Age: 15 months

It has been a long time. Months. How things have changed. Phoebe is now officially a toddler. She started walking unaided a week before her first birthday. It was a moment of great significance, and how she has grown from those first tottering steps, taken between Dan and I, with both of us arms outstretched ready to catch her. These days she can negotiate small steps and ramps with ease (thanks to Fantasia) and runs and jumps around the place as though being vertical were the most natural thing in the world.

The top left photo is Kathy with Phoebe. Kathy runs the NYU breastfeeding support group that we have been to almost every Wednesday since Phoebe was 12 days old. I still remember so clearly the first time that we went - it was the first time that I had been out on my own with Phoebe and was full of fear and trepidation. It turned out to be a place that saved me in the first few months. I have made many of my best "mommy" friends through the group, and we have enjoyed every moment of our time there. At the beginning it was a safe haven, and sometimes I would count the days until Wednesday. Going there just for an hour or so and sitting breastfeeding whilst talking to all the other moms, was such a source of comfort and support. I would leave every Wednesday afternoon feeling more confident and more able, however tired and challenged I might have felt that morning. I am sad to be leaving, but Phoebe's nap schedule and the growing numbers of newborns (and lack of older babies) makes it seem the right thing to do. I wish that there were more moms who were still breastfeeding their toddlers and not going back to work - but in the city, to be honest, I don't think there are many of us.

The second photo is Phoebe with her baby. She loves dolls and her stroller. She spends hours pushing it around the apartment and the park. She quickly learnt how to negotiate steps and handles it now like a pro.

Toddlerhood. So many thoughts. So much to say.

All in good time.