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McKenna's First Day of First Grade!

Today was McKenna's first day at Ashton in the first grade! Her teacher is Mrs. Senno. She even made a new friend named Lauren. Here, McKenna can tell you the rest:
I sat with Olivia in the "big yellow pickle" (that's what Olivia called the school bus!) When I got to school, a man asked me what grade and who my teacher is. I'm in room 11.
On the school bus we saw lots of stuff like houses, places and more! In class we read a story called "Rosie's Walk" about a hen going for a walk and fox wanted to eat her. The fox kept falling. We also sang a song about motion. I saw Olivia and Jeni at lunch. I think 7 or 8 kiddos from my class were sitting next to me at lunch. It rained today, so we didn't go outside.
Mommy picked me up at the end of the day and I had a great time!
The first thing I said when I got out of school was "I wish the day was longer!"

I lost a tooth

I was playing with water balloons and Jeni told me to pull my tooth out. I ran home to put it in a glass of water! It was so exciting when I lost my tooth, I was waiting for it to come out for months! I am going to make a new Twitter account @ToothOnTheLoose. It will talk about everywhere we go with my tooth. For example, will go to the beach, bring the Barbie pink towel and put my tooth on it, sunbathing.

Last night, I put my tooth under my pillow, wrapped in a tissue and with a note to the tooth fairy. The note read:

"Dear Tooth Fairy, I would like some money or candy, but leave my tooth.
Love,
McKenna"

The next morning, I found two Sacagawea coins under my pillow but still the tooth wrapped in a tissue and the note.

Summer Vacation 2011

On July 10, the Lavertys set off for their longest road trip yet. We left around 11 am, bound for Philadelphia and Washington, DC. We spent Sunday night in Philadelphia, eating cheesesteak, seeing live birds being sold in a store (like chickens and turkeys) and walking around a pier on the Delaware River. The next super-hot morning, we went to the Philadelphia Mint to see coins being made. McKenna loved seeing the big coils they use to make the coins and she also loved seeing the finished coins being moved around on the belts.
After the Mint, we tried to go see the Liberty Bell, but it was nearly 100 degrees outside and there was a long line. So we got back in the car and left for Washington, DC!

During the drive to DC, we played some games and McKenna watched some movies. She says that the ride was still a little boring, but we got there quick! On our second day in Washington, the temperatures reached 103 degrees! We made sure we stayed inside.

On Monday, we went to see the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We got a tour of the place where paper money is made and took a picture of McKenna standing next to a stack of bills worth one million dollars.

After the tour, we took a taxi over the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The taxi was really big. It was like a van. It had seven seats in it.

At the museum, we saw dinosaur bones, including a T-Rex and a Pteranodon.

The next day, we went to the Museum of American History and saw things like C3PO, Dorothy's ruby slippers, the Hope Diamond, Kermit the Frog and McKenna got to make a recipe to make a cake! It sounded very yummy. Also that day, we went up in the Old Post Office tower and got to see the whole city from there.

On the last night, we drove around getting looks at the Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

McKenna's least favorite part of the whole vacation was the ride home. She didn't have so much fun in the car, especially in Connecticut. When we got home, she drew a picture of Connecticut and punched it!

It was a lot of fun on this vacation and all three of us had a great time!

What McKenna Likes to Play Now

I've been playing LPSO. I live in Waggington. I'm in Kittywood right now.There is this weird pet there. Her name is Sparklynn. She has a lion mane, lion ears, and a cat tail.

Serious sickness #3

Are you kidding me? Seriously? This poor kid. Check the two posts below this one to get a feel for what she's been dealing with.

So our kid has allergies and all spring and summer long, she's a little snot-nose faucet. It's pretty gross. So after her last viral epidemic, the booger faucet started. We tried Flonase, didn't work so well. We switched to Zyrtec and it seemed better. But then on Monday the 18th, she mentioned her tummy hurt, she was naseous. Later that night, it boiled over and we figured this was just a little stomach bug and she'd be good as new in a day or so. Luckily this was spring break at school, so she's not really missing much.

Then, she starts complaining that her ear hurts. Hmm. So we take her to the doctor and our regular awesome doctor is either not in or unavailable and we see another doctor. She says it's not infected and just a little fluid in her ear and because of the recent nausea and vomiting, she didn't want to give us an anti-biotic. Ok fine.

That night, the ear pain really intensified, and even a double whammy of Advil and Tylenol only took the edge off for her. The next morning, back to the doctor's office where we saw our regular doctor who said it was an ear infection and did prescribe anti-biotics.

Two days later, McKenna's not getting any better, she's got a high fever and we see redness behind her ear. The doctor fears mastoiditis, an infection of the bone surrounding the ear. So she sends us out for a CT scan. McKenna is super brave through that process and even likens it to "a day at the spa". What a kid. When we were done, the staff said the radiologist would like to speak with us. So we head to the back where his little office-cave exists and he starts showing us the pictures pointing out one side with the normal space behind her ear, and then the other side and her sinuses that are all filled in. Yes, mastoiditis. Infection in the bone. He couldn't stress strongly enough that we need to go back and see our doctor "now". Of course, we never planned for anything else.

Immediately head back and all the staff is looking at us and McKenna like there's something pretty serious going on. Ushered straight into a room and the doctor came in to explain. McKenna will have to endure two shots for each of the next three days and then go on a few weeks of hard-core anti-biotics. The doctor has me snuggle McKenna in kinda close, but also to keep her from kicking or flailing during the shots. However this kid doesn't even flinch, never mind cry. Amazing. The next two days go similar for her.

We're finishing up week two now of this illness for McKenna and the anti-biotics worked wonders. We saw a difference less than two hours after the first shot and she's been progressing every day since. It got a little scary in there when she was having these high fevers and a lot of pain. We're finally getting our kid back as she's finally going back to drawing, playing and coming up with new stories about chipmunks. So much better.

So yeah, this poor kid has had pneumonia, some Martian Death Virus that got us a trip to the hospital with a near 105 degree fever and now a bone infection. Why? What did this poor girl do to deserve all this? We sure wish we could figure it out, but we're just happy that she's getting better and looking like she might actually be able to go back to school next week. Yay for the little trooper!

Oh what a night!

McKenna's been feeling a little under the weather for the last 3-4 days and running a constant 100-102 degree fever. She's been pretty tough through it all, no big problems. Went to see the doctor yesterday and he said it's just a head cold, not much to worry about.

This afternoon though, she went downhill pretty fast. Her fever went over 102, and she was exhausted, falling asleep on her feet, even uttered, "This is the most tired I've ever been in my life!". Ok, so she's five, there isn't much of a history to go on. Just wait until you have your own kids, THEN you'll learn what tired is. But I digress.

We put her to bed and she fell right to sleep. In her sleep, she was breathing really fast, panting. So we decided to check her temperature again. 104.7

No, that's not a radio station, that is her temperature. Oh boy. Panic sets in. Just fifteen minutes before, she was 102. What's going on?

So we make our first venture to Providence and the Hasbro Children's Hospital. Everyone there was so nice. They were great. We got right in, got a dose of Motrin, she saw three different doctors and everything was pretty quick. A chest xray to rule out a second bout with pneumonia in about a month and some peeing in a cup to check out whatever they look at pee for. About two hours in and her temperature is already under 99 degrees. Whew.

So finally around 12:45 am, the doctor in charge decides there isn't much else that they can do. Keep her comfortable, follow up with our own doctor this week and she most likely has a virus running through her.

Poor little kiddo, sure wasn't happy, but the people at Hasbro took great care of her.

New-Mon-Ya!

McKenna is finally healing up from having pneumonia this week. Yuck. Lots of staying home (9 days in a row!) and she's finally going stir crazy! Off to see the Doc again tomorrow and then hopefully back to school on Friday!

Right now McKenna really loves her chipmunks, especially Eleanor! She's also starting to watch Willa's Wild Life on tv. Her friends in school are Catherine, Ayanah, Aidan and Lindsey. She went to visit Bay View last week and we're waiting to hear if she got accepted. Keeping our fingers crossed!

Do you feel shame in your neck?

"Daddy, do you feel shame in your neck?"

And with that, Momma and I were on the floor laughing.

Let me back up. McKenna has recently been into family game night. We started with some head to head Scrabble games on the iPhone. Yes, our five year old can not only play Scrabble, but she even knows to look for the higher point squares and is always looking to play the Q and J, the highest point tiles. She is able to make her own words and add up her scores, including the multipliers. So I decided to up the ante a little and bought five dice, and downloaded the rules and scoring pads to Yahtzee. A few nights of dice throwing mixed in with the words.

You can only keep a 5 year old's attention so long, so during a recent Christmas shopping trip, I picked up Connect 4, a game from our childhood. They've improved the game now with little things like putting an oval around the game's base so when the game is over and you open the little trap door at the bottom, the checkers don't go rolling all around the room, under the couch and become cat toys to be batted around noisily at 3 am.

