Wednesday, August 31st (day 63/365)

Since this was potluck week at baby class, we went twice - once on Monday for our new class and once on Wednesday to hang out with our friends from the old class.  Phoebe was her usual mile-a-minute self.  When she wasn't trying to steal pizza from one of the other parents, she was terrorizing the little boys in class.  One little boy was so traumatized that towards the end of the night, he would burst into tears if Phoebe so much as made eye contact.  One really good thing about the Wednesday class though is that there are at least a couple of other babies who are just as physical as Phoebe.  It helps to know that she isn't the only baby like this! 

Here is a picture of Phoebe the victor after she successfully evicted two (older) babies from a toy:

And here is a cute picture of Phoebe taking a quick daddy-snuggle break before continuing her reign of terror.

Tuesday, August 30th, (day 62/365)

You While my mom was here we took Phoebe to the aquarium.  Phoebe had a great time, and grandma had to be restrained before she bought the baby one of everything from the gift shop :)  Phoebe did end up with some adorable otter jammies and an aquarium themed ball.  The ball has been a huge hit.  Jeremy just mentioned that he thinks instead of a stuffed animal as a lovey, Phoebe has adopted this stuffed ball.  No matter what she is upset about, the ball will automatically calm her down and she takes it with her everywhere.  Here is a picture showcasing both the otter jammies and the ball:

In addition to all of her other skills, Phoebe has been working on figuring out doors.  She can close them but since she is too short to reach the doorknob, opening still poses an issue.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that our cinematic skills leave a little something to be desired.  Usually, we'll notice the baby doing something cute, but by the time we get the camera and start recording, she's moved on.  We also do zero editing, so what we shoot is what gets posted.  These days Phoebe is really into splashing in the bath, so we thought we'd try to capture it.  What resulted was just a sad video of us trying to get the baby to splash and her laughing at our efforts:

I assure you she was splashing up a storm until we started recording, and she started splashing again as soon as we stopped.

Monday, August 29th (day 61/365)

Due to my work schedule this semester, we've had to switch classes at baby group.  Having to switch is really upsetting because Phoebe and I both love our group.  I am really lobbying hard to make sure that my schedule next semester will accommodate switching back!  This week was family pot-luck night where instead of class, we all have a potluck at night (so the dads who work can attend).  I will say that while most of the programming at baby group is fairly enlightened, it really rubs me the wrong way that we're always talking about how dad works and mom stays home.  There are at least three working moms in our group, yet at potluck night, the teacher made a big deal about how all the dads were so awesome for arranging their schedules so that they could make it.  I guess things like that are expected of mom but are just super-awesome when dad does them ... but that's another soap box for another day ... instead of a rant about gender inequality as it relates to parenting expectations, here is a picture of me and Phoebe at pot-luck night for our new class:

Sunday, August 28th (day 60/365)

We also had a jam-packed Sunday.  We went to Palo Alto where I ran my first race since we moved to California.  It was a 9k, sponsored by the company Title 9.  Our friends the Sheus came to meet us and we had a wonderful time hanging out with them.  Their second baby is due any day now, so they are "waiting for the other Sheu to drop" ... hahaha!  Their little boy who is almost 2, is awesome with Phoebe (it probably helps that she brought her toy trucks to share).  He gave her many hugs and kisses and they really got along wonderfully.  At one point, his mom took him to the bathroom and when they were walking back towards our group, he yelled out excitedly "it's Phoebe!".  His parents asked "and who else".  He muttered a barely audible, disappointed "Jeremy" under his breath.

After a wonderful lunch and a lot of catching up, we came home, showered and went to the Monterey Jewish Food Festival for an early dinner.  We all got some delicious food and Phoebe was adored by many, many old women.

You would think that we would have a ton of awesome pictures from our day of non-stop action.  Sadly, no.  We didn't take a single picture until we got home at the end of the day.  So, after all of that, all we have is a picture of Phoebe trying to figure out how to use her play table as a stepping stone to get to the TV.

Saturday August 27th (day 59/365)

We had a jam-packed Saturday!  In the morning, Phoebe and I got up and did our grocery shopping for the week while Jeremy slept in.  Phoebe loves going to Safeway and riding in the shopping cart.  She smiles and laughs and makes friends left and right.  One guy stopped and complimented me on how well behaved my baby was - he said he had one at home that was a real handful.  I just pointed out that my baby was at Safeway living it up while his baby was HOME AND STILL ASLEEP.  Apparently, while Phoebe is great at making friends at Safeway, I am not so good at the grocery store social scene.

The munchkin and I got home just in time to get all packed up for swimming lessons.  We ran into Sathya on our way into the gym, so he stopped by lessons with us.  After swimming, we went straight to a first birthday party for one of Phoebe's friends from school.  The invitation for the party was in Phoebe's cubby one day when we went to pick her up.  The invite sparked the following conversation:

K: Oh look!  Munchkin got invited to a party for her friend.
J: Isn't that weird?
K: What do you mean?
J: We know nothing about these people and they invited us to a party.  That just seems strange.
K: Well their kid and Phoebe are in the same class.
J: Yeah, but the kids don't really know each other and we've never met these people, so why would they invite us?
K: Well, I guess technically they invited Phoebe, the invitation is addressed to her.
J: So why do we have to go?
K: You don't just drop an 8 month old off at a party
J: Why not?
K: ....
J: I thought that was how kid parties worked.
K: No.

After 10 more minutes of Jeremy complaining about how he shouldn't have to make friends with people just because we have a kid the same age, he finally agreed to go to the party.  He still thinks it is creepy to invite people from your kid's class to a party, but what can you do?  It turns out we all had a wonderful time.  The dad in the family is a computer geek, so he and Jeremy and some of the other dads had a good time nerding it up.  Also, there was a bucket of fried chicken, so that went a long way towards assuaging Jeremy's initial misgivings.  Phoebe liked watching all the big kids run around.

DA-AD, you are totally embarrassing me in front of my friends.

 Phoebe playing with the bubble machine.  This was short lived since, while all the other kids wanted to play and chase bubbles, Phoebe wanted to go stick her fingers in the spinning mechanism and drink bubble mixture.

Friday, August 26th (day 58/365)

As Phoebe has gotten more aggressive with her love of the kitty, he has gotten a little less tolerant.  He is still pretty gentle, but he'll give her the occasional soft nip or swat.  The message we think Danger is trying to send is "back off little human" but what Phoebe hears is "let's play a fun game!".

Here is a video of Phoebe and Danger "playing".  At least Phoebe seems to be enjoying herself.  The video also features her licking the chair.  She licks pretty much everything these days, including once licking the wall for the entire length of the hallway.  She seems impervious to our attempts to stop this behavior so we figure it could be worse - we'll just add it to the list of disgusting things she does.

Phoebe has also gotten a lot more vocal, often she'll narrate whatever she is doing

Thursday, August 25th (day 57/365)

Phoebe's increasing mobility has us all on edge.  Jeremy and I are constantly trying to figure out what the baby is going to get into/fling herself off of/climb next.  Many surfaces in our house that we used to consider "baby safe" are now Phoebe-accessible meaning that we've had to do a second-round of baby proofing.  Danger shares in our pain and keeps having to adjust his understanding of how quickly he needs to move to avoid getting big baby hugs.

Ta Da!  I made the kitty disappear!

PS The blog posts will probably be getting a lot shorter - I have been swamped with work and trying to squeeze in as much family time as possible.  I'll probably have to resort to just posting pictures sometimes since if I wait until I have time to write posts, stuff might not get posted until Thanksgiving break (and I'll probably need to spend that getting caught up on grading)