Penelope's admirer

Tonight we went out to pizza to celebrate Bryan's birthday (which is tomorrow, 2/1). At the pizza parlor they had an area with little kids toys, which was wonderful and kept P pretty entertained the whole time we were there.

Not long after we got our pizzas, a family walked in with a 2 year old boy (who was only about 2 inches taller than Pen). Anyway, the two of them played rather well together - they would hand each other toys and did a lot of sharing. No one yelled, hit, or made a fuss - score. After Pen was done playing she'd head back towards us (our tables were right next to the play area) and demand to be held. At one point the little boy came over while she was on Bryan's lap and said "down" - as in "hey you, put my friend down so we can play again!" He did this quite a few times, to the amusement of our entire table and the slight embarrassment of his parents. We thought it was hilarious. At one point Bryan said something to the effect of "man, I already have to beat them off with a stick!"

This little boy really wanted Penny to play, and Penny was indifferent at that point (she was also exhausted, as we'd had a super full day and she hadn't napped very well).

It was cute.

Earlier that day Grace and I took Penny to a park down by Grace's house and I took a few pictures, so here's so Pen park pics (say that three times fast!)









And because I love this picture, here she is with her Uncle Nic a few days ago:

The Diva

Tonight Penny was more than a little uncooperative at bedtime. All she wanted to do was play with the Princess camera we got from my Aunt (it's pink and says things like "you look as pretty as a princess!" when you click the button).

She LOVES that damn camera.

Anyway, the only way to get her to sit still during post-bath diapering and dressing was for Bryan to madly click the camera button, pretending to take her picture over and over again like on a professional fashion shoot. She just sat there and GRINNED. It was like she had been transported into baby heaven - someone was taking her picture!

In fact, it was the only way I've been able to brush her teeth this week without a fight. She's getting the last of her canine teeth and she no longer enjoys teeth brushing... so at least it was easy to brush her teeth.

But man... we birthed a diva baby.

She MUST get that from her Daddy. ;)

Oh, and can I say - our dog is GASSY tonight and it's DISGUSTING.

Ok.

So this afternoon I started having pretty regular contractions. They weren't as intense as labor contractions, but were very similar to the contractions I had in the day leading up to Penelope's birth. So I spent the evening on the couch, drank a lot of water, and called my midwives. They said dehydration is a likely culprit, and also the full moon - the full moon will intensify contractions so if I'm already a little dehydrated and having Braxton Hicks contractions then the moon will only make them worse. They also want me to take cranberry on a regular basis to make sure I don't develop a bladder infection.

After about an hour on the couch and a lot of water a tea, I feel better. The contractions aren't regular or as intense... in fact, I think they've stopped for the night. The baby is moving around a lot more, and he/she wasn't moving when I was having the contractions. So I'm taking that as a good sign.

I attempted to send my contractions to my friend Bobbi whose due in 2-ish weeks but is full term, uncomfortable, and already 3cm dilated. So hopefully they made it to her and she goes into labor tonight so we can all meet baby Evan soon!

I'm sure I have more to update - there's always more. But How It's Made is on and I love that show.

Before I forget

I wanted to chronicle a few things before I forget them... which I tend to do a lot more these days (forget things). I hope I'll be able to be as detailed about "&"'s happenings at this age, but I have a feeling that it's only going to get harder to remember to write it all down. So dear "&", if you're reading this, mommy is sorry she wasn't able to note every cute thing you did as a baby. Second children get the shaft. But I still love you!

Ok, so on to how frickin' adorable Penelope is.

Today we splurged (ok, I splurged) and got her a bean bag chair. It's pink and soft and she loves it... only she loves to hugs and nuzzle it, not necessarily sit in it. In fact, anything remotely soft she will nuzzle and then hum. Her hat, stuffed animals, blankets, my belly, pillows, the couch... you get the picture. She buries her head into it and then goes "hmmmmmmmmm" - so cute.

She's also become quite the chatterbox. She now chats with strangers in line at the grocery store (or Kinkos, like today). 99& of the time she'll only talk to women, but the occasional guy has gotten her to smile.

