Sunday, December 23, 2012

PHOTOS!

So, did you notice there was a photo in that last post?  After our last update that we were at our Blogger limit for photos, my mom called and asked how much it would cost to add storage to the blog.  At which point I had to confess that we at the Gottwoods were taking a stand over .... $2.49 a month.

The shame of admitting that almost got me to just sign up for the extra storage.  Almost.  But, then I investigated and found that you can actually include images from Flickr in your Blogger blog posts which is what I did for the Santa picture.  I'll have to see if I can get it to work with more than one photo in a single post, but for now the Gottwoods lives on.

Santa Visit 2012

The Gottwood family tradition continues - complete child traumatization via Santa! This year we thought things would go more smoothly since Phoebe is able to understand things a little better (unlike last year where we heartlessly threw her into the lap of a giant bearded stranger). For about a week leading up to the trip we'd talk about Santa, lingering on the bringing presents part. We even practiced what to tell him to bring (she asked for "SnuffalupagusBigBird with all the other guys"). When we got there, Phoebe maintained that she was definitely interested in seeing Santa so we waited in a super long line. When we finally got to the front:

  by lockwoodkate
, a photo by lockwoodkate on Flickr.
Poor Santa!

Also, Phoebe dressed herself this morning.  We kept trying to suggest something a little more festive, but she insisted the sweatpants would look stunning in her Santa picture.  What?  You didn't notice the sweatpants?  You were too distracted by the evil parent holding the struggling, screaming child?  Well, maybe that was her plan all along :)

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Holiday Card 2012!

Every year we say we are going to get holiday cards and every year we don't quite get around to it.  Last year we made it about halfway through a homemade card before calling it quits.  This year we just went ahead and bought photo cards.  We figure everyone would rather get a bunch of pictures of Phoebe than hear about what we've been up to all year anyway.  Here's a preview.  They should get to us just before Christmas so we'll send them out around New Years.  Please let us know if you want to be included on our FIRST EVER holiday card list :)

Tiny Prints Snapshot  <- click="click" for="for" link="link" p="p" preview="preview" the="the" this="this">

Slight Change at the Gottwoods

It turns out that we have reached our photo storage limit here at Blogger.  Bummer.  That means no more photos or videos uploaded directly to the blog unless we pay for additional storage.  We are cheap thrifty so we'd prefer not to do that.  We're going to experiment with a few other ways to store our content elsewhere and just link to it here.  That might mean a few more clicks to see adorable Phoebe pictures, but we'll do our best to make sure it isn't too much of a pain.  We'll always link to photos here so that you don't have to go checking 20 different places to see what we're up to.  There are some Hanukkah photos up at tumblr:

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/thegottwoods

Tumblr is another blogging platform, not a photosharing site so it might not be the best fit.  We're going to look into some other options, but for now this will let us continue to both be thrifty and share photos of the Doodle Bug.



Happy Hanukkah 2012!


Phoebe wishes everyone a very Happy Hanukkah!

Both Jeremy and I have had a very busy few weeks at school, so we didn't get quite as much holiday prep work done as we might have liked.  We have ideas for family traditions we'd like to start, but they may have to wait until next year :)  For the first night of Hanukkah 2012, we settled for lighting candles and a traditional Hanukkah dinner of Spaghetti and meatballs.


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Happy birthday Grandpa Alan!!!

Monday was my dad's birthday.  He probably didn't remember, so Phoebe (and Jeremy) recorded a little reminder.  We love you Grandpa!  Hope you had a great birthday!!



Monday, August 13, 2012

Scooter!

The two little girls across the street offered Phoebe their out-grown princess scooter and she was super excited to accept.  She isn't quite coordinated enough to ride it very fast, but she loves taking it out for a spin.


Good morning Mommy!

What do you mean it isn't morning yet?  I think I heard Daddy say something about "f-ing four in the morning".  I am not sure what that first word was, but he clearly said "in the morning"

You don't look so great.  Do you feel ok?  You should probably get more sleep.  And be less grumpy.

Phoebe will take care of you.  How about some coffee?

You don't look so great, I'd better make this a double.



Here you go Mommy, you will feel better soon.  Can we talk about my waffles now?

Squirrel Video

Here is a short video of Phoebe meeting the squirrels at the park


Sunday, August 12

This week there is a big classic car race and auction in town and it is pretty much the second best week of Phoebe's life (right after the week when all the motorcycles were in town).  Downtown is full of cool old cars and huge trucks.  Sometimes, if we are really lucky, a truck will be open and we'll get a glimpse of a car inside a truck.  Phoebe finds that to be hilarious she'll slap her forehead and yell "OH MY!" then for the next five minutes she will go on and on about the "vroom in the tuck" (vroom is Phoebe's word for any fast car, or any car that is red).

