Sunday, November 11, 2012

Monday, November 5, 2012

October



October was filled with all sorts of fun. We were busy busy busy as usual, but we were able to sneak in a lot of family stuff to celebrate Halloween! We visited Tanaka's Pumpkin Farm...




Hunter had his first birthday!


Seriously? How huge does she look here? She has been going through some huge growth spurts - sailed right through her size 3's and is now in a size 4... and she outgrew her shoes, seemingly, over night! 





Penelope got a new fish! He's a pretty, blue beta that she named Louie!


Olive outgrew the outfit she came home in :(


Penelope was a black cat for Halloween!


We went to "Treats in the Streets" in old Town Orange with some friends :)



Alan was Bob Ross and Olive was his "happy little tree"
10 points if you get the reference :)



Our happy little Olive tree!


Olive is SUCH a giggler! She is constantly smiling and so easy to make laugh! I love it!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Celebrating Three Years...



Shortly after Penelope's 3rd birthday we had a friend that started taking nursing photos for friends in a natural parenting play group that I joined. I couldn't think of a more wonderful way to commemorate this phase in our family's journey - three years of nursing. three months of nursing two babies.

We've come a long way these last 3 years. A long long long long long way. But through it all, nursing has been our constant. Some days have definitely been harder than others, and there have been times where I have wanted to call it quits, but I stand by my decision to allow Penelope to continue to nurse into her toddler years and am glad that we have made it this far.

When I first became pregnant with Penelope,  breast feeding was a no-brainer for me.  It's essentially free and healthier. Why not? My goal was to make it until Penelope's 1st Birthday so that she wouldn't have to have any formula - the idea of weaning a baby to put them onto formula has always been ridiculous to me. I understand that breastfeeding doesn't come naturally or easy to all mothers, I have known many who tried and tried and just couldn't get it to work... but to be successful at breastfeeding and wean them onto formula just for the sake of weaning them? Crazy.

We were fortunate and, besides a small yeast infection in the first month, we didn't have any complications when it came to nursing. That first year literally flew by and at Penelope's 12 month well-baby visit, our Pediatrician informed us that the pediatric recommendation was to nurse to 2 years or more.

Two years? Ok. We'll see about that.... then the second year went by faster than the first and the third, faster yet. And Penelope loves her mama's milk now just as much, if not more as she did as a newborn. In her words, "It's yummier than ice cream and funner than Disneyland." ... and Penelope loves ice cream and Disneyland a whole awful lot.

Now here we are. A pile of babies and boobs. 3 years and 3 months old.

And it's not weird.
Who knows how much longer we'll go, but for us, this is very special and I am so happy that we have these images to remember this time together.



*Photographs were taken by the wonderful Sarah A. Schlothan Christensen from Becoming Sarah.


Saturday, September 29, 2012

A little more of September...







To say that Penelope is obsessed with human anatomy is a HUGE understatement. She has been endlessly curious with body parts and their functions since before she started talking. Currently, she is most interested in skeletal structures. 






The Many Faces of Olive








Monday, September 10, 2012

Happy Happy THIRD Birthday Penelope Lane!


Our sweet little lady is THREE! There were balloons, there was a party with all of her best, little friends and (of course) there was Disneyland!




Playing with her friends - Penelope requested a dinosaur birthday party so her party was held at the Prehistoric Park in Laguna Beach - where there are REAL fossils incorporated into an amazing play ground. 


The day of her Birthday party was very hot! We were sweating buckets, but we had so much fun!



...trying out some fun stuff from Aunt Jill and Uncle Steven!


This was also Olive's first trip to Disneyland! 





Thursday, August 23, 2012

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Penelope's 3rd Annual Birthday Wishlist!



Why does this always sneak up on me? August is almost over! I'm pretty sure it was just the 4th of July last weekend. I can bet money on it... these days just keep going by faster and faster! With the ending of August so soon, it can only mean one thing - it's almost Penelope's Birthday! By request, I have made it a yearly tradition to write a post about Penelope's Birthday wishlist - so here goes...


Penelope's Official 3rd Birthday Wishlist!


...I'll explain them later... but here is the gist of what she/we have come up with so far...






Penelope has been very interested in Dinosaurs lately. When asked what kind of birthday party she wanted, she knew right away - a DINOSAUR BIRTHDAY PARTY! So it comes with no surprise - that, when asked what she would like for gifts - a lot of dinosaur things came up. The first thing on her list? A Dinosaur cup:



 



"A dinosaur cup, Penelope?"
"YES! TWO dinosaur cups and some sticky stuff too!"
"Sticky stuff? What kind of sticky stuff?"
"Oooohhhh some sticky tape and play-doh and sticky stuff and sticky stickers. HEY! Dinosaur stickers would be a lot of fun. B'would you like some dinosaur stickers too, Mama?!"





 


"...and Mama, may I please have some more paint! I always use ALL THE PAINT! I love to paint with Dada. B'would you like to paint with me Mama?"