Penelope Update

I thought I would write about some of the things Penelope is into and up to lately.  She's at a really fun age, and these things are in no particular order:

• She tries to mimic a lot of what we say.  Her vocabulary is growing, although I'm sure a lot of what she says is only discernible by us--most of what she says is still half-words.  She calls us "ma" and "da" all the time.  She says ring, shoe, socks, dog, hot, ball, binkie, bottle and plenty of other words I'm sure I'll think of later
• Penelope still likes sunglasses.  She steals mine and puts them on and walks around quite often.
• She loves forts.  Dave built her a fort that has been up for a least a week.  If she's not playing in her fort she wants mom and dad to drape a blanket over all of us to make our own fort.
• She loves hair.  She often grabs our heads and pulls them down into her lap so she can run her fingers through our hair.  While doing this she often groans and moans...she groans and moans whenever she's concentrating on something.  (As I type this she's standing behind the couch styling my hair.)
• She's obsessed with kissing.  She starts making this "mmmmmm" noise, and you know she wants a kiss.  She will full on grab my face and pull me in for a kiss..on the lips.  She pushes my and Dave's heads together to make us kiss, too.  It makes her smile and squeal when we do.
• She's obsessed with Christmas decorations, specifically the Christmas tree.  She is finally starting to ignore our tree, but the first couple of days it was up she kept screaming "ball!" and tried to take all the ornaments off, often pulling the tree over.  Don't worry, we only have a 5 foot slim alpine tree, so it's not that big and she hasn't been crushed.  She will attack trees in public places like Church and our leasing office.  She'll pull off ornaments and happily wander around with them.
• She loves to give bear hugs.  She grabs us and holds us as tightly as possible around the neck.  She also loves hugs as often as possible.  She is quite the affectionate little thing.
• She loves to be outside.  This isn't new, but as she's gotten more adventurous and mobile she likes it even more.  She climbs all over the playground equipment and likes to swing. She's learning to climb stairs thanks to the playground and loves to play in the mulch, too.  We're excited for our new house with a big yard.  Our plan is to eventually get her a play set so she can enjoy it!  We might just start with a folding, plastic slide to keep her entertained through the winter.
• She loves to play the piano.  Since it's the holiday season I've had to play the piano a lot more in church.  That, and I play the organ.  All of this means I'm practicing a lot more, and she gets to sit next to me on the bench and pound on the keys.  She loves it!  She also loves to climb up on the stage in the chapel...more evidence that she can, in fact go up stairs.  Just don't ask her to go down stairs.  She has no sense of going down and will just step off of stairs.  Scary!
• She loves to watch me flush the toilet.  When you let her stand next to you when you flush the toilet, P's eyes practically pop out of her head and her mouth is wide open is excited amazement. She gets a big kick out of watching the water swirl around. It's really quite cute.
• She loves her Dad.  When Dave walks in the door from work every night she gets the same excitement on her face as she does when you flush the toilet (does that mean Dave=toilet? hehe).  She drops whatever she's doing to follow him around the house the rest of the night...unless he's chasing her while she squeals with delight.

Well, there you have it!  Lots of text and no pictures!  I don't think I've taken any recently.  Probably because I spend so much time chasing P around the house!  She really is fun to be around at this age!