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Dugmoor

Penelope's 1st Birthday!

Penelope had her first birthday party this past weekend and it was a great time. The gloomy weather took a break for the afternoon just for her and the sun came out to shine on this special occasion. We were joined by family and friends to celebrate our wonderful little girl who has brought so much joy to all of us over this past year. Plus, it was a nice time for us to have a drink and congratulate ourselves for making it through a sometimes trying first year. Granted, Jennifer deserves most of the praise and thanks for her devotion and raising of little P. I love you Jenn...you do a wonderful job with P.

Here is a little video of P digging into her birthday cupcakes. She doesn't quite go all demolition derby on them, but she certainly ends up making quite a mess in a very measured, almost thoughtful way.

At this moment, one year ago....

I am sitting on our bed with Penelope napping right next to me and I realized that at this very moment, one year ago, I was also sitting on this bed, in labor with the baby we had not yet met!

Laboring in our den, complete with pillows and birthing ball!

After a premature trip to the hospital in the morning, we came back home and I labored with P all day, until we headed back to the hospital around 6 PM. While I was terribly disappointed that I was only 1 cm dilated when we went to the hospital the first time, in retrospect, I am glad that much of my labor was spent at home. The first stage of labor was definitely the most difficult time-wise...it took the better part of about 17 hours to get through that first stage. And, if I had stayed at the hospital, chances are that the staff would have offered pitocin which would have, more than likely, necessitated an epidural and all of the interventions I really did not want. It is also a nice memory...being at home for the majority of the laboring process...among our things, with our dogs, and knowing our friends and neighbors were nearby. It's how I imagine women have given birth since the beginning to time...not hooked up to monitors or in sterile rooms. Of course, there is sometimes a need for such monitors and sterile rooms. Next time, I know that I can wait even longer before heading to the hospital...that is...if we don't just have the next baby here, at home. But that is a topic for another blog post!

Right now, I prefer to reflect upon the 24 hours of labor it took for Penelope to get here and how I seemed to find, within my inexperienced birthing self, a stockpile of strength and determination I never knew was there. I have often, particularly in those sleep-deprived, early morning, ready-to-tear-my-hair-out moments, only had to think about that stockpile to know I can get through just about anything now, having made it through the labor and delivery of little Penelope.

November with Penelope

I have neglected this blog all month so here is a quick review of life with Penelope over the last month!

We started out our month at a protest again Proposition 8, which sadly passed here in California. This was Penelope's second protest, if you can believe it! The No on Prop 8 was at City Hall and many people of faith attended, including Father Farrow, who was removed from his post at a local Catholic church for opposing Prop 8. Here is our little civil rights activist:

Equal rights for all!

The weather also finally started to get a little cooler this month so, the first time mom that I am, went a little overboard on bundling P up for an evening walk with Daddy:

My mommy dresses me funny

Penelope hit eleven months in November and along with this milestone, her personality has seemed to blossom! She is a terribly funny little girl and one of her really hilarious antics in rolling around on the dogs' bed! She just loves it, as you can see:

I'm not a baby, I'm a puppy!

Get off of MY bed, Grizzly!

I am happiest, right here!

Needless to say, Penelope has discovered all kinds of fun places in our house over the last month; she crawls (still in her own special way) with great speed and has begun to climb. She discovered the fun potential of our living room end table:

Just my size!

She cruises around our furniture like crazy, as well and enjoys walking so much, she received her birthday gift early! I couldn't resist giving her the pushcart early. Here she is riding on it rather than pushing it, although she does very well pushing it through the house and down the sidewalk in front of our house. The only downside to Penelope's mobility with the cart is Grizzly's intense fear of it; we don't know why but Grizzly seems to have a panic attack every time Penelope rolls her cart around.

It's my toy, I can sit in it if I want to!

Of course, we also just celebrated Thanksgiving, during which Penelope enjoyed pumpkin pie for the very first time. We had two celebrations shared with our immediate families: Doug's mom Sharon, brother Chris and his girlfriend Truc, my parents Nadine and Steve, my brothers Brian and Dan and Dan's wife, Catherine. Doug made a fabulous turkey: he brined and roasted it all by himself! It was a great turkey that produced many leftovers (that will become enchiladas and tamales this week). At my folks' place, she finally got the feel of walking forward in her walker (I know, walkers are bad for developing babies but she has fun in it, darnit!):

Here I come!

We are looking forward to next month and the rest of the holiday season that now includes Penelope's birthday!

Happy Halloween from Penelope the Penguin!

...who just might be the cutest kid on the block, tonight!

We had professional portraits done for Halloween and she cried pretty much the entire time. But darnit, I had gone to all of the trouble of getting her dressed and there so we took photos of a very unhappy kid, anyway. Despite the grumpiness, I think they are adorable. Of course, she'll hate us for them, one day.




I will post more tomorrow after our trick-or-treating tonight! Well, we'll be passing out candy with our neighbors Naomi, Rio and Logan; we'll wait until at least next year to pimp out our kid to get some candy for ourselves. Hee hee.

We hope everyone has a spooky good time for Halloween!