Phoebe the Brave

Phoebe took her shot tonight like a total badass.  She. Did. Not. Even. Cry.
And Jason, hero that he is, did it super fast and super awesome.  Boom!

In fact, he is so brave, he was actually wanting to try giving Phoebe her shot alone.  As you may have noticed, today is Friday, and the shot was one day delayed.  I had a workshop to go to Thursday night, and went back and forth a bit about whether or not it was worthwhile to even attend and how we would handle the fact that it was shot night.  I was leaning toward delaying, but Jason really thought he could handle holding and poking Phoebe.

I decided to go to the workshop, but eventually got a text from Jason that he couldn't do the shot after all--- we were out of syringes, which we hadn't thought about for 2 weeks because last Thursday was the infusion.  Oops!

So we got those today and the shot was a success.  Phoebe was still a little reluctant when we told her it was time, but we powered through it.  I swear, she is a gift to the universe, the bravest little baby you ever saw!  After we gave her a bag of gummies.

We usually give Cordelia some "solidarity" gummies too, but tonight I made her wait until she had earned hers by doing her own torturous job: getting her finger nails trimmed.  Ever since she was a toddler, this has been an ordeal for Cordelia.  It used to be one of the only times she was allowed to watch tv, to help distract her through getting her nails trimmed.  We will usually let her nails get pretty long because we try to go awhile in between cuttings, but then sometimes she starts to bite them off.  Now even letting her watch the youtube show Brave Wilderness is hardly an incentive.  She finds it so uncomfortable and even says it hurts.  I want her to suck it up, but I guess on some level it must just feel awful to her.

I trimmed Phoebe's nails today--- no screen time bribes or treats required.  I just ask her which finger I should do first and say "snip, snip, snip," or count, to describe what I'm doing.  

Cordelia can also be hyper sensitive to noise.  Things like hand dryers and loud flushes in public restrooms make her cover her ears.  For a long time she wouldn't use automatic potties out of fear of them flushing unexpectedly.

Phoebe, continuing to live in opposite land, is still going potty every day, and loves sitting on big potties when we are out and about.  We went to the aquarium on Sunday and Phoebe stayed dry the entire day, except for one wet diaper at the restaurant for dinner.  Even when she took a nap on the drive down, she stayed dry!  Phoebe is still a long ways off from underwear though---- she may pee and occasionally poop if I sit her down, but she has yet to really initiate taking herself to the bathroom.

We got Phoebe a stuffed sea otter.  She really liked watching them swim and eat shrimp frozen in blocks of ice.  Phoebe goes to bed in a pile of blankies and stuffed animals.  She has her one special blankie that she cuddles and nuzzles to put herself to sleep.  She likes to be rocked and for me to sing to her.

Cordelia took a long time to get into stuffed animals.  She had one "magic" blanket that helped her sleep, but she doesn't even sleep with it anymore. She likes her quilt and sleeping with Dog.  Dog is a gray and white stuffed animal husky.  Cordelia picked him out herself at Kohls when she was 12 months old.  He was $5.  I told Jason, "Do we really need to get this for her?  If we buy our child everything that she picks up that's $5, what kind of parents are we gonna be?"  And he said, "Come on, it's $5."  and Dada won the day.  We left with Dog and he has been Cordelia's faithful lovie ever since.  He out shined  Meow, a cat she liked for a while, and for a bit I was nervous that her stuffed lynx Sierra was going to overpower Dog, but nope.... Dog is the trusted lovie who helps her sleep and keeps bad dreams away.  I think she likes him even more now than she did as a baby.

Phoebe's main lovie is Snuggle Puppy, a doggie with a red bow that I got for her birthday last year. But if you give her anything soft and cuddly she will be happy.  She has two identical blankies.  If she finds both of them at the same time, she will get super excited and amused, exclaiming, "Biyah!"

Phoebe is talking more and more.  I forgot to mention, but around Father's Day, she started saying her name!  It sounds like "beebee" or sometimes "pibee"  It is also almost identical to how she says "Baby."  So sometimes she might be saying Baby and I just can't tell.  I often call her "baby Phoebe" so both are totally applicable.  When she was learning to talk, Cordelia referred to herself as "Baby" for most of her first year.  Saying "Cordelia" was just too hard.  Eventually she started calling herself "Dia" and "Delia", before getting the hang of Cordelia.  "Baby" was one of my main nicknames for Cordelia for a long time, but I think that is mainly because she just used it as her name for so long.  Phoebe turns 2 in ten days!  But I am not ready for her to stop being my baby!!!!!