10 weeks...


eeeep... my baby's got 10 whole weeks under her belt! things here are starting to get lots of fun now. penny is much more responsive, and quite generous with her smiles. i swear she's going to laugh any day now. we get these goofy squeaks from her that want to turn into a giggle so very badly. i secretly think she's holding out just to keep me doing ridiculous things in an effort to get that chuckle. she's a silly little bird indeed!

i still have yet to figure out how to get anything major done with a baby in our house. cleaning happens in the 20 or so free minutes i have a day, so needless to say this place is looking rough. but she's only young once right? and the laundry will still be here tomorrow. i know eventually i'll find that balance, so i'm not too worried about it. but in the meantime, who wants to come clean my house?!?!

8 weeks


     my little lady is almost a whole 2 months already. when the heck did that happen!?!? i can absolutely understand now how suddenly your standing there at your baby's first birthday party wondering where the past year has gone. the days and weeks just fly! miss penny is starting to become a lot more fun these days. the first weeks of just sleep and snuggles were amazing, but now to that i get to add big gummy smiles... heart melting indeed! we've got her 2 month check up next week and i can't wait to see how much my little peanut weighs now. she eats like a pro and those newly formed rolls on her thighs, and the addition of a second chin are the proof of that!

     mama life is really feeling much more natural now for me too. those first few trips with her to either target or the grocery store were a little nerve wracking, but now we've got a healthy amount of journeys under our belt and we're feeling pretty comfortable going anywhere. penny and i even drove down to atlanta to visit my parents last week. that's a 4 hour trip, with an infant, all by myself. yeah, i might be a little proud of that one. sure it took us 5 and a half hours with feeding stops, and playtime breaks, but she did great and now i know that's one more thing we can do and survive just fine. and as for those feedings, i used to feel pretty awkward breast feeding her in front of people, but that too is a thing of the past. i just use a little nursing cover, and we're good to go. i've now nursed her at the mall, a restaurant, and in front of some very inquisitive nieces and nephews. it really is the most natural thing in the world, and i've realized how much it's really not a big deal to 99% of the people out there. so yeah, i like this motherhood thing i've got going on... and from what i hear it just keeps getting better!

awkward mama moments...


the other day evan and i were definitely the easy to spot new parents. we had a moment that totally topped the time we went to penny's pediatrician appointment and forgot her diaper bag. which was of course when she decided to have an epic poop in the car on the way there, forcing us to go to the front desk with our tails between our legs asking for a spare diaper. yeah, that was cake compared to this...

let me just sum up this newest awkward moment for ya. we were having a nice little lunch date when we heard the noise. i can only compare it to a muffled version of a plane taking off, it's the sound of penny having a complete blowout kinda poop. i'm talking up the back, out the leg, just throw out the outfit cause there's no saving it kinda poop! the next 20 minutes or so included evan and i doing our best tag team in the back of the restaurant (because of course there was no changing table in the ladies room) trying to bathe our daughter with nearly an entire pack of wipes, because she is now covered in poop AND pee, because she thought it would be fun to pee on the changing mat once we got her naked... all while she is screaming her head off. yeah, sorry anyone who wanted to have a relaxing lunch date too, but our little girl likes to poop at the least convenient times, and we love her for it!

3 weeks...

i can't believe 3 and a half weeks have already flown by since miss penny came into the world. in some ways it's gone so quickly, but then in others it also feels like she's always been here. it's kinda crazy just how natural it all feels. i thought once she was finally here i might be somewhat freaked out about being entirely responsible for this fragile little life, but it's true how they say your instincts kick in and you really just know what to do. i had a moment the other day when i was walking down the hallway in our house holding penny, and i passed a mirror. i had to stop and just look at us, "i'm a mom!". i actually said it out loud...
it's naturally taking us a bit of time to work out our routine around here. evan is back at work, so it's just penny and i during the day. i've had my etsy shop closed since she was born, and i'm actually thinking that i'm ready to reopen for the weekend and see how it goes. it's crazy that i've had it closed for this long. i haven't taken a real work break for more then a day or two since opening my shop back in april of 2009. it feels weird and i think it may take me a little bit to really get back in the swing of things. i miss it though, so that's definitely a good thing, and i look forward to making and creating lovely goodies again! we'll just have to see how much penny lets me get done during her naps. be good to momma little lady :)
i know i haven't been keeping up to date here as much as i would like, and hopefully i'll get a little better about that as we settle into our routine. in the meantime though feel to keep up with me on twitter, or intagram (monkeyandsquirrel) for daily updates. oh, and here are a few of my favorite penny moments from the past few weeks...