In 3 more weeks, it will be a new year. This boggles my mind. And in the 3 weeks since I last posted, we had Thanksgiving in Wyoming (which was great), Penny and I flew to Denver (more on that later), I went on another overnight work trip, and we promptly came down with The Crud (the doctor's official diagnosis).
But this weekend, we managed to get into the Xmas spirit a little, by decorating the tree and making cookies. I wasn't sure we were going to be able to jam both activities into the same evening, but Penny was really into it. And I briefly felt like Martha Stewart.
Otherwise, I'm not remotely ready for Christmas. I've barely done any shopping, and instead of venturing out this weekend, I went back to bed in an attempt to sleep in between coughing fits. Bah, Humbug!
Yellowstone is one of my favorite places in the world. It is a sacred place for me, which sounds so hokey, but it's true. My parents loved it too, and as kids, we used to visit at least once a year. We haven't been there since my mom died, partly because we've been busy, because we didn't have the kind of time it takes to go through the Park. And mostly because we haven't been emotionally ready to go back there, without my mom.
But this year, we felt compelled to go. I was ready. I wanted to take Penny on the first of many pilgrimages to Yellowstone.
We had trouble finding a place to stay inside the Park, but scored a wonderful cabin outside of West Yellowstone. Even though it was late in the season, the Park was still busy. People have discovered what we already knew, that September is the perfect time of year to go. The leaves are just starting to turn, the weather is mild, and the wildlife is "active."
Lovely Norwegian Fjord horses, grazing behind our cabin. (Not native to Yellowstone).Penny was unbelievably good in the car. It takes a while to drive through the Park, because of the "must stop" attractions like Old Faithful, the interesting scenery, and the occasional bison crossing. Any time you can get out and inspect a thermal feature, or get a better look at a distant elk herd, you must! It was challenging to coax Penny into getting back into the car once we had stopped to look at something. But she handled it well, considering her legs were probably constantly numb from sitting in her carseat.
If you haven't been to Yellowstone, you must go. I always see something I haven't seen before. I'm already wondering when we can go back.
I will admit that taking Penny to "Mom and Tot" dance classes is a glorified excuse to relive my childhood. And I'm pretty sure all of the other moms in class are in the same boat. I took dance when I was little, from the time I was a toddler on up to third grade, until my family moved to a remote area in Wyoming where classes weren't available. In Kindergarten, I told everyone I wanted to be a Ballerina when I grew up. My dad took me to a performance of the Nutcracker even though it was some distance away and he had to pawn part of his coin collection to pay for the tickets. I will never forget that.
Needless to say, Penny is in dance. We've been twice so far, and Penny prefers to watch everyone else before she participates, which is just about the time the class moves on to a new activity. Then she gets upset, and says "More?" "MORE?" Today, she was mad when the class started flying around the room (flapping our arms like wings), because we were supposed to be sitting on our spots. So I carried her a bit and we flew together. When I put her down, she took off, flying and running and shrieking. She was the noisiest, craziest bird. And when that song ended and it was time to move on, she became upset again.
Next came the parachute. She likes to walk with it, shake it, make it go up and down, but she does NOT like to be underneath it. The other kids seem to love it, but not Penny. Today she went under for a minute, while the rest of the class waved to her and said, "Hi, Penny!" to which she firmly replied, "No." and got the hell out of there.
Getting warmed up before class starts.
The rest of the time, she looks at herself in the mirror. I can't say I'm surprised by any of this, based on what I have heard about Britt as a child. Apparently, he didn't like to sing in school, but he wanted everyone else to sing because he just wanted to listen. Evidently, he wouldn't tumble in a gymnastics class until everyone left and he could do it alone. He also likes to look at himself in the mirror. A lot. So when I told him about dance class today, he just laughed.
Reading is easier than dancing. For one thing, no parachutes are involved.
Meanwhile, Penny says, "Too?" when she wants us to do whatever she is doing. If she is playing, she says, "Mama, too? TOO?!" This is how our conversations go:
Penny: "Watch?"
Me: "Do you want to watch something?"
Penny: "Okay." (Pause) "Too?"
Me: "Do you want me to watch too?"
Penny: "OKAAAAY!" (Cackling).
If she is doing anything, she will tap her index finger and say, "Too?" That finger cracks me up. It's the most understated, demanding gesture ever. TAP, TAP, MOMMY. And I feel bad when I'm in the middle of something, like cooking dinner. If I can't join her game, she mournfully says, "Up? UP?" because she feels rejected. And yet, she can entertain herself amazingly well when it's time for bed. Hmmm.
Whenever I feel like complaining about the 7 hour drive we make on a regular basis to Wyoming with our baby, I think of my friend Alisha, who flew from Guam with her baby to visit her family and friends here in the states. She traveled 30 hours ONE WAY with her 10 month old. I have flown once with Penny, it was an hour and a half, and it was the longest flight of my life. I don't know how Alisha did it, but she did, and she was even coherent despite the layovers and time changes and ALL OF THAT FLYING.
Penny liked Xavier quite a bit, and who can blame her? He's really cute and a seasoned traveler already.
Our trip to Wyoming was fine - during the mere 7 hour drive, I honed my skills of entertaining Penny while Britt drove, and Penny did well, although whenever we stopped, she didn't especially want to get back in her seat. We got to see Opa and Grandma Shirley, bathe Penny in their magnificent jetted tub, watch some of the TV shows we never get to watch after she went to bed (I love vacation!), and went on a little outdoor adventure in the badlands for some fossil hunting.
One of the various wind farms along I-80, harnessing Wyoming's most abundant resource.
Britt got to partake in his favorite activity, fly-fishing. Penny and I went up to the fish hatchery, while Britt took to the creek. The hatchery has changed a lot since I was a kid, but you can still feed some of the big rainbow trout, and Penny got a kick out of that.
On the trip home, the travel-sized MagnaDoodle from Opa and Shirley was a godsend. Penny discovered that scribbling and erasing is fun, and I was even able to do some reading on the drive home. Huzzah!
I have very fond memories of visiting my cousins (hi guys!) in SLC for Easter. We would make the trek down from WY during our spring break and I was always amazed by the weather in Utah. Salt Lake was always in full bloom while Wyoming was still a bit...brown and dead and cold. We'd wake up on Easter Sunday, check out the goodies in our baskets, and entertain ourselves by playing Chinese Jump Rope, roller skating, or playing a bazillion games, which included (but was not limited to) Uno, Sorry, Nertz, and Elfheraus (sp?). And let's not forget about that awesome Fisher Price Castle! I coveted that castle like nobody's business.
If we weren't able to get to SLC, we'd have an egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house in WY. My dad would hide our dyed masterpieces in creative ways around the yard. He would make sure to hide some easy ones for whichever sister was still little and closest to the ground, while getting crafty for the older, taller sisters. I remember once he hid one on top of the clothesline, and one in Grandpa's lilac tree. This is exactly what I want to recreate for Penny, when she's a little older.
This year, we had an egg hunt at Penny's cousin's house. Penny's Uncle David and her daddy hid some eggs in their yard. Penny didn't really catch the vision of finding the eggs, but she enjoyed sitting on the sidewalk and taking them out of her basket, and throwing them. There was a point when one of the plastic eggs cracked open, and she got part of a melted M&M stuffed in her cheeks before I noticed. She didn't seem to react to eating it, but later, one side of her face broke out after she rubbed her eyes with chocolate hands. Nice! Mental note: Penny may be allergic to smearing chocolate on her face...that seems...normal.
I still get a kick out of coloring eggs and eating them. Penny likes them too! And do you know what else she likes? Swings! Uncle David has a great new park by his house, so we had to try out the swings.
I'm already looking forward to next year, so we can do it all over again.
(Don't worry, Penny, it's only another 400 miles to get home.)
Here I am, writing about goings-on from last month now that October is almost over. Oh well. The month of September brought Penny's four-month appointment, which meant round 2 of her shots. This time, daddy was with us so he could witness the fury. But there wasn't all that much fury. I have seen Penny cry harder at bedtime than when those needles were jabbed into her thighs. She was 14lbs 12oz (75th %tile for weight!) and 24" inches long (50th %tile).
Then the doctor asked me the question I was dreading: "Can she roll over?" "No," I said, "But she can do this!" And then I had her stand on her legs. Penny planted her legs and threw out her arms as if she had just stuck a perfect landing off the vault. I think she even grinned. Bearing weight on legs is a 6 month old skill and I desperately wanted a good grade. Sarah has a great post about this phenomenon. I am an overachiever and Penny is doomed to have me worrying about everything and wanting her to do well. (I know that I should just relax, but with each passing week and Penny's increasing hate of all things related to tummy time, I am letting the worry set in a bit).
Needless to say, our doctor was unconcerned and we scheduled our next appointment for November. The next day, Penny had a low grade fever, which freaked me out a little, given all of the paranoia surrounding vaccinations. But things improved thanks to some Infant Tylenol and lots of rest.
The next week, it was off to WY to see Opa and Grandma Shirley again. Penny was a trooper for the 400 mile trip (one way), and was only a little fussy for the last 10 miles. Mommy got to watch lots of fun shows on Bravo while Penny worked on some tummy time:
Penny to mom: Stop worrying about me.
We also did some more fossil hunting, and our friends took us to a fantastic place covered in gastroliths (prehistoric gizzard stones). I mean, they were covering the ground. Big ones, little ones, red, pink, ochre, all colors! As we were walking around, I noticed a little snake off to my right. I called up to Britt and asked him if he had seen it:
K: "Hey did you see this snake over here?"
B: "No, what snake?"
K: "Over here! It's really little. I don't think it's a rattlesnake....I think it's dead."
B (turning around): "Oh wow. That's a rattlesnake."
At which point the baby rattlesnake slithered off, shaking its little baby rattle behind it.
K: "Oh my god. Penny, we just saw a baby rattlesnake! I kind of want to go back to the car now. What if its mother shows up?"
B: "You're thinking of bears."
Other highlights from our trip:
One of the deer who like to hang out behind Opa's house,
And, the many faces of Penny:
You're right, Penny. Cupcakes DO rule.
The 4th of July marked Penny's first trip to Wyoming. We made two important discoveries on this trip: 1) Penny is an excellent little traveler. 2) I can pump while I ride in the car! This age of tinted windows and battery operated breast pumps is truly an amazing one. I was worried that large semi-trucks would get a bit of a frightening show as we passed them, but no one honked at us or anything.
Our adventures in WY consisted of visiting Opa, going fossil hunting in the badlands, watching fireworks on the 4th, and having what I called "breastfeeding bootcamp," where Penny and I worked on our technique. (And thanks to Opa's satellite TV, we were able to get caught up on this season of "Shear Genius.")
Until she grows more hair, this is pretty much all we
can do with it. Penny, you're so PUNK!
The aptly named "badlands."
Opa also took us on some scenic drives so we could try out some new places to eat, including Dutchie's at the Greybull KOA, and Trapper Creek in Shell. They were most excellent.
I love going back to my homeland. To tell the truth, I took Wyoming for granted while I was growing up, so whenever we visit, I am awed by its beautiful desolation, its magnificent skies, its no-nonsense attitude. As Penny grows up, I hope she will see visits to Opa's as opportunities for adventure in the land her mother adores.
