TheGottwoods: 7.5 Weeks

Phoebe is about 7 and a half weeks old now. This past week has been pretty eventful. We had about a week of really great, calm baby followed by three or four days of very grumpy fussy baby. Needless to say, we've been busy trying to get back that nice calm baby as quickly as possible. We may be on our way - this evening Phoebe had two gigantic back-to-back poops, and has been feeling much better about life ever since. [Sorry, this is a blog primarily about the baby - you had to figure we'd get around to poo eventually - at least there aren't pictures]

Other things that happened this week were: Phoebe went to a work meeting with me, Phoebe had her first baby sitter, we had a dinner guest, Phoebe met her first Chicago friend and Jeremy [finally] got his girl scout cookie order. On Wednesday there was a meeting I wanted to go to at school, so Phoebe came with me. She was definitely a hit and my colleagues enjoyed meeting her. I stood in the back and bounced her in the carrier for most of the talk, and she was really well behaved for about an hour and a half. Once she started fussing I just slipped out the back. This was actually an interesting meeting, but it does strike me that a baby might be the perfect meeting accessory - "wow, I'd love to stay and talk about this more, but I think the baby needs ... a diaper change ... yeah, a diaper change".

As soon as people here knew I was pregnant we started getting lots of offers of babysitting. I thought people were just being polite, but Jeremy was willing to call their bluff. Since Phoebe and I are leaving for a while, Jeremy and I decided to go out for a meal together. We rarely get a chance to talk uninterrupted by Phoebe and we almost never get to eat at the same time. So, this Sunday, our friend Rachel came over to watch the Fusser and Jeremy and I went out for a really nice lunch at a local fish place. Phoebe was pretty good for Rachel and only started to melt down right as we were getting home. Rachel even offered to come over to watch her again!

Now that we're officially out of food that other people made us, we're having to fend for ourselves around dinner time. When Phoebe was being relatively calm, we got bold and decided to try to cook something that required more than just opening a package from Trader Joe's and microwaving/heating in the oven. On Tuesday we made crock pot chicken and dumplings and had Leslie over to eat with us and to watch the big human vs. computer Jeopardy match. It is always lots of fun to hang out with Leslie and she's always happy to take a turn with Phoebe - even when she's crying (Phoebe, not Leslie).

Today one of our Chicago friends, Damon, was in town for work, so we took Phoebe into Monterey to meet him. Damon has a really cool job at a car magazine and was here to test drive a fancy new Mustang but I'm sure meeting Phoebe was just as exciting :) We took some pictures of Phoebe getting some Damon-snuggles but they are on Jeremy's phone, so I'll have to stick them in a separate post after I get a chance to upload them. Until then, here are a few other pictures from the last week and a half.

Here is Phoebe playing in her bouncy seat. Here I think she is actually also helping me make dinner. If she's happy in her bouncy, I can usually get a little bit of work done as long as I narrate what I am doing to keep her entertained.

Same picture from a different angle. You can see that Danger was keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings from the safety of the hamper.

Last weekend we went for a big family walk around the neighborhood park. Phoebe loves the outside! She gets snuggled into the carrier and then she tries to get as high up as possible, throws her head back, and spends the walk sticking out her tongue to taste the air (kind of like a puppy sticking its head out the car window). It is pretty funny to watch.

This picture is just here to show off Phoebe's cute bunny hat.

Here Phoebe and Dad are rocking their matching optimist shirts (both say "Half Full"). Since you can't see Phoebe's shirt too well, here is a close up:

Phoebe looks a little crazy in this picture because I am dangling a toy to try to get her look at the camera - apparently not a winning strategy at this point :)

Here she is mid-yawn - the baby is clearly over this photo-shoot.

Here Jeremy poses with the two most misunderstood mammals in the world - at least to hear them tell it. Danger and Phoebe often joust for whiniest creature in the house. Danger felt pretty neglected before Phoebe came along - now the only thing that keeps him from calling the ASPCA is his lack of opposable thumbs.

I love this next sequence of shots: