A smattering of pictures

I'm bored at work (the kids are entertaining themselves upstairs - quite loudly, but they're not harming each other or the house so I'll deal with the noise).

This means you get pictures!

Penny in the Bumpo


Penny as an evil super-villian

This actually requires a bit of explaination... she peed all over her carseat, and so we put our red changing mat (that came with the diaper bag) between her and the pee until we could get home to wash them all. The straps in the carset shaped the mat into what you see in the picture - which I think looks like a cape with big lapels...

This is today

First Laugh

Enjoy!

Penelope's First Profession Photo Shoot

So two weeks ago I went and got Penny's portraits done at Olan Mills Studios. I wasn't going to order any, but you know how it is - the pictures are so d@mn cute that you can't help but buy wayyyyyy too many.

With that said, I realized today that I don't have enough to go around!

So Penelope's Grandparents & Great-Grandparents are guaranteed either a 5x7 or a 3.5x5 - everyone else will have to get wallets. Because we don't have a ton to go around, they'll be first come, first served. If you would like more pictures you can certainly order them.

So here they are:

Video Overload

Tooting - listen carefully!


Talking


Bath Time

Mess

So last night my parents came over to watch the Oscars (well, they really came over to see Penelope) and I made broccoli cheese soup. This was my second try at it (different recipe than last time) and it was much better - although Bryan still likes Chili's version the best and I think the Chili's version is gross.

Anyway, after my parents leave and the baby is asleep, B and I go into the kitchen to clean things up... about 5 minutes into it, we notice that we're standing in a growing puddle of water (complete with broccoli chunks). Seems that the garbage disposal has clogged.

Ew.

Many towels later, our kitchen looks like this:




Bryan had to run out & get Drano and eventually we got things all cleaned up. But boy was it gross.

3 Days of Sleep

Penelope seems to have made the transition to her crib seamlessly (did I already mention this? I forget). Last night, for the third night in a row, she woke up once, ate, and then went right back down. I'm getting so spoiled! Tonight I think Bryan will be taking the night shift so I can get a full night's sleep. Hopefully she'll continue this pattern!

Pig Piggy Pig Pig

Either Penelope is going through a growth spurt or she's training for speed eating contests later in life.

No naps today (well, we got in three 30 minute cat-naps) and she wants a bottle in her mouth at all times. I swear she's eaten her weight in formula today.

Here are recent pictures of little Miss Piggy (wearing the dress her Granny K made her):

Salsa gets in your eyes...

It was actually salad dressing, and it wasn't my eye it was Penelope's. But "Salad dressing gets in the baby's eye" doesn't go with the jazz song and so compromises had to be made when choosing a title for this blog.

ANYWAY.

Last night was my cousin Macy's 13th birthday (side note: I keep saying/typing "niece" or "nephew" when I talk about my Aunt Diana's kids even though they're my cousins... I think it's because of the age gap. I'm 14 years older than their oldest and 20 years older than their youngest). Where was I? Oh yes, the party. We all met up at Chevy's and I, trying to watch my calories, ordered the fajita chicken salad.

They toss it at the table but I told them no dressing (it's a vinaigrette and I'm not a fan of it). Food comes and the busboy, who is helping the waiter distribute food (since we're a party of 13) does three things wrong:

1. He hand my grandfather his food over the table - the plate is hot and grandpa almost drops it.
2. He hands me a small bowl of salad dressing (which I didn't order/want) over the table, the bottom of the container is HOT since it's been sitting on a sizzling fajita plate and I drop it on the table... it goes ALL OVER and some of it splashes into Penny's eye.
3. He never apologizes for being a douche-bag.

Penny starts screaming and I freak out (inwardly - I didn't want to make a scene in the restaurant by calling for a public stoning). I am covered in dressing - all over my pants/shirt, in my hair, on the table, on my grandpa, on Penny's outfit - it's a bloody f'ing mess. I attempt to clean myself up while Bryan takes care of our now pissed off daughter (who had been peacefully sleeping before the incident).

She eventually calms down (although doesn't go back to sleep). It took a lot of walking and almost 4 extra ounces of formula - food calms her down faster than anything else. I really hope this is just an infant thing, because stress eating as a child/adult is NOT a good thing. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Anyway, I'm upset because she's upset and I can't eat when she's upset (they didn't prepare my salad correctly anyway). And Bryan's fajitas have gotten cold since he was comforting Penny.

The manager does take both of our entrees off the bill and our waiter comes over to make sure the baby is ok, but the bonehead who handed me a hot container is nowhere to be found. I would have appreciated an apology. I mean, he didn't do it on purpose - it was an accident - but he still shouldn't have passed the container across the table, he should have come around the table and actually set it down.

I'm not (and wasn't ever) mad at the guy - everyone makes mistakes and Penny was fine (just upset). Although if she had been injured then I probably would have insisted on a public beheading right then and there (I'm only mostly joking). I'm just in the camp that when you screw up, you own up to it and try and make things right.

Oh well, it certainly made for an "exciting" evening.

And Happy Birthday Macy!

Sleep Rocks

So last night was a first - Penelope let Bryan sleep through the night! She didn't really nap during the day and fought sleep at night, so we weren't able to get her down until 10pm. She was up at 3 with me, and went back down around 3:45. She then slept until about 7:45 - so Bryan woke up with his alarm (instead of with the baby) and got almost 8.5 hours of sleep! Hooray for him!

Hopefully this continues, he needs sleep and so does she - longer stretches of sleep at night are good for everyone (well not really for me, but I don't need as much sleep as either one of them and I don't actually mind the 2/3am feeding).

We also found out last night (after I finally read the info/warning on the side of the bassinet) that Penny can only use the bassinet until she's 3 months or 15lbs. Since her 3 month birthday is in two weeks it looks like it's time to start transitioning her to the crib... this makes me a little sad. I was hoping to have her in our room until she was 6 months old, but I don't want to exceed the weight limit on the bassinet since that could get dangerous. Oh well, maybe she'll sleep better in her own room (and maybe not, although I'm going to try and stay positive).

Tomorrow she turns 11 weeks old! We'll have been parents for 77 days!! Some days it seems like she was born just yesterday, and other days I feel like I've been doing this for years - it all depends on how much sleep I got that night *lol*

She's become VERY social. She love to stare at people and she's getting to be quite the flirt! Still not interested in toys, she'd rather make funny faces at people... She's got some great funny faces!

Busy weekend!

So Saturday was the start of the Tour of California! We're big cycling fans (well, my side of the family, Bryan isn't quite there yet) so I decided to take Miss Penelope downtown to see the race. I took Tori with me since she spent the night at our house the night before and we met up with my parents at the lightrail station so we could take public transit in (parking was going to be a nightmare).

((Sidenote: taking the stroller onto lightrail is NOT a good idea))

Anyway, we got down there an hour or so early and walked around, looked at various booths and took some cute pictures of Penny in her adorable Tour outfit:





The weather wasn't too bad, but almost halfway through the "race" (it was a timetrial) it got a little too windy and Tori, Penny, & I hopped back on lightrail and came home. All in all it was a good day.

The rest of the weekend was spent over at the kid's house - Jill and Drew were up in Tahoe, so Bryan and I stayed over for the weekend. They (J&D) actually got stuck in Tahoe (snow + traffic = no fun) so we stayed an extra night.

Monday I took the kids (all three, Brandon, Tori, & Penny) downtown for the anti-Prop 8 rally. It was much colder than Saturday's Tour so we didn't stay very long, which was a little sad because we didn't get to see the musical number that friends of my parents were performing... nor did we get to see Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, & George Takei. Oh well.

Miss Penelope wore her rainbow tights in honor of the occasion and a cute jumper with colored hearts. We're all about the LOVE :)

Being Baby Centric...

One of the ladies in Mother's Support Network posted this article (http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/whosInControl.html). The subtitle is: It appears that many parents of toddlers, in their anxiety to be neither negligent nor disrespectful, have gone
overboard in what may seem to be the other direction.

It's a really interesting article, and has given me a lot to think about especially now that Penny is getting a little older. Now she gets constant attention, we play and interact practically all day - she's the center of our world. Of course, she's also only 2 months old - and so when she cries it's because she actually needs something. Of course, we haven't put our lives on hold either. We take her everywhere - the mall, the grocery store, my weekly support group, she spends time at my parents twice a week, and comes to work with me on the weekends.

I know that parenthood necessitates changes in our lifestyle, but I don't want everything to revolve around the baby - it sets up unrealistic expectations for her (the world won't revolve around her) and it pushes Bryan and I (and our marriage) to the outside. Ideally the three of us become a center as we're all equally important in our family.

It may not be all that easy either, Western society tends to encourage "baby first" which often translates into "me first" when those babies grow up. Of course, this isn't always the case - but I do see it more often than not.

Hm.

Oy.

So I WILL post about the Tour of California - including pictures - but not yet.

I'm going crazy. Seriously.

Things that have been running through my head:
1. I miss being pregnant. And not because I enjoyed pregnancy (because I SO did not), but because I felt useful. It's weird, now that I'm a mom I feel like I have a calling... I was meant to be a mom. Ever since we quit breastfeeding I've felt like my body hasn't been living up to my expectations. It's not nourishing anything. It was great at growing a baby, and so I feel like that's what it should be doing. Like, now. Only I am NOT ready for another pregnancy or another baby. Emotionally and financially, we're just not ready. We will in NO way be trying for another one, it's just not time yet. But I still feel... like I should be pregnant. It's weird, and I don't know exactly how I feel about it.

2. How am I screwing up motherhood? What things am I doing (or not doing) that are going to cause lasting psychological damage to our baby? Intellectually, I know these are crazy and rather silly questions to be asking myself. But I still worry that I'm somehow messing things up. There's no handbook and about a zillion different opinions on how to parent... my current "thing" is worrying that not gazing lovingly into Penny's eyes during EVERY feeding is going to somehow cause an eating disorder. As if zoning out at 2am or watching SNL at noon while she's eating will cause negative feeling about mealtime which will in turn cause negative feelings about food.

I know, I know, I'm crazy.

Amgen Tour of California

Tomorrow is the start of the Tour of California - right now Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer are in Sacramento!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I'm a geek. I blame my Dad.

Anyway, tomorrow (weather permitting) we're going to go downtown to see the race. I have a super-cute cycling onesie that I'll put Penny in and we'll see if we can get any famous cyclists to pose with my baby *lol*

Mommy knows best

I measured Penelope last night - 24.75 inches. I knew she was longer than 24 inches!!

Doctor's Appointment

So after today's doctor's appointment, Bryan turns to me and says "we're spoiled"... and we totally are. After 6 months or so of long visits with our midwives, today's 5 minute quickie with Penelope's pediatrician was a little unsatisfying.

The good news is that she's healthy! 12lbs, 12oz and they say she's 24 inches long (I'm convinced she's longer and they measured incorrectly - Bryan and my Mom think I'm nutty). Everything looks good and she's on track as far as motor development, blah blah blah.

She did get shots today. I know I've had a few posts about my various vaccination fears, and if we followed the CDC's schedule then today she would have gotten 5 shots.. Five?!?!?!! Um no. So we choose two, the HiB & Penemococcal. We'll go in next month for Polio & DTaP (although I'm a little nervous about DTaP). She probably won't get Rotovirus and we're delaying Hep B until she's a toddler. The Pediatrician was very open to delaying vaccinations - he bascially said we could do whatever we wanted. Hooray!

