Random bits from this week

Just a few bits of random things from our week ...

Snugli Baby Carrier ... Daddy & Kendall have used the baby carrier a few times now ... and Miss Kendall is all smiles when she's in it! (We're gearing up for our big trip to Canada in June ... yay!) All strapped in and ready to go outside to play Frisbee with Cassie ...

Her 1st Aquarium ... we got the Baby Einstein Sea Dreams Lullaby Soother as a shower gift that we had registered for and we LOVE it! We'd had it out to look at while having tummy time when she was longer, but now Ash attached it to her crib (like it's designed to do) and it provides great fun! Kendall loves to watch all the fish swim by and listen to all the music ... it's really nice to have her happily occupied, in her crib, while I am working in her closet or room. We also are loving the remote control (which is one of the reasons why I registered for this particular one) ... you can turn it off from the door, if we need to. The aquarium will play for over 30 minutes, gradually dimming the light to off, stopping the fish swimming, and lowering the music volume until everything is off ... it's got a lot of neat features and she loves it! (We don't use it to put her to sleep very often, but it helps drown out extra noise in the house, especially in the afternoons when she's going down for a nap while our 2 neighbor 1st grade boys are here.) Pardon the bed-head ... just woken up from her 1st morning nap ... and so smiley, as usual!

Mirrors ... what can I say here ... simply ... our daughter LOVES mirrors! Oh, dear ... it's already starting ... I thought we would have a few years before this happened, but apparently not! We have a large mirror hanging over a couch in our living room and every time we walk in front of it (holding her), she looks at herself and smiles or laughs ... it's hilarious! She also loves looking in the mirror in our guest bathroom (which, I guess, is her bathroom now) when we are getting her ready for bath time. She used to just look at us & smile in the mirror, but over the past couple of weeks, she has realized she's looking at herself in there too ... and now, reaches out to the sweet little girl that's lookin' back at her ... LOVE it! (Pardon her mess of hair in these pictures ... it was definitely BATH time!)

Bath time in the BIG Tub ... okay, well, her baby tub inside the big tub ... baby steps here folks, baby steps! For the record, I hunted and searched (online and in stores) for a bath seat for the big tub ... she's been sitting up so well, for so long now, that we were thinking it was past time to move her into the big tub because she is really just too big (length-wise) for her baby tub now (especially since she loves to splash & wants to sit up instead of lying down!). I finally found a bath tub seat ... and we love it, but Kendall is just so small & skinny sitting up in it, she was falling over with all the bath water around her, so that's not working for us right now. So, it finally dawned on me that she could sit up in her baby tub (using the other side) and put that tub into the big tub ... I know, that thought really deserves a "duh". (Now normally, I'm not this slow to think, however, it appeared that as soon as I was pregnant with Kendall, I noticed a delay in my thinking ... like my brain was being sucked away ... and then I blamed my brain (or lack of) on the spinal drug & pain meds after the c-section and those crazy hormones that I was experiencing ... but, truthfully, my brain has just never come back to me (and now she's nearly 10 months old) ... oh, sad if this is really going to be my new "normal"! ha!) Regardless, here is Kendall taking a bath ...

Crazy Hair ... we took these pictures just after a bath ... she is getting some curly hair and I have NO idea what to do with it! Thoughts, anyone? My hair has always been straight as a stick and does very little, so curly hair is a new thing for me! When she was first born she had a ton of hair (which we were VERY surprise at, since she was only 29 weeks along) and eventually, nearly all of her hair fell out. She's been growing new hair pretty good for the past several months and now it's got some curl to it. Currently I've been brushing it out straight, but if she sweats or gets it wet, then that part curls back up and just looks like a big mess ... crazy! I'm thinking about just letting it dry out curly to see how that looks for a day. (If you look closely at the 2nd hair picture, you can see Kendall showing off her 2 bottom teeth!)

Cassie the dog ... Kendall continues to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our sweet Cas-Cas! Poor Cassie is nearly 7 years old and has really been favoring or not even using her left hind leg (at times), due to the beginning stage of hip displacia ... it makes us so sad! She continues to love to be as close to Kendall as possible and Kendall continues to LOVE that! We've been having a LOT of tummy time and floor time to work on Kendall's non-interest in "locomotion" and Cassie always joins us in lying as close to the mat as possible. Over the past 2 weeks, Kendall's really made some big progress and this week, I think I found the best thing for her motivation ... Cassie! Kendall was sitting up in the middle of her mat ... she purposefully reached out forward to fall on to her tummy & caught herself and then, rolled herself over to get over to Cassie ... well, helloooooo locomotion! (I guess I need to bring Cassie with us at Kendall's next therapist evaluation appointment!) I was so proud of all that Kendall had just done that I grabbed the camera to catch them playing! (Fun Time was OVER when I looked away from them for a second (I was checking out something on our camera) and when I looked back, I saw that Cassie's enormous tongue was firmly grasped by both of Kendall's hands! Cassie didn't bat an eye ... she was just letting her ... but that is not something I want Kendall to get used to! There is no reason Kendall needs to be grabbing any dog's teeth or tongues! We are really going to have to work on "soft touches" with Kendall!)

Lunch Date with Daddy ... Kendall & I had planned to have a Valentine's lunch date with Daddy on the Friday before V day, but that Friday was a crazy day with all the snow and having no electricity, so we postponed it ... to Thursday! Kendall & I picked up Daddy at his office and enjoyed a little lunch at Red Robin ... helloooooo, banzai burger!

catching up on a little light reading while we ate ... I love that she enjoys sitting up in the highchair & entertaining herself (and us) ... and she loves looking (really, it's staring) at everyone and then flashing them her big smile & 2 adorable teeth

behold ... the banzai burger!

This evening, we are having Drew & Deanna and their 11 month old daughter, Brooke, over for dinner ... I'm really excited about getting to hang out with them and watching our sweet girls interact with one another! Stay tuned for (I'm sure) adorable pictures of our evening with them!