#OhPhoebe

I really feel like every story about Phoebe, should now end with the hashtag, #OhPhoebe. She just never ceases to amaze.

Phoebe has now been in a big girl bed for a week. We made the transition in a hurry after my parents were watching the girls while we went on vacation and woke up to her screaming in the middle of the night (She was dangling off the side of the crib). It started out okay, albeit with some mishaps. Last Saturday, she refused to take a nap and instead grabbed books from the closet, some of which she shredded page by page. As a book lover, these acts really disturb me. As for Phoebe, she'll see a book that she destroyed and say: "I tore that." (But aren't you upset that you tore that?! GAH!)

The first night, it took her a few tries to stay in bed. She wanted to have her shutters open, so we'd go in each time we could see light streaming out of the room. I had also put a brand new bedside lamp by her bed, but she turned it on so much that first night that we took it out. Finally, we let her keep the shutters open and after she was actually asleep, we'd go in and shut them.

The next couple of nights were okay. I was beginning to think things were going pretty smoothly. Silly Stephanie! Fast forward to Thursday night. At around 4 AM, I woke up to find her next to the bed, staring at me, her face inches from my head. I yelped with fright, and pulled her into bed with me. She was quiet and not fidgeting, but I don't sleep when my children sleep with me, so after about 20 minutes, I nudged Chris and told him to put her back in bed. He said, "You're talking in your sleep again." He was seriously shocked to see her in bed with us. Chris took her back to bed and about 30 seconds later, she was out of her room and headed back to ours. So Chris had to continue putting her back in her room for about an hour. Awesome.

Friday night, I went out with friends to an 80s cover band called Tainted Love. It was super fun, but even though I didn't stay for the entire show, I still got back at around 12:30, which is really late for me. At 3 AM, we woke up to Phoebe screaming. Chris turned on the hallway light, went in and comforted her, and then left. As soon as he turned off the light, the screaming started up again. This happened several times. Finally, I decided to go in and sleep with her (she has a double bed, so at least there was room for me).

We went to the mountains on Saturday morning to visit with my aunt and uncle and grandparents, who had rented a cabin for a few nights near Donner Lake. The cabin owners are members of this homeowners association that allows access to a huge community pool. The weather was really hot for Tahoe, so we all enjoyed ourselves at the pool and got back to the cabin around 2 or 2:30. It was definitely past Phoebe's naptime. I put her in the room where the four of us would be sleeping. It took a few times of me gently reminding her to take a nap before the room was quiet. My aunt and uncle took my cousins and Charlotte to Truckee for some ice cream. Chris and I watched a movie on the third level (well, he watched all of it, and I napped for a good chunk of the time). Finally, at around 5:15, I decided I'd better wake Phoebe up or she wouldn't want to go to sleep later.

I found her passed out on the bed with the bedside light on. It was a hurricane style type lamp, you know, the type with glass surrounding the bulb. She had somehow taken the hurricane glass off so that now the paper lampshade was touching the bulb. I don't know how long it was like that, but the hot bulb was burning a hole in the lampshade! She could have seriously started a fire! And she was sleeping only a couple feet away. I shudder to think what could have happened to her had I waited much longer to get her up. (We immediately put the lamp up high on a shelf in the closet).

When we got home yesterday afternoon, we decided to do something drastic, which we hope will only be temporary. We changed the handle on her door so that it locks from the outside. And it's clear we needed to because shortly after midnight we woke up to hear her screaming, "Mommy? Mommy!" She had woken up and had tried to get out of her room. Chris put her back in her bed and luckily we did't hear any more from her after that.

Overall, Phoebe's a quick learner, so I'm hopeful we won't have to do this for much longer. But we can't have her roaming all over the house in the middle of the night either. We have too many stairs and too many lamps that can be turned off and on.

#OhPhoebe

Phoebe's Summer

Here are some pictures texted to me by Phoebe's daycare lady. Since she has a big car and extra car seats, the kids get to do fun things over the summer.

Making streusel

Playing dress up - I love her little face!

Going on a ride at Chuck E Cheese

Playing mini golf

Going to a park with water features

Helping in the mail car at the California State Railroad Museum

I'm glad she's having such a fun time with Miss Susie and friends!

Charlotte Round-up

Wow! I have really gotten bad at this blogging thing.

Last I posted, I mentioned Charlotte would be graduating from preschool. Well, this happened on June 6.

The kids all entered wearing adorable red graduation gowns and caps to the first song from Frozen. Then they changed into handmade shirts with each of their hand prints on them and proceeded to sing "Let it Go". So cute.

Here's Charlotte (and Phoebe) with her teacher, Ms. Kim.

And with her former teacher, Ms. Cheryl.

Then Charlotte got sick. Right after this happened. And she remained sick for over two weeks. It seems that every time she gets sick it goes straight to her lungs so that she hacks and coughs like crazy. We spent the next couple weeks with her home a bunch. This included a trip to San Diego. Anyway, after going to the doctor three times over two weeks, we got it under control. Unfortunately, all signs point to asthma. She's currently on the allergy medicine Singulair, which is a pill she takes daily before bedtime. She also has two inhalers, but we're waiting to see if she really needs the steroid one on a twice daily basis. (Her doctor takes very conservative approach and doesn't want her on all sorts of medication unless really necessary).

We even had to go to the doctor's on her birthday. They gave her oral steroids for the wheezing, which made her a little loopy at her birthday dinner.

My parents got her a pink digital camera for her birthday. These are some of my favorite shots that she took.

Learning to take a selfie

 

 

 

 

More selfies

This creepy turtle in some movie at my parents' house

Her leg - very abstract

Phoebe legs and a goat at the San Diego Zoo

There are about 5 of these - Chris didn't know she'd taken them until later

There are a bunch more, including ones of a cable, ducks, a piano, and the floor. Hilarious.

I took Charlotte to her 5 year well child visit yesterday. She is now 42.75 inches (that's 3 inches taller than a year ago), and 39.3 pounds. She's a wee skinny thing. To put it in some perspective, she was 28 pounds at her 2 year visit, so it's taken her three years to gain 11 pounds.

4th of July. We went to my co-worker's in-laws' house in Corning, California, which is northwest of Chico. Apparently, it's where most of the olives and olive oil come from in California. My co-worker's in-laws have a large property covered with olive trees and plum trees. Charlotte loved picking plums straight from the tree. She must have eaten five at least. There was a bounce house water slide, a tractor/quad parade, quad rides, and (illegal) fire works. We didn't stay for the fire works, but both girls got a ride on the quad. We had a fantastic time.

Unbelievably, Charlotte starts Kindergarten five weeks from today!