At a Fork

Not a literal fork, mind you. But in a lot of ways we (as a family) are at a big turning point. Some of it hinges around job stuff, some of it hinges around milestones, and all of it is happening both too quickly and too slowly.

The kids are first.

With Griffin day potty trained and 70% night trained, we're completely done with diapers and pull ups. It's all undies all the time. This makes our changing table pretty useless; right now it's housing a rather large pile of stuff I should deal with but don't want to.

Our baby isn't a baby. He's not even a toddler. He's a pre-schooler. He's writing his name, speaking in large and complex sentences, and becoming increasingly independent. This is a huge transition that really snuck up on me. I feel like one minute I had a baby and now I have two kids.

Griffin wearing my wedding ring. It fits his finger. I must have skeletal fingers...

Griffin is even spending less and less time in our bed. Which is mostly good because he's enormous and is a bed hog.

At his last pediatrician appointment he was 3 feet 5.25 inches. All his 3T stuff is pitifully short and his 4T pants are starting to look more like highwaters every day. I'm going to have to start buying him 5T clothes. He just turned 3.

Sissy isn't any better. Child is outgrowing her 6s and we'll have to buy 7s for the fall. SEVENS. She's FOUR.

Does she look 4 to you???

This week she started acting camp after her 3rd dance recital (good gracious, really - 3?!). And she has a performance on Friday. After this camp, she can start participating in some of the children's theater's normal productions. Based on how much she loves camp thusfar, that's going to be a reality for us. Soon I'll have to schlep her to regular rehearsals in addition to ballet and possibly basketball (she asked to join a basketball team, I think she's got another year before she's eligible).

Besties.

If all goes as planned she'll start Transitional Kinder in the fall. She's getting taller by the second (and has regular growing pains, usually it's "mama, my leg bones hurt") and isn't gaining much weight - so she's pretty gangly.  I had to take in her recital costume because it was way too wide and I have a feeling my sewing machine is going to get lots of use as she gets older.

I am glad she's busy - making friends, having fun, exploring... I wish there were as many opportunities for the Bubs, but 3 is a hard age for extra curriculars. This summer I'll try and sign them up for swim lessons, but he won't get to do too much until soccer starts up.

I love this picture. They're sharing wearing Bryan's backpack. They really do share everything.

My babies becoming kids makes my ovaries ache. And while I really, really, really want to try for #3 ASAP (as in yesterday), we're really not in a place to make that happen. Another baby would also mean another 4+ years of childcare (we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now) in addition to all the other challenges that come with newborns and babies.

There are also a lot of really wonderful things that come with babies. Both Penelope and Griffin have asked for more siblings and babies are loves - I miss the loves. We just have to decide if all the benefits of expanding our family outwiegh the challenges and then: when could we reasonably add to the family without sacrificing more than we can afford?

Thank goodness for reliable birth control (thanks Planned Parenthood!!!!!)

There's a lot I want to do with my career. I'm taking some of the steps toward that now. Having another baby wouldn't prevent those career moves, but they would significantly delay them. I'm young, so I have time to become Empress of the World. But I still haven't decided if my career timeline or my family planning timeline triumphs.

There is always adoption - and we haven't ruled that out. If that's the route we decide to go, then we'll have to wait a few more years. We need a slightly larger place and it would be nice to have the big kids in school full time before we add a toddler into our lives (because if we adopt we'd like to adopt a toddler or a pre-schooler).

So there are options. And there's time. But if you know me or if you've been reading my blog regularly then you know that I'm not the "wait and see" type. I have to be for this, but it is sometimes frustrating to not know what I want and then not know the best way to get there.

The other fork in our road is job related, but not mine. Nothing is set in stone so I don't want to jinx anything (yes Neil deGrasse Tyson, I know I know), but Bryan does have some possible opportunities on the horizon that are both exciting (because yea change!) and scary (because boo change!). They are 90% exciting. The 10% scary has more to do with not knowing exactly how things are going to pan out rather than scary about the specific change.

I COULD be more vague, but I'll spare you.

