We Have a Walker!

The day finally happened! On December 19th, Penny walked! We were hoping it would happen soon, we were just waiting for that moment when it finally happened. Penny has been doing physical therapy for the past 6 months once a week. It's hard to really know how much it helps, but she started crawling soon after she started, then began pulling up, cruising, standing up in the middle of the room, and now walking! She is on her own schedule and does things only when she is ready and feels like it for sure! Even now that she has walked she won't do it every day and we can't make her. If we try to hold her up to get her to walk and she doesn't want to, there is nothing we can do to make her! She's one stubborn lady for sure! We meet and recreated her goals a couple days ago. She surpassed her previous physical therapy goals, which is awesome! In the next six months, her goal is to walk independently over a variety of surfaces. With a little hard work and determination I am very confidant she can do it! Even though her gross motor development in below normal, I see that she is making progress and meeting milestones, just at here own pace. I'm not as worried as I was six months ago! And now, a couple videos of her first walk!

Baby Sign Language

We have done a little bit of baby sign language with Penny and they teach it to her at school. I was kind of unsure about it at first, but it really works! When she was still taking a bottle, she would do the sign for milk. Now that she's older, she uses it a lot when she eats. The two we use the most are "more" and "all done". It makes feeding her a lot easier! She also knows "cracker" and we are working on a few more.

More!

All done!

Penny's Birthday Party

A child's birthday party is a funny thing. I spent months and months planning Penny's first birthday party and hours putting it all together. When look back at the pictures it's nice to see, but it doesn't look like it would have taken so many hours. And she won't even remember it. :) At least she can look back on the awesome pictures!

We had the wonderful privilege to have Heather Lily from Heather Lily Photography, come and shoot Penny's party. She was amazing and it was nice to not have to worry about one of us missing something while being behind a camera. The shots came out amazing!

So here's t he party in a nutshell! The photo's are in random order,  ran out of patience trying sort them. 

 I made this wreath to hang on our door every year for her birthday.

Balloons to look like a caterpillar

More caterpillar balloons and the keepsake book we had guest sign

Most of the food had little signs that went with the story

Cake close up

Caterpillars made from laterns

Her cake, it was from Walmart and turned out awesome!

The main table

She cried the whole time we sang to her, it was kind of cute

She didn't get into the smash cake too much

Opening present after a nice bath

She was one tired little lady at the end of the day

Penny's First Birthday

I can't believe that Penny's first birthday was over a month ago! Time sure does fly! Her actual birthday was on a Wednesday. I have to admit, I cried a little bit that morning. I just couldn't believe that our tiny baby was already 1 and not really a baby anymore.
Jessyel sent me the cutest picture ever of our little birthday girl.

We tried unsuccessfully to take her out to dinner that night after we picked her up from day care. She cried almost the whole time and we ended up taking our food home in boxes and eating it cold after she went to bed. It's a funny story now! The restaurant gave us some ice cream to take home, I think our waiter felt bad for us, so we gave her that and sang to her that night. Overall, it was a nice day that I'll never forget.

First Time Eating From a Bowl

Our pediatrician warned us at the one year visit that sometime in the near future Penny wouldn't let us feed her anymore. I think that day is very near. Today, I made her some eggs and tried to feed them to her. She immediately spit them out on me. So, I tried putting some on her tray. She gobbled them right up! My next thought was hmm... maybe she could eat out of the bowl. She dumped the bowl out all over the tray and then put her banana it. Then, I got nervous that she would throw it on the floor and break it so I took. Just another tiny moment that means she's getting bigger and bigger.