This Sunday, they let all the guys who will be racing next weekend take some practice laps around the track.  The cheap seats were free, so we took Phoebe to check out the vrooms.  We were able to get really close and Phoebe loved the pace laps.  Then the race laps started and Jeremy and I realized that neither one of us had stopped to think about the fact that we could hear the cars from our house ten miles away ... which meant it was actually pretty deafening standing right next to the track.  Our ears hurt after a few laps, so I can't imagine how the poor Phoebers felt!  Next year we will have to find some baby ear plugs so we can take her back - the Doodles loves her race cars!

[Although she does not love race cars as much as motorcycles.  On the drive to the track we kept saying "we're going to go see the vrooms" and Phoebe would reply hopefully "and momos??".]


As another aside, Phoebe also dressed herself today.  I tried to put her in another pair of pants but she squirmed and threw a fit.  Finally I asked "Phoebe, would you like different pants?".  She replied "more fuzz".  We went upstairs, opened her pants drawer and she triumphantly pulled out her fleece pants yelling "fuzzy pants!".

Fuzzy pants and vrooms - it doesn't get much better than that (unless there are motorcycles)

Monday, August 13

We had quite the afternoon today!  Jeremy and I picked Phoebe up early from school and we went to Pacific Grove to get family pictures taken.  We decided to get pictures taken in a park with nice scenery and we were a little early, so we went for a family walk.  Phoebe was having a good time hanging out and looking at the ocean ... and then she saw her first squirrel ... from then on she was having a GREAT time - chasing squirrels.  The squirrels are pretty tame.  We're pretty sure people must feed them, and this is a "no dogs" park so they have free run of the place.







When Phoebe was done terrorizing the wildlife, we met up with the photographer and got our photos done.  The little doodle bug did her darndest to make sure the poor photographer didn't get any shots of her smiling, but we think we got a few good shots.  The pictures should be ready in a few weeks, so we'll let you know how they turn out.

After pictures, we took Phoebe out for pizza as a special treat for at least pretending to cooperate for about two minutes at the beginning of the pictures.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Monday, July 23

One of my friends is in the hospital and not feeling well, so each of the last two days we've taken the doodle bug over for a visit to spread some cheer.  Well, yesterday we spread cheer.  Today, Phoebe was a little cranky so we mostly spread tantrums all over the hospital.  The Phoebster can throw quite the tantrum.  We don't have any video yet, but she provides us with so many opportunities, I'm sure we'll be able to capture one soon.

While we were at the hospital, we took Phoebe to visit the Koi in the atrium pool.  The volunteers at the info desk give little kids cups of fish treats so they can feed the fish.  The fish have learned that small humans mean treats, so they all swam over to check out Phoebe.  She was pretty excited, but then started to get agitated when Jeremy insisted on holding on to her so she couldn't jump in and swim with the fishes.  We are such mean parents.





BUBBLES!!!!



Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday, July 2

More morning wake up time snuggling with our lovies.  This time in our chair that got dragged into the kitchen.  Phoebe does like to redecorate!







Tuesday, July 3

Phoebe has started sleeping with a collection of lovies referred to collectively as "MIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNE!!!!!" whenever one of them is temporarily out of her line of sight.  She has a blankie, a glow worm that was a hand-me-down from her buddies next door, and a stuffed black kitty that my mom gave her.  Every day when we start story time, we have to make sure that all the lovies are arranged just so.  They stay with her all night, and if she has a hard time waking up, they come down stairs with her too.  Monday night was pretty rough, so when Phoebe woke up early this morning, some lovey snuggle time was definitely called for!



By dinner time, things had definitely perked up.





Wednesday, July 4

To celebrate the 4th of July we helped some friends move.  They have two kids, so while some subset of the parents worked on the actual moving, the others wrangled kids.  During one of my kid shifts I took Phoebe and the almost-three-year-old to the local park.  They had a ton of fun and I was just happy that I managed to keep them both alive and head-injury free during my watch.

We had a great time and at the end of the day we grilled out and caught up.

Playing on the slide (I should admit that I convinced them to go down the slide together, not realizing that the bottom had been sitting in the sun all day and was super hot.  When they hit the hot spot they both started crying.  Yep, I am a pretty awesome baby sitter!)

Snack Time!  After scalding the kids on the hot slide, I distracted them  from their injuries with a snack break.  All was well until they started stealing each other's water bottles.  I am pretty sure that this shot is photographic proof that Phoebe started it.

Thursday, July 5

Today at dinner we had sweet potato fries - one of Phoebe's favorites.

I put dinner on the table, buckled Phoebe into her seat and went back to the kitchen to grab everyone's drinks.  When I got back to the table, Phoebe had pushed her plate out of the way, dragged over the sweet potato fries, and was happily helping herself.



Friday, July 6

Phoebe loves to look out the window - her new little picnic table is just the right height that when she stands on it she can keep an eye on the neighborhood.  She also loves to be naked.  Her nudity, combined with looking out the window makes her a prime candidate for our street's reverse peeping Tom :)


The Weekend (Saturday, July 7 and Sunday, July 8)

This weekend was busy but fun.  On Saturday we went to Palo Alto to help our friends move.  Gone are the days when helping friends move involved a few hours of schlepping boxes followed by some relaxing beers and a pizza or two.  Between our friends' two kids and Phoebe, I think the folks carrying boxes had the EASY job :)

Let's slide down the DRIVEWAY!  What could possibly go wrong??

