Penny eats her Zuchinni

Pucker up!!!

So, Penelope has just been an explosion of development lately. I know that it is true now that kids can only work on one thing at a time!! All that hard work to learn how to walk was truly taking up most of her brain power. :)

She knows roughly 40 signs now and sometimes she uses signs that i don't even know. Everyday there is a new one. She will use a modified sign for help when she wants me to turn on a toy of hers and it is really great. No tantrums when she cannot get her toy to work. She simply walks over and puts it in front of me and then signs "Help".

Wednesday I came home from work and there was my happy girl waiting to give me hugs and kisses. Yes, kisses. She puckers up her cute little lips and will smack away until her mouth lands on you. I was so amazed. Honestly, Nathaniel was over 3 when he learned how to kiss. He used to make this noise that sounded like "mmm-baaaah" when he "kissed" us. So I am loving life now that I am getting kisses from my precious little girl.

New Friend for Penny

On a brighter side, I think Penny met her new best friend. Up until now, Penny has met a lot of boy children with Down syndrome, and we were on the look out for a girl that is local to hang with. Well, we went and visited a family that lives about 15 minutes away. If the mom sends me her pix (again my camera was not operable) and her permission to post I will throw some pictures up soon. I know that this is a match made in heaven so to speak because her name is Helen. Both Penelope and Helen are strong Greek names that are rich in Greek mythology. In fact, the name Helen made it on my short list for that reason, but Penelope won out in the end.

Penelope was the wife of King Odysseus of Ithaca. Odysseus was pretty much forced to help the king of Sparta when his wife, Helen of Sparta was "kidnapped" by the prince of Troy. Thus began the Trojan war, ten year battle over a woman. Helen's beauty was unmatched and she was said to have had "the face that launched a thousand ships" because of all the countries involved in this fight. All the time that Odysseus was absent from home, twenty years in fact, Penelope never once took on another lover. She had many suitors since there was an empty thrown, but she turned down each one of them because Penelope believed her husband was to return. The name Penelope has two meanings; the first is "always faithful" but the name also has a more literal translation, "one who weaves." This is because it was said that during the time Penelope waited for the return of her husband, she was constantly weaving a garment to keep herself too busy for the suitors.

So sad and other thoughts

We had Nathaniel's 3rd celebration for his 7th birthday on Saturday. It was a glorious laser tag party, sans Penny so that Scott and I could get in there with Nathaniel and tag him over and over. Well, I dropped the camera and it is broken. I can't even get my computer to read the card so I can't tell if that was damaged as well. I just emptied the photos recently so the only pictures are those that I took on Friday while making the cake with Nathaniel and Penelope. And then those pix taken on Saturday of course, but man, was that cake cool! Not to mention that we only had that camera for about a year and it was a couple hundred dollars. It makes me so sad. . . .

**update** Scott purchased the protection plan that will cover you if you damage your own camera so they are sending us a new one. YIPPEE!!!

New Penny Montage

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Ramdon Thoughts

This is were I will be in 2 weeks! I cannot wait for my vacation to Montana. This will be Penelope's first trip on a plane. Nathaniel went out to California when he was 3 and still in diapers. He was so cute then.

It is increasingly difficult for me to stay focused at work. I am not sure if it is because I am getting laid off soon and my work load is staring to taper off, or if it is because I need this vacation or what? If there is anything I have learned about myself is that I need a heavy workload to stay focused on anything. When the work amount is lessened, I don't feel that sense of urgency and then nothing gets done! When I look back on my college career, I could maintain the Dean's list when taking 5 or more classes, but whenever I decided to "take it easy" with 4 classes, I did awful.

Also had a couple of those moments where I questioned my ability to be a mother. Last night I took the kiddies to the town pool in East Hartford. It was our first trip in the wading pool because the last few times it was closed. (Don't get me started on that) I let Penny run/wade right into the water without holding her hand and . . . she. . . FELL. Face first right into the water! By the time I picked her up she was already gagging on water. I could hear her clearing her airway so I tried not to panic, but man, it was pretty scary. After that, I would not let go of her hand!