She also stops whatever she's doing and dances to the theme from Friends. She REALLY gets into that song. Bryan and I are going to attempt to video tape it tomorrow, it's hilarious.

She's started trying to feed us, which is cute and occasionally gross. She'll slobber all over her hands feeding herself and then try and shove food into our mouths, she's amused when we refuse and then only tries harder.

Damn it, I had a bunch more I wanted to talk about and I can't remember any of it. I really need to start jotting down notes during the day so I can get it all on the blog.

Oh, and I can't find the camera so no new pictures. I'll try and look for it tomorrow.

The List (and other things)

First off, thank you to everyone who gave us baby boy name suggestions. We considered them all (well, except for some of the ones my Dad suggested - like Vahl, really Dad??) and found a few on our own.

So here is the Official LIST. Names are in alphabetical order.
Dexter
Griffin
Kian (Key-An)
Lucas
Milo
Pierce
Ronan

I feel much better now that we have a list. I have a couple of favorites, but there's currently no front-runner. If "&" is a boy we'll just wait to meet him and see which name fits him the best.

And now "other things"

Yesterday Penelope started kissing the dog. Luckily she had her paci in, otherwise that would have been just gross. Harley-Quinn's been bathed this month, but she's not exactly clean - although P gets enough dog hair on her and in her mouth just by being in the house. No amount of vacuuming can get all the pet hair Harley & Flea shed every day.

A couple of days ago we inherited some cool toys from my Aunt Diana whose kids have outgrown their baby/toddler toys. So Pen got a kitchen, games, potato head, and a ton of other cool toys. She's in love with the kitchen set, especially the oven and microwave which make noises when you press the buttons. This morning she brought me the doctor kit with a stethoscope, thermometer, and other doohickey, and made me listen to her heartbeat over and over again. She hates it when the doctor does it (although we have a new female pediatrician so maybe next visit she'll be more cooperative). Playing with the toys might also help her feel more comfortable when it comes to exam time - who knows.

So thanks Aunty Di for the toys! :)

Oh, one of the games we inherited is a matching game. It's meant for slightly older kids, but I'm using one of the boards now just for fun. Penny can already match half of the pictures! She's a genius! (That or she REALLY loves frogs, dogs, butterflies, and suns and so already knows those well enough to be able to match the pictures)... we'll go with genius.

I will endeavor to take pictures today so I can do a picture update. P's getting big (and so am I!).

Names... again

The other day I realized that I just don't love any of our boys names. Bryan really loves Milo, so we'll keep it on the list - but I'm officially scrapping every other name. No more Parker, Xavier, or Theodore.

Which means I need help coming up with boys names. My requirements: the name cannot have been on the social security's top 100 for 2008 (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/) (they haven't posted the top names for 2009 yet), and the name must go well with "Walter" as that's the middle name. That's it. I used to have a Greek origins requirement but we had to drop that... Bryan is English/Irish (mostly) and I'm Greek/Swiss/German (mostly) so names from those cultures/nationalities would work - but they don't *have* to be from any particular one.

Our girls list hasn't changed: Calliope, Isadora, Milla, Ophelia, Athena, & Amelia.

I almost added Renee to the list, but we have enough names - so no more for the girls list.

But we could sure use help beefing up our boys list (well, when I say "we" I mean "me". Bryan is convinced the baby is a girl and says we don't need a boys list. I'd like one just in case).

Weaning: Redux

So. Weaning.

The plan had been to wean Penelope entirely off formula and bottle by the time "&" arrived. Ideally before March.

Well, I'm rethinking the plan. For the last month Penelope has been down to just one bottle before bed, and after it's over she would get pretty upset. We've had to switch the routine up since visiting the dentist (I knew we would have to eventually but didn't want to deal with the hassle). So now instead of just before bed she gets her bottle before her bath (and after we clean up toys - she now helps us pick up the living room every night, she's pretty good at it too). Then bath, teeth brushing, and bedtime. Bryan rocks her to sleep (she and I have a hard time finding a comfortable position together - which is a little sad, I love it when she falls asleep on me).

