The big three five

I am 35 today, which to me is the official transition out of youth. No excuse now...I am totally a grown up. Jeff got me a scanner, which will provide me hours upon hours of fun with old photos, but for today I am just posting this one photo to remind myself that I was once very young and also kinda cute :)

Happy 08-08-08 to everyone!

I think she has my nose...maybe?!

I noticed in this photo that it looks like Phoebe has my nose. Maybe it's just the angle, sprinkled with a little wishful thinking on my part that one of my children could actually resemble me...

Visit to Uncle Josh and Auntie Lisa's

We went to visit Josh & Lisa on Saturday. It was their first time meeting Phoebe and also the first time they have seen Lucy since she has been truly conversational, so it was a lot of fun for them to see the girls. They have 10 cats, but Lucy was obsessed with finding just one of them -- the kitty named Jasper (Lucy calls him Jah-sper). I am pretty sure this is because of the character Jasper in her #1 favorite movie, 101 Dalmations. She spent a lot of time looking for him with either Josh or Lisa, assisted by a little flashlight. I'm not sure if she ever did find him, though I think one of the other cats played the role of Jasper for the day and she was satisfied :)

Here are some really nice family photos from our visit.

{phoebe & auntie lisa}

{my parents' offspring!}

{in b&w}

{phoebe with uncle josh}

{phoebe with uncle josh & auntie lisa}

{lucy & auntie lisa}

Everyone loves an Italian girl

Believe it or not, my girls are more Italian than they are anything else. I really thought that my dark hair and eyes would predominate over Jeff's very Anglo looks, but boy was I wrong! Anyway, here is our little Italian princepessa having some fun yesterday,

Thelma and Louise

{"let's just keep driving"}

Just another manic Monday (and some pictures from our Sunday)

Ok, so it wasn't really a very manic Monday. It was quite relaxed actually (some pool time, good naps for the girls, Jeff home early), but that was a better title for this post than "Here's a bunch of recent photos!" So, without further ado...here's a bunch of recent photos :)

{phoebe doesn't look too happy but trust me, she loves lucy's attention}

{i only got this smile because i asked her to "smile for nonno"! thanks, dad!}

{she wrote her own name. ok, she didn't. but she did tell me how to spell it!}

{seriously, does it get ANY cuter than this?}



{my latest creation...a felt hair accesory. you like?}

{close up}

{blonde haired, blue eyed, bouncing baby girl}

A nice shower

Lucy likes to call a shower a "nice shower"...as in, when she sees that I have come out of the shower, she will say "mommy, you had a nice shower!" Anyway, yesterday she decided that she needed to take a nice shower "just like mommy does." This was because, according to her, she was "very not clean" (she actually was quite clean, by the way). After the shower, she insisted on wearing a "hat" to dry her hair...again, just like mommy.

Here she is, admiring herself in the bathroom mirror:

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!