happy new year!

this has been the fastest year of my life, hands down.  alex agrees.  this has been the fastest year of penny's life as well, but it's her only year so far so she has very little to compare it to.  it's pretty amazing to think that one year ago tonight, we had a two week old baby asleep in a basket on our coffee table, and today we have an almost walking almost talking 20 pound 30 inch marvel asleep in her crib.  penny has far surpassed all of her resolutions for 2010, so she has had to think hard about 2011.  we've decided to work on walking, talking and learning colors.  we'll see how it goes!
we wish you and your family all the best in 2011 - we know that this wasn't the easiest year for many, and we hope that 2011 exceeds everyone's expectations for awesomeness!

our epic adventure

today, alex left penny and me on our own for the day, and i decided that after her first nap, penny and i were going to target.  a girl needs warm jammies and socks for the winter, right?  we got bundled up and hit the road! normally, the walk to target is 20 minutes, tops, but because of the crazy amounts of snow, the walk took an hour and a half, and was replete with spirals around the block because there were intersections we absolutely could not navigate, danger blocks we spent in the bike lane, and lots of me carrying the stroller over sections of the sidewalk that were not shoveled.  now, i realize that this is a charming delightful throwaway blog about an adorable baby, but i am going to take one short moment here to rant.  you may skip if you like.

who is responsible for clearing the sidewalk around a church?  there are many, MANY churches here in my neighborhood, and usually i notice them because of their awesome architecture.  today i noticed them because none of them had passable sidewalks.  none.  at all.  wouldn't this be a great time to rally your community together?  hi, congregation - can you bring your shovel, please?  this annoyed me a lot.  brooklyn is a highly walked place - i understand that there was a lot of snow, and i'm not asking that everyone make wide beautiful paths for a lady and her stroller, but even the courtesy one foot in front of the other aisle would have been appreciated here.  seriously.  get it together, churches.
the exception to this is the church across the street from me (but i didn't have to walk by it today).  their sidewalk is completely clear; but it has to be to let the firemen in at any time.  that's another story for another day.

end rant

an hour and a half after we left, we arrived at our destination.  i figured it would be a quiet day at target because of the snow and that it's after the holidays.  it wasn't nearly as bad as it's been on previous visits, but it wasn't a quiet sanctuary, either.  i did my shopping, got in the rather long line for the checkout, and took penny out of her stroller because she hadn't stretched her legs in two hours or so.  the very nice lady behind me struck up a conversation, and it was all going so well - she guessed penny was a year old, she told me she was a nanny, asked me if penny got everything she wanted from santa ("he brought her everything she asked for" was my honest and not-wanting-to-get-into-a-thing answer), and her delightful pre-teen daughter was sassy and smart and cute.  then, THEN, i put my stuff on the conveyor, and it all went horribly wrong.  the purple jammies with the owls got an "oooh, cute" from everyone.  the jams with the penguins in scarves & hats, the same.  when the checkout lady scanned the robot pjs and the pirate pjs, the daughter brightly asked me "oh!  does she have a brother at home?" and i instantly changed my entire assessment of her.  "no - they're for her, i just don't like so much pink", i replied.  "she's WEARING pink", the checkout lady helpfully pointed out.  i kind of gave up, though i wish i had told everyone that i was a robotics engineer or a weekend buccaneer.  then penny and i shared a hot dog, and it took us much less time to get home.
am i a terrible person for not wanting to teach a lesson about gender bias in the line at target?  probably.  was it all worth it?

definitely.

blizzard!

we had a giant blizzard this week!  luckily, i have the week off of work, as the side streets weren't plowed for days, and the subways shut down.  when it first started snowing, we took penny out for her first true winter experience (we brought her home from the hospital in a snowstorm, but none of us were too coherent at that point).

oh, did i mention she can stand now?  yeah, she thinks it's no big deal.  she just stands there looking all pleased with herself.  i applaud for her every time, but she's too cool to acknowledge it anymore.

we stayed inside all day when the blizzard was actually blizzarding, as it was far too intimidating.  while trapped inside, we were visited by the one, the only - Boxhat!  

we may have gone a little stir crazy.  also, check out that belly!

 the day after, i ventured out into the crazy snow to gather supplies (i am a jewish mother now!  my chicken soup is no longer just tasty, it now has magical healing properties!).  

