family!

so i've managed to miss filling you in on thanksgiving, which was wonderful.  while alex is adjusting to his job, we are adjusting as well.  right now we are very lucky to have two teams of grandparents and an amazing babysitter to help us out.
today we attended the combined bar mitzvah celebration for our cousins yaakov & akiva, and we had a great time!  penny took a while to warm up, but once she did she had the time of her life.

yaakov has promised that they will have a balloon and cookie party, and if i know penny she will hold him to it!

on the way home, when it was just the three of us in the car, penny thought for a moment and then said "sometimes, when i'm at a party or someone's house or a place that we have never been yet, sometimes the grown ups say we have to go but i'm having fun and i don't want to go yet."
this was so succinct, and really the first time that she's expressed an emotion that complex with such clarity of language.

two quick stories:
- we were at a restaurant, and she kept asking to go to the bathroom.  it may not have been insulated, or maybe it was just freezing in there.  either way, the toilet seat was cold, so told her she should squat or she'd get a case of the cold tush.  she said "oh no!  will i have to go to a real doctor?"
- we were walking home from school together and i noticed she was wearing different pants than the ones she went in with.  i asked her what had happened and she held up her hands in an adorable way she has now when she's explaining something, and said "mama, mama, mama.  i did not have an accident.  i was playing in the playground and i sat in something wet so i changed my pants and my undies.  i did not change my shirt."