Life's Big Lessons from a Tiny Teacher

It's been a long time... too long. I apologize. I have had writer's block, but I've been urged on by guilt. Therefore, you must forgive the lack of fluidity in my writing. To make up for the choppiness I have included subtitles.

Baby Stats and Update:

Penelope is eight months already today, Saturday, March 27. I cannot believe it. She weighs 17.6 pounds and is 26.5 inches tall. She has changed so much! No, she is not crawling yet, but close, not terribly close. I'd say she's more on her way to walking. She loves pulling up on my hands and taking steps. Actually today for the first and ninth time she pulled up to standing on her own, yes, nine times! Without any help from Mama.

She started eating solid foods the day after she turned six months. To date her absolute favorite is sweet potatoes, followed by peaches and yogurt. Pears, apples and prunes make it in there sometimes too, but still have to be combined with sweet potatoes.

She is finally sleeping in her own room and........ drum roll..... through the night! We (yes, we, I think it was harder on me than her) worked very hard on breaking some bad sleeping habits. I still feed her around 5:30 AM then it's back to bed for a couple more hours. But, she will go straight through from 7pm to 5:30 before eating again.

The two top photos were taken today, in the very basket (of toys) that she pulled herself to standing.

Andrewish News:

We talk to Andrew everyday on Skype. Thank you God for Skype! Penelope definitely knows it's her daddy she's seeing and hearing.

I'm not going to lay down all the details because it seems to be the AF prerogative to change their minds, but we are on target to see Andrew in April! I hope, I hope all goes as planned with this one. This deployment stuff is absolute garbage in my opinion. I'm not saying I don't support the cause. I just don't support the separation of families. I guess that's why they call it sacrifice.

To all my AF friends out there leading husbandless lives right now: I think of you all often and hope and pray that this time goes smoothly and swiftly for you and your families.

Recent Events:

Hillary and the two redheads visited for three and a half weeks in February! What a great time! Above you see a picture of Max and Ruby-Kate hiking Bruneau Dunes, North America's tallest sand dunes right here in my backyard! Upon their arrival I welcomed them at the airport by tossing Penelope into my sister's arms and puking all over the floor, twice! Two days later Penelope caught my nasty bug. Then we gave it to poor little Ruby-Kate. Max and Hillary managed to avoid the plague somehow. We had a really fun first week. We did about ten loads of laundry a day and went through many cans of Lysol. I will try not to be so rude if anyone else wants to visit. Isn't that enticing? Their stay here was the only time that has flown by since Andrew's been gone and I was very sad to drop them off at the airport.

Mom comes out for a visit on the 31st. Mom, what a surprise you are in for when you see your granddaughter. A lot has changed since she was 9 weeks, when you last saw her. I count down the days to when we pick her up at the airport. You really start to miss family when you live over 2,000 miles away.

My Thoughts:

Penelope has challenged me with her presence in my life. I must be a much better person than ever before or ever imagined. And, I want to.

Things are not always as you hoped they would be and don't always turn out the way you plan. I had definite ideas and strong opinions about how I wanted to go about raising Penelope. Some things have proven not as simple as I thought they should or would be, and those strong opinions have had to become rubber bands instead of steel. I have been left speechless and have had to drop judgements that I didn't know I had formed. There is no one right way or only way to raise a baby in any facet of the business. That is my new position. My little girl teaches me so much everyday. There is no ground to stand on to make judgements.

Thank you for reading. If you are getting my blog updates then know that I think about you. There are many new pictures posted to my albums link on the side or linked to the title of the post as usual. Please look and see our beautiful baby girl. She is truly gorgeous. Enjoy!