Three Months Old

Phoebe Grace is three months old...a quarter of a year already! And she is growing into quite the young lady. She now has a lot of awake time during the day...I am no longer worried about her sleeping too much. We are on the go a lot because of taking Lucy to daycare and picking her up, etc., but on days that we are home I can see that Phoebe does fall into a nice nap pattern. She goes down for the first one at around 9:30 or so and then, blissfully, she will go down for another nap when I put Lucy down for hers at around 2. Today I actually got two full hours with both girls napping! I sure hope this trend continues. At night, she now goes to sleep directly in her bassinet without having to be in the swing first. I nurse her a lot in the evening but I don't nurse her to sleep -- I put her in her bassinet awake at around 8pm and she goes to sleep. I sometimes need to rock her a little but really she goes down very easily. She has started to wake up to nurse earlier than she used to -- it's at around 4am these days. Still, I have no complaints. She goes right back to sleep until around 6, at which point she will nurse and cuddle in the bed with me until around 7.

Her coos continue and sometimes it sounds like she is carrying on an entire conversation. She smiles ALL the time and she has started to take a real interest in the goings on of big sister Lucy. She follows her around the room with her eyes, which is so cute to watch. Her neck strength is really good and if I lay her on her tummy she will lift her head up from the floor. She can sit pretty well if I support her waist, and she bears weight on her legs really well when I put her in a standing position. She's been trying to turn over, especially when she sees herself in the crib mirror and wants to play with the baby in the reflection :) Despite all these "advancements," however, I am in no rush for her to grow up! Of course it's exciting to see how well she is developing, but unlike with Lucy where I hoped she'd do everything "early," this time I am just hoping that Phoebe is a baby for as long as possible.

Happy three months, Phoebe Baby! We love you lots and lots!

Fenway fun

Lucy and Jeff went to a Sox game at Fenway today...just the two of them! They rode the train into town, watched a few innings from the seats, walked around the park, ate a pretzel and ice cream out of a little helmet, bought a baseball and a giant foam hand...what more could a little girl ask for?

At home before the game, all ready in their Sox hats

With Wally (the Green Monster)

Daddy and his girl

LOVE this picture!

Posing with her baseball and her giant foam hand

She's a farm girl after all

Today we went to the baby animals event at Drumlin Farm. You may recall that Drumlin Farm was the sight of "Chicken Incident 2007" -- otherwise known as the farm trip at which Lucy was terrified of the chickens (and every other animal on the farm). We have been back to this and other farms many times since then and she now loves them. Today she really redeemed herself in the chicken hut...smiling and laughing at the chickens. What progress we have made! We had a great time seeing the baby chickens, pigs, lambs, and even a baby goat. The weather wasn't great but it gave me a good excuse to wear my Wellie Boots and to pretend that I was roaming around a farm in the Cotswalds.

Making nice with the chickens

Pippi!

I almost forgot, we also had a sighting of a very rare baby...a Baby Phoebe. (Actually, not so rare...we met a 7-week-old at the farm also named Phoebe!)

Nonni's baby

Phoebe says "thank you for the blue eyes"...and may they last!

Sisterly love

Lucy has been wanting to hold Phoebe a lot more lately. I think that she really loves her and wants desperately to play with her. This morning, she wanted to play doll house with her. We remind her that Phoebe can't really play yet, but that before she knows it she will have a playmate for life...what lucky girls to have each other!

Cute and not-so-cute

First, the cute. Today I put Phoebe in a sweater I had made for Lucy when she was a baby. I am glad I thought to put it on her while she is still tiny. I remember knitting it in the 6 month size, Lucy's age at the time, but it was too small for a 6-month-old baby. I am hoping Phoebe gets a lot more wear out of it than Lucy was able to.


And now for the not-so-cute. Ok, it's cute (in its own way), but I am posting this to show that my child is not always super photogenic. I just tend to post the more flattering photos! But this one is pretty funny, so I had to share...

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)