Penny's Big Moves

Penny was checking my blog recently and was dismayed to find pictures of her are considered "gratuitous" or are completely missing for a month at a time. So she decided to step up her progress this week in a bid to get her own feature. She succeeded.

Penny is curious and adventurous by nature, so she is always trying out new stuff and bypassing our various babyproofing measures. Here she is just before she opens a cabinet. This cabinet used to contain her toys until she started opening it. Now her toys are on an open shelf so she can get them whenever she wants. The open shelf also seemed a good idea so I didn't have to fetch a new toy every time she got bored.

Ah...a good idea until she started climbing onto the shelf to get her toys. She climbed so far at one point that she almost fell behind the shelf into the corner (table is diagonal to wall because it has the TV). She was busy pulling herself through by yanking the wires and didn't quite realize her own strength. Luckily, all wires are unplugged and the TV is still too heavy for her to pull off. So far. We'll see what new tricks she finds for this corner.

Penny is no longer the youngest kid in our building since the arrival of Liam last month, but she still has four elder kids to learn from. Often after hanging out with the neighbors (including the very mobile 9-month-old Paul), Penny tries some new moves. While Mommy and Daddy were visiting with sea turtles, Penny spent some time with Isla. Isla was born here in Grenada and is just a month and some change older than Penny. As a more experienced young lady, Isla probably showed Penny or at least discussed with her some of the benefits of big girl stuff. One of the most pleasant surprises was that on Wednesday, Penny was pretty excited to start eating food from a spoon. She rapidly demolished a carrot cube and an ounce of oatmeal (and a good area on the floor). She seemed so excited about eating that she now gets a morning and evening meal. I wonder how she has already learned the post-Thanksgiving, "I'm so stuffed I have to unsnap this diaper" recliner move.

The icing on the cake this week, though, was while Dan and I were eating dinner. Apparently, our turkey burgers and veggies smelled just too yummy to pass up. Penny crawled to my feet and then pulled herself up. She stood using my legs for support and grabbed repeatedly at my plate. Luckily, I was in shock with the standing, but managed to salvage my plate. Dan managed to get some quick shots too!

As you might be able to tell from our sadly blurry pictures, the camera flash just wanted to embarrass us with the turtle folks. I can't get it to flash indoors to save my life. It's definitely no good to have a dysfunctional camera and such a photogenic/adventurous little girl, so we may have to take drastic action.