Penelope is 18 Months

Penelope turned 18 months old this past Friday.  I absolutely cannot believe that she has been in our lives for that long.  It seems like I just found out that I was pregnant with her.  Speaking of which, an interesting fact is that Penelope is now older then the big kids were when I found out that I was pregnant with Penelope.  I seriously cannot fathom being pregnant with a child – much less three – as young as Penelope. 

Penelope had her 18-month check-up yesterday.  Here are her stats:

weight:  23 pounds 4 ounces (25th-50th percentile)
length:  32.5 inches (75th percentile)
head circumference:  18 inches (25th percentile)

She’s still tall, but she’s still a little skinny.  At her 15-month visit, she was in the 25th percentile for weight, but now she’s much closer to the 50th percentile.  You can tell, too, because her little cheeks are getting fat again, which I love.

Penelope is just now getting in her “pointy” teeth.  Her first set of molars came in at around 12 months, but she’s had gaps – but tonight I felt the first “pointy” tooth on her top right side and saw holes on the bottom where the teeth are about to stick through.  Penelope has always gotten in four teeth at a time, and it seems that this set is no exception.  Maybe that explains her staying up and fussy until 1:00 a.m. this past Friday night.

Penelope absolutely thinks that she is 3.5 years old.  You cannot convince her that she is not as old as the big kids.  And boy can she talk. . . .  I was tickling her the other night and she yelled, “Do it again!”  She has so many words and phrases – please, thank you, cat, door, more, eat, milk, roll, mama, daddy, dolly, sticker, goat, dog, chicken, go, school, zoo, etc., etc.  I can’t even list all of her words.  I’m so relieved that she is speaking so well – after having had three speech-delayed children, having one that is on target is truly amazing.

We’ve signed Penelope up to start playschool (actually, the class that the kids are in now) in September.  If she stays in the playschool class and doesn’t repeat it (she has an August birthday and our school systems currently use a September 1 cutoff), then she will start kindergarten just one year after the big kids.  That’s a lot of school in a short period of time.  Regardless, I know she’ll be glad to go to school herself.  She is so sad when we leave to take the big kids to playschool.  We had to buy her a lunchbox of her own just to make school days a little easier. . . .

I can’t imagine what the next few months are going to bring.  Penelope is already so sassy.  She shakes her booty like a little dog whenever she gets excited, and it is one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen (you really have to see it to understand the cuteness).  Her personality is really coming out, and I can’t wait to see it come out even more over the next few months.