Happy Halloween

It has been awhile since our last post. We have been busy both working full time and updating the blog has not been a priority. However below you will find a few snap shots of what Penelope has been gettin into. We hope to have another entry soon with some video updates, untill then....enjoy.

Video Update

So, summer is officially over and a new school year has begun. It's been a challenging week for us all. My heart is at home with Penelope and she's missing her mommy (more likely the milk Mommy can give her=). I know things will get better, but as the first video will show you below, I'm not sure how.

A little bit of background for this first video. We have a student rally at the very start of our first school day. There's always a teacher skit and usually the newbies are required to partake. Somehow I usually get bullied or guilted to join in. I held out well this year and missed the first 20 minutes of practice b/c I hadn't really committed. This year's skit was a dance to "Thriller". I'm not going to tell you where I am, but I did mess up twice (probably b/c I didn't go to the first bit of practice).



What I said above about not seeing how things can get better was a segway to the awesome dancing technique of the Willits High teachers. I know it will get better with P at home and me at work. We'll both adjust and re-learn to appreciate every second we have together. I have to say, this is much harder this year than it was last year. That first year is quite a challenge and I have to be honest and admit that when school started last year, part of me looked forward to getting a little break from full-time parenting. This year, I just want to be home with her. She's at such a fun stage and every day brings something new with her - a word, a sign, a look, a move, or a sound. She's just so amazing to us.

The videos below are a few clips of hard-t0-capture Penelope moments. As soon as she sees a camera, she's gotta have it, so needless to say, it's beginning to get difficult to take a decent pic of her or capture her cute moments on the video camera. I was going to post some pictures too on this update, but as I already mentioned, she's too savvy to the camera and I don't have any cute ones right now.

This one involves her Magic Carpet ride that Daddy invented with her the other night. Thank goodness, only Daddy can do this. She won't ride with Mommy. There's also some demonstration of her signs at the end.







This is a short clip of what she does when she sees the camera.





Here's her playing peek-a-boo with us.



Hope you enjoyed this quick update of Penelope. We miss everyone and are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas when we'll get to catch up in person. Take care!

How Time Flies

Well, Penelope and I are finally back home and finished with our summer travels. Of course, as soon as we arrived home, Matt packed up and left for a backpacking trip with Todd and his dad. It figures we'd get home in time to see him leave. But that's okay, b/c I'm going to use that time to sleep train P to nurse less at night and to wake up better on her own, so it's good Matt's gone cuz I'm sure it'll be noisy at first. I've been denying her for two nights now, and she's catching on. The second night was much easier than the first, and hopefully tonight's even better.

I don't have many pics to share, except one that I took just before P and I left TX. It's a fave of mine.And it only took about 50 clicks of my camera to get this shot. Gran, you're amazing and I'm so glad we got to visit lots with you on this trip.

Penelope and I had a wonderful time in TX visiting with family and friends. I got to have lots of amazing "girl" time with TJ, Kellie, Andrea, and Brook. I still miss my best friends so much. It was really neat to see all of us as Momma hens with our own broods. And of course, I got lots of "mommy" time, both with my mom and as the mom with Penelope. Thanks Mom and Dad for making my trip home such a relaxing experience- I got to re-ground myself before another crazy school year begins.

Penelope and I spent a week at home, then took off again for Sacramento so I could attend an AP workshop and gain some much needed skills and tools for the environmental science class I teach. Mom flew out and watched Penelope during the day. I booked us a suite at a Hawthorne Suites near Discovery Park - it was ginormous and sadly about the size of my house. Mom and Penelope had a great time at the hotel (walking around, going up and down the stairs, playing in the crazy, big room). Penelope didn't even cry for her naps. No pics were taken, except at the State Capitol building, where we toured on our last day in Sac. We missed seeing the Governator by about 5 minutes! All b/c we let Penelope stretch her legs before we checked out the building! He'd just finished doing a press conference when we walked up the steps to enter.

Matt and I plan to take Penelope for her first camping trip in a couple weeks. We're going to go to Prairie Creek, home of the big trees, with Carlos and Miranda and sleep under the giant redwoods. Stay tuned...

Grandma & PawPaw's - Part II

I know...it's been awhile since I've updated everyone on our visit, and I'm on vacation (technically), so I should be more on top of this. Lot's to share, so get comfy.



Most evenings, when it FINALLY cools down, Penelope plays in the little swimming pool Grandma & PawPaw have. She's very interested in how the water flows out of the hose.

