where's penelope?

i'll give you a hint... she's dressed in red and white like waldo.



just because :)

just because she looks so pretty in blue.

just because i love that smile

just because she rocks an animal print

just because cuddling with puppy is adorable

just because i love watching her "read"

just because that is just plain awesome

just because i want to squeeze that belly

just because i love her eyes

just because i love baby shorts


just because our little girl is awesome :)

silly goose :)

pants on my head. pants on my head. looking like a fool with my pants on  my head :)



swimming!!!!

penelope LOVED swimming!

she liked to ride in her raft and splash the water, she liked to "swim" with mom or dad holding her and she liked to drink the pool water :)

some pics of penelope enjoying her first memorial day!



first ted drewes!

of course everyone heard about penny's owie, so uncle tony came over today and brought her a little treat...

penelope's first ted drewes!

she was a HUGE fan!

can't say i blame her... uncle tony brought some for the rest of us too... i'm a huge fan as well!

our first big boo-boo

well, we had our first official injury - considering she is almost a year old - I dont think that is so bad.. however, it was just as painful for mommy and daddy as for penelope.

on saturday am over memorial day weekend, penelope was just playing on the floor in the kitchen while mommy, daddy and aunt lizzie were eating breakfast. she must have been reaching for the table leg to grab onto (while sitting) and missed.  the force of her body leaning over pushed her forward and when her little hands missed the table, her head did not.  collided right into the solid wood leg.  it was loud. it shook the table.  and she screamed.

by the time I picked her up and starting calming her down... her head looked like this:

now it obviously looks much better now, but it scared mommy and daddy!  we called the dr., checked for a concussion, kept and eye on her all day, iced it off and on through it all - penny was great. after the initial crying - it never bothered her again.

and now has her first little war wound.

here's the "owie" today (2 days latter).

much much better!!

just a nasty bruise!



some fun new videos..

penelope's new favorite game - suring.  we take the lid of her toy box and "surf" around the room... soo cute.. then she takes pink puppy for a ride after :)  my little baby genius!

penelope loves to "walk" on her knees lately.. she doesnt want to just use her feet.... difficult child...

she also LOVES to chase elvis around... it's pretty cute... she can't catch him but she tries and gets sooo excited!



chunky monkey

some updates

penelope is sooo determined lately.... it's so funny to watch her become such  little person.

her favorite thing to do right now is push her "car" around in the kitchne and set her "stuff" on top of it.

This stuff can be a cup, a spoon, a toy, a block, or a ball...

The item of choice has to be set on the seat of the car and then she will push it around.  if it falls off, she must stop pushing, crawl to the item, get situated again just right, and start over.

it's quite the process... can be fairly smoooth - except when she tries to do it with a ball... not soo good there.

and she gets ANGRY when stuff doesnt work out!

She also has decided that she is a monkey.  everything is for climbing and pulling up - and she puts that big fat thigh on everything.

she can pull herself up from the floor onto the ottoman in a very quick smooth move - i tried to get her video but she was too fast.

so i put her down and made her do it again - by the screaming - you can tell she was pissed.

angry baby :)

she is also starting to really repeat words.  she does mama and dada a lot now, can repeat "car" "doggy" "sock" "ball" and a few others.  doesnt necessarily use them on her own yet though.

she is also sooo close to walking!!!  she started to do sa step for me last night and decided to just squat down instead.

her balance is getting great - she can stand, squat and stnd back pu without holding onto anything and iwthout her butt hitting the ground. I  know she is strong enough and steady enough to walk - but just doesnt want to take the risk yet!!!

more updates/videos/photos soon!

i can't keep up with her lately!

head banging

video of penelope "dancing"

notice that she uses only her head..

i think she's drunk.

11 months!!

