix for Combi Mini

Photos from Beatrix's first modeling shoot were posted online.  

She did really well the whole time.  She was getting really tired I was worried that she would just scream.  Each time I put her down she did scream for about 30 seconds but settled down quickly.  I liked working with this company because they were really quick with the babies.

I'm glad she got a job while she was still young and before any stranger anxiety started to kick in.

Good job Beatrix!

4 Months Old Photography

Beatrix is four months old!  She is getting better and tummy time and smiles quite a bit.  Still no change on the sleeping through the night front, I usually feed her twice, but maybe that will change over the next month or two.  She fits into 3 month clothing and is a little on the small side but is growing well so we aren't concerned.  She loves to suck on her fingers and for people to play with her especially if they softly touch her cheeks.

Three Months Old

Beatrix is three months old!  She is such a sweet baby.  Now that she is a little older she is happy to lay down on the floor on a blanket.  She smiles and coos at us.  She doesn't seem to need to be held as often and she only needs to eat every three hours.  It is pretty great.  She even goes for much longer stretches at night.  I usually feed her one time between 8pm and 7am.  I feel like I am starting to see the light :)  It is a lot more enjoyable to be the mom of a three month old than a newborn.  She even smiles and I still get all the baby cuddles a girl can want.

Beatrix's Baby Blessing

Beatrix had her baby blessing a couple weeks ago.  Look how happy she is in her dress with her dad holding her!

It was different not having family here to celebrate with us, that is just part of living in Japan.  We took pictures to commemorate the day.

I kept going back and forth over what she should wear.  We have a beautiful satin dress that Grandma Woestman made and the other three girls all wore it.  When we packed for Japan we didn't anticipate needing it again so we left it in our long term storage.  I thought about Beatrix just wearing a regular dress, but went ahead and bought this one off the internet.  I couldn't find anything here in Japan that I liked.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I wanted something long sleeved for her to wear.  I always feel bad for little tiny baby arms being exposed.

 I thought it was cute that she was staring at her hand.

I am really thankful that we have the priesthood in our home.  The kids are lucky to have a worthy priesthood holder for a father.  I feel honored to get to raise children here on this earth and I hope that as Beatrix grows she will be happy that she gets to have lots of older siblings to watch out for her.