Thanksgiving Festivities

Somehow we managed to come away from Thanksgiving without having a picture of Penny on the actual day of Thanksgiving, but here are a couple from my mom's house the day after. Penny has had a stomach virus that started Wednesday and was sick essentially the whole trip (she's gotten a lot better now). Consequently she was out of sorts and was really fussy. She wouldn't let me do anything for her, but as soon as her daddy got a hold of her she would calm right down. This is Tray holding her during a nap. She actually slept for almost an hour (which is like a record for her).



Here is a picture of Tray and me with Penny and my brother Chris.



And finally, even though we didn't get a picture of Penny's first Thanksgiving day, we did get a picture of Penny's first Iron Bowl. So at least we have our priorities straight!

Blowing Raspberries

A few days ago Penny added a new trick to her repertoire. She still sticks her tongue out, but now she sticks it out and blows - sending spit everywhere. She thinks it is so funny, and she does it every time she sees her daddy. What's really great is that she'll initiate it now. It's so amazing to see because she is purposefully trying to interact with us. Yesterday she tried to get her teddy bear to blow a raspberry back and I think she was confused that he wouldn't since Daddy and I always do. Too cute. The other thing that is cute to me is that with her daddy she is very enthusiastic about doing her trick, but with me she does a very serious and thoughtful raspberry, which of course is comical since she's being so serious about it. I truly believe she intends it as a sign of affection.

Four Month Doctor's Visit

Penny had her four month doctor's visit today. She got a clean bill of health and weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces. He also said he thought she was teething (as my mom and Sarah both suggested). So I don't know how long the evening fussies will go on, but somehow knowing what to call it makes it easier to deal with.

Frustrations

The last several nights have been really frustrating - so I'm posting so I can vent. Penny won't go to sleep without a meltdown first. And she won't go to sleep before 11 pm at the earliest. It starts with a nursing strike. She refuses to eat around 7 and starts crying the minute her head hits the boppy - even though she has no problem eating the rest of the day. And a bottle isn't the solution either, because once again, she'll take a bottle at other times of the day but when she's in this mood she won't do it. So, you'd assume she's just not hungry right? But no -she's acting like she's really very hungry, gnawing on everything in sight. So the next assumption is she's too tired to eat and she needs a nap. This seems to be right because we can get her to go to sleep. But she won't stay asleep. The minute you put her down she wakes up crying - and acting hungry, but if you try to feed her she completely melts down. She's too fussy to play with. Nothing makes her happy. It's like she's hungry but too tired to eat and tired but to hungry to sleep, so what do you do? I end up spending my entire evening from 7 until after 11 alternating between trying to feed her and trying to get her to sleep and I end up so tired and having accomplished nothing that I needed to do. I really hope that this is a phase that will end soon, because I was really enjoying it when she was going to sleep at 9 with little or no fuss. I would love to know what changed.

Pet updates

Got to give some love to our pet babies, so here is an update on the furry kids. Catfish had a bad relapse with his eye. It was completely white and dead-looking. Very gross. I took him to the eye doctor in Tally; he drives over from Jax once a week to cure the eye problems of Tallahassee's animals. They scraped his eyeball. Yes, that's right. I said it. Scraped. His eyeball. Now, I've helped out at the vet's office on a few minor surgeries (abscess drainings, stitches/staple removings) and I never get weak in the knees or grossed out. I had to step away from that one. Poor cat - but he didn't flinch or even make a sound. They've said it before, and they said it again, he's a cool cat. Basically his immune system is attacking his cornea as if it is a foreign body. They don't know why. Anyway, we started him on a new topical steroid eyedrop and it has worked wonders.
Mullet is still her wonderful, crotchety old self. Still hopping up onto the fridge and up on the upper cabinets at 18 years old. She's pretty amazing.
Lindy and Jake have been digging the yard to pieces hunting moles, but what can you do? They think they're "helping." They're sweet puppies, and they're really enjoying getting to sleep inside because of the cold weather.

Hot Date

Here's a picture of Penny on her hot date with Arran the week before last. He was very gracious and let her sit in his bouncy seat - such a gentleman.

Sun Hat

Here is a picture of Penny standing on the tailgate in a cute yellow sun hat - with her pants rolled up because they're still a little big.

