Eating, Playing, Living, Loving

I figured it was time for another Penelope update, so here it goes.

She is really figuring out the whole eating thing.  She loves to eat apples, pears, carrots, squash...really anything.  Here she is eating avocado.  She couldn't get enough.  She kept grabbing the spoon and shoving it in.  It's adorable!

She also has fallen in LOVE with the dog.  Mia loves licking her (which is kind of gross but it makes P giggle so I let it slide from time to time.) Here is a picture of them lounging on the couch together.  I think once Penelope starts dropping food it's all over and Mia may find a new best friend instead of me!

We love reading to her, and she loves it! Sometimes it's difficult because she's too busy trying to turn the pages but it's still a great time.  Here is her daddy reading her a bedtime story. Melts my heart...

Grandma and Grandpa Diamond came for a visit for Grandparent's day.  She just loves them to pieces.

She is still obsessed with playing in her exersauser

Oh, and we blew bubbles for the first time.  She loves them!

And this weekend we had our first fire in the fireplace.  She liked to watch the flame.

So that's about it.  I'll end this post with an adorable video of her eating avocado.  Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Photo Shoot

Decided to take some pictures of Penelope today. Here are my favorites!

Also, today is my sister Terrie's birthday....happy birthday sis!

Visit with My Brother and Family

My brother and his family came to visit this weekend to meet Penelope for the first time. We had a great time and little Penelope was the center of attention....which is her favorite!

With her Uncle Ricky and Cousin Chrissy

SuperBABY!

With her Uncle Ricky and Cousins Chrissy and Ricky

Checkin' our her Uncle's face

With her Aunt Sue

Ricky and Sue

We had a very nice time with the family.  Our dog Mia is moping around the house now because of all the love and treats everyone gave her while they were here too.  haha.

Also...here's another picture I took of her today.  Doesn't really fit into the story but I think she looks super cute...so here it is.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Supermodel

My little baby girl is a supermodel! She posed for some baby headbands for a friend of a friend who is opening an etsy shop. Here are the best takes. I think it's time to start entering her in some glitz pageants! (Just Kidding!!!)

Moving on Up to Cereal and other updates

Penelope tried rice cereal for the first time today. She didn't seem to like it too much but it sure was fun to watch her!

I don't know about this guys!

It's kinda weird tasting....

Get it out of my mouth!

She is doing really great! She loves her daddy, and loves to roll over on her belly!

This is AWESOME!

That's right...just chillin on my belly like a big girl!

I'm also very happy to report that her hemangioma is doing fantastic! We started her on Propanolol a month ago and it has drastically reduced the size of the mark.  So much so that in our last eye doctor appointment on the 12th he said that her vision is symmetrical again and she is no longer in need of glasses! This medicine has saved her vision and she has had no side effects at all! We are so very lucky to live near Johns Hopkins where they are pioneering the use of proanolol as treatment for hemangiomas!  Here are some before and after pics just so you can see how amazing this drug is!!

And in non-baby news.... it's crazy but it's true.  3 years ago today, Sean and I met for the first time. It's amazing how much has happened in the past 3 years.  I love you Sean!

Our first picture together. Date #4 - day trip to Cape May, NJ

Right after he proposed on the beach in Cape May!

married!

Honeymoon.

our baby is born!

And now we're the lucky parents of a beautiful 6 month old little girl!

Have a happy weekend!

So many updates - Penelope Milestones, Birthmark, and Beach Trip

Shew people....I sure do suck at blogging! I think I say that every time I post! Guess that means it's true..haha. Anyway, a lot has happened since I last posted so I figured I'd just do a cluster post of our lives in the past month.

Trip to Cape May, NJ:

Penelope had her first trip to the beach this summer. While I can say that bringing a baby to the beach does not make a relaxing vacation - it was still a good time! She spent a lot of time sleeping on the beach and rocking her awesome sunglasses! I can't wait to bring her back next year and hopefully dip her toes in the water a bit. It was way too cold and she would have just screamed this year.

sleeping away

hanging with daddy wearing her awesome sunglasses

Trip to the Hospital, Update on Penelope's Hemangioma:

Big things are happening for the better with Penelope's hemangioma. We brought her to the eye doctor right before our vacation and he said that her eyesight was getting worse and that she is probably going to need baby glasses (as I mentioned in the last post). Well, once we got back from vacation we met with her dermatologist and she said it was time to get more aggressive with the treatment. That meant it was time to have Penelope admitted to the hospital for a few days to start her on Propanolol. Propanolol is a hypertension medication that they've found also shrinks hemangiomas. We had to admit her to the hosptial for monitoring because the medication can have adverse effects such as low blood pressure or drops in glucose levels. We checked into the hospital this past Tuesday and Penelope rocked it like a champ! She was so good the whole time we were there and just played with her toys! She didn't even cry too much when they pricked her toe to check her blood sugar (well except for the first time!) We were out by Thursday and we can already see a huge improvement in both the size of the red part of the hemangioma as well as the stuff under the skin that is actually pressing on her eye!

hanging in the hospital

chillaxin in the hospital crib

Penelope's eye before any treatment

Penelope's eye after 1 month of timolol topical treatment and less than a week of Propanolol treatment! It's amazing!!

Penelope Milestones:


And now on to the fun stuff! Penelope has just been learning and growing so fast these days!  She has discovered her tongue!

She has learned how to roll over!

What's up guys?  Oh that's right....I just rolled over again. No biggie!

She has also learned how to grab things with her hands and bring them to her mouth!  We are just so proud of our little girl! She is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to Sean and I and we are amazed every day that she is ours!  I couldn't possibly love her more than I already do.

just relaxing for a bit

Woah...what's that?  A monkey!?!

And that's about it for now!

Penelope Eye Update

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted - I'm a bad blogger! I've just been so busy with making new friends with other moms, playing with Penelope, and just general life. I really don't have too much time to write now, but I wanted to give everyone an update on what's going on with Penelope's eye and her hemangioma. Basically we've been putting a topical beta blocker called topolol on her eye for the past month hoping that it would shrink the mark. It seems to be working ever so slowly...but we went to the eye doctor today and it wasn't good news. Basically her eye is in need of glasses at this point. He showed me the lenses of what her eyesight is like, and it's pretty blurry. He said that the best thing to do at this point is to put drops in her good eye to make it blurry so that she will be forced to use her bad eye. This will hopefully prevent her from developing a lazy eye. In 2 months we'll go back to him where he will probably prescribe baby glasses. We may also have to patch her good eye from time to time to continue making her use the bad eye and avoid a lazy eye situation.

We're going back to the dermatologist who prescribed the topical treatment on the 13th. We may decide to try a more aggressive treatment, depending on what she says. The eye doctor said that if this stops pressing on her eye soon that there may be a chance that her eye could go back to normal and her vision could improve....but if it just keeps pushing and pushing it's only going to get worse.

I was pretty upset when I heard all of this today, but I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. She's healthy, she's happy....and she's awesome. She just may take after her mommy and need glasses. They're pretty cute anyway, and I think she could rock them!



Well that's about it for now.