Suffice it to say, this will be an eventful summer.

Speaking of which, I have 80% of tomorrow's summer lesson plan completed. Time to finish the rest.

Happy Birthday Baby

Today Penelope is 4. My sweet and silly sissy is now so grown up, that she often talks about things that "happened when I was a little kid" - things like our family pictures last year, or when we lived in Sacramento, or even things that happened last week. Nearly everything in the past is described as an event that happened when she was "little" which is both charming and hilarious.

It's also a sign that she has rather clear grasp of a linear timeline. She can also articulate things that will happen in the future using appropriate (albeit) amusing vocabulary. Example: "Mommy, when I'm a bigger kid I'll go to Kindergarten and teach my students."


I've already talked about how tall she is for her age - but she's also advanced in other ways. She can identify and draw parallel lines (she does call them parallel lines), horizontal, and vertical lines. She talks about organic shapes.  She can tell you what primary colors are and how to make other colors from primary colors (thank you Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleberg).

She can do some basic math (2 people plus 1 person = 3 people... she can do this with concrete objects, not yet with abstract numbers).


She's becoming quite the artist and can draw a multitude of objects, most of which actually resemble the things she's drawing.

She's got her name down, and can copy anything we write.

She can put together complex puzzles (think 48+ pieces). She knows we live on the planet Earth and can pick it out on a map of the solar system. She can also identify the Sun, Mars, the Moon, and Jupiter. She wants to become an astronaut after she graduates from Kindergarten (yes, she really said that).

She has a dozen or so sight words but isn't quite reading independently. She has almost 80% of our book collection memorized. And we have A LOT of books.

Once she hears a song, she can remember a significant chunk of the song/lyrics, even after hearing it just once. With songs she already knows well, she'll make up new words to the song.

She loves ballet and actually pays attention for a full 45 minute class - which is amazing because I have 15 or so highs school students who can't pay attention for that long.




She is super sweet and sensitive. The other day, in a rare moment of defiance, she told me she wasn't going to take a bath. When I gently but firmly escorted her into her room to get ready for said bath, she turned to me, and with big tears in her eyes said "Mommy, I'm sorry I talked back to you." Then she gave me a huge hug.

When she didn't want to sit on my lap during the holiday parade in downtown, I made an exaggerated frowny face and she scrunched up her face, came over to me, gave me a hug, and said "I'm so sorry I made you sad Mommy." To which I replied "Oh my sweet Sissy, you didn't make Mommy sad, I love you." And she replied, "I love you too Mommy, you're the best Mommy I ever had. The best Mommy in the whole world."

She loves her brother even though he exasperates her (and lets be real, who doesn't that child exasperate?)


She always uses her manners. She is thoughtful, welcoming, loving, goofy, and warm. She is amazing and we are so very lucky to be her parents.

So happy birthday baby girl. You came into this world quietly with your eyes wide open and changed our lives. You give 100% of yourself every day to whatever it is you're doing - you love almost everyone and you love them without reservations. We love you with all our hearts, and you inspire love in others as well.

Here are some of my favorite past posts about Pen. Enjoy!
Penelope's birth story
Penelope's birth slideshows (actual pictures of birth and breastfeeding).
Peanut Penny
Bats for snack

Ketchup Water

Toddler are gross. Ok, kids are gross. Like, really, really disgusting.

At lunch Penelope was experimenting with a "big girl" cup. She was actually doing quite well, until lunch came (with potatoes, hence the ketchup) and we shifted our focus to eating and the boy-child. Mistake. Because the next thing we know Penelope is spooning her ketchup into her big girl cup, mixing it up, and then drinking it. G.R.O.S.S.

Bryan was visibly repulsed.

It was pretty nasty.

Also? She peed all over herself. AND threw at least two tantrums. I don't know who replaced my daughter with a normal 2 year old, but I demand to have her back.

Oh, and Griffin has decided that high 5's involve heads. You hold up your hand and he head-butts it. It's pretty hilarious. I'll try and get it on camera.

More teeth!

