will the real penelope please spit up?

let's clear the air

there has been some recent speculation that this lovely lady

(penelope A)

was named after this lovely lady.

(penelope B)

and while i can't deny that i utterly adore both of them, the fact is that they are both named after this lovely lady.

(penelope classic)

think about it -- she faithfully waits for odysseus AND she's a pretty awesome weaver. in fact, penelope means weaver (according to some weird baby name sites, it also means duck. which i guess is also awesome).

the weaving thing might seem silly, but did you know that there is a long, long literary history behind the use of weaving as a metaphor for poetry? it's true. i actually wrote a 20-page essay about it in graduate school (wordsworth was quite the fan of this metaphor). in short, the weaver is the first poet -- weaving individual strands/words together to craft a beautiful final product.

and my own little penelope is the result of weaving together so many of my own tender life experiences. she is the product of so many prayers, hopes, agonizing workouts to keep my blood sugars in line, tears, negative pregnancy tests, tears, prayers, all-night talks with jesse, and (did i mention this already?) more prayers. and she's more beautiful and precious than i could have ever imagined. and i can't wait to see how her individual life experiences weave together and create a beautiful woman.

now that we have cleared that up, onto some adorable displays of babiness from the littlest penelope (mostly so i have something to watch at work tomorrow when i am missing her terribly.)

and p.s. my first day back at work today was fine, as any sane person would have guessed. the crazy woman writing this post is ridiculously relieved.

and p.p.s. how awesome was last week's episode of LOST? i have been dying to say something on here about it. let's just say that penelope and desmond melt my heart. and i can't wait for tonight's episode.