Congratulations, Dave!

Dave graduated from the University of Illinois with two masters degrees!! Dave is now a Master of Urban Planning and a Master of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE). Hooray! His family was able to come out and celebrate his accomplishment and meet Penelope for the first time. Because he had two degrees, we had two days of convocation festivities. It was nice to be around family--Penelope sure liked being fawned all over! The over-educated family. :) Dave was trying to one up me. I only have one masters degree, and he has two. When I finish my PhD I'll trump his two masters...until then he can have the glory! The yellow hood is for his ACE degree

The purple hood is from his Urban Planning degree.

The Kay siblings (sibs) on the Quad: Jonathan, David & Nicole.

The sibs with dad, Duane Kay.

I love this man!

The whole fam: Jennifer, Duane, Jonathan, Penelope, Dave, Whitney, Nicole

Proud Father and Son

Dave and his Thesis Advisor: Kathy Baylis. She was very good to work with. She was very willing to work around Dave's "I'm having my first baby a few weeks before my thesis is due" schedule. Thanks, Professor Baylis!

Oops, a 2nd time, and can't get blogger to delete it. Note how P is folding her arms. :)

Dave and Nicole

Booties, Dave's Recital & Bath Time

One of my professors knitted Penelope these adorable booties! We have found them to be one of the best gifts! Especially since this is what Penelope looks like after a nap. She still kicks out of her swaddle, and often wiggles at least one arm out. The booties are also perfect because they actually fit her feet (with some room to spare) unlike all the socks we have for her. She's got her mom's long feet. Maybe Penelope will be 12 years old with a size 10 shoe just like her mom!

We have started a regimented nap routine with Penelope. According to the book we're reading "Babywise", Penelope should stay awake for at least 15 minutes after every feeding, then we put her down for a 1.5-2 hour nap. We do various things to play with her and entertain her before her nap. Sometimes she just stares at us while we work around the house. In the morning we bathe and dress her. Sometimes Dave gives Penelope her own personal piano recital. I didn't even know Dave played the piano. Apparently he plays one song: Chariots of Fire. And he plays it over and over again for her. Note how intently she's listening to her Dad perform for her! So cute!

Baths are pretty low key for Penelope at this point. She patiently waits while we scrub every inch of her little body. I'm hoping this is a sign that she'll be a water baby! I can't wait to start swimming lessons with her! I want her in baby/infant/toddler swimming lessons. I have two reasons for this. 1) I think everyone should know how to swim, so why not start her young? 2) Dave and I love to go on beach vacations...so our kids better like the water and know how to swim. :) Mexico, here we come (in a few years or so)!

Jungle Gym

I'm anticipating lots of time spent with our new "Developmental Activity Gym." Penelope sat underneath it for a solid hour last night. There are lights and music that play. She was just contently swatting at the toys and listening to the music. When she gets better control of her flailing I think she'll have even more fun!

Penelope's Life in Pictures

Hi! My name is Penelope, and I like to sleep in a ball on dad. This is what counts as tummy time at this point in my life.
Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Ryan came to visit from NC. Caitlin and mom spent a lot of time "crafting". They made a few headbands for me. This is an example of one that we WON'T be using. My mom believes that my headbands should be proportionate to the size of my tiny baby head. However, I do look quite pleased with the result here.

Me and Aunt Caitlin. (Check out Caitlin's muscles!)

Ready to go to church on Easter morning. We're starting slow by going just to sacrament meeting. I still eat every three hours, so church is still a little tricky. (Look at my cute headband!)

Me and mom in our Easter dresses.

My days are still quite simple. I pretty much eat and sleep. But sometimes I'm alert and hang out with mom. This is me showing off how cute I am in my adorable dress and sweater. I really like dresses. It makes it easy for Mom and Dad to change my diaper, and then I don't scream as much. I still scream...just for a shorter amount of time.

Mom tried to have a photo shoot with me for my one-month birthday. Here I am, alert and showing off myself in all my one-month old glory!

See, don't I look like Dave?

Let's be honest, this is what I'm like most of the time. This is how Mom is slowly starting to be productive again. This morning Mom actually vacuumed the living room, started some laundry and unloaded the dishwasher. We are all about small steps around here lately.

