Phoebe's First Birthday

Here she is: officially no longer a baby, now a big girl. (Snif, snif.) Her day started off great with Mommy at home with a 2-hour delay from school, and Daddy making her birthday pancakes for breakfast. Her Gingerbread Birthday Party went off without a hitch: gingerbread men, gingerbread cake, gingerbread outfit, gingerbread pajamas, gingerbread house decorating- what fun! She gots lots of really cute clothes (which the adults all enjoyed oohing and ahhing over- Phoebe just pushed them away) and some really awesome cards that were lots of fun to play with and chew on! Cookie Monster was a BIG hit- yay Mommy! And the cake eating was, of course, hilarious- she was so dainty at first, picking off all the icing and eating it just a bit at a time...but then the sugar must have kicked in, because she started eating the cake by the fistful after that! All in all, it was an awesome birthday!

Radio Flyer

Here is Phoebe playing with one of her very first birthday presents: a Radio Flyer scooter from Grandma Adams! We thought she would be too small to work the thing, but she figured it out right away and just took off! It was hilarious- we all laughed until we cried- especially when she would bump into somehting and grunt, like, "Hey, turn me around- I'm not going anywhere!" What a great gift!

Fun at Grampa's House

Here's the Phebes, having fun hanging out at Grampa's house over Thanksgiving. Some of her favorite activities there include playing dominos with Grampa, taking all the magnets off the fridge, pulling out pots and pans, looking out the sliding glass door, and getting chased around by Grammy and Grampa. They got her some special magnets for toddlers, so she can play with magnets all she wants now! These even make sounds and sing songs! Grampas house is the best! :)

Phoebe Meets Santa!!

Here's Phoebe meeting Santa for the very first time! This was taken today, the day before her first birthday, at Castleton Square Mall. Daddy was home with her all day, and picked out her cute outfit and did her hair too! Mommy met them at the mall to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Phoebe was very excited to meet Santa and sit on his lap...and was quite the ham for the camera too! Just after this photo, however, things took a turn, and she decided that she wasn't sure about the whole thing after all...that is, until Santa saved the day by giving her two presents: a candy cane and a marker set! Phoebe held her marker set high in the air, waving it around like a trophy and babbling up a storm. She carried it around that way for a good five minutes in the stroller, until she tried to eat it, and then Mommy had to store it in her purse for a while. Ho ho ho- Merry Christmas!!

Turkey Baby

So continues my lifelong connection with turkeys: I was born on Thanksgiving, so my family calls me "turkey baby," and now I have a turkey baby of my own! This was going to be Phoebe's Halloween costume until we came up with the sailor idea- so we decided that she would just dress up as a turkey for Thanksgiving. Today was our dress rehearsal, so we could make sure the thing actually fit before our Thanksgiving-in-Indy this weekend- it fit like a glove! The best part about the whole outfit is that the tummy area has stuffing in it to make a little turkey fat-belly! Hee hee!

Chompers

So Phoebe is teething...BIG TIME! When these pictures were taken less than a month ago, we were so impressed that you could see that she had her first two bottom teeth just barely peeking through the gums- now she has SIX MORE coming through on top! Wow! And she is trying them out on everything in sight- teething rings, finger foods, fingers, and OTHER BABIES! That's right, Phoebe is a biter. :( I was traumatized today when I picked her up from school to learn that there had been an "incident." There had been an "incident" the other day too- she bit onto a chair so hard that she made her little gums bleed- I figured it was something like that. But nooo- apparently she had crawled over to one of the other babies who can't crawl yet, and Phoebe crawled up on her and bit her face hard enough to draw a little bit of blood! Oh my gosh! Miss Alyson assured us that this was just a phase that many babies go through, where she's just tring to put some counter pressure on her sore gums by biting on whatever she can- human or inanimate objects alike- and that it was not a cause for major concern. Riiiight....I feel like I'm raising a cannibal here! Poor Phoebe...and poor other babies! Apparently Phoebe needs some more teething rings! Jeez! :(

First School Pictures

Here are Phoebe's very first school pictures! The ones of her in the blue shirt are actually the first ones, but there was some sort of technical problem with the equipment on that day, so most of the batch didn't turn out. As a result, they came back to do retakes (the one with the brown shirt.) So it was kind of a bummer, because the blue shirt ones would have been super cute if they would have been focused better, cause the brown shirt ones were snapped right before she started bawling- apparently the photographer was some scary looking dude. But, as you can see, I OF COURSE got suckered into buying a set of BOTH shots- they saw me coming a mile away. Oh well- they were worth every penny, in my opinion! :)

Trick or Treat?

