Penelope is ONE!

I just don't even know what to say... Wow time flies...

She has changed our world and we are much better people with such fuller hearts because of her! To be a parent is such a special purpose for life, it's a dream come true and it is everything we ever imagined, feared, prayed for, and so much more! No amount of words could describe this last year, because it was so huge, it would truly take a lifetime just to express every single second of gratitude, and appreciation we have for our little love bug! She is just incredible!!

This past year has been quite the whirlwind and we are looking forward to a lifetime filled with more amazing memories! To think how much she has changed in an entire year is an incredible thought! She went from being 100% dependent on mommy and daddy to seriously about 90% independent lol! She can seriously go get out her own snacks when she's hungry for goodness sake... This girl knows what she wants and isn't the slightest bit afraid to try and make it happen!

She had a great 12 month dr appt... 19 lbs (38th %) and 28" (12th %)! They were very pleased with her development and all her skills she holds! I truly believe as I mentioned earlier she is quite determined to go go go and learn everything she can! She's been that way since day one, determined to be a champ at breastfeeding and always wanted us to be moving when holding her! She wants to see the world and take advantage of every fun situation she can get her hands on! I love this girl and her amazing personality!

We had a great time at her first birthday party... She loved being center of attention and playing with her friends... Just loves being sung happy birthday to... But the cake, she was not so sure! However we had a photo shoot about a week later for 1 year pics and she literally bent ove and took bites out of her cake this time, it was hilarious! Her little personality just shines through and she is so happy and bubbly, I can't get over how fun she is! Each month I always think to myself wow I can't imagine it getting any better than this and then she has to go and prove me wrong, she is just my best little buddy and I love watching her play and have fun!

She is giving hi fives now, which she thinks is so darn funny! Has been a little bit of a picky eater, she used to love meat and now she won't have anything to do with it! Loves her veggies (green beans, broccoli) and fruit, also loves anything that's bread-like and her animal crackers! She hated the baby food packets for so long and now she loves them again! So we mainly eat lots of beans for protein and fruits and veggies! Healthy girl! 

However... We have discovered she has a dairy intolerance! Wow this changed things dramatically once we figured this out! So now she drinks almond milk and just loves it! It has made quite the different in her demeanor and a few other tmi situations for her! 

This is P at her birthday party! I told you she had a blast!

Other fun things she's doing, of course she's waking all over the place and tries to run a little! Climbs all over things and can pretty much figure out how to open just about anything! She absolutely loves her pink kitchen she got for her first birthday...

 She for sure thinks it's the bees knees!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, she is quite the chatter box! Says lots of words, some she will only say a few times then we won't hear her say them again but the consistent ones are dada, dog and hot! She is in love with Elmo at the moment and will bring me my phone while trying to say Elmo Elmo Elmo so of course we have to watch it! She also loves this song from the Disney Channel about the "lion guard" and gets so excited and tries to sing with it so she will also bring me my phone and sing "uh uh uh Ohhh" to me to turn her song on! She LOVES to sing and "shake her booty"! We say shake your booty and she starts bobbin up and down, oh it's so darn cute! 

It's also incredible the things she understands! Just a few little examples we can be not even near her little piano and I'll say "p can you play me a song on her piano" and she will go over to it and start banging on it! And I'll tell her go bring this to dada and she will take whatever it is to Lucas... Or got get your snack and she will go open the pantry and grab it! She's just so smart!

She also does the sign for "milk" whenever she wants to go night night... She's so adorable! She is starting to get the hang of signing "please" but it's funny because she will sign it on my chest instead of hers! There's just so much she's doing it's hard to even get it all written down! 

I am so excited to keep watching her grow up and yet I want this time to slow down! We love our angel so much!! Can't believe she's one!

We went to chuck e cheese for her first birthday! It was SO funny! I just love this girl so much!

 

Miss Penelope 11 months!

It's so hard for me to believe she is 11 months... She's really more of a toddler than a baby any more and it is such a jumble of emotions for me! How is my baby nearly one, and yet this is SO exciting and gosh she is so much fun!

She's so incredibly funny, and gosh we can get her laughing so so hard at times these days, mainly is we "scare" her or tickle her... Those giggles just melt my heart! And along with the giggles comes the adorable jibber jabber she speaks all day long, ALL DAY LONG! She is just such a chatter box and absolutely loves people and kids, loves engaging with others! She has quite the vocabulary, mama (om mom), dada, mote (her little remote), hot, that, see, keys, cat, dog, juice... And there's more. She seriously amazes us, she will get in the bath (which she loves) and point to the water running and Yelp "hot". Or leads you around the house pointing at any and everything saying "see see see" she's such a cutie!

