Nate visits Santa

I'll be completely honest and admit that I was not at all looking forward to taking Nate to see Santa this year.  The potential for disaster was high, and being in the last phase of pregnancy/bringing home a newborn doesn't tend to lend itself to wanting to take on high risk situations!  We decided it would be a great idea for Nana and Papa to take Nate.  So on Tuesday they headed for the mall while we took Cole to his first doctors appointment.  I had NO expectations as to how the picture would turn out.  Actually, I fully expected to get back one of those awesome screaming toddler pictures.  But, this is what we got......

our little man looking as happy as could be with good ole Santa.  Adorable.  And I don't know who bribed him to fold his hands like that!  So, I think from here on out, it may be a tradition for Nana and Papa to take the Penny boys for their Santa pictures...and maybe Mommy will just wait at Starbucks :-)

Newborn Pictures

Sneak peek at Cole's newborn pictures that were taken yesterday....there will be more to come after the holidays!

Cole's Nursery

I went ahead and drafted this post since I knew once we got home I wouldn't have time or energy to make this post (and I'm sure his room will not be this clean again!)

We will probably forever call this the "room that spray paint built."  After deciding on the blue and brown scheme, the brass hardware didn't really fit in.  I had read on some blogs about rubbed bronze metallic spray paint and decided to give it a try.  Joel painted the ceiling fan, door knobs, hinges, and outlet covers.  Those turned out so well I continued to find things that Joel could spray paint for me to work in the room--the dream sign, backer to the bookcase, 2 lamps, picture frames, trashcan, name canvases....

I did help out with a little bit of the painting with acrylics on some decorative blocks, his name letters and a tissue box cover.

Here is the view from the door:

His sleeping area--we'll move the crib here once we move Nate into his big boy bed.

My new comfy glider!

I love how it turned out!

Little Brother is here!

Cole Alexander Penny

12.19.10

1:05 pm

7 pounds, 7 ounces; 20 inches

Some friends of ours made us aware of a fantastic opportunity that a photographer they had worked with was offering.  Lauren Liese is trying to expand her photography business to include photographing births and to build her portfolio was offering a few free sessions.  We were lucky enough to coordinate with her to attend and capture Cole's birth and we look forward to sharing more pictures of his arrival soon.  Here is one she has given us as a "sneak peek."

Nate's Christmas Program

I was so looking forward to Nate's Christmas program...hoping Little Brother wouldn't arrive and prevent us from making it.  Some bad weather almost canceled schools, but thankfully our county was just on a 2 hour delay.  It was pretty entertaining...Nate didn't cry the most, but he did cry and eventually ended up in my lap.  With me and Joel for parents, it's no surprise if he doesn't have the "entertaining" gene.  Of course, he was also supposed to sit in the buggy for the performance, which I can't imagine he's a big fan of...on the video you can see his escape move getting out of his shoulder straps!


When the kids where wheeled in we saw they had on reindeer antlers.  It was no surprise that Nate had taken his off...not a big fan of things on his head!

Ready for lunch with his classmates!

Working on a star ornament craft!

The awesome video.... :-)

Oh Christmas Trees....

Since we were not home last year and didn't put up any decorations, I was really wanting to go all out this year.  It will be our first ever Christmas at home, and we inherited some great trees from some friends that moved and needed to downsize.  We actually didn't even put up the only tree we had prior to last year...it's a little old school and really takes an effort to put together!


I'll call this our "formal" tree....simple red and gold decorations in our foyer (since it's so tall it looks best here.)  I may gaudy it up a little more in the future if I can get some good decorations on clearance, but wanted to work with what we had this year.

Our little rustic forest of trees in the dining room.  We bought all new decorations for these this year, but found some pretty good deals. Also note my new Christmas dishes which was a gift from my parents....love them!

Our basement tree-- it'll be the "tacky" tree with multicolor lights and kid ornaments.  For now it just has a set of small Sesame Street ornaments that Nate busted into while we were shopping at Garden Ridge and a few other bright colored ornaments.

And our "real" tree that houses our family ornaments.  We didn't load it up too much, but picked our favorites.  Also, a round tablecloth doubles pretty well as a treeskirt (and very affordable!)

