29 February 2012

Bowling

We had our first bowling last Friday afternoon and it went GREAT!

there was a minor issue the first time penny threw her ball down the lane and i wouldn't let her chase it.  she didn't like not being able to go where her beloved ball was going!

but we got the hang of it and she did GREAT! thank god for bumpers and the bowling ball slide...

Here are a couple videos.. one of her being very proud of her bowling accomplishments and another of her getting a bigger kick out the ball dryer than the actual bowling :)



random happenings...

life with penelope is always fun lately... this girl definately keeps us on our toes!

and lately she has become such a big grown up girl it's hard to believe!  some recent photos/videos of fun times with penny are below:
Making cookies with mommy.  she LOVES to cook lately and i love having my little kitchne helper :)



Piggy Tails! these just make me so happy :)


penelope LOVES her gymboree class.  Especially the FREEZE game.

 

Girlie!  she has been such a girlie girl lately.  between baking with mommy, loving her new hair pretties, and now always wanting to wear this tutu and twirl around!  how did i get such a girlie girl!  i think we need to butch her up a bit :)




27 February 2012

moves like jagger...

it's undeniable.

the girl has moves.

24 February 2012

who is this sass a frass?

when did my little girl become such a sassy toddler?  i swear she's 20 months going on 21.

this is how penny laid down to color the other day...then she "read" me her picture.





my little soccer player

lately penny LOVES soccer.  she alwasy talks about soccer balls - to teh point that it drives me crazy how often she just repeats "soccer ball soccer ball soccer ball"

but she also loves to "play" soccer.  playing usually involves a lot more holding the ball then actaully kicking the ball, but if it goes in the net - who cares.

she still celebrates!









23 February 2012

bikinis and bloody lips

this post is two fold.

step 1: show you the ADORABLE new bikini i bought penny this week.  she threw down her french fries and begged to go "mimming" (that's swimming) as soon as she saw it.  So on it went and off to the bathtub we went for some indoor fun.




kid rocks a bikini :)

step 2:  fill all you loyal readers (okay just my mom and mother in law) in on penny's first real injury (at least one involving blood).

we awake at 3:45 in the am to the following:

penny: MY MOWF MY MOWF (that's mouth in penny talk).

kris goes in there and them immediately calls for me.

blood all over the little girls face!  on her forehead, hands, lips, mouth... not sure what she actually did to herself but she'd bloody and it hurts :(

we got a washcloth and had her bite down it on - trying to get some pressure on whatever was bleeding and trying to locate the injury. 

i was so impressed with penny tell me her "mowf" hurt that I thought i might be able to get mroe details out of her.  WRONG.  our convo went a little something like this:

penny:  my mowf my mowf

mommy: what hurts baby?  can you show mommy where in your mouth?

penny: my mowf. mommy. my mowf. penny's mowf.

mommy: is it your lip or is your teeth.

penny: my mowf.

mommy: baby does it hurt on the inside (pointing) or the outside (pointing to lip)

penny: penny mowf.

mommy: penny do your teeth hurt?  did you bite something or fall down?  can you point to mommy where it hurts?

penny: MOM. MY MOWF. PENNY MOWF (said like a 13 year old who thinks her mother is an idiot).

luckily, but that point tthere was no more bleeding and a little flap of skin hanging fron her top lip showed us the injury spot.  still not clue how on earth you cut a lip open while sleeping...

oh.. and of course we never went back to sleep.  that's awesome :)

ahh .. children.. keeping you on your toes at ALL hours of the day and night.

13 February 2012

bath time

i have always loved bathtime photos.  they are always my favorite and there is just something freaking cute about a chubby little one ni the bathtime.

penny robbed me of bathtime fun for her 9 months of crazy - so I am making up for it :)

last night we tried out 2 new bathtime toys.  one was these little foam fizzies that turn your water a fun color - courtesy of uncle jeff and aunt christa for valentine's day - she loved it!  was a little nervous at first, then got excited to got "mimming" (that's swimming) in her new blue water.




next new addition was a pinterest find... throw glowsticks in the tub and turn out the lights.. this one was a hit.  lots of "pretties" for penny to wear and put in her mouth.




god i love pinterest.

all the bath fun led to a hyped up penny who jumped and tumbled on our bed for about 30 mins after the tub... resulting in this sweet elvis hair.



and the best part of all, cuddling with a pj'd little girl who smells amazing and who puts her chubby little hands on your checks to give kisses.



love that girl.

06 February 2012

faker

all of these were taken about 1 second apart.

you think i have a bit of a faker on my hands?




imagination

i LOVE that penny is really learning to play pretend and use her imagination lately.  this weekend it was out in full force.

1.  when we were visiting baby cousin... penny got a bit jealous and ran up to tell me, "penny mommy's baby" "mommy hold penny" "penny baba" and would bring me stuff so we could pretend she was a baby. she would fake cry, burp, and crawl around and lay on the baby mats. 

2.  penny was pushing one of her dolls face down on lisa and kevin's floor.  make "swooshing" noises and just pushign this baby for awhile until i asked, "penny what are you doing".  her reply, "baby mimming" (swimming).  her tone of voice is the best - likely clearly this child was swimming and clearly i'm an idiot for asking.

3.  penn has been OBSESSED with her phones lately.  normally she just holds it and smiles but i cuaght her having a fake conversation yesterday that went a little esomethign like this;

Holding an ipod to her ear (she calls this a phone too)

"hello"

"penny's phone phone"

"it's penny's phone"

"hi" "hello"
"babies, baba, penny's phone"

"hi suzy"

"mine. mine. my phone. penny's phone"

"penny's milk . bye bye"

all while holding her purse, ipod to the ear and head titled to the side.

i hope whoever she was talking to was aware that this is penny's phone...

cousins

as you may have noticed from my holiday pictures.. penelope loves her cousin calvin and babies in general.  we have been planning a visit to KC for a few weeks now so I have been showing penny picutres of calvin and talking about our visiting and working on his name.

she didnt disappoint :)  loved him just as much as teh first time she saw and him and loved "helping" with him. she even said he name, called him "baby cow-en"  (had a hard time with the LV letter combo).

she also did amazing on the drive.  we timed it well for the way up.  left a little before lunchtime at 11.  drove for an hour - stopped for lunch at mcdonalds and let her eat and run aroudn the play place.  then back in the car where she fell asleep for 1.5 hours. I think she may have slept longer but we hit a standstill on the highway for 30 mins while a bridge accident was cleared.  i think the not moving woke her up.  however, she was great.  we just got her set up with Gabba on the ipod and one of her guys.  when an episode ended she just handed it back to us.  she was fanstasic for the last 2 hours.

alos did great for the visit.. we hung around the house on friday night and i was nervous how she would sleep - but she went down at 8 w/out a complaint and slept til 6.  a little earlier than normal but we were good with that.  she did great on saturday too - we went to union station to visit their science city which was an awesome city musuem/science center blend - loved it.  then aslo hit up crown center for some wandering around and burgers.  We ate at fritzs were you order food from a phone and the table and a train goes aroudn the ceiling then delivers the food to yoru table.  penny LOVED that.

but back to the cousins.. they were soo cute.. calvin sort of looked at penny wiht a mixture of fear, curiousity and annoyance. penny jsut looked at him with complete excitement at this lifelike toy. i tink she really wanted us to leave them alone so she could drag him all around :)

she loved giving him his paci and we put her on paci patrol.  if calvin cried she would run to lisa or kevin and say "he cying" "he cying" (she skips the "r"). then tell them he needed a paci or a baba.

she loved to hold the baba and hold the baby.  sometimes she jsut wanted to touch him or sit by him.  if he was crying and she was giving him a paci and it didnt work she would point her finger at his face and so "no no baby no no."  (she msut have confused him for a dog during that...)

overall they both did amazing... can't wait to see what sort of troubel these too get into down the road :)







 


01 February 2012

bedtime...

penny has always been GREAT about bedtime and for the past few months it's been easy peezy.  walk upstairs, say  night night - and put her to bed.  30 seconds and done.

