Happy Birthday, Penelope Jane!

How time flies. Today PJ is one year old. How the heck did that happen!?



The day started early. PJ was wide awake at 4:30--the second time this week she's done this. Last time she fell asleep 20 minutes into one of our baby worship videos while we cuddled on the couch. This time she stayed awake until about 6. UGH. Once Abby was up and we were all fed and dressed we went out in the backyard, which we haven't done in a while, and I got some great photos of the girls playing. We celebrated at lunch by going to Portillo's, which is a Chicago-based restaurant that opened a location about half an hour from here. Totally worth the drive--absolutely the best cheeseburgers ever. Came home and she took a really good nap (especially considering that she slept on the way up there), and then after dinner we went for a walk around our little neighborhood park.

Tuesday was her one-year well-baby checkup. She's 22 lbs 6 oz (80th percentile) and 30 inches long (75th percentile)--the same percentiles from her 9 month exam, so she's holding steady with her growth. She's got 6 teeth in--the top four and two bottom--and ten words: mama, dada, no, yes, ming or mih (milk), Abbah or Abababa (Abby), Wig (The Wiggles), hi, bye (often with a "Heil Hitler" hand up in the air) and peek (peekaboo). She plays peekaboo, claps, dances like she really knows what she's doing, and follows simple directions like "Go get Abby!" or "Take this to Daddy." She's really good at cleaning up--anytime she sees you putting things into a container, like the blocks into the bin or the memory game tiles into the bag (or the laundry into the machine--I'm SO glad I have a front loader and the girls can help!), she comes over to help. And whenever she sees me pull out the diapers she stands up and walks away, saying, "No no no no no..." Annoying as it is, it always cracks me up.



She's so affectionate. She crawls in my lap and just sits down now, doesn't even try to nurse, just wants to hang out. The other day she was standing on my lap, facing me, and put her head on my shoulder and began to pat my back and say, "Mama."



She is a climber! She gets up on Abby's step stool all the time, she crawled onto the TV stand in Dan's office today and also into the sandbox, as you can see in the photo. She gets under and on top of things way more often than Abby ever did. She goes up the stairs with ease, and has even started going up ON HER FEET! She's also really good at going down if it's just one step, like from the foyer into the living room.



The one thing she's not doing yet is eating solids. I give her something at every meal, and she'll gnaw on it, but she still has the tongue-thrust thing going on and it almost all comes right back out. So far she's tried apple, cucumber, Cheerios, peas, carrots, broccoli, egg, toast, and pancake. She also has a sippy cup with a straw that she's quite good at drinking out of. I keep meaning to pump and put the milk in and see if she'll let someone else "feed" her that way--oh the freedom that might be just around the corner for me! WHY haven't I tried this yet! She still wakes 3-6 times a night to nurse, which is a bummer for me, but oh well.



She and Abby are really playing together now. It's so adorable. Just tonight Abby had her in total stitches. I was upstairs and could hear PJ cracking up; Dan said Abby was tickling her and just being silly, and PJ was totally into it.



She's a slapper, a screecher, a Mama's girl, and a major, major drama queen, but she's completely lovable and adorable and I can't believe she's one year old. Happy birthday, PJ!!!

Lots of updates!

So I realized I've never posted PJs 9mos. stats from her well visit last month, and then she did all sorts of fun new things, so I figured it was time to post...

She was 20 lbs, 8 oz and 27 inches. Can't remember the percentages but they weren't as high as in the past--80 for both, perhaps?

The other day she went up the stairs without the slightest hesitation. How she got so good at it without any practice I don't know. But it was fun to see the first attempt go so well, and nice to see it without panicking like we did with Abby's first foray up to the second floor.

She has four words: mama, dada, hi, and no, learned in that order.

She waves goodbye! Sometimes, anyway.

She gives high-fives, if she is so inclined. Sometimes she just leaves you hanging.

She cut another tooth. The top middle tooth on the left. Now she's only got five that are trying to get through. *ouch*

She discovered how to get onto the couch--AND how to get over the ottoman and escape from the living room! Abby has a little princess fold-out couch thing that we've been pushing in front of the big couch. Well, I looked over the other day and saw PJ standing on the princess couch to boost herself up onto the big one, and boy did she scramble up there quickly! Then yesterday I was in the bathroom, thinking she was safely sequestered in the living room, when I suddenly hear the sound of dining room dishes being clanged together. She'd used the couch again to crawl onto the ottoman, and then managed to get herself down on the other side of it without hurting herself. Never heard a thud or a whimper or anything! Needless to say, the princess couch is not being stored there anymore. (In fact, we've decided to completely turn over the living room and dining room to the girls--the dining room set stays, but the couch and recliner and cart of dishes are being banished to the garage. Now we'll have a school room!!!)

Then, the biggest news...last night, in an attempt to get a wooden spoon being dangled, carrot-like, a few feet in front of her, PJ took a very careful, deliberate step...followed by another...followed by another! Then she just sat down. But not wavering, no falling, no moving simply because momentum was carrying her; she just went from standing stock still to walking! It won't be long now before she's tottering around following Abby everywhere (and refusing to ride in the stroller anymore, no doubt--I remember those days with Abby! Oy! Target and grocery runs are about to get really difficult!)

She speaks!

She was fussy today (and yesterday, and the day before, and the day before...teething again, I suspect), and when I went to get her from Dan she looked at me and said, "Mamaaaa!"

So on this day of political horror I at least have my baby's first word--and it's for me!

Here comes trouble

Penny Jane is officially crawling! Not far--she peters out onto her tummy after about 5 or 6 "steps"--but she's definitely doing it. And sometimes she does it on hands and feet with that puffy cloth-diapered butt in the air. So cute.

And, just like Abby, at the same time as she learned to crawl, she started pulling herself up on furniture. She's not quite to the cruising stage, but she's very close. Her balance improved a thousand percent in about 48 hours, it was wild to see it happen so fast. And in fact, she stood for about 3 seconds on her own the other day.

She's also saying ma-ma-ma and we're pretty sure she's saying it to call me. And if you say it back to her slowly, you can see her studying your mouth, and then she'll mouth it back but not make the sound. It's so funny.

I took her to Dr. Jen the other day for her allergy testing. Dr. Jen uses applied kinesiology to test, rather than a blood draw or scratch test. She is also a chiropractor, so she did a chiro check on PJ and discovered that her T1 vertebrae was misaligned. That's the one associated with asthma, so I'm praying that was the cause of the asthma she's been suffering with every time that stupid cough comes around. Dr. Jen also found that the valve between her esophagus and stomach was weak and not closing all the way, and the stomach had come up a little bit through the valve. Apparently this is not unheard of, and it can cause--ta-da!--reflux! She said that was most likely what the problem was since, when she did the allergy testing, she found PJ was *not* allergic to dairy! (She is to corn and tomatoes, though.) She tested me as well and found that I'm not allergic to, but not properly digesting, dairy, wheat, strawberries, and avocado. She set me up with an enzyme to take when I eat those foods, so that should help. I was SO excited to start eating dairy again, but it's funny, I *really* notice I feel lousy after dairy now. Christian the awesome nutritionist taught us that wheat and dairy are inflammatory, and I really feel it with the dairy. I went out and bought ice cream and colby cheese and after servings of each I honestly didn't want anymore. Which is just as well, given their fat content (and sugar content in the ice cream).

Six months!

Six months?!

Hard to believe, but it's true. I took Penny Jane in for her six month appointment today. She's a whopping 27.25 inches and 17 lbs. 11 oz. Wow. Doc said she looked great, checked out fine, wouldn't be surprised if she was cruising along the furniture by the next (9 month) appointment, which would be about right if she follows in Abby's footsteps. (No pun intended.) Abby started pulling up to standing around 7 months, but, like, 3 days later she learned how to crawl and did that for a month before showing much interest in standing again. But she was full-on walking at 9.5 months. Oi!!

Unfortunately this was the second trip to the ped in the last week, because the girls got that stupid cough AGAIN. When I checked the calendar I realized they've been getting it every 8 weeks. The ped thinks it's seasonal allergies--she said the mold and pollen counts have been roller-coastering all summer--and on top of it she thinks Penny Jane has asthma. :( Each time she's gotten the cough she's ended up wheezing, and it takes twice as long for her to get over it as it does Abby. I'm taking her in for an allergy test to see if there's a food allergy causing the asthma; I'm really hoping there is so we can just cut out that food and not have to put her on medication. She was supposed to get her first of four hib vaccinations today, but I'm putting it off until she's totally over the cough so her system has time to heal and strengthen. Now I just have to remember to take her back in for it!

It's been a rough couple of months with her. This teething thing is just *killing* us. She just yells and yells and squawks and isn't happy so much of the time. It breaks my heart. It also brings me close to a psychotic episode when coupled with Abby's relentless asking. ("I want to go outside." "No." But I want to go outside!" "No." "But I *want* to!" Etc. etc. etc.) Penny Jane has also hit the separation anxiety stage, so that gives us the added bonus of wailing like she's being tortured every time I leave the room.

I've been feeling a lot of mommy guilt in regards to Penny Jane lately. I'm not nearly as patient with her as I was with Abby at this stage. I'm not as empathetic, I'm not as doting, I'm not as hands-on. I am utterly sick at the amount of television she's seen. Abby didn't watch a TV show until she was a year old! All those little neurons I've killed...it's just awful.

I resolved this week to start taking more pictures of her. The camera keeps getting put away and I just don't think of it, and then suddenly a month has passed without a single image being taken. So, from recent days...

With Cousin Gavin:


"Why yes, I do occasionally like a bit of ball before supper..."


Okay, this one isn't that recent, but it's cute. She loves the swing, just like Abby!

360

Monday morning Abby and I were playing with Penny Jane on the floor. She was on her back and she flipped to her tummy, a trick she's doing regularly now. She stayed there for a while, not too happy about her situation but not squawking about it yet, either, and then--kick, kick, wiggle wiggle wiggle--she was back on her back! And it wasn't like she hadn't quite settled on her tummy and just rolled back over--oh no, she did a whole 360. And we're noticing that, when she's on her tummy, she's totally got the crawling motion already going, but since she's beached on her belly and not up on hands and knees she doesn't go anywhere. She's sure trying, though; you should see those toes digging into the carpet!

Little Showoff

She just rolled right onto her forearms and sat there for a good five minutes, smiling and cute, while my parents and Dan snapped phone pictures of her. If only I had Photoshop, I could place her in a studio setting instead of on the floor of the La Jolla condo!