Born to Dance

I often wonder what my children will be like, what they will do, and how they will act as adults. Usually my day-dream adult children are rock-stars or baseball players, but in reality, Bryan and I would be completely content with financially independent children who don't live in our basement and have college educations.

However it would not surprise me if Penelope ended up as a ballerina and Griffin decided that he was going to make a living as an edgy street-dancer (provided he was financially independent and not living in our basement) because they both seem born to dance. Although if I'm being completely honest, perhaps ballerina isn't the right word for Penelope's dance style - she's more like Elaine from "Seinfeld" than Prima Ballerina in Nutcracker. She did invent a dance of her own, called the "P.A.C." (if you've seen Nemo a million times then you know where that came from) and it's a combination of pseudo karate moves and the Can-Can.

One day I will stop laughing long enough to take a video. It's cute. It's adorable. It's also hilarious.

You know what else is funny? A break-dancing 2 year old. Especially one in knickers, suspenders, and a bow-tie.

I really wish I had video of last night. I know one is out there, there were videographers & photographers at the wedding - so somewhere there is evidence of my children's dance-related wedding antics. And so hopefully one day I will get my hands on said evidence and be able to share it with you so we can all be amused at my children's unique interpretation of "dancing".

They had fun. A lot of fun. And Griffin kept his suspenders on all night. They danced with just about everyone brave enough to share the dance floor with them, and gave everyone they met on the way out a hug goodnight.

They also made a new friend - Tigist, who was the flower girl and is about a year older than Poe. The three of them had a wonderful time together. In fact, Penelope and Tigis got married a few time this weekend, the first time was at the rehearsal dinner. Plus the two of them adopted a "baby" (i.e. a doll) so now Bryan and I are proud grandparents.

And let me say this - being a grandparent is oodles easier than being a parent. Especially if said grandchild is made of plastic.

It was really a wonderful long weekend, minor tantrum at Security in San Jose aside. Tomorrow is the plane trip home, so hopefully it will be uneventful.

It was nice to see B's family - it's been about a year since we've seen most of them (6-ish months since we've seen his Dad & stepmom) & longer for some. The kids really enjoyed spending time with their cousins - it's so cliche (but so true) that they're all growing up so fast. I remember when Gadge was Penny's age and now he's in the 3rd grade. Crazy. We often wish we lived closer, but - while I love my inlaws - you couldn't pay me to live in Wyoming. I hate snow. And gusty wind.

This has been a rambly post, hasn't it? But hey, at least it's a post. Since school has started it's been hard to fine the time & energy to blog.

....and the Bubs is up from his nap. Time to sign off.

Dance class

I owe you all a substantive blog, but I don't have the energy for one. So here are some pictures. Penelope is now taking ballet/tap once a week and my parents have set her up with everything she could conceivably need (and more). She loves her class. Loves. It's fun to watch. They're actually going to have a dance recital in August so there will be more pictures to come.

Getting ready to go



Drinking her smoothies before class




Her shoes (my attempt at any artsy photo... Probably would look better in black and white, but I don't have editing software on the iPad)




Getting a glimpse of herself in the mirror



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The end of August

I have a few seconds so I figured I'd update.

Penelope:
She probably has a vocabulary of 100 words right now. She adds to it every day. Now, she doesn't use all those words everyday, but she's got a lot of them. About a dozen or so she uses *with* her signs which makes me quite happy. I want to get her into a signing program so she can use sign more often. One of my biggest hopes for both kids is that they're fluent in sign. I'd also like for them to be fluent in Spanish but I don't know enough to speak to them exclusively in Spanish... I use as many words as I know. I really should finish up my Rosetta Stone program.

Anyway, she's started climbing - but not Gus or Orson style (Gus & Orson are friends of hers). Just little climbs, and I'm ok with that. She's a little cautious, which I'm also ok with.

She loves loves LOVES to dance. She's got quite a few "moves" in her dance repertoire, and it's pretty hilarious.

She also loves to help. She enjoys wiping G's face with the burp cloth, covering him with a blanket, washing her hands, putting stuff in the grocery cart, etc. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and she spent the entire time helping me put things into the cart. It took a little longer than normal, but she had a lot of fun. She was also running between Bryan and I so she got in a fair amount of exercise, our grocery store is warehouse sized.

Griffin:
Still waking up 3 times a night, but since we're still cosleeping I can just nurse him back to sleep. He's going to be tougher to get to sleep on his own since he's not at all interested in trying to self soothe, but we'll deal. He's a cuddler which is both sweet and annoying. Sweet when we're falling asleep and annoying in the middle of the night when I want to change sleeping positions.

He's also a chatter. Man that kid can talk. "Squeak, squeak, squeak" all day long.

He loves to sit up, and attempts to launch himself out of his baby chairs (other than the Bumbo, he can't escape from that). He also loves his sister, most of the time when he laughs he's laughing at her.

No teeth yet, but he's teething like crazy. He's super drooly and still a spit up machine.

We're still nursing and we'll see what my supply does. We've made it to 4 month + some and that's a great accomplishment for us both.

My camera battery died so no pictures now, but I'll charge it and take some more. They're getting huge. G is in 9-12 month clothes and Poe is still 3-4T depending on the outfit.

Shake it baby

Tuesdays are Music days... MSN has music on Fridays as well, but that class tends to be really busy and overwhelming for Penny. Tuesdays generally brings a smaller crowd, and Penny really loves Lisa Phenix (the instructor). Joey teaches Fridays and summers, Penny had the biggest crush on him for awhile but since we don't see him very often she's gotten a bit shy around him, she's very wary around men she doesn't know well.

Anyway, Lisa's class is a lot of fun. Pen plays with egg shakers, bells, drums, wooden frogs, scarves, and more. For the past month Lisa's been bringing bellydance skirts for the kids to use as percussion instruments and today Penny was ALL ABOUT the skirt. She really wanted to wear it, and we obliged... and then she didn't want to take it off and got very upset when my hands got anywhere near the tie.

It was pretty cute, she'd dance and stomp and shake to the music - she really loved that skirt.

Luckily I brought my camera, so here's Penny the amateur bellydancer:




And here she is the other day with Linden and Sophia - the three kids were hanging out on Sophia's bed after she woke up from her nap:


And Penny and Daddy playing dress up. Bryan asked me not to post this picture, but it's too damn cute - sorry B! :)




Tonight I'm off to see Bon Jovi :) Hooray for concerts when you're pregnant! I saw New Kids when I was 8 months pregnant with Penelope, so I'm continuing the tradition with "&".

Excuse my poor cinematography...

I was laughing during most of this video, hence the shaky cinematography. But I think it's hilarious and I hope you do too :) The first part is Penelope and Bryan playing "I'm gonna getcha", the second part is Penelope dancing to a car commercial, the third is her pointing to my belly when I ask "where's the baby?", and the last part is titled "The Long Walk" and is Penelope's longest walk yet! She does tumble a bit at the end but does not harm herself in the fall (it was a close call).

Anyway, it's been an eventful night. Here's the video:


(and for those on Facebook, I'll post it there as well)

Pictures and video

Pictures and video from the last few days:

Penelope dancing to various songs:


Thanksgiving:
Riding her horsey (a birthday present from Great Aunt Diana & Great Uncle Bill)

Playing with blocks



Pier 39:
On the carousel

On the Pier - Alcatraz in the background


Looking at the water/sea lions




Dickens Christmas Fair:
Hanging out at Mad Sal's stage

Someone is EXHAUSTED