21 months

Going to do a post by pictures to show what Nate is up to this month:

Getting naked.  Yep, all by himself.  I didn't mention it last month, but Nate likes to unzip his jammies and get into his diaper.  We started duct taping his diaper at night over the tabs to make it hard to get off (or so we thought.)  This morning I heard he was awake but he sounded like he was playing happily, so I took a load of laundry downstairs.  I checked the video monitor before making my breakfast and saw a naked baby in the crib!  Luckily he hadn't made a "mess" and I was able to take the camera in to capture this Kodak moment.

Shoes:  He loves putting on my shoes and walking around.  He's also getting harder to dress....likes to take it as an opportunity to play "chase" and obviously he won at this moment.

Brushing teeth:  VERY obsessed with brushing his teeth.  And taking his time.  Like 10 minutes.  I guess this could be helpful if I'm needing to attend to Little Brother, whose room is right next to the bathroom.  For now I try to deter him away if we are on a schedule, since removing him from the bathroom results in a major sad tantrum.

Coloring:  He is getting better at coloring and I'm loving these big coloring pages that my parents gave him for Christmas....less likely to color on the table!  Still also loves putting stickers on paper.

Other things--

Teeth:
He has cut 2 new teeth this month...his top first molars.  That gets him up to 9!

Movies:
 It has been awesome that Nate is more into movies for these last few weeks of pregnancy.  His favorites right now are Elmo in Grouchland and the Toy Story movies.  I LOVE snuggling on the couch with my little guy!

Language:
Not sure why, but he calls Elmo "Sahh"
Also recognizes Cookie Monster and Big Bird
Other words:
Cookie
Please
Baby (sounds like bebe)
Duck
Dog

We're trying to enjoy our last few days with Nate as an only child...but also looking forward to how he'll be with his Little Brother :-)

Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful, laid back Thanksgiving at home this year! Aunt Megan came to stay with us for a few days and Aunt Lauren joined us for Thanksgiving day. They both did much better at taking pictures than I did, so thanks to them I now have pictures to do a post!

Here is our spread...Nate wasn't too interested in eating and opted for a nap instead...after sitting at the head of the table, of course!



On Saturday we took a trip to Dahlongea, GA to pick out our Christmas tree from a client of Joel's who has a small tree farm. This was our first year to have a real tree, and hopefully a tradition that will continue.

Nate enjoyed playing on the toy tractors while we got our tree loaded up!


Once home we decorated our tree and put up a few other artificial trees around the house (another post on that coming later)
That night we had early Christmas exchanging gifts with Megan and the gifts the Cornetts had sent with her. Nate got this awesome shopping cart from Aunt Megan & Uncle Dion!

Christmas Cards!

 

So I missed out on the free 50 Shutterfly cards that they were offering bloggers that reviewed their products, since I ordered these way back in October when they were on sale.  I am a big fan of Shutterfly's cardstock cards!

Our card picture was taken by Nicole Faby back in August when we were in Raleigh.  I hid our album of pics on Smugmug because I wanted the card pic to be a surprise.  You can now see our family pics here.

Pregnancy Update- 36/37 weeks

So, I've been reassured that I will not have to go past Dec 20th (I may even be able to go in the night of the 19th to get things started), so I've updated Little Brother's arrival ticker to the left to reflect his "adjusted" due date--I like to see the maximum number of days left!  And of course now they have cute Christmas graphics, so I had to pick that one!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 36 Weeks

Size of baby: should be over 6 pounds now...have one more ultrasound on the 14th to check his size
Total Weight Gain/Loss: +25lbs. (thank you t-giving)
Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity clothes but still a few regular things (like cardigans and shoes, haha.)
Gender: BOY!
Movement: Yes, super crazy that Megan and Lauren got to see at Thanksgiving
What I miss: A good night's sleep (not that I have many of these coming in the future) and not always feeling rundown.
Sleep: Having to get up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom.  Crazy dreams have returned with a super vengence

Symptoms: Just really moving slower.
Cravings: Carbs, Carbs, Carbs!

Best Moment this week: Hearing that I'm 1-2 cm & 50% effaced at my checkup, and another confirmation that the induction can happen at 39 weeks.
What I am looking forward to: Finishing my to-do lists!

