just hangin out

penelope has been sick for almost two weeks now.  a nasty cold and upper respistory thing that has been ongoing for awhile along with the pain of teething has made a very unhappy baby.  she has been stuffy for days - and hates gettin gher nose sucked.  running and off and on fever.  throwing up snot (sorry - might be too much info) and lovely liquid potty.  this makes for a lot of long days and sleepless nights. penelope only likes to sleep when being held... which makes for crabby mom and dad along with a crabby baby!  here are a few random pictures of when she wasnt cry over the last week... notice there are not very many...

that is not penelope...  that is a pathetic and accusatory looking gatsby.  notice the pouting over lack of walks lately.  sorry buddy. angry baby takes precedence over whiny dog.

peace biat*hes!  just hanging out....

oh no! i love the hand on the head.  we will later discover its there for an ear infection.  right now it just looks cute :)  there is tiger again.. she loves him.  i will upload some videos later of her chatting with her tiger buddy!

cuddly with blue puppy.  we name everything now.  we have pink puppy, blue puppy, tiger, sock monkey, purse (thats the beads by sock monkey - she usually wears on her arms like a purse).

my lil pumpkins

penelope got a pumpkin shirt in her halloween basket and mommy found a matching headband at target... along with a matching gatsby shirt... i thought i might try and get a picture of them together... that didnt go so well... here is the best i could get...

hoosier baby - wearing nothing but a diaper and her pumpkin get-up.  put pretty pleased about it.

chunky pumpkin.

this is the one photo fo them together. looks good. :)

pumpkin patch with gma h

on friday penelope went to the pumpkin patch with her grandma h.  she had been battling a cold all week but she was in a pretty good mood on friday and seemed to ready to go have fun!!!  she played at home for a little bit with me in the morning... i had to dig out some summer clothes that I had already packed away becuase it was pretty warm on Friday - 80s - the layering is from the sun.  figure she'd rather be hot then burnt!

penelope playing with her mat before she left.  notice the tiger in the right corner. her new favorite toy... you'll be seeing more of him...

mommy put penelope in the only outfit she had with a matching sunhat!  getting ready to go with gma h.

penelope after the pumpkin patch.  looking a little bored and annoyed with me.  but holding her tiny penelope pumpkin!  she had a great time!  there were tons of other kids there -a nd that is all penelope needs - lots of attention :)

gatsby coming over to check out his buddy ... and her new pumpkin toy. anytime penenlope is gone for a while - gats has to make sure she still smells the same when she gets back :)

there it is! happy baby holding the worlds tinies pumpkin :)

mommy and daddy night out

mommy and daddy went out of town and left you for the first time last weekend for a friends wedding in kewanee, illinois. felt kind of strange leaving you at grandma d's house and then hitting the road.  i guess i know now how hard it is for daddys to leave you at the sitters each morning.

but you did great and mommy and daddy had some much needed time together!  even the drive was kind of nice to just be able to spend the day together!

but we were so happy to come home too you!!!!

penelopes shoes

she needs a bigger closet.

4 months old!

not much to post here... just penelope's four months pics... and rocking out her mizzou shirt - for her uncle tony and uncle trent!

uncle trent brought this to penelope at the hospital.  he walked in, said "i heard you are suppossed to get gifts for babies,"  reached into his pocket and pulled out this shirt.  not wrapped - just balled up in his pocket.  interesting approach to gift giving :)  but penelope loved it and loves uncle trent!

firetrucks!

we started out with a nice quiet evening... bundled penn up and went for a late evening walk...

she looked adorable in her jacket from gma d.

then back home for a nap and a little playtime...

she is focusing very hard on trying to grab daddy's hair..not as easy as yanky out mommys...

then things got interesting....

