A little video of all the Q kids playing!

Love,

Daddy

Sister Pictures

Crawling

Dear Penelope,

It looks like you disregarded my plea for holding off on the crawling until after our San Diego trip.  Today you decided to army crawl.  Luckily you don't go very far but if you're motivated you can go at least 5 feet!  Even though I thought you should wait, I'm proud of you!

With all my love,

Mommy

Question for you.

Dear Michela,

I found another blog and I was wondering if this toddler has it right.  Please read and let me know if this is how you feel too.

Love,

Mommy

The Honest Toddler
Fruit tastes good and is good for you. My favorite fruits are apples, bananas, red popsicles, blueberries, and pudding. Toddlers, eat your fruit but don’t compromise your values.

This post isn’t for children people who can guess the obvious. It’s for parents who struggle with knowing which fruits are appropriate for eating and which ones should go into the trash.

Before you hand someone you love a piece of fruit, inspect it. Ask yourself:

1) Does it look like it was grown in an enchanted orchard or under a freeway?

2) Does this fruit look like it has come into direct contact with a rare strain of jungle bacteria causing discoloration or unexplained spots/bumps?

3) Is this fruit small enough to be held comfortable in a toddler-sized hand or it is 1 million pounds?

4) Is this fruit wet?

Once fruit has passed its initial inspection, please move on to the next set criteria.

Apples

Use your x-ray vision to determine if apple will have brown spots inside. Apples with inside sicknesses can be fed to goats and horses but not children. Being remarkably cheap (don’t use words like “frugal” to describe your neurosis) and attempting to remove the disgusting with a knife is unacceptable. Did this apple not cost twenty cents? This should go without saying but the ENTIRE piece of fruit has been compromised.

Bananas

Bananas are a tricky bunch. <– did you see what I did there? Bunch. Bunch of bananas. They come in bunches.

One minute you need a banana. Crave one. Feel like your life won’t be the same if you can’t enjoy the smooth sweetness of this tropical fruit. So often though, by the time an adult has gotten off of Facebook and peeled one for you, the feeling has already passed. This isn’t your toddler’s fault. Don’t make a big deal. Just freeze the banana for a smoothie you will never make or eat it yourself.

Ask toddler if it is OK if you peel banana. When given the green light, only peel the banana 1/3 way down so it doesn’t break it half and fall on the floor. Why should I even have to say that.

If there are rot patches on the banana, do not hand to toddler with rot patch facing away like a sneak. Find another banana. If there are no more bananas, OMG.

Buy only bananas without strings on the inside. Read the label.

Toddlers are small people with small stomachs. Usually 1-1.5 bites are enough. If toddler is preparing for battle, 2-3 whole bananas will be consumed rapidly. Again, don’t make a big deal.

Berries

Wash, dry and make sure they’re all uniform. Berries are supposed to be sweet so if you got a bad batch, shame on you.

Pudding

This fruit comes in small containers and should always be chocolate. Serve with my favorite spoon. Always have more cause you can’t eat just one.

Red popsicles

Not to be confused with yellow or orange popsicles and definitely not purple posicles, these fruits are undeniably delicious. Keep these in the freezer and don’t be stingy. Fruit makes a wonderful breakfast and red popsicles are no exception. They taste best when enjoyed in front of shows. No napkin.

Preparation

Sometimes fruit is great cut up, sometimes cutting removes the flavor. Just ASK.

Now you know how to prepare fruit. Try it today!

Sidenote

Stickers: If the fruit is not for you, the sticker isn’t either. Greed.

Sitting

Dear Penelope,

Monday you started really getting your bum up in the air!  You're not moving forward yet but your bum is up there!  The real milestone I wanted to address today is that you can go from a crawling position to a sitting position all on your own!  You did this for the first time on Tuesday (8.21.12).  Wahoo!  It's fun watching you transition from your tummy to sitting and back to your tummy.  You're so cute!

Click to see video on youtube

I would appreciate it if you slowed down a little though.  You can be my itty bitty a little longer ya know!

Love you baby girl!

