My children are addicted to their blankets. If we fail to bring them with us in the car they whine for them. If we fail to bring them anywhere with us, the girls have a harder time. For example, I was at a sewing group at a friends house. I figured the girls would be so distracted and busy with toys and other kids that they would not need them. They were both cranky and whiny and hard to settle. I left early and once we were home with their blankies they were fine! I can’t even wash my 2 year old’s blankets without her getting upset. Once upon a time she only had one blanket. Nana was smart enough to buy spares of the same one. I was stupid enough to allow her to have one of the spares along with her regular blankie. She refused to let me take it away, and when I finally snuck it away she was upset because she couldn’t find “other blanket.” So, we have been a 2 blanket family with Sophia for almost a year. I tried to wash them today, because they go everywhere with us and can get pretty gross, but she grabbed them off the laundry room floor and ran away with them yelling “NO” as if she were saving them from mortal danger. I have stolen them before to wash them but each time she gets upset and worried when she can’t find them. I explain they are being washed and she gets even more upset and whines. I have even pulled still damp blankies out of the dryer to pacify her. I guess there is comfort in knowing they are always there and accessible for her.

Phoebe is also quite attached to her blankie. She is my thumb sucker and all she has to do is touch her blanket, whether she is tired or not, and will suck her thumb right away. It is as if her thumb in her mouth and her blanket went hand in hand. Time will tell if she will become like Sophia, however, we know to avoid a 2nd blanket. I don’t think I can handle 4 blankets along with the diaper bag, sippy cups and toys!! Too much!

I have finished at least 2 of my projects that I started the couple weeks before. I finished cleaning and re-organizing the master bathroom and finished painting and decorating Phoebe’s letters for her name board. It will be a couple months before I put the letters together with the material and board and will post pics then. Now onto finishing the master bedroom!

I went to Enrichment Night where we made a pillow, which the pattern and color happened to go wonderfully with my couches, and a tote bag, which I was unable to finish due to time. Once I finish the tote I will post a picture of it too. I have done little sewing projects in the past before, but after this week I think I want to get more serious about sewing. I went ahead and joined the sewing group in my church and can’t wait to sew more items.

Sophia LOVES ketchup and will eat it over any food she is having with it. I turned around for a few minutes to do dishes and I turn around to see she has smeared ketchup all over her face!! It was as if she was giving herself a ketchup facial. I hate that I didn’t get a picture of it because it was quite the sight!

If she loves ketchup, no surprise she loves tomatoes! I had about 15 grape tomatoes stored in one of her bowls on the counter. She comes to me in the living room with a line of tomato seeds down her shirt. I ask BJ if he gave her tomatoes for dinner. He has no idea what I am talking about and we discover what happened. She grabbed the bowl on her own and sat at the kitchen table and ate all those tomatoes one after the other. Needless to say we did not feed her anything else for dinner that night, her tummy looked so big!

Sophia got a cowgirl hat! She put it on right away and was so proud of herself. She got right on her bounce horse and jumped saying “I’m a cowgirl! Yeehaw!”

Sophia has started a very girly habit…..twirling her hair.

Sophia hurt her finger pretty bad this week. She stuck her finger in a hole in BJ’s weight bench. I couldn’t get it out so I desperately called BJ in to help. With a lot of pulling he got it out. However, the INSIDE of the hole is rough and it pulled skin off in a pattern that makes it look as though she were bit on her finger. She freaks out if she doesn’t have a Dora band aid on her finger, but it also doesn’t allow her skin to breath and therefore not to scab over. We have had quite the band aid battle in our house this week.

Sophia has been obsessed with Blue’s Clues the last several weeks. Sophia has started to talk like Blue and will walk around the house going “bowbabow.” Silly, silly girl.

Wow, a lot about Sophia this week. What can I say about Phoebe? She is small, cute, and fun to kiss on! By observing the girls and their interactions we have come to the conclusion (the small fights and stealing toys aside) that Phoebe enjoys Sophia’s presence and friendship more than Sophia does right now. I know once Phoebe can talk more and have more structured play things will only get better for these sisters.

I managed to get Phoebe’s hair in pigtails! She was so adorable. She surprisingly didn’t seem irritated by them either. I can’t wait for her hair to get longer and do even more pigtails, but there sure is something sweet about tiny, 1 inch piggies!

Phoebe has really taken to copying her big sister. Noises, gestures, things she does with her toys, etc. At times it is very sweet and endearing, and other times just darn annoying. It has really nailed into my mind what an example an older sibling is and needs to be to younger siblings. Now I just have to be sure Sophia does what is right.

As BJ mentioned in another post he went to OK this past weekend. I was tempted to go but didn’t want to put the girls out too much. However, I felt like I was going to lose my mind this weekend dealing with the girls fighting and almost constant care and attention. Add a little exhaustion and I was VERY ready for him to come home.

What Phoebe has been up to:

She has become such a copycat. Any noise or sound (or screech) that she can mimic she will. Some of it is really cute and some of it definitely not so much. She has added “wow”, “whoah”, “no”, “ball” and “oh” to her vocabulary and uses them almost constantly throughout the day. She has also increased the amount of pointing she does and points at almost everything and exclaims her new words in the process.

Phoebe has developed a temper and attitude as well. It used to be if we heard Phoebe crying or fussing it was because Sophia did something to her. Now it is due to her not getting what she wants, not getting where she wants to go, Sophia taking a toy, or not playing with her, etc etc etc. Or if she wants something or wants somewhere she will scream and yell at us. We know exactly what she wants but apparently we don’t move fast enough! And obviously she has no other way to tell us what she wants, so yelling it is.

She is such a confident walker now and has tried to start running when she gets really excited.

Still only 2 teeth, but it doesn’t stop her from eating anything she wants.

Latest compliments from strangers besides her beautiful eyes is that she looks like the Gerber baby. We sure think so.

Phoebe has never hung out with us in our bed before. One morning was really rainy. The girls woke up around the same time (which rarely happens) so we piled into bed with blankies and sippy cups and watched morning cartoons for a bit from our comfy, warm bed. As you can see the girls enjoyed themselves very much, and Phoebe even looks like she still wants to sleep.

What Sophia has been up to:

She has started this thing when she wants to identify something. She waves her arm in a circle and repeats “It’s, it’s, it’s it’s…..” and then I have to help. She has also started asking me “What’s next?”

Sophia again identifies mommy as a girl, daddy as a boy, and then BJ asks Sophia if she is a girl. She assuredly says “No.” BJ, shocked, then asks her what she is. She exclaims “I’m a cowgirl!”

I went shopping at Target one evening and come home with several bags. Sophia starts tearing into them saying each time “What’s this?!” Getting tired of that I quickly pull out the new shirt and shorts I found on the clearance rack (the shorts were 98 cents!) and tell her she can have them. She grabs them up in her arms, hugs them, and says “Oh! I love it!” Then immediately has to wear the new outfit. Her ‘before’ hair picture is of her in the new clothes.

Nursery was missing the chorister for singing time one Sunday. Sophia started singing in the middle of doing her coloring activity and some of the other kids joined in. She then led the rest of ’singing time’ by picking the songs they would sing and singing the loudest.

Yep, we took her to get her hair cut. Don’t worry, her bangs weren’t touched, they clearly don’t need it. We wanted to even her hair out and get rid of the tangly, thin hair in the back. We were nervous about her first ‘major’ haircut and didn’t want to lose the curls, but it turned out very well and we can still do ponytails and pigtails. She looks a little more grown up too.

Sophia was jumping on her trampoline with Daddy watching when BJ comes in and tells me I have to come out and listen to what “my daughter” is singing. I go out and am greeted by the funniest thing. She is singing another random song that I sometimes sing around the house but that she has never repeated before. It is an Avril Lavigne song and she is jumping up and down singing “hey hey you you I don’t likeurgirlfiend no way no way.”

Another wonderful Friday. We went to the Wiggly Play Center and met daddy for lunch where a little boy hit her a couple times within 10 minutes of being there thus crushing any excitement she had gained from being there. With lot’s of hugs from mama and reassurance she warmed up to the place. Phoebe had a blast and loved every minute of it. We ended the day with swimming where Sophia was just as independent as before with swimming by herself.

Phoebe had her 12 month well check. She only weighed 17.11 pounds!!! I at least thought she would be 20 pounds. I know my sister, Jennifer, is reading this right now thinking “My baby weighed that at 3 months!” Cousin Casper will have his 12 month well check in a couple weeks and I just know he is going to weigh as much as Sophia does, which is about 26 pounds. Am I right, or am I right Jenn?!

When trying to praise the girls for something good I will typically clap my hands and say “Good job.” Mostly when we are playing, otherwise it is simply “good job.” Phoebe has caught on and whenever I say “good job” she will clap her hands. Even if she is holding something else like her cup or a toy she has to stop everything to clap. What a silly sweetheart. I think I am still trying to get used to the idea that she might even understand what I am saying!