yesterday, we all went out into the world together.  lucky for penny, she received both a sled and snowpants for her birthday!

as soon as our internet stops being so spotty, i will upload video of penny walking around with our help!  it's amazing!

edited to add: it is also confirmed - she is getting four top teeth all at once!  check it out in the above photos!

birthday party!

on friday, penny turned one year old!  that's crazy!  i took the day off of work, and baked her a cake that we shared with her grandparents and aunt jodi.  in honor of the birthday girl's favorite food, it was a banana cake, and in honor of birthdays, it had chocolate buttercream (it's this cake, if you'd like to make one for your little monkey, but i was too crafted out to make the monkey face on it).  i think she liked it!

thank you, grandpa dan, for the amazing pictures!

i made her a cupcake crown because she is the queen of birthdays!

on sunday, we had our third (almost) annual holiday brunch.  alex and i cook WAY too much food, and have over as many friends and family as we can fit in our apartment.  the star of this year's spread were the BBQ bacon wrapped jalepeno poppers.  after our guests left, i think i ate half of them myself.  after the brunch, alex and i were entirely too sick of cooking to think about dinner, so penny joined the ranks of so many american children and ate chicken nuggets!  shaped like dinosaurs!

yum!

though it's incredibly hard to believe:

we went to the doctor for penny's check up.  she has dropped down to the 25th percentile for weight at 19 pounds 5 oz, though you'd never know it from her tummy!  apparently that's just fine, as she's working so hard on walking, she's expected to drop in percentile.  she's right on at 80th percentile for height at a staggering 30 inches.  we've moved from formula to whole milk, and penny has been given the go ahead for every food there is (except for nuts, peanuts and shellfish).  the doctor told us she's doing great!
that's one year done!  she's not going to be a baby for much longer!

dear penny

as of this minute, you are one year old.  i cannot even remember what the world was like before you.  though this year has flown by for me, it must have taken such a long time for you - you have already learned so much!  though my nickname for you is "tiny", your personality is oversized.  you are funny, beautiful and wise.  you are just as comfortable in a room full of people as you are sitting by yourself with a book.  your dad and i hope that today you will take your first step.  i am so proud to be your mother.  it is an honor to be raising you and it is a privilege to make you laugh.  i hope your smile never dims and your eyes are never less bright.  you love to eat grapes.  you are so musical - i have never heard a baby able to reproduce sound like you can, and for someone who can't stand up on their own, you have some killer dance moves.  i hope you did not inherit my: bad back, love for terrible food, terrible sense of geography.  i hope you did inherit my: patience, courage, craftiness.  i cannot express to you how loved you are.  you have an incredible family and massive circle of friends, all of whom are delighted to spend time with you.  it has been such a joy to spend your first year by your side, and i can't wait to see how much more is waiting for us down the road.

post #100!

this is the 100th post here at chez z!  so many exciting things are happening over here!  penny has decided to crawl for real, rather than the army crawling that's been serving her so well for so long.  she doesn't do it all the time, but it's still exciting.  we can now see her top teeth from straight on when she smiles.  she has started blowing kisses, though she still doesn't know how to give kisses.  

yesterday we celebrated chanukah with alex's side of the family - so much fun and so much food!

penny loves her family!

today we were reading through penny's book of colors, and on three different pages, she pointed to three different pictures i asked her to - a duck, grapes, and blueberries.
so this is it, penny's last week of being zero.  as of the next blog post, our baby will be the big 1-.0

happy 100th post, everyone!

milestones!

on thursday, when i started thinking about what i would post this week, i was coming up very empty.  penny still had her stuffy nose, she was kind of sleepy and out of it, and there were no developments to speak of.  but on friday, i got a call from alex - penny had gotten top teeth!  he could definitely feel one, and there was a tiny nubbin of a second!  well, that surely was enough to write about, no?  and it would have been, too - but when i got her to giggle with an open mouth to take a look in there, i saw not two, but THREE teeth looking back at me!  THAT'S got to be enough to satisfy you blog readers, right?
it sure would have been, except that as of today, penny has decided she's interested in walking!  the penny signal for "up" is slightly modified by flapping, and that means that she would like to hold on to our fingers and walk!  it's super exciting!  she has also balanced on her own two feet for several seconds!  it turns out to have been a VERY exciting weekend!