P-P-P-Penny and the Pets

Ok, so I was watching that movie 27 Dresses and you know that part where they sing Benny and the Jets? Well, I had the song stuck in my head for two days afterwards and kept singing it. Penny kept smiling and laughing every time I did it and it took me several times (because I'm slow sometimes) to figure out she thought I was singing P-P-P-Penny. So then I just changed the song to that, and then Tray changed it to Penny and the Pets with actual lyrics - I'll spare you. Anyway, she's been so into the pets recently. She smiles and laughs at Jake through the back door when he looks in. And she is obsessed with Catfish. She got his tail today, but we weren't fast enough with the camera. Poor guy - He is so in for it when she starts to crawl.
Here's a couple pictures of her petting him.

Reaching

Lately Penny has been reaching for things she wants to touch. She doesn't point with her finger but will put out her whole hand/arm in the general direction of whatever it is. It's subtle, and there is no real urgency behind it, but you can tell what she's trying to do. The sweetest thing is she does this to the dogs and the cats. I can usually get Catfish to oblige and come over and let her pet him. The only problem is she grabs great big tufts of fur and pulls. He always jumps, but never lashes back at her. I tell her no and try to show her how to pet gently, but it's hard since she's so young and really doesn't have that level of fine motor skills yet. We're lucky he's such a patient kitty. Beyond the pets though she's been wanting to touch everything I touch. If I happen to be holding her when I go to turn the baby monitor off for example she wants to touch it. Or, she wants to touch the door to the dresser where we keep her clothes, or the door to the dog kennel, or the tv remote or our cell phones - pretty much anything we touch, she wants to touch. And put in her mouth. If I'm folding laundry and put anything down with her arms reach, it very quickly gets unfolded and put in her mouth to be chewed on. I put some saline drops in her nose this morning and she had to explore the bottle from top to bottom. It's just so neat to see because I remember when all she could do was just sort of lay there and look at stuff. And then she could bat at things, but not grab them. And then she could grab things, but not with much intention. Now she can grab things and play with them in both hands and actually purposefully put things in her mouth - not haphazardly, but purposefully. I know it probably doesn't sound like much, but it really is cool. I love watching her grow and change.

Canoe Video

Here's a video of Penny in the canoe yesterday. I had to rotate it to make it vertical and it sort of messed the scale up a bit. I cut the video off at the point at which Jake came and got in her face - but you can see how she's watching him approach before he comes into frame.

Penny in the Canoe

Here are a couple pictures of Penny hanging out in the canoe. She was pretty interested in it, but also very interested in watching what Jake was doing which is what she's looking at in the second picture.

Christmas Trees and Hannah Banana

Yesterday we went out and bought our Christmas tree. We went to the hardware store and got one. It's the only place nearby that has any for sale. I would have liked to go to a tree farm, but the only two I know of down here are kind of far from us. Years ago (and I can say that now that this will be our 9th Christmas together), we used to go out into the woods and just cut down a regular tree. The trees never looks as nice as the "store bought" ones, but the hunt sure is fun. Anyway, the folks at ACE were really nice about getting it ready for us and letting us keep a bunch of limbs to make a wreath out of.

Here's a picture of Penny and me all bundled up:



And here is one of her and Tray:



This is us in front of the tree after I'd gotten the lights on it (I don't know why that job always befalls me). Penny is chewing her new toy that Tray has christened Hannah Banana.

Laughing with Daddy

This video is so funny to me. It literally makes me smile from the inside out. But trust me when I say that this is not even 1/10th of what was going on before I pulled out the camera - Tray got camera shy. No really, this is camera shy. Pre-camera Tray had her in absolute hysterics.



Can you tell why she loves her Daddy so much?

Penny in the Mirror

Here is a video of Penny smiling at herself in the mirror on her activity gym. This is also my first experiment with Windows Movie Maker. I added titles and fadeouts and spliced some different video pieces together. I hope that you enjoy.