Quick Poppy Accomplishment Update

Poppy has started really reaching for people when she wants to be held.  She also now will usually kiss whomever is holding her.  That kiss is often with an open mouth and extended tounge, but we’re not picky - it counts!

You can tell she wants to stand all the time.  She’s pulling up on stuff and getting her balance and letting go with both hands, usually to fall in a second or on a good day, two… but she keeps her balance well sitting and fairly well standing.  She’ll be walking her soon, to be sure.

Her talking is still just babbling, but it’s come a ways, as well…

Poppy Is A Leaf Eater

Anita and many of the mom’s took their offspring to Tyler Park today.

Poppy was somewhat fussy, all day and in fact all month… she’s getting teeth and she’s frustrated that she can’t really walk on her own yet.  Life is hard.

So hard, in fact, that sometimes, if you’re a baby, you just gotta eat some leaves and puke… which she did, with abandon.  What we didn’t figure out until ~9pm tonight was that one of those leaves was stuck to the roof of her mouth for over 5 hours. 

She wasn’t eating right, and seemed a little weird… in retrospect her actions certainly indicated that there might be a leaf stuck in her mouth, but neither of us thought to check for one.

Anyhow, she’s fine and asleep and happy.  Just a funny little story.

Mom Has Left The State

My mom (Poppy’s Grannie C) has visited us for a week and a half and it couldn’t have been timed better. With all of Poppy’s recent accomplishments, it was kind-of like meeting a whole new grandchild… at least a new set of things to watch out for when poppy-sitting.

Mom painted 80% of a wonderful mural in Poppy’s room, which I get to finish up over the next week or so (looking forward to doing a photo-synth of it, when done). Also mom made huge headway in getting some of gardening work started; with labor, knowledge and decisions.

There were trips to the zoo, to the coffee shop, to friends houses, walks around the new neighborhood, and anywhere else. We had a pot-luck hosted at our house (19 adults and 10 kids) and a couple of dinners besides.

We kept ourselves so busy, we were amazed when mom went back to Houston today… time flies by so quickly, in all respects.

So - thanks mom! Come back for more visits, anytime.

Poppy - The Dawning Of The Era Of Mobility

Poppy is over seven months old now. 223 days. She’s old.

In her first week of being 6 months old, she started getting her first tooth and started crawling. She quickly realized that through crawling is reliable, it’s not as great as pulling up to standing and trying to coax someone or anything into keeping her upright while she staggers towards any object of her desire. Basically, we spend a lot of time with her holding onto our fingers as we stoop over and walk her around… she sits when she’s near something she wants.

This week, her walking has slowed a bit, while she’s gearing up her talking. By talking I mean baby-babbling and razzing, but there are lots of consonants and syllable sounds. We’ve not gotten an “according to hoyle” ma-ma or da-da or pa-pa; though she’s uttered all of those sylables she’s not gotten any real repetition. We’re happy with what we’ve got, though - and it’s music to our ears all the time.

Likewise, she’s developed a unique laugh… we have no idea where she got it from, but sometimes her laughs sound like a goat… we have gotten it on video a few times, but I’m remiss at uploading anything, but Sarah got it and uploaded it…

Poppy: Babbling, Teething, And Growing

Poppy is growing up way too quickly. Anita cried a couple nights ago
watching her sleep, and I can certainly understand… She hasn’t
technically doubled in size, but she seems like she is at least twice
as big as she was at birth and many hundred fold more
capable/developed/skilled/aware.

She’s babbling a lot, starting this weekend and she has a second tooth just under the surface ready to come out.

Crawling is considered a given, and in fact any time her mobility is restricted for too long (60-120 seconds?) she’ll let you know exactly what she thinks about it. Pops can pull herself up from sitting to standing if there’s something stable around… she is even moving herself around into positions where that is possible. She has only gotten herself to sitting a few times.

We have decided to defend Nova (our dog) whenever she’s on her dog-bed. The rest of the time, Poppy crawls over to Nova and tries to touch/grab her… and Nova gets up and moves away. We’ve treat the dog-bed as “base” and try to keep Poppy from getting to her there. That’s the extent of their interactions for the most part, but judging as so, they are getting along quite well.