lately our routine is changing a bit, becoming a bit longer.. but i love it :)

as yo gabba gabba ends, i tell her it's time to kiss daddy and gatsby... this is when she thinks it's hilarious to run away and make daddy chase her.. she giggles like a crazy person and takes off until we "catch" her for kisses before night night.  we then tell gabba night night, the babies night night, and gatsby night night.

as we go up the steps she points to everythign and touches everything including the "sky" - ceiling.

we touch and talk to the puppy picture on teh wall and the owl picture on her door and say "hoot hoot"

then it's bedtime stories.  we read "someday" and "i'll love you forever" as the bedtime stories and penny is a huge fan. she just finally has the attention span to sit through longer books and just listen to me read.  she does however have certain things she remmebers on each page that she likes to talk about.  in "someday" there is a page that says "one day i counted your fingers and i kissed each one"  so one time i did the same to her.  now every time we get to that page she gives me her hand and says "kiss". and if i just kiss one finger she says "two" - indicating that I need to keep counting.  she loves that book.  talks abou the "baby" the whole time.  then when we read "i'll love you forever" she likes to reprimand the 2 year old boy who makes a mess: "no no baby, no no"; point out the mommy and say "night night" each time the mommy sneaks into the room; and the page when it talks about the little boy moving across town she always, without out fail says, "bye bye"
 
the rest of out night time routine involves her handing me all her bedtime friends for crazy kisses.  she hands me brobee and muno and i have to kiss them, make them kiss, then they kiss her.  then same routine with the two puppies.  if i skip she yells "kiss mommy" and "two"  (she's very into "two" of everytrhing.  so she has two of all her favorites in bed with her and i have to give them all two kisses)

i have to admit i love our little bedtime routine :)
 
 

just a few randoms...

i figured a few random photos would suffice until i get aroudn to taking real pictures again.

these are all sucky phone pictures but still pretty cute :)

but first a few penny updates.
she is in the middle of a language explosion lately.  talks ALL the time and some of it is starting to make sense.  she is very into identifying people, and things and what things people to what people.

so naturually - everything is "mine" or "penny's"

first she'll tell you what the item is, then that it belongs to her.  "mommy" "penny's mommy"; "paci" "penny's paci" - you get the idea.

almost making a lot more phrases and sentences and repeating stuff you may say just once like "penny's heavy" or "i'm cold" "i have itch"  she is also really using pronouns accurately, but like any toddler does a lot of talking in the third person.

the other big thing we are noticing is that she has some VERY strong opinions about who does what, when they do it and where they do it.  if we play cars she'll tell you if you can have the red or the black car (she can pretty well identify red, black and blue colors).  she'll tell where to play with it and how to play with it.  she also gets a big kick out of us all "sitting" together.  she doenst like when you lay down.  she likes us all to sit next to each other on the bed or the floor.  legs all the way out, hands by your side. penny in the middle.  and she will physically do all in her power to make it happen.  if you lay she'll try and push you up.  if that doesnt work she usually grabs you by your ear, hair (mommy) or nose (daddy).  then manuevers you into the position she wants.  it's pretty awesome.

along with these opinions are the tantrums.  with such strong opinions comes strong anger when things dont go her way.  we say that "her world ends" at least 3 times a day.  she can dissolve into hysteria and tears at the drop of the hat.  best way to handle is usually ignore.  or simple distraction still works.  most of her tantrums have lost a little of their prevoious staying power.  I think general curiousity wins out and she moves on to something else.

my favorite new development is her ability for conversation.  we talk the whole car ride home.  most of it is still fairly one sided but she can really answer questions now.  and answer them completely and clearly.  dinner for example.

two weeks ago if asked, "penny do you want a banana"  

she would answer a simple "no" and shake her head.

now she answers, "penny no banana mama. no banana"

i can't wait to see how much more she develops in the next few months!


she is still a little momma, as evidenced by this elmo book that she put "night night"  with a paci, bottle and a loaned puppy (she took the paci and puppy back pretty quickly)




 and she is getting even better at feeding herself. she suddenly is a pro with a spoon.  especially when she is dipping that spoon in fro yo :)



it's amazing to watch the daily changes and discoveries this age brings.  with all it's challenges and opinions, it's still my favorite age so far.  i love the way she exerts her independance and has become such a little person. she's my little buddy and helper and most of the time (save the occasional tantrum) she is fun to take out places.

