Phoebe has found her voice—mostly in the evenings. It is usually after dinner and a bath but just before bed she just jabbers and jabbers with a few squeals mixed in.

Phoebe turned 11 months this week. Still no teeth but getting very close on the walking. She is much more cautious than Sophia was. She can walk alongside me holding one hand. The farthest we have gone is from the couch to the fridge, which for a little girl learning to walk it is pretty far! I am so proud of her and just know she will be walking independently by her 1st birthday.

BJ enjoyed a night out with himself and picked up some books at Barnes and Noble and then watched Incredible Hulk. He didn’t seem too terribly impressed with it but enjoyed seeing a movie in the theater more than anything I think. The books purchased were: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (which I am reading and thoroughly enjoying right now) The Road by Cormack McCarthy (BJ currently reading),The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, and lastly Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card. It seems like it has been MONTHS since I sat down to a good book that I read every night before bed. Actually, come to think of it the last book was winter last year—Empire by Orson Scott Card.

Sophia and I went to the same pool we have gone to the last few weeks with the same group of friends. We had such a good time but I added to my sunburn from the week before. Sunscreen WAS put on my back but my neck and shoulders still burned. Grrrr, I am tired of hurting and itching. We went Phoebe free this time (daddy worked from home and helped watch her). I think it was totally to Sophia’s benefit. She spent the first hour in the same floaty and unsure of herself. Without Phoebe I was able to commit all my attention to her and by the second hour I had her out of the floaty, not clinging to me, and running from the edge of the pool to about 5 feet from the edge. I was also able to finally take some pictures!

BJ and I have mentioned here and there before about Sophia being a little GIRL and others also being girls or BOYS and such. She has really taken to it this week and we took the opportunity to clearly define boys from girls. She can almost always accurately identify each gender now and seems to be very proud of herself.

I am a clean, organized person and have tried to instill some of this lifestyle into Sophia. Teaching her to pick up after herself, don’t touch things when your hands are dirty, clean up spills on the carpet and tile, etc. One morning just before she got into her seat for breakfast she seemed distracted and upset by something on the floor. I finally saw what she was looking at….it was a dime sized spot of marinera sauce from a couple days before. She was determined to clean it up so I had to wet down a rag and let her (by herself) wipe it until she was satisfied with the results. I thought it a little neurotic of her, but hey, look at her example! I also thought it good and sweet of her to do so and try and help.

Working for my mom one day this week I allowed Sophia to play in the packing peanuts. She has a HUGE container full of them so I plopped Sophia into them. She wiggled around and stomped for a bit until it tipped over and she hurt her head. Granny had the good idea of getting her a smaller box to sit in and fill it up. We did so but while transferring some peanuts we realized what all her stomping around in the big bucket did. It was slowly shredding the peanuts into a fine pulp. So instead of big ones that were easy to pick up and clean I had fine little bits everywhere that were sticking to everything! I took a picture of some of the mess with my camera phone. It was exhausting to pick up and only vacuuming in the end really did the trick.

Sanctuary! Phoebe is consistently sleeping through the night! We had a couple nights where Sophia wandered in and that was about it.

We have tried to crack down on potty training and decided to use M&M’s as enticement. The first day I sat her on the potty and explained the reward system to her. She went tinkle and was given 2 treats. The next day she sat on the potty and wasn’t doing anything but asked for a treat. I was surprised she even remembered, but unfortunately she did not earn any that time but was not upset when she didn’t get a treat since she understands the terms.

Saturday we went to the Dallas Zoo and had a blast. We went as soon as they opened at 9am so we were able to leave by 12:30 when it started to get really hot. We rented a double stroller from there and hoped that with them sitting side by side they wouldn’t fight too much. It worked perfectly with only minimal fighting. (BJ, this makes me feel even stronger about wanting to buy a doubler stroller or a sit and stand!) Sophia got to ride a pony and pet a guinea pig and rabbit. Sophia got to bring home a large blue and white snake we have named “Hissy Fit” and a giraffe shaped sports bottle. Phoebe got a zoo keepers shirt with lots of animals on it. We can’t wait to go back!

Tags: Dallas Zoo,Phoebe,potty training,Sophia,Weekly Family Update,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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This happened on Sunday the 25th, but is still worth mentioning. We went to church with BJ’s parents because Michael was being ordained an Elder. I enjoyed a break from my normal Primary duties and actually got to attend Sunday School and Relief Society. It was nice for a change and I barely had to take care of Phoebe too! Also nice for a change. She fell asleep in Aunt Catey’s arms during the 3rd hour she was so exhausted. I put the girls in their matching daisy dresses and they could not have been more adorable. We got so many compliments and oh’s and ah’s.

On Memorial Day we had a BBQ at the Atchley’s house. I wasn’t there for most of it because I was out enjoying my birthday gift. An afternoon out shopping without the kids! I bought a lot of new clothes and a new pair of shoes. I was gone for 5 hours doing it and I loved every minute of it! Bekah and her hubby were in town for a few days and we enjoyed a visit with them and great food.

Also for my birthday I had a night out with 2 girlfriends of mine. We ate dinner at TGI Friday’s and saw “Baby Mama” with Amy Pohler and Tina Fey; two actresses I really like. On Sunday after church we went to the duck pond for a walk and then had chocolate cake when we got home. BJ made it all by himself which I am so proud of him for. Granted it was uneven and not frosted all the way around, and frosted when the cake was still warm so it took on a more fudgy consistency than fluffy. BUT it was delicious and I thank him for my sweet birthday treat.

Most of this post is going to be about Sophia because let’s face it, Phoebe is only 10 months and not really doing a whole lot right now. But here is a little of what is going on with our little sunshine:

She waves her hand. She kind of skipped past what babies normally do with the backwards waving and did it right the first time.

STILL no teeth! Argh! This child would be eating so much more right now if she just had some.

Babbling a lot more too. Has started to say dadadada and says mamama with more frequency.

Has slept through the night 2 nights! Yay!!!!

Sophia:

I was attempting to have a shower and managed to be left alone during most of it until the very end. Sophia walks into the bathroom, gets up on the stool and remains quiet. I am almost done so I don’t bother looking at what she is doing since I will find out soon enough. So, what WAS she doing? Unrolling the floss from the container. I was able to stop her in time to salvage just a little. Phoebe came crawling in just in time to grab the wad of it on the floor and start playing with it.

She discovered what Eskimo kisses were and thinks they are hilarious.

She has taken to biting people and Phoebe, her cousin Linus, and Daddy are her latest victims. She doesn’t do it often but it sure hurts when she does!

Speaking of cousin Linus…..this is too funny not to mention. My sister was in town over a week ago and one day they were at my house doing water play in the backyard. While Jennifer was changing Linus into his underwear and PJ’s Sophia stared at his penis trying to figure out what the heck she was looking at. She was so quiet and so still, and when he turned around to face the other way and sit down she came walking around, bent over and stared some more. We are all giggling of course and Jennifer tells Linus to tell Sophia what it is. He promptly does so and Sophia goes over to poke it.

She really likes the Backyardigan’s series and is memorizing more and more lines from the show. This week we catch her several times taking a cup or funnel, putting it on her hand and saying (in a sing songy voice) “Pirate, pirate, arrrr!”

One night in the bath she lays on her side, bends her knees slightly with her legs together and tells me she is a “mermaid.” I tell her she is a very beautiful mermaid.

BJ taught her to do this and I must say it is quite impressive but a dangerous thing since she is already so darn cute. Whenever someone tells her she has beautiful, pretty (whatever) eyes, she looks up at you and will bat her eyelashes with a slight grin.