we had penelope in bed for about an hour or two when the carbon monoxide detector went off.  it had never happened before and scared kris and i. we both felt fine but since you cant smell carbon monoxide and we have a little one - we didnt want to take any chances.  i took penelope and gatsby outside - kris rounded up jackets phones and the carseats and we h ung out in the car while we called laclede gas - who sent the fire dept.  gatsby and penn were a bit confused but overall pretty pumped about the change in plans.  penelope - woken from a dead sleep - was soo excited. smiley adn chatting and thinking it was play time.  then the giant fire truck with the huge lights came and baby and dog were both spellbound. pretty exciting stuff for those two!

the fire dept was awesome - they were very thorough - checked everything and even brought kris throug to show him the readings.  after a an okay from them, and after we assured all the neighbors that we are all okay, we finally headed back inside.  where daddy left right away to get a better carbon monoxide detector, as recommended by the fire dept. :)  i put penelope back in bed - where she went right back to sleep - but thought it was morning at about 2:30.... so she was definately thrown off.

we were all safe and no problems but it definatley scared us a bit - and we are now going to be the talk of the neighborhood!

we got a printout from the fire dept about the visit, that they checked the monoxide levels, etc - it's totally going in the baby book! I just wish i'd gotten a pic of penn on the truck! :)

a special thank you to the Affton fire dept.  they were awesome. showed up fast, were very thorough and made us feel very safe going back in. plus one guy even played with my dog and showed me pics of his on his iphone.  you dont get much nicer than that!

thanks Affton FD. (and laclede!)

4 months old!!!l

There is so much going on with penelope lately that i'm not even sure where to start!  first off - she is now 4 months old! which is just plain crazy.  i can't believe how fast time has been flying!  she is getting soo old and soo big too!

Weight:  we were at the dr. yesterday for a persistant fever and cold - and she is fine. however, she did get weighed again and ms penelope anne is 12 lbs 14 oz!  getting up there!  definately still on the smaller end of the scale but doing great!

Food:  eating like a champ - we have switched to bigger bottles and do less now.  she eats 6-7 oz at a time and only eats aboout 4 times a day now.  and in support of her hungry belly, her body seems to think she needs some teeth so she can eat some big girl food!  yep - that tiny little 12 lb body is already trying to pop a toother out!  it is insane to me!  on the bottom right of her mouth you can see the first little nub. she is not too please about this because it hurts.  and since she is still so little she isnt what you would call coordinated yet. therefore when she tries to get a toy or teeting ring into her mouth - she generally hits herself on top of the head.  which, while entertaining for mom and dad, is not so much for penn.  she is smart enough to figure out that if she cries and makes that pathetic little face that mom and dad will do all thw ork and hold the teething ring for her. 

Sleep: this is the best news so far!  penelope hs started sleeping through the night. I think we have her pretty much weaned off the middle of the night feeding - which is awesome!  so she was doing a great job of sleeping 7pm to 6:30am.  however, teething has put a little dent in that routine... so hopefully this phase goes fast....

friends:  penelope loves loves loves other babies right now.  she hasnt been to see her buddy lily in a little bit but she made some friends at a bday party and when gatsby got loose and tracked down a baby/dog combo we made more friends.  she loves to just look at, reach for and talk to other babies.  she is definatley at a very very social age.  however, we are just starting to notice that she gets scared in new situations.  certain voices, loud noises, unfamiliar faces start to make her nervous - whereas she never cared before. 

overnights!  penelope has had 2 overnight trips in the past few weeks - one at each gparents house.  so she has been SPOILED rotten with love and hugs and being held.  she seemed to do pretty good both times too. she didnt sleep all night but did a pretty good job considering the unfamilair beds.

clothes: i am currently in love with dressing penelope in tights and rocking out all her cute boots.  the girl can really wear clothes :)  by the way - i'm totally entering her into the gap casting call.  she'll get free stuff and 1,000 bucks. plus she is the cutest kid ever - so it's a slam dunk.

