Sitting pretty

Phoebe is pretty much an official sitter-upper! She still does fall over occasionally (don't worry, the landing is well-padded by our carpeting) and sometimes she puts her arms down for support, but all in all I think it's fair to pronounce her a sitter. This has opened up a whole new world of fun for her...much easier to watch the world around her, especially the antics of her beloved big sis.

{watching lucy}

{look ma, NO HANDS!}

This is not a sitting up picture, but it was so cute that I had to post it...

McTongue

Would you like a side of fries with that?

Mommy's little helper

Yes, it's apple juice in her bottle...NOT something I normally do, but Phoebe was a bit constipated so I was hoping the juice would help :)

{look how serious and caring lucy's little face looks! and phoebe is even trying to hold the bottle herself...guess they don't need me anymore!}

Phoebantics

Phoebe is officially no longer a newborn and is now a full-fledged sassy little baby. Let the games begin! Such as...

Escaping from her bouncy seat even when Mommy has the strap securely fastened:


Exploring new foods like green beans:

{yum! i think...}

Watch out world, here she comes!!!

Fan from San Fran

Ok, mystery San Fran reader, who are you? Reveal yourself!

:)

Just because

I am posting these photos of Lucy making pizza with my friend Rachel just because they look so darn cute together! Rachel is expecting baby #2 in October (she is currently mom to Gabriel, who was born the day after Lucy) and now I am certainly having visions of her with a blond little girl...

Five Months Old

My Phoebe Grace is five months old! I can't believe that she will hit the half-year mark next month. Phoebe turning five months means that Lucy is turning two and a HALF soon...can time please slow down just a little bit?? It is going way too quickly.

Phoebe has learned to roll in both directions now, so she can travel across a room by rolling. This is great for her because she can get a toy if she really wants it, but of course it puts us in a whole new realm of safety considerations. No more leaving her on the changing table for a moment with the belt buckled -- she can wiggle her way right out of that! This newfound independence of hers means that she is now a bit happier on her tummy because she can roll to her back if she wants to. Also, she is starting to push up on her arms and even to hitch forward a bit, so it is a while new world of possibilities for her and I think that makes her more content if we leave her on the floor to play with a toy. And, and photographed above, she is hard at work on her sitting up skills and can sit up if she supports herself with her arms. She even lifts her arms up a bit at times into a real sitting position, though I think we are a few weeks away from her being a full-fledged sitter.

The big news this month is that she started eating solid food. We started this a few weeks ago (I know, I never posted photos!) and so far she really seems to like eating. We started her a lot earlier than we did with Lucy, but she seemed very ready (lunging for our food, etc.). We also did it because we want to get her up to eating three meals a day with the hope of sleep-training her once we know that she has adequate food during the day. Lucy didn't sleep through the night until she was 18 months old and we just can't go through that again! Anyway Phoebe has been a willing participant in the eating process, gobbling up rice cereal and mashed avocado, but her body hasn't cooperated too well. She got pretty constipated over the weekend and poor thing, she was in a bit of pain trying to "work through" the issue. So it's back to breastmilk
and maybe just a little rice cereal for the next few days. We learned from Lucy to just go with the flow when it comes to food and not to worry too much about it.

Sleep-wise, well, she continues to get up to nurse during the night. The frequency varies -- the night before last, it was midnight, 2 am, 4 am, 6 am...*yawn*. But last night she only got up at 3, nursed really well, and then slept through until just after 6. We'll work through this issue after she's doing a little better moving the food through her body. Although we do want to sleep train her, our first concern is her comfort and wellbeing (of course!) so we'll just see how things go over the next month or two. There is no rush.

As I have stated in previous posts, we are now a proud cloth-diapering family! Phoebe looks so cute in her Bum Genius diapers and she is proud that she is doing her part for the environment :)

Happy Five Months, Phoeber-Beeber. We love love love you!

What have I done?

Ok, I was so excited to post my "after" photo last night (mostly so that I could cleanse all of your eyeballs from the horror that was my "before" photo) that I did not say what I had gone and done to myself. Well, I had it permanently straightened (it's called Bio Ionic straightening). My hair is naturally coarse and wavy and very thick and it has always been a blessing and a curse. People have told me that they envy my thick hair, but truthfully it has always been a struggle to make it look nice. It is straight in the front and on the top all around, but wavy underneath. I used to be able to deal with it somewhat using a hairdryer, a round brush, and about 45 minutes of effort. But pregnancy really made my hair much, much harder to deal with. Starting with my pregnancy with Lucy, it started to grow in very tightly curled from the roots. But it is far too thick to wear it curly -- it would just end up looking like a frazzled, crazy mess. And it became basically impossible to straighten it, even with a great deal of effort. So I would wear it up, every day, mostly in a style that Jeff refers to as "the bun." But I finally got sick of the bun...I am going to be 35 next month (gulp!) and wanted something more sleek and sophisticated. So, after much thought and research, I decided to go for it and have it straightened. I spent about 4 1/2 hours at the salon yesterday, which I can't complain about because it was a great break and the stylist was really nice and fun to chat with. Until Wednesday, I can't wash it or put it up...I'm not even supposed tuck it behind my ear...so right now it is a tad bit annoying/in my face. I am just hoping that after I wash it on Wednesday it looks as straight and controlled as it does now! So there's the story :)

After!

MUCH BETTER!!!

The reason you ALWAYS see me with my hair up

I can't believe I am posting these. All I have to say is...

BEFORE!



Stay tuned...

Today I noticed your birthmark...

{there it is, just above your ankle...the two spots above it are just little healing bug bites}

Dear Phoebe,
Today, I noticed a little birthmark on you for the very first time. It is on the back of your left leg, just above your ankle. It is light tan and shaped like a little oval. I noticed it when I was patting your back, trying to settle you down for your morning nap. It took a little while to settle you this morning, so I lay down in the bed and patted your back (you still sleep in the bassinet right next to the bed!) and you finally fell asleep. When you did, I kissed the bottom of your little foot, which is so soft and delicious. I love you so much, my little baby girl!
Love,
Mommy
xo

Hello out there!

After my cloth diapering and BPA posts, I got some comments from avid blog readers that I didn't even know were out there (hi, Melissa!). I think this is fun and, of course, I have blogs that I read regularly that belong to people who don't know me from Adam. My curiosity peaked, I installed an application from feedjit.com that shows where I get blog hits from -- and I have been having fun seeing that I get hits from all over the world! So, Lucy and Phoebe fans...who are you? Do you have a blog I can read? Feel free to leave a comment or, better yet, drop me an e-mail at sarabrookline@yahoo.com (for loonies out there, I will just tell you straight up that this is NOT my real e-mail address!).

Cloth diapering update

So I have been using cloth diapers on Phoebe almost exclusively and it is going really well. As I mentioned in a previous post, I use the Bum Genius brand and although I have not tried others and thus can't do a proper comparison, I have to say that I think they are great. They are the new "3.0" version, which I think means they have some improvements over past versions. The closures are Velcro, which really helps when I am trying to diaper a squirmy baby. And they are one-size-fits all, so I can adjust them as she gets bigger. I wash them every night and they are ready to go the next day. I have experimented around with a lot of different wash cycles and have found the best system is to wash them in cold with a small amount of natural detergent and some oxi clean, and then run them again in warm with no additional soap but with another small oxi clean scoop, and then a final extra rinse in cold just to make sure all the soap is out. I then dry them on low in the dryer. I don't know why I am writing any of this in my blog...I am sure that everyone must just find this SO fascinating...but maybe it's helpful to those readers out there who are considering cloth diapers! Feel free to send any questions my way and I'll do my best to answer based on my very limited experiment.

Fantastic Fourth

{huck finn?}

We had a great time visiting my parents on Cape Cod over Fourth of July. Thankfully, the traffic was light and both girls slept all the way there. That was such a gift, given Phoebe's recent car behavior (the behavior did show its ugly head on the trip back home, but let's not spoil a good post with that!). The weather kept threatening rain but in the end it was really nice out and we got in visits to the pool on both Thursday and Friday. Lucy loved it in there...she is a real fish, just like her mama (and her nonni and her greatnana, etc.). I bought her a flotation suit and with it on she was able to hold her head above the water and actually "swim." I know there are mixed opinions about things like this, like that they give kids a false sense of security, etc. -- but for now, I think it's a good way to get her comfortable in the water and used to the concept of kicking her feet and paddling her arms. I took the suit off of her plenty of times to have her test her swimming skills. She's not there yet, but she is willing to try and she doesn't get freaked out if she dunks under...all good things, I think!

{playing on the lawn}

{jumping}

{swimming}

On the 4th, we played it fairly low-key during the day, starting with getting the girls dressed up in their finest red-white-and-blue:

{yes, she is made out of pudding}

And then a visit to Greatnana and Greatpoppa, who are always thrilled to see their girls...and the girls are always thrilled to see them!

We grilled up some food for dinner at my parents' house (enjoying the lovely view of the pond), then the four of us headed to Chatham to see the band concert on the town green. I always loved these concerts but haven't been able to go to one in years (and I do mean years!) because they are on Friday nights in the summer and thus not really possible to get to in time. But this year, the 4th of July fell on a Friday so the band concert proceeded as normal and we were able to go. It was so much fun, amazing really, to be able to take my own child down to the bandstand for the kids' song portion of the concert -- I mean, really, the last time I went to a band concert in Chatham I was just a kid myself (13, I think). Lucy was a bit sleepy but I think she enjoyed it, especially the two glow sticks that Jeff bought her to wear around her neck. Phoebe tagged along and was a great little baby, staying up and alert far past her bedtime!

{at the band concert...brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes}

Almost forgot to mention the best part of the weekend...my parents watched the girls on Thursday night while Jeff and I went to a much needed dinner out at Gracie's Table. A blood orange martini has never tasted so good. Thanks, mom and dad! And thanks to my girls for being little angels (or so we're told) while we were out :)

Little Miss Independence (Day)

More photos soon...

Grammy's birthday

{"two glasses of champagne, please."}

The weekend before last (I am a bit behind in my blogging!) we went to a lovely brunch at the Long Wharf Marriott to celebrate Grammy's birthday. The girls looked adorable in their little dresses (if I should say so myself) and, best of all, they were both very well-behaved! It was a fun outing and a happy birthday for Grammy.

The best picture I could get of them together...it is so tough to do!

Baby and mama

Baby and dada

Lulu twirling in her dress

Grammy and Phoebe Bear

Me, Grammy and Fifi

Poppy shows Lucy Boston Harbor

All the excitement wore out Phoebe...

...but not Lucy!