One of those days

I was supposed to meet two students in my office at 1 o'clock. I first thought I could get Penny to sleep in time for her to wake up and come with me. But that didn't happen, so I thought I could get her to sleep and then leave her with Tray while I went by myself. She wouldn't stay asleep though. She was asleep, but I got up to leave and she woke up and wanted to come with me. Tray was asleep in the other room so it would have been too much trouble to wake him up and leave him with a crying Penny. With 10 minutes to get to campus, I had to get her ready and move the carseat from the truck to my car. We got here at 1:15. My students were gone. So there was no point in having come at all. Penny got maybe 15 or 20 minutes of disjointed sleep because I was trying to get out the door, which would have been justifiable if I'd accomplished something by going. As it was, she missed her nap AND I missed my students. FAIL.

Empathy

I think I've mentioned before how tender-hearted Penny can be. Tray and I don't dare express pain because she'll worry about it forever, long after we've gotten over it. I made the mistake of mentioning that I'd cut my finger and I had to discuss the issue with her for two days. Anyway. We just got back from visiting Tray's parents in Georgia. Mr. Glenn has a sick baby calf and Penny keeps asking about him. As she was going to sleep she asked me if he was okay. I said he was. She asked if he was having mommy-milk. I said he was. Then she asked if he was zipped up in his sleepy-sack (which is what she sleeps in). I said no, but his mommy was keeping him nice and warm. It was very sweet.

Two Year Molars

Penny is teething hardcore right now (three of her last four baby teeth are poking through) which is keeping her up at night, and with the time change her sleep is all out of whack (not that it was ever in whack - ha!). We had fun today though. She helped me make meatloaf tonight. She calls it "squishy," as in that's its name, not a description. She'll say, "I want some squishy." and she means meatloaf. Tray and I try really hard not to make mealtimes into any big deal*. She can eat or not, we don't care. That said, I couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised by how much meatloaf she ate this evening. That's good stuff.

*Her main mode of defiance, rather than food, has been and continues to be clothing. As in, she is impossible to get dressed if she doesn't want to get dressed. That's better than it was - at least she stays dressed now. :)

One Year Ago

One of the default viewing choices in iPhoto is to show all the photos taken in the last 12 months. This was the photo at the top of today's list - playing with her (then) new mittens. I can't believe how much she's changed in the past year.

Documentation

I finally remembered to take my phone into Penny's gymnastics class so I could take a video of her jumping. The week before last was the first time she was able to jump on the trampoline like this. Now, I know that the pediatrician said it wasn't a "delay" until 30 months - but the average is around 21 months, which means lots of kids jump well before that (roughly half, mathematically speaking). It was so tough being around all those 18 and 19 month olds in class with us who can bounce with such gusto (and even bounce over into a roll in one case!) and see the looks on the instructors' faces who had clearly never yet had a child in class who couldn't jump and not worry about something being wrong with my 26 month old who could only lurch around on one foot trying to hop. But, now she jumps! And she keeps getting better and better at it! Her new big thing is to jump off of things - which is obviously not necessarily a good thing. So far, she hasn't tried anything too terribly high off the ground, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.

Scary Train

Penny loves trains - when she can see them. Troy is a train hub and lots of them pass through downtown everyday. During the day she can hear the train whistles from downtown and she will get scared and run to Tray or I and want to be picked up because she is scared. She always asks if they are going to come to our house. We keep telling her that they are far away and won't be coming here, but it seems to do little to alleviate the fear. One really negative thing though is that now when one passes by during the night, it will, almost without fail, wake her up and get her upset. I do not know what set off this fear or how to nip it in the bud, but I hope it resolves soon because, seriously, Troy has a lot of trains.

Tricycle Riding on Campus

Couldn't think of a more creative title, so I went literal. We took the push bar for when she got tired or bored, but when she was into it she rarely needed more than a little guidance. She was zooming all over the place.



And then she got a little overconfident in her abilities: