Sunday November 20 (day 143/365)

Today was my big race - I ran the Big Sur half marathon with my mom friends Lori and Mandy.  It was supposed to be really cold and rainy, but the weather was actually great and the scenery was beautiful!  We ended up doing a lot better than we thought we would, especially Mandy who we insisted leave us behind.  After the race, and some well-deserved greasy lunch, we came home and spent a lazy Sunday afternoon together.  I am really glad that I started running again!  I wanted to quit many times, but Jeremy encouraged me to keep going and made sure that I had enough time to train.  I had a really great time training for and doing the race and running has helped me reduce my stress level.  Lori and Mandy and I have already signed up for a 10k on New Years and will probably talk about some other races once we're fully recovered from this one :)  I hope that if we get a better jogging stroller we can even take the babies with us on some of them!

Jeremy and Phoebe met me at the finish line for the race.  It was so cool that they came out to cheer us on!

When we got home, Daddy and Phoebe watched the Bears.  You know what that means ... lots of TOUCHDOWNS!!!

Here Phoebe is showing off a close-up of her half-marathon t-shirt.  Actually, she's trying to eat the camera, but po-tay-to, po-TA-to.

Saturday November 19 (day 142/365)

Today was Phoebe's friend Henry's first birthday party.  After swimming we got lunch, picked up a present and took naps so we'd be well rested for the festivities.  Well, all except that last part.  Phoebe took her nap while we were shopping for presents so Jeremy and I didn't get a chance to snooze.  Despite the lack of naps, we managed to make it to the party.  We all had a really great time!  Henry's parents are super nice and a lot of our other friends from baby class were there as well.  It was a lot of fun to watch the babies all play with each other, and we have really enjoyed making friends with the parents of Phoebe's friends.  In some ways, I guess the baby has improved  our social life. 

Munchkin got all dressed up for the party in her monkey dress and the cute bow Grandma Joyce sent her.  Phoebe's parents look a little worse for wear, but nobody believes us when we blame it on the adorable baby. 

Henry had a baby-sized chair and Phoebe claimed it almost as soon as we got to the party.  She LOVED it.  She climbed right in and looked super cute lounging.

The downside of the comfy chair is that Phoebe got a tad possessive.  She was highly suspicious of other babies who came near her chair.

Henry also had a cool pop-up tunnel.  Phoebe was uninterested at first, but then her friend Milo crawled in and she couldn't stop herself from following him.  

Once she got a taste of the tunnel, Phoebe couldn't get enough. 

The babies were all pretty into the tunnel.  In fact, there were a few baby log jams.

Uh oh!  While Phoebe was in the tunnel, another baby found the chair.  Munchkin clearly needs to put an end to this situation!

Friday November 18 (day 141/365)

Today was the bake sale at Phoebe's school.  We spent a couple of nights frantically baking cookies so that we'd have some stuff to contribute to the sale.  Jeremy was pretty excited to get to drop off to see what everyone else brought.  $20 later, we ended up with some pretty yummy stuff.  Of course, we did it all for the children.  I mean if Jeremy eating a couple of cupcakes will earn the class some more supplies, he is definitely up for the challenge :)

Today was also the Thanksgiving dinner at Phoebe's school.  Jeremy was able to go during lunch to eat turkey with the munchkin.  Apparently since she refuses a morning nap, Phoebe usually passes out in the middle of lunch.  She managed to rally long enough to smile at her daddy and eat a little turkey but I guess right after Jeremy left she fell asleep.

Yummy cookies all packed up for the bake sale.

I am thankful my Daddy came to eat lunch with me!

Thursday November 17 (day 140/365)

One of Phoebe's other presents from Grandma was a cool set of tunnels with a play house.  Phoebe wasn't too sure about the tunnels, but she loved the box.  While Phoebe was inspecting the box, Danger made himself at home in the playhouse.  He was pretty upset when we put the whole thing away.  We put the tunnels in the closet and we'll try them again in a few months to see if Phoebe has warmed up to them.

Ooo, look what Grandma sent me!  This is the best present ever!

Look look look!  This present is so much fun!

Look Danger, isn't this box the best?!