Here's Penelope tickling PawPaw's toes. It's a new favorite thing to do.

And, here's another favorite thing to do. She has discovered that she can look upside down.

McKenna and Penelope had a good time playing with each other in the sandbox and on the swings Grandma and PawPaw got for them. McKenna was very cute and sweet with P.

Penelope really likes to talk on the phone - even if it's not really a phone. She'll put it up to her ear and babble on and on and walk all around the house talking to her "friends". It's adorable.

Gauge was so good with her! Here he is reading to her - watching this was beyond sweet!

Penelope LOVES the ducks and chickens! The first thing she does in the morning with Grandma is to go and see them. She's not even scared when she feeds them and they start swarming around her.

Penelope and I got some pictures done today at JCPenney's. This was P's first professional photog session, and she did really well. They don't give you very long, and unfortunately, as soon as she really started warming up to the camera, our time was up. But we got some good ones. Here's a few of my favorites.

Below is Penelope "coughing" it up with Grandma and PawPaw at dinner.

Here's a short clip of Penelope letting me know she's "all done" with her dinner.

She's "helping" PawPaw water the yard in this video.




Penelope lets Pawpaw get her nose in this clip.

Hope you enjoyed the update on our visit to Texas. It's been such a blast being back and spending so much quality time with my folks, family, and friends here. Penelope is thriving and taking in every minute of all the new places and people. We're going to miss everyone when we go back to CA next week!

Visiting Grandma & PawPaw - Part I

Penelope and I arrived last Monday in TX at Grandma and PawPaw's! Yea! We're having a great time. There's so much fun stuff for PP to do - swim in her little pool, slide, swing, lots of flat grassy area to walk and explore in. She loves Kiki and Scooter and giggles when she sees them. There's a rocking horse for her to play on and steps to climb. We're having a blast.

It took a little bit for her to reconnect to Grandma and PawPaw, but she's becoming BFFs with them real quick now. Below are some pictures of some of the fun activities we've done. Enjoy - there will be more to come!


This is my nephew, Gauge. He's a super cool little dude! Penelope just adores him and is already saying his name! Gauge spent the night last night and is great with PP. They're such good friends that she even tried to give him a kiss without being asked.

Here's some pics from McKenna's 4th b-day party this past Saturday. She's one tough, funny gal. We had a great time watching her run in circles all day and entertain us. She's really sweet to Penelope and PP lets her hold her already.

Here's snapshot of Scooter and Kiki - Scooter loves giving kisses and Penelope loves getting them.

Here's Penelope swimming in her little pool at Grandma & PawPaw's. She had a great time in it.

Grandma didn't believe that Penelope actually sat in a high chair to eat (I kinda let her snack on the run except for lunch and dinner).

Here's another shot of McKenna's party. Granny had a great time watching her grandkids and great-grandkids play. And we really enjoyed getting picked on by Grandma and Granny for our parenting styles =). Love you, Gran!

Here's PP playing outside. She loves all the space available to roam around.

Swimming, Chocolate, & Flossing

We spent a wonderful weekend in Calistoga for Carlos and Miranda's wedding (congrats again!). Penelope was really great the whole time and got to meet lots of sweet new friends. While there, she swam for the first time and was super adorable in her new swimsuit! She's going to be a pro at the pool by the end of the summer.


It was hard to get a good picture of her in her suit, hence the goofy one below.



Tonight, she somehow found a rogue chocolate chip without Mommy seeing with the results below. It was pretty cute.
When I flossed tonight, she seemed really interested in it, so I gave her a piece of floss (Grandma, you might want to stop reading right now and skip the video). She immediately started "flossing" her teeth. I tried to get it on video, but didn't get the better attempts. In the short clip below, she kinda flossed her teeth, then attempted to get mine. She's such a blast right now - this age is so fun! We're really looking forward to our summer travels that are coming up. I've got 3 more days of school, then we take off for TX a few days later - yea! We'll see everyone really soon!

Here's a little video of Penelope talking during dinnertime. It's amazing how quickly she's starting to say words. She's also saying "eye" while she pokes yours, and "dada" for Matt, and "maa" for Moby (I know you were thinking "Mommy", but that still isn't happening).

The video below shows PP eating dirt. It's completely by chance that I got this shot. I thought I was setting up to take pictures, but didn't realize I had my camera set to video and was actually recording. So, excuse the hiccup - it's louder than I thought.








We have some cute footage of her walking and talking on our video camera, but still need to download and edit. Stay tuned...