She was so good for her shots, she cried for maybe 30 seconds then ate about an ounce and promptly fell asleep! Bryan has had her for the rest of the day, so I don't know if she's still doing well - but I'm sure if she was having an adverse side effects he would have called me :)

So all in all it was a good visit. A little short, but the staff seemed nice. We'll see them again in 4 weeks!

Moving on up!

Yesterday we moved the snaps on our BumGenuis diapers to the second level.

For those who have never seen or used a BumGenius cloth diaper, this means we expanded the diapers - so they're a bit bigger. There are three levels, the smallest is for infants and the largest is for toddlers (in general).

Our Amazonian baby is now in the middle size - at 2 months old.

Eep!

Later today is Penny's first doctor's appointment... will update later.

Mommy phase?

I think Penelope must be going through a "mommy phase" - she's currently asleep in my arms (typing one handed). Bryan was unable to get her to calm down, and the swing was also unsuccessful. She usually doesn't have a problem sleeping on Bryan or in the swing, but this time she wanted mommy. Thirty seconds after I picked her up she was fast asleep.

I really hope that it was just a fluke. I mean, I love it that she wants to be with me, but if I'm the only one who can comfort her that will get old... fast. Besides, I think it's good for her to have daddy time.

Oh, and tonight I tried to make home-made broccoli cheese soup. It didn't exactly turn out how I was hoping, but it wasn't terrible... I need to find a new recipe.

Bath Time!

So this weekend we're staying at the kids' house again and Jill & Drew have this enormous bathroom with an equally enormous bathtub. So we decided to "go swimming"

Nap Time

So since Penny and I are home-bound today, I thought it would be a good time to try out naps in her crib. She sleeps in there at night (well, part of the night) and so I figured we could make the nap/crib transition pretty easy.

Nope. She slept for about 10 minutes before she decided that she was having none of it. She's currently fast asleep in her swing.

I've heard that swing sleeping is "junk" sleep (I guess the motion doesn't give them a full, restful sleep) but I'll take what I can get today. I need to pay bills (done!), do laundry, and make a grocery list - things that are difficult to do while entertaining an infant. PLUS she's almost grown out of the kangaroo & cradle holds in her Moby - the only holds that are recommended for her age. The 'fun' holds we can do when she's closer to three months and can sit pretty much unassisted.

More baby Steelers pictures!

TV

Bryan and I admittedly watch too much TV. Monday nights are Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Two 1/2 Men. Tuesdays are NCIS (that's just me) and Scrubs, Wednesdays we actually don't have a show, Thursdays are Lie to Me and the Office, Fridays The Clone Wars. Sunday is Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. Every weeknight is The Daily Show, and occasionally Ellen (ok, that's me again). When Bryan has Penny for the 4am shift, the usually watch Hot Stove on the baseball channel.

So yes, too much TV.

I would like to cut back when Penny gets older. I don't want to raise a TV junkie, but man do I love my TV! Besides, some of the shows we watch aren't really appropriate for younger children. I've actually been thinking about this a lot... maybe one day soon I'll have a long post on how I feel about TV & kids, but I don't have time today (baby is starting to wake up for her morning nap and I should really take a shower today).

Schedules and Sleep

So we've been trying to get Penny to go to bed 'early' - her normal bedtime is around 10:30/11 and that's really too late. We need time in the evening to hang out and chat without also having to feed/change/play with baby.

The last few nights have been pretty successful, last night & tonight she was in bed by 8:30. The night before I think we got her down at 9. We put her in her crib for this - it's too noisy in the living room and I don't want her in our room alone (I still don't trust the cat). So she's in her own room and we have the monitor on. After she wakes up, usually around 12:30 or 1, I bring her into our room and into her bassinet for the remainder of the night. She rarely sleeps in our bed anymore, although when we sleep away from the house (like last weekend when I had two overnights at work) or if I'm super tired (like last night) I'll put her in-between us in the bed.

It looks as though we're getting a pretty good night-time schedule down. I won't claim success until next week tho, I want to give us a whole week to adjust.

A day-time schedule, however, is next to impossible. Why? Well, we're actually pretty busy during the day. Here's a sample of our schedule:

Monday - free morning, drop off Penny at 12:30 at my parents (while I go to the gym & go to work), she gets picked up around 4, I get home at 7
Tuesday - hang out with Sophia while Sarah goes to work, then errands or maybe some housecleaning, usually get home around 4
Wednesday - New Mom's Group, drop off Penny at my parents (gym & work for me), she gets picked up around 4, I get home at 7
Thursday - usually hanging out with Alisha, Sarah & their babies... or more errands if we didn't them done Tuesday
Friday - free morning, attempt house-cleaning, pick up the kids from school
Saturday & Sunday - depends on if I'm working, so sometimes she's with me and sometimes she stays at home with Bryan.

So you can see how it's not really possible to be consistent with naps during the day. She does sleep while we're out & about - but never at the same time everyday or for the same amount of time. In general, even though she doesn't get a regular day schedule, she still seems to keep the same night schedule. So I guess we're super lucky there...

So, in other news, I think we're getting close to laughing! (Did I say that already???) and she's really trying to sit up. I still think we're a way off from sitting up unassisted, I mean, she's only 2 months old. She does LOVE to stand though!

Ok, it's 9 and I should sign off. Bryan is already asleep on the couch (he's still not feeling very well) and I guess I should try and catch some extra sleep since it's likely I'll have both shifts again tonight.

Sick, sick, sick

Not Penny (thank goodness) but both Bryan and my mom are sick... B was up a couple of time last night emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet (ew) and is staying home from work this morning.

Sine he was ill, I took all the shifts last night - which sucked. But she slept relatively well, so it could have been worse. I just hope she doesn't get sick because that would be terrible.

Coffee is my friend this morning.

I never want to have twins.

Today I babysat for my friend Sarah and her 5 month old baby girl Sophia. It was only for an hour and a half, but about 15 minutes before Sarah got home both Sophia and Penelope decided to express themselves - loudly. I was walking around the house with one baby in each arm attempting to get them to stop... I failed. Eventually Sophia cried herself to sleep and I was then able to get Penny to stop. The scream-fest probably only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like forever.

It sounds worse than it was, at one point I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror with the girls and I had to laugh. It was mildly amusing.

I'll be watching Sophia once a week - and I'm sure that next week will be less noisy :) I'll plan on going for a long walk once she wakes up and that should keep them both pretty occupied.

After Sarah got back and Penny went down for a nap, I finished the cloth wipes I started last week. When we decided to do cloth diapers, I decided not to do cloth wipes too - for whatever reason I thought that would be too much work. Now that we have a routine with our diapers, it really makes no sense to continue to use disposable wipes. Cloth wipes are cuter, better for the environment, and don't create any extra laundry so they're pretty convenient. Luckily Sarah has a super-cool sewing machine that does a surge-stitch, so I was able to make some up pretty quickly. I'll take pictures and post them at some point.

Next week Penelope has her first doctor's appointment. Should be interesting - she's technically behind on her vaccinations, but we're not going to follow the CDC's schedule anyway. I'm expecting to get a fair amount of raised eyebrows with our unconventional birth and our choice to delay vax's. Oh well.

I have more pictures and video, I just haven't gotten a chance to upload them yet... soon!

Go Steelers!!

More pictures later, but here's our newest Steelers fan!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

Today is Bryan's 35th birthday - so Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband (and Penny's fabulous daddy)!

For his birthday, Penelope decided to sleep really well last night. She was only up twice and slept in until almost 9:30. We both feel amazingly rested today - so thanks Penny!

Here's a picture of my two favorite people:


(Oh, and GO STEELERS!)