Phaedra

Phaedra is getting more and more difficult to photograph. She never stops moving. She really makes me work for it to get some decent pictures. There are fewer photos that turned out this month, but to me, her mother who melts at the sight of her, they are breathtaking. That makes it all worthwhile.

Phaedra is such a busy girl. She’s so busy learning, growing, and getting into trouble. She has so many new skills each day, I don’t know if I can remember to talk about all of them.

Her vocabulary has grown exponentially. She repeats everything. In the car, Eleanor asks, “Are we on the back roads?” and we quickly hear Phaedra echo, “back roads.” Here are some of the words she says (or says in a way we recognize), but I’m sure I’ll remember a ton more once I post this: drink, shoe, potty, cracker, snack, boot, out, teeth, uh-oh, drop, milk, Eleanor, eat, toast, food, more, hot, cold, light, dark, go, car, color, paper, book, sock, grandma/pa, baby, doggie, little mini, pretzel, apple, please, thank you, no-no, uh-uh, tickle-tickle, staple, nigh-night, nap, cow, bed, pillow, cozy, bird poop (echoing Eleanor), hand, bath, cookie, spoon.

She loves to dance and sing. She dances to any music she hears and tries to sing along whenever someone sings to her.

She is going through a real Mommy-clingy phase right now. She used to be pretty happy with most people, or if she was moody, she would be happy with either Daddy or Mommy. Lately, she just wants me. On mornings that Grant and I have wanted to sleep in, she wakes up and we put her in our bed. She hardly has a thing to do with Daddy, but she snuggles up to me, laying on my chest with her shoulder and head jammed tightly against my neck. I fell back to sleep with her on me like that one morning and dreamed someone was trying to strangle me.

She loves to push things around the house such as laundry baskets, toy strollers, and her new toy shopping cart. She also has hit the container phase; she loves boxes with lids that she can fill with things, empty, and fill again.

She finally got the last of her four bottom teeth just before Halloween (I think). For over a month now, she has been working on all four of her first set of molars at once. I think two (one top, one bottom, opposite sides) have cut through completely now. The other two are still working on it. I’m not sure if it’s the teething or just the stage she’s in right now, but she has been quick to throw a tantrum as of late. Some children, even Eleanor did for a while, go through a phase where they throw themselves backwards when they throw a tantrum, knocking their head on the floor to make you feel guilty because they aren’t just upset, they are now hurt also. Phaedra did that maybe all of two times before she realized it hurt, and it was a really dumb idea. She liked the effect it seemed to have on the adults, but she didn’t like the feeling. Ever since then, she gets angry, makes like she is going to throw herself back, and then slowly lowers herself to a lying down position. If that doesn’t work, she stays lying down and rolls around in anger. It can be quite comical. But hey, at least she’s smart enough not to hurt herself.

Phaedra has me so torn on the idea of another child. I have love, love, loved her as a baby (up to her current state- which I continue loving). Eleanor was a great baby; Phaedra was a great baby who actually learned to sleep! Things just got better with Phaedra. Plus, I wasn’t such a nervous wreck the second time around, so I could spend more time enjoying it. Things like that (and my girls’ baby pictures) make me so baby hungry I can hardly stand it. But, I am still having so much fun with the two of them right now that I don’t want anything to divert my attention away from them. I felt stretched thin after having Phaedra, trying to divide my attention between the two of them and hope I did a decent job communicating my love for both. I can’t imagine how that would be intensified by having three. Plus, the two so far have been rather good babies. Shouldn’t I quit while I’m ahead? But then I look at her adorable face again, and remember when she was a little baby in my arms . . . See what I mean? Torn. But for now, I’m sticking with not wanting to have to give up time/attention with the ones I’ve got. They are so fun right now. Another one can wait.

I’m tired, so I think that’s all I can come up with for now. Maybe I can keep in the habit of blogging regularly so I can update when I remember new things.