Little climber

Edith loves to climb.  She uses her new chair pushed up to the ottoman to get up onto the couch.  She has fallen off head first a couple of times, but Alena and Nora taught her how to get down feet first and is now much better at it.  When she isn't climbing onto the couch, she is trying to climb the stairs.  When she gets to the top of the stairs, she stands up on the edge of the top and makes us worry that she is going to fall right back down again.

Dressing up

Nora is trying to get Edith into dressing up.  Alena and Nora don't do it as much as they used to, but there is a large box of clothes, just waiting for Edith to try on.

We used magna tiles to make Jones into a stegosaurus

Kristina and Francis get married

January 7th Aunt Kristina married Francis Giuliani.  The cousins returned from Minnesota for the big event.  Poor Nora had been running a fever, so she stayed with Janet and Myron Rees during the rehearsal dinner.  With the help of Ibuprofen she was feeling pretty good for the wedding at least!  It was a small event at St. James with a reception at the church hall.  Angela and Julianne did all of the decorating and made delicious cookies to go with the wedding cake.  The big kids walked the gifts up during the ceremony and all looked very cute.  We had fun meeting Francis's California family and joking with them about the 5 degree temperatures we were experiencing.  Francis has 6 brothers and sisters, so he fits right in to our family.  After the reception the newlyweds headed off to Chicago before and early morning flight to Hawaii.  

Finn said, "Can't just one of you do this?"  Lily was in charge of hair for all three Penniman kids while Angela decorated the hall.

The gift carriers, minus Nina

Mrs. Chalupa teaches preschool at St. James and brought out the Duplo blocks to play with.  Edith is on the move!

13 month old

Look who is 13 months old!  Edith is really getting good at walking now.  She starting taking some steps just after her first birthday, and is not crawling much anymore.  Now that she can walk she likes vacuuming even more.  I go from bedroom to bedroom and she walks after me and plays.  She gets so excited when the vacuum comes out, and I can't get over how strange that is!  Edith also loves to crawl up on her pink talking chair and get onto the ottoman, where she immediately stands up precariously.  She has taken a few tumbles off of the couch, but it doesn't phase her for long and she is climbing right back up.  She also loves climbing stairs and has been known to fall down a couple.  She is not a cautious baby!  Edith loves going to Connie's and playing with her friends Kendra and Elias.  The other day her friends got picked up first from daycare and she tried to follow them up the stairs and cried until Daddy arrived (2 minutes later.)  Edith now has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 on bottom.  She still enjoys savory soups and saltine crackers and is not very good at chewing yet.  We keep expecting her to hit a growth spurt: she has been 18.5 pounds for months now.

Dressing up

Edith will usually let us put kitty ears or a crown on her head for a short while.  She hates having a hat that velcros under her chin, though!  Nora got this cute dance outfit from Aunt Gisele.  She still loves her dance class, especially tumbling.  After a lot of practice, she can do headstands and cartwheels.  Alena had an immigration simulation at school last week.  She was the only one to dress accordingly.  This green dress once belonged to Aunt Melissa.  She was supposed to bring a cardboard box to carry for the simulation and Daddy got creative.  All of the kids at school were envious of her fancy chest and dress and she had a ton of fun!