Welcome the Latest Granddaughter to the Champa Family

Last week the latest grandchild on Ben's side of the family arrived. The third girl in two and a half years, what a streak! On Sept. 2, Ben's sister Jenny and her husband Sabir welcomed June Apple Noor Muhammad to the world! Below are some pix:





We can't wait to meet her in person!

Songs

Penelope has begun in the last few weeks to sing songs to herself, and with us. The playlist thus far includes: "Twinkle Twinkle," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and the "ABCs". You definitely have to know what you are listening for to be able to make them out, but again, this is a big step for us, last month she didn't do any singing at all!

Adventures in Potty Land

I know some of our blog followers will be mortified by any posts related to the world of potty training, so I will keep them to a minimum and also try to be sure the title makes it clear what you are in for. That being said, yesterday Penelope said to us "I pooped", and she was right! This was a breakthrough for several reasons. The biggest things were that she doesn't often use two word sentences and she hasn't used words much to tell us how she is feeling or something that is happening with her, so this was a big deal! Add to it that she was right and that it related to potty training stuff, which we aren't looking forward to much and seems to depend in good part on her awareness of what's going on with herself and her ability to tell us about it, and we were particularly excited.

Full Sentence

Penelope has officially uttered her first sentence. Her first three word sentence at least. I am not sure if her previous "more please"s or "thank you"s counted as sentences. But this weekend she undeniably gave us a full formulation of a sentence: "I want it." Well, if it was unclear before that declaration that "the twos" had arrived a bit early, they certainly have been officially inaugurated now! Of course the rising popularity of "no!" and "mine!" certainly suggested they were just around the corner either way. So there you have it. Penelope can speak in full sentences (at least one full sentence), and is now demonstrating many of the behaviors of a normal pre-two toddler. You have been warned!

Our Little Swimmer

Growing up, my sisters and I all swam competitively so I am often asked if I am going to get Penelope into swimming. While I would like her to be interested in sports (due to all of the benefits sports has for kids) I would like to think I would be as open to being a softball or lacrosse dad as I would to being a swim dad, although there would be a learning curve for the other two sports.

We introduced Penelope to the pool last year. She was a little nervous at first but warmed up near the end. This summer, she has really taken to the water. From enjoying the blow up pool in front of our house, to visiting a friend from school's neighborhood wading pool, she really likes being in the water.



We try to be responsible parents and limit Penelope's tv watching. The few exceptions to this rule usually occur during sporting events (Braves games, the Indy 500, Women's World Cup, etc). The past few weekends, the Swimming World Championships have been on TV. To say she was a fan would be an understatement.

During the first weekend, she worked on her butterfly technique as seen in the video below.



During the second weekend of the meet, she decided to focus on the entire body.




Needless to say we have started to research swim programs in the area. :) - Ben

Even More Words

As soon as I finished the post last night, I realized that I had forgotten some more words. So, while acknowledging that I will never be able to list them all, (which means I will probably stop trying), here is yet another list of words Penelope is currently using: uh-oh, stop, no, back (as in "put the books back"). With the exception of back it seems there is a theme here, and it may not be a good one.

More Words

Before I forget, I need to document a few more of Penelope's latest words: water, boo, more, up, socks, Clay (one of her classmates' name), nana (for Banana), and last but not least GO, as in LET'S GO NATS!