Ponytails make a little girl

Remember last week how I was unsure how to control Penny's hair? Chris dropped our little baby off on Thursday morning, then Thursday evening I picked up a little girl. They had put a ponytail on the top of her head, and for some reason when Chris and I were watching her play we both looked at each other and said "she looks like a little girl!" Obviously she is still a baby but we can see her changing into a little girl.


Here she is Thursday night. (She has seen mommy pose for pictures a little too often...notice the head tilt)

And there I am tilting my head :)
We went a little 80's with a side ponytail Here she is in her red wagon from Aunt Pam, Uncle Eddie and Cousin Dylan

"This is the best thing ever!"
She followed up the wagon ride with a huge dinner. She must have eaten more last night than she did all last weekend when she was being picky. She ate sweet potato with chicken, watermelon, pineapple, blueberries, cheerios, a bowl of yogurt. Every time she finished something she would do the sign for more. Good thing I've seen other babies go through this or I probably would have freaked out.

Unpacking 12 month clothes

So most moms complain about baby clothes sizes being way off. We haven't had that problem at all. She grew out of her newborn stuff pretty quickly, but everything else has fit at the right time (excluding Gerber's clothing...they seem to run 2X smaller than every other baby clothing brand).
I took her to the pediatrician for her 1 year check up and shots. Turns out she had a little growth spurt and is back into the mid 50th percentile in height--once again, a "well, this is a surprise. She will probably be taller than you" comment. I think she will say that every appointment--50th percentile in weight and 70th percentile in head circumference. I guess baby clothing manufacturers are using the 50th percentile to make baby clothes. Here are some interesting things I learned:

• Late crawling often means late walking, but early talking--not sure if this means on time talking since she is doing spanish immersion and that usually means late talking
• I need to offer her more food before her milk, and try to keep it around 24 ozs a day, as toddlers figure out early on that it is much more time efficient to suck down a glass of milk then sit and eat.
• Totally okay if she is happy eating blueberries, peas, and cheerios at every meal...since they are healthy choices it is okay, and I just need to try to offer her other things. Soon enough she'll have new favorite foods.
• And my favorite new tip from the dr. New research shows 90% of freckles can be avoided with good sun protection (sunscreen, hats, etc). Yay! She doesn't have to be covered in freckles like me, even though she has a genetic predisposition to it.

Here's a pic of Penelope in a pair of 12 month low rise jeans...doesn't work so well with cloth diapers and chubby thighs.

Her Espana shirt from Christopher and Jen

Don Juan--for those of you who weren't following during my pregnancy, we didn't know Penelope was a girl and we weren't sharing our name ideas, so we called her Don Juan--Don after Chris's grandfathers, and Juan after my grandmother's middle name.

We've been so lucky to get boxes of clothes from our parents, grandparents and friends, that I rarely buy baby clothes, but sometimes I just can't help myself! Such a cutie!

Here she is at the doctor's office. (Any moms of little girls have tips for hair control? She pulls barrettes out within 10 seconds, and they aren't allowed at day care. Her hair is so fine I don't think a ponytail would hold...)

Goodbye cable

Chris and I decided to go back to our simpler days when we just had a dozen channels. We both get way too sucked in and spend hours in front of the tv. If I flip between BBC World News and Housewives of New Jersey, it kind of evens out the world affairs learning and the total brain candy mush, right? My brother once pointed out that he isn't one of those people who says "oh, I hate tv. I rarely watch it. Instead, he knows he likes tv and would veg out in front of it every night unless he forced himself to do something else...like practice spanish and teach himself how to play the piano. My goals are not as lofty. They are more along the lines of mop the floors, email friends I've neglected (Amy, I promise I'll email you soon!!), and make a dent in my To be Read pile of books. And really, from age 5-16 we didn't have any channels at all, just a tv and vcr for these "family friendly" movies my mom ordered from Utah...and a few rated R flicks that happened to be on some videos from my parent's friends. My parents probably still don't know Roadhouse was after City Slickers...and here they didn't want us to watch Dirty Dancing (RIP Patrick Swayze)
So I had to share my conversation with our cable provider. I made the mistake of "press 3 to downgrade or cancel your account" Of course, I got the customer service rep who was expected to convince us otherwise.

Me: Hi, I'd like to switch our cable package to the basic package.
Rep: Oh, are you sure? There's lots of great programming. You really won't save much to do this.
Me: Well, it is more about decluttering our lives.
Rep: Ahh, I can understand that. Do you have any kids? Families are so busy!
Me: Yup, a little girl.
Rep: Oh, well, isn't she going to miss her favorite shows?
Me: She's only 1 so we don't let her watch tv.
Rep: Really? But it is so cute when the toddlers know the characters. And I love when toddlers can sing along with the commercials. It is the cutest thing!
Me: (GAG!) Ummm...until she knows the McDonalds commercial and wants to go there every time we drive by.
Rep: I guess so. Did you tell your husband you are doing this? He'll miss his sports!
Me: It was his idea and there are still some sports on network.
Rep: Okay, well, let me see...(click click click) You actually only save $20/month because your phone and internet will go up. Oh, and the cable box fee is higher. Are you sure you want to do this? $20 a month really isn't that much for all you are giving up.
Me: Yes, if we want more channels I'll call back later.
Rep: I can't offer you this great deal then Oh, and there's a $35 downgrade fee to do this.
Me: (yeah, right I won't get the deal!) okay
Rep: Would you like free faster internet for 3 months?
Me: sure...oh, wait, I'll forget to cancel it after 3 months. Will that require a downgrade fee too?
Rep: Yes, it would be $35 but I'm sure you'll love the difference and wouldn't want to downgrade.
Me: No thanks. I have to go.
Rep: Okay, it will be cancelled by Sunday. If you miss it next week, just give us a call!

