11 Months

Well...this is my last update before Penelope's first birthday. She is eleven months old now and she is really starting to seem like a big girl.

The biggest update is that just a few days before Christmas, Penelope started standing. Cue the tears, and in more ways that one. Not only is she growing up, but she now needs to be completely supervised at all times...no more putting her down and thinking she won't move anywhere!

Since then, it feels like she gets more grown-up every day. She crawls right over to something and pulls herself right up. In the last couple of days, she has even started showing off quite a bit by only holding on with one hand.

We haven't started the full on baby proofing (but will in the next few weeks), but we did begin replacing some of our DVDs and other junk in our media unit baskets with Penelope's toys. She absolutely loves this! It's amazing how fast she learned that all of her stuff was in there. One of her favorite activities is to empty boxes and bins, and so this is perfect for her since she can stand right up, peer into the baskets, and remove what she pleases.

In the eating department, she continues to eat like a champ. Her favorite food these days seems to be watermelon, and her utter joy when getting to gobble up the tiny cubes totally justifies the $7 containers of pre-cut, out of season fruit. She also loves her pasta (like her mama!), veggies, eggs, yogurt, applesauce, and basically anything else we decide to give her. Last weekend I even gave her a little bit of pizza from my plate and she loved it (she is from Jersey, after all).

We celebrated Penelope's first Christmas, which was so fun and makes me beyond excited for the years to come. She got so many new toys which are so perfect for her age right now. She loves her instrument set, activity table, ride-on and little playsets the most right now. Anything with sound and lights just make her happy, especially a little egg-shaped maraca that she shakes and looks so pleased with herself. Santa brought her the B. Parum Pum Pum Drum set and it is adorable.

Penelope has continued to sleep really well at night, and naps continue to be really tough. The kid simply hates to nap, and I can't even complain since she sleeps for 10-11 hours overnight. 

Penelope still loves Mickey Mouse and so that will be the theme for her first birthday party! A few of you have asked and even suggested a 'Sweet P' theme, which I absolutely adore! I had originally planned to do something a little more color-themed (lavender and light blue, perhaps?), but I didn't see how I could not do a Mickey party, as it really just captures her love and excitement right now. I can't wait to share all of the details with you in just a few weeks!

On a personal note, I've been spending so much time over the last couple of weeks reminiscing about this time last year. Last January was such a momentous and expectant time as I was waiting to meet my precious little girl. It just continues to amaze me how much life has changed in the last year, and I don't ever want to forget those months of waiting for her arrival. It was such a special time in my life. I also had a great pregnancy, and so I never had that 'I can't wait for this to be over' feeling, even toward the end when I was enormous and not sleeping. I really soaked up every second...every nap, every indulgent Wendy's Frosty, every Saturday morning trip to the movies and every bit of prep that this tiny little person required. 

And here she is...all bundled up to brave the polar vortex and bringing joy to my life every single day. We're almost to your first whole year...pass the wine (in sadness and celebration).

10 Months

It feels like I just did an update on P, but here we are another month later.

Penelope is over 10 months old at this point and I swear she is changing everyday day.

I really love this photo of her, just a few days before her official 10 month birthday (on Thanksgiving!)...it so captures her personality right now. Happy, stuffing her little face with food and smiling that enormous, beautiful smile to show off those many pearly whites.

This month brought the full transition to finger foods. When she began flat out refusing to be spoon fed, I silently rejoiced because though letting her feed herself is a little scary (I have an unreasonable choking fear), it is also quite liberating. I really enjoyed cooking and pureeing food for Penelope, but finger food is soooooo much easier and so much fun.

My little cheese doodler

At this point, she is eating just about anything and everything that we eat. This includes mixed veggies, pasta, black beans, sweet potatoes, eggs, turkey, cranberry sauce on thanksgiving, ravioli, bread, bananas, melon, hummus on tiny bits of cracker...essentially anything that I'm eating or snacking on, if Penelope seems interested in it, she gets to try it. In Aruba, we even gave her a little ice cream! Though she made a strange face initially, she opened her piehole right up for more and started whining...it was love at first bite!

In the toy department, P is starting to love her interactive toys. Just this week, she is so enamored with her toy remote control. She is a great solo player...she will sit for quite some time in her playpen and just play with her toys. She also looooooves to jump!

Penelope is also a little crawling machine. She is so active and just wants to be on the go. Time for mom to start baby proofing!

Penelope continues to love Mickey! but we've gotten a small break with Finding Nemo, which she will tolerate.