Then, after the pool session was over, I let the kids play in the play scape right outside. I parked myself on the bench to watch them enjoy the summer evening. Penny seemed to find something interesting since I saw her bringing an object up to her gaping mouth. I got up as quickly as I could and yelled, "No Penny! That is yucky!!" Alas, she is fast when it comes to food. What I found in her hand was a cream sandwich cookie with her little teeth marks in it. IT WAS TEAMING WITH ANTS!! They began to crawl from the cookie in her hand up her arm. I slapped the cookie out of her hand and swatted the ants off her chubby arm. As I brushed cookie crumbs of her face several seconds later, a live ant crawled out of her mouth!! GROSS!!! Several minutes after that, her tongue ejected a dead ant from her mouth too.

My only hope is that ants are a laxative and this traumatizing experience will help out her constipation issues. lol.

Little Hearts Picnic Pictures

Our good friend Katie from the pediatric cardiology's office at CCMC. She touched both our children's lives!!


I wonder what Penny is laughing at?


Penny is always happy to play with her boyfriend Dillon!!


These kids are starting to look like some tired babies.

That shortcake was so good she had to double fist it!!

Tired babies after a fun day at the Strawberry festival in Unionville!

Little Miss Delicate Fingers

Like most parents, I continue to fall into the trap of obsessing over what my child is not doing, when I need to celebrate more in what Penny is doing. I so wish she could talk to me, is saying "mama" too much to ask?

Don't get me wrong, I love to listen to her beautiful babble. It is wonderful that she vocalizes as much as she does. And she understands a lot. Sometimes I really feel she is saying things but I don't understand her. Like "what's this!" I really think she says that, but it is very high pitched and jumbled I might be making that up. She certainly has a very respectable vocabulary for a 2 year old. (New 2yo at that!) She says dog, duck, all done, dada. And she has at least two dozen signs that she uses consistently.

I love that she is so social. She is never shy around strangers!

One of the things that I have been noticing a lot lately is her ability in fine motor skills. She has been building megablock towers since about Christmas time. Although she does yell at the blocks a lot to get them to cooperate :) She is good at putting tiny pasta or Cherrios in a narrow necked bottle. (Such as a water bottle or empy trial size shampoo bottle) She even amazed the OT last week when she held the bubble wand on her own and showed everyone she could put the wand into the bottle on her own and then proceeded to blow bubbles. I love watching her tiny fingers pick up blueberries and eat them. Her mouth has been blue a lot from this new experience.

Also she is so strong. She will think nothing of picking up the entire bag of megablocks or her farm house or doll house and walk around the house with it. Looking for a suitable place to camp out.

Our new adventure is the terrible twos. I remember that three was much much worse with Nathaniel. Maybe with girls it is two? She has been having temper tantrums more often lately. I know, I should let herself dive down the stairs in an effort to keep her happy. :)

I guess the bottom line here is that of course I think she is wonderful no matter what milestone she has reached yet. I just want her to stay happy and healthy!

Nathaniel Update

MY LITTLE BOY TURNED 7 ON 7/07. I cannot believe that seven years have gone by so quickly!!!

What I am about to tell you is his secret. If you see Nathaniel, you cannot mention this to him otherwise I might be in big trouble. But it is too juicy not to tell people. :)

Nathaniel told me the other day that he will have to marry his friend Satiria. I asked him why, do you love her? He told me no, he kissed her so now he has to marry her. WHAT?!?!?!? I asked him how this happened. He told me that first he kissed her on the cheek and then he kissed her on the lips. How is this starting already?

Last night he announced that she is his girlfriend. But he was really sheepish about it. I just hope he doesn't get his heart broken. Although, she did call to hang out with him last night as well (before the announcement) and Nathaniel declined the offer. He would rather play video games than hang out with his girlfriend. So typical of a guy!!!!

Penelope the Terror

Penny: "DA DA DA DA DA . . . .DA DA DA. .. DADADA. . . DA DA DA DAD DDADDDAAA"

Me: "No, MAMA, MAMA, MAMA."

Penny, with her cute look and hands gesticulating like she is giving a disseration: "DA DADADADAD DAD ADAD DADADADA DADAD DA, AHHHHHHH"

Penny ambled over to her brother and seemingly began to hug him saying, "AAAAWWW." Then she commenced to viciously slap him repeatly in the face. Usually Nathaniel is very patient, but tonight, he seemed intent to enjoy the video game time he had earned. He turned around and yelled at Penny, telling her to stop hurting him and to go away. It only took a few seconds for the hurt to build in her face. She clenched up her face and burst into tears. Then she looked up to see me sitting there across the room. She ran over to me all the while crying and waving her hands wildly in the air. I felt like she was saying "Mommy, how dare Nathaniel talk to me like that!!! Make it all better with your kisses."

