Dig a little deeper and I find BJ Atchley of Connecticut who plays the Alto Saxophone. Too bad I haven’t picked mine up in 5 years or so.

So my apologies go out to BJ Atchley of CT from whom I will likely steal the first page of google for some time to come.

Continuing to work on the potty training this week with no luck. Not once has she gone while sitting on the potty. I feel as if she is teasing us now about it. One night she says, very sincerely “Sophia poopoo potty.” My reply, “Sophia are you REALLY going to go on the potty?” “No, don’t think so.” I should have known….

I have this little sing song saying when playing with Sophia to get her to dance a little for me. I simply say “Jam out tttttttt, jam out! Jam out! She never once has repeated it but this week I caught her saying something that I couldn’t figure out. I am usually the one interpreting for BJ, but he nailed this one. She was saying “Jam out tttttttt” while bopping her head. I hadn’t said it in weeks so I don’t know what made her think of it but she sure enjoyed it.

Just in time for her birthday, Phoebe cuts tooth number one–bottom right. The exact same one Sophia had cut first. Phoebe has been flicking her tongue quite a bit over this new thing in her mouth.

Phoebe has also abandoned crawling. She started the week with what I call “momentum walking”. She would throw up her arms and take a couple normal steps, then she would see the thing she wanted or the place she wanted to go and she would start walking really fast with such a momentum behind her. Then the speed would catch up with her and she would fall forward or on her butt. By the end of the week she had learned some patience and paces herself better and walks everywhere. Sophia is helping too. She caught Phoebe crawling one day and said to her, in a firm voice, “No Phoebe, walk! Walking!”

A little scary thing happened for me. I had my teenage sister-in-law babysitting for me this week while I worked for my mom. I had the girls happily playing and watching a cartoon while I could take a shower. Just as I had gotten my bathrobe on I heard voices coming through the front door. I know I had both locks done up and I promptly found out what happened. When Mike and Catey knocked on the door (they said she started to yell mama right away) she went to the door and they were able to talk her through unlocking the door. When they heard the clicks they were able to get right in. I often bathe while the girls are awake with this same set up (otherwise I would never get a shower!) and so it makes me worried to do so now. What if a solicitor comes to the door? Or UPS delivering a box? I have thought about a doorknob cover but there is an open hole over the lock that would still allow her to get her little fingers in it to unlock the bottom one as well. As Pooh Bear would say….”think, think, think.”

Sophia got a new night light this week. We were so impressed with the pink flower from Ikea that cousin Gwennie had in her room we got one for Sophia. As soon as she saw it she said “Gwennie light!” We like it because it puts out about the same amount of light as having the scarf over her bedside lamp. But now she can’t turn this off or on or possibly knock over her lamp by pulling off the scarf anymore! Plus, she just simply loves it!

BJ was in Fort Worth for 3 days staying at the Fort Worth Stockyards Hotel. I called it “his vacation” since he really didn’t DO work, had a bunch of meetings, and ate steak and other great food while having no toddlers to bother him or drain him. Although, he was so ready to come home the 3rd day and he missed all his girls.

We bought a sit and stand stroller, finally! I thought I would try and put it together while BJ was gone. I had done well until the very end. I won’t necessarily explain the logistics of it but I smashed 3 fingers on my right hand very badly. My whole arm was shaking from the pain and still today my middle finger has pain and even some strange numbness to it. The pointer finger isn’t 100% either. I hope it is all better by next week. The girls were very impressed with it and Sophia wouldn’t stop sitting in it until she went to bed.

Sophia discovered broccoli this week and loves it. However, she held it up and proudly announced “a tree!” I explained to her what it was and then later she exclaimed “grass!” Oh well, like it really matters, right?

Sophia has also really taken to singing songs. I have sung to her all sorts of songs and she loves singing along now. Even her nursery leaders have commented on how she is the loudest and best during singing time.

Sophia has to be the one to say prayers every night now. She repeats as much as she can and does pretty well. A close friend of mine recently got diagnosed with diabetes. The first night we prayed for her Sophia was repeating me and actually managed to say diabetes perfectly, but then said “I don’t know” right after. BJ was busting up, very obviously I am sure, since she has never said that word before and doesn’t know what it is or means. We quickly ended the prayer for daddy’s sake and tucked our smart kid into bed.