Stupid baby.  You enjoy your box.  Kitty will just make himself at home in his new kitty palace.

Wednesday November 16 (day 139/365)

Phoebe had a rough Wednesday at school.  For some reason she just wouldn't nap, so by the time she got home, she was pretty tragic.  Luckily, there were some presents from Grandma Joyce waiting on the doorstep.  One of them was a set of new balls, Phoebe was super excited and refused to give up the basketball for any reason.  We even had to let her eat dinner with it on her tray.  From the pictures you can tell how totally exhausted she is.  It is ridiculous that Phoebe refuses to sleep even when she is clearly beyond tired.  I guess she is just worried she will miss something.  You'd think by now she'd realize how boring we are :)

Tuesday November 15 (day 138/365)

Today I tried to get a video of Phoebe doing the baby sign for "all done" which she does regularly.  I took at least 5 videos, but couldn't capture the sign on tape (part of it was our camera acting up - in all of the videos the audio is a few seconds ahead of the video for some reason).  So, instead, you get a picture of Phoebe "helping" us unpack the groceries.  For some reason, she latched on to a bottle of canola oil and would not let it go.

Monday, November 14 (day 137/365)

Today Phoebe's school was closed for the long Veteran's Day weekend.  Since I had to teach class, Jeremy spent the day at home with the little Doodle Bug.  They went to Parent's Place, ate lunch out, and spent some time at the park.  Both Jeremy and Phoebe had a great day, but I think Jeremy was really happy to see me when I got home from work :)  The munchkin is a lot of fun and totally adorable, but she is also incredibly tiring! 

Fun times with Daddy at the park

Are you just going to stand there or are you going to push this thing old man?

Pre-dinner story time with Mom.  Danger secretly plots his revenge.

Sunday, November 13 (day 136/365)

Today was one of those days when Phoebe was in her fourth outfit of the day by lunch time.  The first change was my fault.  Phoebe has recently had a growth spurt, so Jeremy and I have had to recalibrate where we have to put things for them to be out of her reach.  This morning I made a slight miscalculation with my coffee.  Luckily, having spent at least an hour between brewing the coffee and getting around to retrieving the cup from the coffee maker, it was ice cold by the time the baby found it.  Sadly, it was also full.  Phoebe got one mouthful of coffee and the rest of the cup ended down her front and on the carpet.  At first I didn't think it was that bad, but Phoebe was wearing a brown sleeper.  Once I took it off, I saw the full extent of the damage.  Here is photographic proof of my awesome parenting.

The second outfit actually met its demise in a very similar fashion.  Jeremy left his diet coke unattended for a second and when he turned around, Phoebe had poured it over her head into the hood of her jacket.  Since at this point she had thwarted both of our efforts at caffination, we were not 100% prepared to deal with the cleanup.  Some how we managed to get out the door to run our errands. Of course, the first place we tried to go was closed ...

The next change was due to a baby puke.  Phoebe has had some stomach issues off and on for about a month now.  Mostly, they manifest with clusters of projectile vomits.  The doctor isn't sure what is wrong, but for now we're testing the theory that it is a flare up of the old reflux problem Phoebe used to have as a newborn.  The muffin has been on Zantac for about two weeks and we thought it was working until the last few days.  At the last appointment we had, Phoebe had actually lost a few ounces, so we're going back again soon for a weight check.  We're hoping that this is just a phase and that everything will be back to normal soon!  Of course, today's puke might be chalked up to the baby getting both coffee and diet coke, so who knows :)

In the meantime, I am realizing my calculations on how many clothes we needed in the current size were based on the erroneous assumption that we'd only be going through one or two outfits a day.  A little later on, Phoebe tried to go for a fifth outfit, but luckily a little cracker-drool is easily dealt with using a damp cloth.

Saturday November 12 (day 135/365)

We had a pretty awesome Saturday!  I had to do a 10 mile training run today so we decided I would just run from home to the gym where swimming is to meet up with Phoebe and Jeremy.  It would have actually been about 10.75 miles to they gym, but it turns out to be almost exactly 11 to the Starbucks downtown Monterey, so I decided to do 11 - I do have priorities after all :)  After running and swimming, we met our friends the Sheaus for lunch at Chipotle.  On our way to lunch, Jeremy and I realized we were almost out of diapers in the diaper bag, so we stopped at Target to pick up a package.  At some point during the afternoon we managed to lose the ENTIRE package of diapers.  Not sure how that happens, but we blame the sleep deprivation.

