7 weeks!

this week, penny's maternal grandfather pointed out that the ticker at the bottom of the blog was still counting up my pregnancy, putting me at just over 45 weeks.  this would be concerning, to say the least, and so i changed the ticker.  while doing that, i figured, why not redesign the entire blog?  and by that i mean, why not ask alex if he could make a new header, try to install it, fail, and ask him to install it?
in short - we redesigned the blog!  welcome!  i am no longer pregnant! 
penny has received several new places to be from her cousins, and she loves them.  she has in depth conversations with anthropomorphised animals & cosmic bodies, she loves to kick and punch her soft blocks, and we can actually watch her learn cause and effect.  she hasn't quite got it yet, but her brain is definitely working.  and i know she's my child as after she's learned something new she falls into a deep sleep for hours.
penny continues to astound us with her hair growing powers, and is enjoying spending more and more time on walks.  she has now tried out every one of her slings, and enjoys them all for different purposes.  we have all also discovered the magic of the pacifier.  just as the stroller was a revelation, the pacifier takes her from fussy to happy in a way that we needed to see to believe.  we are all learning together!
also - now that penny fits into way more of her clothing, we've started dressing her for the day and changing her into nightgowns at night.  the other day, i put her in a sweater that my late grandmother knit for my cousin alison that was presented to penny at a baby shower.  i love having a direct link to my grandma, and the fact that it's a knitted item is, of course, even more meaningful for me.  putting the sweater and seeing it on her made me a little weepy, but it really could not be more cute.