Today

Today I woke up at 7 and Penelope was still asleep. Score. I was actually able to have breakfast, check my e-mail, and pack her diaper bag before she woke up. Triple score.

We left the house at 8:30 or so and headed down to the Capitol for her second political rally. Well, first we got a bagel and cream cheese, which Penelope thought was heaven in food form. Anyway, her first rally was back in March? February? I can't remember... it was a pro-marriage equality rally and she wore her rainbow tights in support of equal rights. This time the rally was one to support SB-797 which bans BPAs in plastic. If you don't know what that is, then google should give you a lot of info. I'm too tired to go into it too much, but suffice it to say BPAs are bad and have been linked to everything from children reaching puberty at an earlier age to breast and prostate cancer. There are a lot of baby products that are now made without BPAs, but not all - and it's harder for parents in poorer neighborhoods to get access to BPA free products for their children. ALL kids deserve safe bottles, cups, etc... so we're very supportive of banning BPAs.

Penelope got a BPA t-shirt and had a good time at the rally. She fell asleep during speeches and I got THE CUTEST picture:


After the rally we (plus Kim + Orson and Gine + Lucy) walked the 4th floor of the building passing out BPA free bottles that had information on BPA & SB-797 to the Representatives and Senators. Fun, and amusing watching us try and navigate strollers in and out of offices... eventually we just parked the strollers outside the office and carried the babies in, we're so smart :)

So having completed our political activism for the day, Penny and I walked over to my mom's office building for lunch. It was fun, Penelope LOVES the ladies in my mom's office and was walking, giggling, and being her ridiculously cute self.

Then we had to haul it back to the parking garage where the pay-machine ate my ticket (I was later told that that NEVER happens, so obviously I did something wrong - whatever) and had to pay for a full day. Annoying. But not a huge deal, I can dispute it if I want, but I don't know if it's even worth the effort.

We came home and Penelope crashed. I hope she sleeps for awhile longer, I have to TRY and get some work done today. This is a pretty overwhelming week school-work wise and I'm trying not to freak out about how much I need to get done.

There's a lot I have to talk about...

But never enough time to blog about it all. So here are a few things and some pictures...

All Penelope wants to do ALL DAY LONG is walk. I'm so not kidding. She gets upset if you pick her up and take her somewhere (like her room or changing table) because she would much rather walk there. Only this is hard on Mommy & Daddy (plus it's super annoying since it takes 20 times longer). So we went out and got this thing called "Walking Wings" which makes supporting her walking easier on us. Here's her in them:



Her hair is also getting super long, we occasionally give her a Mohawk in the bathtub, and here's a picture of that:



And here's just a picture of her being super cute in her dress and the ridiculous hair accessory that I occasionally insist she wears even though she's not a fan and it's so very old school of me:



And one more just for fun:



Oh, and I hate the current class I'm taking.

More later, hopefully.

4 things

1. Penelope is becoming increasingly mobile. Every day her walking and balance improve... she's been brave enough to let go of our hands a couple of time and although she's still not standing or walking without a little support, she's doing very well for an 8 1/2 month old.

2. Food! Dinnertime gets much more fun now that I always give her a little of what we're having for dinner. She loves loves loves pasta and is pretty good with everything else. Things she's recently tried: kalamata olives (yum!), tomato, onion, red bell pepper, and sprouts. She also likes rice, broccoli, cheese, and bread. Her primary source of nutrition is still formula, but there's a significant amount of baby and grown-up food in the mix.

3. She's in size 2T. Not exclusively, as there are still a few 18 & 24 month outfits that fit... but we bought her some new clothes and they're all 2T. Some of them are a little big, but they're really not all THAT big. I washed them today so we'll see how they fit on her tomorrow. I promise to take some pictures since I've been really lax about doing that lately.

4. The band! We perform on September 13th at Harlows in Sac. Should be fun. Our current set list is: Help I'm Alive by Metric, Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads, 99 Luftballons by Nena, Sunday Morning by No Doubt, White Room by Cream, Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane, & Don't Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders.

Welcome tooth #6

Dear tooth #6,

Welcome to Penelope's mouth, we're so very glad you're here. Please tell your other tooth buddies that have yet to show their faces that we need a break, like a week or so.

Thanks for your help,
Management

Big P, Little P, What Begins With P?

Prissy Pants Penelope, P P P.

Penny now turns the pages in books consistently, and will occasionally "read" you a page - which is hilarious.

She hasn't been sleeping all that well lately, and I'm convinced she's getting her molars. Not fun, for any of us.

Last night she was a my parent's house for the night so Bryan and I could go to a friend's wedding. We had a good time but had to leave a little early to catch BART and get back to Sacramento. It was a little after 2am before we went to bed (well, I got to sleep a little in the car) - even though we slept in until 10, I think we're both still really exhausted. Neither one of us is as young as we used to be, and considering that Bryan is up with Penelope for her 3am feeding and I get up with her for the day at 6:30, we're not exactly well rested.

I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm forgetting about P's development and milestones, but I'm exhausted.

Bye Bye!

Penelope waved goodbye for the first time today! And then refused to repeat it for the rest of the day.

She's also been Super-Fuss lately - I'm pretty sure I jinxed us with my last blog post.

I got 100% in July's class - so I have a 4.0 so far (5 classes). I wasn't planning on making that my goal (my goal was a 3.5) but now that I have a 4.0 I really, really want to keep it. Only the classes are actually starting to get challenging, and I don't know if changing GPA goals will be beneficial to my sanity in the long run. After all, I have an 8 month old, will be back to nannying soon, and enjoy spending time with my husband.

Speaking of this class, I have to teach an actual lesson... only schools aren't currently in session. So I have to wrangle up 3-5 high schoolers and force them to come to my makeshift "school" so I can videotape it for my assignment.

Teething is a pain.. but we lucked out

I don't know anyone who enjoyed their child's teething. Maybe celebrities or the super-rich who have their children raised by teams of nannies, but no one whose actually spent more than 30 seconds with a teething child.

With that said, we really lucked out. Penelope is not a crier when it comes to teething (knock on wood). I can tell they hurt, but she doesn't really get super fussy. Although we do pop the teething tablets like they're candy (and they sorta are), but no screaming, fits, or extreme crankiness. Just an overwhelming desire to bit mommy, gnaw on daddy's shoulder, and chew mercilessly on her little hands. Poor baby.

Lately her teeth must be REALLY bugging her, because she's started putting things into her mouth and voraciously gnawing on them.

I will do a happy dance when teething is over and done with.

Other news: Penelope is getting much better at walking! What a difference a day makes... yesterday she took some tentative steps while I held on to her hands and today she took off! They're still a little jerky and she needs to work on her balance, but I think the Pediatrician will be proven right, she'll be walking by 10 months (if not well before).

Speaking of age, Missy turns 8 months old tomorrow! Hooray! I love this stage, I love it more than 6 months (and I LOVED that stage).

I'm sure I have more I could talk about, but I'm sleepy - goodnight blog-o-sphere!

Video, video

Penelope knocking down mama's "buildings"


Penelope "walking"

These are a few of my favorite things

Watermelon babies:


Lounging babies:


Applesauce face:


Also, Penelope is now clapping! And when you say "touchdown!" she raises her arms up in the air... and she says "uh-oh" like crazy. I may have to actually count it as her first word :)