I kind of forgot what it was like to have someone come to you to be comforted. Even though she was sad, I loved every minute of the comforting.

Remembering 4th of Julys past

So my post is a day late. . . sue me.

Seven years ago yesterday I had approached my due date with Nathaniel. It was a very hot day, not like yesterday at all. I am pretty sure the temperature had reached 100 degrees. Having stopped working only 1 week prior as a waitress at TGI Fridays, I enjoyed lounging around at my parents house for a BBQ that day. Amazing that I cannot remember the 4th 3 years ago, but that day I remember all sorts of details. A good friend of mine, Kelly, stopped by with gifts from her mother and herself for the new baby that was to arrive. I was only 22 with all sorts of expectations of what motherhood was going to be like.

I tell his birth story to Nathaniel every day on his birthday, July 7. Has it really been 7 years already???

Two years ago yesterday I woke up early to get Nathaniel ready to go to CCMC. Penny had been re-admitted five days earlier for an infection to her open heart surgical incision. She hadn't responded to oral antibiotics, and we weren't sure what we were dealing with so, she was kept on the inside for a full course of IV anceph. I was bummed for obvious reasons, but also because we would have loved to spend the holidy with Scott's mother. (Of course we didn't know this was her last 4th of July.) Scott and I were hopeful that Penny was getting freed that day and we would have the rest of the day out of that place. Scott had slept over since we never left her in the hospital by herself. Nathaniel and I made our way through the short fifteen minute drive, and then spent an unusually quick 5 minutes to find a parking space. I pulled Nathaniel in one of the wagons since I was ready to take advantage of any fun thing for Nathaniel. In the lobby in front of the main elevators they had two tables with volunteers making party hats. It was such a neat thing for Nathaniel (almost five) to do. I was so grateful for that, I mean, how nice is it that they do this for families on a holiday. We finally made it upstairs and I learned that Penny was indeed going to be discharged that afternoon!!!!

Tonight, Nathaniel is at the Manchester fireworks with Scott. I got a call at 8 pm that Nathaniel had fallen asleep at 7:30 or so. What a tired maniac!!! Poopers finally crashed at 9 pm tonight after I worked her hard at the playscape down the street. This girl can crawl up the stairs and slide head first down the short slide. What a nut!! Then we had girls night out at Friendly's. We tried out a booster seat for the first time, instead of the high chair. She was wonderful! So engaged with her meal and her momma. We conversed most of the eveing about Dada, but sometimes we talked about the light, and sometimes we discussed the baby in the booth near us.

I hope everyone esle is having a great holiday weekend.

Happy Independece Day

I know the weather hasn't been too accomadating the northeast, but I wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July. Scott still doesn't want to take Penny to see fireworks, he is afraid she would be upset with the loud noises. How do other parents fare when taking their little ones out to firework festivities?

How stressful is your morning?

I try not to wake up before 6 am, although sometimes the wailing of a 2 year old still prompts me to jump out earlier. I move into the shower first thing. I have always been a morning shower person. I hate going to bed with my hair wet. Also, my hair is so fine that if I go to bed with wet hair, it becomes so matted that my pinwheel spot looks like a gigantic bald spot. After I am done in the shower, I brush my teeth and get dressed. I jump in the car within 20 minutes of waking up. If I am really motivated, I might do makeup or hair, but since I am in dire need of a hair cut I haven't been motivated to do anything with my hair lately.

I love and hate it when the babies don't wake up. They slow me down considerably because I would have to change Penny's diaper and make sure she has enough entertainment in the crib to last her until Scottie gets up. It also makes my day when I get to rub my face on her babyish cheeks and kiss her all over. Nathaniel usually tells me first thing that he loves me if he spies me before making it to my car.

My car ride to work is usually only 20 minutes. I really don't think I could handle more of a commute then that.

I would like to get back into doing yoga in the morning. I feel so much better even after 3 or 4 days of yoga.

All in all I would have to say that my mornings are not very stressful?

How is your morning?