Independence Day

Yesterday was the 4th of July. I don't know what it is, but I LOVE the 4th of July. Love it so much that my wedding theme was Americana, and I hope to be the "go to" place for a 4th-themed party year after year.

This year did not disappoint, especially being able to enjoy it with my own little firecracker. : )

Happy Father's Day

9 Months and Counting...

My little Penny Lu turned 9 months old today - three whole quarters of a year! I've had the pleasure of her company just about as long as I housed her in my belly. Quite frankly, I'm enjoying the real deal.

Penny's Shenanigans

So, not only is Penny crawling, but she's crawling VERY WELL. She has "taken off," as they say. This has done wonders for her independence, which makes mommy very happy. Mere weeks ago she would get that pouty lip out whenever I would even THINK about walking out of the room for a second (to, you know, go to the bathroom or something?). Now, she'll even crawl around the by corner herself to check things out, and bonus points if she can find something new to stick in her mouth.

BUT DON'T GET TOO FAR MOMMY, JEEZ!

With this whole growing up thing, out has come a lot of goofy personality. It's so fun getting to know the child she'll eventually become, day by day. More and more she loses a little bit of baby and gains a little bit of kid.

I've already mentioned Penny's infatuation with herself, but it's even funnier now that she's crawling. She'll be on her way to pound on the fisher price piano toy and catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror. You can just see the look on her face saying, "Oh...? OH! WHO is that gorgeous little girl over there? I must get a closer look!" And she'll crawl right over and play with the baby in the mirror for a while. That baby is kind of a copycat though... lame after about 5 minutes.

Another fun one is her tendency to 1) Take sock off foot 2) Insert sock in mouth and 3) Crawl away with sock in mouth. I really just... don't get it. But this is my child.

And finally, NO BLOCK TOWERS MAY EVER REMAIN STANDING EVER. Andrew plays this game with her where he builds a tower out of her IKEA blocks, and then she promptly crawls over all ninja sneaky like she's trying to get to her sippy cup and BOOM! Down goes the tower. Badass Godzilla-style. 

Busy busy busy...

So, it's been over a month since I've posted... oops.

It's like, so much has happened, yet nothing really big has happened at all.

Penny is 7.5 months now. Here are some updated stats:

• She can sit up for hours, unassisted (if she had the patience for it)
• She crawls (even on hardwood)
• She can go from belly, to sitting, to belly
• She pulls herself to her knees (feet can't be too far away)
• She babbles
• She weighs 8 lbs 5 oz as of TODAY
• She is mostly in 12 month clothing... I can get away with some 6-9 month stuff, and she has been rocking 18 month footy PJ's. Her 12 month ones are getting worn, a bit tight, and I can't find anymore fleece ones in the 12 month size this time of year any way. 
• She loves riding in the shopping cart (I need one of those covers!!)
• She eats pureed baby food, puffs, wagon wheels, yogurt drops, lil cruchies (baby cheetos)... and we have been playing with real adult food. I'm pretty paranoid about choking, so I have a hard time experimenting, but we have learned that she does NOT like bananas or avocado. I'm excited for summer to get here so she can try softer fruits like peaches and plums. 
• She has those two bottom teeth pretty much all the way in, and one top one has broken through (here we go again!). I think she has three more up there working their way down, but the top ones are taking way longer than the first bottom ones did, it seems.
• She has some serious stranger danger, which is apparently very normal for her age.
• She loves walks in her stroller.
• Sophie the giraffe is still awesomesauce. 
• She doesn't like the sound of tin foil shaking or the tape measure. These things make her cry.
• Another thing that is sure to make her cry is the damn beagle that lives across the plat. It barks at us and runs back and forth along the fence when we walk by. Sabre could eat that dog for breakfast, but it is still scary, EVERY SINGLE TIME.
• Remotes, phones, computers are all things she would like to chew on. If she could just.reach.them.
• She will usually sleep through the night - but with this teething thing all bets are off. Fortunately she's only been waking once a night lately with her poor sore toofers and gums.

I have lots of pictures. ...but they are mostly all in Photoshop format. I'll get to that. Just give me another month and a few days.

But here's one! Penny is sporting her new coat Grandma Lu got her. It's a nice spring jacket for our walks. And yeah, that's one of our remote devices in her hand. Whateve. 

Oh, the Weather Outside is... Delightful!