This post is a bit late..but i'm hoping you all will cut me a break... been sort of a crazy monht!

we are officially moved out of our house and living with gma and gpa d. It's been super chaotic with all the packing and moving and coordinating and check writing!

and been very very very sad to leave.  I can't believe I said goodbye to the house this weekend.  was definately brutal for us. 

i keep getting a little choked up.  especially when i think of penn's room... i wish she understand what was going on - but she has been a champ!  last night was her first night in her new room and she did great... went tdown great and slept all night... i was soo proud of her.  she was a little confused at fist with her new place... but she got adjusted very quicly.  all her toys and stuff is in the new living room, she recognizes mom and daddy's new room, and we set up her bedroom as close as possible.

i tink she'll adjust better than us!  it's kind of sad that she wont remember the old house and where she spent her first year - but it sa good thing mommy has a ton of pictures to show her when she gets older.

well, in the midst of all this craziness, penelope has the gall to turn 11 months old!

it's crazy... in a few weeks she'll be one... and i'll of course be crying...

i dont even know how to begin with this update!

this child is changing sooo muich everyday!

eating habits:  we are actually just starting to switch to milk.  i'm at the end ofthe formual container adn think it's time for the little lady to go to real milk!  i introducte dthat last night - she's not sure... but we'll keep trying it!!!  other than that - penelope can eat anything now - expect peanuts/peanut butter! but she loves all fruit (still blueberries and bananas and oranges the best), loves yogurt, loves grilled cheese, anything from chef boyardee, chx nuggest, fries, broccoli, caulifflower and bread. she pretty much eats it all!!

sleeping: still a great sleeper - going down a bit later though - mor elike 7/7:30 instead of 6:45.  she gets up at 6:30sihs.. so about 11 hours at night.  and does one really good am nap - aout 2.5 hours and a shorter afternoon nap -about 1.5 hours... so overall - 15 hours a day.. i'm godo with htat... we have started to have a few nightime wake ups though - not sure if it's nightmares or what but she wakes up SCREAMING.. and it can take a LONG time to calm her back down.  Happens mabybe once a week now!

Words:  penelope is really starting to try and get some words out.. she can mouth "hi five", can say "book" if you ask a lot, can someitmes say "ball", still loves her version of "sock" and says mamamama and dadada all day.   a lot of it is still bayb talk.. but it's baby tlak with meaning lately. you can tell by her inflection and stopping and starting words/sounds (they dont all just flow together now), that she is trying ot say something, or give direction, or tell you a story. it's pretty adroable.  With this also seems to come the frustration piece orf not being to truly tell me what she wants!  it hink that will be around for a while.

walking: any day now! penelop can walk with pushing on something, cruising on the couch or holidng your hand (sometiems with just one).  she is jsut not sure about that first stop unassisted.  she can stand on our own and get up and down wihtout falling over... has the squat perfected...

she can aslo go up a step or 2.. but still wants to go down headfirst... we are working on teaching her how to go down on her belly - not interested...

she is just now learnign to "play" with toys as they are intended.

loves her ball popper and breaking much any toy that she can put the ball in something, loves her cookie shape sorter (can't do any shapes but circle yet), and really really loves her banger toy - where you but the balls in a tighter circle and bang them through... i lvoe watching her learn toys.. you can see the littel wheels in her head turning.

peneloe is alos quite the lovebug. still lvoes and hugs pink puppy, but also gives lots of love and hugs to blue puppy, white cat (this one is new), her froggie backpack, and even her bottle lunch bag.  LOVES to hug and kiss.

when she is "walking" along the couch or with a toy, she puts pink puppy in her mouth and holds its by the ears with her teeth, so that he can travel wiht her :)

pretty cute...

well - i still need to upload some photos, camera has been packed, but i'll get to to today!

next time i do a monthly post it'll be my last one!  a recap of her bday :)

god she is soo big.  i love my big girl :)

how much does she look like a toddler in this photo?  (where did my baby go??)

daddy's girl...

penelope LOVES to watch daddy cut the grass.. and she looks like such a big girl while she is watchinghim...

she crawled over the window/door - starting baning on it and yelling "dadadada"  when daddy didnt hear her over the mower I had to run out and let him know his little lady was looking for a response! :)



cruising

penelope crusing along... getting close :)

happy mother's day!!

my first "real" mother's day.  although last year at this time we were pretty close to penelope being born, so I already thought it counted.

