Mountainville Voyage

Phoebe met her cousin, Evan, for the first time this weekend. We were tickled pink to see them together.

Phoebe spent some quality time with Uncle Cary.

And went gaga for Auntie Zenta.
















Time for a nap with Mama Gay. Mountainville has that effect on people.





















Baby's asleep, time to play! The fam enjoying some poolside refreshment. Cheers!

Phoebe went to see the GI specialist on Wednesday. Things looked good again, so they're "upping her feeds". She gets five more milliliters of milk in each bottle, and fewer calories in her TPN. She's on TPN for twelve hours a day, now, and it is working out great. She goes on at 8pm and comes off at 8 am, which lines up with when she normally gets a bottle. So we don't have to wake her up more than we already do!





Gotcha! Phoebe is really into feeling different textures with her fingers. She loves to touch her super soft stuffed animals.









Ooooh, shiny! We'll make a musician out of her, no doubt, but maybe not a saxophonist. Phoebe had a great time looking at Daddy's saxophone. She made a sour face and cried when she heard it a few seconds later.











Milestone caught on camera! Phoebe holds her head up when on her tummy!










A neat picture of Phoebe at her first protest. Phoebe and Mommy joined Daddy in marching with the teacher's union for a better contract. The main issues were health insurance and reasonable salary increases. Phoebe believes in keeping insurance premiums low, while maintaining the ability to choose quality providers and stay with the docs she knows and loves. She truly is a spirited and independent young woman.

Westborough Welcome

Some of Phoebe's biggest cheerleaders threw her a party this weekend. The hostess opened her home and back yard to the crowd...lucky us that the rain held off! Here she is digging into the chocolate-heath bar-whipped cream yumminess, along with the impressive spread of treats.
















Bodie (the dog) scanned the yard for abandoned crumbs, promising to deposit them in the appropriate receptacle... his TUMMY! The people enjoyed refreshing lemonade in the shade.










Hanging out with the big kids.













She's a natural!















Let's see...do we have a future pianist?













Enjoying the edible arrangement here, but it looks like the brownies were pretty good, too. mmmm!

















"Hey, Phoebe, you should try the brownies. They're right over there."












Awww...hand-made chocolate rattle and diaper pin pops!

Sit Boo-boo sit

Phoebe is so proud of her "furry brother".

Boomer does a great job protecting his baby. Here, he is pictured, as he is often seen, standing guard at the pack n play. Boomer occupies his days fending off all sorts of invaders... like the mailman, passers-by (human and automotive) ...and various flying insects. Just last week, Boomer caught a fly in the house. Reflexes like a cat. But don't tell him we compared him to a cat. He just could not stand the thought of a fly pestering his Phoebe. Good dog.

Sunday Fun-day

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great weekend!










What a big girl. Phoebe is getting really great at holding up her head. She's holding her head nice and steadily; the surfer wobble is mostly a thing of the past.
















She can even do it with her eyes closed.












Auntie Aileen came to visit today. Phoebe loved hanging out with her and making cute faces in response to some goofy conversation.

Don't they make a great pair? In a pastel-y kind of way?








Mission Impossible: get Phoebe to NOT squish her toes into the stepping stone material.






I think we win the prize for most creative use of an ostomy care kit box.

Got schmaltzy?

We have all good news to report from the docs today. Phoebe saw the Surgeon, GI specialist and the Nutritionist today. The surgeon thought the Broviac looked good, and reassured us that she caused minimal damage by pulling on it yesterday. The GI doc and nutritionist think Phoebe's output is within acceptable limits so they decided to give her 5mL more milk this week. We are also trying a bubble-gum flavored substitute for the yucky-tasting zantac. We have some free samples and a prescription; if Phoebe likes this better, we'll fill the prescription.

After the doctor appointments, we went to play with Erin and Thomas at their beautiful new house. We took a walk around their idyllic tree-lined neighborhood with Erin, Thomas, and their Mom Kristen. Phoebe borrowed a hat from Thomas, and was totally pooped after the walk! G'night, peanut!
















How cute is this! Can you believe we got two out of three to look at the camera?
















Phoebe can't wait to wear pigtails like Erin.

Thomas has the greatest blue eyes. Handsome little man!

Thomas was born in July of 2005, right after our wedding. In fact, his parents didn't make it to the wedding because Thomas could have been born any minute. It has been amazing to watch both Erin and Thomas grow, but especially Thomas. Anyone who loves children knows the feeling you get when you first see a child after a long absence...you think about how much they've grown and changed and how amazing are all the things they've learned to do since you last saw them. Matt and I get the feeling especially when we see Thomas because he is as old as we've been married. Before we had Phoebe, after seeing certain amazing children like Erin and Thomas, and our nephews Evan and Loudon, the conversation would always lead to "when should we have kids?" We usually would end the conversation with, "there's no way we're ready" and "we should wait until [enter arbitrary life/financial event here]." The truth is the cliche: you're never ready. We were asked to be parents, and we are truly deeply satisfied that we are Phoebe's parents. I think every parent feels this way. Even though parenthood has not been what we'd imagined, we can't imagine our lives any other way. Phoebe has brought us closer and revealed a true support system of friends and family. In a way that words just can't do justice, we have this enveloping feeling of quiet joy that our little family has been built on the strongest foundation there is: love. Everything else will fall into place because we have love. Aren't we lucky.

Crazy Dayzie

Phoebe gave Mommy quite a scare this afternoon. When Mommy was changing her Broviac dressing (the bandage around the site where her IV enters under her skin on her chest), Phoebe's hand found the Broviac line and gave it a big yank. Even though her arms had been secured at her sides, she wiggled her way out. She screamed- it must have hurt! Phoebe pulled out the line about an eighth of an inch. After a flurry of phone calls and a visit from one of Phoebe's nurses, everyone agreed that Phoebe and the Broviac were fine. Phew! After Mommy calmed down, Phoebe took a long nap and Mommy found a great deal on diapers online with free shipping. Phoebe woke up with big smiles on her face. Like nothing ever happened. As we have said since Phoebe was born, the thing that sustains us the most is her incredibly happy disposition.

So now you know why there are no new pictures today, but here's one from last week.

Rainy day

I'm glad you found the new site. I feel much better about this address.

Phoebe loves her homecare nurse, Kathy. They always have a great time together. Other than Kathy being here during the day today, it was a pretty regular day at home. It was raining (torrential downpours at times), which made things interesting...
















Boomer rang his bell to tell us he had to go potty, so I got Phoebe all ready in her Bjorn and covered us both with my raincoat... a process that takes about 10 minutes. When Boomer realized it was raining, he decided he'd rather hold it. We were so darn adorable I thought I'd at least get a picture! After we took the picture, Boomer changed his mind. Silly doggie.
















Don't rainy days make you want to cuddle up and nap away the afternoon?