New Camera and a Mobile Baby

My Nikon D60’s shutter started going out.  I had taken quite a few photos on it since I got it for Mother’s Day in 2009, but had hoped that it would hold out a bit longer than it did.  Once it started having some issues, the big question was what to do – replace it with a comparable Nikon or “upgrade” to a more advanced Nikon.  In the end, we decided to upgrade to the Nikon D7000.  I’ve only had the new camera for a couple of weeks and haven’t used it a lot due to the weather and the ear infections, but this weekend I pulled it out to practice a bit.  So far I’m really impressed with its very accurate spot metering, which is something I hadn’t expected (and didn’t know that my D60 didn’t have accurate spot metering).  I am also very impressed with the things I expected, which are great low light capabilities and tons of focal points.  It’s just going to take me a while to learn the new camera.

While I was practicing with my new camera this past weekend, I took several photos of Penelope.  She is very much enjoying being mobile and gets faster every day.  More than a few times I’ve “lost” her and have run around the house looking for her.  I either catch her trying to pull up on the gate around the playroom or looking out the “kitty door” in the breakfast nook.

Penelope is really starting to develop a personality.  For the longest time I didn’t think that she had any of the typical “baby of the family” tendencies, but now I can say that she is definitely working on that.  If she’s not happy, she can turn on the drama and make sure that everyone knows it.  For instance, if she’s in a room where we are not, she will crawl into the room with the rest of us, loudly whining the whole way.  We always know she’s on the way and that she’s not happy to have to come to us!

But when she’s happy, which is most of the time, she is such a happy baby!

Penelope goes to bed around 8:00 p.m., right after we read a bedtime story with all the kids.  She usually gets up to nurse once during the night (sometimes not at all and sometimes twice) and then sleeps until 7:30 a.m. or so.

On weekdays, Penelope nurses in the morning, then during the day takes three bottles of 5-6 ounces of breastmilk that I pump during the day at work.  At night, she nurses again before bedtime.  On weekends, she nurses 6-7 times, and I pump after her first nursing session of the day and after before I go to bed.  We still haven’t started using the breastmilk stash in the freezer, and I hope that we can hold off on that for a while longer.

Penelope recently started eating cheerios.  She loves feeding herself!  She hasn’t exactly mastered picking up the cheerios, but it’s not from lack of trying.  The kids love to feed her when they finish their breakfast.  In the morning, Penelope usually has apples, pears, bananas, or peaches with oatmeal for breakfast.  On Sunday she added in a little hard-boiled egg yolk with that (which she HATED – we’ll keep trying).  For her afternoon snack she has green beans, asparagus, sweet potatoes, winter squash, yellow squash, or carrots.  Next up we’re going to try some broccoli, and start in on some meats as soon as she turns 8 months old. 

I can’t believe that Penelope is almost 8 months old.  Time sees to have just flown by – but at the same time it seems like Penelope has always been a part of our family.  We are very lucky to have her in our family and can’t wait to watch her grow up!