So I was right, Griffin is getting molars. One of his top molars is peeking through. So that explains some of the snot of the past few days. The top teeth always seem to bring more mucous than the bottom. Probably something to do with some sort of connection between the nasal cavity and the maxilla (yeah, I looked that up).

So now he has nine teeth even though #9 isn't all the way through.

He is also waving hello and goodbye and trying to repeat words. My parents swear he said "flower" the other day.

He's also getting closer to walking but isn't quite there yet. Maybe by his birthday, maybe not. I know he'll be very happy when he's mobile, right now I bring his push-walker almost everywhere so he can explore.

Poe-potamous has been... defiant lately. That has not been enjoyable. About half the time she's her normal self and the other half she's "no, no, NO!" No fun.

So we've done our fair share of time outs and they work for awhile, but it's not like this can be "fixed" - it's a phase. It will just take a lot of consistency in discipline.

I actually had a long post planned, but I cannot remember it. You would think that after finishing my Masters I would get my brain back, but no. In fact, this weekend I took the kids to their friend Busy's 2nd birthday party a day before the actual party. I was soooo embarrassed. Luckily Holly & Ryan are lovely and let us stay and play for awhile. Penelope was happy to get to play with Busy two days in a row, so it worked out. But I still can't believe I mixed it up, usually I'm great with days.

Mommy brain I guess. Or post-Masters fog. Or I'm just getting too close to 30.

It's pronounced "tu-tu", didn't you know?

For years I have been mispronouncing the word "tattoo". Apparently it's pronounced "tu-tu". Thank goodness I have Penelope to correct such egregious pronunciation mistakes. Thank you Penelope.

We went to a friend's 1st birthday party last weekend and the take-home prizes were temporary tattoos. Poe immediately wanted to wear one, but then freaked-the-f-out when I actually attempted to put it on her. So her butterfly was missing a wing. She didn't seemed to mind, and showed off her brand new "tu-tu" to anyone with eyes.

She then proceeded to try and rub it off with a paper towel... and then she tried to do the same to mine & my mom's wrist tattoos.

Even now, almost a week later, she asks where her "tu-tu" went. When I ask her if she wants a new one she quickly says "no thank you mama".

I will remind her of this when she's 18 and wants her first real tu-tu.

Also? We have entered the phase of "I do it myself" which is fun and exasperating. So now I budget extra minutes of getting ready time so Poe can put on her own shoes and climb into the car seat. After she successfully (or sometimes unsuccessfully) completes a task she says "yea! I did it!" very proudly. It's cute.

AND Griffin took two steps Wednesday at Kim's house. She is the queen of getting babies to walk.

Oh yes, Poe is better and now Bryan is sick. He seems to be feeling a bit better after sleeping most of today and a good part of yesterday. I hope tomorrow he's well again because it is no fun for anyone when ANYONE in this house is sick.

And? I lost a dress size.

Griffin is clapping!

I almost forgot, Griffin has started clapping! It's really cute :)

He's also a scooter, as in he moves from one spot to another by scooting on his butt. No crawling yet, just scooting.

Happy 3 months

So tomorrow Griffin will be three months old. I am mostly ecstatic about this milestone since the newborn phase and I get along like... well, like two things that don't really get along at all. But I am a little sad as well. He's our last baby and we'll never again experience this "4th Trimester".

I go in tomorrow to get him weighed, I'll measure him as well. I'll also do my best to take more pictures, I've been lax lately.

He's rolling over, which is annoying in the middle of the night when I'm trying to nurse him. He's a VERY smiley baby and has the most adorable smiles. He's talkative, wiggly, loves to interact with people, and wants nothing to do with any of his toys.

We're down to 6oz of supplement a day, which is wonderful. I do wish we could drop the bottle, but it is what it is. We're still very fortunate to have moms who are pumping for us, so Griffin still only gets breastmilk.

We're still waiting for his first bellylaugh. He laughs a lot, but still no bellylaugh... I can't wait, I love baby laughs.

Tomorrow we take him to his first major league baseball game. Should be fun!

