Carlsbad

We decided to take a trip to Carlsbad, NM over the 4th of July weekend since Steve was able to get Friday afternoon off. It's been on our "want to go" list since we moved here so we finally got around to going! Camping is typically the way to go in Carlsbad, but we decided with Penny still waking up a lot at night and naps and it being a billion degrees outside that we'd better stay in a hotel this time. It was a fun trip!

The best little helper!

At the hotel:

Penny prepping for her first time in a big pool!

This was the first time we'd given her a food pouch and she loved it! She gets them all the time now. She's so proud to feed herself!

We headed to the zoo there the first day. It's actually a state park with a zoo in it. We weren't very impressed. Half the animals were off exhibit, there wasn't very much variety, and they were really spread out. It was still nice to get out and see something new though!

These rocks looked really neat in person.

Penny got a little bored since we were mostly just walking and reading signs, but she was a trooper!

That night we went to "flight of the bats" at Carlsbad Caverns. Every evening during the summer a huge number of bats fly out of the caverns (where they nest) to spend the night hunting. They have a big amphitheater at the opening of the cave that you sit in and have to be pretty much silent as the bats fly out so you don't confuse them. Penny decided she was sick of waiting and wanted to be loud, so Steve and I spent most of the time watching the bats from down the trail so Penny could talk as much as she wanted. I was a little disappointed not to see them in the amphitheater, but it was still an amazing sight! They just kept coming and coming!

 The next day we headed down into Carlsbad Cavern. We just went into the great room cave since the other expeditions cost a lot of money and had age restrictions (= no Penny). It was AWESOME! We were down there for about an hour and a half just touring the cavern and Penny slept for about 90% of the time. It was so so neat to see and Steve loved that it was 50 something degrees down there! We had planned to hike down into the caves and then take the elevators back up, but when Steve bought the tickets the park ranger suggested we take the elevator down and hike out since the weekend of the 4th is their busiest and the line for the elevator can be over two hours. We decided to take her advice and I'm glad we did - the line was really long to take the elevator back up. But man, it was a hike to get out. Definitely got our exercise for the day!

One of the few things still growing in the cave. I believe they said 90% had stopped, but this one still had a drip coming onto it and was therefore still growing. It was pretty hollow beneath this stalagmite and there was a big pool of water it was sitting above.

Yay for vacations! I'd definitely recommend checking out the caverns to anyone that's interested. We'd love to go back again!

Ten Months

Well, Penny hit 10 months way back in July!

-She had 4 teeth come through (two top middle and two bottom middle)! With at least two more coming that we can see.
-Loves grabbing her ears. I thought she had an ear infection, but the doctor checked and everything looked good. She said it may be a comfort thing for Penny!
-Can snort reaaaaally well and now knows the word "snort" and can do it on command.
-She's very afraid of fans and gets really wary when in the same room with one, even if it's off!
-I caved and got her her first toy that makes noise. All sorts of noise. She loves it.
-"Dada" by Jimmy Fallon is her favorite book. Steve reads it to her before bed each night and she gets soooo excited when she sees him grab it!
-She holds her pointer finger out and wants you to either kiss it or touch it with your pointer finger. It's a really funny game apparently.
-LOVES dancing! To literally anything that has a rhythm. Steve was grinding some salt over his food one evening and Penny started dancing to the salt grinder! It's not uncommon for me to look back while in the car and see Penny dancing to the radio. I love it!

Penny's favorite thing to do when getting in her carseat is bite down on one of the shoulder straps so that I can't pull it tight. When I try to pry it out of her mouth, she keeps it clamped down and just giggles like crazy! It's pretty funny and she does it almost every time we get into the carseat!

I had some bruises on my leg from who knows what and Penny was really weirded out by them. She kept trying to pick them up and when that didn't work she'd put her mouth over them and try to eat the bruises!

"No Mama, I have no idea where your popsicle went..."

She loves her books and we put them back on the shelf and pull them all out again multiple times a day.

 Father's Day pics:

Visiting Steve at school. She's not super into science...

She still loves baths!

I was washing off her feet and she decided she'd like to just plop on into a sink full of water! She played there for quite a while.

4th of July fun at the park. It was SO hot!

