The Beaver

We're in the one month countdown. In just three weeks our little chunky monkey will be one. In many ways, it feels like Phoebe's always been around; in others, it only feels like days since she was born.

And since we're not planning on having any more kids, it makes Phoebe's aging all the more bittersweet. I've rounded up dozens of itty bitty baby clothes that both Phoebe and Charlotte wore and either donated them to a women's shelter or shipped them down to my friend who just had her first baby. Over the weekend, I sold our smaller Pack N Play on Craigslist to a woman who is expecting her third child and needs a little bassinet in her room. Let me take a deep breath and try not to sob.

....

Okay. Back to the present.

This month brought about some firsts. For one, I dealt with Chris' first business trip since having two girls. He was supposed to be gone for four days, but it only ended up being two - he will have to go back again sometime soon, so we'll have to deal with this all over again. Here's how crazy it was though. He left for the airport at 4 in the morning. Charlotte, whose room is directly above the garage, woke up when she heard the garage door and came into my room asking if it was time to get up yet. I told her no, but that she could sleep in the bed with me. This was a treat for her, so she proceeded to giggle and laugh and kick me, as I tried to get back to sleep. I had told her that if she couldn't be quiet, she would have to go back to her room. After about twenty minutes she whispered "I can't sleep. I'm going back to my room." Of course, by this point, it was about 15 minutes before I needed to wake up.

Did I mention that I needed to drop Phoebe off at 7AM and then Charlotte so I could get downtown by 8 (a 45 minute drive)? Anyway, I got dressed, woke up Phoebe, dressed her and then fed her. I was catching up on emails, so imagine my horror (and pain) when I look down to see Phoebe biting me. In my rush and panic to get her off me, I physically recoiled, which only caused her to clamp down harder. Ouch. Meanwhile, I'm screaming in pain, so when I finally do get her to detach, Phoebe is so upset she bursts into tears.

Anyway, I try to shrug off the pain (it's only happened that one time, thank goodness!), and get the girls to their respective daycares. Then I drive downtown to attend a one day conference. I saw a lot of my former colleagues, which was great. However, in the early afternoon, I started feeling like I was getting sick - my throat was really scratchy, and I was feeling lousy. I decided to leave the conference early, around 3:30, instead of 4. I'm heading down the freeway when I get a call from Chris - apparently, Charlotte's daycare had tried calling me, but couldn't reach me (the reception in the convention center isn't great), so called Chris instead. Charlotte had spiked a fever and needed to be picked up. Great. The one time Chris isn't home and I'm incommunicado, Charlotte needs to be picked up.

Luckily, Phoebe wasn't sick, so I limped through dinner and bedtime and got the girls to bed okay. Later, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to vomit. I must have been up most of the night either feeling feverish or nauseated. I dropped Phoebe off at daycare, and Charlotte and I spent the day watching movies on Netflix (it's so great that they have old Disney movies streaming now!). Charlotte, despite being sick, was thrilled at watching so much TV and asked if she could stay home with me everyday. Ha! So yeah, that was an exciting little adventure while Chris was out of town.

Moving on.

Phoebe is just a doll to be around. She still army crawls, clearly thinking there must be trip wires to crawl under at every turn. However, she easily gets up on her hands and knees to climb the stairs or pull up on anything. I don't understand why she hasn't figured out that crawling on her hands and knees is so much quicker. We did notice, however, that she has to crawl on her hands and knees if she wants to suck her thumb at the same time. Maybe that'll get her crawling!

Phoebe is much more adventurous than Charlotte. She uses Charlotte's little chair to climb up on the couch and she climbs up and over anything that's in her way. At the same time, she's much more content just cuddling. When she's tired, she'll come crawl in my lap and lay across me. It's very sweet.

No new words. She sometimes calls Chris "Dada" but she never calls me anything. Tandy is clearly the "t" sound as she reserves it for when Tandy's around. We've been trying to teach her baby signs, particularly the sign for "more, " but she'd rather make the most annoying sound in the world when she wants more food. Oh well, she'll get there.

And now to the subject of this post. Phoebe has two enormous front teeth - we call her Phoeber Beaver! In fact, the two teeth on either side of her front teeth look they might be coming in under her front teeth, since the front teeth are so big they're crowding them out. I'm taking her to the dentist in April when I take Charlotte, but I'm wondering if I need to do anything before then? This is uncharted territory for me, since my teeth and Charlotte's teeth are smaller than normal. Hmm.

Next month - her birthday party! I'm making it a small affair, mainly because I don't know what the weather is going to be like (it was pouring for four days straight while we were in the hospital).