As for the Pen-o-potamous, she's doing well. She has a ton of new words (more than I can count) and other than the occasionally scream-fest (in frequencies only dogs can hear) she's a really well behaved 19 month old.

There's probably a ton more I can say, but I forget. It's hard to remember when so much is going on...

Oh, I got an A in my first class back from maternity leave... and Bryan is still doing well in class. I think he has a 3.8 GPA right now.

More later - hopefully :)

It's quiet

Penelope and Bryan are asleep, Griffin is nursing himself to sleep, and I have a giant cup of coffee.

These are my favorite mornings - I love having some "alone" time (as alone as one can be with a breastfed baby). And I enjoy mornings... I'm like my mom that way.

Anyway, it's a very pleasant way to start Griffin's 2-month birthday. Later today I'll measure him (my prediction, 25.25 inches) and see if I can find a scale somewhere. We're having problems getting him on Healthy Families, so no Pediatrician appt yet - hopefully soon. So Bubba will get to skip shots for now.

My camera is broken, but if I get my act together this morning I'll stop by WalMart on the way to P's gymnastics class and pick up a new memory card so I can take and post pictures of both kids.

Things have been busy in the Rodgers household... and will only get busier. Early next month B's brother & his family will spend almost a week with us. We're all really looking forward to the visit, we haven't seen them since last summer, the twins are 3 now and Gadge is 6! I know they'll all have fun out here, we're planning on trips to the zoo, water park, FairyTale Town, a baseball game, and maybe even Marine World! It'll be a busy but super fun visit.

School is going well for both Bryan and I - he got an A in his first class and an A- in his second class. I'm super proud of him, it's not easy to go back to school, and it's even harder to do it when you have little kids.

My class has been going ok so far - we're in week 3 so I have 1.5 weeks left (and then it's on to another class). I have 7 months left of school and then I'll have my credential and Masters. I'll be SO glad to be done. I'm tired of papers and would really love to read something that wasn't a text book. But I know that I'll eventually miss being in school, I love learning - and I even love writing paper (when the subject is interesting). So I know that at some point I'll be back in the classroom as a student, either working on a PhD or getting a second Masters. We'll see... I'm going to wait until the kids are in school (I think) :D

So I should really document a few things so I can look back when the kids are teenagers and remember how sweet they *used* to be :)

Griffin LOVES to smile at people.He also loves to "talk" and has such a manly little baby voice.

Penelope is wonderful at following directions. If I tell her to go to the nursery, she does. She puts her night-time bottle on the counter when she's finished, can grab her shoes and bring them to you, goes up to her crib and puts in her stuffed animals when it's nap-time, no longer cries for bed or nap-time, stays put when you tell her to (which is wonderful when I;m trying to load or unload both kids from the car), picks up her toys, helps feed the dog, and does 1,000 other things I can't remember right now. She's such a good listener and a sweet baby...she loves to swing, dance, and will hand you the remote control and ask for Sesame Street (yeah, I know, but we never claimed to be perfect parents).

Nursing milestones and life after 8 weeks

Today marks Griffin's 8 week birthday - next week he'll officially be 2 months old. Today also marks 8 weeks of nursing (well, duh) but it means that I've nursed Griffin for twice as long as I nursed Penelope.

We're still supplementing and I'm still taking domperidone - and will be doing both for the foreseeable future. At this point I'm taking nursing one week at a time.

Griffin is getting stronger and more expressive every day. He smiles, gives little laughs, and winks :) Here's some video of him and Penelope (already posted to Facebook)



Speaking of Penelope (and video) here is some of her from 7 weeks ago (also already posted to Facebook)



She really loves him, hopefully that lasts :D

School is ok for me so far, I seem to be juggling it all well - we'll see how the rest of this class goes. I have 100% in the class through week one.

I have a lot more I wanted to say but the babies need me...

1 month & 17 months

Tomorrow Griffin will be one month old! In some ways the time has passed by very quickly, but in others it seems like it's been a lot longer... I think in most ways we all feel like he's been around longer than a month :) I can't remember life without him - well, yeah I can, but even just a month in he feels like he's always been a part of our family. Pictures of P, B, & I before G's arrival seem somehow incomplete. He completes us.