The first night she cried after her bottle was done, tonight she held on to it for awhile and chewed on the nipple before I took her to the sink and we put it "away". No tears this time so we'll have to make that our routine.

At some point we'll deal with finding another way to go to sleep... one of these days it would be nice to just tuck her in and have her fall asleep on her own. Maybe once her new room is done and we put her in the big bed we'll work on that. Or not. We'll see how it goes with two little ones at bedtime. We'll adjust as necessary depending on what the kids need/respond to the best.

Let's see... what else?

I'll be 28 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I know I've probably said this before, but some days this pregnancy seems to drag on forever and some days is feels like it's flown by. Today is one of those drag on forever days. Although I'm SO not ready to have the baby yet. We're not even close to prepared and I'm not ready psychologically/emotionally to have two "babies". I'll be ready in two months. Maybe.

Oh - there's an elimination communication class at MSN next month and I'm going to go. I haven't decided if I'm going to try EC, but I'll at least get more information. I bought P a potty chair last week and have yet to take it out of the box. I've been meaning to at least start putting her on the potty whenever I pee just so she gets used to it, but haven't actually done so. I just don't have much motivation to add anything new into our routine.

Although Sarah and I are going to attempt to make our own BumGenius knock-offs so I won't have to worry about running out of diapers once "&" gets here. I got some really cute prints for them and I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Alright, time for my 8:30pm snack. I had some fat free pudding for dessert, but I'm hungry (again) and I may have to have some cereal to tide me over until morning. I swear I'm eating more with this pregnancy than when I was pregnant with Penelope.

Good morning baby

I'm spending the day doing massive amounts of silly homework (my assignments for this class are beyond ridiculous) but I decided to take a quick break so I could tell you, my beloved blog reading audience, about the phenomenally cute thing Penelope does every morning.

If I've mentioned this before you'll have to forgive me, but it's just so damn cute!

Every morning she wakes up in our bed (see previous blogs on why she's in our bed every morning - damn teething). Anyway, she smiles, chatters, and then makes her way over to me where she proceeds to lift up my shirt, expose my pregnancy belly, and give it a big kiss. This morning "&" received no less than 6 kisses from his/her big sister. She also placed her ear on my belly as if she was listening to the baby... she'll also hug the baby and poke the baby.

It's so sweet :)

Ok, back to homework.

Kicking vs Stretching

Penelope was a stretcher. Sure she'd kick every now and then, but she enjoyed jamming her feet into my ribs and stretching her arms so they hit my cervix at the same time... and then holding the position for awhile. It was uncomfortable.

"&" isn't much of a stretcher so far, but MAN is this baby a kicker. A rather violent kicker (at least compared to Penny) and it is just as uncomfortable as stretching. A different kind of uncomfortable, but still not pleasant.

For all that some ooh and aww over fetal movement, it is (in general) a wholly uncomfortable experience that does not endear me to pregnancy. Of course, not much about being pregnant is pleasant so there you go. Anyone who tries to tell you different is flat out crazy and has post-pregnancy amnesia (which I've decided is an evolutionary trick that gets women to agree to conceive after they've experienced the 9+ months of discomfort pregnancy entails). Between nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, pains, stretching, hormones, mood swings, being beat-up from the inside, waddling around, and labor it's a miracle people still get pregnant. I love my babies, but getting them here isn't my favorite thing in the world.

Anyway. Kicking... the bright side is that I know "&" is doing well. And there's hope he/she will have a soccer career... or maybe a kicker for the NFL. Or something else that requires strong legs and painful accuracy.

Now on to Penelope.

Miss had her first dentist appointment today. That was the biggest waste of an hour I've ever spent. At least it was a free check up, if I would have had to pay for that I would have been annoyed. Everything looks fine (not like the dentist could get much of a look, Penny apparently distrusts anyone in a white lab coat and refused to open her mouth). But we got it done like the American Dental Association recommends and will get her some baby toothpaste (we've just been brushing her teeth with water). I won't take her back until she's closer to 3.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could talk about, but it's bedtime and I'm exhausted (and starving - although it's too late to make poor Bryan go out to get food and I'm pretty sure In & Out is closed). Trying to eat healthier for these last couple months of pregnancy, but it's a losing battle. Being slightly depressed about my seemingly futile job search, plus other various issues makes me crave comfort food - and comfort food isn't exactly organic, low-calorie, or full of vitamins and minerals.

