Thanksgiving

What would Thanksgiving be without family? And for this holiday it meant time in Indiana and the second time that Penelope got to spend time with her cousin Gable who is about 3 months older than her. Here are a bunch of pix of the two of them together. It was a great time and Penelope's Aunt Rachel really came through bringing lots of toys for the kids to share. I have a feeling family holidays will never be the same again!


This was taken about 3 second before Penelope grabbed that book ("Brown Bear Brown Bear") out of his hand. What a delicate flower she is.


Sharing a meal together.


Just chilling out. They probably just got done talking about how weird their parents are.

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!

Last Saturday Penelope attended her first IU football game. The Hoosiers were in town (relatively) playing Penn State at FedEx Field where the Redskins play. Anyway, we got her layered up and covered in as much IU stuff as we could (many thanks to the Christie family for the excellent Hoosiers jersey)! Here are a few pix from the fun day. Penelope lasted about as long as the Hoosiers' defense, who made it through nearly 3 quarters tied with Penn State (a team they have never beaten) (note: they did end up losing by 10 or more points, but all in all we considered the whole outing a success)!

Things Penelope Can Do

Here are two random things that Penelope can do that are worth mentioning (at least in the eyes of her mother): (1) touch her belly (or mid-section generally) when you ask her where her belly is - in fairness she doesn't do it all of the time, but enough of the time to convince me she understands what I am asking and knows the answer on some level; (2) rub her hands together whenever she is near me and I use hand sanitizer and rub my hands together - it's almost Pavlovian at this point the way she starts to rub her hands together when she smells the stuff, pretty crazy!

The Monster Mash

here is a low quality version of Penelope taking some steps Frankenstein-style

Adventures in Kids Meals

Every Saturday night we have a ritual of going out to dinner somewhere, nowhere fancy (that should go without saying since these dinner dates are for the 3 of us), but just some time out of the house to spend as a family. Last night we were running all of our obligatory baby-related errands (buying baby gates, shape sorter toys, etc...) and tagged a family dinner on at the end. We went somewhere that had a kids menu. We had never ordered Penelope a meal of her own anywhere, since eating grown-up food is still a work in progress for her. But we thought we'd get adventurous. The choices that stood out to us were the grilled cheese or chicken fingers. We chose the chicken fingers and Penelope did great with them. She ate two of the three (dad batted clean-up) and seemed to really enjoy them. I guess we have a long line of kids meals ahead for us - hard to believe how much life has changed over a few months. In May it was an all liquid diet, and today, it was chicken fingers!

P Diddy Has Two More Teeth

I learned today that sometimes the teachers at daycare call Penelope "P-Diddy" - I also realized today that she has two new teeth, bringing her total tooth count up to 6!

Breaking News: Penelope Is Walking

Today, while her dad was out of town, and I was at work, Penelope took her very first steps. It happened while her teachers cheered her on and chanted her name, and when I went to pick her up at the end of the day she did an encore performance for me. We are just hoping that she will feel up to another few steps tomorrow now that her dad is back in town.

Wedding Bells - The Professional Version

Here's a link to one of the professional shots of Penelope from her Aunt Jenny's wedding:

Professional Pic

Fall Photo Op

Just a cute pic of Penelope & her fall hat