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.