Poppy is showing the earmarks of being a handful. Still one of the happiest and easiest babies to deal with, she has no fear at all. The roomba started up next to her, the first time she’s ever seen it… and instead of being scared like a normal baby - she chased after it. She bit her momma while nursing (one very sharp tooth) and Anita yelled at her “NO!”. Again most babies would cry or backup or something… Poppy laughed, “what game is this?” She’s taken a few falls and spills and caught a face full of water a few times… all with almost no crying or scare (at least no more than a few seconds of crying, when she’s actually hurt herself). It’s great… but we fear she may have no fear, a trait which helped her pappa get several broken bones while growing up.

No photos uploaded… We’ve taken them… but havn’t uploaded recently.. I will sometime.

Penelope Lou Is Movin And Shaking (anything She Can Grasp)

Poppy is a feirce 6 months now. She is sitting and crawling and talking a lot (though still mostly in vowels only).

What’s funny is to see her grab ahold of something (anything) and shake it.

“What does this do? How about if I beat it against the floor for 5 minutes? hmmm… What about after another 5 minutes?”

She is so much fun to watch and interact with… all she’s doing is sitting or crawling and violently shaking/beating/eating whatever is in her little hands… but that’s more than enough to keep us watching.

Guess those genetic directives seem to be working fine for Anita and I.

Poppy Photos - Early July

photo-page / slideshow

Poppy ate some broccoli

Poppy slept with her papa

and walked with her mama

And played with her bear and in her crib

And then Poppy and Anita and several other friends went to Tyler Park for the afternoon

Poppy Accomplishment, Sitting

Most changes are gradual - including this one… Poppy is sitting up pretty well now. Over the last two weeks she’s been getting closet to sitting unaided and most of this week, as long as there’s a pillow to protect her from occasionally flailing backwards - she’s a solid sitter. Amazing how proud I can be over such simple accomplishments.

Penelope Lou - 5 Months Old

Our daughter is 5 months old today. The milestones of time help me take account of the monumental changes which have happened. We have a fully fledged baby - nobody would call her an infant… she will never be an infant again.

This is both wonderful and tragic - but luckily more on the wonderful side.

She’s starting to teeth occasionally, but it seems to bother her for a couple of days here and there. She can sit up or stand up while hanging on to something. Everyone loves her and she’s still like kryptonite - making even non-baby-lovers weak in the knees.

She’s eating sweet potatoes and green beans so far - enjoying both of them and wanting more.

Unfortunately she’s been talking a bit less this month. We got a few consonants in there, but she’s vocalized a bit less over all. Oh well - at least she’s still laughing a lot.

Poppy, Age 4 Months - 4 Days In Colorado

Poppy at Month four:

This month has been quite productive. She has been growing by leaps and bounds, like
normal. She’s now reaching for everything and
putting it all in her mouth and dropping it on the floor. Nothing is safe within a foot and a half of her. She is sitting up well, if you help her
out. She’s standing well, if you help her out. I think she is just
starting to change from blue to hazel eyes, though that’s only in certain lighting. Of course she’s
still chubby. We think she is about 17 pounds and 25 and a half
inches. She’s still gloriously, generously, thankfully, happy and easy going. We are so lucky.

In Colorado:

The flight to Colorado was fantastic. Penelope slept through the
accent and decent and a little bit in between. She was so good. We
actually had to sit in between other people, the middle seats, on in
front of each other. We passed her back and forth a little bit over the
top which was kind of entertaining. We got a shuttle from the airport to
Keystone, again she slept through a lot of pressure changes and did
remarkably well. We got into our hotel room and had the gorgeous view
over a little lake. And every thing’s amazingly picturesque.

The meetings are going fine and it’s great to meet the families of other employees. Poppy is like kryptonite, melting the hearts of all around her.

I wasn’t there, but Poppy wet swimming today and had an inflatable boat… apparently she loved it - and was squeeling at the water, while anita swam around - using the boat as a kickboard. too cute.

Poppy In The Mirror - Talking To Herself

Poppy Went Swimming For The First Time, Today

Poppy went swimming for the first time in her cute little two piece + diaper. Mom and Grannie C and Papa all helped keep her afloat. She did great, not always sure she knew what was going on, but was happy and absorbed the new experience without drinking too much chlorinated water. All told, she was probably in the water for almost an hour.

Poppy Lou Video On Youtube - Giggling

Note: updated on April 17th, with a second and longer laughing clip.