Wordless Wednesday

Vote for Kayla

I know I haven't put her on my blogroll yet, but the fact is, I have been following Michelle and Kayla since about the time she announced she was pregnant with Lucas. I am so happy that Kayla made it to the finalists because I really think she is so gorgeous. Please go and vote for her on this Prego contest so that Michelle will have some spending money while her husband goes back on duty.

What are you waiting for, go and vote already!! Kayla is #4 and you can also visit her at Michelle's blog, Big Blueberry Eyes.

Good luck Kayla and Michelle, you already have my vote (and Penelope's vote)!!

I am so Excited

For Penny! She is just so close to walking. She is so happy with herself. I try to set the dining chairs all over the living room in different compositions so she can cruise herself to where ever she wants to go. :)

Tomorrow morning I get to help chaperon for Nathaniel's 1st grade field trip, wish me luck. I love hanging out with a bunch of crazy 6 year olds. Hey, that must be why I am into Scouting!
Speaking of scouting, I spent 8 house at a Cub Scout Pow-Wow on Saturday. I learned so much and I am so excited now to be a Tiger Cub Scout leader for those boys. I can't wait to apply what I learned!

GO JOEY!!!

Joey is going in for surgery today for his malrotated bowels. Please, everyone, pray for an uneventful and quick surgery and that he has an easy recovery. He is such a cute little man and we want him to get to his good old self as soon as he can!


GET WELL SOON JOEY!!!

Prego Photo Contest

Penny is being submitted into the contest hosted on 5 Minutes for Special Needs. Please check out the contest yourself and you may even win a $500 gift card for grocery shopping.

How Wonderful

Please, please, check out Dave's post today, as it brought tears to my eyes.

I want to EAT HER UP!!!

Question of the Day

What do you do when your 18 month old is up 3 hours past her bed time and she is not hungry, or feverish but she (or he, this is hypothetical right?) just whines and cries with no end in the crib and will not settle in if you try to lay down in the big bed? This same 18 month old is happy to play though if you take her (or him) out of the crib!

Today is the first day of the rest of my life

www.my-calorie-counter.com     The webs free Calorie Counter

I am going to do it. I need to lose some weight, and by some, I don't mean a litte. I mean A LOT!! Scott bought us both gym memberships and I plan on using mine. Go me!!

I will be keeping the ticker at the way bottom of the page in case anyone is interested in checking my progress.

Mike and Nathaniel at the Cape

Christmas Pictures Nightmare

We went to Target today to get our Christmas pictures done. I think I am really happy about how they turned out, it is just that there was so much craziness going on and it all happened so fast. I might have to go back to get more of Penny. She was not in a good mode. Here is the dress she was wearing. Nathaniel was so well behaved that he won his prize at the end. An Indiana Jones Legos set (the cheapest one they have there).

Oh, and if you are surfing and have nothing better to do, please go see some pictures on Flickr of me having a great time partying with some friends. I got to go the Burlington, VT sans children and husband a couple of weekends ago and I can't remember when I had such a good time. Here is a picture I grabbed of my good friend Irene before I had to bring her back to the airport.

My Comment to Adelynn's Journy

I was inspired to write about the first time I had to turn into a bitch for Penny's sake, by Adelynn's mommy's post. When Penelope was a month old to the day, her wound incision appeared to be infected, so we went to the cardiologist office (it happens to be in the children's hospital here) and she was put on PO antibiotics. At 3 am the next day, I could tell the infection was getting worse so we brought he to the ER at the children's hospital for a course of IV meds. She hadn't gotten a fever at this point so we knew that everything was going to be alright.