Ok, it's really bedtime. Not like "&" will let me sleep much, but I've at least got to try.

It's not perfect, but we make it work

A full night's sleep continues to be the most elusive of our goals. For the past few weeks (or has it been more than a month?) Penelope's sleep has gone from great to inconsistent and frustrating. I continue to blame it on teething since she has 1/2 of both her top molars still coming in, the left eye tooth 1/8 of the way in, and the right eye tooth close to breaking through the gums. If that much was going on in my mouth I probably wouldn't sleep well either.

Combine it with a wicked cough, Bryan's flu, my pregnancy (and my own wicked cough), and no one is getting their recommended amount of sleep at night.

But it could be worse. A lot worse.

Last night P was up twice, the first time I was able to get her back to sleep in her crib without any hassle. The second time she was *wide* awake so I brought her into bed with us and she tossed and turned for what seemed like over an hour before finally falling asleep (in a position that made it difficult for me to go back to sleep, so the rest of my night was pretty much shot). At least she slept.

Luckily I need less sleep than either her or Bryan - I've had insomnia since before I got pregnant with Penelope and was actually on sleep medication for a little while (it didn't help). So while I'd like to get more sleep, I can settle for what I get now - at least until the teething ends.

Of course, as soon as she stops teething I'll go into labor and then no one will get any sleep for another year.

Such is life.

Speaking of labor, I have 10 more weeks until I'm full term and can hope for labor to begin. 13 weeks until my due date. I really do hope this baby decides to come a little early. He/she doesn't have to come in exactly 10 weeks, but 11-12 would be nice. We'll see, I'm sure I'll be giving minute to minute dilation updates once I get a little closer to my due date.

Some days 10 weeks seems like an eternity... and some days it feels like it will happen tomorrow. While I'm not at all anxious about labor, I am anxious about juggling 2 children under 2, finding time for school, and trying to find a job. The closer I get to my due date the more unlikely it is anyone will hire me. Few people are going to want to hire someone who will be there for a few weeks and then take 6 weeks off for maternity leave. I'll keep trying though and hope for the best.

Oh, Penny has her first dentist appointment next week. That should be interesting... she's not exactly a fan of people poking around in her mouth. I have a couple of questions for the dentist about toothpaste and toothbrushes - fun stuff, huh? That reminds me that I need to make an appointment for myself.

I had a bunch more that I wanted to say, but I've forgotten it all. And Bryan just turned on Sweeney Todd so it's time to watch some TV :)

Things we did today

This morning I was tempted to keep Penelope and I in our pajamas all day (or at least until right before Bryan got home) but there we no decent movies playing on HBO and since Penelope won't watch TV I decided we might as well be productive.

Luckily Penelope cooperated and napped for over an hour in the morning so I could clean bathrooms, wash diapers, and start regular laundry. She also sat happily in her high chair with snacks while I did the dishes and made us lunch.

Lunch was macaroni & cheese (I wasn't feeling very creative today) and I allowed her to hold her own spoon and bowl... I've been hesitant to do so because I don't want to deal with the mess, but as has been pointed out to me recently "she'll never learn if she's never given the opportunity". So I mentally prepared myself for a mess and let her have-at. The more I can encourage her to be independent before "&" gets here the easier it will be on all of us.

She got some into her mouth using the spoon (with some assistance from Mommy) and the shoved the spoon at me and demanded to be fed. She wasn't even interested in finger feeding the macaroni to herself. :/

We'll keep trying, tonight for dinner is stuffed bell peppers so I'll cut it all up, give her a spoon, and see what happens.

Anyway, after lunch we headed to Target to waste time and pick up a few things. I *almost* bought her a bean bag chair, but it had a fuzzy cloth exterior that couldn't be removed for cleaning. I didn't really see something like that being practical with soon to be two kids, a dog, and a long-haired cat.