Her favorite activity is pushing her "push toys" and really almost any large toy/item around the house... She goes back and forth and back and forth through the rooms and just everywhere! She gets stuck and walks to the other side of the toy to push it back the other direction, just figures things out so well! She loves to play with books and have me read to her, flipping pages is one of her many tricks!

This picture is to document that her favorite toy is a little remote control. We have taken the batteries out and she will take it wherever she goes! We never leave it at home, she puts the strap on her mouth and crawls all over the house with it! We think it is so darn funny, but she truly has bonded with it! 

She would be outside 24/7 if we let her! She loves it rain or shine... Although since its been so cold recently she's barely been out and I know she's itching to play... And eat leaves!

She is so darn close to walking, it'll be any time! She takes steps by herself but not more than 3-5... I just know she's going to take off any day! 

Another funny story, my mom came over one day and brought Mexican food... P eats almost anything but is not so enthusiastic about anything that is smooshy or similar to baby food texture! So I tried giving her some refried been a just to try and she promptly spit it out! My mom then looked at P and said "yucky" and out of no where P said right back to us "YUCK"... It was quite funny! She's such a silly and very smart girl! We can't get enough of her and everyday she amazes us!!

We also took her on her first trip this month to Virginia for a residency interview and to visit family! She did amazing!! We were so surprised how well she did on the plane and sleeping in a new place, couldn't have asked for a better experience!

9 and 10 months with Miss P

Whoops I can't believe I didn't post a 9 month update!! So here's both!!

These last two months have been a whirlwind, she has done so many new things and become so funny and so giggly! We just can't get enough of our sweet little P Pie!

So she was an expert crawler at 9 months and now by 10 she can crawl into and on top of just about everything!!! And she determined to do it! She keeps  saying "uh oh" all the time and "dada" she would say "mama" a little bit when she was a little younger but now has decided to not say it any more! She is very fascinated with jewelry and that probably hit right around her 9 month mark... She will crawl into our closet and point up up up to my jewelry and chatter at us till we pick her up and let her see!!

Her newest thing is pointing or putting her hand out to whatever direction she wants us to take her and to whatever object she wants to inspect! She loves when Lucas holds her up to the fan and let's her pull the chains to turn on the light... It's amazing to her!!

At nine months we started giving her basically all table food and she just LOVES to feed herself! Sometimes she will eat from a spoon or baby food, and just recently she has thought a fork was interesting... But she's much happier just feeling herself! I can hand her part of a graham cracker now or a little granola bar or whole sweet potatoe fries an green beans!!

At nine months she also tried her first bite of steak and of course her daddy made her filet! She already knows all about the good stuff! Loving yogurt and black beans, her snacks and strawberries and apples! And she still loves her baby oatmeal and of course her favorite is mamas milks!!! 

At nine months she was still waking in the early morning (6am) for a feeding and then would go back to sleep till 8 or 9... Now she sleeps through the night, goes down around 8 and wakes up about 8! Every so often she needs dada to come in and give her a little pat on the bobo and she will go right back to sleep! She still takes either 3 short naps or 2 longer naps, it varies day to day! We are just now breaking in her 9 month clothes and I'm just so excited to be digging in to a different section of her wardrobe!

At her 9 month check up she got a clean bill of health and dr. was impressed with her "uh oh" word! She weighed 17.3 lbs (31st percentile) and was 27" tall (22nd percentile)! Still only has those cute two bottom teeth and we are waiting for some top ones to come in!!!

She started showing interest in pushing her toy elephant around the house at 9 months but she needed some assistance, her little feet would just fly out from underneath her!! Now (starting about 9 1/2 months) she's a pro and wants to push that thing back and forth and back and forth and when she gets stuck she just Rams it into whatever is in her way and looks back at us like "come help me"!! Now she has started playing the "drop my food on the floor" game at meal time... She will look at me and hold her food filled hand out over the floor when she's in her high chair and I'll say "no no p" and she normally brings it back to eat it and then repeats again ha ha! Eventually food gets dropped and then that's when we finish up meal time!! Little stinker! She's just so darn smart and I still can't believe she's ours! We are so lucky to have her! She loves being chased through the house and those giggles just warm out hearts!

Crawled up on the ottoman and took a little rest!

Miss P is 8 Months!!

