Kendree - 7 months

Our little Kendree girl continues to grow up--darn it all.

I feel a bit like a broken record, but she is still the best, happiest, most content baby you'll find.  I know you all think I am making this up, but she was babysat by a non-family member for 10 hours last week and my suspicions were confirmed.  She's an angel child. 

My guess is that she is just over 17 pounds.  She is in size 6-9 and 9 month clothing (except for anything made by Gerber in which she wears 18 months--side note: I'll never figure out why their sizes are so off).  She can sit up for about 3-5 seconds on her own and then gets so excited that she launches herself backwards.  The balance is there, just not the perseverance. :)

She is cooing, squealing and babbling like crazy nowadays and gets especially excited when Easton walks into a room and pays her any attention.

While she immediately puts everything in her mouth we still have no sign of teeth and to be honest I am perfectly okay if it stays that way for a while.  Kendree is successfully eating rice cereal now and we are introducing other foods this week--hooray for branching out!

She continues to love the swing and the stand-up bouncer thingy, which is great for me.  Easton gave up the swing at 5 months, but I love having a place to put her that is at least a little "big brother-proof."

She has finally mastered rolling from her front to back, but still only does it a handful of times every week.  She is perfectly content to hang out on her belly and I guess if she is, then I am too.

Now on to the pictures.

Eating Rice Cereal for the first time:

Such a good girl, chilling in her car seat.

Official 7 month shoot:

And the one that didn't quite work out.

Pretty girl:

Easton 2.75 years

Wow, can you believe he is thisclose to 3 years old?  It's going to rock his world when he has to tell people he is three and not "two ana half."

Easton is crazy.  He loves to read books, sing songs, line up his cars and watch movies.  His current favs include ABC Signing Time and Casey at the Bat (classic Disney cartoon).

Easton has been sleeping in a big boy bed since we moved into the new house on August 3rd.  We figured why not totally rock his world and do all of the the changes at once?  No, actually, it went really well, because we didn't have to go through the "giving the crib to Kendree" fight.  He got a new bed and a new room and a new house and it was just. that. exciting.

He sleeps awesome in it for both naps and bedtime and still doesn't really get that he can get up when he wants to (but who am I to teach him that!).  I have a feeling that when we finally take away that binky, we may have more of an issue, but that remains to be seen.

Easton is 37 inches tall and around 27 or 28 pounds (none of those measurements are official, just Ronnie and I randomly measuring him). He is still skinny as a rail and though he needs the length in 3T pants, they fall off his skinny bum (a trait from my side of the family).

He is currently very into signing all of the letters of the alphabet and recognizes all of his letters when you point to them.  At first I thought it was just because most of his books with letters are in alphabetical order, but then he shocks me with reading out "O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L" off of one of his toy cars and proves me wrong.  He reads from left to right about 50% of the time and right to left the other 50.  I figure I don't have to push that too hard just yet. He recognizes numbers 0-12 and still has difficulty counting consistently from 12 to 20.  We get phrases correct (like 18, 19, 20) but numbers are still jumbled and missing in the middle. 

Easton also loves colors and shapes and rainbows are quite possibly his favorite thing ever.  He loves them in books and movies, but then last week we were going to Wal-Mart and saw a double, full, rainbow.  It was so funny to see him realize that they actually exist in life.  He almost couldn't list off the colors fast enough.

Easton is getting to be such a great big brother.  He loves his "Kenny Bear" and while he is still a classic big brother a lot of the time, he wants to help her and include her in things that we do.

We love our Easton--and he loves you!

Easton Riding the Elmo Ride at Sea World

I know that only close family care to watch Easton ride a ride at Sea World--so that is why this is on the little ones blog. 

Ronnie and Easton are in the Orange Elmo (which Easton requested--we are starting to think that may be his favorite color, but can't be sure).

Kendree - 6 months pictures

Better late than never...here's the pictures of Kendree at 6 months.

Official Momma shoot:

Hanging out in the swing

"Hold you, Kenny!"

Kendree - 6 months

Kendree had her doctor's appointment today, so I decided to delay this post by a day.  Her official stats:
Weight: 16 lbs. 10.5 oz. (70th percentile)
Height: 26 1/8 inches (70th percentile)
Head: I never remember the actual measurement, but it was also in the 70th percentile. 

Gotta love those proportional kids!

Can you believe it's been 6 months?  Yeah, me either.  The craziest part of this milestone for both of my babies is that in my family, my grandma (and hence my mother) has always told me that it takes 6 months for you to integrate a new little someone into your family completely (and they should know, what with the 13 children between them) and it is so true!  Now, going to the store with both kids, doing a night-time routine for two, bath time for two, feeding, napping, etc. all seem totally normal.  I can't imagine Kendree not being a part of our lives.

It's when I feel somewhat in control that I know I'll be getting a curve ball thrown at me any day now! :)

Kendree continues to be such a good baby, but is finding her voice a bit more.  Most of the time, the noises she makes are just LOUD, not that she is upset.  It was just this week at church that I wished for the first time that she took a binky more regularly.  It was really nice to just shove one in Easton's mouth when he was being a noisy boy.

Kendree has still not rolled from her front to her back.  I continue to leave her on her stomach for extended periods of time, to encourage her to roll both ways and all it has done is make her really like being on her stomach (which isn't really a negative thing).  She'll get there eventually, I'm sure.  She's scooting around (slowly, and mostly not on purpose), and it has made me start to actually think about what is on the floor, around her, etc.