34 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 34 Weeks

Size of baby: weighs 5 pounds 3 ounces (from the ultrasound)- 49th percentile
Total Weight Gain/Loss: +21lbs.
Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity clothes but still a few regular things (like cardigans and shoes, haha.)
Gender: BOY!
Movement: Yes, and they're getting more uncomfortable by the day...
What I miss: A good night's sleep (not that I have many of these coming in the future) and not always feeling rundown.
Sleep: Having to get up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom.  Crazy dreams have returned, blah.

Symptoms: Just really moving slower.
Cravings: Something different every day...but one consistent one is Sonic Vanilla Coke Zero!

Best Moment this week: Seeing that little brother is head down on the ultrasound and looking great!
What I am looking forward to: Our shower this weekend and fun family times for Thanksgiving!

20 months!

Our little guy, soon to be big brother, is growing up so fast!  Be prepared for a scattered post here because I don't have a good format going for these yet and am just kind of winging it (with pregnancy brain nonetheless!)

Physical-

Nate is weighing in around 27.5 lbs and I have no idea how tall he is (I keep meaning to measure), but he's wearing size 2t tops and 24 month bottoms.  He is up to 7 teeth...I swear he may be teething in college!  His eating habits are getting a little better, but he still shows no desire to eat with a spoon.  He is still a really busy guy!  His running and climbing skills are getting better, he can climb up stairs while holding a rail or someone's hand.  He loves to play on the "big kid" playground rather than the ones for his age and has no fear on the big slides!  I have started "training" him to hold hands to walk into stores or church since I know I will soon need my hands to carry little brother and not Nate.  He's doing well with this, aside from the occasional meltdown...like deciding he needed to sit on the sidewalk as we were leaving Kohls this week.  

Communication-

He is adding new words everyday...although we are still at a stage where it is often hard for him to communicate what he wants.  Here are some of his favorite/most commonly used words (sorry the list is long, but I haven't done a good update on this lately):

Sit- this means, I must sit square in your lap to read a book.  This proves difficult for me and my lap is ever shrinking...but I do love how much he likes to read.

Shoes

Side- as in "outside"

See- learned this from me saying "see you later" to the house anytime we leave

Zoo

Choo-choo- anytime he sees Thomas the Train it's all about "choo-choo"

Car

Hi/Bye- These are still his very favorite words

Sa- Sammy

Dat- this is a funny one, he calls himself "Dat"  In an attempt for him to learn to say his name, I started asking him "Who's that?" when looking at a picture of him or in the mirror and so, naturally, he will point and say "dat!"  Guess I should have said "There's Nate!"

Ding- When the toaster oven goes off he'll chime in afterwards with "ding!"  He also has a toy that has a bird that hits a bell and goes ding!

EIEIO- His See-N-Say sings Old McDonald and when it finishes he will repeat EIEIO

tee-cle- "twinkle"...took me a while to figure this one out, but he will make the stars with his hands and say tee-cle

No- We hit the "no" phase a few weeks ago, where he just started answering no to everything.  He's started using it more appropriately...especially saying "no, no" when he's doing something he knows he's not supposed to do.

Play-

His favorite thing to do right now is read books.  He is getting better about playing independently (but only when I am completely out of sight) and I often come back to find him reading books.  His favorites are Goodnight Gorilla, Blue Hat Green Hat, That's Not My Puppy, and a Baby Einstein big picture book.  He has also been OBSESSED with the holiday toy catalogs.  We didn't even show them to him, but he picked one up and loves to look through them as though he is reading a book to point out Thomas (choo-choo!), Elmo and other toys that he has or characters he recognizes.  Chase is one of his favorite games and anything silly like Hide & Seek, Peekaboo, I'm gonna beat you (we play this going up the stairs so he doesn't take for-e-ver!)  He's really starting to get into Sesame Street, especially Play With Me Sesame, and Barney.  And as much as he loves to say choo-choo and recognize Thomas, he could really care less about the show.  

Here are a few quirky things that he does-

Before he gets out of the crib he must throw out every blanket and stuffed animal.

If he has a paci and sees a different one he will go and switch it out.  He may continue to walk around with the first one in his and and then switch it again.

Ok, I'm running out of energy and still need to do a pregnancy post...I'll leave you with 2 pics I stole from Sharla from their visit this past weekend....

