guess what?!

you GUYS!  guess what we just found out?  it turns out, that if you give someone some money, they will come to your house and watch your baby for you!  and they don't even have to be related to you or anything!  and if they aren't doing anything else, they might even do it at NIGHT?  so that you can possibly go see a movie or go to dinner with the people who USUALLY babysit for you!  this is amazing!
in truth, alex had to be somewhere this afternoon, and we are already asking too much of our parents, so we hired a friend who babysits  for a living.  six hours, and penny had an awesome time!
alex is pretty sure he felt a top tooth, and though i didn't, he felt them before i did on the bottom, so color me convinced!
penny has become a pulling up on stuff master!  she is getting much better at cruising, and can still plonk down on her bottom when she's done standing.
we have started sharing our meals with her at mealtime, and tonight i cut up an apple into matchsticks for her - what a treat!  here's a collage of tonight's dinner (apples, grapes & cheerios) featuring her new bib!

also, we got a new couch!  last week we took a spontaneous trip to ikea, ate meatballs and mashed potatoes, and bought a convertible couch!  now you have a place to stay when you come visit!