Penelope is now exactly 2 1/2 years old and I am 6 months pregnant with her baby sister, who we are calling Olive for now :)
It is crazy to think that in four very (veryveryveryveryveryveryvery) short months, we will be a family of four and our little Penelope will be turning 3 shortly afterward. As excited as I am to be going into this next chapter of our lives, I can't help but be a little sad for this one to be ending - having just one child and being able to have so much one on one time. I greatly hope that things continue to go well for us and that we continue to be able to remember to enjoy every little minute with BOTH of our girls, both together and separately. I have already caught myself calling them "the girls" on a few occasions and I feel that it's very important to remember to say "Penelope and Olive" more in order to keep them separate. They are unique individuals. Even today.
I can already tell that Olive is much different than Penelope, even though we haven't officially met yet. Her movements are so much different... and so much calmer. Not that Penelope is a complete maniac that can't sit still for 2 seconds, but she is active and is quite the busy body. In the womb, you knew when Penny was awake. I felt her stretches and wiggles all day... and it hasn't changed. You KNOW when Penny is awake and all day, she is always up to something. She is full of life and likes to let you know! Olive, on the other hand, has very subtle movements. I usually can't feel her unless I'm sitting down and being mindful of her. This is nice because it makes it easier to get things done around here. It will be interesting so see if Olive is as much the same as she was in the womb as Penelope was.
Penelope and I have been busy lately. Alan has been working for two months now and the two of us are sick of not having a routine - so we're busy working on creating one. We have attempted many times since moving here seven months ago (REALLY?! It was SEVEN months ago, that we moved here. INSANITY!) to join a local play group and have pretty much failed every time. Everyone wants you to pay money to join their group... and I have a hard time doing this. Why should I pay to be your friend? We just want to play!
We did join a MOPS group that is held every other Thursday at a local church, and like it. It is a bit pricey, but it includes breakfast, crafts and speakers - and the gave me a huge discount when the found out Alan was unemployed.
Recently, we joined a stroller fitness group called Stroller Strides that meets every Wednesday and has a playgroup afterward. We LOVE it! Only $25 a month and mommy gets to workout and Penny gets to play with her friends. Win/win.
I hope I'm not jinxing myself by mentioning it... but we have also been included with a weekly play group on Mondays as well. It's a group of moms in the area that meet up at local parks to play. Super awesome. Even more awesome is that they're my kind of ladies. Most of them delivered at the birth center that we will be having Olive at and are in to eating and living healthier lives, like Alan and I are. Not that these are things that I require to make friends with people, but it is awesome to have common interests and similar life styles. Some people are more laid back with it and others are complete granola moms... and I'm somewhere in the middle. Penelope gets along with their kids really well too. There's a lot of boys and she tags right along with them and even shows them a thing or two (that's my girl!).
We had first attended one of their play dates back in November, but was forgotten on their e-mail list. I asked once, but didn't want to be pushy. A few weeks ago, one of the moms finally remembered us and invited us again - we got an e-mail to join them next time too and am really looking forward to it! Fingers crossed that they keep us in the loop and we can keep coming and, eventually maybe even become good friends.
In moving to California, I hadn't anticipated that it would take so long to make friends. In Gleason, all of my friends were people I had grown up with - in Milwaukee, my friends were people that I had worked or gone to college with or, later, moms that I met through the hospital where we gave birth to Penelope. Here, though, I don't really have many places to meet potential playmates. People look at you funny when you approach them in the park and every playgroup I find online either wants you to pay to join or you have to be of a certain ethnicity. I keep reminding myself that we're still in a transitional phase and that things will slowly start to fall into place... and I can already see this happening, but I am very anxious for California to feel like home for us.
In other news, Penny is moving on up to a big girl bed! She has been crawling out of her crib for a few weeks now and it's time. Mary Ellen was very kind and purchased her a beautiful twin bed from Pottery Barn Kids for her - and Penelope is pretty smitten with it :)
Now that she has been in her twin bed for a bit, it's a little silly to see this picture of her in her crib - she looks way too big for it! We were very fortunate that she lasted as long as she did in her crib. I was a little weary of how the transition would go - we tried letting her sleep with the front rail off of her crib and put some pillows and a bean bag chair on the floor in case she fell out... which ended up happening a LOT, since the bed is so small. Penny was starting to resist bed time - so we made the plunge...
...and it was NO. BIG. DEAL.
I was afraid Penelope wouldn't like it and that she would wake up a million times in the night. But she LOVES her new bed. Bonus: it's big enough for her that we haven't had any issues with her falling out, which is Penelope's favorite part.
She's pretty stoked about her new, big girl bed :)