Trunk or Treat/Halloween

We attended our church's annual Trunk or Treat again this year.  We decided we were not up for doing a "trunk" but went to enjoy the festivities.  

Nate got to enjoy several suckers.

 

Getting hugs from his buddy, Carlton aka "Thomas"

 

Nate's favorite trunk was the Thomas the Train Trunk by the Wallaces (Carlton's family).  Nate kept stealing the trains from their display.

He got a cool snake painted on his hand by our friend Mrs. Brandy

All hyped up on sugar, once we got home he played in his costume for a while.

And this was Nate's opinion of actual Halloween:

He woke up crabby from his nap on Sunday afternoon.  We dressed him up to go to our neighborhood party, but ended up only staying 10 minutes because the party was wrapping up and Nate was fussing just to be held.  When we got home Joel wanted to put his dragon head on (which I had not attempted thus far).  Obviously, he loved it!  We decided to forgo any door to door trick or treating, since we don't really know anyone in the neighborhood and he really didn't know the difference.  Next year should be a lot more fun!

Fun at School!

Last week Nate had a "Fall Fun Fest" at school.  This being the first parent event I had no idea what to expect.  They had a big bounce house (which is where Nate stayed most of the time) along with carnival-type games to play and fun prizes.  

 

Here is Nate getting a tattoo!

 

He continues to love school and gets so excited when it's time to leave the house and once we pull into the carpool line.  Once we're in line I unbuckle him and he'll sit on the seat until it's his turn to get out.  

30 weeks!

So, it's been a little while (10 weeks, oops), but life is sooo busy!  I was reading a blog that I stalk about a mother who is on her 2nd pregnancy also and is trying to document everything the same or better, since she was a 2nd child herself and felt forgotten/neglected in the details sometimes.  Well, Joel and I are both firstborns, so we don't have that sympathy.  I know once he's here I'll baby little brother to death and he'll probably get lots of "extras" since we're planning for him to be the last child.  Anyway, here's how we're doing at 30 weeks.

 

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 30 Weeks

Size of baby: weighs 3 pounds 9 ounces (from the ultrasound)- 54th percentile
Total Weight Gain/Loss: +16lbs.
Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity clothes but still a few regular things.
Gender: BOY!
Movement: Lots- he got "extra points" at the ultrasound today for movement.  Starting to get bony jabs now.
What I miss: ?
Sleep: Having to get up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom.  Crazy dreams have died down a little bit.

Symptoms: Had a few Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday...definitely starting to move slower.
Cravings: Lots of chocolate.

Best Moment this week: Nate really starting to notice my belly.  He thinks it's hilarious.  Of course he has no idea there's a baby in there!
What I am looking forward to: Starting the countdown!  If all is well my doctor said I can be induced on Dec 20th (39 weeks) so we can be home for Christmas! 

And because I've had soooo many requests, here are 2 belly pics (the lazy self-in-the-mirror kind).  Please ignore dirty mirror and roll of toilet paper on the floor.

Nate starts school!

 When we found out I was pregnant, I quickly starting looking for a Mother's Morning Out type program for Nate to attend.  I KNOW I am not one of those super moms that can handle 2 under 2 (or any more for that matter) every day of the week on my own and I wanted to get Nate into a routine before little brother arrives.  I found a program at a church near our home that has wonderful facilities and a thriving Preschool/Pre-K Program.  Nate is going 2 days a week from 9-1 and it has been such a blessing, for him and me!  He gets some good social interaction, music, art and bible stories and I pretty much get a whole day to run errands, home projects, drs appts, ect.  When we get home he is wiped out and has been napping until 5:30 on most school days!

This was his meet the teacher day.  He warmed up to Mrs. Denise very quickly!

 This is the table they use in his classroom to eat snacks/lunch and do art and other activities.  It must be hilarious to have all those little toddlers jammed in there! (you can also see Nate's awesome face bruise in this picture...his bluest yet...)

On the first day of school with his big boy backpack :-)

Since Nate comes home with an art project every day, I've started scanning them and made a gallery on our SmugMug page here.

Let's go to the mall, today!**

**A little HIMYM reference for some of you :-)

This summer we got a coupon booklet from our local mall.  They expired at the end of August, so we went one Saturday to use a few.  Nate and I go to the mall at least once a week to play in the indoor play area, which he loves.

