Flying Smirk

It takes some serious smirking skills to execute one mid-flight:

Pack Rat

A week or so ago I noticed that I couldn't find the tv remote. We rarely turn the tv on, so I didn't really worry about it and hadn't given it much thought since. This morning before work, I opened one of the lower cabinets in our kitchen and saw the remote - along with a pile of other things including a measuring cup and a few of Penny's toys. It seems that Penny has been caching objects in this cabinet for awhile. It was pretty funny to see all that stuff laying there.

Graduation

Graduation this past Saturday was so amazing. I did not enjoy sitting through all the undergraduates - only because there were so many. It seemed to take forever. I was happy for them though. And super excited to be there myself.
You can watch my hooding online. My hooding is at 1:57:30. It only lasts a few seconds, but it seemed a lot longer in real life. As new PhD's we got quite a few "official" photos taken. The undergrads and masters students were pretty much herded across like cattle really fast. But for us it was a bit slower. Someone even took the time to make sure all my regalia was on properly and everything was in order before they took photos after I walked off stage. When I order some of those I'll try to scan and post them if I remember. I am also putting together a snapfish album, but will have to finish it at work tomorrow since my new computer has some kind of issue with that website I think. But, here's a preview photo of my major professor Phil and I after graduation with my hood on. He graduated from Clark University - thus the Kermit green gown (his words). It actually came in handy though because in the crowd shots I can pick us out in the crowd. :)



After graduation, Phil and his wife Donna hosted a lunch at their house for my guests and I. Everything on the menu was vegan (except for the apple cake which had eggs) to accomodate the whole milk allergy thing. We had a greek dish - stuffed grape leaves and peppers and hummus with olives (but no feta cheese), avocado soup, mango chutney, rice chips, and pita slices. And for dessert Phil's first ever attempt to bake a cake. It was an apple spice cake and turned out great. Penny sat in my grandmother's lap for pretty much the whole meal and ate pita bread. In fact she kept a piece of pita bread in her mouth for like 20 minutes walking around with it. She chased one of Phil's cats, Vector, around saying "Cat! Cat!", but Vector is wise and escaped out the cat door. (Phil's other cat is named Raster - it's a geography thing.) I thought she did great. She was really calm and mellow the whole time and didn't cause any trouble.

Tiggers

A post about Saturday's graduation will follow shortly, but I'm working on uploading photos and probably sending out a Snapfish album. I got a new I-Mac for graduation and I am still trying to figure everything out.

So, first a post about Penny. We are pretty sure she's saying "pup" for her puppets that she loves so much. Also, she has started being able to walk and pull her pull toys behind her - her dog and her wobble leg turtle. And she loves to read a lot. She's always going and getting books for us to read to her. Today she was playing with her giraffe puppet in the dining room and Tray told her it was just like Gerry the Giraffe in her book and she got up and went into the living room and got that book off the table and brought it back to him. Pretty cool stuff.

Here are some photos of my tiggers. The stuffed tiger is mine from when I was a baby. She proclaims "catttt" every time she sees him.

The patented Penny smirk:


Up!!:


Hey what's that crazy bandana? And can I have it?:


The essence of Penny:


Another sweet grin:


And here is a short video of her pulling her shape sorter turtle, minus the shape sorting apparatus:

Baby

Penny is definitely saying baby - or a close approximation anyway. She got a soft baby doll for her birthday and she says this word which sounds kind of like "jindjy" when she picks it up. She says the same word when pointing to photographs whether or not they feature her or another baby.

Also, for a few weeks she has been pointing to lots of things and saying "cat". We finally figured out she was actually saying "that" b/c we often will point and ask her, "what's that?" So, she points to things and says "that" and I've been telling her whatever "that" is. Well, for maybe the last week when we read a book of hers she would point to things over and over no matter how many times I told her what it was and it seemed like she would get aggravated with me. Last night Tray was next to us as I read to her and she stopped pointing at the book and pointed at Tray's nose and then his eye and then back at the animals in the book. I realized she was pointing to specific parts of the animals. She was wanting me to say "nose" or "ear" rather than "duck" or "pig". So now she has to point at every animals' nose in her books and expects me to say "duck's nose" etc. She can also point out eyes, ears, nose, and mouth on Tray and I (and her stuffed animals), but not yet herself.

More Dancing

You know The Evolution of Dance over on YouTube? Hilarious. But I digress. Penny's dancing is evolving. She now will stomp her feet or bounce up and down by bending her knees. She still will shake her head too, but not all the time. Today at the grocery store we hit a pocket on one of the aisles where we could really hear the piped in music and she started dancing in the buggy. Bystanders found it pretty humorous. Today we were listening to some Marshall Tucker Band and she started dancing in her highchair. Here is a snippet.

Staycation

We are on staycation this weekend. Below are some highlights. She is really funny about her shoes. She wants to wear them all the time. I take them off when she eats and as soon as she is done she goes and gets them again for me to put them back on. The only problem is she can't decide which pair she wants to wear. She will have one on and then want to put the other one on. I keep telling her she's supposed to not want to wear shoes. Then again, Penny only rarely does anything she is "supposed" to do.

Penny playing peek-a-boo



Penny's new (to her) pants - good for keeping mosquitos off.



Playing outside in the rain. It was only a light rain shower, but they got good and soaked. Part of that was because she kept wanting to stand under the eaves of the house where the water was really dripping off. I wrapped her up in a big snuggly towel when they got done playing.



Navigating the tricky concrete