Penny's first IV was put in at the ER and to my knowledge, that 1st dose at about 6 am went in fine. With her noon dose, it was clear that the IV had infiltrated so the IV had to be removed. The doctors didn't feel they needed to do anything until her next dose was due so around 4:30 this TOTALLY HOT SWEDISH resident, Dr. Thor Thorenson (I am not making that name up, I swear to God), came in to tell me that he is really good with babies. I told him that she is a hard stick and could we just call the NICU nurses? He replied that they were too busy. So, 35 minutes later I could still hear her screams down the hall since I had to leave to room at some point. I came running back in to stop the evil torture, but learned that Dr. Thor had ceased as well. I asked him what the plan was. Even though I had been up for 14 hours at this point and it was only 5pm, I knew that this was necessary so my concerns were more that I wanted her to have her medicine and not so much her comfort. He told me that he wanted me to try to feed her to allow the veins to plump up more and then he would try again. I asked him what other options we had in case he couldn't get the IV in again. He suggested a vein in her scalp, but that usually doesn't work for babies because they shake their head a lot and it could push out the IV. I looked at him and told him that doesn't sound like much of an option then. So he left to give Penny time to calm down for round 2.

As soon as he left the room I tried to think of how I could take matters into my own hands. So I picked up the room phone and I CALLED THE CARDIOLOGISTS OFFICE'S NUMBER. Never mind that it was 3 floors below me. I spoke with Dr. Iyer, and I told him that I wasn't happy with the level of care I was getting. I told him that my daughter was 4 weeks old and that what I wanted was a NICU nurse to come over to do this. He then said the words any mother would have been happy to hear: "I will absolutely do that for you." He also asked why this wasn't already done and I told him that Dr. Thor advised they were too busy over there. I don't think he liked that answer.

About ten minutes later, Dr. Thor then walked in to discuss "The plan" again. I finally interrupted him to tell him that I used the phone to call Dr. Iyer and a NICU nurse was on the way over to do {what he couldn't do.} This was the best reaction in the history of reactions that I have seen in real life: his jaw dropped open and he stared at me for a moment to think about what he was going to say next. I mean, how dare someone call a doctor on a phone while you are in a hospital, it sounds crazy right? One minute later, my favorite NICU nurse Rhonda, showed up with an APRN and they got to work. Within 5 minutes and with no tears the IV was in!!! God those nurses are good!!! I am sure Penny appreciated the change in venue too.

Been Thinking a lot of this song

I guess there is a cover out there of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" by Green Day. You may have heard it. The beginning of the song really sticks with me on this version. I am not sure if the lyrics are the same or not.

AS SOON AS YOU'RE BORN THEY MAKE YOU FEEL SMALL
BY GIVING YOU NO TIME INSTEAD OF IT ALL
'TIL THE PAIN IS SO BIG YOU FEEL NOTHING AT ALL

I wish we all had more time to stay home with our babies!!!!!

Tall things at home

Penny sure is getting ready to walk. I know I could be saying this for the next 6 months, but what can I say - I am proud of her! She lets go of the coffee table and stands for almost a minute before she plops on her butt. I can't wait until I can stop carrying her heavy body everywhere.

The Penny Montage

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pushing 25 lbs!

WoWsers!! Penelope tipped the scales at 25 lbs and .4 oz. That is of course with all her clothes and her leather shoes, not to mention the full diaper. The visit went well enough. I confirmed something I found online that Dr. Mello moved to New Orleans. Katie, his PA, now works solely in the P.I.C.U. I asked Penny's cardiologist who will do surgeries now and the answer is that they no longer do pediatric cardiac surgeries at CCMC. If a family needs heart surgery on their child, they either go to Yale or to Boston Children's Hospital. How sad, how very, very sad. It was such a relief knowing that my child was having surgery so close to home. But I guess you can't have it all. Some states don't have facilities like this such as VT, and they are hoping this is temporary, until they find someone else. . . .

But, now on to Penny's visit: Her VSD patch looks great, and the homograph conduit looks good with only trivial leakage. I was informed that you are never going to get a conduit that doesn't have some leakage. I asked about the muscle tissue growing on the right ventricle (Right ventricular hypertrophy), I was told that for now the size of her right ventricle looks good. As the conduit begins to fail, the heart will try to compensate and that side of the heart will enlarge some more, but we should be a long way off for that. Her EKG was normal. The only cause for concern was the size of her right pulmonary artery. You may recall in a post from last May at her last visit, my concerns laid with her left p.a. and how very happy we were that it was not as stenotic as it may have appeared during a cardiac catheter procedure in Nov 2007. Well, this time, it is the rpa that seems to have us guessing. It isn't a matter of it looking bad, it is more of a matter of her not being able to get a great look at the rpa. There may be scar tissue blocking the entrance, or it may be a shadow. Hard to tell in the echo cardiogram. So, Dr. Salazar recommends an MRI just to be safe. I am sure I was worried over nothing in the days leading to her appointment today, but now I have to worry some more until we get a better picture on the MRI. Worst case, they do another catheter to balloon up the stenotic rpa, WHICH IS NOT THAT BAD but still, I have to wonder. . . and wait!

Forgot to mention

The orginal purpose for me to post was to announce that Penelope is having her cardiologist check up today at 1pm at CCMC. I know she is doing well. She is a healthy 23 lbs, she is very active and she looks pink! But of course I am going to worry. I will post more and advise on how the visit went. We are hoping to be surgery free for the next 5 years at least!!!!!

November 4, 2008

Ok, so I am upset the Obama is the next president of this great country. Really, really, upset, but at least I know I went and voted yesterday to show my support for McCain in this Blue state.

I am more upset over the recent additional layoffs in my office yesterday. November 4, 2008 will not be remembered as a great day day in my life.

However, I did have some fun at Joey's place -well, it is really Jess and Pat's, but they let him stay there :). You can head over there and see some photos of the kids playing. Even Nathaniel was getting into it. I think we need one of those blue tube things in our home to play in.

We really miss Dillon and Melissa, my life has been so hectic I cannot say when I will be able to get together with them again! Especially with all the boy scout stuff in there. Maybe Sunday after our portrait session at Target. Maybe. . . .

Also, I need to welcome Rainer into this world. He was born on Halloween and is a wonderful addition to the family that was 3 and now 4 : Tricia, Alex, and Georgia!

Let's see, can I sneak anymore tags in my blog post today. :)

I can't wait to upload my Halloween pictures. More of that to come.

THE JOB MARKET

As some of you know, I was technically laid off. I know it sounds bad, but I was given a 10 month notice and I will have some severance. This does, however, come at a very stressful time. Many places are on a hiring freeze right now. At least I have the luxury to wait it out, but there is a gamble that things will get a lot worse before it gets better. I don't know, I am not that worried about it. I think that I will end out ok. . .

Oh that Penny

She likes to wake up around 11 or 12 screaming at the top of her lungs. Could she be having night terrors? But she is way to cute for that.

Speech Therapy

So she finally had ST. About time!! Well, I think it went really well. The ST sat there with a toy and practiced "in and out" and "on and off" and "all done". She was impressed that Penny can follow some simple directions such as "go get it," because when she throws a toy across the room it is her responsibility to get it; and "can I see?" when you need something from her before she puts it in her mouth.

Penelope also eats almost anything now. Her favorite is meat generally. She loves salmon, steak, chicken, turkey keilbasa, and hamburg. She will tolorate brocolli and carrots, but she really likes spaghetti, rice, and noodles. She tries so hard to use that fork. It is very frustrating when she can't get the food to stick to the fork!

I found a new blog today through Master Dillon's blog. It is this blog. I hope I have time to read it every day as I would love to get to know Sarah.

Scott signed me up to be the Tiger den leader for Nathaniel and I have just been so busy lately. I am having a lot of fun guiding the little ones. :)

This summer just seemed to wiz by. In August we went to Eastham at Cape Cod and we had a really wonderful time. Penny and Nathaniel loved the beach. Good thing I splurged for the water-proof liner on his cast. By the way, he got it off on Sept. 3 without any complications.

Penny and I went with Melissa and Dillon to the Buddy Walk on the shore in CT to raise money and awareness for folks with Down syndrome. After that we went shopping at Tanger Outlets too :).

I had an Usborne book show last week with Jessica. This Christmas will be the year everyone got books. Including Scott because, who doesn't need to read more?

Mostly, I have just been busy trying to keep the house clean and knitting this sweater for Penny. I started it in July hoping that I will be finished in time for the winter because I know how slow if a knitter I am. I am almost there.

Nathaniel caused some trouble

Here he is actually just faking it. I asked him to make a face!!
I was trying to get a good picture of how swollen his arm was.
That lollipop must have kept him occupied!! Here, the waterproof liner is going on.
Now, the cast is being rolled on, I guess this wasn't too bad for our brave hero.
TA-DA!!!! I'm healing.

So, as I said in a previous post. Nathaniel is in a cast!!! On July 25, the day before the picnic, I got a call while at work from Nathaniel's day camp that Nathaniel fell from the monkey bars and was upset that his wrist hurt. They weren't sure if it was broken or not, but as the counseler said, "I'm not a doctor." I picked him up as fast as I could and off we went to the pediatrician. I had picked him up at 10 am. At the pediatrician visit we were refered to an orthepedist (and they set up the appt for us), but the appt wasn't until 2:20. I was told that they squeezed Nathaniel in so I might have to wait awhile once I got there, but to get there early to do paperwork. Well, we took a lunch break and went to Burger King for lunch, and then to Friendly's for ice cream since we had so much time in between. Wouldn't you know that my kid did not cry this whole time and barely complained. I was so proud. We got to the orthepedist at 1:50 and we weren't seen until 3:15 and then they had to take x-rays! There was a confirmed buckle fracture on Nathaniel's left arm, near the wrist. He was finally casted at just before 4. What was truely remarkable to me was his attitude. These are just a couple of Nathanilisms from that day: "Good thing I broke my left arm and not my right." "Good thing this happened in the summer, because my winter coat wouldn't fit over my cast." and "Good thing they have yellow casts because yellow is my favorite color." The only down side to this is that Nathaniel does use his left hand to wipe himself, but he has adjusted I am sure. They even have waterproof casts now. It was an out of pocket expense because, of course this is a luxary, but it was worth the $55 this being in the summer and all. We have the Cape to consider, and the picnic, not to mention he was going back to that camp where they have morning swim and afternoon swim!!

Down Syndrome Picnic

I must be really dumb because this was entirely too hard for me. Does anyone else have issues with Flickr?

www.flickr.com

where have I been?!?!

I know it has been a whole month since I last posted. This July was insanely busy. I such kudos to the mothers out there that find the time to blog daily. This is just a quick note to please stop by another blog to catch up on Kennedy. She is such a cutie! Please keep her in your prayers!!


Once I get all my photos uploaded I will update you on what a crazy July this has been. Penny is doing great!! Nathaniel is in a cast!! boo!!!

She finally did it!!

I was so happy to see Penny put herself in a sitting position all by herself today!!! She is such an amazing baby and everyday she shows me something new that blows me away. She lays down on the ground and puts herself onto her hands and knees, which is funny because she doesn't crawl that way. She still slinks along on her belly. Then she sits back on her butt putting hersef in a folded in half position and then she pushes her back straight up. What a cutie!!!

Everybody say Hi to Dillon

Penny had a date last night with her friend Dillon. She kept trying to steal his glasses. I felt bad for him until later on when he was shrieking with delight, he scared Penny to tears. Other than that they had a really good time, I think. And I had a good time with Mel, Dillon's mother. Sometime we will need to leave the babies at home and go out without them.

4th of July

Happy July 4! I can remember 6 years ago today it was about 106 degrees and I was 40 weeks pregnant with my son Nathaniel. My due date for him was the 4th of July, and I was so miserable. It was a Thursday and it was hot. I had been working at TGI Fridays but I took my last day on June 26. Not because I was uncomfortable running around, (my feet were more swollen with Penny then with Nathaniel) but because my very close friend, Irene had come up from Arizona just to witness the birth of my son and she wanted to get in early so that she wouldn't miss it. On July 4, I am sure Scott was working at the Outback that night and I was at my parents' house enjoying some cookout food. It wasn't until Saturday morning that I went into labor with him. I feel as though it was yesterday. I can't get over the fact that my little boy is soon to be 6 years old. Where does the time go. And on that note, I have a birthday this month too. I am turning 29. . . for the first time! yeesh!

Today we are going to see Matt, this is Scott's step-father. He moved into his new place on May 31 and I am ashamed to say we have not seen it and I still don' t know where he lives. We have been very busy watching my friend's child and best friend of Nathaniel, Tanner. Penny and Nathaniel are being watched by Tanner's mother Angela during the day, and we are watching Tanner in the evenings. Anyway, I am very excited to se his new place today and have a 4th of July cookout!

Penny is doing well as always. I swear she gained another 12lbs this week. She is scooting all over the place. Sometimes her belly is off the ground for a few seconds. I hope she is learning that the crawling works a little better with the belly off the ground. She still refuses to say "mama." I am trying not to get too frustrated. Maybe she thinks that we are both a "Dada, " I don't know. The speech therapist is impressed with her vocal talents, however.

Her friend Dillon is coming over tomorrow night to have a party while Nathaniel and Tanner go to the fireworks with Scott. Girls like to party!!!

Heart Link I discovered

I never realized that the Little Hearts Website linked you to a John Hopkins tutorial website that gives really great visual information on all the different kinds of heart defects. I finally understand what an overiding aorta means when reading the information on Tetrolgy of Fallot.

All in a day's hard work

Penny is executing her military crawl with such perfection; I am afraid she will be recruited anyday. She is so funny, she will get on her elbows, belly, and legs and with one arm in front of the other, and some help from her hind quarters she inches along the floor. I don't believe her belly gets a millimeter off the floor, but it certainly gets her around very effeciently. She can transverse our living area in a matter of moments. :) I just love her so much. Her PT is very proud of the progress she is making. She has been pulling her self to a standing position for awhile now (maybe a month) but she needs to be in a sitting position first and to my knowledge she has not figured out how to get into a sitting position.

She is doing very well with mealtimes too. I like to give her an opportunity to feed herself with a spoon often. Scott doesn't approve because of the mess, but how else is she supposed to learn? She likes sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese being the only two she has tried. She also likes Gerber graduates ravioli. She will scarf that stuff man! She likes ice cream and yogurt. A whole world of possibilities opened up just a few weeks ago when she turned 1.

I am still working with her to say "mama" she just doesn't want to. After I say it a few times, she starts to respond with "blah!" Oh well, she will get there when she is ready. . .

Wow!

Looking back through some pictures that are now almost a year old. How different things are. This photo was taken while Penny had the BT shunt. Maybe the photo shoot was stressing her out.

I totally forgot cake pictures

And considering how much work I did on these I most certainly want to share. . .

Birthday Pictures

The weather held up. I was afraid that there would be more rain, but it all worked out. It only rained for about 90 seconds or so. :) And, even though her teeth were bothering her. Penny made it through the day. I hope she had a good time because I sure did.


Here she is eating peanut butter and jelly for the first time. I gave her a 1/4 piece and she scarfed it. I had to give her another piece. I am so proud of my little 1 year old.
I finally got a quasi smile out of this kid. She really makes me work for it.
PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS TOY AWAY FROM ME. I WANT TO PLAY MOMMY!
Here is Penny with Nathaniel of course, and her friend Dillon that came to play! She was so happy to meet him finally. Can you see that this girl is giving me attitude already because she does not want her picture taken again.
Typical!! She is trying to have a meaningful conversation with her companion and I bet he isn't even listening. MEN!

What a busy Weekend

Pictures from the Little Hearts picnic!
My little girl was quite happy to be held by her mommy. Even though she was teething something terrible!