One-Month Birthday!

Today is Penelope's one-month birthday! It's crazy to think that Dave and I have been parents for a whole month! Who knows if we're actually getting used to the sleep deprivation, but we are getting used to having this sweet girl around. She is quite adorable. We still don't know what color her eyes are, but I do think she's starting to look more and more like Dave. We have decided she has Dave's head on a Luke body (long and skinny).

Two Weeks Old!

Today is Penelope's two week birthday! My mom wants to see more pictures of baby girl, since she swears she changes so much every day. So, I will forego a post about her first week for now, and get you some pictures from the last week. Here are some of the most recent pictures of Penelope--enjoy! Here is a rare moment when Penelope actually kept the binkie in her mouth. She usually spits it right back out. 95% of the time she does not have a binkie.

This is Penelope's favorite way to sleep--on mom while curled into a ball. This is when we call her Penelope-bug. We also call her "burrito baby" (when swaddled), "squeaker" (cuz she makes these squeaky noises) and "baby girl" or "pretty girl". We really don't call her Penelope all that much. Maybe we should. :)

Dave catching some much needed shut eye with Penelope. Note how she has successfully kicked out of her swaddle, and she manages to wiggle her arms out every time, too. She likes to have her arms out to flail and scratch her face. Wouldn't you if you had super long arms like her?

Mom brought Penelope this purple corduroy horse aptly named "Cordy Roy." This pic makes me laugh because it looks like he's telling her a story and she's listening intently.

Yesterday we didn't go to church, but I did want to see if any of her church clothes fit. I'm going to have to say no. They're all still too big. I do have one newborn-sized dress. I'm planning on that being her Easter dress--here's hoping she hasn't grown out of it by the end of April.

This is what I found this morning after taking off her blanket. We successfully pinned down her arms to help her sleep, but apparently she got her legs out. This is why we have to drape a blanket over her. If we didn't, she'd get too cold and wake up all the time.

We have been through about 3 onesies today already. This is inbetween onesies. Isn't she the cutest?

I had an appointment with the breastfeeding clinic today, so I thought I'd put real clothes on baby girl. Both her onesie and her jeans are way too big, but cute.

She's all strapped in and ready to go! Personally, I think she looks like she's in an ejection seat and ready to go for a serious ride. If not an ejection seat, then definitely an amusement park ride!

This is Penelope post-breastfeeding clinic. She has gained all her birthweight back, and now weighs 7lbs 4 oz after losing weight down to 6lb 12 oz in the hospital. Notice how big her jeans are--they look like clown pants. Maybe here she is a pirate-clown. She's giving you her pirate face while wearing her clown pants. Come one, who can resist this?

Penelope Ruth is here!

Our little bundle of joy arrived on March 28, 2011 at 11:13 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.75 inches long. Here are some pictures of her. Of course, they are completely out of order--I wanted the pictures to be reversed. Stupid blogger! During Penelope's stay in the hospital. Dave became a master of the diaper change, and he continues to be. I couldn't do this without him!!

My mom was able to come into town for Penelope's birth. She drove from Lincoln to Champaign on Monday, and made it by about 3:30. She was a big help during labor--I never thought I would want my mom in the delivery room, but it was a blessing to have her there. Labor was not the funnest experience, and her experience helped Dave and I both deal with things better. She is in love with little Penelope, but seriously, who wouldn't be?

I think Penelope looks like Logan here. Or maybe she's just pulling a Logan face, in that she's kind of leering at us. :) We still don't know what color her eyes are. Some days they look blue, some days they look brown. We do think her hair is lightening, and it looks a little bit reddish in some lights.

First family portrait right after labor. Labor took so long that I developed a fever and they were worried about infection for Penelope, so she spent the first night in the NICU. That's why you'll see an IV on her hand in some of the pictures during our stay at the hospital.

Here is baby Penelope right after she was born. She is completely healthy, and she hasn't really cried like this since she was born. She is a totally mellow baby. She does have a few freak out moments when she's breast feeding, but other than that she's pretty calm. Dave and I love her to death and are excited to have an expanding family!