Rosemary picked this one out all by herself.
Today Penelope had her one-year check-up. Here are her stats:
Weight: 20 pounds 4 ounces (50th percentile)
Length: 29.5 inches (50th – 75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 18 inches (75th percentile)
Not only is she a big girl, but she also is acting like a big girl. Tonight, in the big kids’ room before we read our book, I told her to go get her diaper (across the room) so that I could change her. She did! Now that makes for a much easier diaper-changing routine.
I love hearing the kids talk over their monitor. This morning they woke up and were talking, then all of the sudden Piper said, “It’s baby’s party day!” {translation: birthday} Rosemary and Henry followed that up with excited voices saying, “Oh!! Party day! Happy party day!” Then they sang, “Oh Party Day” a few times. {translation: the “Happy Birthday” song}
I can’t believe that my baby girl Penelope turned one today. It seems like just yesterday that I was in and out of the hospital and then on bedrest with her. I’m still amazed that she was born term at her scheduled c-section. She has been a true joy. Well, that time from 6-10 months when she didn’t sleep at night wasn’t entirely pure joy, but we managed and at least I was spending time with a wonderful baby! She is the happiest, sweetest baby I could ever have asked for. And of course she’s pretty darn cute, too!
What I love most is watching her with the bigger kids. From the time they first met her at the hospital, they are so careful around her, but at the same time they treat her like she is one of them. And boy does she think she is one of them. She now eats every meal with the big kids, and as soon as they start crawling into their seats at the table she crawls over to her high chair, stands up, and bangs on it until we put her in it. She always wants to be with them, right in the middle of everything and laughing. If she isn’t with the big kids, like when they go to school or church camp, they are always asking where she is and why she isn’t with them.
I know that Penelope could walk, but so far she has only taken a couple of steps on her own. She can stand without pulling up on anything, and will walk everywhere just holding on to one of our hands, but she hasn’t quite figured out that she can do that on her own. Once she does, I’m quite sure that she will never sit down again.
Penelope talks a good bit. In addition to the words she’s had, she now says, “eat,” “done,” “book,” “shoes,” “door,” and so many other words.
Right now Penelope still has only 6 teeth. It seems like she hasn’t gotten any new teeth in months. Part of me wants her to just get in the next set all at once again. It’s rough for those few days, but then it’s over. . . .
We have Penelope’s one year check-up in the morning, so we’ll get her stats then. I had to take her to the pediatrician a couple of weeks ago for a sinus infection, and she was 19 pounds 14 ounces then, so I’m hoping she will be over 20 pounds tomorrow. She is now wearing clothes that Rosemary wore last summer. She has outgrown most of her 12 month things, and wears a lot of 12-18 month or 18 month clothes. I have a feeling that she will be as big as Rosemary pretty soon and it will look like we have either two sets of twins or quads.
One thing that makes Penelope very different from her siblings are her hair color and eye color. Her hair is now strawberry blonde and her eyes are green. I do think that her eyes seem to be turning brown, but I suppose that only time will tell whether they do turn brown in the end.
At Penelope’s appointment tomorrow we will also find out whether she is able to start on whole milk. Then I’ll start weaning myself off the breastpump and will just nurse Penelope in the morning when she wakes up and at night before bed. Honestly, I don’t think that I’m going to have a hard time weaning off the breastpump as my supply has taken a complete and total nosedive the last two weeks. I haven’t fought it much, mostly because I know that will make things easier later when I quit. I was hoping to maintain enough of a supply to nurse Penelope in the morning and at night for a while, but I don’t think that will happen once I stop pumping. Despite my worries throughout this past year about running out of breastmilk, I never even used frozen breastmilk for Penelope. We have a freezerful of it, plus some more in another freezer. Luckily, I have a friend who is going to take it off my hands to use as a back-up supply for her baby.
Saturday is Penelope’s birthday party, and I can’t wait. We are going to have so much fun. And I’ll have TONS of photos then, too!
Happy Birthday my sweet Penelope!!
Today was Rosemary’s turn to go shopping with me. We went to Party City (a/k/a the “party store”) and Publix (the “store”). We started with the party store and were just picking up a few last minute things for Penelope’s first birthday party next weekend. Rosemary really loved the party store, and was especially excited about all of the balloons that were there. We walked through the back of the store where the Halloween decorations were, though, and Rosemary immediately began saying, “I don’t like it.” I told her to cover her eyes, and she did while I rushed out of the Halloween section. Once we were back in the bright and happy party area of the store, I told her that she could open her eyes and she did, looked around, and declared, “I like it!”
One of the sweetest moments today was when we were about to turn into Publix, and Rosemary told me, “I want to see Pipe-ah, Henny, and baby.” I asked her if she would be able to make it to the grocery store before she saw them, and she said yes.
When Rosemary found out this morning that we were going shopping, she said that we needed to “buy some bananas.” She reminded me of that repeatedly until we got home and she was able to look in the fruit bowl and see that we did indeed come home with bananas.
We had a really nice time together today, and I enjoyed getting to talk with Rosemary without much interruption. These individual trips out are so much fun, but whoever I take with me always really misses everyone else, which makes for fun when everyone is reunited and hugs as if they haven’t seen one another in days. Rosemary was very, very happy when we got home and she could see her brother and sisters. I love their bond.
This past Saturday was just a good day. We had lots of things go right. First, we got up and went to Cracker Barrel to have breakfast with Nana and Papa.
We went back to the house and played around a bit, then had lunch and it was naptime. The kids didn’t nap for very long, so it didn’t take much for them to persuade us to grab some frozen yogurt for the afternoon snack.
So Saturday was a good day. A very good day.
Sunday was still a good day. Mostly. Sort of. It was a hard day. The kids woke up in a bad mood and pretty much refused to do anything we told them to do. We decided to press forward and try to force everyone have a good day regardless, and headed to the zoo. After a few meltdowns, we explained to the kids that if they couldn’t get it together and behave that we’d have to leave the zoo early. They made it to the sea lion show, the monkeys, and the splash pad. It all went way downhill after that, and ended with Gary carrying a kicking and screaming Rosemary under his arm and out of the zoo. I was behind him with Penelope in the stroller and Piper and Henry holding on to each side of the stroller, while Henry said over and over, “Rosa no ‘have. We go home.” (In case you need an interpreter, that’s “Rosemary didn’t behave, so we have to go home.”)
We were totally “those people” at the zoo on Sunday. If you saw us, we’re sorry for the scene. It wasn’t pretty.
Did you notice our guest in the chair? Isn’t our friend the bear cute? Gary’s sister, Cindy, and her family gave the bear to the kids for their birthday. We call him “Bear” (because we’re creative and all). That is his chair. He goes to sleep at night and wears a sombrero over his eyes. Rosemary initially was not very fond of Bear, so we had to make him go to sleep for her to get a little more comfortable with him. Now she’ll even touch him when he’s awake. Progress all around.
