Belated St. Patrick's Day Wishes

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Penelope!

Since it was nice and warm out, we spent the day in Old Town Alexandria wandering around and checking it out. We didn't think about the crowds for St. Patrick's Day. There were long lines of revelers at every bar, and especially the Irish Pubs.

Penelope fit right in wearing her "Luckiest Girl Ever" outfit! Thanks, Grandma! (No, she doesn't stand by herself. This was a quick-posed picture. Sorry all the pictures are weird; I realized a few days later that my lens was dirty. Here I thought it was the lighting in my apartment!)

More Antics from the Past Few Days

Penelope regularly sits herself up from being on her back. She also balances much better when sitting up and can flail all appendages and not fall over. She has also figured out how to pivot and move around more. Not quite sure how she does it, but P can now get through the small pathway between the couch and chair. It used to be an obstacle because a horizontally rolling baby is wider than the opening. No longer a problem! I found her on the other side of the opening on Monday.

P then decided to make up a new game. This toy is one of those "drop the ball in the hole and watch it roll down the 4 layers" toys. She decided to take the layers apart and instead of dropping the ball down the "ramp hole", she wanted to turn it upside down and put the ball in the shaft of the toy---over and over again.

The ball is out...

And now I'm working on putting the ball in (but it's hard to do when I'm also smiling for the camera)...

She's proud of herself, and also smiles oddly whenever she sees the camera. She's back to the "squinty" smile.

Again with the squinting.

So happy with herself (and slightly post-squinting)!

If it's fun to put the ball in the shaft of the toy, then it is also fun to put the ball in another hole: Dad's mouth! (And, the squinty smile)

Ball out!

Hooray! I'm SO smart!

Somebody Isn't Sleeping!!

I thought P had settled down for her morning nap when I heard a THUD in her room. Something had fallen, and I didn't know what. When I went in to investigate I found P sitting up in her bed.

This is actually the end result, once she realized I was taking pictures of her. All of this happened beforehand:

I witnessed her reaching through the bars, grabbing for stuff off the changing table.

She successfully grabbed the baby lotion, but then HOW to get it through the bars?

It took a little finagling, but she's one smart cookie, so she figured it out!

VICTORY is mine!!

And, a little time to enjoy the fruits of her labors.

I ended up leaving her in her bed for a while, hoping she'd tire out and fall asleep. No dice. She just kept playing and she ended up with the baby shampoo in the crib as well. The contents of the baskets are also now strewn all about the shelf of the changing table. I love to watch her little brain work these days!! She may not be crawling or walking, but rest assured, that girl is one smart cookie!

9, 10, 11 Months

So, I am a few months behind on posting and taking pictures of Penelope. This is an effort to catch up. Here is a picture of P at 9 months old. This is Christmas Day. I figure the 25th vs. the 28th isn't too much of a difference in what she looks like.

This is when I took the official 9 month picture with the number. Except that according to my camera I took these pictures on January 23, technically making them her 10 month pictures.

You can see how much her hair has grown in a month's time!

Come January 28th, I didn't take an actual 10 month photo, and I never ended up taking one with the number. So, just as a recap: Christmas pictures count as 9 months, "official" 9 month photo counts as 10 months, and here are a few 11 month pictures. Her hair is getting really long and she's starting to look more like a toddler.

Where did my little baby go? Penelope is super fun to play with, but I must admit, I miss my little newborn baby girl who would cuddle with me all day long. Good thing she'll still cuddle with me! Just yesterday Dave tried to hold her and she got mad and cried, wanting her mom! Go me! That is actually uncommon. The second Dave comes home from work she wants to play with him almost exclusively. She's even started clapping for him when he walks through the door every night. Like I said, super fun (and cute)!!

Getting Mischievous

At the beginning of February I realized that Penelope is getting more and more curious, and more and more mischievous.

I was working on a craft project at the kitchen table when I heard her gagging in the living room. I went into the room (essentially right behind me) and found this. Penelope had found the remote control basket, which contained a few things I had forgotten about. One of those things was a Kinder Ei. If you look closely you can see the pieces of chocolate on the carpet, as well as the barf on the carpet. P had eaten the Kinder Ei, foil and all, and consequently was gagging and choking a little bit. After a quick barf, all was well. But the Kinder Ei did not survive, as evidenced here:

(The first picture on this post shows her after the drama: chocolate all over over face and pjs)

Later that day I put P in her Bumbo to help her calm down. She is too big for it, however, because she arched her back and fell into her basket of toys. I anticipate I will have more and more antics to report about as she gets older.

I Guess It's Time

I suppose it's time to announce that we are expecting baby #2. We found out last week that it's a boy, and I am due in mid-July. It will be a lot of fun to have another baby in the house...and, admittedly a little bit crazy!

I Should Have Known

Penelope literally went through 3 or 4 onesies yesterday. This is what happened when we had to dig through the clean laundry to find a new one after a blow-out. We left her for just a few minutes in the living room, and she unfastened her diaper and started trying to eat it.

Like I said, I should have known! This girl is obsessed with trying to take her diaper off while you're trying to put it on. Luckily it' s a brand spanking new diaper, so it's not really gross that she's eating it!

All she could really get to was the corner anyway.

And yet, she's so proud of herself!