I bought a new disk of lip salve and had it on my night table. Sophia has a tendency to get into it but she REALLY did it this time. We were both scrambling to get ready for church when BJ comes out of the bathroom to find Sophia’s face and hands and clothes covered in a light pink substance. He grabs her and brings her out to me freaked out asking me what it is and why wasn’t I watching her. It takes me 5 seconds to realize what she was covered in and then I took in a huge breath and yelled “oh no!” The salve was a total loss and she gets stripped down and thrown into the bath; where she gets greasy vasaline on the handle and sides of the bath, and of course she is pretty greasy herself. It took a few days for the grease to come off the bathtub. Oh, and some of our carpet got treated with it too. However, even with all the morning drama we still made it to church on time.

More messes for Sophia this week. I was on a phone call and let her out back to play. She got out a huge bubble container we have for blowing bubbles. I didn’t think she knew how to open it until I looked out and saw her playing with the bubble wand. I thought, “well I am not totally happy about this but I will keep an eye on her and she is really only making a little mess.” Oh what damage can be done in a minute or two. She had dumped it on its side and therefore half its contents, was sitting in it and trying to blow bubbles. I had also been feeding feeding Phoebe in her seat and she was done and getting impatient, ready to get down. I get off the phone, rush to Sophia and put the cap back on the bottle. I get the hose going, strip her naked and start spraying her and the patio off. She thinks I am playing with her and starts screaming and squealing and running around the yard naked. She ends up slipping in the watery, soapy mess scraping her bottom in the process. I plop a now crying, injured, cold, soapy, wet Sophia on a towel I had out there already (thank goodness) and finish the patio which seemed like it would never get clean. Phoebe, in the meantime has been in the kitchen crying and yelling at me. I now finish Sophia off and bring her in still whimpering, get a crying Phoebe down, got Sophia dressed, smelled a Phoebe poopy so I go to change her. While changing Phoebe and getting things ready for Sophia’s nap she decides to get her foot stuck in the ball drop of a stand up toy we have. She has done this MANY times but this time her foot would just NOT come out. I had to go get a screwdriver and take apart the toy. This was all within one hour. Exhausted, I get Sophia and Phoebe in bed and plop my butt in bed and get a much needed nap.

Tags: birthday,movie,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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In an effort to get Sophia potty trained, BJ and I will offer Sophia to go potty at various times. On Monday we had success!! Sophia went peepee in the potty! BJ and I were so excited and proud of her. I am sure those of you reading this that don’t have kids won’t think much of this, but those of you who do have children (potty trained kids at that!) will join BJ and I in our triumph.

Sophia knows her name but has been unable to say anything but “Pia”. She finally said her full name, correct pronunciation and everything! However, BJ and I are so used to calling her “Pia” and have come to rather enjoy it. No reason for her to be simply Sophia all the time!

Sophia continues to hug me and say “love you”. She did it to Phoebe this week and began doing it to her toys and random kitchen appliances. BJ had still not been graced with this sentiment until the very end of this week. He was so happy when he finally got her love.

Sophia, Phoebe, and I enjoy a morning at the Wiggly Play Center. Sophia played hard core for 2 hours and both kids passed out in the car on the way home. Sophia didn’t have much of a nap once we got home for such an active morning that she had. Proof of that became evident later that afternoon. She did something I thought she could and would never do: Sophia fell asleep on the couch amidst the noise of the dishwasher, Phoebe yelling and crying, and BJ and I talking. We dared not to move her and kept on with life as usual. She slept for almost 2 1/2 hours when we decided we should wake her at 6pm!

I received even more confirmation that my little Phoebe is one cute kid. While at the Play Center, a little girl who looked about 5 or 6, approached me out of nowhere and rubbed Phoebe’s head and said “You have such a cute baby!” I thanked her and she walked off.

Phoebe, still having no teeth, got to enjoy new foods—string cheese, tomatoes, and goldfish (but only the tails). She also discovered cow’s milk out of one of Sophia’s sippy cups. Once I discovered what she had she was not pleased with me that I took it away.

Phoebe is progressing even more with her mobility. She can now transfer from one piece of furniture to another that is very close by, she can track along the couch, and has created her own version of crawling. She is up on both hands and one knee, then on the bottom of her foot on the other leg. She has really started to enjoy taking steps and lets us help her whenever we can.

