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...