One of the other changes to the game is what they call "Power Checkers". Extra stickers to be attached to checkers with images of an anvil (removes all checkers played below it), a bomb (you can then remove any one of your opponent's checkers) and a 2x (skip your opponent's turn). It took me a little while to catch on to the new strategies, but next to zero time for McKenna to pick up on it. I think she won the first four games with these new modernized rules. And she was winning legitimately, much to my own frustration.

So finally after a few games of back and forth winning, I see it coming. McKenna has two checkers sitting vertically and I stupidly don't block. She's jumping out of her skin, she can't grab that 2x checker fast enough. I drop my head in shame as she plunks down the power checker that skips my turn and slams the final dagger in the game. She does her little happy dance, stops, looks up at me with those big brown eyes and issues the final taunt:

"Daddy, do you feel shame in your neck?"

I can't explain it either. It still makes me laugh.

Visiting Pete's Sake

Last week, I got to sit in on McKenna's Kindergarten class. We both really loved it. I had a great time and McKenna seemed to be happy to have me there. At one point during recess, she came over and said she was glad I was there and gave me a big hug. What a cutie!

I got to see them do their morning routines of weather, the calendar, sing songs, the pledge of allegiance, read a book, do a science project (I got to explain "inertia" to them) which was to create a spinner/top. I used a hot glue gun to attach the top and the marble. Lots of kids offered to share their lunch with me, but by the time I checked in with each of them, the offered food was long gone.

We also had the first illness of the year rampage through our house. McKenna was sick at school on Friday, but didn't mention it to anyone. Her teachers said she was "off" all day, and when she got home, she took a long nap on the couch when Mommy realized she had a fever. Poor little one.

She still has two wiggly teeth. We're getting closer there. We're looking at schools for next year. Visited Gordon last week, Bay View this week and we'll see how it all turns out.

She has already seemingly gone in and out of a Sesame Street in the morning phase. But that's partly the fault of RI's PBS as they kept showing the same ones, even during a two-week period. She still loves doing her drawing and writing and other art. We visited a crafts show in Pawtucket yesterday and McKenna was charming all of them with compliments about their items and asking "Do you have anything in purple?" as that was her color of the day.

Christmas wishes? Zhu Zhu pets, legos and other randomly circled items in catalogs. 40 more days til Ho Ho...

Halloween 2010

For this Halloween, McKenna was Eleanor the Chipette! She was dressed in a green sparkly t-shirt, green tutu, brown tights and green sneakers. Her hair was in pigtails with green ribbons. She loved her costume.

We headed out at about 6:30 after bundling up for winter weather. Trick or treat time temps were 40 degrees and breezy. Very chilly night. We hit the whole block and McKenna had the best time. Some of the highlights included getting a package of crackers and handing them back to the woman and saying "But I don't want this". She had multiple debates with people over what they were offering, and even told people of the quantities of their candy that she had already received. When she was given a choice, she took her time with a great deal of deliberation, as if picking out a new car.

We made sure we hit every house with light on, as McKenna made sure to remind us and she's now able to run up to a door, hit the doorbell, back away from the door, offer a nice loud "Trick or Treat" and a very polite "Thank you" when she got her treat.

Mommy and Daddy are still warming up a few hours later as McKenna is dreaming about which candies she'll delve into tomorrow!

McKenna's Second Trip to New York City!!

We went to the top of the Empire State Building and Mommy and I went to the American Girl Store. I hailed taxis all by myself and I called them a "juicy cab"! I visited the dog park where I saw dogs.

Daddy's Turn

McKenna had very few words about her New York trip because she just wanted to laugh when typing. Lots of words like hee hee and Ha Ha.