This month also brought her first big trip - Aruba! We flew on a plane (4.5 hours each way), played in the pool and in the ocean, and went to lots of restaurants.

Bedtime continues to be a challenge (is it ever not, parents? Do these kiddos ever grow out if it?) We finally decided to just let her cry at bedtime and also if she wakes during the night and for the last few days that seems to be working alright.

Daycare continues to go well for us. I do wish that I had a little more time at home with her but we have found a workable groove...for now.

And here we are in her eleventh month. I'm already planning her first birthday party (Mickey Mouse themed of course) and will be sure to fill you in on those details as they develop!

Each day just gets better and better :)

For more Penelope updates, see:

1 Week

6 Weeks

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7, 8, & 9 Months

Months 7, 8 & 9

The last couple of months have gone by in a flash. Penelope is getting bigger everyday (about 19 lbs now!) and starting to make that transition from little baby to little girl. It's hard for me to believe that the last update I did was at 6 months...she has changed so much since then!

Over the last few months, she's gotten her two front top teeth - complete with a little gap in between - and it's really just the cutest. Another bottom tooth broke through and the way she is teething on the sides of her mouth, I'd say a few more aren't far behind!

Around 8 months also brought the end of nursing for P and me. It wasn't a momentous occasion (but if you want to read a really sweet one, check out Daily Garnish's story!) but rather a series of events that led to finally ending it...p starting daycare, I being back at work full time and also finding pumping to be increasingly difficult to squeeze in coupled with lack of production once pumping became more of a full time thing. Not to mention that P started to simply outgrow it.

 It makes me sad because I really cherished our mornings and all that time we spent together, just Pen and me, over the first 6 months especially. It really became such a part of my life that it almost felt weird to stop doing it. It still amazes me what the human body can do and I'm so glad that I had a good experience with breast feeding. With P being in daycare, I back at work full-time and solid foods taking over as the star, I realized I was continuing to do it more for my own sake. And then when she started getting frustrated with nursing, I knew the time had come. I do feel a little sad that we didn't get a momentous occasion as a last feeding (instead it was significantly less Earth mother-ish and more like fussing and frustration), but I think it's probably better that way so the chances were lowered significantly of me bursting into tears at the fact that my baby is growing up and needs me less (I know that's not really true). So now were on formula and solid food only. Sniffle.

But I'm proud of us for making it to 8 months, 6 of which were only feeding her breast milk. It's kinda crazy to think back on the fact that I did that. Wow. (Aside: I can do a longer post about my experience with breast feeding if that is of interest since I found it to be sooooo helpful reading about other bloggers' experiences. Don't want to go tmi though if that's not if interest, so let me know! End of aside.)

Oh and with that in mind, P got sick for the first time! (And i cant help but connect the two). Last week I got a call from her daycare that she had a 103 fever and it turned out to be Coxsackie. Have any of your kiddos had that? Also known as hoof and mouth disease, it essentially meant that she ran a high fever and suffered from throat blisters. Not fun for baby or Mom, but I did love the extra snuggle time that she allowed. She has also been battling some cold and sinus situations and I just continue to apologize to her for inheriting my unfortunate sinus issues.

In the eating department, I have quite the foodie baby on my hands. She loves yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, peas & edamame, sweet potatoes and now eggs.

Basically any mashed fruit is also a win. I've even started giving her tiny pieces of food when I'm eating and have learned to always have a snack on hand for her. We are getting to the point where if she sees people eating  she wants to eat too, and I love that so much. My hope is that she will love all foods as much as her daddy and me, and I know that starts early! I can see that a transition to mostly finger food is in our near future. This past weekend we went out for breakfast and she enjoyed some hard boiled eggs, pancake bits and tiny tastes of oatmeal. She thought it was the best thing.

Penelope is not quite crawling yet. She sits, scoots and lunges from the sitting position, but she hasn't really figured out how to get herself up and go. She has been trying to pull herself up though so I could kind of see her being the baby who goes straight to walking.

Lastly one of my favorite thing to date is that she has started clapping. And not just any clapping, but at the appropriate moments and it is hilarious. The best is while watching Mickey, when he comes over the hill she applauds as well as when they do the hot dog dance...it's as though she is commending them for a job well done.

So that's what's been going on the last couple of months. P is such a happy baby and I'm thankful every single day that we made it out of that newborn crying stage and she turned into such a content little girl.

Can't wait to celebrate the upcoming holidays with my little love bug! I know her first birthday is already creeping up in the back of my mind...please.make.time.stand.still.