Wednesday, July 27th (day 28/365)

Today we went to baby class and hung out with our friends

And we got stuck in the climbing toys.

You win some, you lose some.

Tuesday, July 26th (day 27/365)

I like how this picture makes it look like Phoebe is reading the book when really she is just trying to decide which page looks tastiest.

Good literature is delicious!

Monday, July 25th (day 26/365): Making baby chicken, a photo essay for Hayley

My friend Hayley was asking about how I made Phoebe's (and Danger's) baby chicken.  Since I was making some more anyway, I thought I'd just take some pictures:

Baby's hungry!  Make me some chicken!

Step 1 is to gather your ingredients.  You will need one glass of wine (this is for you, not the baby) ...

... some chicken (this is about half a chicken breast, but it was a giant - definitely made me doubt the "no hormones/organic" designation), and a chicken-chopping device.  This chicken is also already cooked.  I steamed it.  The baby food site I read said that technically the chicken retains more vitamins if you bake it, but I figure I am making baby food rather than buying it, I'm not going to stress over it.  Also, most of it is going to end up smeared on the high chair or the floor.  I don't think my floor needs any more iron or Vitamin C.

You also need some water.  I usually just slop it in there until everything blends.  BUT I decided to get all scientific and measure it this time.  I started with one cup.

It is also useful to have an assistant.

Pour some of the water into the chicken and blend away.  You will probably need to stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the pureeing device and to add more water.  I just kept blending until things looked liquefied.  This is gross.  You might need to refill your wine at this point.  You might be tempted to taste-test, I would recommend against this.  It tastes like chicken, but the texture is decidedly un-chicken-like.

Science results!  It looks like I used between a third and a half cup of water.

Chicken mixed with broccoli and cauliflower - all made from scratch with love.  Let's feed it to the baby!

No thanks!

Seriously?  I don't think so.

Why are you doing this to me?  Can't I just have some of those delicious puff things?  Or maybe a jar of squash?

Oh well, at least the cat cleaned his plate.

 

Not pictured?  The part where the motor in my mini food processor started to catch fire.  But I am pretty sure that step is optional.

Sunday, July 24th (day 25/365)

Both Phoebe and I were filling a little under the weather on Sunday.  It was pretty much a stay home in our jammies kind of day.

Saturday, July 23rd (day 24/365)

Today was swimming lessons!  Typically on Satudays, Jeremy takes Phoebe to swimming lessons and I meet my friend Lori to run on the oceanfront path.  Then I meet back up with Jeremy and the munchkin after swimming and we run our errands for the week.  This Saturday, I got back from running in time to see some of the swimming lessons!

Watching Daddy blow bubbles

Saying Hi to Mom

Kicking!

All tuckered out from swimming!

Friday, July 22nd (day 23/365)

Now that Phoebe is pulling herself up, we wanted to find her a few toys that she could safely stand up and hang on to.  At baby class there were some little plastic play tables that Phoebe really seemed to like, and we were lucky enough to find a very similar one at the consignment store.  Even better, it was only a dollar because the sound is broken.  Hahaha.  Jeremy and I would have paid extra to have the sound broken.  We didn't think Phoebe would notice.

This should be talking to me in English and in Spanish, but it is just sitting here.  It is so hard to get good help these days.

Well, at least Danger doesn't seem to mind the lack of sound

Thursday, July 21st (day 22/365)

We are very lucky to have Danger to keep an eye on things.  Without him, I'm not sure how we'd know we were taking care of the baby correctly.  He seems to be especially concerned with feeding the baby ...

I see you are preparing to feed the baby.  May I suggest chicken? 

Baby, are you really going to settle for this bottle nonsense?  Demand CHICKEN.

You know what would go great with that applesauce?  Chicken.

Wednesday, July 20th (day 21/365)

Today was a pretty typical Wednesday

We ate our socks

And played with our exersaucer

Then we went to our baby class

When daddy got home, we played a little

Danger helped us clean up after dinner

And then we got sleepy and went to bed.

Tuesday, July 19th (day 20/365)

Phoebe is very insistent on being able to feed herself.  At first she was satisfied if we gave her a spoon to play with while we fed her, but lately she's become a bit more demanding.  She definitely keeps us on our toes!

Phoebe is getting to be a pro at the sippy cup.  She gets very excited as soon as she sees "sippy" getting put together.  For that reason, we have to try to get it ready out of her sight, otherwise she'll start throwing a fit until the cup is in her grubby little hands.  To teach her how to use the sippy cup Jeremy developed a song/dance combo titled "You must tip to sip".  It is pretty awesome.

We're working on the pincher grip.  Phoebe really prefers the "grab a fist of food and shove it all in my mouth at one time" grip. 

Have to make sure we eat enough to keep up our strength!  Phoebe is a very busy baby!

We constantly trying new foods with the little munchkin.  She has been rejecting pureed baby food a lot lately, but with no teeth the foods she can feed herself are pretty limited :)

Monday, July 18th (day 19/365)

What's cuter than a baby in overalls?  Not much!

Of course, Danger remains unconvinced

Sunday, July 17th (day 18/365)

Just another day at the Gottwoods ...

Baby sees Daddy with the remote.  Daddy says "not for babies ... haha"

Baby waits for daddy to turn his back and procures the remote.

Daddy retrieves remote from baby

GIVE. IT. BACK!

You have to sleep some time old man.

Oh the tragedy!!

Saturday, July 16th (day 17/365)

We started out the day helping mommy with laundry

Speaking of laundry - we have a lot of it these days.  Phoebe is pretty hard on clothes - I am pretty sure that stock in Spray-n-Wash has skyrocketed since the munchkin has been mobile.  Some days we undress her at the end of the day and wonder whether we should stain treat her clothes or just burn them.  Grandma Gottlieb knit Phoebe a fancy sweater and given that it is white and has to be washed on the delicate cycle, we figured we'd better get a picture of it before we let Phoebe actually destroy wear it.  We headed to the beach to get a couple of shots, but it turns out that the beach is way too exciting!  All we ended up with were out-takes, but the sweater looks lovely!  We might have to leave future photographic attempts to the professionals.

 We had a great family Saturday, but someone was a little bit of a stinker at bedtime.  Although she was clearly tired, Phoebe just wouldn't go to bed.  She threw a giant fit, so Jeremy finally brought her downstairs.  Since he and I were eating dinner, we plunked Phoebe down in her highchair so that she would get the message that fighting bedtime wasn't going to lead to extra playing.  This is what it looks like when an exhausted baby is trying to convince you that no, really, she is totally awake and not at all interested in sleep: