Poppy's 1st Birthday Party

Poppy's party was today. Zach and the girls spent the morning buying a pool and slip and slides while Lauren stayed home to sew her curtains with the help of Gma Cathy. And Rod filled up a ton of water balloons. The party started around 2 and was a great success. The back yard was decked out with 1 canopy and 1 food tent, plus plenty of chairs for everyone. There was the usual play equipment, plus a kiddie pool and a slip and slide. There was fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, olives, and chips to eat. Poppy's smash cake was made to look like a bobbling hula girl. She also had a 1/2 sheet cake and 30 cupcakes, plus ice cream. No one went hungry since this was an in-between meal kind of party! All the kids had a blast. The water balloons brought on lots of laughter but all 200 of them were gone in about 3 minutes! Then the kids did a pinata which is always fun. Some of the adults played cornhole or rodeo golf. All in all it was a great party with wonderful friends and family!

Marion County Fair

As you might recall, Poppy went to the fair last year when she was only 8 days old. She got to go again this year, and enjoyed it a lot more!

After Lauren got home from school, she, Zach, Lolli and Poppy went to the fair with Gma and Gpa Great, and Papaw Lucky. Lolli rose the Nemo ride (the one that terrified her the previous year!) and loved it. She also rode a ride w/ yellow fish. She played a game where she had to go fishing for sharks and won 3 little toys. She and Poppy played Duck Pond where they won 3 more toys! Poppy FREAKED OUT when she saw the carousel, so she rode it. And on the way out, Poppy rode a pony. Once she realized what was going on, she was so excited she couldn't hardly stand it LOL. It was lots of fun to go to the fair with lots of great family <3

Poppy's One Year Old!

Can you believe it's been a year since Poppy entered the world? Actually, it's hard to remember life without her! So here's a brief update on 12-month old Penelope Lynn.

Poppy weighs 22lbs 13oz and is 29.75 inches long. Both fall in the 75th percentile. Her head is 18.25in around, which is closer to the 90th percentile. She's gotta keep all those smart somewhere! ;) She has golden BLONDE hair that curls in the back. Still has cradle cap, especially up front on top. She has 8 teeth all in front, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. No molars yet but they're starting to lump up. She still has rolly thighs and huge brown eyes. To sum it up... she's gorgeous!

Milestones... Poppy can do it all! She started walking hard-core the day before her 1st birthday and now she's so fast is surprises everyone! She hardly crawls anymore. She loves climbing up stairs so Lauren and Zach have to be really careful to lock the gate at the bottom. Poppy can even climb up the slide to Lolli's top bunk - NOT a good thing, safety-wise! She has a few words. She says "mama", "Daaaa (Dad)", "Lalalala (Lolli)", "baby", "TaDaaa!", "ball", and "num num num" (when she's eating LOL). Speaking of eating, Poppy is a FANTASTIC eater. She likes pretty much everything and has a rather hearty appetite. She insists on feeding herself, even using utensils, which can get messy! She loves cola when she can sweet talk someone into giving her some. She loves popsicles and grapes and blueberries and of course cake!

Poppy is not a fan of whole milk, although sometimes she'll drink it if there's chocolate in it. She breastfeeds 4-5 times in a 24 hour period. She's getting great at going to sleep if Lauren puts her down in the pack n play awake. But she still sleeps in the big bed with L and Z, which makes for easy night nursing. She's inconsistent with her napping. Some days it's 3 hours, some days it's 40 minutes. Poppy loves to sit on the potty, but hasn't managed to pee or poop in it yet. She wants to be just like Lolli in pretty much every aspect. They are best friends who love doing everything together. They play and tickle and love on each other. It's awesome!

Poppy loves dancing, which she does by sticking her arms out and twisting at the waist. She's very good at getting her point across about what she does or does not want. She's pretty sweaty for a kid, probably because her metabolism is working so hard to digest all that food she eats ha ha She's perfect in every way! Lauren and Zach are so fortunate to have 2 wonderful daughters that they couldn't love more <3

Poppy can stand up!

Well, obviously, since she's been standing for 7 months and pulling herself to standing for a month or so. But today she learned how to do it all by herself, without anything to pull or push up on. She did it over and over and is so proud of herself. Her mom and dad are super proud, too :)

Poppy's First Step (and a pony ride)

Lauren, Lolli and Poppy were hanging out at the Ft, Wayne mall playground today when Poppy decided to take her first unassisted step! She walked from Lauren towards a hollowed out log thing. It was awesome! She only took one step before she got herself freaked out and decided to scoot the rest of the way.

In that same playground, Lolli made friends with a random 3.5 year old girl. They were playing near each other when Lolli said, "That's my sister Poppy. She has brown hair like my Daddy." To which the girl replied, "I have blonde hair." So Lolli said, "I have blonde hair, too, and so does my Mommy." And the girl said, "My mom has blonde hair, too." LOL Lauren was cracking up.

After Zach got done working, they all went to the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. It's a very nice zoo but they only had 3 hours before it closed so they kind of had to hurry. All 4 of them piled into a log and floated around an exhibit of dingoes and kangaroos. Then Poppy rode a tony pony twice around the track. She loved petting Sadie's mane. Lauren was a bit uncomfortable because the pony was sooooo short but it was worth it! Then Zach went on a ski-lift type ride that took him up and over the zoo. At first Lolli insisted she was too scared but in the end she rode it with Lauren and loved it. She also loved feeding the fish in the pond. Lolli was too scared to pet the goats, but Poppy enjoyed it. What a fun day!

Poppy

Poppy's 10 Month Update

Poppy's 10 months old! And she had her 9 month well visit this morning. She weighs 21lbs 7oz and is 29in long (tall?). She received a clean bill of health from Dr. Roscoe.

Poppy's been crawling for a couple weeks not, but she still prefers to scoot on her booty. Sometimes she does a combination which can get pretty entertaining. She also pulls up on EVERYTHING and cruises around. She still prefers to cruise while holding on with 2 hands; not quite ready for 1-handed cruising yet. She's working hard on perfecting her balance and sometimes she'll stand up unassisted for quite a while - 20 or 30 seconds even! So after she gets the hang of one-handed cruising, it won't be long before she takes those first steps!

Poppy has several signs. She waves for "hi" and "bye", she shakes her head for "no" (or when Lauren says "Poppy" in a certain tone), she shakes her arms for "crazy shake!", she shakes her hands for "all done", and puts her hands together for "more", she claps for "yay", and she raises her arms for "soooo big!". She loves playing peek-a-boo by holding blankets over her face then lowering it and laughing hysterically. She gets very excited by the cats and dog and chases them around occasionally. Poppy's only real words so far are "Mama" and "Dada", which she just recently learned. Now she'll see a picture of Zach and reach for it, saying, "Dada! Dada!"

A lot of Poppy's 12 month clothes are getting too small, so we're on to 18 months now. Poppy has big beautiful rolly chunky baby thighs :) that are super strong from using her leg strength when she scoots. She has light brown/golden blonde hair that's starting to curl up a bit in the back on bottom, which makes her looks really girly. Her eyes are big and brown. She tans super fast so Lauren has turned into a sunscreen maniac. Poppy has 3 teeth, all on bottom, and has had those for quite some time. She's just getting over a bout of thrush, for which she had her first prescription.

Poppy just started having big girl poops, which is not surprising because she's kind of a pig when it comes to food! She'll eat pretty much anything (except nuts, honey, and eggs). Her favorites are beans, Cheerios, bell peppers, melon, chicken, and she kind of has a sweet tooth for ice cream. She still breastfeeds 6 or 8 times in a 24 hour period, by Lauren's best guess. This includes on or 2 night feedings. But she's really stretched that out and sometimes Lauren gets 4 hours of sleep in a row - woohoo!!!!! Poppy sleeps in her boppy between Zach and Lauren in their king sized bed. She ofted picks her legs straight up in the air and slams them down on the mattress repeatedly in her sleep, which is pretty annoying but other than that she's a good bed-mate. She goes to sleep between 8:30 and 9:30 and gets up around 7 or 8. She takes a couple naps each day, one in the morning or early afternoon, and the other around dinner time.

Poppy also enjoys baths, and swimming, and swinging, and playing in the sand. She likes going down slides but someone still has to hold her hands. She rides rear-facing in her Chicco infant seat and probably will for a good while longer. She's a really good car-sleeper. She takes a pacifier for sleep most o fthe time but sometimes will fall asleep without it. Poppy has a wonderful mischivious grin that she wears most of the time. She's a sweet, sweet girl.

Lolli and Poppy still get along great. Sometimes Lolli plays to rough with Poppy, but for the most part she loves having Poppy around and almost always wants her included in whatever she's doing.

Here's a link to Lolli's 10 month post for comparison ;) http://lollip.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-month-update.html