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!