Cue cheesy music.

We took him over to our midwives for a weight check since we're still struggling with breastfeeding. He's at 10 lbs 13 oz - which is great. We still have to supplement with either donated breastmilk or formula - even on the domperidone I don't make enough to exclusively breastfeed. My supply has jumped 200% but that's still not enough to pack up the bottles. If I'm being realistic, it's unlikely that I'll be able to give up supplementing, although it's possible once he starts solids and his milk needs decrease then my production and his needs will synch up and we can finally pack away the bottles. We'll see...

I will stop pumping at the end of the month. We can't really afford to rent the pump for another month and I'm not really a fan of pumping.

So it's been a struggle - but we're getting through and he's doing really well. He doesn't hate tummy time as much as Penelope did and he hates his carseat much more than she did. He's having longer periods of being awake and social (as opposed to awake and eating) and I'm looking forward to when I can put him in the Bumpo and he and Penelope can entertain each other.

His sleep is pretty good. We're usually up twice during the night and he generally gives us at least one stretch of 3 hours. Sometimes 2 stretches of 3, which is super nice... he's been congested lately and I think he might have a cold (no fever though) and that makes it harder for him to go back down at night.

All in all, he's doing well and we're all adjusting nicely.

Penelope turned 17 months last week! I haven't weighed or measured her, but she has a Pediatrician appointment next week so we'll get her stats then.

At that visit we'll also ask for a referral to a physical therapist or pediatric orthopedic doctor. She has some walking/posture issues that we want to get resolved sooner rather than later so they don't become bigger issues. She drags one of her feet, doesn't walk quite like she should, and has terrible posture - she doesn't stand up straight, bends her knees when standing, and leans forward. It's pretty subtle but concerning enough to get a referral. Our midwifes gave us some exercises to try, so hopefully they produce results. She might have grown out of it on her own, but it won't hurt to get her evaluated and into physical therapy.

...and G-man woke up so no time to blog about anything else. I'll end with some pictures.

Getting Out

After Griffin was born I didn't leave our room for 3 days. I didn't leave the house for over a week, and I didn't put him in his car seat for a week and a half. It was nice to stay in and just be with our family (and nurse constantly - ok, so that wasn't "nice" but necessary), but I was starting to go a little stir crazy.

So yesterday (Monday) I packed up both kids and went to MSN for a breastfeeding support group (which didn't happen). Luckily some of our mom/kid friends showed up for a parenting discussion group so Penny and I both got in some social time.

Today we picked up my dad and took my mom out to lunch for her birthday, and tomorrow we're heading over to Kim & Orson's place for a play group (we've missed it the last few weeks!).

It feels good to get out of the house and get back into a semi-normal routine, but leaving w/ Griffin still makes me a little nervous. None of the places we're going are very far away from home... I'm not quite ready for a long trip (i.e. anything further than 20 minutes from the house). I'm still pumping at least 6x a day, so I can't really stay away for long anyway.

And let me say, I dislike pumping... I could use stronger language but I won't. But until my supply is maximized I need to pump as often as I can. It's worth it, but it's exhausting.

Ok, on to Penny stuff. She's mastered zippers, the "locks" on the "tupperware" we have (technically it's not tupperware), can reach the door handles on the Rav (which are pretty high), can jump, and is in size 3T.

She turns 17 months old tomorrow and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!

I promise to try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

Typing one handed

Griffin prefers to sleep on me, so I'm learning how to type one handed. It's not easy, so I'll get to it.

Started domperidone Saturday, just 40mg for 2 days, then 60 for 2 days, and then up to the full dose of 90. So far I've noticed a little increase in supply, so I'm hopeful that the full dose will dramatically increase my supply. No side effects thus far.

There's a lot of Penny updates, but I don't know how much I can detail with my limited one-handed typing skills. She and Bryan had batting practice yesterday, I wish I had caught it on video but it's hard to nurse and operate a camcorder.

