18 month checkup!

the 18 month checkup is, apparently, the one where all of the questions on the checklist are designed to trick you into telling the doctor your baby is autistic.  we saw through this ruse pretty quickly.
the doctor is still totally in love with penny, and thinks that she's perfect in every way.  penny gave her a hug and a kiss this time, so that's pretty nice.  she confirmed that penny is getting three teeth (her canines, which you'd think would be penny's favorite, but no...) which explains her crankiness and general falling over.  she did do many of her tricks for the doctor this time - pointing out various body parts, drawing with her pen, the aforementioned hug & kiss...luckily, we make her perform a lot.
penny is now 33 inches (80th percentile) and 22lbs 10oz (25th percentile) which is pretty much where she was at percentage-wise at her last checkup.  i really don't understand these percentiles - she seems pleasantly plump to me, and i would expect her to be a stringbean with the numbers the way they are, but i guess that's why i'm not a statistician.
she got a booster in her leg that's not all scraped up - so now both of them hurt her, but she got the most amazing holographic band aid!  i am so jealous of this child!
we don't go back until two days after her second birthday!  i can't even imagine what she'll be doing at that point!

busy, busy, busy!

this was a super busy weekend for us - for all the best reasons!  we started off on saturday at the engagement party of our dear friends angela and joe:

and on sunday we all went to the high line for a belated father's day celebration.

penny has mostly been working on talking this week - her words are getting to be super clear.  she has started to use "please" frequently, and has opinions about what she would like to eat when.  she has patted several dogs and cats, which is a huge accomplishment - she has been extremely interested in them for a couple of months now, but terrified to touch them.  she now will pat every cat she sees, and smallish dogs, as long as a grownup pats it  first.  she knows about crossing the street, and can tell us when we need to "stop!', complete with hand up in the air, or "goooooooooo!".  her dancing is amazing.

today, tragically, she fell and skinned her knee.  we're pretty sure it's her first bloody injury, and though she was a trooper, right as she was getting over it, she tripped and scraped it again.  poor little baby.

oh, also...there has been coloring.

I Think Penny Likes Her Grandparents

An Ad For Yogurt?

freebies

over the weekend, as we were walking around in the neighborhood, penny received, entirely unsolicited and without charge:
- three mylar balloons
- one cookie
- one purple latex balloon
- one chicken nugget

being adorable and friendly has its perks!

Penny and Noah Are Starting A Very Serious Band

18 months!

it's really hard to believe, but penny is now a year and a half old!

no sign, but i think you get the idea.

last weekend was sketchfest - penny spent her first weekend away from us at her grandparents' house on long island.  we were super busy, but she had a phenomenal time, and this will definitely make it easier for us to let her go sleepover in the future.  she is talking all over the place - stringing words together, understanding concepts, and generally being awesome and funny.
also!  penny's new best friend/fiance was born yesterday - desmond justice layne may live in VA, but the two of them are destined to fall in love someday.  all of the zalbens are so excited to meet the newest little layne!

Penny Loves The Library

The Mist

Just Chattin'

thief!

so penny and i went to the park today, and she was having fun playing with other kids and enjoying the sunshine, when i noticed a squirrel under a bench.  "look!", i said to penny "a squirrel!"  and we watched it jump from the ground on to the bench, from the bench it was on to the next bench, pick up penny's snack cup in its mouth and run!  i jumped up on the bench and shouted "no!', but that didn't make the squirrel return the snack cup, shockingly.  penny was stunned, i couldn't believe it, and the rest of the parents in the park were as amazed as we were.  i couldn't think of any recourse - there's no one to complain to about a squirrel burglary, and no way to retrieve it from whatever tree it's in now.  i'm sure the squirrel is having some sort of party tonight, fueled by puffs and whole wheat goldfish.
i got penny an identical snack cup, she can now say "squirrel", and if you ask her what mama said to the squirrel, she says "no, no!"

before all that, she looked like this!