11 Months

Penny is still coming along great.  This month she had her first normal food (mashed potatoes in the middle right pic).  She is also become more mobile every day.  She started pushing around her toy seen in bottom right and loves doing the Frankenbaby walk while pushing it all over the house.  She has started to comprehend and follow simple directions, I'm still working with Emily on this, but Penny seems to be picking it up.  I also believe I heard Penny recite ABCDE along with her musical toy that Uncle Dustin and Aunt Emily got her for Christmas.  She is showing herself to be a little bit of a Napoleon, but she also shows a tender side with other little ones, especially fussing/crying babies.  We couldn't have asked for a better child to this point, she is usually very easy to take care of, mild-mannered, happy, and entertains herself extremely well.  My hope is that she will have at least one tooth and be walking before her 1st birthday.  This next month shall tell.  Until then, God bless.

10 Months

Penny pretending to feed herself
Reading on her jungle gym working the tongue

Happy little bugger

Waiting on grandma and grandpa (Rosco was beside her until the camera came out)

Pulled up on the ottoman

This past month Penny began pulling herself up as she wished and just recently began cruising around the coffee table. No doubt she should be walking in the very near future. She still hasn't figured out how to get down gracefully yet, so this has caused some tumbles for her (thats about the only time she will really cuddle, so its ok for now). She is usually very good around other kids, she has even comforted some crying babies in the Creepers class at church. However, she may show a little Napoleon complex from time to time because she can be a little bit of a bully regardless of her smaller stature. I see both of these as good traits. She does have one distinct trait from daddy, when she sets her mind on something, her tongue comes out in concentration. We don't have any measurements, but she's continuing to grow because clothes keep getting tighter on her. Her only other first this past month was that she got to take 2 rides on the vomit comet when only daddy was home, fun for me. She continues to jabber up a storm, however, she can be shy at first around anyone except mommy and daddy. Until next time, God bless.

9 Months

Tomorrow Penny will be 9 months old, and my how the time has flown by since we got her home. As you can see from the pictures she is now standing with the assistance of our coffee table. She hasn't pulled herself up just yet, but she's starting to work on it. She has also become very mobile in the last few weeks. She moves herself from room to room whenever it fancies her. She has learned how to make a mess by pulling things off of our movie/CD shelf, and she finds this quite entertaining. She weighed in at 13 lbs 10 oz at her 9 month appt and was 26.5 inches long. She is well within the normal on her head size (must mean she's got daddy's big brain), she is on the charts for length even without adjusting for her prematurity. However, her weight only barely makes the charts with the adjustment, but this doesn't seem to concern the doc considering she is ahead of schedule with motor skills (without age adjustment). The doc said she may just stay long and lean since she is becoming very mobile and will be burning off most of the extra intake with her activity level. Until next time.

Merry Christmas

Pics
1. Christmas morning, Penny sitting next to our perfectly sized tree.

2. Penny sitting on top of her new toy box that daddy made for her.

3. Looking cute sporting her new winter hat given by Uncle Dustin and Aunt Emily.
4. Sitting on granny's lap, we didn't get a good pic of her Christmas outfit, but it was adorable.

5. She couldn't wait to start playing on the gym that Aunts Laura and Stephanie got her.

Penny turned 8 months a couple days before Christmas. She weighed over 12.5 lbs early in the month, she had also grow a few inches since the last measurements. She is now over 25 inches long. Penny finally decided to crawl and she is now mastering sitting up. She has begun eating stage 1 baby foods and loves them. We started her on prunes (yum) and have added bananas so far. Sometimes we can't shovel the food fast enough for her. Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year.

~The Nichols

Happy Thanksgiving

This month's pictures were taken while visiting the grandparents for Thanksgiving. We quickly learned that Penny is typically very good at emulating whoever she is taking a picture with.



Penny loving on great-grandma Flynn with a big, cheesy smile

Chillin' with great-grandpa Nichols in the recliner

Mischevious smile while yanking great-grandma Scott around

Giving her best impression of great-great-grandma Reed

And the priceless dead-on look of great-great-grandpa Reed. On that same note, she does a good impression of her great-uncle Doug, who will look just like grandpa Reed if he makes it to 95.

Penny isn't doing too many new things this month, but she is getting a lot better at what she does. She is still very close to crawling and sitting up, we're a little suprised that she hasn't quite done either yet. She is eating cereal very well now, she loves her rice cereal. Emily and I can get her to laugh most anytime unless other people are present. She is very stingy with her laugh so far and she is just starting to give others smiles freely (if she feels like it). Our next Dr. appt isn't for a couple weeks so we don't have a definite weight, but she's somewhere between 12 1/2 and 13 lbs, much smaller than her 7 month old cohorts, but big to us. I will update again after Christmas, so for those I won't see before then, have a safe and merry Christmas season.

6 Months and going strong

Cousins hanging out together

The leggings finally fit, kind of

Relaxing on the couch like a big girl

Somebody got caught by the camera bug

Look at the big ol' cheesy smile, I love it

In the past month Penny has made quite a bit of progress. She has started to hold her own bottle some, she is jabbering away, and is over being coddled while held (she wants to sit up and look forward mostly). She is easy to get laughing most of the time and usually has a smile on her beautiful face. She still isn't crawling, but she's very close. She has all the actions down except for propelling herself forward. Penny was very excited to finally get to meet her Aunt Stephanie this month and can't wait to see her again. She's still sleeping great, 12 1/2 hours just last night. At the doctor today she weighed 11 lbs. 2.5 oz and was 23 1/4 inches long. Her weight for adjusted age is finally on the chart. We were given the okay by the doc to start trying baby cereal for her, hopefully this goes well since formula is stupid expensive. She is finally out of newborn diapers. I can't think of any other new info about our precious little girl for this past month. Until next month.

5 Wonderful Months

just another cute dress she'll soon outgrow

we make her read daily, its a good habit

she's as happy as can be

her cute little church outfit one Sunday

caught napping on the job

Penny had another great month. She is doing so much now. She really began to smile this month and is on the verge of laughing (probably at my ugly mug). She has really picked up on the rolling over, both ways. When she gets to her stomach she is now pushing herself up and looking around. She's very close to crawling, she's got the motions down, she just hasn't really started going anywhere. She's eating more and more every day. And best of all, she is sleeping like a little angel, usually 8-10 hours a night. For those parents out there, I'm sure you know how wonderful that is. She also is taking naps during the day so daddy can get some extra rest or whatever done around the house. She weighed 9 lbs 3.5 oz and was 23 inches long today and her doctor is very pleased and surprised with her progress. She has also started to really coo alot. She already is picking up an affinity for gabbing and cooing. Until next month, lots of love from this Nichols clan.