I want to always remember how wonderful this stage of Penelope's life is. She is currently trying to climb on everything. She'll go for the stairs the second you turn your head and be 3/4 of the way to the second floor before you even realize she's left the room. She tries to climb on chairs, up park ladders, she'll climb onto any box that is low enough for her to maneuver onto, she climbed on the little breakfast in bed table when Micah had it set up on the porch for a picnic lunch.
Penelope also loves getting into trouble. If she thinks she's not supposed to do something, she will do it while staring you down and then laugh when you tell her "no," and then she'll do it again. Putting coins in her mouth. Putting anything and everything in her mouth that she thinks shouldn't go there. Splashing in the dog water. Trying to splash in the toilet! Reaching for things over the ledge of the tub. Going for the stairs. Eating dog food.
She's also started saying single words. I'm not sure when sounds we recognized morphed into actual words. But it seems like she really is saying Dada, Micah ("Guy-Kah"), and Kaya ("Kai-Kah"). She puts her hands up when she's done eating to signal "all done." She will use the hand signal for more please, but only if I ask her to, not if Michael asks her to! She also seems to be giving kisses which she must have learned from the sitter, because I don't think I really have asked her to learn that at all. But it is most definitely adorable when she leans in with her little closed mouth!
Penelope is also exceptionally cute in the night. Unfortunately she's still up to each a couple times every night. The first time, around 1-2am, she just nurses for a while and then is ready to go back to bed. When you put her down in her crib, she rolls to her stomach, turns her head and opens her mouth for the pacifier, and puts her hands up behind her back to grab the little afghan we put on her. And then the second time she wakes up, around 5-6am, she's much more awake than the first time and is usually socializing while she eats. She'll shake her head while nursing ("shake" was one of the first "tricks" she learned and she'll do it on command!) and then wait for me to shake too. Then she'll do it again and wait for me to return it. She'll do the same with waving or high fiving. This morning she was waving her hand back and forth and waiting for me to wave back, when I did, she waved baby-style with just the fingers and waited for me to return it, then kept alternating until I stopped. She'll also hold her hand out for a high five.
It's always pretty clear what she wants in those middle of the night moments. Two nights ago, I was enjoying holding her and was stroking her hair, but then stopped. Once I had stopped, she started tapping and rubbing her head and I thought she was undoing the touch I had done, but then realized after a minute that she was asking me to do it again. It was so sweet. And then when she had had enough, she just reached up and took my hand away.
This is truly such a wonderful stage. I know they're all wonderful, but I'll be sad to let this one go.