Phoebe turned one year!!! We had a family BBQ on Saturday and enjoyed yummy ribs and good company. Phoebe (and Sophia) got some great gifts. One of them being a porcelain tea party set. Sophia adores it and it will be even better once Phoebe is old enough to play with it the ‘right way’ an not knock everything over sending her older sister into a tailspin. She also got a little cooking set with pots and pans and spoons. She already had plastic fruit and veggies so she and I have been enjoying ourselves “cooking”. She is so willing to do so and is very interested. Phoebe is having fun with the 2 push toys she received and the stability it gives her while she is still learning to walk is great. There is also this automated pat-a-cake bear that the girls both adore. The first encounter was one of just shock and awe. This is what I imagined they were thinking “This stuffed animal is MOVING!! They aren’t supposed to move! What is going on?” Sophia was so excited about the whole party idea all day long and since she got gifts too, how could this have not been all about her? When we did the birthday cupcakes and sang to Phoebe she was so hurt. She hung her head down and the saddest face I have seen. I think her heart was broken. We sang to her and re-lit the candle so she could blow it out too. When we started singing her face was one of unsure intrigue, then when we got to the part where we say her name she broke out into a HUGE smile and very proudly blew out the flame. This whole day only made us excited for Christmas for the girls!

I can hardly believe Phoebe is one year already. Didn’t I just have her?! I love her so much and enjoy every week that she is a part of my life. She is so sweet and quirky and fun. She is a great playmate for Sophia and I know things will only get better for the two of them.

Some of the following pictures are HDR pics, but I’ve tried to be a little more subtle about them than others you might find on the web.

Also, the hotel was supposed to be haunted, so I took some long exposures to see if I could catch anything. You’ll have to look close and probably turn up your brightness a bit, but I think I see something by the window…

Phoebe is fighting back and holding her own against Sophia. He big sister has a habit of smacking her on the head when she is doing something she doesn’t like. She is getting better about not doing it but Phoebe is retaliating and one day I caught them both smacking at each other at the same time with both their hands. It was the typical sissy, girl “cat” fight. I couldn’t help but laugh before breaking them up.

Phoebe has also taken to trying to bite Sophia when she is mad at her. I have caught her with her mouth wide open on Sophia’s hand or arm or face. I know EXACTLY what she is trying to do and Sophia (because it is more slobbering and tongue than anything) thinks she is playing with her and giggles. Alas, Phoebe still has no teeth. She has made progress, though, because you can actually see where the teeth are about to come in. Just a little more and both bottom teeth will break through.

We spent the 4th of July with Jennifer and her family. Grandad let us borrow their new Honda Odyssey and it made our trip so wonderful. We spent our time going to the pool, playing with the slip and slide, wonderful fireworks show, going to see the movie “Hancock” and lots of playing around with the cousins. Sophia is so attached to Gwennie. Whenever she couldn’t find her she would wander around the house calling out “Gwennie! Gwennie! Where are you?!” We can’t wait to go back.

Sophia has developed saying “I don’t think so.” to all sorts of questions. It has made me reflect on what I have been saying to her and wondering if she got it from me, or if it’s another random thing she has learned.

Phoebe is back to saying “mamamama” and I am loving it!!!!

She has also gained more confidence in walking and is choosing to walk more and more around the house. Sophia tries to be so helpful and do as I do by holding her hand to walk her. Their relationship is blossoming so nicely and they truly are playing better together. They are entertaining each other so well and I find them laughing at one another several times a day.

Sophia was getting a little stir crazy by the end of this last week since she had not left the house since we got back in town. Friday night I had an errand to run to Hobby Lobby and then we went out for ice cream at Marble Slab. While at the craft store Sophia enjoyed herself by walking around with a pirate hat she found. We were impressed when she was able to put it back without any fuss before we checked out.

Saturday night we ate dinner at our friend’s house, the Brady’s. They prepared a lovely dinner for us and then the Brady’s and BJ proceeded to have quite the fun time playing Rock Band. Sophia was a big help in playing the drums for them. I finally joined the fun when they brought out Sing Star. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, sounded absolutely terrible, and can’t wait to do it again!

I thought this would be so much longer considering I am covering 2 weeks worth, but that is really all I can report at this time. BJ is very busy with work because his big project FINALLY rolled out this past week for company use. I have been working for my mom and just trying to get by day by day with the girls and having lots of church meetings. Until next week!

• Nikon sb-600 flash
• Impact Light Stand
• Light Bracket
• Optical White Umbrella
• Radio flash trigger
• Gaffers Tape
• Clamp

That’s pretty much a single light support system for an off camera lighting setup. I’ll eventually want 4 total of all of the above, except I’ll only need receivers for each additional light. Also after I have at least one flash like the sb-600 that works in ttl mode on my camera I can get the cheaper vivitar 285hv. The vivitars would eventually get replaced by other nikon flashes like the sb-600 or sb-800 though. Oh and I suppose I’ll need a backdrop so I can do some portraiture on the go.

Also you have to throw in a color gel swatchbook with every order. But you also need enough of the basics for color correction as seen here. Also some ball bungies would be nice.

A nice off camera TTL cord would be nice but they’re horribly overpriced. A new camera body can fire them in TTL mode off camera anyway.

Tripod stuff:

• Silk 700 Tripod Legs
• Bogen 488RC2 Ball Head

I suppose I’d need a bag for all or some of this stuff, but a generic canvas bag would do for the lights. A new camera bag is a few lenses off before I’ll need an upgrade. Speaking of lenses I’ve changed my list up a bit. I keep reading too many things about Tamrons having focusing issues so for now my order of lenses will be.

