Penny Discovers Splashing

Penny Is Stylin' For Summer

This Branch Was 300 Feet In The Air

sound effects

it is becoming clearer and clearer that penny has a sense of humor.  she is becoming a master of the fake-out ("oh, i'm just nonchalantly headed over in this direction, isn't that an interesting..." - ZOOM THE OTHER WAY TOWARDS THE ESCALATOR, LAUGHING AND LAUGHING [repeat]), knows that running and hiding when it's bathtime and she isn't wearing any clothes is WAAAY funnier than running and hiding any other time, and the other evening while we were eating dinner, she was cracking me up by doing this:

check out that fork action around 0:06!

a metaphor

i feel like the past 17 months have been playing charades with a frustrated puppy who is finally learning to speak english.

reports

there's not a whole lot to report this week - penny is talking up a storm and learning at least a new word per day.  i figured it would be easier to share a video than try to explain the cuteness of a typical night at chez zalben:

right?  she's totally my favorite.

i would also like to report that under the correct conditions, one can do this:

...And Then I Saw A Dog THIS Big

happy mother's day to me!

for mother's day, alex gave me the best gift that any parent of a toddler could receive.  when  penny woke up, he got up with her, took care of her, and then took her out of the house until 11am.  i slept until 10:45.  it was glorious!  he brought us all breakfast, including my new very favorite beverage, dirty chai (that's a chai latte with a shot of espresso in it.  yum.).
after breakfast, we all headed to the subway together, alex and i called our moms, and we went to the museum of natural history!  we saw the blue whale, the hall of biodiversity, the animal dioramas, the gem room - we saw it all!  it was so much fun!  lots of photos follow - the collage is from our day in the park on saturday, and then there are museum pix!

this one is x-tra large because i love it.

On The Go

Get Off My Lawn!

this morning

penny and i were playing together after breakfast, and she was carrying her "baby" around.  alex gave her an empty tissue box to play with (we spoil this child like nobody's business) and she put her doll on the rug and then covered her with the tissue box.  i said "oh, is your baby taking a nap?  what a nice blanket!",  at which point, penny took me by the hand and led me to her crib, pointed and said "blanket!".  i took out one of her blankies and gave it to her, telling her it was the perfect size for her baby.  i sat down on the floor to continue playing and she pointed at me, said "baby!  baby!", and gave me a light push so that i would lie down.  she then covered me with the blankie, put her head down on my leg and pretended to nap.  if alex had come in he would have seen what was either the world's lamest slumber party, or coziest massacre.

three stories

a warning.  while we were out and about today, i tried to turn on my camera to take some photos, and noticed that the bottom flap was open and my battery was missing! i had left it plugged into the charger, so this will be a very text heavy post.  stick around, though, i'll try and make it worth your while.


story #1.

there was a family fun fair a couple of blocks away from us on saturday, and we took a walk through.  at the back of the fair was a bus from north shore animal league with dogs on one side and cats on the other.  the dogs were all super loud (including one dog that sounded exactly like a person making dog noises) and penny wanted nothing to do with them.  when we went over to the cat side, she wanted to stay and look at them, but hearing the dogs and seeing the cats was really messing with her baby brain.  we left the fair and took a long walk.  about half an hour later, we were watching a wedding party taking photos in a churchyard nearby.  all of a sudden, penny started pointing and saying "cat cat cat cat cat cat" very excitedly.  she was pointing at a party van parked nearby with a passing resemblance to the adoption van.  she then started asking, complete with a question face and putting both her hands out with a shrug "cat go?" (translation: "where did the cats go?") we took her back to visit with the cats again, but she was much less interested in actually seeing them than in asking where they were.  when we got home, she stood in the living room and pointed at the front door saying "cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat" long enough that we thought she had finally gone insane, and even now, every now and again she'll put her hands out to the side, wrinkle up her nose and say "cat go?" because she knows we think it's hilarious.

story #2

on our walk, alex took penny into the supermarket to get a snack while i did a bit of shopping.  one of penny's favorite things to eat while we're out and about are these fruit pouches- they're awesome.  alex was letting her choose her own, and she saw this one.  she shrieked, and started flipping through them saying "elmo, elmo!" until she found this one.  now, as you readers may know, penny has never seen an episode of sesame street.  she has no reason to link cookie monster and elmo.  she had never seen this brand of pouch before - she did not know that an elmo version existed, never mind that one would be hiding behind the cookie monster variety.  this child is astounding.

story #3

we went to cousin brayden's second birthday party on sunday.  we had a great time, and penny ran around and was being a bit shy, but overall was a pretty good baby.  she passed out in the car on the way home, but unfortunately perked right up on the walk back to the apartment.  we were talking about the day as i was changing her into pajamas, and i asked penny if she remembered singing to brayden.  she clapped, which she does every time anyone says or sings "happy birthday".  i said "that's right!  we sang happy birthday to brayden because it was his birthday party.  now he is two" and she looked at me with her little twinkle and said clear as a bell, "two".