I let her run around the store a little since it wasn't crowded and I wanted to tire her out - it was hilarious. She was running around waving her hands and chatting away. She found her way to the Star Wars toy isle, the pink princess isle (although she ignored everything in the aisle except for the baby dolls), and only tripped over herself once as she was running away from me after I threatened to put her back in the cart.

So I think she had a good time.

Afterward we stopped off at Walgreens so I could get my H1N1 shot, came home, had snack, and she went down for nap #2 with little fuss (woot!). She's been asleep for over an hour and a half now... if she doesn't wake up by 5 then I'll probably wake her up otherwise bedtime will be a nightmare.

During Nap 2 I moved and folded laundry, picked up her play area, and completed Lesson 1 of Rosetta Stone's Spanish CDROM (which I got for Mother's Day last year, it's taken me awhile to get with the program).

The first lesson was super easy, but I expected that... I did very very well at grammar and reading (100% in both areas) and only got 95% on my pronunciation. I pretty much expected pronunciation to be my weakest area since I tend to pronounce anything non-English with a French accent. Blame 4+ years of French in high school and college.

Oh, and I also did some job searches today but didn't find anything I could apply for. I'll check back later in case some places wait to post until the end of the work day.

I'll try and work on some homework after P is in bed for the night and will then be able to call this the most productive day of 2010 I've had so far. :)

Tomorrow is music class and hopefully more job hunting... although I'm half tempted to drive to SF and join the protesters in favor of marriage equality. That would make for one long day though... maybe next Monday.

Objet d'art

Today Pen and I went to ArtBeast, a kids art studio in Sac, and she painted her first masterpiece. The studio itself is really neat with three different levels for kids and has all kinds of things for kids to explore - visual arts, performing arts, you name it they have it. It also benefits a really wonderful non-profit organization so double score! Pen got a gift certificate for her 1st birthday (thanks Alisha, Nick, and Linden!) so we made a date with some other mommy/baby friends and made an afternoon of it.

P and I got there a bit late since she decided to take a morning nap (I'm not complaining, hooray for naps!) so we hung out in the baby area for awhile with our friends and the kids crawled/walked around, climbed over stuff, and stole toys from each other. :) Not too long after we got there all our friends had to leave so Pen and I hung out in the painting/sand/craft area and I let her loose!

I brought my camera, but had neglected to charge the battery - so there are no pictures of Penelope actually painting, playing, or her in the cute apron... next time I promise.

We focused on painting since most of the other crafts were made for slightly older kids. It was really the first time she had painted; she'd done some finger painting before, but this was her first time with a brush (and an easel) and she really seemed to enjoy it. She also liked playing with the sand, although she didn't want to actually touch the sand - that was apparently too icky. She just liked to stir it with a wooden spoon.

After about an hour of making art I was ready to go, my back was killing me and I was having more contractions. I'll be very surprised if this baby holds out until its due date.

So we took her paintings and left - swung by my parents house and dropped one off (she made two).

Here are pictures of her masterpieces:





It was a fun day, we'll have to go back!

Paul McCartney or Michael Jackson?

I can't decide which artist Penelope likes better. Every time one of their duets plays on the 80s channel she stops what she's doing and dances. We were in the middle of reading The Foot Book for the 1,000th time when "Say, Say" came on and she turned around, walked to the middle of the livingroom, and rocked out. It was pretty funny.

She doesn't do the same for Jackson 5 stuff, and remarkably enough the 80s channel doesn't really play all that much MJ or McCartney solo stuff. So I can't tell if it's one or the other - or maybe it's just the combo of the King of Pop and Paul McCartney that she loves so much.

This morning at breakfast Penelope refused to eat her oatmeal and wanted nothing but strawberries and milk... after the strawberries ran out (she had 6 large berries) she eventually (and VERY reluctantly) ate her oatmeal. I may just start giving her cut up fruit and maybe some toast for breakfast and letting her feed herself. It would make it easier for me to eat my breakfast (and, if I'm being honest, surf the web).