• Sigma 18-50 2.8 HSM
• Tamron 28-75 2.8, Has to be the one with the built in motor.
• Sigma 10-20mm HSM
• Nikon 70-300mm AF-S VR
• Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM
• Nikon 60mm Micro-Nikkor
• Heck even the Bigma (Sigma 50-500mm HSM) would be great

Any other lenses need a body upgrade for my lowly d40. By the time I’m up for it I’m sure the Nikon d300 will be at a more realistic price.

I know this is insanely boring stuff, but I’m doing it more, to keep track of my upgrade list. It’ll take me years and years to really acquire all this stuff, but if my daughter’s keep getting more beautiful, I’ll have to keep taking more pictures.

The big announcement for the week is that Phoebe is walking! BJ and I worked with her a little bit with her walking in between us to gain confidence and she is doing wonderfully. By the end of the week she was standing up on her own, no furniture or anything for support and then will take a few steps. She has taken to wanting to climb too. She gets up and down from the girls’ little wooden rocking chair and attempts to climb from the bath.

Phoebe has learned to give and take things from someone’s hand. She is so funny when we are doing it with a toy because she is so forceful and quick when she puts it in your hand. I think she thinks it is more a game than me simply handing her something.

The girls and I spent another afternoon in the pool. I was pregnant last summer and only swam once (hmmm, maybe twice) so I think I am making up for it this summer with swimming every week. Sophia sure doesn’t mind.

As BJ already put in a previous post—Sophia got locked in the van and the fire department was called. I have never locked my kids in the car before and go figure it was in a car I am not used to driving. I will say no more on it other than I was terribly embarrassed and felt so stupid, even though one of the EMT’s assured me it was their second call like this that day.

I attempted to cut Sophia’s bangs this week. I see no sense in driving to a hair place (with the way gas prices are) to pay 15 bucks or whatever for them to cut only bangs on this child! I was able to cut them once before and they turned out okay. Not so this time. She was moving too much and the first cut was too short. Well of course I had to base all my other cuts off that first one for it to look even remotely even. All of it being too short. I only told my closest friends the truth but if anyone has asked at church or random places I have blamed it on Sophia getting into the scissors and me fixing it. BJ and I agree we are growing her hair all out and will clip her front hair back.

We took Sophia to see the new Pixar movie Wall E. She did okay for about half the movie and then got squirmy. It was an amazing movie–Pixar can do no wrong! If you haven’t seen it yet–take kleenex! I can’t wait to have it on DVD.

BJ finds all sorts of random crap on the web and on YouTube. He chose to show me a clip in particular from YouTube one night. Sophia was still up and seeing me sitting next to daddy watching something on the laptop was too tempting for her. She joined us and watched the video clip as well. It was okay for her to watch–it is an animation with no cussing. It is called Charlie the Unicorn. OMG! This child will NOT stop asking to “watch Charlie.” This thing is like 3 minutes long but she has fallen in love with it. We discovered there was a second video with bananas and she loves that one just as much. She asks for it every day and asks to watch it again and again after just having seen it. It is hilarious and totally worth checking out on YouTube (BJ Note: I’ll embed it in another post).

Sophia, my little shadow, pointed out something to her daddy one day this week. She was jumping on our bed and looked over on his side of the floor and saw his big pile of dirty clothes. She said “oh no a mess! Clean clothes, pick up.” I laughed and told her they were daddy’s and HE would need to pick them up. I told her she should tell him that. She bounced off the bed and ran into where BJ was in the living room and yelled “Clean up clothes daddy!” I told BJ, when he came into the room being led by Sophia holding his hand, that she pointed it out first and that if a 2 year old can see they need picking up maybe he should learn from her example.

One morning I was out back with Sophia while she jumped on her trampoline. I heard this noise coming from our drain that comes off the roof and leads down to the ground. It sounded like something was falling inside and I was hearing a few bangs and scraping sounds and then a few more bangs. I was thoroughly freaking out not knowing what was coming out of the drain and not wanting to find out. Sophia did not notice a thing so I took advantage of her ignorance and went inside to watch her from the kitchen. She kept asking me to come outside and I told her it was too hot. I’m so lame. She eventually came inside and hours later I got up the courage to look around the drain out back to see if anything had come out. I was completely speechless when I saw what was sitting less than a foot away from the drain opening—-a baby bunny maybe the size of a lemon. I ran inside to get BJ and he of course took pictures. After much discussion (and putting my desire aside to adopt this cute baby bunny who I was sure had no mommy now) we decided to give it one day to see if the mama would come get it. Considering we don’t know how the ‘wild rabbit’ world works and maybe the mama left there until she could come back. BJ called it our “gutter bunny”. We truly enjoyed checking up on it all of the rest of that day and were sad to see it gone the next day.