Sophia did a naughty, dangerous thing at bath time one night this week. Phoebe thought it was hilarious and I was just thankful she didn’t kill herself. She would take her waterproof Pablo plush doll and throw him out the bath (therefore getting lots of water all over the floor and bathmats) then climb out, throw Pablo back in, stand completely up on the edge of the bath, and then jump back into the bath. She did this a few times before I was able to get back into the bathroom. We are lucky she didn’t bang her chin or head or something wide open!

Sophia has really started to love Church and Nursery on Sundays and so every Sunday morning I psych her up to go. We were all dressed and trying to get all our stuff together. BJ was still getting ready and Sophia was getting impatient…..”Go church. Nursery School?” ME “No not yet, we have to wait for Daddy.” HER “What?!” ME ” We have to wait for Daddy to finish getting dressed.” HER “Why?” ME “Because he is the one driving today. Mommy can’t drive Daddy’s car.” HER Frustrated silence.

Phoebe learned to say “Uh oh.” She sounds just like her big sister did when she learned to say it too.

Lots of birthdays are coming up so I spent Saturday afternoon at the mall. BJ enjoys an afternoon with the girls over at his parents house. While away I treated myself to seeing a movie. Mama Mia to be more specific. I enjoyed the movie, thought it was funny and cute, and was thankful that the teenage lesbians I ended up sitting next to left half way through the film.

While at the mall I scored a free t-shirt at this Wonka candy stand they had for some other competition thing they had going on. I was raving about how my husband loves the new giant chewy nerds so they asked what his size was. Once I got away a little and saw what was on the shirt I had really wished I asked for one in my size instead. BJ would never wear it in public whereas I would have. It is a pastel orange shirt with the words “Live, Love, Laugh Laffy Taffy” on the front in a mix of pink, purple ,and white letters. He put it on and I couldn’t help but immediately blurt out “You look gay.” We will eventually have to post a picture of him in it. (BJ: no… we won’t)

Phoebe has grown a strong desire for climbing, more particularly, on the couches. Sophia, however, loves her couch time with her blankies and juice and will even kick BJ and I off the smaller couch so she can have it to herself. I have quashed many a fight this week over being on the couch. I think Sophia is getting used to it, just as long as Phoebe steers clear of the blankies and cup. I enjoy hiding behind the couch and jumping up and scaring them. They love it and laugh and squeal and jump away and then come back for more.

BJ hasn’t been playing many videogames, if any really, as of late and so he decided to play Soul Caliber 4 for a bit one afternoon. Sophia was very intrigued. When BJ stopped she wanted to play and even brought the controller to him. He let her play. (Grumble, grumble) She thoroughly seemed to enjoy herself and actually pushed the correct combination of buttons to make her character get some hits in.

I saw the dumbest thing I have seen in awhile on the way to work for my mom one morning. It was a guy on a motorcycle wearing shorts, a tank top, had a shaved head (and I was obviously able to know that since he had no helmet), but it was his right leg that stood out more than anything. He had one of those big, black, leg and foot brace things that some people wear instead of casts. My first thought was wondering whether or not he hurt his leg in a previous motorcycle accident, and second, this guy is totally gonna kill himself, a complete fatality waiting to happen.

The big announcement for the week goes to Sophia. We went to the pool on Saturday, BJ included this time, and Sophia swam all by herself!!!! She had her floaty suite on of course, but she was willing to let go of us and swim several feet back to us or to Phoebe’s floaty. She was kicking her legs so hard and looked like she was riding a unicycle underwater. She didn’t do much with her arms though. I can’t wait to go back and see if that confidence is still there.

Sophia at the Scarborough Faire petting zoo

Cousin Yoroko on the swings at the community playground

Mommy and Phoebe sharing a moment

Dazed and Confused

Birds of Prey at Scarborough Faire

The apple juice obsession has ended, and so begins the milk phase. We ran out one day and she cried and cried for milk until I decided to use daddy’s type of milk to pacify her until he could get back from Braum’s with her whole milk.

Sophia comes up to me out of nowhere, hugs my leg and says “lub (love) you”. She repeats the affection several more times throughout the week, even when I come home from being gone. She hasn’t done it to BJ yet, much to his sadness.

Phoebe pulls herself up on the furniture–no help included! She also takes a few steps when we hold her hands while standing. I think she is progressing almost too fast!

