9 months

Dear Penelope,

As I write this I can hear you in your crib growling. Not crying, not screaming. Roaring. Like a good little velociraptor. These sounds carry me through my day. I tease you and tickle and swing you upside down just to hear your laugh. I love that people three aisles over in the store can hear you squeal. You have always been vocal but you're starting to put together noises that sound like real words. Like when you say "Hi Dad" whenever Daddy says hi to you. I know it just has to be a random pairing of nonsense sounds that just happen to sound like Hi Dad. At least that's what I thought the first time. And maybe the second too. But after the fifth time - I've begun to wonder. During your bath last night you also made a respectable attempt at "duck." It sounded more like "duc" but that's OK because that 'k' is silent anyway.



We've spent a lot of time at the doctor's office this last month what with two ear infections and a third suspected. But through all the poking and prodding you still charm the socks off the doctors. They can't help but tell me how well behaved and sweet you are. I tell them I know, that I'm truly lucky. And I am. Last year at this time I was dreaming about what you'd be like. And even in my dreams you weren't as wonderful as you are in real life. Sometimes, after a long night, I miss you like you've been gone for a year, and I have to scoop you up in my arms and threaten never to let you go again.




Love,
Mama

runnin' runnin' and runnin' runnin'

In real time it was only about an hour. But in baby time it felt like a month. Just a little jaunt to Target, I thought. Walk around, try some stuff on, look at sales. Something to break the day up a bit; get us girls out of the house. 

My first mistake was thinking I could try clothes on with the baby around. The finding of things to try on was easy. The hard part came in the dressing room. Did you know that the space under the dressing room door is the perfect size for a baby to crawl under? It went something like this: 

Remove an article of clothing. 

Drag Penny back from under the door. Give her my keys to play with.

Try on a shirt.

Drag Penny back from under the door. Give her the keys again.

Remove shirt because it makes my skin look green.

Drag Penny back from out in the hall. Give her my shoe. (What? She likes shoes.)

Try on shorts while trying to block door with my feet.

Drag Penny back from under the door after she crawled right over me. 

Repeat through two pairs of shorts, three t-shirts and a dress. 

I didn't buy anything because I had no idea if any of it looked good since I really had no chance to look in the mirror.

So clothes shopping was a mistake. How about just regular browsing. Not too much maneuvering with that. Except that by then Penny was poopy. I made a trip to the bathroom to change a stinky diaper and then back to wandering around. Five minutes later I realized I had to use the bathroom. So back to the front of the store we went. Have you ever tried to use the bathroom while holding a baby? You should try it sometime using a raccoon or maybe a ferret. That'll be close enough to the real experience. There's wiggling and squirming and crying that they want down but you don't dare put those little butt cheeks anywhere near the disgusting public restroom floor. So finally that was done. More shopping. By this time I still hadn't even gotten to the other side of the store.

But now Penny wanted a snack. So in with the Cheerios, up with the sippy cup and then I watched as the container with Cheerios was thrown across the aisle and I was so glad that I had already put the lid back on. Take a drink. Throw the cup. Take a snack. Throw the container. Then she didn't want to ride in the cart anymore. So there I was, holding her, pushing the cart while still trying to feed her a snack. At one point I was hunched over the cart trying to steer with my elbows when an employee started following me. He narrowed his eyes, suspiciously looked over the contents of my cart and, wrinkling his nose, asked if he could help me find something. Having given all of my patience to Penny, I responded coldly, in my best leave-me-alone voice, that we were peachy. He actually sniffed and walked away. But continued to follow us discreetly around the store. If I hadn't been so worn out already from all the child wrangling I might have found it funny. Instead it was infuriating. So I finished up, paid and left. 

Next time I think I'll find that employee and have him watch the baby while I shop.

perfect

Our next house will have a library. An honest-to-goodness room dedicated solely to my love of books. All my life I've dreamed of having a library like the ones in Victorian novels - shelves up to the ceiling, rolling ladders, plush carpets and chairs for my relaxing pleasure. And of course a fireplace. You can't have a library without a fireplace. In my mind, reading by firelight is the only way to go. I imagine it to look something like this.