On the trip, we left straight from school on Friday for the long Columbus Day weekend. We drove down and left the car in Stamford and took the train in to Grand Central Station. After a quick Mexican dinner there, we took a taxi to Chuck's apartment in the East Village. It had an awesome view from the 10th floor.
Before the trip, McKenna made a list of things she wanted to do, and starred the most important ones. Those were FAO Schwartz and the American Girl store. So we did that on Saturday, to make sure we got those in. After a lunch at some decent hole in the wall place, McKenna and Mommy hit the American Girl store for about 2 hours while Daddy walked around Central Park, getting lost. Then we hit FAO Schwartz, where McKenna got to dance on the big piano. She loved that.
McKenna hailed another taxi for us back to the apartment and we laid low for most of the rest of the day. Though McKenna did like seeing the dogs running around in the dog park across the street.
On Sunday, we did two of the other things on McKenna's list, the chocolate restaurant (Max Brenner's) and the top of the Empire State Building. We all loved the restaurant and even stopped in to the second largest bookstore in the US (Strand) right near Union Square. As we headed to the Empire State Building, we were all excited to see the views. Unfortunately, McKenna wasn't too thrilled with the elevator rides, so we cut it short and eventually headed back to the apartment. But we did get some photos from the observation deck, that we'll need to get developed and printed.
On Monday, we simply packed up early and headed home, making it by 4, so we could get a little rest from the big trip.
Everyone had a great time, and McKenna looks forward to going back now when she's six!

McKenna is 5!!

A pretty eventful 5th birthday for McKenna...and not. At McKenna's school, they have a little celebration for the kids on their birthday, the parent gets to bring in a special snack treat. McKenna picked out fruit popsicles. One little problem, she woke up sick on her birthday and couldn't go to school. Even worse, we had to postpone her party the next day. :( But Mommaloo and Popaloo came over and brought gifts, and we gave her a little cake for her birthday. So of course she was happy.

She loves her gift from Mommy and Daddy, which included a mini trampoline! She bounces all day long in the living room and sometimes propels herself onto the couch.

We rescheduled her birthday party for the following weekend (just passed). Unfortunately, this was a date that didn't work for many and it turned into a really small party, but was still great. We had McKenna, Mommy, Daddy, Mommaloo, Popaloo, the Wood family and their baby next door neighbor Kacey. McKenna had an awesome homemade cake that looked like the FedEx package that the Chipettes fell out of in the Squeakuel! Mommy and McKenna made it themselves. Marble cake and white frosting. Very delicious!

So McKenna is officially 5 and she was 43 1/2 inches tall on her birthday. Getting so big.

This weekend we're off to NYC for the long weekend as McKenna really enjoys being there. Looking forward to seeing all non-touristy sites this time.

Happy Birthday, McKenna!!

What McKenna likes now

She likes chipmunks, especially Eleanor. She really loves to watch episodes of "Martha Speaks", especially the Mushy Duck episode. She's going to be five years old next month, but next week, she is starting Kindergarten at For Pete's Sake in the mornings. Daddy will drop her off for 8:30 in the morning and Mommy will pick her up at 12:30. Kindergarten "is gonna be great!" she said. Her teachers are going to be Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Albanese. She is really looking forward to learning Spanish, making new friends.

McKenna now spends her days with Mommy as Mommy doesn't work nights anymore. Yay!

Mushy Duck

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McKenna's Kindergarten Orientation

McKenna had her Kindergarten orientation yesterday at For Pete's Sake. Her teachers' names are Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Albanese. At orientation she did a science experiment where she put radish seeds on cotton balls. They are going to grow into yummy, red radishes. She also made a spider web out of slim yarn. She also read a story named "Who Will Plant a Tree". It was about animals planting trees, like a goose planting a chestnut tree, squirrel planting an oak tree and a moose planting a cranberry tree and a dolphin planting a coconut tree.

McKenna's own thoughts will be next.

McKenna's Kindergarten Orientation - Her Own Thoughts

i thought it was so much FUn!!!!!!!!!!!

McKenna and her Report Card!

McKenna did AWESOME on her first report card. Her teachers gave her high marks on almost everything. She is the smartest kiddo ever. She wants to type now too, so we'll end this one for now and do another one that McKenna is going to type up!

my dachshund dream

milli the dachshund won a race!!!!

Moo-da-dum dream!

i had a dream of a cow doing da-dum.

(McKenna's very first post! Yay! Brilliant!)

NYC

Last week, McKenna took her first trip to the big city, New York! She absolutely loved it, to the point of when it was time to go home, she cried saying "I'm having too much fun!". And did she ever

Before we went, she said she wanted to see the Toys 'R Us in Times Square, ride its ferris wheel, see Times Sq at night, see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. We did all of that and more.

We finally got to NYC in the middle of Saturday afternoon and immediately headed to Times Sq. We occasionally stopped and had McKenna look around, especially up, at all the buildings. We got to the Toys R Us after dinner and it was pretty packed. We checked the line for the ferris wheel and there was about a 1 hour wait. So we put that off to the next morning. It was dark out, so she got to see all the lights. Perfect weather too, pretty warm. We'd walked from our hotel on 31st and 6th.

The next morning, McKenna and Daddy went back to Times Square early and took the subway this time. Loved that too. When we got to the ferris wheel, there was literally no wait and she got her pick of the car to ride in. My Little Pony, of course! So we got to ride immediately. While waiting for Momma, we walked around Times Square a little, checked out the swatch store, got some pictures of the princess and even got a pretzel from a corner pretzel man. She sure knew what she wanted as when he asked if we wanted salt on it, she was pretty bold with her "I want salt!" response. Then we met Momma again back at the Toys R Us and they went on the ferris wheel again.

It was getting close to lunch time, so we found the Brooklyn Diner to eat. McKenna was already exhausted at this point from all the excitement, walking and she stayed up until almost 11 the night before. She wasn't too thrilled at this point, so we went back to the hotel for about an hour rest.

With recharged batteries (pun intended), we headed down to Battery Park and jumped on the Staten Island Ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty. Just a quick ride over and back. As we were getting on the ferry, McKenna fell asleep on my shoulder and stayed that way pretty solidly for about 15 minutes. When we were passing by the statue, we did wake her up. She was excited again after that point.

We tried to hit Max Brenner's, the chocolate place, on the way back to the hotel, but a half-hour wait killed that and we grabbed pizza at the Whole Foods next to it, in Union Square. From out seats in Whole Foods, we could see the Empire State Building really well.

On Monday morning, while Momma got ready to head home, and before McKenna and I ran downstairs for breakfast, we walked the two blocks over and circled the Empire State Building. She was pretty excited about that too. And then to top it all off, on the way back, she spotted the Chrysler Building from the FDR Expressway.

So all in all, McKenna got to see everything she wanted, and more. Plus a bonus ride on the ferris wheel and even scored Kit the Skelanimal from the Toys R Us. Mommy and Daddy had a great time too, as always in NYC.

A Couple Smart Things

As we all know just how brilliant this kid is, where she can read anything she wants at barely more than four years old, she can also picture words that we spell, and it doesn't matter how long. I've spelled out Cumberland and sugar cookie and she got both.

Plus she can do single digit addition and subtraction, sometimes in her head, sometimes with the help of her own digits.

And then tonight, she was very quickly making up rhymes for each time on the clock. "It's 8:43, I got stung by a bee!" "It's 8:44, I want a boar". "It's 8:46, I want some pics".

Oh and she's working on learning how to moonwalk. She keeps practicing as she really wants to get that down.

School and various other things

So little Miss loves school!! She bounds into the classroom every day, and I have to chase her down to snatch a kiss goodbye. She's learning so much! The other day she was listening to the songs on her kitty piano when she started moving her hands up and down. Turns out that was the sign for "put in" and "take out", a song she had learned in school! It was soooo cute! She also showed us the sign for "gerbil," which is a closed fist. No word on what the sign for "Richard Gere" is. ;)

She's all excited for her first trip to NYC this weekend. We can't wait to see how she reacts to everything in the city!! I hope she loves it as much as we do! We're only there for two days, so our list of must-sees isn't very long: the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square and the Toys 'R Us in Times Square that has a ferris wheel(!!)

Had a little misadventure with Uniqua the last week or so. She sort of got a little lost, so after waiting a few days to see if she'd turn up, Daddy had to run and get her a new one. The breaking point was when she was looking for her one morning and then started crying, "I can't find her. But I loooooooooove her." That just broke my heart!! So Uniqua No. 2 has been "dirtied" up a little to look like the old one, but she could still see certain things weren't right, like she had a tiny tag hanging out of her arm and a little hole on her foot was missing. She's coming to NYC with us, along with Tasha. Hopefully they won't go anywhere!!!

McKenna's thoughts on school

McKenna's favorite thing about school is to look at the hermit crabs.

And she likes the home cleaning center.

Her teachers are Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. O'Brien.

There are four types of leaders, girl leaders, weather leader, flag leader, boy leader, line leader. McKenna has gotten to be the girl leader and the flag holder. She loves being a leader. And she hasn't been the weather girl, yet.

McKenna has learned about apples, spiders, and leaves. Her favorite thing to learn about was apples.

McKenna's favorite book is the Pumpkin Book.

McKenna's favorite tv show is Superfetch.