We've put P back in her crib for now... the transition to a big girl bed was a bit too much change all at once (did I already talk about this?).

She loves to practice jumping now, which is so cute.

And now baby bubba is awake so it's time to go!

A general update

It's been awhile since I posted (yes? I can't remember and am too lazy to check).

Anyway, things have been hectic. Bryan's schedule will soon include school (in addition to softball, soccer, and room remodeling... and work), and I have a lot of classwork, exams, cooking, and nesting to do before April. The most urgent things on my list are classwork and exams, two weeks left of this course (equals four assignments) and two TPAs to complete (which are basically just really LONG assignments). They need to be finished before I deliver since getting them accomplished with a newborn will make life so much harder.

But it's not going to be easy to get everything done before baby gets here. Not by a long shot.

So I've been feeling very overwhelmed lately... as in weepy. Saturday afternoon I lost it after Pen and I came home from the grocery store. Bryan wasn't able to get out of his obligation to play a tournament to come home, but my parents were able to make it over to entertain the baby so I could piece myself back together. It wasn't pretty. Although I did realize that I need to ask for help, so I'm trying to get better about that. It's not easy - I'm one of those people who enjoys a little bit of stress. But this stress is really just too much. Here's a list of things that I need to do before April 15th:

*Finish coursework for TED 666 (the class I'm currently enrolled in, which ends 3/27)
*Finish TPA 1
*Finish TPA 2
*Get birthing kit together
*Start/finish the owl project for Penny's room (a sewing project)
*Cook at least a week's worth of food and freeze it (preferably 2 weeks, but that's a stretch)
*Stock up on groceries
*Clean the bathrooms
*Put Penny's new room together (once Bryan is done)
*Clean closet and rearrange master bedroom (so the birthing tub will fit)
*Clean the rest of the house (lower on my priority list since cleaning gives me some pretty lovely contractions)
*Set up automatic bill pay so our bills get paid on time no matter when I go into labor

There's probably more, but this is all I can remember off the top of my head.

Bryan's list is equally extensive - he's got a lot on his plate as well.

Suffice it to say, overwhelmed is a bit of an understatement.

I do have some awesome family and friends who have offered to help out. My Dad takes Penny once a week so I can get school work done and my Aunt has offered to babysit as well so I can work on classwork and TPAs. I have some mommy friends who are going to come over sometime in the next few weeks and help me make/freeze food, they've also offered to bring food over after I deliver (hooray!). My brother spent a day helping Bryan remodel P's room, which was a big help. My parents are going to watch her Thursday night so we can make it to our childbirth class and our next prenatal... and they're going to take her next Friday night which will allow us to get stuff done as well. Although it would be nice to have one last date night before "&" arrives so we may do that instead of work on our list(s).

I'm sure it will all work out... although sometimes it's hard to fathom exactly *how* it will all work out.

I'll just have to count my blessings and take on day at a time (and a host of other cliches as well).

But enough of that, on to the good stuff.

Penelope's sleep has been stellar the last week. I'm so excited about it and I really hope it continues post-new baby. This afternoon I put her in her crib for naptime (awake but tired) and she fell asleep on her own. Score! She does this for bedtime (and has for a little while) but this was the first time it's worked for naps. I hope this continues, because it makes my afternoons so much easier. Especially since I'm getting to that point of pregnancy where I'm just uncomfortable, period.

I'll be 36 weeks on Thursday and while I'm ready to no longer be pregnant, I am in no way ready for this baby to be born (see above list). So I'm going to try to not complain about how much I dislike this phase of pregnancy because no matter which was you slice it, babies are easier to care for when they're inside then when they're out.

I am getting excited to meet this baby and find out his/her gender and finally choose a name. So there's something to look forward to - and it will hopefully make these next four weeks slightly more bearable.

Ok, on to a different topic. Baby signs. Penny now signs please, more, eat, all done, thank you, and socks. I'm working on teaching her mommy, daddy, potty, banana, apple, shoes, water, and up. She says nanas (food), mama, dada, da (for dog), key (kitty), verde (Spanish for green), and has other random words that she doesn't use consistently (like rabbit). It's still not as many words as she had before, but her vocabulary continues to expand so I'm not too worried. She sees her pediatrician in 3 more months.

She understands A TON. I can give her simple and complex tasks and she does them. She knows the names of a large number of people - most of whom she doesn't see everyday. She recognizes pictures of cousins she's only met once (she loves her cousin Gadge's pictures) and can point out her grandparents, Aunt Franny, Cousin Bobby, her friend Orson, O's mom Kim, Sarah, Sophia, and more from the pictures we have. She also knows who Lisa & Lisa are (one runs a toy store and one teaches music) and will greet them with a wave and a smile when she sees them (once a week).

She puts away her toys, will pick out specific books when asked, knows which stuffed animals are which, and knows a bunch of body parts (eyes, mouth, nose, ears, belly, fingers, toes, feet, legs, bottom, and hair). She really enjoys coloring, playing pretend with her doctor kit and her kitchen, and really loves feeding the dog (which Harley-Quinn also loves, but which Mommy & Daddy do not).

I'm probably forgetting a dozen things that she does, or has just started doing, but it's hard to keep track! Life goes by so quickly when you're running after a toddler all day!

Alright, I should get some stuff on my list done (or at least started) while she's still sleeping. Pics later!

The blog drought is over!

So it's been awhile since I updated, things have been busy! I'll get right into the updates...

I'm 32 1/2 weeks pregnant - less than 8 weeks to go! This baby feels much higher than Penelope - you be the judge. Here's a picture of the belly today & then one of me with Penelope at 33 weeks:





Kicks are right in my ribs - and they're VERY uncomfortable. Baby is most active at night, but kicks around all day. I think we're all ready for this pregnancy to be over, but we're still not quite ready to have an infant in the house :)

Bryan is busy fixing Penny's new room so that the nursery will be open for "&" - and I'm busy making diapers so that we can cover his/her little butt! Here's a picture of two diaper patterns:



There's also playgroups, music class, school (me, and soon Bryan!), job hunting (a seeming exercise in futility, but necessary nonetheless), and everything else. I have a hard time keeping track of the days, they tend to run into each other.

In Penelope-news, she now has all 16 teeth (and has for a week or so). So teething is *almost* at an end. They've all broken through but are still moving into place, so soon we'll be done with teething (until her 2 year molars). This is very exciting, we'll all be so happy when teething is over.

She's also off formula. She still gets a bottle before bath time, but it's whole milk. At some point we'll need to wean her off the bottle, but it helps her sleep better so for now it stays. One bottle a day isn't going to hurt her and we brush her teeth afterward so I'm not going to sweat it.

Wednesday she has her 15 month appointment (technically a week early, but still - 15 months?!?!?). She's a pro at walking, tries running, is getting very good with her sign language (she can combine signs now - so she'll say "please eat" or "more eat"), and is constantly babbling. We have a lot of fun together during the day...

I probably have a lot more I could write about, but it's late and I'm exhausted. I'll try and update regularly, especially as "&"'s due date gets closer. For now I'll leave you with a picture of Penelope and Orson.

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!).

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).

Where's the Baby?

A quick post:

When I ask Penelope "Where's the baby?" she'll point to my belly, it's cute :)

She also signs the word "please" although still has to be reminded when to use it, but I'm super happy that she knows the sign (well, her own version of it) and uses it to ask for things.

She's walking more and more, but still not all the time. It'll happen, and I'm glad she's at least walking part of the time. It makes things a little easier on Mommy.

Yesterday she fed herself her entire lunch! Half a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and string cheese. I still haven't given her an opportunity to practice using a spoon since I dread the mess it would create - but that will come eventually.

When she holds crayons, drumsticks, or the mallet thing for her xylophone, she has to hold them delicately at the VERY end of the stick. Which makes it difficult to properly color, drum, or play a song but no matter how much I model or mold her hand she moves it back down to the very end.

Favorite foods as of 12 months: broccoli, bananas, strawberries, anything pasta (especially mac & cheese, but what kid doesn't like that?).

Ok, have to go - I have a TON of stuff to do today and less time to do it in.

Birthday post

This morning at 3:27 am, Penelope turned one! I half expected her to wake up around that time, but she slept until 6:30 which makes that three nights in a row of her sleeping completely through the night (8-6:30 or later) in her own crib. This is made of awesome.

There's a lot I wanted to say today since it's her first birthday, and I've probably been planning this blog post since her birth. This means that I won't get around to talking about any of it and will have to cut the post short since I'll be blubbering like some hormonal weepy lady (wait, I *am* a hormonal weepy lady thanks to New Baby).

Some things to note as Penny turns one:
*Talking - up a storm, she has a few words but her favorite by far is Dog, which she pronounces with a hard G... it sounds like dawG.
*Speaking of the dog, she loves that damn animal. This is good news for Harley-Quinn since she's an annoying pain in the butt; but at least the baby loves her.
*Pen has 10 teeth - the top & bottom four plus two lower molars. The top molars are starting to get closer to the top of the gums and I won't be surprised if she ends up with nearly all her teeth by the time New Baby arrives.
*Penny CAN walk, she just prefers to hold your hand. She's taken over a dozen steps on her own, but only when you trick her into doing it. Once she realizes that she's doing it by herself she sits down and crawls. I know it'll come, and sooner rather than later, but I was really hoping she'd be walking confidently on her own by her birthday. Oh well, she'll do it when she's ready.
*Sleep is getting better and better... she's never been an awful sleeper so I'm thankful for that.
*She is seriously the happiest baby I have ever met. And that's not an exaggeration - she's always smiling. She laughs at the drop of a hat. She only cries when she's really hungry or really overtired (although most of the time when she's tired she laughs uncontrollably, which is hilarious). She loves other kids, to flirt with old people, and really anyone who pays attention to her. She's just happy, and I'm so incredibly grateful for that.
*She loves to read. LOVES. She'll read by herself, but she'll also read on her own; turning the pages of the book either silently (i.e. reading to herself), or babbling (reading to us).
*If you ask her to get her book, a ball, the green frog, pink kitty, monkey, xylophone, binky, and a dozen other things she will go get it and bring it to you. She learns more and more words each day!
*She dances, to ANYTHING. Commercial music, the theme song to ESPN's Sports Center, the annoying music from her various annoying toys, New Baby's heartbeat - anything. She also loves to make music, banging on drums, her xylophone, pianos, shaker eggs, guitars, you name it and she'll attempt to make music on it (she uses my breasts as drums, which is both amusing and a little painful at times).
*She's in a size 24months to 2T (depending on the clothes manufacturer) and wears size 5 in shoes. She's a giant :)
*She weighs 28 lbs and is impossible for me to accurately measure.
*Her eyes change from brown to gray... I do hope they end up gray, but brown would be pretty too
*Both Bryan and I are so completely in love with her.

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a dozen things... but I'm starting to get weepy (which I will blame on pregnancy hormones) and leave you with two pictures. One of her right after birth and one of her a few minutes ago (attempting to escape through the dog door). Happy Birthday Penelope Lane!!!

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.

Things to post before I forget

1. Penelope loves soccer. We went and saw my cousin Riley & Macy's soccer games and Penelope wanted to get in on the action. That afternoon she also passed a ball back & forth with Riley and correctly identified the soccer ball as a "baa". My mom took video with her phone, so I'll try and clean in up on my computer today and get it posted.

2. A couple of days ago during dinner P turned to Bryan, gave him a raspberry, and then turned back to me for a bite of food. It was pretty funny.

3. My parent's dog K'Ehlyr (pronounced KayLar; aka, The Red Beast: TRB) loves to lick Penn... and Penn has taken to pushing TRB's head away and shaking her head no. I have a feeling one of her first phrases will be "NO Lar!"

4. Today Penny started saying "bar" when playing with her stuffed bears. I think we may count that one :)

5. We have a molar! Thank goodness! One down, 3 to go (well, until next year when she's supposed to get in her 2 year molars).