Penny Turns One 8/30/2010!

 My Penny turned 1!!! Can you believe it? Since this was such a special occasion I decided that I would attempt to make her a cake.  I have never made a cake like this in my life. So, needless to say, this was quite a challenge. It took me three days to bake the cakes, freeze them, make the numerous batches of frosting, and to decorate it. It didn't turn out to be as cute as I was hoping, but it didn't fall flat, it tasted good, and most importantly, Penny loved it.

                   We thought it would be fun to just let he dig into the cake and go crazy with it. She thoroughly enjoyed it! She was giggling, kicking her legs, and smiling from ear to ear. When she was done she looked like she had rolled in the mud. Thank goodness for showers!

We gave her a couple of fun gifts, like a walker/pushing toy and a V-Tech learning toy, but to be honest, she just loved playing with the tissue paper and bags the most. Isn't it funny how they love the most simple things? I love the joy they get from smallest things like wrapping paper. 

Penny and Kindra being silly on Penny's birthday. Kindra is wearing her white blankie as her bridal veil. :)

At one year old Penny is:

• Crawling like a mad woman
• Pulling herself up on whatever she can get her hands on. Including the walls, legs of the high chair, mommy and daddy's legs, the dishwasher (which is one of her favorite things), and also the garbage can in the kitchen.  I persistently tell her "no, no Penny" when she goes for the trash can, but she just looks at me with a twinkle in her eye and smiles.  I wonder if she knows what "no, no" means? 
• She is a serious flirt.  She gorgeous and she knows how to work it.  In church she will crawl down the isle and smile at the old men. It melts their hearts.  
• She LOVES Grandpa Terry. When he comes in from work she gets very excited, smiles from ear to ear, and won't take her eyes off of him
• She started giving kisses this week. Which John-Charles and I are both so happy about. It is the cutest thing ever.
• She says "Ma-ma-ma-ma" and "Da-da-da-da" and "ba-ba-ba" as well as various other noises and screeches. She likes to hold onto the side of the stairs and dance back and forth while she makes this deep, growling noise.  
• She is drinking cows milk, stage 3 baby foods, some finger foods, and is working on the transition into adult foods. It is not easy. She still gags on a lot of things and spits them out. I think she will be a picky eater like her daddy
• She will make a sing-song type chatter while laying her in crib and falling asleep. 
• She wears size 3 diapers. 
• She weighs 22 lbs--54th percentile
• She is 29 inches tall-56th percentile
• Her head is 19.5 inches round-84th percentile
• She has three teeth. Two on the bottom and 1 on the top.  Another one is ready to break through any day.
• She knows how to drink out of a cup and even tries to do it herself if I would let her.  If I hold the bottom of the cup she will put both of her hands on the side of the cup. One time I did and she spilt it all over herself. I learned that she is not quite ready for that yet. Sometimes she will take really big sips and as a result she'll spit out most of it and it will run all down her front. 
• She loves to crawl from our apartment/room, through the hall, to the living room and look at this picture of dried flowers. She is absolutely mesmorized by it.
• She can walk with her walker/pushing toy on the carpet and will walk if you hold her hands.  If you try to let go and let her stand by herself she will promptly go into a squatting position. Although, she is capable of standing for 10 seconds by herself.
• She loves pink lemonade
• Loves taking baths and going on runs with mommy in the jogging stroller. Also, she loves to play with mommy's long hair and pull it. She also likes to grab faces and everything on them. Usually not so softly. We are working on that one.
• Takes on average about 1 nap a day and will go to bed around 7:30 pm and sleep till about 8 in the morning.
• She loves being held by her mommy. She will crawl over to me and kneel at my feet with her arms up in the air towards me and bounce while kind of screeching until I pick her up. 
• John-Charles and Penny will lay in bed together, with her head on his chest, and will snuggle while watching cartoons. Most often they watch Spiderman or the Jackie Chan Adventures. Her daddy is a kid at heart. I love it.
• She is such a bright, cheerful, happy little girl. She melts our hearts every day and we can't believe how lucky with getting such a sweetheart. 

Happy first birthday, Penny!!