It's been so cool lately to see Kendall experiencing new things and learning new things. It seems like everyday is an opportunity to show her something she's never seen before, or to have her try a new food or try to get her to say a new word. So far this week she has learned: how to throw things off our back deck, the word "baby", that tater tots should be a required food group, what a snail looks like, how to help us do her hair, that throwing an absolute fit at Southpoint Mall will not result in mommy and daddy letting her run wild like she wants to (that one was a fun learning experience for everyone involved)...I could go on and on. She is just a joy to hang out with. I never thought in those first few sleep deprived week that I'd actually be the mommy of a cool little kid, but I am!
The back yard looks a little better. All of the brush is gone and the stumps should be ground today. We ended up cutting down like 25 trees in all. We've got a plan drawn up by James' good friend, Ryan, who owns a landscaping company and pretty soon I'll have a Better Homes and Gardens yard! I can't wait!
I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend. My next 6 weeks will be slammed every weekend, so I'm going to enjoy doing nothing. It's supposed to be extremely pretty here, so I'm thinking Kendall and I will head to the park for a picnic and let the sun shine on our (sun screened) faces.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Have I ever mentioned...
...that I am INCREDIBLY impatient? It's a serious character flaw and I would love to say that it's something I'm working on...but I try not to lie, so I won't. My impatience has reared it's ugly head again this week as we took on our first major home project.
When we bought our home three years ago, one of the things that we really liked was the "natural" area in the back (aka a ton of trees). Ironically, we are now spending our hard earned money to have those trees removed because #1 I want my sweet baby Kendall to have a real backyard to run around in and #2 a gigantore tree fell the other night during a storm and although it (thankfully) didn't hit anything, it freaked me out. So, yesterday Honest Tree Service (yes, that was really their name) came and removed not one, not two, but seventeen trees from our yard. Mostly in the back, but a few in the front, too.
So I guess I thought that the landscape fairy was going to land in our backyard overnight and I would wake up to beautiful grass and a swing set and a little water fall with those rocks that are really radios playing Kenny G to sooth my nerves. Instead I woke up to a truly overwhelming pile of mulch from the tree chipper, ugly bare spots where I wonder if grass will ever grow and a headache from the chain saws that were running for 11 hours yesterday.
Of course my husband is always the epitome of composure and knows just how to deal with me. As I stood on top of the pile of mulch and screeched that I wanted it gone RIGHT THIS MINUTE, he calmly told me to "quit freaking out, babe." So I will. Just don't drive by my house right now because you would laugh.
In other news, my darling baby is sick. She's been running fever, has snot for days (she definitely got her gross snot issues from her daddy), and is just laying around the house. Poor baby. Of course, it's viral. I took her to the doctor yesterday and they ruled out everything else.
So Kendall and I are planning on spending the remainder of our Saturday vegging out on the couch watching Pinky Dinky Doo and dreaming of less congestion and newly laid sod...
When we bought our home three years ago, one of the things that we really liked was the "natural" area in the back (aka a ton of trees). Ironically, we are now spending our hard earned money to have those trees removed because #1 I want my sweet baby Kendall to have a real backyard to run around in and #2 a gigantore tree fell the other night during a storm and although it (thankfully) didn't hit anything, it freaked me out. So, yesterday Honest Tree Service (yes, that was really their name) came and removed not one, not two, but seventeen trees from our yard. Mostly in the back, but a few in the front, too.
So I guess I thought that the landscape fairy was going to land in our backyard overnight and I would wake up to beautiful grass and a swing set and a little water fall with those rocks that are really radios playing Kenny G to sooth my nerves. Instead I woke up to a truly overwhelming pile of mulch from the tree chipper, ugly bare spots where I wonder if grass will ever grow and a headache from the chain saws that were running for 11 hours yesterday.
Of course my husband is always the epitome of composure and knows just how to deal with me. As I stood on top of the pile of mulch and screeched that I wanted it gone RIGHT THIS MINUTE, he calmly told me to "quit freaking out, babe." So I will. Just don't drive by my house right now because you would laugh.
In other news, my darling baby is sick. She's been running fever, has snot for days (she definitely got her gross snot issues from her daddy), and is just laying around the house. Poor baby. Of course, it's viral. I took her to the doctor yesterday and they ruled out everything else.
So Kendall and I are planning on spending the remainder of our Saturday vegging out on the couch watching Pinky Dinky Doo and dreaming of less congestion and newly laid sod...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
She looks like her daddy...
...but she acts like her mama. Seriously, our sweet, precious, fun-loving daughter has an attitude problem. And it doesn't make it easier that she's cute while she's showing that attitude.