When it's this pretty outside and sunny and warm, you just have to get out there. I feel so fortunate that I'm even ABLE to during the day, having taken the year off of work. We started out the day with some yard work - Penny cheered me on from the Pack n' Play. I'm a little paranoid about sun exposure (says the girl who used to go to the tanner ::GASP!::), so I covered about half of the top with a blanket so she wasn't in the sun. It's not even far enough into spring for our trees to have leaves yet, so unfortunately there is like, zero places with any shade. Luckily the Pack n' Play is fairly transparent on the sides, so Penny could keep an eye on me, because, you know, WE MUST SEE MOMMY AT ALL TIMES! 

We also came back outside a bit later when the heat/sun wasn't so harsh and played on a blanket. It's such a great time of year, especially with these record-high temperatures we've been getting. There's hardly any bugs yet, no real humidity to speak of... LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Maggie!

Sleepless in Seattle...

'Twas the night before Leap Day (almost)
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring...

except for mom, who was Photoshopping in a jittery flurry that can only be accomplished by parents who can't sleep, but are tired, but think, What the hell? She'll be up in a few minutes any way...

So, yeah, Photoshop. I love it. I dabbled here and there with the software in the past, but dagnabbit if this program isn't HARD. I just could not get beyond the whole layer thing for the longest time, and, let's face it, I really wasn't all that motivated to push through it and learn.

But now? I have all these precious baby pictures that are reaallllyy precious on their own but with a little editing here and there they can be just STUNNING ("stunning" being more of a reflection of my beautiful daughter and less on my editing skillz, as I am still a beginner).

You can probably even tell the point in time that I started actually using Photoshop by the pictures in my blog. I also got a really nice new camera (Nikon D5100) for Christmas/Birthday/Valentine's Day/Boxing Day. I haven't quite mastered the whole shooting in manual yet, but since I can take pictures in RAW format, there are a lot more editing options to be had.

 

So this one was more of a "project" to get me to practice manipulating the image and whatnot. If you stare at it long enough, you may actually temporarily go blind, but I think it's a fun one. Kind of like one of those Magic Eye pictures, no?

This I created for the sole purpose of making it into a canvas for hanging over Penny's crib in her room. This was the nighttime prayer from my own childhood, and I look forward to passing it on. The good news is there was a groupon deal, so I actually ordered it today. I'm SUPER excited for it to arrive!

One of the main things I like to do is make pictures look as professional as I can. And I really do think I'm getting the results I'd like. Between my camera and Photoshop, I don't feel like I'll ever really have to hire a professional photographer (except for *maybe* family shots someday), OR do the whole studio thing. So, in the long run, I think I'm saving money.

The main thing is I feel really blessed that I'm able to stay home with my baby this year, and spend my little bits of free time here and there developing this hobby.

Is it really almost March???

Penny is *thisclose* to reaching the 6th month mark on the 1st - and I just can't believe it. And you know what else? I'm excited about it. Sure, I miss my teeny tiny little bean of a baby, but so far, things seem to keep getting better, or at least more interesting because she is ALWAYS changing.

That said, there's not a whole lot really NEW, per say. She's on the cusp of crawling, and I can tell she wants to SO BADLY, but alas, her body will not cooperate. She really isn't even army crawling, so maybe she's not that close, I don't know. There is some serious scooting around being done in her crib, considering I find her at the other end completely facing the other direction than how I laid her there, but who the hell knows how that happens. I may eat my words, I know this, but I really am pretty excited for her to be mobile, mostly because she just seems to WANT to. She's sitting up great, but she has her toys, then she pushes them away, and then she wants them back, but she just.can't.reach.it. And I don't mind helping her out but a little independence wouldn't hurt anyone.

Her two bottom teeth have officially broke through, but you'll get a picture of them when she's about five because seriously, HOLD STILL, KID!

Any way, here are a few pictures, because, you know, she's cute.

With love...

Oh, bite me.

So, Penny has her very first tooth. Actually, TWO teeth. They are coming in like sharp little daggers growing from the depths of her gums.

The good news is, there's something to be said for her excessive drooling, chewing on everything, fussiness, and extra night wakings. The bad news is, there is still her excessive drooling, chewing on everything, fussiness, and extra night wakings.

I don't have a picture. Maybe that makes me a bad mom, but trying to take one was like trying to get a picture of a howler monkey's tonsils - not gonna happen.

I did, however, get a picture of our other *new thing* - sitting up all by herself!

She's not winning any baby awards for balancing yet, but we're getting there.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...

So, in general, I love my house, I really do, but the people who lived here before us probably had conversations about decorating that went something like this:

Bill: "Sugar Plum, we need to get closet doors."
Liola: "Well, dear, go down to The Menards and get those mirrored ones."

Bill: "How big do you want the mirror to be in the bathroom?"
Liola: "That's a ridiculous question, honey, you know I like my mirrors like I like my costume jewelry - big and shiny."