Here's our little sailor! We dressed up for a Halloween costume party and Halloween itself as a family of sailors this year! Phoebe was a big hit in her little sailor dress and tiny white cap- soooo cute!! (Our costumes were pretty good too, if I do say so myself!) Phoebe didn't know what to think at the costume party we went to in La Porte- she was very well-behaved throughout the whole party- she kept just looking around at everybody like, "Where am I? Who- or what- are you?" She won a 1st place ribbon for the costume contest! Yay! Then we had our own little Halloween celebration here at our house on Halloween- Dad, Deb, Nick, Amber, Mike, and Beth all came over- mostly in costume- and we hung around here, had snacks, and listened to this AWESOME CD of spooky sounds. :) Mean old Granpa Derringer tried to scare Phoebe with a really creepy mask, but when her face crumpled and she stuck out her bottom lip, he traded it in for a more "Phoebe-friendly" alternative: a weird wig and fangs- much better! Then we all headed out and took Phoebe out for her first Trick or Treating experience up and down the block! She was hilarious- Matt was holding her and her bag, and when people tried to give her candy, she'd reach for it, then turn away at the last minute like she was all shy. But then she'd turn right around again, reach for it, and then turn back towards her Daddy again. It was too funny- all the neighbors got a kick out of it. She had a good time "sorting" through all of her candy at home, and Mommy had a good time swiping the candy out of her little mitts when she tried to chew on it. Maybe next year...for now, the candy's just for the grown ups! :)

9 Month Photos

Here are Phoebe's nine moth photos...sorry I'm just now posting them- it's already time to have 10 month photos taken! Wow! Oh Auntie Beth... :) This was Phoebe's first time sitting in the grass barefoot- she was very skeptical! She is developing such a cool little personality- she's very delicate and precise with everything she does. She picks up food with just two fingers, and is very dainty about the way she eats. (Biter biscuits NOT included!) When she was first learning to crawl, she was very precise in her movements- one hand forward, one leg forward, just like a little wind up doll. And sitting in the grass was the same thing: she pursed her lips, wiggled her toes, and looked at it like, "Well what is THIS? I don't think I want to touch this stuff- it feels funny- you can go ahead and pick me up now please." What a funny little thing- high maintenance already...wonder where she woiuld be getting that from...?

Phoebe's Little Brother or Sister To Be!

Here's some photos from our 14 week ultrasound yesterday- Phoebe was with us, and got all fussy because she wanted to get out of the stroller and take a look at the screen- can't blame her- she just wanted to say hi to her baby brother or sister! And look, peanut was waving back at her! Friends already! :)

First Time Carving Pumpkins

Here's Daddy and Phoebe, investigating what pumpkin insides are like...turns out, they're pretty yucky! Phoebe just wanted to stick one finger in the pumpkin guts, and turned up her nose at the icky sticky stuff! That is, until she tried to pop a pumpkin seed in her mouth! We had to let all the grown ups have all the fun, carving all the awesome pumpkins you see below!

1st Annual Derringer Pumpkin Day

Here we are at the 1st Annual Derringer Pumpkin Day at Stoneycreek Farms. Phoebe had fun being outside all day, looking at the barnyard animals, watching Mommy do the pumpkin slingshot, eating carnival food (well, that was just the grown ups), watching Mommy fall off the hay stack, taking a hayride, picking out pumpkins from the patch, and taking a nap in the stroller!

A Few Random October Photos

Here are just a couple random October photos- there's me & Uncle Carl at our last LaPorte visit. Then there's me comparing my second trimester belly to my pumpkin, and Phebes standing up like a big girl in her "cage."

Biter Biscuit

Here it is: the long awaited biter biscuit! Yay! It was just as we had hoped- super messy and super cute!! She was a little skeptical at first, but it took her, oh, about 20 seconds to decide that she was going to devour this thing! She reminded me of those old-fashioned cartoon characters that ate corn on the cob like a typewriter- you know, chew-chew-chew-chew-chew- DING! chew-chew-chew-chew...you get the idea! She was quite pleased with the mess she made, and was promptly placed in the tub to be de-crustified. Just another day in the life! :)

Back to Blogging!

Whew! What a whirlwind couple of weeks! Between Phoebe being sick, getting better, me and my morning/all day sickness, Phoebe getting sick again, getting ready for Nick and Amber's wedding, doctor's appointments, etc., etc., etc. it's been like a madhouse around here! I feel like I can finally take a breath...ahhhhhh....now then, here are a few photos of Phoebe over the past weeks- first, there she is hanging out at Nick and Amber's rehearsal dinner. The rest of the pictures are of her at Mike and Beth's while Nick and Am were opening their presents. Now that all the hub-bub is over and done with, hopefully things will be calm and I can come back to updating the blog every few days...I miss it! :)