This box is packed full of CUTENESS!

After a full day on Saturday, we spent most of Sunday just hanging out as a family.  We ran a few errands but spent a lot of time just playing and going for walks.  It was nice to get in a little family time!

Phoebe shows Daddy how to push the trike CORRECTLY

Time Flies When You're Not Updating Your Blog! (Monday, July 9, 2012)

Where has the time gone?  It looks like we're about six months behind on our picture a day efforts.  We do have a ton of pictures, we've just been so busy we haven't gotten around to uploading them here.  Rather than start where we left of we'll start posting Phoebe's more recent shenanigans first.  Hopefully some day we'll get around to posting our photo backlog.  Until then we hope you enjoy catching up with our rambunctious 18 month old.  (18 MONTHS!!!  Where does the time go indeed!)

Speaking of 18 months, Phoebe just had her 18 month pediatrician appointment and passed with flying colors.  She weighs 24 pounds, 14 ounces (50th percentile) and is 34.75 inches long (at the tippy-top of the growth chart).  Phoebe is also "off the charts" in personality, which hopefully will be obvious in the pictures we'll be posting :)

Here's today's shot:

Phoebe came home with her jacket on backwards.  Ms. Luz (one of her daycare teachers) said they had to turn it around because Phoebe kept unzipping her jacket and taking it off.  In Ms. Luz's words "I would say 'Phoebe keep your jacket on' and she would look right at me and giggle while she took it off".  That's our Phoebster!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Wednesday, January 4 (day 187/365)

Phoebe goes through phases where she eats like ... well ... her Uncle John and then she'll slow down for a while.  Recently when we thought she was on a little hunger strike, we realized that she just wasn't finding it challenging enough to have baby-sized food delivered directly to her highchair tray.  Phoebe would insist that she was done eating, but shortly after being set free from her highchair, she'd sneak up and steal our breakfast.  Then she'd giggle and run off shoving bagel in her face.  I guess food just tastes better when you hunt it down yourself!

Make a run for it Danger!


Would you take a bagel out of the baby's mouth?  Just in case, I am going to slobber all over it.

Tuesday, January 3 (day 186/365)

The baby finds dinner to be delicious ... and hilarious 

 

Monday, January 2 (day 185/365)

Today we went to Toys R Us to get the doodles her holiday present at the after holiday sale.  (I know, we are horrible parents.  We take advantage of the fact that the baby has no idea when Christmas is to score presents on the cheap.  She can add this to the long list of things she has to tell her future therapist).  Anyway, she had a great time running around the store, and loved the little ride-on toy at the check out.  We once again took advantage of the baby's lack of knowledge - she has no idea that toy is WAY more fun if you put quarters in it.  Poor baby! 



Sunday, January 1 (day 184/365)

I was feeling pretty under the weather today (the start of the never-ending cold that turned into a sinus/ear infection) so we spent the day at home.  It was our first day alone as a family since our break started, so it was actually really nice to just hang out together and relax.

Phoebe is a HUGE Daddy's girl and loves to goof around with her poppa!

Just a little redecorating before breakfast

What do you think mom?  Doesn't this room flow better now?  It's all about the Feng Shui.
Hanging out with Daddy, probably watching football.

Did you see that call?  Unbelievable!

Afternoon snacks.

Post-game analysis.  Phoebe is not impressed.

Saturday, December 31 (day 183/365)

Today was the Doodle's official birthday party with friends.  We invited a bunch of her baby buddies over for a New Year's/birthday party.  Again, you would think this was an awesome opportunity for some really cute pictures.  Sadly, by party time we were both just so pooped we didn't get any pictures!  Lamest parents ever.  We're hoping that maybe someone else that was at the party got a few pictures and we'll be able to update later.  Until then, I give you a picture of pre-party banana snack.


PS We're not in the habit of letting the baby eat bananas in the living room, but - hey - it was her birthday and we were exhausted.  Also, the chair slipcover is machine washable :)

Friday, December 30 (day 182/365)

Happy first birthday Phoebe Jane!

This year flew by.  While there were definitely moments (nights in particular) that draggggged on forever, the year overall went by in a flash!  Jeremy and I can definitely say that we (mostly) love having a 1-year old.  We would love to say all kinds of sappy things about how much we love our muffin and how we can't imagine life without her, but we're scientists, not writers.  So I'm not sure we could really do justice to just how awesome we think our doodle bug is.  It has been so amazing to watch her change and grow into a little person over the last year. 

For her official birthday, my parents and grandma were in town.  My Uncle Paul drove down from Cupertino to celebrate with us and we all had dinner and cake.  Uncle Paul also taught Phoebe the put-a-coaster-on-your-head game (more fun than it sounds) which is still a family favorite.  During the course of the afternoon, Phoebe managed to run at least four adults totally ragged.  That's our doodle!  She is such a lucky baby to have so many people that absolutely adore her - she is such a loved baby!