I can't believe this doll is 8 months!! She has just developed SO quickly in the past month! Every single day is a new day, every hour and new hour and ever minute a new minute. Step by step (or maybe I should say crawl by crawl) she is changing from my little infant girl into a toddler and it is extraordinary! Every day is so darn fun and I'm beginning to feel like now she has explored every nook and cranny in the house and is getting bored... But that is not the case! Even though she's visited a room a thousand times or taken 100 baths or played with the door knocker tens of times she is SO excited and so happy to do it all over again! She just loves to play and loves to be tickled! She can play by herself for a while and it is so fun to just watch her explore her toys and see new things (like tonight in the bath she looked up at the ceiling like "hey what's up there") she's just so curious and so darn smart!

She is a very very good crawler now, crawls over things, on things, under things... Pulls up on all her toys and loves to stand up and play, she's doing a very good job of sitting back down gracefully too which puts me more at ease... For a while there it was like she just thought she could let go and magically land softly on her tush! But she is having so much fun being a more independent baby!

She LOVES bath time!! When we are getting the water ready or even if I'm just going into her bathroom to put away towels and she hears the fan come on she comes bolting in there as fast as she possibly can with the biggest smile on her face! I mean even if we weren't intending to give her a bath just then we just have to now because who can say no to that adorable face!

She loves to crawl around and play after her bed time bath, it has been so fun! But recently Lucas started a new tradition by accident. He was watching her one evening by himself and got her dried off and set her in her room with her towel still wrapped around her and hood on her head... She started crawling around with it still on and it is just so hilarious we have to do it every night now! I think she thinks she's funny too!

I got a text from Lucas the first time he let her crawl around with her kitty towel on and he said "there's a cat in our house"... I laughed so hard, I will never forget it!

She understands what we say more and more now! She knows what a snack is, and eat (she knows the sign too) she continues to wave and give me and sometimes her baby doll kisses!  She also knows "no" and will immediately stop and put her hands down like op that's dangerous... She sometimes tests me though and will inch a little closer to whatever I told her "don't touch" but she won't actually touch it, just scoot her bottom a liiiitttle closer like "can I get just a teeny bit closer mom?" So stinking cute! When I go in to get her in the morning she clings on to me and squeals like she is just so excited I'm there and so happy to see me! It just melts my heart!

Speaking of mornings that reminds me (like I forgot) about our sleep troubles lately! She had been doing SO good, going to sleep about 8pm waking up maybe at about 6 or 7 to nurse then going right back to slee again till about 9am ... Taking 2 close to 2 hour naps... But now our sleep has been turned upside down! I guess in just the last few days it has gotten a teeny bit better, but gosh has it been tough! She would maybe go to bed and 8, then wake up and want to stay up till midnight, then wake several times during the night and take 3 cat naps during the day! That was at its peak of insanity! It's getting better but she still wakes multiple times a night, sometimes she has trouble going back down (which once again is so odd for her) and she has had a harder time with nursing lately! I don't quite know what the deal is but she is probably just learning and growing so much it's throwing things off a bit! Who can blame her!

She's a girlie girl, she likes when I brush her "hair" (those cute little fuzzies on her head)... Loves her bows and of course loves allll jewelry! I think she just likes all the shinny stuff! She also loves her pieces of green beans and peas she can pick up herself, when in doubt just break those out and she will go to town!! She still loves mr. turtle and now has a passion for her tiny pots and pans! She also really enjoys Mickey Mouse and anything with music on the TV! Another crazy thing is she's figured out how to "slap" her iPad to get her game or music to start playing again... She also can figure out which app she wants to play with and push on it! She just blows us away with what she has learned to do!

She sits in the shopping cart now, which she really loves, and also very much enjoys holding a cracker while doing so! We've been to the zoo a couple times and I think this time she genuinely enjoyed it... It was the best zoo trip ever! Nice weather, not many people and ALL the animals were out!

So many new things this month, it's just hard to believe she's not my little infant baby anymore! We love her so much! So so much!

She loves looking out the front door and our big back window! Also forgot to mention she she gets reallllly excited about something she starts to flap her arms really hard... Like she's about to take off in flight !! I tell myself it's her version of clapping!!

Went on the swings for the first time this month!

7 Months of Penelope!

This has been the craziest, biggest, most amazing month yet, each month I say to myself man life can never get any better than this... And every month is just  more and more surprising and fun!!

A letter from Penelope herself...