I thought I "prepared" by reading up on discipline, talking to lots of moms about what works/doesn't work...I even took a class at church on the subject. But, see - I still thought I had a good year left before she started acting ugly. Nope. Apparently she's an early bloomer.
Now, run of the mill periods of being ill or tired and whiney I can get down with. Those are understandable. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about kicking, arching her back, scratching mama's face, hitting, pulling her lip (something you have to see to believe). Most people don't believe me when I tell them. My girl is a charmer, so she's got people hosed. Still others laugh when I tell them, which is understandable because I've been known to have a witty line or two in my day.
But, deep down inside, this TERRIFIES me. I never thought I would so clearly see the sin nature in my child at such an early age. It pains me to think of the battle that she, like all of us, face with our flesh every single day. I may not throw temper tantrums anymore (not often, at least), but I'm struggling with my flesh just the same. I pray that the Lord will give us wisdom to raise Kendall to fear Him and to accept His gift of grace. You can pray with me, if you'd like. For all of our children...
I thought I "prepared" by reading up on discipline, talking to lots of moms about what works/doesn't work...I even took a class at church on the subject. But, see - I still thought I had a good year left before she started acting ugly. Nope. Apparently she's an early bloomer.
Now, run of the mill periods of being ill or tired and whiney I can get down with. Those are understandable. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about kicking, arching her back, scratching mama's face, hitting, pulling her lip (something you have to see to believe). Most people don't believe me when I tell them. My girl is a charmer, so she's got people hosed. Still others laugh when I tell them, which is understandable because I've been known to have a witty line or two in my day.
But, deep down inside, this TERRIFIES me. I never thought I would so clearly see the sin nature in my child at such an early age. It pains me to think of the battle that she, like all of us, face with our flesh every single day. I may not throw temper tantrums anymore (not often, at least), but I'm struggling with my flesh just the same. I pray that the Lord will give us wisdom to raise Kendall to fear Him and to accept His gift of grace. You can pray with me, if you'd like. For all of our children...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Overindulgence
So I was thinking...God works through lots of different things. And one way that He speaks to me sometimes is through the different blogs that I read. Recently, a friend of mine has been blogging about a commitment that she made with regards to food addiction. She is doing quite well and as I've read her blog, I've started to come to terms with the fact that my issue with weight is, in fact, a sin issue. I've never really looked at it like that before. I just figured I love food - no harm in that, right? Wrong! See - I'm having a sort of revelation here, so bear with me. I think that what I've done over the past several years is replace one addiction with another.
For those that know me well, you already know that I consider myself to have a huge problem with alcohol...although the Lord enabled me to sober up years ago, I don't think that I will ever feel comfortable around the stuff because it has been one of my life's biggest struggles. (Praise be to Him for releasing me from that addiction!!) Clean and sober I may be, but I think that I have allowed myself to take the addiction that I had to alcohol and replace it with food. The old Jennifer celebrated with alcohol, grieved with alcohol, got mad with alcohol. The new Jennifer celebrates with food, grieves with food, gets mad with food. Do you see a pattern here?
The cool thing is that the same God that poured His grace over me in the area of my alcohol addiction can do the same in the area of food addiction. I've just got to reach out to Him just like I did all those years ago about alcohol. Last night I was reading a book totally unrelated to food and the topic of overindulgence was written about and the verse that was given was Proverbs 25:16, which reads "If you find honey, eat just enough - too much of it and you will vomit"...kinda gross, I know, but how true. How many times have I felt just pure SICK after eating and eating and eating?
I say all this to say that I'm formally recognizing that I have issues with food and I'm not sure where God is going to take me now that He's convicted me of the problem, but I absolutely trust in Him because He has so radically changed my life already and this food thing is small potatoes for him (I'm so witty).
For those that know me well, you already know that I consider myself to have a huge problem with alcohol...although the Lord enabled me to sober up years ago, I don't think that I will ever feel comfortable around the stuff because it has been one of my life's biggest struggles. (Praise be to Him for releasing me from that addiction!!) Clean and sober I may be, but I think that I have allowed myself to take the addiction that I had to alcohol and replace it with food. The old Jennifer celebrated with alcohol, grieved with alcohol, got mad with alcohol. The new Jennifer celebrates with food, grieves with food, gets mad with food. Do you see a pattern here?
The cool thing is that the same God that poured His grace over me in the area of my alcohol addiction can do the same in the area of food addiction. I've just got to reach out to Him just like I did all those years ago about alcohol. Last night I was reading a book totally unrelated to food and the topic of overindulgence was written about and the verse that was given was Proverbs 25:16, which reads "If you find honey, eat just enough - too much of it and you will vomit"...kinda gross, I know, but how true. How many times have I felt just pure SICK after eating and eating and eating?