Yesterday we went to the Little Hearts picnic and we had a fabulous time. We ran into some familiar faces from the Pediatric Cardiology Group right here in Hartford. The boys played. Penny just enjoyed the sun and the wind and the walks. We had such a good time, we cannot wait to go next year.

This was a great opportunity to meet other parents and children with congenital heart defects. There is just so much support out there you know! I saw many many children with HLHS, which still blows my mind considering what a tough road that journey must be. We ran into quite a few children with TOF as well and I got to speak with a few mothers.

Have a Good Night's sleep

Penelope had her Birthday on Thursday. She finally made it to 1 year! Unfortunately though, her teeth are making her miserable. I swear she is cutting six at once. Poor baby. So it seems that she has had a fever since Thursday afternoon that we have been treating with Tylenol. She has no other symptons and her 12 month check up is this Tuesday so I am not that worried. Her last dose today was at 11:30 and she still seems fine.

She had her first Birthday party today and we worked hard to over stimulate her. :) She also had her first taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She is so good at chewing that I thought I would see what she would make of it and she did wonderful! She liked it so much I gave her 2 pieces. The rest of the meal was a juice box and strawberries, followed by a pint sized birthday cake for the birthday princess. She went to town on the frosting. Her lips were stained blue for quite a while. She also did very well unwrapping her gifts. Thank you to all that came and shared our good time. Thank you all too for the gifts. She has a lot of new stuff to explore and clothes to keep her looking on the edge of high fashion.

I'll be posting pictures soon.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Little Hearts Picnic!

Penny Photo Shoot

I Consider Myself Very Blessed

So I traveled to Walmart on Saturday, with both the children, to pick up some things for her party next week and I had an interesting experience. I am quite used to receiving compliments on how cute Penny is and Saturday was no different. By the time I got to the check out line, we had received our fourth compliment by the cashier. She first asked how old Penny is and I replied that she was turning 1 next week. Then of course she told me how beautiful she is. In the year that I have had Penny I have NEVER returned a compliment with "You know, she has Down syndrome." I always smile and thank the person and move on. I mean, what's the point and who cares, right? For some reason, though, this exact statement came out of my mouth this time. I didn't even know where it came from. The cashier looked at me with sad eyes and said, "I know, I had a daughter with Down syndrome." Then, this woman that was not even older than myself told me that she had a daughter with Down syndrome who had stenosis of (not the trachea) some component of the airway and it was not repairable. When she was only 11 months she passed away because she could not get air into her lungs. We agreed our children had strong but sweet personalities, then the woman stated that God has blessed her. We then commanded each other to have a great holiday weekend and I left feeling a little melancholy.

Truly, Penny, CONGRATULATIONS on turning 1 year!

Penny is almost 1 year!!

I apologize for not posting in a while. I really wanted to get on there on Mother's day to wish all the wonderful mothers out there a spectacular day, but that didn't happen. There is a lot to tell. On May 9, Penny had a check up with the cardiologist. She was 20 and 1/2 lbs! Unbelievable right? The best news we got was during the ultrasound. You may recall that her last echo cardiogram revealed that her left branch pulmonary artery was very narrow. If it did not get better then some sort of surgical intervention would have been necessary. However, on her check up it was discovered that her left grew to be almost the same size as her right artery. Yay!!!! I was so elated to get such good news as was my mother who went with us and my husband. He was so worried that the doctor was going to find something wrong with her and have her whisked back to the hospital! I am so happy. We don't have to go back to see her until November. Another concern I had was that if Penny would need to be scheduled sooner than 5 years old for her next surgery since clearly, she has been growing so quickly. Well, that does not seem to be a concern for Penelope's cardiologist. She said that if Penny is growing well we should take that as a good sign. Also, the conduit (donor artery) that was placed in Penny's chest is so big that the cardiologist suspects it will last her until she is 6 maybe even 8. This is of course as long as she does not lay down a lot of calcium as the years go on.

Another thing that has been going on is our transition to different foods. I really wanted to keep her off wheat until she was a year, but I figured we are close enough. I gave her buckwheat pancakes this weekend and a graham cracker. She loved it. She also tried strawberries. Yum-O!

Lastly, the thing that has kept us most busy, is that I went up to visit my good friend on May 10 who just had a baby on April 27, and my car broke down in MA en route. Luckily, I was able to get a rental car fairly quickly and I resumed my trip. But my car is still in Tewksbury. I need to really make a decision on what I will do with it was recommended that we didn't fix it. I loved that car. It was an AWD 98 Subaru. I see other cars just like it all around and it makes me a tiny bit sad. Scott and I purchased another vehicle this weekend so it is all working out, but it just was unexpected, you know?

Well, I wish I could say that I plan to post again before Penny's big day, but I don't know that I will realistically be able to. Oh, in case I haven't mentioned it before, Penny is getting her 2 top center teeth right now, they are pretty established, but then tonight I found that she is getting 2 top bicuspid (maybe?) teeth as well. She is a teething monster! Good night!

Thank you for being a baby!

"So Much Time and So little to Do. . . "

Penelope will be 11 months old tomorrow. Sheesh how this year has raced by. I know that I may be little biased because she is my daughter, but she is the cutest, smartest baby I know! I am still in awe at how well she drinks from a straw. Scott went out and bought her sippy cups last week, but I explained how the speech therapist would disapprove and that she needs a cup with a straw to work those oral muscles. So, the great man that he is, he went back to the store undeterred and bought her a sippy cup that has a stiff straw that goes right to the bottom of the cup. Mind you, this is not a bendy straw. It is completely vertical. She took one excitable look at it and placed her mouth around the straw and began to drink. I admit, sometimes she drops the cup and then tries to drink out of the handle, or the bottom, or the rim, but mostly, she gets right on the straw on her own and goes to town. I think sooner rather than later I would like to cut her down to 2 bottles a day, one at bedtime and one when she wakes up and is the most hungry. But for now, my 20 lb, 11 month old monster can eat or drink as she pleases.

We have also been experimenting with the kind of food that she eats. She loves baby Gershwin pickles of all things. She also loved the vegetable beef that I made for her in batches to freeze. I am debating whether or not to make more, we are giving her table scraps more and more. . .

Her last PT visit on Thursday went super as well like usual. We are working on her stepping by guiding her to walk all over the place. She does seem a little more interested in cruising, but she forgets a lot that she has a left foot! Her right foot goes up and down like a reflex, but her left leg likes to stay put. She flat out refuses to be put in any position that would coax her into crawling. She is very happy rolling around "thank you very much"

Oh and Scott is convinced she says "Mama." I'd like to say I believe him. She is so cute with the "dada" and the "Baba" it is about time I get some play too!

I am sure this looks familiar to some

I will never understand, but appearantly this is comfortable for Penny, so this is how she sleeps! Oh, and it looks like she is getting her top two teeth. Her right one has just cut the surface and the left one is very white under her gums.

Penny's 1st day at the Park

We took Penny to the park when her big brother was going to meet his friend last Saturday. We put her on this rocking dinosaur. I wonder if she thought I was going to let go!
Smile!! It is beautiful out and she is having fun with the family!
"OK, why did they leave me on this blue thing anyway!"

In her big girl Highchair

Penny has learned how to use her pincer grasp!! She doesn't use it often, I don't know if she has realized that it is much more effective than raking, but maybe she is thinking about it here in this photo!

Penny is a Big Girl Now!

Penny has definately gotten into the posing for camera mood! She is such a little ham.
"Look at how well I can sit up Mommy!"
"Look Ma! No hands!"

Easter Pictures

She is our little princess. We love her so much!!!

Penny won something!

Penny has a new friend! I have wondered over to read about Braksa previously and when I found out she was having a Baby Legs contest I signed right up. Anyway, we won a pair! I am so excited for her. Maybe she will be more motivated to crawl :)