Beautiful girls

They are both getting so big, in their own ways. Phoebe is really so much more alert this week and really seems to have left the brand newborn stage behind. She's a full-fledged baby now! And Lucy, well, Lucy just looks more and more like a little girl lately. No more baby at all really :(

Reaching for a toy!

(Ok, maybe she is still a baby after all!)

I can't decide

I don't know which version (color or black and white) of this picture I like better...but I do know that I absolutely LOVE this photo I took of Lucy this morning.

In color, it captures her beautiful eyes so well:


But there is something so gorgeous about photos in b&w:


Which do you prefer??

Two Months Old

"Oh, yes, being two months old is hysterically funny!"

*UPDATE -- 4/17* We went for her two month checkup today and all is well! She is 10 pounds, 10 ounces and 23 inches long. She's growing right on track.*

Wow, Phoebe is already two months old. Talk about time flying...woosh! I really feel that I have never been so acutely aware of the passage of time as I have been since having children. It feels especially true when you're still measuring their age in terms of weeks. Every week it's like whoa, another week gone, where did it go?

Phoebe has come out of her brand newborn shell this month. She is somewhere between 10 and 11 pounds, but I'm not quite sure where. I will update this entry on Tuesday after we have her two month appointment (she's getting her first round of shots, so wish us both luck). She certainly looks like she's getting nice and chunky, and lately she is eating ALL the time so I think she must be growth spurting. She has started to coo a lot and it is adorable -- she sounds like a little birdy. I remember Lucy being the same way and it got very loud and demonstrative at times, so either that was just "Lucy being Lucy" or maybe that will be what Phoebe starts to do as well. She has also started to give us really huge smiles and when she does it her face gets really big and totally into it. Also, when she smiles she gets a dimple in her left cheek (just like Mommy!) and also a little one in her chin. It is so amazing to see these little things develop in her -- the things that make her uniquely her. She is starting to lift her head up more and I feel like she is getting stronger every day.

I have to say that we feel really lucky with her sleep. We also know that it could change in a moment, so I am not going to brag! But these days, she will nurse a lot in the evenings, finishing up somewhere between 8 and 9pm. We then swaddle her and put her in the swing, where she falls asleep. We transfer her into her bassinet after about half an hour, and she stays asleep until between 3:30 and 5:30 -- today, it was until 5:45! She then nurses and goes back to sleep until around 6, at which point she wants to nurse a bit more and cuddle. So at that point I keep her in the bed with me until around 7 or so, at which point she wants to be awake and start her day (and so does her sister!). Phoebe also sleeps a lot during the day still, to the point that I worry about her sometimes. But then she has really good active awake time later in the afternoon/early evening, so I really am not too concerned. I think she is just not a morning person! And from what I hear, I should just consider myself lucky for having a really awesome sleeper.

Happy Two Months, Phoebe! We love you very much!

Friday

(Head up!)

The tradition continues

Yesterday (our anniversary), we made our annual trip back to the Castle at B.U. -- the site of our wedding. We have done this every year on our anniversary so far and it is so nice to do...and really fun to think of all the changes that each year has brought (there have been many)! Lucy really enjoyed her tour this year and kept talking about where we got married. I know she doesn't understand the concept, but she knows it is something that Mommy and Daddy did. And, of course, it was so exciting to have Phoebe along with us this year. Here are some of our favorite photos...we had to narrow down the field because we took darn near 100 pictures.






After our visit, we went out for Mexican food. With two kids in tow, in wasn't exactly the most romantic of anniversary dinners -- but it was a great celebration of our life together and so it was perfect.



And for fun, here's a look back at the past 3 years...

April 9, 2005 (Lucy's the next egg in line!)

April 9, 2006 (Lucy at 2.5 months)

April 9, 2007 (Lucy at 14.5 months)

April 9, 2008 (Lucy at age 2, Phoebe at 1.5 months)

3 years...2 kids...3 homes (can we get some sleep now?)

Happy Anniversary to my Sweetie :)

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Courtney, which means I have to list 10 interesting things about myself. I'm not sure these things are truly interesting, but here goes...

1. I love, love, love peanut butter. I could eat it for every meal and I would do so if it were not so darn fattening. When I studied abroad in London I brought my own huge jar with me for fear that I would not be able to attain proper American peanut butter there.

2. I can't stand how lucky I am to have two girls. As Jeff says, he gave me the ultimate gift.

3. I am an Anglophile...have been since the moment I first stepped foot on British soil at age 11. I love a good cuppa and the Tube and Boots the Chemist and Princess Di and the list goes on and on. I was totally born in the wrong country. Except for the peanut butter.