She has decided this month that she would like her feeding at night again, and is waking up around 4am every night.  I imagine (fingers crossed) that that will extend back out to 5 or 6 when she is eating cereal/solid foods.  [side note: I think I mentioned with Easton, but due to some research regarding the time you nurse vs. allergies, we have chosen to nurse exclusively for the first 6 months with both of our kids.  Kendree will be starting rice cereal in the next week or so.  Don't you worry, the large rolls on her thighs, arms and cheeks will assure you that she is nowhere close to hungry. :) ]

We continue to work on a consistent schedule with her naps.  I'll admit that most of that is my fault, as she falls asleep within minutes of getting in her car seat, so when I run errands she will always take an unscheduled nap and mess up her schedule.  Oh well, such is the life of a second child!

Kendree has decided this month that she is done with the swaddling.  She began not really settling down for the night unless her arms were out, and after a few nights of that, I gave up.  It's nice to not have to worry about whether the swaddle blanket is clean.

Kendree has no signs of teeth coming in anytime soon, but she sure has started to enjoy chomping on things (her finger, your finger, chew toys, blankets, etc.)  I always say that my kids can wait as LONG as they want to get those little chompers.

I, myself, have yet to make her really belly laugh, but all Easton has to do is look at her the right way and she will die of laughter.  He will do anything to ensure she will continue laughing.  It's one of the only things he can do with her, hence it is one of his new favorite activities.  I just can't seem to stop the most lively session from being right before we need to be getting them both to bed!

Her current favorite toy is the diaper wipes package.  I'm constantly worried about her getting a little piece of plastic off of it (thanks to Ashley), but if she can see it, she will do anything within her power to get over to it.  It's also the first thing that has made her cry when I take it away!

When in her car seat, she prefers to have the tag blanket I made for her above everything else.  I'm so glad I got that out sooner with her than I did with Easton (I really didn't make his until he was done with that kind of thing).

As always, we love our little Kendree-girl (who Easton has recently started calling Kenny-bear.  You would die of adorable-ness if you heard him say it).

I wanted to get this post up ASAP, so I'll be adding the pictures at a later time.  Hopefully very soon!

July--in Pictures

We went to the Jubilee Day's Parade and had a lot of fun.  My camera only shows you one corner of what you are taking a picture of (yes, it was me that dropped it).  So the fact that this picture was un-focused went unnoticed.  I liked it anyway.

Easton spent 3/4 of the parade with these noise cancelling shooting ear things on.  He took them off just before the police and fire trucks went by with their sirens.  Perfect timing.

We've also enjoyed outdoor time at Grandma's house.  Everyone has gotten in on the action.
Uncle Dan and Alayna

Just Alayna

And Easton working on his baseball form (we have a ways to go...)

That Kenny-girl has been there too.

We've lined up cars...

Lounged on the couch...

And driven over to Cheyenne a few too many times.

We've also decided that we must look at every single picture mom takes, right after it is taken, or this face (dirty, I know) appears:

But then, we cheese:

And show mom where the pictures come from:

Hope you're having a great July as well!

Kendree - 5 months

Not even a week ago, Kendree turned 5 months old!  See?  I can get this stuff done in reasonable time. :)

She is still eating and sleeping like a champ.  I don't think I've ever mentioned it on here, but both of my children have forced me to be completely chocolate-free when I am nursing them.  For whatever reason, Mommy eating chocolate=babies screaming from gas pain.  When I say chocolate free, I mean not even one M&M for the first 3-4 months and then VERY limited chocolate from then on.  I thought we were on that second step with Kendree, so I had just ONE scoop of cookies and cream ice cream at my mom's house last Sunday.  Then, Ronnie and I spent all night dealing with a screaming, in pain baby.  It was by far the worst night of her life thus far and I have no desire to repeat it, so I'm back to completely chocolate-free for a while.

While I don't know exactly how much she weighs this month, I'm betting right at or just over 16 pounds, since she is in 6 month and 6-9 month clothing and wearing size 3 diapers.

Kendree rolled over (from back to front) for the first time on July 3rd and since that time has perfected her skills.  She now only spends about one minute on her back before she rolls to her stomach.  The problem comes after she is on her belly, since she doesn't yet know how to roll back over and she tends to get a bit frustrated.  This stage is so funny, since she truly acts like "Who put me in this position?  I don't want to be this way!" whenever she gets stuck.

She now loves the bouncer and is starting to test her limits in both the swing and bumbo chair.  While she still likes her thumb, it doesn't seem to be quite the fight this month.  She will search for a finger in general when she is both hungry and tired and I think we are nearing the end of the thumb battle.  She still doesn't really like her Binky on an "everyday" kind of basis.  She'll take it when tired, but most of the time spits it right back at you. 

If not swaddled, Kendree very much prefers to fall asleep laying on her right side, so her left arm and hand can be up and over her face.  I have yet to catch that on camera, but need to get a picture as she has been doing it since birth!

She continues to test her voice and entertains us all with her talking, screeching and squealing.  Easton is still your best bet if you want her to laugh, although more and more of us (and when I say "us" I mean everyone but me) are having success in getting giggles.  In fact, a video of my mom getting some is at the end of this post.

Overall, she's still our happy baby girl!  She loves watching her older brother and already you can see that she will be following him and idolizing him every step of the way in the future.  We just love our "little sister!"

Photos from mom's official 5 month shoot:

Smiling for mama on the couch

Almost rolling over (and before you think she was in danger on that ottoman, my sister was just out of the shot, ready for any more action than we thought we would get).

Lifting that head up

The top view :)

We're working on sitting up (not really that close to doing it on our own for more than a few seconds)

Grandma making Kendree laugh

Rolling over!