tornado?

we're still not sure whether or not last week's storm was a tornado, but whatever it was, it made a huge mess.  penny was fascinated by the storm, and didn't mind the thunder, lightning, or super ridiculous rain.  the next day, alex took her out to their usual swings and found this:

it has since been cleared away.

since penny was born, it has been our great dream that someday we'd be able to go to a restaurant or sit around the dinner table and share our food with her.  this week, penny has started doing just that, and taking it one step further - she has started sharing HER food with US!

it all started one night when we ordered indian food and i gave penny a piece of my naan - she really enjoyed it, but she had a great time holding it out to both of us.  then over the weekend, the big gay ice cream truck (<- yes, i'm serious) stopped in park slope, and we got ice cream.  when i was done with the good part, i let penny finish off the cone:

(you can also pretend she has just shoved an entire ice cream cone in her mouth, if you like)

but tonight - TONIGHT - i was walking home from work when alex and penny caught up with me and we made a spur of the moment decision to go out to dinner!  not only was penny perfectly behaved, but we got a couple of carrot sticks for her, she shared my soup, crackers, the bun from my hamburger and alex's fries!  she had sips of water!  and she held out her carrot stick for us to share because she is such a sweet baby!  it was a dream come true - really.  we waited for this day for a very long time, and it was all we had hoped for - we all had so much fun.

just to wrap it all up, in honor of the first day of fall, a photo of penny in my favorite of her new autumn outfits: