Seven Months Old

Phoebe is seven months old...well, she turned seven months several weeks ago when we were in Italy and I am just getting around to posting about it now!

Phoebe became an official world traveler, spending half of her seventh month of life in Italy. She was a real trouper throughout the trip and was almost always wearing her signature smile. Right before we left for our trip, she started pulling herself up to standing while holding on to something. When we were in Italy, she got very, very good at this and started pulling herself up on absolutely everything she could find. She also started full-on crawling and boy, is she ever fast. She also locates every little scrap of anything on the floor and puts it in her mouth, resulting in many a sticker found in her diaper. All of her developmental milestones are great, but we sure do get worn out chasing after her and making sure she is safe. Of course, being our second baby, we know we don't need to hover over her every minute of the day. Still, I don't remember Lucy putting so many things from the floor in her mouth at this age. Or maybe it's just that when Lucy was a baby, she didn't have an older sister depositing things all over the floor the way that Phoebe does!

Phoebe has also become quite the good little eater -- she loves sweet potatoes, prunes, peaches (LOVES peaches), you name it. She is such a better eater than Lucy was at this age. She also loves to munch on hard teething biscuits, bread, pizza crust, etc. I am glad that she likes to eat because I love to make homemade organic baby food and it's nice to know I have a receptive audience.

I could mention her sleep patterns, but really this month they were just too frustrating to mention. Italy threw us all for a loop in that area. She actually did really great sleeping all night, but she nursed so many times during the night that I can't really consider her to be "sleeping through the night," so to speak. Things are a bit better now, but I will save that for her eight month update in under two weeks!

Happy seven months, Phoebe G. We love our bambina!

I know

I know I know I know...I have been a bad, bad blogger. Well, actually, I have been pretty good about creating my Italy blog. So hop on over there and check it out! I will be posting more here soon. I've just been so short on time lately, what with getting unpacked from the trip (ok, done with that finally!), getting our new house ready, getting our old house packed up, and keeping track of two VERY active children (paper-eating baby, anyone?).

In the meantime, if you want a good laugh, check this out. I rarely laugh at things I read, but this had me roaring.

She's giving it a chance

There are many days when having a two-year-old is just a completely gut-wrenchingly difficult thing. Like this morning, when she woke up at approximately 3:30 am and refused to go back to sleep. But then, she goes and does something that just blows me away completely. Proof that angels do exist and that she is one of them because she has a knack for giving me the boost I need when I need it the most.

She was watching her little PBS Kids shows this morning...she had not seen them since we were away. There was a new show, Sid the Science Kid, that replaced one her regular favorites, Clifford the Big Red Dog. Sid seems like a higher-level show than a two year old would be interested in, plus Lucy is a huge creature of habit so, predictably, she told me she wanted a different show. I left it on for a while but I swear I didn't say anything to her about it. Well, as the show was ending, I could see that she was actually watching it. So I asked her, "Lucy, do you like this science show?" And she looked up at me with her big green eyes and said, with her cute little kitten voice, "I'm giving it a chance."

We're ba-aaaaaack

Here's a quick summary of our trip:

{trevi fountain}

{coliseum}

Ok, so these are clearly not the highlights, but they sure are funny! We had an amazing time and just an unbelievable travel experience.

We are home and we are exhausted. I don't know who has it worse -- Jeff, who had to go to work today, or me, who has to stay home with two jetlagged little girls. We traveled ALL day yesterday, finally arriving home close to midnight (thanks, Delta, we really enjoyed our two and a half hour delay for the 40 minute flight from NY to Boston!). It was the kind of day where you just want to go home and have your head hit the pillow like a brick. Only our girls had other plans. Phoebe was uninterested in sleeping, preferring to either cry or to show off her new-found standing and climbing skills. Lucy fared better, though I had to take her to the kitchen at 3am for a snack because she was hungry. I can't blame them, of course, and they were total troupers during the whole trip and honestly were just perfect on the flights. Hopefully we'll have the sleep issues straightened out in a few days...we need to, because I think I will just collapse if we don't.

We took approximately 1,800 photos. I am not kidding. I tried to upload them all to my computer this morning but literally ran out of hard drive space. Anyway I want to post lots of them, but I also don't want to clog up this blog. So I started a new blog and will hopefully be adding lots of posts to it in the coming days and weeks to document our trip. The address is http://lucyandphoebegotoitaly.blogspot.com. Check it out!

We missed everyone and although our trip was great, we are glad to be home!

Home tomorrow!

We are at a hotel in Rome near the airport...coming home tomorrow! Stay tuned for lots and lots of photos from our fantastic trip to Italy...

An interview with the lovely Miss Lucy Elise

I conducted a little interview with Lucy. Here are the answers I got.

Favorite color? Orange.
Favorite TV show? Bob (the Builder).
Favorite book? Angelina Ballerina.
Favorite juice? Pig juice (aka apple juice...don't ask, I don't know why).
Favorite thing to wear? An outfit. (Duh.)
Favorite thing to wear on your feet? Ballet shoes.
Crayons, paint or chalk? Paint.
Who cooks better, Mommy or Daddy? Nonno.

So now you know more about our girl. Feel free to ask her a question of your own! Just leave it in the comments. (She'll get back to you after our trip.)

What a faker

As I explained in a recent post, I haven't had a lot of Lucy-centric posts lately because she's just not the most willing participant in my photo sessions. Phoebe often gives me a great big genuine smile. But Lucy, well, lately most of her on-camera smiles are complete fabrications. Oh she's a very happy girl all right, but when the camera is out she seems to either look away or do her "fake smile." Here's that smile, in all its cheesy glory...

{someone please give this kid an academy award already}

The Luumba

You know those Roomba robotic devices that vacuum your floor for you? Well, we don't need one. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Luumba: