One Month

Where did the last month go? I'm afraid I have fallen into the trap of the middle kid having no pictures. So sad. But really, when am I supposed to have a hand free for a camera? When I'm not cuddling or feeding him, I'm doing my best to give Penny some fun time as well. In all fairness, there aren't any new pictures of Penny either. We did get a chance to do a family portrait session, thankfully, so I did enjoy that. Here's some nice shots of the two of them together.

After the photo session, Penny enjoyed a ride around the mall in the train with Daddy. It's amazing how long the session took, how shy she was, but how she really remained pretty good as we put together our picture order. Family portraits are expensive! Maybe we'll hold off for a while.

In the first couple of weeks of having little Paul home, we ventured out to the mall or shopping a few times. It's a good time to do so...he's still pretty portable, sleeps most of the time, etc. We even did a few trips with big sister Penny as well. Slow trips, but we got a few good things done. I'm glad we got them in when we did because we're definitely homebound now. We've all got some horrible germ that's got us coughing up a storm, even little Paul. The coughs aren't frequent, but pretty nasty chest-coughs. It's hard to watch the little guy because he has no way to really clear all the mucous. We're going to the doctor again tomorrow just to check that we're doing everything we should for him. Penny will be excited...she has enjoyed every one of Paul's visits, picking up his sucker and stickers for him (and maybe consuming them herself). I'm kinda bummed because I didn't really finish my Christmas shopping and can't really make it up at this point. Alas, maybe next year will go smoother.

Penny has finally made a real breakthrough in the potty training department. She has been able to detect for some time that she has to go, but never really had the motivation to go to the potty instead of her diaper. For some reason in the past few days, though, the stickers and possibility of wearing pink (training) diapers has gotten very motivational. She's going multiple times a day, asking to go, getting really excited, etc. It's awesome stuff. I like being able to praise her about something as well. I feel like I'm always telling her "no" recently, so this is a welcome opportunity to give some positive feedback to her.

Christmas is just a few short days away and Penny's WAY excited. She seems convinced that my yelling at her will keep Santa from coming. It's hard to punish her for doing something wrong, while convincing her that it isn't serious enough to merit the naughty list. What a strange balance to have to strike! An adventure every day, it seems!