Penelope's first Christmas is almost here! It's going to be such fun watching her play with all the boxes and wrapping paper. =)

We continue to be amazed at how fast she's growing. She's a pro at crawling now. And she's really quick at pulling herself up from a sitting position. One of her new favorite games is to just stand in front of something, like her jumperoo or a wall, and amuse herself with the toys or just scratching her nails against the surface. It's easy entertainment for all of us and lasts for pretty good stretches.

We've introduced solids. It's crazy how just a tiny bit of strained bananas or water-downed oatmeal can clog up her system. We have introduced prunes - yummy. She's not a fan of solids yet; milk from mommy is still a favorite. We're working on it. We all eat dinner together in the evening. Penelope gets her own spoon and has a ball "eating" along with us. Bathtime of course follows dinner.

Enjoy the holidays - we hope to see a lot of family and friends this season! Granny, we're looking forward to spending Christmas Day with you!

All Grown Up!

It's almost mind boggling at how quickly babies grow and learn. We had no idea when we began this journey how much energy our baby would put into just surviving.

At Thanksgiving last week, Penelope officially crawled for the first time. She's been rocking and rolling for some time, but hadn't truly put one hand, then foot after the other consecutively. Matt tempted her with a beer bottle (it was empty =) while she was sitting a few feet away from him, and she just rocketed herself towards him. She's done a few more times since, but it's hard to determine if she's fully aware of the process. So amazing to watch her work at it. We've definitely gotta baby-proof the house now.

This past Saturday, I had Penelope in her infant tub playing with a toy while I milled about in the back closet/bathroom, and watched her actually pull herself up into a standing position! She toppled forward very soon afterward, but she pulled herself up! We had no idea she was already strong enough to do that.

And one more significant step - she's got a third tooth coming in. She's got her first two bottom teeth, and a top one is starting to pop out.

Our cute little pumpkin! We took this picture on Halloween. Thanks Grandma for the cute onesie!

Babyproofing Time

Wow - 12 days since the last update and Penelope has grown so much! I was talking with my dad on October 27 while Ella chewed on my finger during her bath. All of a sudden, I felt something hard when she chomped down - a tooth is coming in! She's barely 5 1/2 months old and her first tooth is coming in! I know it's the normal age for teeth to begin arriving, but...didn't we just bring her home from the hospital? By the time I my mom got on the phone with me, I was near tears that my baby girl was so grown up already.

Another crazy, cool accomplishment - she's almost crawling! When I came home from school yesterday, Matt informs me she's crawling, sort of, and he got it on video. The parents reading this can relate to the significance of both sort of crawling and catching it on video. Learning to crawl is such a big milestone. Crawling will give Penelope some independence from being toted around everywhere, and keep me and Matt on our toes. I guess it time to baby-proof the house. =) It's so neat watching her attempt this. She'll raise up on her hands and feet and topple forward, planting her face on whatever she's on at the time. I'm betting she's crawling by the time she's 6 months old. Once she starts doing something, she picks it up really fast. She turned over for the first time the day she turned 5 months old and was a pro at it just a few days later.

I am constantly in awe of Penelope and how amazing and beautiful and perfect she is to me. Her outlook on life is so simple and sweet. There is fun and laughter in all she does. It's so refreshing to glimpse into her world and see it for all of its wonders and innocence. I feel that I sometimes get caught up in the stresses and the not always important and necessary tasks of life and work. She helps ground me and allows me to live in the moment when all that's really important is how fun it is to laugh at the dogs for just walking by or the surprise when Mommy or Daddy suddenly appear or the joy in picking up a toy and then throwing it down over and over.

Here's a video of Ella on her changing table talking away to Daddy.



Penelope is having some fun in her jumperoo in this video.

The start of something great...

Our Sweet Pea is super adorable right now. She's discovered her toes and likes to grab and play with them. Her new thing during her bath is to kick against the far edge and slide under - Mommy loves that one, definitely keeps me on my toes during her bathtime! She's starting to make raspberry sounds, and is starting to eat frozen bananas. She's a wild and crazy gal in her jumperoo now. She'll bounce around in it for 20-30 minutes. And, as the picture shows, she's starting to enjoy tummy time. We're pretty sure she'll be crawling around soon - she's kinda starting to scoot.

Lots of love to everyone and enjoy our page!