After lunch, we went to the cool Dennis the Menace playground downtown Monterey.  I wasn't sure how much fun Phoebe would have since she is so little, but she LOVED it!  She was all over the place.  Phoebe also went down the slide by herself for the first time ever.  It went something like this:
Kate: I'd take Phoebe down the slide, but I'm not sure I'd fit
Jeremy: Just send her by herself
Kate: What!?!?!  Are you kidding?!?!?!  Poor little baby, I bet she'd be so scared all by herself.
Jeremy: Let's just try once.
Kate: If you insist
Phoebe: WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!  Let's do it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was worried so I was very careful to lay Phoebe all the way down and reach as far as I could before I let her go.  On subsequent runs she pretty much flung herself down the slide as soon as she saw it.

When we were all played out at the park, we went over to the aquarium. Now that Phoebe is a walker, she pretty much insists at walking everywhere.  And forget about holding her parents' hands - that is for BABIES.  This is fine in say, the living room.  At the crowded aquarium on the Saturday of a holiday weekend, not so much.  It was quite the workout chasing after the little muffin.

We worked up a big appetite, so we all came back to our place for pizza and cupcakes.  We are all pretty awesome parents because we managed to eat the cupcakes without alerting the babies to their presence.  We could pretend that we didn't feed the kids cupcakes because we were worried about the sugar or cavities or something, but it was probably more like we really didn't want to have to share :)

Phoebe and the Sheau's older son Kestrel are super cute together.  They played a lot of the day and were always giving each other hugs and high fives.  They also did some wrestling, almost always instigated by Phoebe.  She would toddle up behind Kestrel, grab him around the neck and pull him down to the ground.  Luckily, the little guy was a pretty good sport.

We had an awesome day!  We can't wait to hang out again.  We also didn't even bother to pack a camera. Geoff has a really good camera (and is a great photographer) so we told him he was on photo duty for the day.  All the pictures here are curtesy of Geoff.   Every time I see pictures he has taken I am tempted to buy a cool new camera.  Then I realize that it would still be me and Jeremy taking the pictures - a camera can only do so much :)

High Fives!!

Friday November 11 (day 134/365)

This past week we had a toy and clothing swap at Phoebe's daycare.  During the first part of the week, people could drop off old things they wanted to get rid of.  Then, later in the week anyone could go through the pile of stuff and take home new treasures.  We ditched a couple of big bags of old baby stuff and I had promised not to bring anything home.  But, as a member of the PTA, I had to help clean up after the swap (all the leftover toys and clothes get donated to the center).  As we were packing stuff up, I came across the perfect toy for Phoebe  - a baby remote control!  We brought it home, cleaned it up and gave it to Phoebe.  She was pretty thrilled - although she was pretty sure there was some catch - we wouldn't just hand her a remote control ... would we?  I am not sure she is completely fooled, after all real remotes don't have googly eyes and Elmo on them, but she is pretty excited to finally have her very own remote.

Thursday November 10 (day 133/365)

Phoebe has discovered the camera.  Now whenever I get it out she stops whatever she was doing and motors over to where I am.  Then, as soon as I take a picture, she demands to see the picture on the camera screen.  The end result is a lot of pictures like this:

Rather than capturing Phoebe in the middle of doing something cute, we get her on her way to grab the camera.  Hopefully this phase will pass soon, otherwise be prepared for 232 more days of baby camera grabbing shots :)

Wednesday November 9 (day 132/365)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Tuesday November 8 (day 131/365)

Happy election day!  It's never too early to be a good citizen.

Monday November 7 (day 130/365)

Someone did an art project at school today and came home covered in marker.  Right now her artist skills tend towards eating the supplies rather than actually doing the projects, but at least she's a cute marker-eater.

Luckily, there was another football game tonight, so we got to practice our touchdown skills again!