4. I am a vegetarian. Well, mostly -- I do eat fish, so some vegetarians would exclude me from their clubs. All three (well, now 4) of us eat the same way, though I know Jeff has meat here and there when he travels. I'd like to be a vegan when I get a bit older because I think it would be really healthy for me as I age.

5. My mother nursed me for three years (thanks, Mom!). I grew up thinking that everyone could remember being nursed. I nursed Lucy for 20 months and only stopped because I was pregnant and she led her own weaning. I have no plan for Phoebe, though I'd be thrilled to make it to two years.

6. I chose Lucy's name (see Anglophilia, above) and Jeff chose Phoebe's. Jeff chose Lucy's middle name (Elise) and I chose Phoebe's (Grace). This wasn't any sort of deal we made but rather it's just the way things worked out. Phoebe still looks odd to me in writing, but I am getting used to it.

7. I have no idea where I want to live. I literally have a new idea every other day.

8. I grew up on Cape Cod, which many people think of as a tourist destination but not a place where people actually live. It was a pretty idyllic childhood and I feel really lucky to have grown up there. I sometimes think I should raise my family somewhere like that, but I crave closeness to a city (see #7, above).

9. I studied Japanese for two years in college. But all I know how to say is a sentence that means, "Among friends of mine, there are some who are sick and some who have died." Seriously. Nevertheless, I cannot wait to go to Japan someday and I plan to hire a guide to show me the best sushi places that a tourist would never find. And I'll need the guide because clearly I do not speak enough Japanese to get by.

10. I am a grammar hound. Jeff actually gave me an illustrated, hard-bound edition of Strunk & White's Elements of Style for my birthday one year. Now if that ain't something interesting about me, I don't know what is :)

I think that everyone I know who blogs has been tagged already. But if not, consider yourself tagged!

My baby

I LOVE the new camera! It lets me get photos like this...

Painted lady

Spring fashion preview

Lucy got some new spring fashions today. I wish Target made clothes this cute in my size (including the sandals...aren't they great?)! I think it's pretty funny that she put on these new clothes and her hair suddenly looks ten times blonder, as if she got highlights for spring (I assure you, she did not).

Here, you can see that Miss Lulu is clearly learning how to "work it" for the new camera.



Poor Phoebe, most of her spring fashions will come from a box labeled "Lucy -- 3 months."

Strawberry Shortcakes

Which one is the doll?

Great new camera (but bad timing for Phoebe!)

We got a new camera today and so far we are thrilled with it. We went with the Nikon D80...a bit more camera than we really need, but we wanted something great that would serve us well for years to come. Anyway poor Miss Phoebe has a nasty case of newborn acne now. I thought she had escaped it because when Lucy had it, it came and went between weeks 3 and 6 of life. But as we know well by now, Phoebe does things on her own schedule! Unlike with Lucy, I am not stressed out by it and I realize how dumb it was to worry about something so petty. I actually think it's pretty funny...she's like a little teenager :) The only bummer for Phoebe is that we just got a camera that takes awesome pictures in very high resolution, so all her little zitties are being captured digitally for all eternity. Hee hee hee, poor little baby girl

Here are some of the many, many (346 to be exact) photos that we snapped today!

(Sticking our tongues out is fun!)

("Mommy, you can wash my face all you want, I am still going to have acne!")

No rest for the weary

(this is NOT me)

Lucy didn't nap today. This is, unfortunately for me, getting to be more and more common these days. Fortunately, though, she will play in her room for a while (2 hours or more!) on her own instead of napping. The downside of this is that because I have to keep the monitor on to make sure she is not jumping out a window or something, I have to listen to her chatting away to herself the absolute en-tire time she is in her room. Now I know I must sound like a real cold, mean Mommy not wanting to hear her child sing "The Wheels on the Bus" over and over (and did I mention over?) again. But sometimes Mommy just needs, well, some quiet. Anyway when I finally went up to her room today, I was exhausted. All three of us (Me, L & P) spent some time in her bed reading books. Finally I was just wiped out and decided to close my eyes for a while, thinking Lucy might just play on her own for a bit longer. Wrong. She actually pried my eyes open. You read that right. Pried. My eyes. Open. And in the process, she scratched my face. Lucy, I am sure you will read all this some day. In fact, I hope you do! So please, keep in mind when you are 18 or whatever and hate my guts for ruining your life (wa wa wa), I am the same Mommy who loves you so much that I stay home with you so that you can do things like pry my eyes open when all I need is 5 minutes of rest.

At any rate, at least the girls were happy today...and really, that is what matters. Here are their smiling little faces.

Six weeks old

We are "in between" cameras these days...our better camera broke, but rather than spend the money to have it fixed right now we are researching upgrading to a digital SLR. So, for now, we are using our old original digital. I hate the slow shutter reaction time, etc., but it does take some decent close-up shots. Here are some of the Phoebanator from this past week...six weeks old!