Beatrice Hope

Our bringer of joy

Well, she is certainly living up to her name

She is such a happy baby

She is very cheeky

And has a very strong character

This past month has seen Bea learn to climb onto my lap for a cuddle

And help herself to breast milk whenever, and wherever (!), she likes

If I am holding her but not looking at her

She puts her face in front of mine

So I cannot see anything but her

She finds this very funny

And has such a wonderful chuckle

Bea can now grab my attention by kissing my nose

All of my nose with her dribbly gummy kisses

I say gummy

But beautiful Bea now has two teeth

Her two bottom teeth at the front

The two teeth that Tilda also had at 9 months

With the teeth comes a habit of rolling her tongue over them

Before poking her tongue right out

Just as Tilda did before her

I am noticing so many similarities with Tilda

They bring me such happiness

And sadness too

That Bea lives

And Tilda could not stay

Every day with Bea is a blessing

And a reminder of our other baby

Who should also be here

And wriggling with excitement

And life

Bea is a super fast crawler

She is also now confidently cruising the furniture

And can walk, when encouraged, with a walker

Bea loves to wave

She likes to clap

She has also learned to point

She points at things until you tell her te name of them

She points to the places she wants to go

She can point at people on demand

And can say Dada, Mama and Edder for Esther

We are trying to teach her to say Yum Yum for William

As William is just too hard

Bea’s recent illness means that we have not made much progress with food

She loves Oatibix for breakfast

Fingers of buttery toast

Garlic bread

Rice cakes and Puffits

She also loves cucumber

And chunks of cold fruit

We are using a mix of purees and baby lead weaning

And adopting the ethos that

Food is fun until you’re one

As with all my children

What Bea likes best is milk

She is still breastfeeding on demand

And shows no sign of stopping any time soon

Bea has just learned about giving and receiving

If she picks something up from the floor

And you say ‘Thank you’

Instead of putting it in her mouth

She will give it to you

With one of her bestest smiles

Thank you!

Most of the time though

She does put anything and EVERYTHING in her mouth

Bea is great fun to be with

She is a very sociable baby

As long as mummy or daddy are very close by

She still sleeps in my arms

In our bed

Though does now have some naps in the buggy

Or in the car

I am going to tell you about our fabulous Britax BOB buggy and Kiddy car seat very soon

Bea is 9 months

9 months and 11 days

I cannot believe we have come so far

But we are here

Here we are

Here she is

Our beautiful baby that lived

Our beautiful Baby Bea

Our Rainbow

And now that we have passed the 9 month milestone

We will not relax or drop our guard

We will still be so careful

And fiercely protective of all our children

But we will allow ourselves to hope

That Bea will see 10 months

11

12

We will allow ourselves to make plans

For a first birthday

For a future for one beautiful little girl

In loving memory of another