And of course, the smell. It will have that lovely, comforting smell of old leather and musty pages, of adventure and knowledge wrapped inside a cover. Right now we don't have nearly enough books to fill the library of my dreams but I figure by the time we can afford the house that goes with the library, I'll have stocked up some more.

When I get near books, that butterfly, squirrel-y feeling takes over in my stomach and I just want to spend hours picking up and touching every single book. I can't seem to leave Barnes & Noble without buying something. I can spend hours on Amazon just browsing through their recommendations.

I saw recently that more and more people are instead downloading their reads onto an iPad or Kindle. I just couldn't do that. A big part of the experience is holding the book in my hands; turning the pages and hearing the rustle in the binding. I felt sick the other night when I was watching a show and the character showed how he tore out the pages he was done reading so he always knew where he was. He said he'd already read the other pages so why keep them around. I don't even dog-ear the pages because I have the weirdest belief that I'd be hurting the book if I did.

So that's what I want. A real library. I told Jason we need to start saving now because I have a feeling it's not going to be cheap.

8 months 10 days

Dear Pumpkin Face,

Yeah, I know what it says up there. 8 months 10 days is not the same as 8 months. But if you just read the last post I put up you'll see that Mommy's brain has been frizzled ever since we got back from the beach. I blame all the seaweed I had to avoid tripping on. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure this type of thing isn't hereditary. Unlike other things.

This last month you have grown up so much. And I don't really mean size wise. Oh sure, you're taller and such but your brain just seems to be sprouting. Pretty soon I'm going to see it growing out of your ears.

You now have a total of 6 teeth. SIX! That makes for a lot of chomping. And you like to use them. You've begun eating real solid foods, not just the quote-unquote solids you were eating before. You can pack away those green beans so fast you make me believe you might actually like them. Your eye/hand coordination has improved so much that you no longer throw your food all over your face before getting it into your mouth. Vast improvement over having to bathe you after every meal.

You're also trying to convince Dad and me that you're ready to walk. Some days, if I listen carefully and the wind is just right, I can hear you squeal in satisfaction when you pull yourself up to standing. This has become something of an annoyance to the cat since he used to think he was safe on the couch. But now you stand nose to nose with him and demand that he acknowledge you as a member of this family. I'm pretty sure he still hopes we'll take you back where we got you.

This last month there were so many new things for you. You went on your first road trip. Met your great grandma and grandpa and a great aunt. Spent time with 2 aunts, an uncle and 4 cousins for a whole week. Stood on the sand and got hit by a wave. Went to the Zoo, fed an elephant and even ate Pop Rocks. That's more things than I usually get to do in a year.

And through it all you were my sweet happy Bug. Even on the 10 hour ride home when you were awake for 8 of those hours. Even when you were crying so hard the snot bubbles were as big as jawbreakers. And especially after we stopped for the Benadry.

Love,

Mama

ketchup

For the longest time as a child I thought the term "catch up" was the same as the word "ketchup." You could see the dilemma I was in if someone mentioned having to "ketchup on [insert anything here]." I don't know if this contributed to my putting ketchup on just about everything I ate or not, but I'm going to go ahead and say it did.

So now that that's explained, I can ketchup with the last month or so.

Toward the middle of June we went on vacation with my family to San Diego. It was fantastic and everything you think San Diego should be during the summer. There was ocean and beach and family. There was a trip to the Zoo and we even go to feed some elephants. Jason's sister Nora got to hang out with us the whole week and she's the reason there WAS a trip to the Zoo. My brother and his family finally got to make Penny's acquaintance after 8 long months of just pictures and Skype. Nothing beats slobbery in-person kisses.

Ever since vacation I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. Hence the not posting regularly. I fully intended to have a vacation post up right after we got back and another by June 26th when Penny turned 8 months old. And here it is July 6th. 

Also, because I forgot to do a post about this weeks ago and I am a horrible, awful daughter, I just wanted to tell my dad he's the best Dad in the whole world. I am too lucky to be your daughter.

And to wrap this up, I thought I'd just post some of my favorite pics from vacation.