Busy Bers

Phoebe (or Bers, as we sometimes call her...as in PhoeBERS) is such a busy busy busy bee. A busy Bers! And it's true what I have said since Lucy was this age...15 months is the age at which the baby ends and the toddler begins. Here is some of what she's been up to:

{trying to get out of the 5th percentile for weight}

{um, practicing for a future trip to new orleans?}

{practicing important mothering multi-tasking skills}

{mastering the sippy cup...sort of}

{acting like a general nutjob goofball}

We love you, Bers! Don't ever change! (Just calm down an eensy teensy bit).

Pool's open!

After a long, long winter...we thought we'd never see this day.

The garden: Part I

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I've been spending lots of time on the garden lately. I will spend hours out there and then come inside and realize that it looks like a bomb hit my house....but oh well. I took these photos the other day of the peonies and hydrangea as they were bursting to life. I'll take more soon of the whole yard. It's looking great out there!

Solid gold

{dana}

You know that old song...

Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
And the other gold

We used to sing it in the girl scouts all the time and I loved it. And the older I get, the more true it is to me. I have been extremely fortunate to make wonderful batches of new friends in the past few years, especially since having Lucy. I couldn't have made it through these first few years of motherhood without them. But still, my old gals from GCA days...they are solid gold in this world (in addition to my law school chicks, lest you think I am leaving you out). My friend Dana, whom I have known well over 20 years, came to visit us last weekend along with her husband Lou and twins Alec and Sienna. It was so amazing to see our kids playing together, and just so nice in general to spend time with Dana. On Saturday night, our friend Diana came for dinner. That made the weekend even more special. Lucy really took to Diana, and at one point told her that she could babysit while "Mommy, Daddy & Phoebe go to St. Louis." I have no idea where we got that one from...we're not going to St. Louis anytime soon (at least I don't think we are!)

At any rate, it was just marvelous to be together and to be hosting at our house...exactly the reason we bought this place and why we bother with all the work that having a home entails. Sitting out on the patio on a Saturday night, drinking wine and being with my good friends...pure gold.

{diana, dana & me}

{sienna}

{alec}

{alec on the swing}

{sienna on the swing}

{smooshing faces with lucy}

{magical princess}

{lou and sienna}

{celebrating diana's 35 + 1}

{plotting the st. louis trip}

Apres nap

Slider

This little girl LOVES the slide...I mean, love love loves it. She bounds up the ladder, crosses the little fort, and then sits down on her behind and lets go. Woosh, down she barrels with no fear whatsoever. The slide takes a turn in the middle, which doesn't phase her at all, even when it turns her body completely around and she ends up coming down head first. As soon as she lands, she runs -- arms swinging, bumping into the swings -- back to the ladder. And then it starts again. I think she could do this for hours if I'd let her! Sure, I miss city living sometimes...but I tell ya, having a backyard with a swingset is priceless.

Bedtime

Baby's (still) got blue eyes

As my mom said this weekend, you could put Phoebe in a room with a hundred moms and I'd probably be the last one you'd think was her mother. My blonde haired, blue eyed baby...daddy won in this genetic lottery (well, her blue eyes are from my side of the family, though you'd never know it looking at me). But, of course, you would know she was mine...yep, she'd be the one clinging to my legs, crying her azure little eyes out for me to pick her up and then instantly stopping when I do.

She's mine alright...all mine :)

Little Lady Lucy

Maybe Phoebe will be the family doctor...

Welcome home, old friends

On my way home from an early morning haircut today, I passed by a yard sale and I, of course, had to stop. I admit it, I have a bit of a yard sale addiction. I looked at a few knickknacks here and there before spotting it...sitting there in a box on the ground. The Fisher Price house...THE Fisher Price house, the one from my childhood. The one I spent countless hours with, playing on the floor, creating little stories in my head. And all the little people...the "Fisher Price People," as I always called them. They were all there, even the dog and the baby (oh that baby, seeing her just sealed the deal).

"How much?"(As if I cared.)

I bought the set, the whole she-bang, brought it home and gave it to the girls who devoured it with play more quickly than I could grab the pieces from their hands to scrub them in a big bowl of hot soapy water.

I'm glad they love the house...and I love that house, too. I love it like it was the actual house that used to be mine (also sold off at a yard sale, though many years ago). Like the Strawberry Shortcake dolls that I actually did save and that Lucy plays with every day even though she puts Blueberry Muffin's hat on Lemon Meringue and breaks all sorts of other rules that I never would have imagined I'd let her break. What the heck, I love to see her happy and that's all that matters.

But even if they didn't like the house at all (and the mini-bus! It even had the mini-bus!), it wouldn't have mattered to me. After all, who I really bought it for is me...because it is really, really nice to welcome my old friends home.

"Hat"

Phoebe loves hats...in fact, "hat" is one of her only words right now. It is so funny...almost every morning when I go to get her in her crib, she starts to pat her head and say "haaa, haaa." (As opposed to me, who wakes up and says "coffeeeeeee"!) Perhaps she knows she is a fair little blondie and will always need hats to protect herself from the sun?

Lucy Elise, sittin' in a tree...