we need your help!

penny keeps asking alex and i if we remember a happening, and neither of us do.  we also don't know who she's talking about.

allie and josh (who are either friends or cousins) and penny were at a museum or a house, and allie put bee oil (maybe honey?) on all of their jackets.  penny insists that alex and i were with her.

does this sound familiar to you at all?  please let me know in the comments!  we are freaking out over here!

a quick pizza story

i had to travel last week, so i haven't been able to compose a post about our fantastic Father's Day at the Bronx Zoo!  i just got this email from alex, though, and i wanted to share:

We were eating pizza. Penny asked me, "Do you want to hear the story of the pizza?" I said, "Of course!" so here's what she said:

Once upon a time, there was a pizza.

It was really angry.

The pizza said, "No, no, no!"

But I said, "Yes, yes, yes!"

And then the pizza said, "Okay, let's be friends."

The end.

Later, when I asked her to tell it again, she added this to the end:

Then an apple came. It said, "La, la, la."

Then Penny ate the apple. She said, "Yum!"

busy weekend...we may have done too much.

alex was busy this weekend, so i had penny all to myself.  since this is a rare treat for me, i guess i overdid it a little maybe and exhausted myself.  but it was all fun!  and i got some photos!

on saturday, penny and i ran into her friend andie and family at the playground.  andie has a two week old baby sister, so i invited all of them over to our place for a change of scenery.  penny and andie had a great time, and i hope andie's mom got a little bit of a break.  after penny's nap, we headed over to our friends' apartment for a race-day bbq.  penny used their toilet (awesome) and was terrorized by dogs (not awesome).  there were three friendly dogs at the party, and it was too much for penny.  just as she was beginning to warm up to them, one of them ran up to her out of nowhere, put his paws on her chest and took a bite out of the cookie she was holding.  before she could process what had happened, he jumped up and took another bite.  she and the dog were both totally fine, but she totally lost it and was inconsolable for a while.  once we replaced her cookie, things got a lot better.  we had a good time watching the race, though penny is still baffled by commercial tv.

on sunday penny told me that she wanted to go to the "other playground".  we packed up the diaper bag and headed to harmony. we weren't even halfway up the block when i noticed one of andie's shoes!  apparently she had lost it the night before!  quite an auspicious beginning to the day.

we stopped by these hydrangeas to capture penny's favorite color.  i'll give you three guesses. 

i had noticed on our way into the park that it was the carousel's 100th birthday, and there was going to be a celebration starting at noon.  since it was only 10:45 as we were leaving harmony, i figured we could spend a little time at the zoo first.  there was some construction in one of the tunnels, so i took an alternate route, which landed us at this playground.  we stayed for a while, penny ran around and climbed on all of the equipment, and kept running back to tell me "i've never been to this playground before!"  it wasn't until we actually got to the zoo that i asked her whether she wanted to go.  this is a parenting trick that you may use - it helps if you tend to get lost and don't want to disappoint your child with your inability to find a zoo.
we had a super great time!

we spent a fun hour an a half at the zoo!  penny loves the animals, and the baboons were all up front and center so she got a great look at them.  by the time we left the zoo, the carousel party had started, so we got our (free) tickets, and got in line.  as it turned out, they were cutting off the tickets two people behind us, so our timing was perfect!  we had a fun ride - penny chose a horse that went up and down, and i stood next to it for her first solo ride!  after that, we made a quick stop at a picnic, but penny was really done by that point.
she fell asleep in the stroller, and i ran a couple of errands.  we took a trip to the animal playground in the afternoon, but the sky got really dark really fast, so we headed home pretty quick.
penny decided to have a picnic dinner!

i may have given myself heatstroke pushing that stroller around all day in the heat, but i had such a fun time with penny.  girlfriend is fun to be around and funny and charming, and just as sweaty as i am.  we sang songs and cracked jokes, we watched dogs swimming in the dog pond, ate animal crackers, detected nature with her magnifying glass...i am having so much fun with this person!

big apple circus!

today was another circus day (the very best kind of day in my opinion).  did you know that if you get stuck behind the tour de brooklyn in a car, it will take you a lot longer to get to your destination?  we sure do, now.
luckily we arrived in plenty of time, and immediately ran into friend and dance captain anissa wiley, and it was wonderful to see her!  the show itself was great - penny is becoming a circus pro, clapping along, enjoying all of the animals, and, of course, thinking the clowns are her favorite.  penny has never met my good friend mark, and trying to explain that there's a clown named "grandma" along with her two grandmas became complicated.  however, i'm pretty sure that by the end of the show, when she got to meet her up close and he brought us backstage to meet the animals (i'm aware of the pronouns.  leave me alone.) penny was having a great time!

and then one day...

she started doing this...

i have no idea where she gets it from.

purple pancakes!

it has now been a week that penny is completely pacifier-free.  this took us months of preparation, about 3 days of actual lead time, and brilliant conspirators (our downstairs neighbors).  when we first started thinking about giving up the pacifier, i had a brainstorm while walking home from the subway.
penny's favorite meal, hands down, is breakfast; and her favorite breakfast food is pancakes.  alex makes them on saturdays as a treat for all of us.  penny's favorite color is purple.  what if we combined those things and made the ultimate reward - purple pancakes?  i proposed the idea to penny and she seemed really into it.  we took all of the pacifiers out of her room, went through her normal nighttime routine and told her that if she made it through the night with no pacifier - purple pancakes in the morning.  she did not make it 5 minutes.  but we kept talking about it.  she kept reminding us that when she gave up her pacifier she would have purple pancakes.  we talked about how when she got too big for stuff we gave it to the babies we knew.  her old bear butt pants and teething bracelet were at baby desmond's house.  when she outgrew clothing, we put it in a box outside for the babies in the neighborhood.  when we found a random jar of baby food in our house, we gave it to baby luke, younger brother of penny's boyfriend noah, who live downstairs.  penny gradually got accustomed to the idea that when she was too big for her "pa"s, she would be giving them to baby luke.  last week, i was taking thursday off of work, so on tuesday, alex told penny she only had a few more days with her "pa".  on wednesday, shee took her last nap with the "pa" and went to bed for the last time with it.  i sent an email to the downstairs neighbors outlining our plan and asking their schedule (and permission).  on thursday morning we woke up, had breakfast, wrapped up the pacifiers in a gift bag, and knocked on the neighbors' door.  penny gave baby luke her "pa"s so sweetly, and showed him her monster, which i had asked her to bring downstairs so she could show him what she was going to be sleeping with now.  it all went so smoothly, and everyone was so excited.  (i wish i had pictures of this, but alex and i were too involved in the process to bring a camera, and i couldn't figure out how to use the neighbor's.  picture it in your mind.) penny and i then went to her dance class and i did my best to tire her out for her nap time.  there was protest before naptime.  there may have been a tantrum.  there was also a three hour nap.  penny woke up happy and refreshed.  all was good!  we went back out, played and ran around, ate dinner, and had a smaller protest before bedtime.  in the morning, as promised, purple pancakes!

there are no good photos of them - something about photographing them makes them look like meat.  

in the end, they turned out to be purple peanut butter banana pancakes, and they were super delicious!  it was a day of celebration!  we called all of the grandparents and told them the good news!  saturday was even more celebratory!  we went out for two different ice creams!  we've kept it exciting!  even now, a week into it, she has asked if we have them back yet, but it's getting to be less and less of an issue.  every adult we've told has been so supportive and helpful in acknowledging the awesomeness of penny's achievement  big step!  she's such a big girl!

apparently today is...

lucky penny day!