Two Words

I know no one else cares, but since I'm a speech therapist, I do. Kenna had her first two word combinations today - "all done" and "hi mama"

Kenna in the Dryer

This Week

Kenna has been growing so fast and doing so much that I feel like I can't post it fast enough. As soon as I figure out how to upload videos from our new camera I will put a bunch up, but for now pictures will have to do.

Kenna now knows a variety of animal sounds. It is very funny because when she sees a stuffed animal that she wants she will make its noise rather than say its name. She knows monkey, cow, horse, duck, elephant, pig, lizard, chicken, dog, lion and probably more that I have forgotten. There will be a video of that up soon.

She has also found a new way to enjoy her favorite food (olives). She sticks her finger through the hole and puts them in her mouth. We didn't even show her how to do that she just figured it out. I am constantly amazed at how much she figures out.



Thursday was really funny. I fed Kenna lunch and got her ready to go to the children's museum. I had to run upstairs to get some stuff and when I came out of my room she was sitting in her toy basket playing, just playing away. It was so cute that I just sat upstairs and watched her play for almost an hour before she got sick of it. She found a comb and brushed her hair, threw some balls, and danced to music. It is so weird to me to see my baby growing up. I love her - she is so sweet!

Today she started to pick something up off the floor and I told her it was yucky, so she picked it up and walked over to the trash and threw it away (we also tell her the trash is yucky). Also today, we started painting the outside of our house. We we letting her swim and walk around outside while we painted. I was up a ladder and she was walking around near me. I turned around to get off the ladder and she had climbed up the rungs! That's right - not a step ladder, a real ladder with rungs - and she was two rungs up. I jumped down to help her off, but the even more amazing thing was that she got herself down! She just stepped back down the rungs like it was no big deal.

Kenna has also taken to playing around in her crib. When we try to get her out she will crawl away and laugh and laugh. She bounces around, roll, kicks her legs and laughs at herself for a good ten minutes before she is ready to get out. Pretty cute. She is constantly entertaining.

Can't Take a Hint

While we were in Pittsburgh our house, surprisingly enough, did not clean itself. I spent a good part of yesterday cleaning and Kenna helped for a while, but got sick of it pretty quick. I was in the kitchen and I turned around to see that she had gone and gotten one, not two, but one shoe (a little pink croc) which she was holding in her hand and banging against the door to go outside. Apparently I had kept her cooped up for too long. Take a hint mom. We tried to work on the concept of getting the other shoe, but she just didn't get it. I love that baby.

The Burg of Pitts

Wow! What a week. On Sunday Nate had to leave to go to Wisconsin again for some more work training. Rather than sit home I thought it would be fun if he flew out of Pittsburgh so I could stay with my favorite Aunt and Uncle, Hillbilly Willy. The drive up was just fine. Kenna is a pretty content little baby and was even nice enough to wake up right before we got to their house (at 11pm) so that everyone who was waiting up to see her could play with her. She absolutely LOVED my two cousins, Danny and Yaiya (Moriah), who are seven and twelve. They were equally in love with her. She followed Dan around for most of the week. He rode his bike for her and she sat on the porch clapping, and watching him. We also went to one of his baseball games where she spotted him, no problem. She waved to him and clapped for him and he ate it up.

This is Danny's chair. It was just her size and she loved sitting in it.

Kenna has learned a new word, well, two new words. “Uh-ee” (uh-oh) which can mean anything from “I spilled something” to “I threw something I didn’t want anymore on the ground and I know I shouldn’t have done that.” Whenever she says it she puts her little arms up and shrugs her shoulders like she is saying, “Oh no, where did it go?” She says it at least fifty times a day, but it is so cute that we all love to hear it. She has also learned the word “outside.” She can’t say it but she knows what it means and when she hears it she runs to her shoes or the door. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be outside. We spent most of out time in Pittsburgh outside. She ran around the yard with Danny and Moriah or just sat on the porch watching things happen. I guess that being one now, she had decided it is time to learn to throw a temper tantrum. She does this if we take her inside before her highness is ready to go. She goes completely limp, throws her head back and screams. Not cute, but we like her so we cope with it.

This week we also discovered that Kenna has two new loves in her life - stirring things and putting lids on things. She spent a good portion of the trip walking around the house with a pink colander and a spoon to stir it. She also now likes to hold her own spoon and try to take bites while we are feeding her. This is mostly just a mess because she rarely makes it to her mouth and usually ends up flinging food everywhere. She also loves to take lids on and off of things. This also extends to meal times. If she is eating baby food she wants to hold the lid and try to put it on the container in between bites. This is also very messy.

My mom flew out to visit while we were there. It was nice. I guess Grandma loves Kenna more than her Mom because she spent as much time outside with Kenna as she wanted, even though it was not cool. Kenna also made her first trip to Build-a-Bear. Grandma was nice enough to buy her Scruffy Dog complete with all the accessories Kenna could get her hands on. (In hind sight Nate says we should have named the dog Lulu, but, fortunately or unfortunately, he was not there). She loves that dog and since we've been home, she will occasionally stop playing to go over and give her a hug and kiss.

After Build-a-Bear we picked Nate up at the airport. He had a hard time with flights and delays and as of this morning his luggage is still in Pittsburgh, but he is just glad to be back. Kenna was super excited to see him and, of course, he sat in the back with her. We met up with Cristen, Moriah and my mom at Panera where they had this great closed-in room. We got to eat our lunch in peace and Kenna could run around with minimal supervision and without fear of escaping. I only hope she didn’t eat too much food off the ground.

It was sad to say good-bye, but after dinner we hopped in the car and began the long dive home. Kenna had a short nap, but stayed up until 10pm when she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. When we finally got home she went right back to sleep without any problems (a small miracle for anyone who knows her) and mom and dad got some rest. The trip was a lot of fun and we loved seeing everyone, but as always, it is great to be home.

Unfortunately I had some technical difficulties with my camera so I didn’t get many pictures. In good news, I called the Canon help line and the man was nice enough to walk me though fixing it without telling me I was a complete idiot.

Kenna and Meemaw

Dental Hygiene and Safety Hazards

Kenna has recently learned the importance of dental hygiene. Here she is enjoying some floss -

Her good dental habits are off-set by some poor standards of safety - mainly that she will climb onto anything that is more than six inches off the ground. We come close to heart attacks at times, but she is still surviving.