Hold Your Head Up

I forgot one development when I posted this morning. She's been able to hold her head up for awhile now, but we noticed she's able to hold it up in a seated position recently. She sat like this in her boppy for several minutes this morning. Check it out (and yes, I do need coordinated bedding):

A Week of Learning

The past few days have been truly amazing. Penny has learned so many new "tricks" in just the last two days or so. It's like she just made a huge leap forward all of a sudden. I'm going to try to list a few things she has started doing:

Belly Laughing. I know I have mentioned her belly laughs in previous posts. Well, she seemed to sort of put that aside to develop her hand dexterity. She laughed for a few days, and then no more for awhile while her grasping abilities took off. The last two or three days though have seen a dramatic increase in the belly laughs. The thing that I've noticed gets the most laughs right now is to put your face right up against hers and if you do this with sound effects, so much the better. The video I posted with the bear showed her smiling and giggling a little bit, but now she actually laughs.

Here is a video of her laughing. It still doesn't quite capture the full-on belly laugh, but it comes close.



Kicking. One day last week we had dinner at our friends' house. They have a baby boy who was born the week after Penny. I was struck by the fact that he seemed to notice his feet and play with his socks, etc. As far as I know Penny is not aware that she has feet. :) Anyway, starting the day before yesterday, but really getting going yesterday she is pulling both of her knees up to her chest and kicking her feet up in the air. I saw her almost roll over doing this yesterday. Also, we gave her a bath last night and she starting kicking just a little bit in the bath water. I think she is figuring out that her legs and feet can do cool stuff too.

Here's a video showing her kicking her legs up. It's really more of a video showing how she can grasp toys now, but it does show her legs pretty well too.



Standing up. The girl wants to stand. If you pull on her hands to pull her up into a seated position she now sticks her feet up underneath her and pulls on up to standing. She won't let you stop at sitting. And you can feel her do it too. I don't pull her up to standing - she does it completely by herself. And I'll just lightly hold her under her arms. She stands there and looks around and if it weren't for the balance issue, she could completely stand there by herself. A lot of times now if she's fussy laying down or sitting we stand her up and she settles down. She thinks it is great fun to see the world from this perspective. I was in the kitchen cooking - stirring green beans - and Tray stood her up on the counter across the kitchen. She watched me stir those green beans and laughed and laughed (of course I made an exaggerated show of it).

Tummy time. I've been trying to work with Penny in learning to roll over. I push her over from her back onto her tummy without moving her arm out from under her so that it is easier for her to roll back onto her back. But she has had enough of that game and almost as soon as I get her rolled over, she pulls her arm out from under her and props herself up on her arms and looks around for the longest time. She used to get tired of being on her tummy rather quickly, but now she can stay there for a long time - and that's just been in the last two days or so as well.

Sticking her tongue out. This is daddy's doing. He read in a book that babies will imitate your facial expressions, including sticking your tongue out. So he had to try it. Sure enough she'll copy you sticking your tongue out. But now she won't stop. Yesterday morning she woke up and looked at me and stuck her tongue out. The child is a nut. It's been fun to watch though because you can tell she's trying to figure out when this behavior is appropriate (if you can call sticking your tongue out appropriate) and when it isn't. It's like she tries it a different times to see what our reaction will be. Also, I laid her down on the changing table to change her diaper and she stuck her tongue out at me with such a mischievous look on her face. It caught me off guard and was so funny that I starting laughing very heartily. She started laughing and seemed so pleased that she had made me laugh. It was like she was proud that she had made a joke instead of me making her laugh.



Other developments. These aren't necessarily her things, just stuff that's been happening. She's started drooling in the last week, so now we put bibs on her to keep her shirts dry. She has on a lamb bib in the photo above. Her sleep has been kind of weird too. At about 8 weeks she started sleeping consistently from midnight until 7. Gradually she started going to bed earlier and earlier so that eventually she went to bed at 11 and sometimes 1030. Right about the time of the time change she started going to bed at 10. Then the time changed and that became 9 and then she started going to sleep at 830. Well, the last week she has reverted back to going to sleep at 10. I don't know why. She had dropped that last evening feeding so that she was eating 6 times a day instead of 7, but now it seems like she wants that 7th feeding again. Maybe that accounts for all the development listed above?

Anyway, we are having so much fun with our little peanut. She's a hoot - laughing and smiling all the time. She doesn't cry very much at all anymore, only when she is sleepy but doesn't want to go to sleep. :)

Silly Old Bear

This is me acting the fool trying to get Penny to laugh. I discovered after the fact that the bear has nothing to do with it. She could hear the sound I was making as I played the video back on the computer, and even though she couldn't see the screen, she started laughing at the sound. Go figure. Oh - and be forewarned, the sound is pretty obnoxious. :)

The Fair!

On Sunday we went to the North Florida Fair. Here is a picture of my knitted afghan - I won first place! I've been (inconsistently) working on the thing for at least as long as we've been in Tallahassee, and finally managed to finish it up just in time to enter it into the fair. It is folded up for display, but it is big enough to cover a full-size bed I think. I haven't laid it out on a bed yet to check because I literally finished it on the day of the deadline to enter it.



This is a picture of Tray and Penny at the petting zoo in front of some goats. I tried to convince him to let us take the stroller, but he wanted to carry her, so he did. She fell asleep not too long after this, but she did seem to think the goats were neat.

Christmas Q&A

Ok, so this is a list of questions from my sister-in-law's blog and I am answering them here. The theme of her post was handmade gifts, so my answers have that bent.

Gifts
1. Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

I have a few friends that wait all year to get a jar or two of my apple jelly. I love giving it because it is easy to make, and they are so appreciative.

2. If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making? (Post photos if you have some, and if the recipients won’t find out via your post!)

I don't think I will make much this year. No knitted gifts for sure (no time any more), but I will probably still make some apple jelly and maybe give some of the muscadine jelly I already have.

3. Do you have any good stories about handcrafted gifts you’ve given or received?

Handcrafted gifts are funny things. I feel like most people think they are neat, but then wonder where their "real" present is. One year I made bath salts at a cost of approx. $15-$20 per person but the impression I got from people's reactions was that I was being cheap in only giving bath salts. So, I kind of feel like handmade gifts are "extras" to go with an "actual" gift. But, I don't feel that way about receiving them myself.

4. Do you have any great gift compilation ideas (a grouping of gifts just perfect for certain recipients?)

As I mentioned above, I have some friends who like my jelly, so sometimes I make kind of a gift basket with several jars - perhaps of different types. And maybe put some homemade cookies in to. I think our bees need to build up for another year, but we'll probably start adding honey as well.

5. Name one thing on your personal wish list.

Hmm, well, there are a bunch of kitchen things I need/want.

Traditions
1. What is your favorite family Christmas tradition?

Putting up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Oh, and my grandmother's cookies.

2. Have you started any new traditions with your family that you didn’t practice growing up?

Not really. I guess the only thing that is different is we sometimes open gifts at different times of the day now depending on when everybody can make it home. We used to always open gifts on Christmas morning.

3. How are you teaching your children (if you have them) what the REAL meaning of Christmas is?

As an anthropologist there are lots of ways I could answer this question, but I would start by saying that whatever your meaning is, it is no less real than any one else's.

4. Name one way that you are able to keep the focus on Christ during Christmas (attending special church services, family Bible story readings, etc.).

I try to keep the focus on family and friends by getting together.

5. What do you love most about the holiday season?

Cookies.

6. What do you like least about the holiday season?

The shopping crowds.

7. What is your favorite holiday food?

Hmm. It's hard to pick just one. I'll go with my grandmother's pecan sandies.

8. Do you have a great recipe to share?

Sausage Balls:
1 lb. hot sausage (Jimmy Dean)
2 c. bisquik
1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 c. water

Cook the sausage, drain, and then mix everything together. Form into balls and bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400-450 degrees (depending on your stove) for 12-15 minutes or until brown. May be frozen and reheated.

Dinosaur Kisses

Penny has started being able to hold on to stuffed animals. Here she is with her dinosaur. I took a bunch of pictures and it was hard to just pick one or two for the blog - she was so cute. I tried to pick a couple that really showed how she was holding onto it. She has a little teddy bear that is a bit smaller than the dinosaur and softer. She can really get a hold of it. It's really neat to watch her development because just a week or two ago she could not have done this.

Rock the Vote

Today Penny and I went to the polls and voted. She rode in her snugli on my front as I cast my ballot and she smiled at everyone who came into view. Here's a photo from after we got home. She's wearing a onesie that my friend Kelly painted for her and her new cargo pants her Daddy bought her.

Overalls

Daddy went shopping for himself some clothes - and came home with a bag of baby clothes that he "couldn't resist" (haven't we all been there?). He bought me these way cool overalls and shirt. The overalls have a raccoon on them and say "little explorer". Admittedly, overalls aren't exactly slimming, but mommy thinks I look adorable in them.

Dexterity

The parrot's wings make crinkle noises and up until now we had to crinkle them for her - but now she can crinkle them herself! Check out how big her eyes are. She gets the same look after Tray gets her with the pooty-monster (blowing raspberries on her tummy). She's pretty excited about her new trick.

Halloween

Nobody trick-or-treats in our neighborhood and it's pretty far to drive into town to do anything else, so we had a rather conservative observance. Penny dressed as a black cat and we carved a jack-o-lantern, which she thought was pretty neat.