And, then,

We have been so busy trying to get our house ready to put on the market, but at least once a day I think about something that I want to post to the blog. But then if I do get a minute online I can't seem to remember what it was. That makes me sad because I'm forgetting things I wanted to remember - which is why I have the blog in the first place. I have two things that I can think of right now. Developmentally, Penny's starting to give orders more rather than just respond to questions, or ask questions even. Now she'll tell me to do something, like "move that there" or "sit here" or "come here." That's kind of neat. She's not too bossy. Yet. The other thing is she's experimenting a lot with is temporal words - before, after, next, then, etc. Today she was playing in the boat outside and "sliding" down the sloped bulkhead (not sure if that's what it is, but I'm calling it a bulkhead - it's on the inside of the boat). I asked her to get down. She said, "slide, then get down" (emphasis hers). Also this afternoon she brought me a small stack of books one by one and when they were all gone she moved to bring me a pillow. As she handed me each book she stated the book's title, and then when she picked up the pillow she said, "and next a pillow too." I think she understands the concept of "yesterday," but she calls anything that happened yesterday, "last night." She's just now starting to use all those words in conversation, but she understands them more than she says because I can explain things to her saying we are going to do such and such and then something else and so forth and she seems to understand. I just love watching her start figuring out concepts like this because it just seems to be totally out of the blue, like I'm not quizzing her on these concepts but she's clearly been working on them herself the last couple days. So, next, I'm going to go get ready for bed. House should be listed this weekend. We are excited! Updates to follow.

Gazillion Bubbles

Penny loves bubbles. More accurately, she loves trying to blow bubbles herself with the bubble wand and spilling bubble juice everywhere. So. We bought her this way-cool bubble machine that blows a gazillion bubbles (seriously, that's its name). Penny was oddly disinterested and perhaps even a bit scared because it requires a motor to operate - and motors make noise. She looked at the bubbles like, "huh. bubbles. what else you got?" Tray and I, on the other hand, think this thing is the coolest thing since sliced bread. If a breeze is blowing, it can fill up our whole backyard with bubbles and it is so pretty. Tray set it up at the top of our back steps so we can turn it on and walk down the stairs surrounded by bubbles. :)

P for Penny

I keep wanting to write a long post about everything that is going on right now, but I just don't have the time. The house should be on the market this week though, so I am hopeful to have more time in the near future.

A brief tidbit: Penny no longer calls herself Penty. She has definitively dropped the T. It's kind of sad, because we thought it was cute. But anyway. Here is a drawing she did last week. She took the clipboard and paper and pen and went away around the staircase and drew. She laid down on her stomach propped up on her arms just like a teenager might lay to draw. When she was finished, this is what she had drawn. Lots of P's for Penny. There's a long way yet before symbols become symbols and stand for something, but what is cool to me is the intentionality behind drawing something other than scribbling (which is what she does 99.9% of the time - as it should be).

Swinging with Mr. Bear

Pushing Mr. Bear in the swing.


So far, so good.


Thwack.



Shake it off.


Pause to wipe the dirt off my hands.


Ok, Mr. Bear. Let's get you out.


That was fun, right? Let's keep the good times going; I'll walk us over here on my tiptoes!


Come on, Mr. Bear. Let's get some cool water.

Can we go fishing yet?

I'm ready to go.

The Little Engine That Could

Penny calls this book "Train That Could" and loves to read it. Tray and I watched from the doorway as she sat herself in the recliner and read it to herself. I grabbed the camera to film it to share with her Uncle Chris (who gave her the book for Christmas), but unfortunately the sound didn't pick up that well. Basically, all she was doing was pointing out various things about the pictures on each page. She wasn't really recounting the story, although she does do that sometimes (in a limited manner).

This Little Piggy

The other night when Penny was *supposed* to be going to sleep, she did something really funny. She played "this little piggy" with her own toes. But she apparently doesn't know all the words because it went like this:

holding her first toe, "This little piggy..." [pause]
moves to second toe, "This little piggy..." [pause]
moves to third toe...and so forth until she came to the end. She ran through all five toes twice and then, the grande finale. She took her hands and wiggled her fingers up her legs and went, "Wheee, wheeee, wheee. All the way home."

I just about died laughing.