Sophia gets an even bigger girl bed this week. Just a twin sized mattress on the floor, really, but she doesn’t know the difference and likes her new “princess bed”. Phoebe gets the large crib and is out of that little pack n’ play. She seems to like the change too.

The weather is really warming up and we have spent some afternoons in the backyard. I think Sophia is just glad she can wear her floppy summer hat, and I like that she can start wearing all the cute summer outfits I have accumulated!

We end the week with both girls getting sick again with colds. Argh! Will this never end?!

Tags: family,kids,Phoebe,Sophia,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Still struggling with this darn cold I go to the doctor to get drugs. Phoebe goes the next day and seems to be getting over an ear infection. While there the nurse discovers Sophia has a fever so she gets checked in as well. Turns out she also has sores in her mouth–yay for random viruses! By the end of the week the girls are well, but I still have remnants of snot in my sinuses and am just about ready to shove a vacuum hose up my nose!

Sophia struggles with the letters S, P, F, and R. Needless to say her name has been difficult for her to say. I occasionally find myself making fun of her and her struggles with speech and learning to talk. She says “ham” like “haim”. So I said back to her the other day “Cory Haim?” And with perfect pronunciation she comes back with “Cory Haim!” BJ laughs and I join in. What more could I do?

My constant battle with Sophia at her Granny and Grandad’s house is getting into the litter box, cat food, cat water, and the toilet. All very nasty and all she could potentially get sick from. Two weeks ago she was found sitting in the cat box tossing out poop and kitty litter. My sister Jennifer found her and I think almost had a stroke. She was found this week once again in the cat box. My dad asked what her fascination could possibly be–my theory–it’s just like a small sandbox. Now this week she was found eating dry cat food. Her response? “Yum!” Will she ever learn?

We have often said Sophia has probably had her picture taken far too much. While taking a picture of her this week, with no help from me, she smiles real big and says “Cheese!”

The Atchley’s are all off this week for Spring Break. We spend Friday cleaning out our garage to make room for more furniture to come from BJ’s grandpa’s house in Oklahoma. We spend Saturday cleaning out the Atchley’s garage for the same purpose. Sophia at least got to dye Easter eggs. Not very successfully I must admit. She enjoyed dropping them in too hard or on top of another one so we ended up with quite a few cracked eggs. We didn’t mind since this is her first time and she enjoyed herself regardless.

The Atchley’s joined us at church for Easter Sunday. BJ and I were excited thinking we had other people to be able to entertain Sophia and we could actually enjoy the talks. Nope. She was only entertained by Mike and Catey for about 15 minutes before she was all over us and wouldn’t leave us alone.

I make a delicious Easter dinner and have the Atchley’s over to enjoy it with us. Sophia has her egg hunt after dinner and is very excited to find eggs in the yard. We only do plastic eggs and I put jellybeans inside. Once all the eggs are gathered we bring them inside to inspect the ‘loot’. I am busy in the kitchen so Catey helps Sophia to eat quite a bit of candy in the meantime.

We have been working on counting to 10 with Sophia for several weeks now. On Sunday while she was walking down the pew to us she walked by and counted everyone. It was only to five since that’s all there was, but she did it correctly and without prompting from us so BJ and I were really excited. We are enjoying the progress.

We started having Sophia say “sorry” to Phoebe when she hits her or makes her cry. She picked up on it right away and I have been able to get her to apologize to her sister several times, but now she uses sorry for so many things. She says it if she bumps herself, or drops something, or any little thing she might see as an oops. As sweet as that is we are trying to focus her back on really only saying it if she hurts someone. She can be so sweet.

Tags: family,Heather,kids,Phoebe,Sophia,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Sophia’s unexplained fever was apparently the start of a sinus infection. She lovingly spread it to Phoebe and myself. I can’t remember the last time I was so sick with sinusitis.

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…….

Tags: family,kids,Phoebe,Sophia,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Phoebe, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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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.

Tags: family,kids,Phoebe,Sophia,weekly update
Categories: Heather, Phoebe, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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