Zoo Fail

Today is the last day of my summer break so I wanted to do something fun. So we decided to go to the zoo! It was supposed to rain so we opted for a morning zoo trip. Two hours later, we were finally off! On the way, I realized that we had forgotten to take the stroller from my car and put it in Jessyel's car.  Jessyel said that he would just carry her around.  Upon arrival, we found that we also had forgotten her hat. So, here we were at the zoo with nothing to cover Penny from the sun. We bought her a hat at the overpriced gift shop and then looked into renting a nasty zoo stroller. The strollers at the zoo don't have sun shades, so off we went. It felt like it was about 1,000 degrees and it was made worse by the fact that we had to carry a baby and a giant diaper bag. We went straight to tropical discovery in the hope that since it is indoors it wouldn't be as hot.  Well, it was still pretty hot and the tropicalness made for some lovely humidity. Penny did seem to enjoy herself though. That is one of her favorite exhibits at the zoo since she can see the fish and other stuff up close. After that, we decided to try and go see the elephant show. It started in about 30 minutes. We walked over found a spot and started to feed Penny. We got some lunch for us too. These chicken bowls. Penny was eyeing our chicken. So of course we gave her some.  She apparently did not like the chicken and proceeded to throw up the chicken, a bottle, and two things of baby food all over herself, me, the ground around us, and a little on the lady in front of us. Whoops! Luckily she had on one of those bibs with the food catchers on it, so on the second round of throw up I was able to catch it in the little pocket. She filled it all the way up to the top!!  So Penny had throw up all over her hands, arms, and pants. And did I bring a change of clothes, nope! I had it all over my shirts, pants, arms, hands, and in my hair! Gross!  And luckily when I washed my shirt off in the bathroom it became very see-through. After we wiped off as much throw up as we could and tried to avoid the judgmental stares and comments from the people behind us, we slinked out of there and decided to call it a day. Perhaps we should try again next week and not forget everything!

Ah summer

I am loving summer! It is so fun bring home with Penny everyday! We are having so much fun! Going to the zoo, swimming, shopping, playing, all sorts of stuff! However, I'm finding it harder and harder to get ready. It's been really hot, so I am not fixing my hair. The hair dryer makes me so hot so my hair has been going into a bun messy thing. Lately, I have also been wearing more and more yoga pants and  leggings. I'm also wearing less make up. Even when I go out! This is very unlike me. I always at least wear mascara. It's so comfortable and takes much less time to get ready! Now, to draw attention away from myself I have been dressing Penny super cute. Dresses, tutus, cute coordinated outfits, and of course tons of bows and headbands. I like to think that if Penny looks absolutely adorable, nobody will notice that I haven't showered and am wearing wrinkly yoga pants that I slept in. I feel it also helps when you are in Babies R Us and drop a jar of baby food causing it shatter everywhere. If you look disheveled, they feel bad for you and care less about the food that has splattered all over the whole aisle. I am going to start trying harder, or at least putting on real clothes when I go out!

Penny's Evaluation

Today was Penny's evaluation to see if she would qualify for any physical therapy. We sort of thought she would based on what her pediatrician told us. So we loaded up in the car and off we went. All of the sudden Penny just started crying. She never cries in her carseat so we were freaking out a little. We even pulled over, but couldn't figure out what was wrong. We get to the place and she settles down a little. Then, the evaluation starts. She is screaming her head off. And to make it worse the OT is making her do stuff she doesn't want to do like be on her knees and tummy and roll over. Snot is dripping everywhere and she is unconsolable. Long story short, after all the crying and screaming she has qualified for physical therapy for gross motor. She will start in a few weeks and the goal is for her to be walking or a least cruising in hopefully 6 months! And after all the crying, she was perfectly happy and content as soon as we left to go home!!

Staycation!

This past weekend Jessyel and I had a little staycation planned. It was our mother's/father's day gift to each other. We booked a room at The Hyatt in Denver. We dropped Penny off at my parents and off we went. The first stop we made was the Highlands Street Fair. Their was lots of vendors, food, and of course beer! My favorite jewelry designer, Miss Olivia's Line, was going to be there and that was the main reason I wanted to go. It was a billion degrees outside so we were only there for about an hour. We got some food, beer, and the world's largest rice crispy treat for lunch. While we were there, we bought Penny a giant super cute tutu, some hot sauce, and some Miss O jewelry! After the street fair, we went to check in to the hotel. Jessyel had said that we were on our honeymoon when he reserved the room. Not something more believable like an anniversary, but our honeymoon! I was soooo nervous! But, we checked in and got a complementary upgrade! We were super excited! We went up to our room and when we opened the door we freaked out!! This room was bigger than our entire house! Seriously! It had a living room with a couch, 4 chairs, and an entertainment center. It also had a bar and a half bath in this area! Then, it had a giant conference table that could seat 8 people! Then, through a door was a bedroom with a giant bed, another entertainment center and chair sitting area. It also had a walk in closet a bathroom with double sinks and a sit down vanity area. Then a huge shower with a little sitting down area. The best part, was a huge free standing bathtub. The bathtub's faucet was in the ceiling!! Yes, that water to fill the tub came from the ceiling!!!! It was awesome!! I took two baths and two showers before we went out that night. Yup, not joking!!!

We went for drinks in the hotel in a really cool bar that is high up and looks out at the mountains. We then went to dinner at Ocean Prime. We ordered food for about 6 people and it was delicious!!! We ended up taking a lot of food with us. After dinner, we went to a dessert bar and ordered yummy desert!! Then, we headed back to our amazing room and turned in for the night. Then next morning, I woke up on my own, make coffee, and read a book while looking out at the mountains. We ate breakfast at the hotel, packed up and headed home to see our sweet baby girl.

It was very nice to get a way for a night and relax and spend time with just each other!! We did talk about Penny pretty much the whole time and couldn't wait to see her again!! But it was a lot of fun and we plan on doing it again sooner than later!!!

The Low End of Normal

Penny had her 9 month check up a couple days ago. She's has always been really long in the 90th percentile and lower in weight, usually around the 50th. She was really sick throwing up and couple weeks ago, so her weight sort of flat lined. Which the dr said is ok, since she was sick. She has really started eating a lot more lately, so I'm not worried about her weight.

However, Penny has not started crawling yet and she doesn't really roll over. She has rolled over a couple times and it was a few months ago. Since then, she just sort of stopped rolling. She sits up and LOVES to sit up! She ca sit up forever. But apparently by now she should be crawling or scooting around on her bottom. She doesn't do this. We try to do tummy time, but she absolutely hates it. She cries and screams the whole time. It's hard to leave her on her tummy when she gets so upset. I mean upset! Snot everywhere because she is crying so hard. So of course, I sit her up. I'm sure this doesn't help. We also hold her ALL THE TIME. She's so small and cute and it only lasts for a short time, so we hold her as much as we can. Anyway, all of this puts her on the low end of normal. I'm not even quite sure what that means. Partly it means that she will start physical therapy. The will come to our house, hopefully for free, and teach us some things to do with Penny to encourage moving around. The other thing is means is that we are really worried. Of course we want the best for her. But hearing low end of normal is very concerning. We're trying to do more tummy time. It seems to go a little better if we let her play with a phone. Hopefully we can start therapy soon an she will take off! I suppose it's time to start baby proofing!

Carousel Ride

Going to the zoo is one of our favorite things to! We bought a membership and it has paid for itself for sure! Yesterday we took Penny on the carousel for the first time! She wasn't so sure about it and I have to admit it made me a little dizzy too. We'll try again in a few years!

Back to normal?

Ahh summer! School is finally over!!!! There were times I didn't think I would make it, but with the help and support of great friends here I am! The last 6 weeks of school were sort of crazy for me. I'm not quite sure why, but I sort of feel apart. I stopped working out, forgot about pretty much everything, the house was a mess all the time, ect. blah blah. I don't really have a reason for this, but anyway. Summer is here and I don't have to work for 7 whole weeks. Yes!
First, I need to get caught up on everything. Cleaning the house, paying bills, grocery shopping, that kind of stuff.
Second, I want to try and do something fun with Penny everyday. Going to the park, taking a walk, going shopping :) I would love to be a stay at home mom, but since that isn't possible being a teacher with summers off is the next best thing, so I'm going to love every second of it!
Third, I'm going to get rid of the last of this damn baby weight! So, I pretty much lost all the weight I gained during pregnancy give or take 1 or 2 pounds. However, my clothes still don't fit that great. I want to loose 10-15 more pounds this summer. I'm going to work out everyday! It's going well so far. I set up a little area for Penny in the basement to play in while I work out. I need to get some DVD's that are about 30 minutes. An hour long one is too much for Penny to sit and play by herself.
My last little goal for the summer is to blog more! It's on my phone so we shall see how it goes!

Sitting up!

Penny is sitting up all by herself now! I can't believe it. Time flies by so fast!