Firsts, Lasts, Repeat Repeat Repeat

The first year of a baby's life arguably contains the greatest amount of firsts they will experience - I mean, the whole year is full of them. We've had some fun ones this past year, and Saturday will mark the Last First (well, holiday/celebration wise). It will be Penelope's First Birthday. I am looking forward to (and slightly dreading) the event, which will take place at a local pizza parlor and is themed "Winter Onederland" (cute huh? I didn't come up with it).

Anyway it should be a lot of fun, but it will be bittersweet. My baby isn't so baby anymore...

But until then, we have a whole week of firsts left. Last week was P's first Thanksgiving, today was her first trip to Pier 39 & the Dicken's Christmas Fair. Tomorrow will be her first November 29th (I know, lame, but there's really not much else going on that day).

I have some pictures of Thanksgiving & of today, but I am WAY too tired to grab the connector cord thing for the camera and upload the pictures to post. Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow. Maybe.

So that pretty much takes care of Firsts and Lasts... on to Repeat Repeat Repeat.

We've gotten to that LOVELY phase of childhood where Penelope LOVES to force her poor, exhausted, and only sometime patient mother to repeat EVERYTHING. She wants me to read to her now (instead of just flipping through the books) and then will have me read the same d@mn book over and over and over again. I have memorized most of the books we have in the livingroom. Thankfully my Aunt Diana gifted us with a bunch of new books so I have a lot more left to memorize (I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm very very glad for the new material - I think if I had to read "Mr. Brown Can Moo" one more time I'd need to be committed).

She also loves to have me repeat words. So tonight she would show me the blue crayon over and over again so I would tell her "blue" and then she'd laugh like it was the funniest joke in the world.

This stage is getting old - fast. It's lasted about 2 days and I am ready for it to be over already... only I have a feeling its only just begun. Oy vey.

Oh! Last week I ordered our holiday cards - hopefully they come in the mail Monday and I can get them out soon. I love the preview of them online so I hope they turn out well.

And now for a New Baby update:
New Baby has decided that he/she would like to take a more active role - by kicking the bejesus out of me morning and night (not noon, he/she sleeps then). This equals so AWESOME sleep for mama... and by awesome I mean restless. I shouldn't be surprised (and I'm not really), since Penelope did the exact same thing when she was "on the inside" <- that makes it sound like prison.

Anyway, the movement is reassuring and a little annoying. Especially since Penelope has gotten so much better at sleeping through the night (from 8pm-6:30am). I'd also like to sleep then, but find myself awake and tossing and turning most of the night. The sleep deprivation will only get worse once New Baby makes his/her appearance.

One day, when the kids are 12 & 13, I will get a full 8 hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. I hope. So kids, if you're reading this now, all mommy wants for Mother's Day is to be allowed to sleep in until noon. Of course, once my kids are old enough to let me sleep in I'll have morphed into my own mother and wake up without an alarm every morning at 5:30. Makes me wish I would have appreciated all the sleeping in I did as a teenager.

So kids, if you're reading this and you're currently able to sleep in on the weekends until noon then count your blessings. Appreciate every Saturday that is spent in pajamas until 3. Enjoy 12 hours of sleep while you can get it - one day you'll be older, have kids, and/or have been cursed with your Grandmother's freaky natural early morning wake-up.

Alright, off to attempt to sleep - but since New Baby is having his/her own little rave inside my uterus right now I don't really see sleep as a possibility anytime soon.