9 month check-up

Today was Kenna's 9 month check-up. Her growth is starting to slow down a bit, but she is learning a lot. She can now pull herself up with ease and is even beginning to take little baby steps while holding onto the couch. She has also mastered several new tricks. She loves to show how big she is (she raises both of her arms above her head in response to "how big is Kenna"), she gives five, and she claps for herself while trying to say "yea, yea, yea". I have also decided that Kenna is an exact duplicate of her daddy. She played shy for the first few minutes in the doctor's office, but after that she started showing off. She kept yelping to get the doctor's attention and would then show her how big she was and clap for herself. Everytime the doctor turned away she started the process all over again, determined to be the center of attention. She is such a sweet little baby. Life is so great with her around.

Weight: 17 lbs. 5 oz. (25 percentile)
Length: 27 in. (25-50 percentile)
Head Circumference: 43 cm. (10-25 percentile)

Photo Shoot

After an exceptionally disappointing photo session last week, Alixa and I decided to host our own photo shoot so that we could keep the digital copies of our babies' pictures without having to pay hundreds of dollars. It involved moving every lamp in our house into the spare bedroom. Things got a little toasty, but we got some pictures. Needless to say I don't know anything about setting up a photo shoot. The pictures turned out okay, but I really really really miss Kiddie Kandids.

Being a Parent is Lots of Fun - Especially When They Smile

It is finally sunny in Richmond...
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Swingin

We have been really busy the past two weeks with our little family. On Friday night we decided to repaint our bedroom because the red we painted over gave our room a green feel at night... Anyone who has been in our downstairs bathroom knows we have enough green in our house so we went ahead and added another coat of paint to finally have a neutral room without the green tint. The finished product looks nice and now we have all 3 bedrooms painted. Nevermind the fact that Kenna's little room is still just drywall.

The weekend was spent up in Harrisonburg visiting our old friends up there, eating the food we miss, shopping at the Gap outlet that somehow found its way into that tiny little town, smelling the cow poop, and going to the book fair down there. Kenzie was happier than a pig in mud buying books for Kenna and clothes for herself. We met up with Liz and Claire, out two favorite Harrisonburg-ians and had a wonderful time introducing them to Kenna. They liked her. Whew.

The weekend flew by and it was back to the grind, so I decided to take a personal day on Wednesday and spend time with my two girls. It was really worth it. We went to the park and fed the 2 ducks and 390 geese that live there. They are a bit tame and would come up and peck at my hand until I fed them. They also squabbled among themselves quite a bit and whenever one would freak out Kenna would get really scared. It was pretty funny. Jenna (the cuz) and Alixa (the sister in law) met up with us and we got to put the kids on the swings. They had a great time. Then it was off to lunch where our baby got to have her first french fry. It is a pivotal moment in any babies life.
Life has been grand. It is way more fun with Kenna around. The next few weeks will be pretty busy. Kenzie's family is coming out for Easter and spring break and I will be experiencing my first go-live at 2 of our hospitals.







Kenna is also working on saying Mamma. This is from a few days ago - she has gotten better but still has no clue what it means but she loves to say it.

Getting Big

Kenna is getting bigger and bigger every day. She REALLY, REALLY wants to be a grown up. She wants to be a part of whatever Nate and I are doing. She has also discovered that she can crawl anywhere now and hew new favorite place to crawl is to the dishwasher.

She loves to walk everywhere (which means everything takes a lot longer because she's not very good at it). She also prefers to feed herself. She doesn't want bottles anymore and sometimes she doesn't even want baby food. And...HER FIRST TOOTH POPPED THROUGH. You can't really see it yet, but if you put your finger in her mouth you can feel it along the bottom. She is so much fun and I can't believe it has already been 8 months!

I can do it myself, mom!

Caught red handed!

All ready for spring.

Kenna wanted to "help" fold the laundry.

Head Rush

Kenna's new favorite thing to do is sit on the floor and shake her head back and forth. This causes some balance issues and sometimes she falls and bumps her head, but she get back up and starts shaking her head some more. Yes, that is a Tootsie Roll wrapper she is playing with in the video.