Happy 2nd Birthday Penny

Pictures:

1. Penny opening gifts with mommy on her 2nd birthday
2. Crawling through her new tunnel (thank you grandpa and grandma Phipps) with her new Jessie doll (thank you Dylan, and Dustin & Emily too)
3. New outfit, she just loves having pockets
4. Birthday shirt and skirt
5. Cheesing with a dandelion in her ear
6. Converted big-girl bed
7. She's all the gift we need
8. Most (more than half) of the extended cousins from the Nichols' side

Penny turned 2 recently and is a bundle of energy.  She talks a whole lot and fairly clearly.  She has a passion for Toy Story and Tangled, we watch them at least a few times each week.  She has done great with the conversion of her bed and we are now slowly working of potty training.  It would be nice if the latter part was as easy as the bed conversion.  Penny is also expecting a baby sister to come in September, she hasn't shown any interest in sharing the spotlight, so this could be a fun transition.  There isn't much else to report from the Nichols' household.  Until next time...

Its only been about 4 months since the last post

I figured I would try and update the blog once more before Penny turns 2 later this month.  She now has a rather extensive vocabulary, words like genius, einstein, amazing, grandma, and grandpa are commonly flowing from her lips.  Unfortunately, she is very versed in "no" also.  She is already starting to take a run at the terrible 2's and many times I wonder where my sweet, even keeled little girl has gone.  As most of you know, Emily is expecting and is now about 15 weeks along, we should be finding out the sex around the time of Penny's 2nd birthday.  I don't think Penny has yet grasped the concept that she will be a big sister later this year, but she'll figure it out once she isn't getting 100% of the attention.  Let's hope that process goes smoothly.  As for this posts' pictures:
1. Penny gets a 2-point take-down on Eli
2. Leaning in to give Eli a kiss, she needs to slow play this for about another 23 years
3. Cheesing and saying "giddyup" while on Rosco's back
4. She really loves her puppy
5. Practicing potty time while reading and brushing her teeth.  She's showing off her new book that her cousin Benjamin sent her.
6. Moshing with a mohawk
7. Mohawk is about all that can be done with her hair still at this time
8. Checking out Dylan's new birthday gift
9. Penny loves to try on daddy's hats, this is her wearing my class A hat for my fire dept dress uniform
10. She is also into shoes (great), wearing daddy's five finger toe shoes

I'm sure that I am forgetting something, but I can't think of any other news from this Nichols' household.  Until next time.

2010 Holiday Season

1. Penny with her new guitar from grandma Flynn, hopefully she has mommy's musical talent
2. Cheese!
3. Rosco wearing Penny's new chef apron
4. Ready to go in her ultra-cute peacoat and hat
5. Now that we're done talking pics for the Christmas card Penny decides to smile
6. Whipping up dinner in her new kitchen and chef outfit
7. Pay no attention to the stain on the front of her shirt, she's happy
8. Sporting her new hat, handmade by Emily's co-worker
9. Showing off her new chef outfit (from Uncle Dustin and Aunt Emily) to Dylan
10. Good family photo from the Phipps Christmas
11. Cheesing with daddy's hat
12. One of the Christmas card rejects, that's about how the whole photo shoot went
13. Looking cute and ready to go see the trains at the State Museum and Eiteljorg
14. Chez Penny
15. Opening Christmas gifts with grandma Phipps

Over the past few months Penny keeps saying more and more.  She repeated "genius" with her own flair of "I a genius."  Still working on the grammar, but she's got the idea along with a lack of self-esteem issues with that attitude.  She refuses to say "I love you," but will reply without hesitation "I love football."  To her future husband (25-30+ years from now), YOU'RE WELCOME.  She is getting to the point where she can repeat just about anything you say.  At one point her "uh oh" and "oh no" became "uh no."  She is almost always a little joy, but occasionally we get to see her temper flare up (must've got that from mommy).  She eats incredibly healthy for a toddler, unfortunately that doesn't elicit weight gain.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that she hit 20 lbs before she's 2, we're more that ready to turn her car seat around, but she just won't cooperate.  The holidays were fun, and fortunately Penny didn't get too spoiled by the grandparents.  Emily and I bought her 3 gifts and she was over opening them before the 2nd was done, hopefully thats a good sign of things to come.  Until next time, everyone have a safe and happy New Year.

Happy Halloween (and whatever else came since the last post)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from left to right, top to bottom:

1. Penny wearing a handmade dress and bonnet made originally for her namesake, Penny Diane.
2. The other handmade dress made by Penny's great-great-great grandma Nichols and preserved by her great grandma Flynn.
3. Enjoying meal-time, just like any kid should!
4. Wild fire in Colorado somewhere between Rocky Mt. Nat'l Park and Breckenridge.
5. Living the high life with a little swing time in Phoenix.
6. Kissin' cousins, Dylan and Penny, at the ZooBoo in their costumes (a tiger and a ballerina).
7. Taking the easy ZooBoo tour on daddy's shoulders.
8. Test driving Engine 52 one last time before daddy moved to a different station.
9. Emily posing on a big rock during a hike up in the Rockies.
10. Best buds!  Penny loves to "get" Rosco first thing in the morning when she wakes up, it always puts a smile on her face and produces giggles.
11. Emily and Penny enjoying a good visit with Stephanie.
12. Horseback riding out in Colorado during our childless vacation.  My horses' name was No Name.
13. I think Penny wanted us to pack her along to Colorado, but that would've defeated to purpose of our little getaway.
14. Our little tot already trying to walk in mommy's shoes.