BJ steam cleans our living room carpet and decides to switch the couches. We rather enjoy the change and neither the cats or the kids notice the difference.

Sophia has increased her desire to swipe at, kick, or hit Phoebe and does so on a daily basis. We don’t know what it will take to get this child to understand being gentle with her baby sister.

With winter not far behind us Sophia had gotten used to wearing her full outdoor winter gear to play outside. Now with the warm weather she still thinks she needs it all. We know she wants to go out when she starts asking for her gloves, hat, jacket, and boots. We think she looks like a street urchin in this photo or as if she is trying to sell flowers on a corner.

Sophia enjoys a Nickelodeon show called “Yo Gabba Gabba.” They have a part in the show for ’silly faces’. Most of the time it is of the kids sticking their fingers in their mouths spreading their lips and rolling their eyes. She seems to have picked up on it. Now presenting Sophia’s silly face…….

Another productive week for Phoebe. She sits up on her own, can pull herself up to her knees completely on her own, can get to a sitting position from her stomach, can also babble more letters and syllables.

Auntie Jennifer and cousins are in town again. Sophia has a lot of fun playing with Gwennie and sometimes Linus. Gwennie spends the night one night. I let the girls paint before having a bubble bath. I took off their shirts to avoid paint on their tops. Because of this, Sophia realizes she can paint on her body. Gwennie so appropriately comments that Sophia is “ooey gooey”. I figure no big deal, the paint is washable, but one bath later and her stomach was still green.

Sophia has unexplained fever again for 2-3 days. (we went through this back in January)

Forgot to mention this in last week’s post: The Sunday after BJ’s talk mishap he was unable to go to church due to allergies and one sick child. I was able to attend and the subject for that sacrament meeting was–you guessed it—TEMPLES!! Poor BJ.

It snowed twice this week! The first day was not all that much, but Sophia didn’t seem to mind. The second day we had about 3-4 inches in our area. Daddy and Sophia have fun playing and building a snowman. She also enjoys that she gets to throw snow at us.

BJ, thinking he was doing a sweet thing, scraped my windshield one of the mornings of snow. He did it with a metal spatula….need I say more? Once all was melted I discovered scratches all up and down my windshield, the whole length of my windshield, each about 2 inches apart. Hope it’s fixable without having to replace the entire thing.

I woke up one morning with my right shoulder and neck hurting really bad. It was stiff, tight and very hard to move. I had my dad put this really great massager on my neck and shoulders that I have used before. Only this time he got too high up on my neck/head and a chunk of hair got caught. Our only solution was to cut it out. Luckily my hair is thick enough and curly it isn’t even noticeable.

I’ve received a jury duty summons. BJ’s immediate reply is “You’re exempt since you are the primary caregiver.” My response, “Who says I don’t want to do it? I don’t want to get picked, of course, but to go that initial day might be interesting.” BJ gets wide eyed and then says, “You just want to get away from the kids.” Me, with a smile, “Yep!”
***Note about the above: As much as I say I want to get away from the kids, the funny thing is, when I am away from them more than 3 hours I really start to miss them. Funny how that works….

Another rough thing for me this week—On the worst day of snow I was in Carrollton, typically a 30 minute drive from my house. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get home!!! Traffic was so awful I wanted to scream, and almost did. My one saving grace was that I did not have the kids with me. Now THAT would have been a nightmare.

Phoebe has been very busy this week. She always goes after Sophia’s sippy cups if she leaves them lying around. She was actually able to drink out of the sippy cups this week. I think she rather enjoyed it.

With a little help from mama, Phoebe is now pulling herself up. Yay! She also stabilizes herself much better when standing at the couch. She is sitting up on her own and still has the occasional fall over but has gotten much stronger.

A couple weeks back she was babbling mamamamama, but only for one day. Now it is a consistent thing when she plays to go on “mamamamamama”. It’s nice to hear.

Phoebe has discovered a new, fun thing she can do. She gets up on her hands and knees and starts flapping her lips and spitting, but she likes to watch the spit as it falls to the carpet. Another fun thing –screaming at Sophia to try and get her to scream back. It works…..100% of the time.

‘The wiggle’ has progressed. Instead of only doing it on her back on the floor, Phoebe now wiggles when you hold her, in her car seat, when she is standing (with me supporting her at the hips), in the highchair, and while sitting.

Well, I was so sure Phoebe would be crawling by now, but she isn’t. She does everything else she possibly can–gets up on her hands and knees, hands and toes, or her hands and bottom of her feet (see picture). She continues to army crawl and seems happy enough with that. I guess as long as she is getting around that is all that matters.

For awhile Sophia was hooked on Finding Nemo. BJ and I were going crazy and have been letting her watch various shows to see what she is okay with besides that darn clown fish! She got hooked on Cars there for awhile too, but so far here is a list of what we have found she likes and dislikes:

Okay to watch:

• The Little Mermaid
• Finding Nemo
• Pixar Shorts
• Cars
• Kiki’s Delivery Service
• Toy Story
• Toy Story 2
• Bug’s Life
• My Neighbor Totorro
• The Cat Returns
• Porco Rosso

NOT okay:

• Monsters Inc.
• Spirited Away
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• Tarzan

Sophia is getting better at repeating words accurately on the first try. She is stringing words together more often as well. Every week she is progressing and communicating more. When she wants something she will pull on our shirt, pants, or arm and tell us “Get up!”

She woke up from a nap the other day still a little loopy so I asked her, “Sophia, are you still drunk?” Her reply: “Yes.”

Sophia’s new, fun thing this week–putting socks on her hands and walking around and playing that way.

We really enjoy dance time with Sophia. We discovered this week that she has a preference. ‘Peanut butter jelly time’ from the internet, and club music. As long as it is loud, strong, and fast she will dance!

Download audio file (YTMND Soundtrack - Volume 7 - 17 - Buckwheat Boyz - Peanut .mp3)

Sophia is repeating words she hears more and more. Not only is she picking things up from other people but from the TV as well. BJ and I have really cracked down on what we say but also what we watch. In some ways I feel I have lost a bit of freedom, but for Sophia’s sake I am willing to pay the price.

Granny bought Sophia and Phoebe birthday gifts early this year. They both received bunches of new, super cute clothes for the summer. They also got some nice church dresses that I can’t wait to post pictures of them in.

Sophia can now open doors with little or no difficulty. I’m not sure if I love or hate this new talent. We crack her door at night before we go to bed so when she wakes up she can get out without calling for us or getting scared. There have been a few nights we have forgotten, but it hasn’t been a problem because she has surprised us by walking into our room in the mornings. THAT I do enjoy so she can help herself, but I also don’t like the idea of her helping herself into our room or BJ’s office. So far so good, she hasn’t tried to get into rooms she shouldn’t. We hope this lasts.

Sophia has shown me she has truly graduated from bottles and is also a very considerate little girl. Out of horrible laziness on my part (we were going to be leaving soon and I didn’t want to pour a whole new cup of juice) I offered Sophia a bit of apple juice out of Phoebe’s bottle. She didn’t drink out of the bottle and immediately went to Phoebe’s room (where she was sleeping) to try and offer it to her saying “sister, sister”. I let her know Phoebe was sleeping and couldn’t have it but thanked her for being so sweet.

Sophia is obsessed with Pixar movies but is especially in love with Finding Nemo and Cars. She has seen them enough times to be able to repeat parts of the movie while watching them. In an effort for her to feel connected to the movies we bought her a stuffed Nemo and Lightning McQueen dolls. She absolutely loves them and calls them “Nemocars” all the time.

We buy our diapers at Costco which come in big boxes. Sophia enjoyed her Monday afternoon hiding in the box and letting us spin her around in it.

Phoebe turned 7 months this week. We celebrated by letting her taste some chocolate milkshake for the first time.

Phoebe had a weight check appointment this week. At her 6 month appt. she was only 12.4 pounds, way below what she should be at her age. It has now been 1 month and time to check again. This time she weighed in at 13.1 pounds. Yay! She gained a pound.

Auntie Jennifer and the cousins came to visit this week. Sophia really loves her cousin Gwendolyn or “Gwennie” as we call her. Whenever Sophia had to leave Gwennie she wimpered for her repeating her name over and over again. She really enjoys having an older girl to tag along with to show her new things and play with.

I have to call BJ out on this. I went shopping with my mom and sister the other day so of course I did my hair and makeup. When I came home I put on some pajama pants and slippers. I was doing the dishes later that evening and BJ says to me “Did you take a shower today?” I gave him a look of disbelief and said “Do you not see my hair and makeup? Are you that used to coming home to me in pajamas and not bathed you just assume I haven’t showered?! I guess I better start taking care of myself each day.” His response to not noticing the makeup and hair was a stutter of some silly excuse to cover himself. Shame on him to not notice the difference and I suppose shame on me for not showering more often (?)