Today we're heading over to Art Beast to play. It's an art studio for kids and I think P will have a really good time. I'll try and remember to bring my camera.

And so it begins...

I have reached the point in my pregnancy where a full nights sleep is a beautiful, wonderful, magical impossibility. This baby, like his/her sister is a mover and when you combine that with a squished bladder and a 13 month old who comes in to sleep with us at 2am (and who is also a beg hog) then you get a mommy who gets very little sleep at night.

And a mommy who has to pee every 30 minutes.

Penelope's night wakings continue. It's all teething related, although some of it might be habit at this point. She was doing really well with sleeping in her crib from 8pm-7am every night before these two top molars started making their way in. I could just put her back in her crib when she wakes up and stand there until she falls back asleep, but I get so little sleep anyway that it's just easier for me to bring her into bed with us.

Soon (hint, hint Bryan) we'll have her new room ready and then I can lay down next to her until she goes back to sleep and then come back to bed. We're foregoing a toddler bed in favor of a Queen sized bed which will hopefully help with her night waking as well. She moves around so much in her crib (and she's really outgrown the darn thing) that I'm convinced she wakes herself up.

Hopefully "&" will be a little on the smaller side (i.e. normal sized for his/her age) and less of a wiggler - but that may just be wishful thinking.

Speaking of size. I've had FOUR people in the last TWO days tell me "Oh wow, your daughter is so BIG for her age". Yeah people, I know! 32 inches is far from average at 13 months, she's tall. I get it. She's not the tallest baby ever, but she's pretty far above average.

Ok, break time is over - back to homework! I WILL get all of this week's work done today - and I'm planning on getting at least half of next week's work done as well. Wish me luck!

Today, January 6th

So today was productive - for the most part. It started off with a trip to the mall (see previous picture blog post) and ended with a very rare dinner out in which Penelope boycotted everything but broccoli and milk.

I started a new class this week - it's a Health Education class and while there's going to be a lot of work involved, none of it seems particularly difficult (at least so far). I'm going to try and get a little ahead on the assignments so that I'm not scrambling the last week to get everything done. We'll see how that goes.

I was able to get some homework done today, in addition to applying for 4 different teaching/tutoring/mentoring jobs, meeting with my attorney (I can say "my" attorney now that we signed an agreement), reading Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now 14 dozen times, and cleaning the kitchen (ok, so I just did dishes and washed bottles - the kitchen could still use a real cleaning, but I'm counting it). There were a few more things on the To-Do list, but they'll just have to wait. I'm tired.

Yesterday was busy as well and I started having some contractions while we were out and about (had some today too). Nothing painful, regular, or particularly worrisome - but it does mean that I need to take it easy. I forget that I'm 26 weeks pregnant sometimes and do things that I probably shouldn't. The added stress of being unemployed and the accompanying financial woes doesn't help and is probably a significant factor... although it's not abnormal to have these kind of Braxton Hicks contractions at this point in the pregnancy. I didn't get them with Penelope until I was much farther along, but second babies tend to speed things up (from what I've been told) so I'm not worried.

And just for fun, here's what Penelope ate today:
8 strawberries
almost 1/4 cup oatmeal
3/4 banana
1/2 string cheese
4 flax crackers
4 apple wagon wheels (they're a Gerber toddler snack)
nearly a cup of macaroni
a bite of avocado
1/4 head of broccoli
1 bite of grilled cheese
12 oz of milk
at least 14 oz of water
and a dozen or so sweet potato Puffs (another Gerber toddler snack)

I won't recount what I had :)

Tomorrow is homework, homework, and more homework while my Dad babysits. Friday is Art Beast. Hope everyone has a wonderful end of the week!

More pictures - at the mall

So some of these I posted on Facebook, but since not everyone who reads this journal is ON Facebook I figured it would hurt to post more pictures here as well.

Today Penelope and I headed to the mall to hang out and play since it was so overcast and cold outside. It's free and fun. She really enjoyed herself and crashed out on the ride home, perfect!