Over the past coule months Penny's vocabulary has increased quite a bit.  Unfortunately, her favorite phrase currently seems to be, "TV on."  We're working on breaking her of that, but she doesn't get to watch that much TV anyways, we just don't want her to become a TV junkie.  Emily and I took a week and went out to Breckenridge, CO by ourselves to get away for a little while.  It was our first real vacation in over 2 years and it was very enjoyable and relaxing (even though we did a couple good hikes and got our butts kicked at Crossfit of Breckenridge).  The 3 of us also made a quick trip down to Clarksville, TN to visit a good friend of mine from my formative years, Isaac Shelby, and watch him coach a football game.  The trip was too short, but it was good just too be able to catch up and see an old friend.  Emily and Penny also made a trip out to Phoenix, AZ to visit with Emily's sister Stephanie.  From what I was told, Penny immediately reached out for Stephanie when seeing her at the airport.  For Halloween, Penny was a ballerina, and a darn cute one at that.  We went to the ZooBoo at he Indianapolis Zoo, but didn't do much Trick or Treating other than grandparents and our next door neighbor.  Also, during the past month, I have taken a position at a different firehouse, one much closer to home and much busier.  I hated to leave a very good crew on Engine 52, but I didn't want my skills to completely atrophy.  I am now on Engine 12 with a good crew that has quite a bit more experience than do I (approximately 120 years between 4 guys), which means they have tons of knowledge that I will try to glean.  I can't think of any other news from our house, we've stayed pretty busy chasing Penny around and keeping up with life in general.  I wouldn't expect any more posts from me until after the trilogy of holidays.  So until then, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Years'

Penny's Progress

Pictures:
1. Penny at our gym, Blast Fit, deadlifting 115#
2. Cheesing outside on our small patio
3. Closed her bedroom door and found a book to read.
4. Walking around on the patio
5. Riding the hotrod and reading simultaneously
6. Fake smile in her high-chair
7. Play time with her bff (not bf, at least not for another 23.5 yrs), Eli
8. Looking darling in an outfit her great-uncle Tim got her
9. Posing in an outfit that daddy picked out.
10. Diaper twins, Penny and Rosco

Over the past few months Penny has mastered walking and has moved on to climbing.  She climbs into the warming drawer of the oven, onto the couch, in her grocery cart, on our glider, on top of her picnic table, on the coffee table, and anywhere she can get to.  She also likes to surf on her hotrod (see above picture) while holding onto the coffee table.  She has definitely picked up a stubborn streak and typically laughs when we try any type of discipline.  Unfortunately, she has fallen on her weight growth curve some and we have had to put her on pediasure to help her gain weight.  She's about 18 lbs now, but we're trying everything we can to get her to gain quicker, she's just so active though that its hard to keep up.  That's about all from this side of the post for now.

Update

Just a quick update.  Penny has now started to walk.  On the 4th of July, she decided to stand and take a few steps towards mommy.  Of course, I was at the firehouse on overtime and missed it.  So they both came to visit me the next day so that I could see her new trick.  She still prefers crawling because it is faster, but she has started walking.

Long Time No Blog

                       

Pictures L-R, top down:

1. Rosco and Penny switched attire for a couple hours, they're both looking at each other like "what are you doing in my threads?"

2. 4 generation pic with Great-Grandpa Clodfelter, Grandma Phipps, Momma, and Penny

3. Penny in Daddy's fire helmet, we took this as a comparison shot to one taken last July, at that time she was engulfed by the helmet (see Month 3 blog post), now she can barely get her little booty in there.

4. Cute pic of our little sweetheart on the front of Daddy's fire engine.

5. The little monkey climbing up on her picnic table.

6. Penny enjoying the sun and water, she really seems to love the water.

7. She also likes to swing, she had a ball in that little swing.

The past couple months have flown by and kept us busy.  Penny now has 3 teeth grown in and 2 more sprouting.  I love her 3 tooth smile (2 front bottom and 1 big front tooth), it gives her a little bit of a hillbilly grin.  She is now feeding herself most of the time, she takes a morning and nighttime bottle, but everything in between she wants little to no help with.  She's growing and getting bigger, haven't weighed her since last time so I don't know exacts, but she's getting bigger.  She hasn't taken that first step just yet, but we know she possesses the ability, she's just stubborn (like Momma).  She can stand up in the middle of a room with no assistance and stand around for as long as she wants.  She can usually point to a picture if you ask her where so and so is.  She is jabbering like any girl.  I think she pointed to a picture of her and her cousin Dylan this morning and kept repeating "Dylan."  That's about all from our house for now.  Enjoy the summer.