But now, with almost a year of parenthood under my belt... I have to say, I had no idea what I was in for.

you think you know, you can convince yourself you are ready.

but there is nothing like it in the entire world.

(although as I'm writing this post, she is screaming her head off cuz I had the audacity to put her bed.)

it's hard to believe my little pain in the butt is almost a year old and i've been a mommy for almost a year.  most of the time I still dont have a clue what i'm doing. but the one thing i do know - is there is nothing that child could ever do that would make me love her any less.  in fact - everything she does, good or bad, seems to make me love her more.

some days you dont think that's possible... but it is.  even though she is screaming right now.  top of her lungs impressive screaming..i know that when the ten minutes i'm going to let her cry is up... i'll go in there, pick her up, and she will give me the sweetest smile in the world.. and my heart will break a little and somehow love her even more.

my mom gave me a mother's day card today and wrote a note on it that said, "everything looks so different once you are in on the secret of parenthood - a love you never thought your heart could hold."

she said it perfectly. 

lots of things have changed in this past year, my priorities, my social life, my dress size, but most importantly i've changed.  a little person like penelope doesn't come into your life and not change you for the better...

so even though i'll still look longingly at those size four dresses...i wouldnt change any of it.  

and even though my hips are a different size - they are perfect cuz they fit penelope

and even though i dont have as much free time as I used to...all it takes is a smile and a hug from my baby to remind me that there is no place i'd rather be.

happy mothers day to all the moms out there - you are all amazing.  the hardest and most rewarding job in the world is yours... and you make it look effortless

and happy mothers day to all the mothers to be - you have so much to look forward to. you have no idea what you are in for - but it's an amazing ride.

and most importantly...to my little girl... penelope you are amazing, my favorite thing in in the world is to just be your mommy.

i will love you forever, i will love you more every day, you can never do anything to change that, and i will do anything in this world to make you happy.

thanks for letting be your mommy.  i will keep on trying to the best i can.

love you baby

"sock"?

Well we have what appears to be our first word. Penelope has tried saying some other words before - an attempt at gatsby, her version of puppy, and for one day - ball.

but yesterday it seems like a word finally stuck.  At least for two days.

I was folding the laundry and everytime I folded socks penelope put them in the basket for me.  i think her and grandma h do the laundry together on mondays.   So she is good at the socks.

and VERY proud of herself.

everytime she put one in, i'd hand her another and say "sock".

she evantually started repeating - or attempting to repeat.

penelope's version of "sock" is a lot more similar to a dirty word.

just replace the "s" with a "c"

it's pretty clear - i need to get it on video.

but it seems to have stuck.

she said it a few times today.

i'm so proud of my dainty little girl :)

easter part 2

we spent easter morning at home with mommy, daddy and gatsby then heading over to gma and gpa ds house that afternoon!

checking out her easter basket

manhandling her bunny

rockng her ears!

trying to catch bubbles

they keep getting away!

peneloe wore a vintage dress on easter day - mommy bought it a flea market  -it's from 1940!  gma fixed it up and penelope looked adorable! ( i love those bow on her head too!)

pretty dress (and pretty legs) from the back :)

looking for more eggs and presents! (like you didnt get enough!) :)

happy easter everyone! (this is a bit late!) :)

easter 2011 part 1

we had a great easter!  i'm a little behind on my posting but penelolpe had a great time and looked gorgeous!

we spent saturday with the hoffman side of the family...

pretty penny :)

smiling at her daddy :)

look at my pretty dress!

wearing her new hat from gma h and playing wiht her new ball from uncle kyle

rocking her new shades

hanging out iwth mackenzie and pink puppy (this is how pink puppy travels now)

who wants a sippy cup when you can have your own solo.

laughing with gma h

what a fun easter!