let's see - some other things about penelope right now.  still loves her feet.  cant get them all the way to her mouth yet- but she has figured out that if she grabs her thighs she can get them closer.  so she sort of looks like she is getting ready to push a baby out - but it makes her happy.  she still loves her mat but also likes her bumbo now too. enjoys baby einstein and all ;things rings.  loves to carr;y her rings around with her and basically  just hold on to anything.  always wants something in her hands. which is a problem at bedtime since she is not suppossed to go to bed with anything..... but damn that girl wants to! 

still loves her paci.  the is a bedtime neccessity.  still waiting for her to figure out how to put it back in her own mouth.  i still hate that thing.

she is definately at the putting everything in her mouth stage.  obsessed with it. my hair is a new favorite.  also if you get a body part near her mouth - arm, hand, ear, whatever - its' hers.  fair game to be slobbered on and bite by that gummy smile. 

she is also getting more and more chatty by the day.  loves to spit at you and blow bubbles, loves to babble, likes to be startled when you play - makes her crack up.  we are working on different sounds and noises - but so far it's mainly slobbers :)

not much more to say right now - everything is going pretty much awesome.  best kid ever.

video time!

I am very very behind with loading videos for penelope - so time for catch up! there are a bunch on here from the past month or so!

this is one from early september (9/3) of penelope giving mommy some awesome baby; smiles :)

here is miss penelope hanging on her mat and telling stories to mommy

here is penelope on her mat - just chatting and playing - she LOVES her activity mat!

sunday funday

we picked up penelope this am from her sleepover and we were sooo happy to see the little lady! she did great with her grandparents.. went to bed good, only got up once and had a huge poop!  which is aweosme cuz she saved us from having to clean that stuff up!!!  thanks baby girl! :)

she was happy to see us too!!!  and i was excited to enjoy a fun sunday with penelope.  this is our idea of a sunday funday!!!  we played in the am, went to the mall, went out to lunch, came home and played some more and helped mommy get ready for her trip.  which means monday is not going to be a funday.  i leave for my first business trip since penelope was born and i am struggling big time.  not looking forward to going at all.  i'm going to my little family sooo much....i'll write later this week to let you know how i handled it... for now - lets look at my adorable daughter :)

telling stories to daddy.

telling stories to gatsby.  he is very interested in what penelope has to say.

talking to mommy.  note the gatsby snout in the lower corner - he is still very interested.

just hanging on the couch.

 

falling over... but pretty okay with it.

sooo freaking cute.

smiling at daddy again!

taking some good pictures for mommy - so she can look at them while she is gone...

miss you already gorgeous girl!!!!  mommy loves you sooo much!

first sleepover

first off - little lady penelope here slept for 13 straight hours on friday night and it was amazing!  it must of been some sort of fluke but it was incredible.  i told kris that it was the first time i have gone a whole night wihtout getting out of bed in over a year.  awesome.  we did however wake up OFTEN to make sure she was okay - but each time onot he monitor she was still sleeping.. except for about 10 mins at 5am when she decided to play, laugh, then pass back out.  awesome.  so we woke up to a very happy penelope!  however, we had to leave the little bits as she was staying with gma and gpa h for her first sleepover while we went to colleen and dave's wedding (well mommy did - daddy had a huge work event - that he rocked :)).  it was soo hard to leave her that am - kris normally does drop off - and damn, drop off sucks.. even harder still cuz of how cute her little legs and bum looked in these tights!

smiling up at her daddy.

flashing again - at least her tummy is covered!

happy baby in adorable tights. 

13 hours of sleep makes for one awesome penelope!

iPood

penelope's new shirt:

bathtime fun

this past week we decided it was probably time for some toys in the tub with penelope when she was taking her bath... she LOVED them.. and may have been a bit greedy with her toys.  still loves a good bath. i love my little water baby.

pre bath - getting her play on.

trying to understand how rings work. 

gave up on understanding rings.  just trying to eat them now.

greedy baby.  holding all her bathtoys at one time.

teaching tricks to rubber ducky.  jump through the hoop!

about to make out with rubber ducky as a reward for his hoop jumping skills.

yummy!

framing her face.  always ready for a photo op.