 We went out to eat one night and I decided to order Penny her first kid's meal (cause I didn't want to share my meal!). I got a little sad about her being so big when I ordered it! We obviously need to work on some table etiquette though:

 10 months old and such a good girl!

Nine Months!

-Penny is crawling on her hands and knees now!
-Likes to offer you her pacifier and then hurry and stick it in her own mouth when you reach for it! she thinks it's hilarious!
-Really responds to music - she loves to "dance".
-Favorite song is currently "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (with all the motions, of course)
-Loves to crawl over and play with her carseat when we're home.
-She's gotten the hang of solid food and loves most everything. Her current favorites: POPSICLES (prepare yourself for a food tantrum when it's gone if you choose to give her this), bread and yogurt.
-She's starting to get pretty clingy to me, but still doesn't have much stranger anxiety.

Stats:
15 lbs 1 oz
27.25 inches
17.25 inch head circumference
Right on track with her growth curves!

One of Penny's favorite things to do (mainly with Steve, but occasionally with me) is crawl over to the carbon monoxide detector we have in our hallway. We'll tell her "no no" a few times and she'll just keep smirking at us and playing with the detector or pulling at the plug. When we come over to take her away from it, she just squeals like crazy, flops around and starts crawling away as fast as she can! Steve will tickle her for a second when he catches her and then pick her up and put her somewhere else. She thinks it is the best game ever!

 It was also my birthday in May. I had to work in Amarillo (a town about two hours north of us) in the morning, so Steve and Penny decided to come with me the night before so we could spend the night in a hotel and then play up there once I was done with work. It was SO much fun! They have a little zoo there that we decided to check out since Lubbock doesn't have one and Penny had never been to a zoo - the admission was $4/person, so we were expecting it to be pretty rinky dink. It was not. It was really small, but they had tons of cool animals, including lions and tigers and bears even. They had tons of great informational signs that Steve was fact checking and I think this was the first time he was satisfied with the information. We loved it!

This badger was awesome!

Next we drove over to Cadillac Ranch, just outside of Amarillo. This was just something I felt like I had to see since we live so close! We didn't think to bring any spray paint though unfortunately.

Penny was worn out from the zoo and didn't even wake up when I got her out of or put her back into her carseat!

She really isn't a fan of car rides, so this was hard on her, but she held it together most of the time.

We ended the day by heading back to Lubbock for a Tech baseball game. They are really good this year and it was a fun game. They were playing West Virginia I believe. We won!

Penny conked out about 1 second after Steve put her in the carrier!

We took Penny swimming for the first time! Okay, we just put her in a tiny baby pool in our back yard, but still. We have yet to actually take her to an actual swimming pool. She was NOT okay with things at first, which surprised me since she loves baths so much, but after sitting on the side with her feet in the water for a while she eased into it and ended up having fun!

I mentioned she was getting more clingy, right? :)

 We got her a highchair and she's so excited to sit at the table with us!

 Lubbock had some pretty big rain storms this spring and there was a lot of flooding. People around here were panicking, which was interesting since the same thing happened last year. We're lucky our house is on a bit higher of ground, so there was nothing to worry about with our house. Penny and I walked over to our park to check out the worst of the flooding - there was no park left! People were out there in canoes and kayaks paddling around the park and some roads too!

It got pretty cold during that week. 

 After all the rain storms we had a giant hail storm as well. It was the biggest hail I'd seen ever!

It's rough waking up from naps sometimes.

We planted some flowers out front - they're still alive as of now!

 I taught Penny how to talk into a cup to make her voice sound funny and she thinks it's pretty cool. It's pretty funny because she can yell and talk really loud, but when she does it into the cup she's really timid and quiet with her voice!

Listening to Steve talk into the cup.

 She's become quite the "helper" and wants to get in on whatever project we're working on.

Couponing

"Folding" the laundry (that I'd already folded, I might add!)

 We were lucky enough to have the Wilsons stop by on their move to Utah from Florida. They were only here one night, but we really loved seeing them! We had Brynn's birthday/Kelly and PJ's anniversary celebration dinner and dessert and Penny got to meet her Uncle Preston for the first time.

Lots of video chatting and picture taking going on.

I mean, what else are you supposed to do when your dad is trying to take a Sunday nap?

 My sweet nine month old!