This month I'm trying to show my parents I am not longer a baby anymore... They need to know I'm growing up and can do things on my own now, but they just aren't willing to accept it! I've tried showing them by crawling around, and tried even harder by pulling myself up on my toys and crib... But still they just don't get it! I've tried telling them with my hands, I wave bye bye and then let them know when I want milks or when I'm all done, I've even tried verbally telling them I'm growing up by talking all the time and saying "dada dada dada" alllll the time. The still think I'm a little baby though. I even go to sleep all by myself and sleep through the night and yet they stilllll don't believe I'm growing up! I just don't know what else to do, I thought they would be so shocked and accept that I'm growing up but I guess they just don't want me to get any bigger!

My mommy feeds me some yummy foods, I love the pouches of peas and pears she gives me as well as fresh peas I've showed her I can pick up and eat on my own! There's still nothing that I like better than my mommy's milkies.... Even though I am really loving juice!!

I love my mommy to hold me too... Sometimes my daddy is holding me and I'm just fine till mommy comes in the room and then I just really want her and I smile and giggle so big and reach out for her so she knows I REALLY want her to hold me! I love with my daddy tickles me with his beards and blows bubbles on my tummy... He is such a silly daddy! 

I've discovered that there is this little mouse with big ears and a squeaky voice that's on the TV and whenever I see him I think he is so funny and I love to watch him be silly and sing songs! I'd sit and watch him forever it my mommy would let me!

I know my mommy and daddy love me so much but I don't think they will ever know how much I love both of them! They are my favorite people and there is nothing that makes me laugh and smile like either of them!!! I know I've tried to show them so many new skills this month so they would know I'm growing up, but I guess I still love being their little baby and so ill try to not grow up too fast! 

-Penelope

6 months with Miss P

I'm ready for this to slow down... I feel like six months has gone by way too fast! As much fun as it is watching her grow and learn new skills everyday I wish it would go by slower and not happen so fast! Penelope becoming more independent means a plethora of amazing things but also makes me so sad, no longer will she need me as much as she first did! To some extent it is a relief whenever we would have those never ending sessions of bouncing and bouncing for hours trying to get her to fall asleep, but there's something about that endless bouncing that is so gratifying once baby nods off all warm and bundled in your arms! I miss it! But I'm also grateful she can fall asleep on her own now and I'm so proud of her for being confident enough in herself that she can roll over, grab her bunny and drift off!

She now sleeps 100% sleeps in her own crib for every nap and every night! It took some hard work but she seems to really enjoy her own space and sleeps MUCH better! She loves sleeping on her tummy still and has just recently started tucking her knees under her belly and sticking her bottom up in the air for her favorite sleep position! Gives us a good laugh every night!

This month she also started sitting up in the bath and it has completely changed bath time! She loves to splash in the water and chew on her bath toys, instead of bath time being a quick 2-5 minutes we now let her stay in there an play for as long as she wants! She loves swimming too, actually doggie paddled when we first tried putting her in the water while just holding her and not placing her in the little floaty chair... Too funny!!

She has gotten to spend more time with Lucas this month since he's had the last 2 weeks off and that's been wonderful for their relationship! Makes my heart so happy! However she has been quite the mamas girl! If I walk in the room it's fussing till I grab her, if I walk out of the room it's fussing till I come back... If I'm not playing with her but I'm in the same room she's mad till I play too! She gets SO happy and reaches out for me though and it makes my heart melt! 

She's been saying lots of "mamamamamamama" and "yayayayaya" ..." dadadada" has been thrown in the mix as well!

She's sitting up so well on her own, still tumbles backwards every now and then so we don't let her sit alone! She also scoots backwards but I just know she's getting ready to go forwards any time now!!!

We started more foods this month too, still bananas and avocado but she loves peaches/nectarines!!!!!!!

This past week has been quite a roller coaster... She now has TWO teeth! Both came in the day before and day of her 6 month birthday! Let's just say teething is not her favorite thing, it had Lucas and I both scratching our heads trying to come up with any method of making her happy! Poor baby girl... But now she is on the mend back to her happy little self!!

She squeals this high pitched squeal and it has us in stitches all the time and she's also started going "uh uh...uh uh" when she sees something she wants something such as the iPad lol or... Milks, can't forget about those milks, those are still her favorite thing!!

We also dedicated Penelope at church this month on Father's Day, it will be a wonderful day to remember for multiple reasons!

Just can't believe how much she can change in the course of just a month! Love her to pieces!

Baby's first 4th of July!! Hanging out on Nanny's counter chewing on our new favorite thing... Metal spoons

Chomping on our other favorite thing... Water bottles!

Getting ready to go swimming with cousin Cody!

First time swimming!!!