10 months!

Phoebe is 10 months old! It's hard to believe that in 2 short months she'll be one! She has made some progress this month. First, here are her latest lion pictures.


She was so squirmy this time that it was hard to take them! She weighed in at over 22 lbs her last doctor's appointment. We have been to the doctor a ton since she has basically had an ear infection since the beginning of January. She and Owen (whose illness morphed into tonsillitis) have had 3 rounds of antibiotics so far. They finished the third round today and we are really hoping this is it!

She started army crawling a couple weeks ago, and is still enjoying that (though she is pretty lazy!). What she wants to do most is stand up!

We put the legs on her leap frog table and she loves it. She isn't pulling up exactly, but tries and makes it clear she wants to stand. Or, sometimes, she pulls a "lewis" and sticks her legs out when we try to sit her on the floor. We play "stand up, sit down" and she seems to understand what those mean, so we can get her to sit by command if needed. :) Her receptive language is pretty good. If we ask her to touch our nose, she does. She gives kisses, waves and claps on command too. She also tries to do some hand motions and squealing to "If You're Happy and You Know It" which is pretty cute.

She has been trying lots of new foods like grilled cheese, quesadillas, olives, cottage cheese, noodles, and a few others. She likes the cheesy ones best so far. I started making her yogurt last month and she LOVES it just like her brothers did. When I get out the jar, she starts squealing until I have it ready in a bowl. It's just plain whole fat yogurt, but it's by far her favorite!

Phoebe also loves reading. She could read for hours. Her favorite author is definitely Karen Katz. Lewis loved her books too, but I don't remember Owen loving them. She rotates her favorites and basically memorizes them to the point where I can recite the words from memory and she will start smiling ear to ear when the book is not visible. She will squeal and lunge until I pick the one she wants. Very opinionated, this one! It's sweet to see that emerging already because I don't recall the boys making their desires clear this early. She tries to communicate one way or the other, and says something that sounds an awful lot like "mama." She's been saying "dada" for a while.

She finally got her first tooth. It poked through today, though it is still not really visible. I can feel the sharpness in there though, and it is nice to know that her teething is finally getting her somewhere!

We love our sweet baby girl!

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning came early at our house, though not earlier than most mornings......they're all early! We gathered the kids together and showed them their special presents that Justin and I set up the night before. We don't really talk about Santa or where they come from, but they are out and they were excited because they got Thomas stuff and were super into it at the time. Sadly, not so much now, though we have played a ton with our train track which is always fun. Phoebe got her first tea set.

The boys had an outing a week or so earlier, with Aunt Beth and another CLS provider/friend, Ben Winkler (aka Mr. Ben) to the dollar store to purchase gifts for us and for each other. It was interesting to see what they chose! This cat was Lewis' gift for Owen and Owen really liked it! Lewis' other presents were sadly really for him, and were major stimming objects that we had to put away. It was a good try! Owen's gifts were somewhat more thoughtful, but still pretty random!

We opened these presents from each other and then got ready for church which met at the coffee shop and was a really nice time of worship on Christmas! It so rarely happens that way. We had lunch after church, and then started crazy gift opening with the Reitmeyer clan.


This was Phoebe's pile of gifts as we were getting started. She needed help this year!


Here she is playing with a chewy blankey gift.


We always have a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake from DQ. The boys were so excited to sing to baby Jesus this year and to help blow out the candles.

I think that wraps up 2011! Merry ultra-late Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve in Bowling Green this year, which was delightful since we didn't have to take 3 young children anywhere! Here are the photo highlights:

The crew preparing to open gifts.

Owen opening some legos.

Lewis' big surprise this year was a guitar from Grandpa Billy. It's a REAL guitar in the smallest size they make them. Lewis was ecstatic so most of my pictures were blurry from him jumping around. It will be a challenge for him to play this instrument due to the size and fine motor skill needed, but he really loves it so we are hopeful!

Phoebe enjoyed this large bow while others opened gifts.

She also found something to play with hanging from Grandma's sweater.

Aunt Jeanne, Phoebe and Grandpa had a moment on the couch together. It's exhausting opening presents at 8 months old!

Lewis posing with his guitar.

I had a quick pose with my cute girl on her first Christmas!

phoebe army crawling

Once again, we are getting behind. This week, Owen has tonsillitis and Lewis has swollen tonsils that are not infected (yet), and Phoebe had another ear infection. We are not able to get done much of anything, so forgive the lack of posts.

Despite the barrage of illnesses for over a month, Phoebe has started moving forward instead of just going in circles on the floor. She's actually army crawling! It's not pretty, but she gets where she wants to go. She mostly likes to knock down towers of blocks or cups and that kind of thing. Other things are kind of hit and miss when it comes to motivating our girl. Here's a video!