"Let's have that, Daddy"

What's in the bag? 

What a mess! 

a little help from Uncle John 

She's much too civilized to eat without a utensil :) 

she's ready to party 

I know it is a little lopsided and not altogether perfect, but it was made with love!  

birthday party

I am finally going to post the pictures from Phoebe's birthday party. Thanks again for braving the extreme heat to celebrate with Phoebe. It meant a lot to us. Since her birthday, she has been working on walking. She still can't do it on her own, but that is only because she is too afraid to let go. As soon as we let go of her, she sits down unless she doesn't notice. She says "hi" and waves at everyone who walks by her. She says "bye bye" as well. And she started singing the other day. She'll sing along with the La La La's in a song. So that's her latest and greatest. It is amazing to watch her develop. She seems to learn a lot from mimicking--I hope that continues once daycare begins in a week and a half. I can't believe it is coming up so soon. She is starting to get so interesting--I hope that bringing her to daycare only adds to her development and gives her that much more to learn from. It has been a wonderful year. I appreciate how hard Brett worked at this new job and the comfort that he sacrificed so that I could have this opportunity to spend the year with Phoebe. Brett, unfortunately, missed a good deal of time with Phoebe that he wouldn't have missed had he not changed jobs and taken on track coaching. But he also had some opportunities to spend time with her that some people never have because of the time off in the summer. He and Phoebe had a great experience this summer when he stayed home while I taught summer school. I don't know how many families get the opportunity to trade places. It's pretty outstanding! And while we didn't have the chance to go on any kind of vacation this year since I taught and took a class and Brett took two classes that lasted the whole summer, we did try to do a fun outing a couple of times a week and introduce Phoebe to new experiences locally.
This year again will take some major adjusting since we will both be working. It will take some trial and error, but hopefully, in the long run it will all work out to Phoebe's benefit. Henry will have to do some adjusting, too :) He has gotten so used to having me home this year. He has always been very concerned with my whereabouts and has been fairly attached to me since the beginning, but recently, he seems to be even more so. It is going to be hard to leave him each day, too. It's a big year for everyone, but it is all inevitable. We'll take it one day at a time and see how it goes.
I keep thinking about this, and I can't express how lucky I feel to have so many choices. I hope that we are making the right choices, but if at some point we realize we are not, we have the ability to change our minds and take a different path. That is so comforting and so fortunate to know we have options.
I don't know how often I will update once work starts--I can only imagine I will get worse about this. And I don't know how often we will get out and see others, either. I am guessing we are going to be fairly insular for a while as we try to figure out how to spend the most quality time together with Phoebe as possible in a work week. I will apologize now if we offend anyone in the near future by not seeing them or by some other ignorant act on our part. Bear with us--this is our first time and it's going to take some work. Although we are all excellent judges (Brett and I included :)), few of us actually start out as perfect families who are able to balance everything and please everyone. I know we have done and will continue to do all kinds of things that will merit hushed whispers and laugh-out-loud good-natured ridicule, but hopefully, in the end, our kid will be fairly well balanced and so will we. In the mean time, check back here occasionally for updates and we'll resurface eventually. Try for holidays and then there's always next summer. :)

crawling

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There is practically nothing better than a good spoon. 

she loves it! Thanks Aunti Tabitha.  

opening her first present. 

feeding the ducks at the pond at St. Xavier University. 

one of her favorite faces--I finally caught her doing it. 

Happy Birthday To You! Phoebe has a strawberry muffin on her birthday to practice blowing out candles--don't worry, she never had the opportunity to touch the flame. She had the actual cake at her birthday party. 

a trip to the vet. Poor Henry has some tail issues--so much that it irritated him to walk, so we strolled him to the vet. We got a lot of funny stares and comments along the way--especially on 95th Street, but it was time for our afternoon walk and there was no reason to waste the gas since the vet is so near by.  

peek-a-boo! 

Showing us how she walks 

What a patriotic family celebrating the 4th with a barbeque at Grandma and Grandpa Arnold's 

and even enjoyed jumping in from the side with help from Daddy. 

but she got used to it pretty quickly 

Phoebe was initially a little worried in the water 

The ball pit donated by Aunt Jennifer was a big hit at playgroup! In case you can't tell, Phoebe is the one standing on the outside. Her other friends in the picture are Iain and his mom Megan, Dylan and Sean in the ball pit, and her cousin Sydney (and I think part of Terra). 

Bubbles! Phoebe is at her first concert. She went to see her second favorite band, Ralph's World on June 25.  

It's so hot and that fruit looks mouthwatering. I love my daddy's hat. 

What a gorgeous day! 

at the Chicago Botanic Gardens 

tons of pictures

Whew! That was a lot of pictures to go through. And I still haven't posted the pictures from her actual party. Those will come soon. She did have a great time at her party, though. She woke up from a brief nap right at the beginning of the party and stayed awake and happy the whole time. She seemed a little tired at points--especially while eating her cake, but that was just after she woke up--but played well and was in a good mood. It's always nice when the guest of honor cooperates. I hope this blog actually does last and is accessible for many years so that Phoebe has it as a diary/scrapbook of her childhood, or at least her first year if, for some reason, I get lazy and stop posting. It really is a great way for me to document all of her important moments.

leaps and bounds

I know it has been over a month since my last post, and what an incredible month it has been. Phoebe has done so much. She finally got her first teeth--first one on June 11, and while they are supposed to come in pairs, the second tooth (both front teeth on the bottom) didn't break through until June 21. In my last post I said she could pull up to standing in her crib, but that was only if I sat her in her crib, then she would pull up on the side, but shortly after that, she figured out how to sit herself up and pull herself to standing. So when she wakes up in her crib, she immediately sits herself up and then stands at the end near her door; and if her door is not shut tight, she will grab onto it and open and close it. She does not walk, yet, but she does like to stand up and walk holding onto hands. She walks herself along furniture and can go between pieces of furniture. And on June 25, she began crawling. I will try to include a video of this--I have new videos, but they are also on a new camera, so I have to figure out the new software for the camera and get the pictures and videos downloaded. Phoebe also went swimming--she has gone twice with Brett. I wasn't there for the first time, but I did get to capture the second time and have some pictures and video of that. Anyway, the crawling is interesting. I guess all babies have their own kind of crawl. Phoebe's is definitely odd, but it gets her around. More than just clapping her hands, she likes listening to her wiggleworms songs and following the instructions. She will stomp her feet, clap her hands, and wave hello. Sometimes she tries the "touch your nose" verse, but she is too slow. She recognizes many words--like ball, bottle, and fish (if you ask her where her fish are in her bedroom, she looks at her wall at the top of the tree). She says mama and dada to the right people, and her favorite word this week is uh-oh! She definitely learned that one from Sydney. It is funny. So she has been amazing to watch. How fast she changes and grows! I can't believe we are almost upon her first birthday. I know, I know--it all goes fast.