love you penners :)



the weekend from hell

okay, i'm aware that as of late my blogging has been sucky to say the least.  but i swear i have good reason for it.  we spend the majority of the last two weeks sick as dogs in house, then kris and i left for the amazing napa valley and a MUCH needed vacation.
 
more detail on the sickiness in a minute.. but come on people - napa valley! would you give blogging a second though if THIS was your view???
 


 
but, before we got to enjoy that amazing scenery (another post to come on napa), we dealt with what the most miserable weeekend ever!. Started almost two weeks ago on thursday, 1/19.  i got the dreaded 'call from the babysitter' at work.  the one where your heart drops and you already freak out because shes' call in the middle of the day.  she quickly assured nothing terrible had happened, but we did have a puker. i packed up my stuff quickly and headed to get penny.  there is nothing worse than a long drive to pick up your child when you know they are sick, crying and just want their mommy.  no one was going fast enough for my liking.

when i got to susans penny had just thrown up again and susan had her cleaned up from round 2.  I loaded her into the car and bam - more puking.  she threw up about 4 times on the way home.  it was a rough drive.  mainly because she is so young she just doesnt understand what is going on - so in steado f leaning forward into the towel I had on her lap, she leaned back so she was choking on it.  with one hand on the wheel and one eye on the highway, i reached back with my other hand to hold her head forward and help her puke.  not a fun ride head.  i called kris for back up and he met me at the house.  we got her home and cleaned up with a quick bath and she actually got a second little energy burst for a minute.  then... more puke.  and more and more and more.  this just kept continuing.  every 5 to 10 minutes for about 4 hours. by 5 pm we had used every towel in the house (1 year olds dont understand puking in the toilet or in a bucket so i just tried to catch what i could)  after 30 plus vomits she was looking rough.  i called the dr to let them know we couldnt get it to stop, she'd puked over 30 times, hadnt peed in 10 hours, was crying with no tears and starting to get super lethargic.  after the last few pukes she'd be so exhausted she'd lean forward and pass out in it.  

we headed into childrens hospital for some help.  they were great and got us fast tracked and into a room very quickly. 
 
she got worse and worse at children's. kept vomiting, started shaking and turning super pale.  underneath her eyes were very sunken in and looked almost black. that's when we really started to worry.  this kid had dehydrated so quickly!  the dr. came in and suggested htat because IVs are so difficult at this age (on the kids and the parents) we should maybe give some zofran a try first to just break up the puking process and give her little body a break.   first couple tries resulted in more vomit but she finally kept one day.  and then QUICKLY looked better.  ate a popsicle, drank some juice.  had another popsicle, some sprite.  kids bounch back quickly. she even got out of bed and walked a little bit.  but - still no pee.  we were released wtih teh promise that if no pee in 4 hours we would come back in for an IV.
 
we got penny home and in bed (she was soo exhausted) and FINALLY at 11pm - we had pee!  took almost 15 hours but she did it.  of course that wasnt the end of it - then the diarrhea started for the poor child - so we spent most fo the night with that.  we both stayed home most of friday and penny did pretty well.  set up camp in the living room with a pillow, sleeping bag, her puppies, paci and of course anythign gabba gabba.  she slept the majority of the day and did well.  was VERY timid with food but that was understandable.  
however, by that evening - mommy was sick.  and sick bad.  daddy followed.  by 11:30 we were both laying in bathrooms sick as dogs.  the same dehydration set in quickly.  charlie horses, no pee, dry lips, shaking.  rough rough rough.  then penny woke up upset.  we were albe ot get her out of bed but didnt have the energy (or a break from the bathroom) to hold and comfort her.  kris dragged the sleeping bag upstaris and at one point we all layed on it on the bathroom floor.  penny feel asleep at my feet crying while i was getting sick.

i'll spare you some the worst details but it was a rough rought evening and next couple of days.  stomach flu is hard enough.  stomach flu is even harder when your spouse and kid are both sick as well.  we survived but it took a solid week before we were all back to normal.

anyway - long story long.. a few photos from our miserable weekend (not graphic i promise - just of a sad and sick little girl..)