Friday, September 25, 2009

ON YOUR FEET!

Kendra has pulled herself to standing on things now.

She started it on Wed. the 23rd on the steps to go upstairs. Holy Panic in Detroit! I sprinted to get pillows as quick as I could to put under her, when she comes crashing down. But, she stood structurally sound, and didn't fall.

She is also playing Peek-A-Boo with us all the time now. She would grab my shirt and play it while nursing, but now has the concept of doing it with other cloth!!

SO CUTE!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Bonding days

We have had a wonderful past 4 weeks. Patrick was home with us for baby bonding time. He could have taken this time when Kendra was born, but we found that with Isabella the interesting time was around 6-7 months, so it was perfect timing with her development.
We spent a week up in the UP with our friends. We went blueberry picking, to the fair, and had a great time.
Then back home my Uncle Wally, cousin Jeff and Grandmother Sparks from North Carolina came to visit and it was fun. We played games, grilled out at my mom's house. Isabella got to know her Great-Grandmother Sparks. AND they got to meet Kendra too!
Then we learned how to can from my Grandmother Vi (Isabella's namesake). We spent a whole day with her, and learned so many things.
Then this past week we canned carrots, wax beans, green beans, Italian flat beans, and pickled cabbage. We walked around town on Wednesday. Can you believe we have been in town for almost a year and did not have time to just walk around downtown? It was perfect, we went to the farmers market, then on our walk we needed to eat the lunch I packed for us, so along our travels we walked right into the Hands On Museum and ate and played. Thanks to Aunt Maria for the AWESOME membership we could go right in for FREE! Our friends Kyra, Luke, Amber and Jason came over on Thursday. We also spent all day at the Toledo Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa McLeod and Uncle Joe.

Isabella says "My favorite animal at Zoo hippopotamus, cause he swimming in the water, and look at hippopotamus leg, and he drink water." (She is now saying she is swimming like the hippopotamus while crawling around on the chair and floor)
Maybe you can catch a glimpse of him too!
http://www.toledozoo.org/animals/hippo_cam2.html

It was a blessing to be able to spend all this time with family.

Now, the important part. Did Patrick bond with Kendra?!?... YES, she was in the living room and was fussy, and sure enough she didn't turn and crawl to me, she turned and crawled after daddy as he walked into the kitchen. *sigh* Kendra sure loves her some daddy!

What are the kids up to? Well, Kendra is signing eat, daddy, milk, all done, and more. She was doing this scooting thing to get around, NOW she is crawling... really crawling. She also is talking more.. da da ga da ba.... no mama... Isabella said mama first, Kendra said dada. Daddy sure is proud!

We have been able to distinguish more traits that prove Kendra is MY daughter. She wakes up slowly, yet happily. She is a night owl.. up late every night. She also is an eater, she LOVES food.

Isabella had her first trip to the Toledo Zoo. She loved it.

All in all we had a wonderful time

Thursday, August 13, 2009

push ups



Here is Kendra is doing push ups.. She must have secretly enlisted....


"how's my form mom?"

She is so much stronger than Isabella was! It's quite scary really...
We have determined she is MY child.. She sleeps like I do, wakes up like me, has a lot of my mannerisms. It's so neat to see!

Isabella is Patrick's child... need proof?


or this one?

Honeydude

Yes, last night we had honeydude melon. It was delicious. While cutting it up I learned it was called honeydude melon.

summer

Summer is such a fleeting period. You anticipate, plan, dream of things to do when it comes then somehow life happens and you don't do the plans and dreams.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

40th birthdays CAN be fun

I threw Patrick a surprise 40th birthday party for a few friends and family. He was adamant about NO parties. As a good wife I disregarded that and threw him an AWESOME party.
I arranged a scavenger hunt with about 300 items. We had 3 teams:
Jason, Patrick and Jeff
my mom, Lars, and Joe and Alysha
Michelle, Rob and Everett
This is "entire team on a slide":


"Entire team doing a handstand"

"Enttire team jumping, Feet must be off the ground"

"Entire team in a tree"

"Entire team on a teeter-totter"
(they even balanced)
"Entire team in a shower"



We had a great time!
Thank you Mom and Amber for all your help getting the house ready.
Thank you Michelle and Rob and Everett for driving all the way south for this.

Thank you to everyone who came.

It really means a lot to know you have such great family and friends.

Happy Birthday Patrick, we all love you.















"

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

playtime

Kendra did great today...
she played by herself with her play gym for a good 20 minutes before letting me know she was done.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Bellaisms

Isabella turned 2 Feb 27th. And her talking turned 200 miles per hour.

Last night, while getting ready for bed she coughed, and then ended with what I thought was a sneeze. So of course I followed with "God Bless You".
She looks me in the eyes, "No, no, mamma, no Bless You" "a-hem mamma, a-hem" "no Bless You, only a-hem" "different (and signs different)

Kendra

Well, baby number 2 is wonderful.

I can't believe she is even more patient than Isabella was.

Kendra Helen arrived quickly on Sunday Feb 8 2009. at 12:50 AM.

Isabella is a proud sister and loves her very much.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

ultrasound 2

It has been a couple of months... as much has happened.

Christmas was wonderful. We got to stay home. I think that was the best gift of all, being able to stay here and family came to see us.. I was overjoyed!
We had a relaxing Saturday with my family, then on Sunday SuperDad's family came over, and that was perfect as well!

January has proved to be a fast month. We are in the home stretch for baby 2 to get here. I was VERY excited for Isabella's birth, but for baby 2 it has been more fun. I don't know if that makes sense...In our new house we have 3 bedrooms, one is ours, another is the girls' and the third is the office. So I was able to decorate a room.. a real space for Isabella and her sister to be in together. It is going to be awesome.
We repainted a dresser that was Patrick's when he was a child, and we are covering my twin bed that I had as a child with fabric on the head and foot board. Then the crib and the shelving unit are in the room and it is just perfect!!!!
I would like to do some final touches, like put up a couple shelves, or decorations, but that of course isn't as important as making sure we have clothes, diapers, wipes, etc. BUT I am wishing I had the crib set that I got the inspiration for the room's colors from.
http://www.kidslineinc.com/products/infant/bunny_meadows.php


We are having a TERRIBLE time agreeing on a name.. I instantly KNEW when I heard Isabella.. with baby 2.. nothing is clicking. I really want to name her from my side of the family, but nothing is reaching out and GRABBING me.

so.. today I had ultrasound #2. The doctor was concerned that the baby was too big. I think the measurements are just a bunch of crap. The midwives were concerned about the same thing with Isabella and she came out perfect! 7 lb. even. I was a little baby, so was Patrick, yes, baby #2 may be a little bigger, but seriously. The ultrasound was 1 lb and a half off with Bella, the technician even said that they could be a pound over or a pound under. Either way, who cares, everything looked good! The technician said that she looks to be about 71/2 lbs right now.. so by the time my due date comes around.. will be about 8...81/2 lbs. We'll see how accurate they are! :)

I will try to keep up more with this now that we are getting more on a regular schedule. But once the baby comes.. all hell will break loose.... HA HA HA!