I am a loser and I apologize for my loserness

I can't believe I've posted nothing for almost 4 months! I hate it when life gets in the way like that!

The links to the right have now been updated so everything should be correct now.

The actual reason for my post is that Nathan decided just before bedtime Tuesday night to take the side gate off of Penny's bed. This makes it a sort-of day bed. We put a pillow on the floor just in case she fell out. We didn't hear a peep out of her after bedtime but when Nathan went in to check her diaper before we went to bed, she was asleep on her back in the middle of the floor! Poor baby.

She has been very excited about her "big-girl" bed and often tells us when it is bedtime or naptime simply because she wants to climb in her bed. Every time she has gotten up (either after naps or in the morning) she calls to us from behind her door and when we open the door she is standing there holding Rory and wearing her "princess rora shoes".

She is growing up so fast. It seems even faster than Bethany. I guess having an older sister to emulate will do that. And, I know, I need to get more pictures up! This week and weekend are crazy finishing stuff up at Stetson, so I will try REALLY hard to do some next week!

catch up

Well, between birthdays, kidney stones and Christmas, I never gave you the stats from Penny's 12-month check-up!  Here they are:

19 lbs, 5.5 oz

28 5/8 inches

I was stunned that I would still have to hold off on turning her car seat around!  I thought to myself that if I had given her that 6 oz of formula before her appointment, maybe she would have topped out at 20 lbs!  Besides, she was so far ahead of Bethany at each appointment that I thought for sure she would be 20 lbs.  Oh, well.  We waited a couple of weeks and then turned her seat around anyway!  That seat was a pain in the neck facing backward.

She still refuses to walk.  She's taken two steps on a couple different occasions.  She's enjoying all of her new toys that she got for Christmas.  She's a whiz at the ring-stacker and loves playing her instruments.  

On another note - we've begun our annual spring cleaning.  Yes, we have spring cleaning in the winter because that's when we have off the most time.  Nathan is usually catching up on grading during spring break.  We purchased a free-standing pantry for the garage to help with our kitchen pantry and paper goods over-load.  We also purchased some baskets to organize our bookshelf of toys in the living room.

Next on the list is cleaning out old toys from the girls' rooms.  We had to rearrange the set-up of Bethany's room to accommodate the doll house.  It looks really nice, I think.  Bethany says it's beautiful.

I'm going to consolidate the Christmas madness pictures into one page and then post it to the girls' website.  Look for that in the next couple of days. 

One Year

I write a lot less than I used to.  

Tomorrow, Penny will be one.  I can't believe it.  Where did the time go?

I remember thinking it took forever for Bethany to turn one.  But I feel like only six months have passed since Penny joined us.

My baby is one and yes, I'm a little sad.  How fast will the second year go?

Let's lift the mood, shall we?

Here are some things that I never got around to blogging about.  These are things that Penny does that are just too cute (in my mind, anyway!):

When she is sitting, she'll turn herself around in a circle.

When she is standing up and decides (again) not to try walking, she gets back to crawling by very slowly squatting down and putting her hands down in front of her.  She then takes off crawling at lightning speed!

Playing peek-a-boo with her burp cloth (yes, still using them, though more for lovies than spit-up)

She loves cars and trucks and pushes them all over the house

When we are getting ready to eat dinner, she folds her hands; I'm assuming that's because she knows it's time to pray

She would much rather play with ordinary objects than most toys we have

She loves going into her sister's room to play

She loves her sister

Happy Birthday, Penny!  We love you!

Penny, our Kazoo Prodigy

I wonder if there's a teacher in the area...

Penny jumps

My little jumper.

Penny

At her 9-month check-up yesterday, Penny was 18 lbs, 5 oz and 27 1/4 in long.  Just below 50th percentile.  She is crawling around like crazy and pulling up and trying to cruise (though our house set-up isn't really conducive to cruising).  She likes to get into EVERYTHING.  She's going to be a handful (as if she wasn't already!).  Still only 2 teeth but the drool has just been disgusting.  A lot of times she is very disinterested in toys, but loves trying to eat cat food and the cat scratcher.   Now she is interested in typing.  More later!

Whoops!

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? And I just realized that my last post was on my birthday. I don't even remember that.....

Anyway! Kid growth update: Bethany got on the Publix scale and she weighs 33 pounds! She finally broke 30!! She'll look back at this and wonder why I kept everyone up to date on her weight. How long will I continue to do that???

Penny had her 4 month check up yesterday. 13 1/2 pounds, 24 inches! She is such a cutie and smiles at everything. If you are ever mad about something, just come over here and let her look at you. You won't stay mad for long!

So here are some pics -

Bethany after her dance recital:


Bethany and her friend Michael J at the splash pad in the zoo:


Me and the girls after performing on a recital of music by women composers:


B doing a performance after that recital. This is her pose:


A cute one of Penny:


Another cute one of Penny:


This one is random. This spider was in my car a couple of weeks ago. He was smaller than my thumbnail and was very jumpy. If anyone knows what kind of spider it is, I would love to know!:


Sorry I haven't had time to post any pictures on the website recently. I will have more time once all of the concerts are done with next weekend. Yay!!!!!

Also - I have finally finished working on my SAI Chapter website. If you're interested in seeing my AWESOME work, go here. I'm very proud of myself. Of course, I have a lovely husband who gives me a little bit of help...

she's here!

Penelope Jane
6 pounds 8 ounces
19.5 inches

The WiFi in here won't let me FTP to our server. So more pictures will have to wait.