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.

If you're happy and you know it ...

Posting again so soon? I know, miraculous! I just needed a place to document Phoebe's new trick so that I remember it. Yesterday (May 31) Phoebe figured out how to clap her hands. Brett and I had been showing her for a very long time, but she didn't seem interested. Then, yesterday, out of nowhere, she started clapping. We were actually in the middle of a tour of a daycare center and not giving her a great deal of attention at that moment because we were talking to the lady at the center when Phoebe took to clapping. Most of the time that we were touring, Phoebe was getting lots of attention because Brett played with her with most of the toys in each room. We didn't get a picture of her clapping, but I did catch this one when she was sitting on the floor of the Freshman English office at Lake Central High School. We stopped there on the way to our tour so Brett could say hello. I am sure that clapping is not nearly as exciting to everyone else as it is to Brett and me, and I respect that about everyone else. :) What is an earth shattering, euphoric event for the parents is generally probably merely a cute moment (if that) for the other healthy, stable people who witness it and that's definitely for the best. In fact, there are some small accomplishments that are only exciting for the parents that outside observers are forced to hear about and/or watch repeatedly anyway; however, to whomever does so, thanks for humoring me and reading this crap anyway. And thanks for letting me be a bit boastful with all the pictures I post under the assumption that everyone thinks my daughter is as cute as I think she is. I can't help myself, but I realize, too, that I am quite biased. In reality, if I had to compare her, I couldn't say she is any smarter than the average baby, nor a faster developer, and there are probably lots of babies just as cute as she is (notice I did not say "cuter than" :)), but to me she is more fantastic and more beautiful than I ever thought any baby could be.