UGH! sorry that I shared all of that...the whole thing made me want to change internet and phone providers too. Lesson learned to never touch the "Downgrade/Cancel account" option.

A whole year

Happy birthday to our princess! This morning at 10 am I realized last year at the same time I didn't even know she was a girl...much less our wonderful princess Penelope! It has been the best, happiest, hardest, most wonderful year of my life.

So here was our first look at Penelope. She wasn't too excited about giving up that comfy free room and board... And now a year later!

Last night Chris installed the "Big girl" car seat. Her eyes were so big looking around the neighborhoods as we drove home from day care.This was her first car ride at 5 days old...I still can't get over how she changed right in front of my eyes. Early on the days seemed so long, but boy, it can fly by. When we got home, I changed Penelope in the pretty pink dress from Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike. Dresses aren't the best for crawling babies, but it is just so darn pretty I had to put her in it. Yes, princess, you do have adoring fans...

Here she is with all her loot from the grandparents and great grandparents. She loved the xylophone from Mommy and Daddy.Opening the dolly from GGMA.Giving CPR (must be inspiring to be a nurse like her Aunt Laura)Well, Aunt Laura does love shoes, but I don't think she likes to eat themAfter a messy dinner we gave her a cupcake.YumAll overShe got very upset when Daddy started wiping her faceOkay, this looks more like that baby we met a year ago!

It's all about the cake

Today we celebrated Penelope's 1st birthday with a party at our local park. The weather was wonderful and Chris made really scrumptious food. We had about 20 people, except I somehow only ended up with pictures of the kids.

Here's Franchessca showing off Penelope's barrette...it lasted in Penelope's hair for 10 seconds. Penelope and Libbi enjoying lunchHere's the "cup cake" Lacey and I made. Thanks to her very explicit instructions, I baked it Friday morning and she came over in the evening to frost it--and fix the huge broken part. I learned frosting and a ribbon can hide many flaws!

Penelope wasn't fond of the hatShe was very unsure of everyone singing happy birthdayHmmm...I don't know about this cake stuffOkay, another biteAnd yes, that's cake and frosting in her hair. While Libbi was very neat and tidy.Opening presentsSwingsGrant and Elliot going to the moon. It is amazing how kids this age can become fast friends in just a few minutes.

Back home on a total sugar high. It took 2 good shampoos to get all that frosting out of her bangs!

Labor day weekend

On Friday and Saturday we celebrated this day...Wow! Five wonderful years! On Friday Chris sent me beautiful flowers to my office. Then Friday night we ate breakfast for dinner just like we did at our wedding. Penelope is a huge fan of this tradition already. She ate half a waffle and a million blueberries. I don't know what we are going to do when blueberries go out of season. She never gets tired of them.
Anyways, back to our weekend...Chris and I went kayaking on Lake of the Isles and out to lunch in Uptown. A big thanks to Jackie Lee for babysitting. Penny and Libbi got to have a girls lunch, playdate and a nap.
Then the rest of the weekend we filled with laundry, painting (one day we will be done with those silly kitchen cabinets) and playing outside with the Penmeister. I took her to the library on Sunday. As you can imagine it wasn't very crowded so she got to practice crawling somewhere besides our living room and her bedroom. She officially can do real crawling.
Nothing like a book to entice her...Uh oh, here she comes!

And now she can grab the camera from Mommy!

Check back next weekend for pictures of Penelope's 1st birthday party!

"Mommy, can my cake be THIS big with lots of frosting and sprinkles?!"

Of course, miss Pea, whatever you want!

My hip flexors are jealous

I'm always amazed how flexible babies are. I mean I know their bones and joints aren't fully formed, which explains how Penelope can move in and out of the center splits any time she wants to reach for a toy. You know, how some people have recurrent dreams of falling or going places in their underwear? Ever since the 6th grade I've had dreams I could do the splits. It would feel so real sometimes I'd jump out of bed at 2 am because I was SURE I'd be able to do the splits. I still have that dream a few times a year, but there's no fantasy now that maybe when I'm awake I can do that great cheerleader split. Since we were in of dance and gymnastics classes with a bunch of gumby-like girls "get my splits" was a new year's resolution for me and my sister over and over again. Jennifer did manage it one year after way more hours of stretching than I was willing to do. Funny though how we take for granted our strenghts and only focus on weaknesses, literally in our case. The one year where another girl beat me in pull ups was the year Jennifer was in my PE class...but alas, now I'm so far away from a pull up and can't even touch my toes. So I'm thinking of doing Mom and Tot yoga with Penny. Yes, that really is a class. I only am half joking when I say that I'll make Penny put her feet in her mouth every day so she stays flexible...just in case she wants to be a ballerina...

But Penny, it is okay if you don't want to be a ballerina in a tutu, even if you are darn cute at it!In fact, it is just as wonderful if you want to be a motorcycle girl on a harley... ....because all we care about is that whatever you do makes you SMILE!