We started off with a pretzel....

  

Played in the play area (which we forgot to take a picture of...oops).  Then rode the train that circles around the play area

 

Had a Chick fil a lunch

 

 rode the carousel (despite this picture Nate really hated it and I got woozy...we'll  probably wait a while before we try that again!)

  

Then while I ran to a few stores, Joel and Nate went back to the play area.  There happened to be a balloon animal artist down there, so Nate got his first balloon animal, a monkey!

 

Catalog shopping for baby names

I love looking through Restoration Hardware Baby & Child and Pottery Barn Kids catalogs for ideas to knock off or things to look for at their outlets. I noticed recently that most of baby names in them that are my "style," which i would loosely define as classic and unique at the same time. I guess if I love the styling of their merchandise I should love the names they use as well. It's probably also subliminal messaging to get me to buy more stuff :-)

Here's a list of some that I love from my recent catalogs:

Dylan
Mason
Audrey
Charlotte
Madison
Emily
Hayley
Riley
Cameron
Conner
Laney
James
Graham
Hunter
Blake
Samuel
Chloe
Cooper
James
Daniel

Note: I'm listing both boy and girl names for fun. Many of which I would never choose for us because they just don't "go" with our last name and many of our front runners are not included in the list. We are not even close to having a name for Little Brother penned down :-)

Book Recomendations

I've added a "Now Reading" section to the sidebar. Nate is getting to where he will play by himself for some amounts of time, but doesn't want me to much except sit and watch him. He will tolerate me reading, so I've tried to read more lately and am in the middle of South of Broad which has been awesome so far. Others I have read recently are Eat, Pray, Love (not my cup of tea) and The Help, which I would definitely recommend. Please be sure to pass along recommendations of anything you've read recently...since I only have 4 months of "free time" left!

Beach Highlights

We just returned from our 2nd Annual Penny Family Beach Trip! This year we cut our week a little short, due to part of the air conditioning in the house being out and Nate's age...he's just not ready for a whole week at the beach yet!

We arrived on Monday and Aunt Lauren had been at the cottage the previous week. After we got in we went straight for the beach!
Nate loved this swing that faced the ocean...he really didn't want to get out!

Lauren stayed with Nate and we were able to have a date night! We had a wonderful dinner and then played putt putt! It had been soooo long since we had played, but we both did well. Joel only beat me by 3 strokes.
On Tuesday morning we went to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. We've picked these pictures to recreate each year--


That afternoon we hung out while Nate napped
and then went to Morehead City to pick up some things and enjoyed the air conditioning at the Chick fil a playplace.

We went to the beach again that evening and realized that Nate really only does the beach for about an hour and he's done! We took the video camera that night, so no pics.

The next morning we got up and went to the beach to take some pictures of Nate. It was SOOOOO much easier to capture him last year...he just keeps moving now!

Hanging out at the cottage- watching Pajanimals, of course!While Nate was napping we were starting to think that we really didn't need a whole other day to do everything we wanted to do and decided that we would go back to Buies Creek the next day. So on Wednesday afternoon we checked off the rest of our excursions off our list!

Joel and Nate's traditional cannon pic at Fort Macon. Nate really enjoyed running around the middle of the fort and checking out all of the rooms.



Ice Cream in Beaufort

One last trip to the beach (which we cut VERY close to a storm coming in!)
On Thursday morning we set our alarm early so we could get good lighting for the family pictures we wanted to take. It is soooo hard to try to do a self timer picture with a toddler! We captured the one I have put in our header, which is probably the best. I should work on a bloopers post to show you the rest! We were able to get a few better ones of me/Nate & Joel/Nate since you can coax him to look at you a little more-sometimes :-)Then it was time to pack up, clean up and head back over the bridge. We timed it so we could stop for lunch at Andy's in Havelock on our way back like we did last year. Nate enjoyed his chicken nuggets and french fries served in the car!

In planning for next year's trip with 2 kids (do I even want to think about it?) we think we will try to go in May. It will be cooler and little brother will be 5 months old-the same age that Nate was when we went last year, which seemed to be a really good age for the beach! And hopefully at 2 years old there will be more things that Nate will be able to do.