The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

Penelope continues to amaze - every day is a new adventure, another new skill learned, another skill mastered, another way to scare mommy and daddy.

Take walking - about 3 weeks ago she was in love with her red wagon and loved to chew on the sides and the wheels and if you stood her up at it, she would hold on and look quite happy. Then she started staggering forward, lurch by lurch. Then we get a couple steps, and you can sorta see the light bulb go off in her head - this is what this is for! The next day we are confidently striding across the apartment, the next day we are out in the hall for a marathon. Next we needed to figure out how to pull ourselves up, check, no problem. Everything is far game for pulling ourselves up on. The one I am hoping for soon is when she falls backwards and lands softly on her diapered butt, instead of slipping and sliding and little bumps, or crying until someone realizes she in fact wants to get down now thank you.

Most all of her games now involve standing or walking - standing in the crib when she doesn’t want to nap, standing in the bathtub because it really is that yummy to chew on the side, standing at her play table and making a racket, standing at the baby gate at the top of the stairs and making us realize the big ugly well anchored one really is worth it. Her latest thing (as in, yesterday) is cruising, she can move side to side along something on her own, or in the case of her table, around and around. But her favorite game is Mommy and Daddy jungle gym, we lay on the floor and she climbs up and over us. This game is fun with only one parent, but nirvana is reached when both are around to create a veritable mountain range.

She still uses her commando crawl to get around, although I know she CAN crawl on hands and knees - I have seen her do it several times (and Daddy finally saw it this morning so he believes me), but I think its faster for her on her belly. We will see if she ever does a proper crawl. I imagine being in Michigan for Thanksgiving might give her a good reason - so much space to explore!

She is working on her 5th tooth right now, the bottom center 2 are quite big, the upper lateral left side is starting to really show, the upper lateral right side is cut, and the upper center left is cutting (I think, she hates it when I check, so I don’t often do it). I have my fingers crossed that she is getting used to the feeling, since she is only ear pulling a little now, and is (knock on wood) better at sleeping - usually only 1 or 2 wake ups a night.

Food is getting lots of fun, especially Cheerios. She is still working on her pincer grasp, but I am sure it will just happen any day now. Bagels and crust bread is also a lot of fun. Some days she will eat a bunch, some days hardly any - I am doing my best to roll with it.