I say all this to say that I'm formally recognizing that I have issues with food and I'm not sure where God is going to take me now that He's convicted me of the problem, but I absolutely trust in Him because He has so radically changed my life already and this food thing is small potatoes for him (I'm so witty).
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Big head
Kendall finally had her 1 year check up today. She was a little late getting in because she had been sick. Anyhoo - everything is looking good. She handled her first finger prick like a trooper. She didn't even whimper. Just looked at the guy like he was crazy and then became interested in her blood pouring out. I think she has a future in the medical field.
Her stats:
Weight 19 pounds, 12 ounces - 25th percentile
Length 29 1/2 inches - 50th percentile
Head I can't remember - 85th percentile
So of course I freaked out and asked him what's wrong with my child's noggin. He said that nothing is wrong since it's always been big. Um, thanks doc. Seriously, he explained that her head circumference has always been 85th percentile, so he isn't concerned. Then he made some lame joke about her hat size. At that point I wanted to kick him in the throat for talking about my child's sweet head not once, but twice. I remained calm, however. No worries.
He was pleased that she's walking, saying a couple of words and feeding herself. He told me that she needs more milk than she's getting, which is difficult since he wants me to take her off the bottle and she absolutely refuses to drink milk from her cup. Juice or water from the cup is fine. But not milk. She gets a mouthful of milk, then opens her mouth and lets is pour right out. Every. Single. Time.
We're off to the beach this weekend with my parents and Megan. James has to work, so he gets to stay home and hold down the fort. I am very excited to see how KK will react to the beach this go round. She was itty bitty last time she saw the sand. It's supposed to be pretty nice this weekend, so I'm sure we'll take her to play and get nice and gritty!
Her stats:
Weight 19 pounds, 12 ounces - 25th percentile
Length 29 1/2 inches - 50th percentile
Head I can't remember - 85th percentile
So of course I freaked out and asked him what's wrong with my child's noggin. He said that nothing is wrong since it's always been big. Um, thanks doc. Seriously, he explained that her head circumference has always been 85th percentile, so he isn't concerned. Then he made some lame joke about her hat size. At that point I wanted to kick him in the throat for talking about my child's sweet head not once, but twice. I remained calm, however. No worries.
He was pleased that she's walking, saying a couple of words and feeding herself. He told me that she needs more milk than she's getting, which is difficult since he wants me to take her off the bottle and she absolutely refuses to drink milk from her cup. Juice or water from the cup is fine. But not milk. She gets a mouthful of milk, then opens her mouth and lets is pour right out. Every. Single. Time.
We're off to the beach this weekend with my parents and Megan. James has to work, so he gets to stay home and hold down the fort. I am very excited to see how KK will react to the beach this go round. She was itty bitty last time she saw the sand. It's supposed to be pretty nice this weekend, so I'm sure we'll take her to play and get nice and gritty!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Can't stop kissing her
So I have a theory that when a baby is sick, mommy's kisses make her better. Hence the reason that I am now contracting Kendall's heinous cold as I type this. She came down with a head cold (translation - concrete filled sinuses) on Tuesday. Then hives on Wednesday. Back to the Niagara Falls of snot today. Good times. But I just can't stop kissing her. I even wipe her snot with my bare hands in times of need. I am determined that my child WILL NOT walk around with crusted up snot on her face and since she practically runs when she sees a Kleenex coming at her, my only option sometimes is the stealth hand swipe, followed by clapping and saying "Yeah Kendall", which always prompts a smile.
James and I have officially turned into dorky parents. Because of Kendall's aforementioned terror of things coming at her nose, we found ourselves in the middle of the living room Tuesday night choreographing a dance to go with our "Let Us Bulb Your Nose" song. She didn't find it humorous (i.e. she FREAKED when we actually bulbed her), but James and I laugh every time we talk about it.
Tuesday brought about Kendall's first snow and her first bug swallowing. She loved the snow, cried when we brought her in. And I don't think she minded that 1/2 a ladybug she managed to swallow before I pulled the other half out of her mouth (RIP sweet ladybug).
Hope all is well in your world!
James and I have officially turned into dorky parents. Because of Kendall's aforementioned terror of things coming at her nose, we found ourselves in the middle of the living room Tuesday night choreographing a dance to go with our "Let Us Bulb Your Nose" song. She didn't find it humorous (i.e. she FREAKED when we actually bulbed her), but James and I laugh every time we talk about it.
Tuesday brought about Kendall's first snow and her first bug swallowing. She loved the snow, cried when we brought her in. And I don't think she minded that 1/2 a ladybug she managed to swallow before I pulled the other half out of her mouth (RIP sweet ladybug).
Hope all is well in your world!
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