"Hi Mom"


Climbing up the steps to the slide - she went down the slide 4 time (I helped, she's not quite ready to do it on her own)


Walking around


More playing

So I think she was probably one of the youngest kids there. Although there were plenty of kids that were her height, but they were much more coordinated so I'm guessing they have at least 3 or 4 months on Pen - probably more. She is, after all, super tall for her age. Regardless, she had a really good time. I think running around and climbing on stuff like that is good for her - the development of gross motor skills and more social interaction (she gets a lot of social interaction with her baby friends as well).

Next time I'll have to drag along one of our baby friends so I have a grown up to talk to. I chatted briefly with some of the moms there but it wasn't really a place to strike up any long conversations or make any lasting mommy friendships.

Ok, I should get some stuff done while she's still napping.

A girl and her dog...

Or should I say, a toddler and her dawGy!



I wish this one was less fuzzy:

A picture post

We went to the zoo today and Penelope had a great time:







And now for belly pictures - 26 weeks with Ampersand and 26 weeks with Penelope for comparison:

Enemy, thy name is teething

Before I rant on about how much I hate teething, here's some pleasant news...

*26 week appointment yesterday: baby's heartbeat is 154, facing down, measuring at 26 weeks, everything looks good. After my February appointment I'll start going in every 2 weeks until late March and then it will be every week until I'm the baby arrives. I have a feeling that this baby will come earlier that its due date, but I could be totally off base.

Ok. Teething. I believe I've mentioned before how much I hate teething. But since it seems to be a neverending cycle of torture the whole family can enjoy then I'll continue to complain about it.

Although to be fair, Penelope isn't a "bad" teether. She doesn't scream or cry and she's generally not super fussy. She just has a hard time sleeping. So naps are erratic and bedtime is downright unpleasant. Two nights ago Bryan and I tried for nearly 2 hours to get her to bed. Last night it took an hour and I was so exhausted by the end of it that I fell asleep as well (when I should have been doing homework).

Still, I hate teething. It's inefficient and unpleasant. It certainly wasn't designed, because if it was it's shoddy work.

There's actually a lot more that I wanted to talk about, but I can never remember what those things are when I get a few minutes to sit at the computer. I need to start taking notes during the day.

Look what I can do!

Yesterday Penelope learned "Brown Bear" - she can pick him out of the last page on her Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. We're going to start working on the other animals :) She can also pick out Max in the all the pages of Where the Wild Things Are, and will say "ooh, ooh, ahh" if you ask her what a monkey says.

She can point out Mommy's nose and mouth, and her own nose, mouth, and ears. Eyes are trickier and we're working on those as well. Half the time she'll show you her fingers if you ask, but not consistently...

Walking is progressing along nicely, she walks more often than she crawls and doesn't need to be carried as often. It's been nice, but also comes with its own set of challenges. The other day at Starbucks she kept running towards the door and needed to be corralled back to where we were sitting. I would call her name and she'd turn around, grin, and shake her head "no" and then turn back to the door and take off. Cute, and exhausting. It'll only get worse as she gets better at walking, I think we may end up with a runner :)

This morning we were looking at all of the Christmas/Holiday picture cards we received and she picked out the one of Orson, Kim, & Matt. I asked her "where's Orson?" and she leaned over and kissed his picture! :) So cute! It won't be so cute when she's 13 years old, but it is at 13 months.

Tonight she goes over to my parents for the night so Bryan and I can go out and celebrate our anniversary (a day late). Thanks to my parents & Santa we have a gift card to a wonderful restaurant and a gift card for movie tickets so we can afford to enjoy ourselves. Hooray!

Oh, my interview on Thursday seemed to go well... I should know in a week or so. Hopefully I'll have a few more interview and/or be able to find some substitute teaching work. I need to look into a few Charter Schools and Private Schools to see if they're hiring teachers since with my BA I can teach at nearly any non-public school. It would be wonderful to get a teaching job, although that will mean day care for Penelope. I think she'd do just fine, but I would miss our weekly mommy & baby activities.

And let me just say that my favorite Clone is Rex. He's just awesome. (We're watching Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon this morning).