Bill: "What do you want to hang on that there empty wall?"
Liola: "Hmm...  I don't know... Hey, I've got it - A MIRROR! Better get two just in case!"

So, yes, we have a lot of mirrors. As Andrew and I redecorate/remodel to suit our own tastes, we have slowly been changing out the mirrors with surfaces of the non-reflective variety, because, well, we're just not a fan of them EVERYWHERE.

But guess who is?

Vanity, thy name is Penny.

And, I won't even tell you how much Photoshopping I had to do to make my mirror look this good. Finger prints and dog slobber be damned!

Bath Graduation

It's an exciting night in our house - you can just imagine the celebratory whoops and hollars that echo the walls as Andrew and I do kart wheels in the snow.

Okay, it's not that exciting.

ANY WAY, Penny is now taking her baths in the "big bath." She still technically fits in the little bath, but her new favorite thing to do during bath time is kickickickick - and momma's tired of mopping up water.

We had some good times...

But they have to grow up some time...

In other news, it's been really cold out lately.

But that smile warms the cockles of my heart every time...

The apple of my eye...

So, I've been slacking, I'll admit it. I think part of it is I've been gearing up to share about The Big Pediatric Ophthalmologist Appointment and I just haven't quite wanted to relive that day again just yet. Not that it went badly, in fact it actually went pretty well, all things considered, but it was a LONG day and I got so worked up in preparation for it... it's like I haven't quite released all of the tension.

But hey, life goes on.

Penny did really well, despite being poked, prodded, and having various instruments put IN her eye (yeah, I know) and her eyes held open and whatnot. I LOVED the people there. The doctor was obviously very experienced and knowledgeable, and his assistant was super sweet. Although we drove through a snow storm to get there, it actually worked out pretty well for us because a lot of people had cancelled their appointments, so we had very little wait time and got in and out very quickly for how extensive the exam was. I was so fortunate to have Tom and Lu Ann there not only for their Ford Explorer to get us through the snow - but it made everything so less stressful for me and I can't imagine having to do that by myself.

The doctor is quite certain about what type of cataract she has, and this means that it is very unlikely that the cataract will multiply or grow (which would require surgery) or that it is a symptom of a hereditary disorder (which would require many more tests of the MRI/blood drawing variety).

This is the type she has: Congenital Polar Cataract with Persistant Pupillary Membrane

The cataract IS, however, somewhat in her field of vision, so it is important that we "exercise" that eye to make sure the brain doesn't turn it off since it doesn't see as well. To do this, she will have to wear a patch on her "good" eye for an hour a day, every day, and have her vision tested every 3 months.

The good news is, the patches are actually pretty cute, and she's young enough that she hasn't quite figured out that we stuck something on her face. You can tell that she KNOWS something's off - she'll rub her eyes and act a little differently when it's on - but she tolerates it pretty well.

And can I get an "Amen" for good health insurance???

4 Months: General Update

Penny rang in the new year with a bang turning a whole 4 months old! We had her well baby check up on the 2nd and everything went great (aside from the fact that she screamed practically the whole exam, but I digress...). She is 14 lbs 1 oz (60th percentile) and in the 60th percentile for height, but I don't remember what it is (bad mommy!).

It's difficult for me to see sometimes since I am with her every day, but she is changing constantly in the things she is doing and the way she interacts with the world. So here's just a little bit about Penny and what she's up to lately:

• Sleeping: We have finally weaned her from the swaddle AND she is learning to go to sleep on her own without half an hour of rocking and walking around. This. Is. Huge. She is not sleeping through the night completely yet, but she usually only wakes to feed a couple times. All in due time, I guess.

• In related news, she can very easily roll over from back to front, and often does so in the crib and ends up sleeping on her belly. Who knew my little girl who HATES tummy time would end up being a belly sleeper. 
• Feet are fun. Toes are even funner.
• She loves those crinkly toys... I need to get more.

• Her current favorite song is Manamana by the Sesame Street. Youtube it and you will never get it out of your head ever again. Ever.
• She is still smiling and giggling, especially when I blow raspberries on her belly.
• A week ago, the activity mat and swing were OUT, but they are now back IN as acceptable activities. She also enjoys the ExerSaucer and still tolerates the bumbo for a while.

• She is currently wearing 6-9 month clothing (mostly because of height).

• We very recently started tasting baby food purees and she LOVES them. So far we have tried sweet potatoes and peas. It makes for a lot of laundry on my part, but it's a fun adventure for both of us.

I could go on forever I guess. Can't wait to see what the next few months will bring us!