With all my love,

Mommy

You

You made your first painting on Saturday!

Dear Penelope,

Today I noticed that you now have two teeth!  Wahoo!  I was beginning to think you were going to be stuck with only one tooth for the rest of your life!  Okay, not really.  I'm just excited that you have another one!  Maybe that's why your night sleep has been greatly interrupted.  Cutting teeth is hard work!

Yesterday you got up on your hands and knees!  I would really appreciate it if you could hold off on going any farther until we get back from San Diego.  Of course that is highly unlikely.  You are already scooting backwards so I know forward motion will be coming soon.

You are also pulling up onto your knees in your crib from a sitting position.  Luckily you havent gone from lying down to sitting to kneeling so we have a little more time before lowering the crib mattress.

Lastly, you finally started pairing consonant-vowel sounds.  I was expecting dada but you surprised me with baba.  :-)  I love hearing your voice.  You and your sister egg each other on in the screeching department.  It's really quite funny.  One will screech first, the other will smile or giggle then screech back.  Needless to say, our house can be pretty loud at times.

Love you baby girl!

With all my love,

Mommy

The things you say

hehehe

Dear Michela,

Your language continues to blossom.  With that you are starting to say the silly things I say.
"Oh my goodness!" and "Yup-er-noodles!" are two of my favorites.  I think the sayings are much sillier when they come out of you.  Another thing you are mimicking is "I know baby, I know" when your sister is crying or fussing.  Apparently that's what I say when Penelope cries and needs a snuggle.  You're even saying it with your baby dolls!

You are also speaking more clearly and using your pronouns appropriately - most of the time.  You used to always refer to yourself as you.  That makes perfect sense.  When we talk to you we refer to you as you.  "Do you want...?" "Look what you did!"  Now you're getting the hang of saying things like, "Let me see" and "hold me".

I am having fun watching your language expand.  I have had a few moments this week wondering when I had a little kid and where my baby went!  Your sentences are getting longer and longer each day and I am blown away at how fast you're growing up.  Slow down would ya?!

I love you munchkin!

With all my love,

Mommy

silly, cute girl

Food

Dear Penelope,

You enjoy food and that makes life easier.  The only thing you're not really sure of are apples.  You don't hate them but you would prefer something else so you'll only eat a little before showing signs of being finished.  Your favorites seem to be butternut squash, zucchini, and prunes.  I must admit that I can get stuck in a rut when it comes to food for you.  I wait 3-4 days before introducing a new food to make sure there are no allergies but sometimes I wait longer to introduce something because I'm too lazy to prepare something new.  Sorry, that's a mommy failure.   With that said you do have a pretty good repertoire of choices.

You have had: zucchini, butternut squash, sweet potato, apple, banana, peas, blueberries, oatmeal, yogurt (you prefer plain), prunes, and mum mums.  The newest food is scrambled eggs - yum!

I hope you continue to enjoy the food I offer.

With all my love,

Mommy

8 Months Old

Dear Penelope,

Today you are 8 months old and have decided that night time sleeping is overrated.  I really wish you would reconsider because I happen to enjoy sleep and would love to get at least a 5 hour stretch of sleep.   We'll see if you change your mind about sleep tonight - please!

You are getting close to crawling.  You will go from the sitting position onto your tummy.   While sitting or lying you will spin around to reach toys.  I am impressed that you will entertain yourself for a long time as long as someone is in the room with you.  You don't want to be alone for long.  I don't blame you.  You're not crawling yet so you're kind of stuck if you're left.

We're having a girls weekend since Daddy is with Uncle Mike and Uncle Rob in Tahoe.  They're celebrating the end of Uncle Mike's bachelorhood.  I'm not sure what we'll do for our girls weekend but I'm sure we'll have some fun.  Even if it's scooting around on the hardwood on our tummies.  ;)

Your smile is showing off your tooth.

You're watching Michela and wondering what she's going to do next.

The sun was bright!

"No, no, no more pictures please."

With all my love,

Mommy

DL Bliss with Penelope

DL Bliss with Michela