;)

"Then nobody wins"

So McKenna and I like to have little races all the time. First one to the door, first one to pick up all the toys, or just running in a field. I can't remember what we were racing at the other day, but it was really close and we decided to call it a tie. McKenna looked at me with her big smile and said "we both win". I agreed, we both win this time. She started to walk away and then came back with a very straight face and said, "but if we both win, then really nobody wins."

This philosophical brilliance from a 4 year old. Why can't the local little league and soccer league parents figure that out too?

McKenna is 4!!!

Our little girl is officially four years old! She's a pre-schooler and a four year old. YAY!!

We had her birthday party last Sunday at home, with lots of friends and family. Grandparents, TT and Joe, Uncle Eddy, Auntie Danielle with Scarlett! (McKenna says that Scarlett was very cute.) The whole Wood family came, along with Paula and Grampy Rich and Ashley and Terry.

McKenna had a great time playing with all the kids, and with her giant Pablo and Uniqua balloons. She had a great Backyardigans cake with Tasha in the middle and Pablo, Uniqua and Tyrone cake toppers. She got lots of good presents including winter jackets, a shopping trip to Toys 'R Us, books and a great big pony named Smores.

McKenna says "Yay! My deck on my birthday."

On her birthday, McKenna went to school and they had a party for her and two other boys in her class. McKenna got to make a crown because she was the birthday princess for a day. The special snack was some ice cream!!

McKenna measured 40.5 inches tall on her birthday! (even though she says she measures "blurp")

The highlight of the party this year was McKenna getting everybody with her whoopie cushions!! She even put one under her Mommy's pillow one night and Mommy's head tooted when she went to bed. "PPPPPLLLLLPPPPTTTT"

First Day Results

Well, McKenna had a great time at her first day of pre-school. She was in the Red room with her two teachers and 18 other little ones. She is in a room with the older three year olds, since she'll turn four in just a couple weeks.

So what we've gotten from her was both good and bad She loved the hermit crabs, playing with the coffee beans in the Dunkin Donuts station and story time. A story about the Kissing Hand where Mommy kisses her pre-schooler's hand before school and then any time the little one gets worried without mommy around, she can remember the kiss on her hand from Mommy. McKenna liked that story. She also loved playing out on the playground and said the best part was going down the slide. :) She was all smiles when she came home.

The only real issue she had was not getting to eat her snack. I guess there are a limited number of chairs for snack time, so the kids take turns with their snack. McKenna isn't overly assertive, so seeing no more chairs, she just went back to playing. She didn't know that she could go back later and have her snack, so she just kept on playing and missed it. She was a little upset about it, but we explained that there's always room for her and just to ask the teachers for a place to sit. We'll also mention it to her teachers tonight at the class orientation, that McKenna might not always be willing to push her way in or assert her spot. She might need some help with that. But that's exactly the sort of thing that she's there to learn.

Tomorrow's another big day at school. Her first late day. Mommy and Daddy both have to work, so Mommy will drop her off and Daddy will come get her about an hour late. Even more play time for the big girl!

Wasn't she just born last week and now she's already in school? Oh boy.

First Day of Preschool!!

It's 7 am and McKenna and Daddy are having a light breakfast of yogurt and banana. Poor little princess's nose woke her up at 5:30 today. Yuck.

McKenna says she is "very excited" for her first day of pre-school today at For Petes Sake in Attleboro. She also said "Hooray!"

Today's favorite memories

Waking up to McKenna laying her sweet little hand on my cheek, watching her ride her bike down the street all by herself ("I want to do it all by myself, Momma!") and having a discussion with her about Jedi knights and evil Darths.

Preschool - yikes!!

Little miss is heading to preschool in the fall. Holy cow! Can't believe she's going to be 4!! Seems like yesterday she was the pea who had to be snuggled up to us all the time, and now she's such a big girl.
Everyone's blown away by how smart she is. She reads entire books to herself and makes up her own jokes. Today's: What's a buzz stop? Where bees wait for the bus. HA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hilarious!

And she's such a good girl. Poor thing waited patiently for two hours in Home Depot today while we ordered new kitchen cabinets. She played with her new Austin doll, had a snack, played some catch and otherwise entertained herself for two whole hours. No whines, no tantrums like other kids might have pulled. Such a big girl!!!

Speaking of big, she is so big into "The Backyardigans" right now. OMG. Loves them. Almost every sentence out of her mouth has to do with the Backyardigans! Haha.

She's super excited about preschool. I can't wait! I think the socialization and playing with other kiddos her age will really benefit her.

Headed to the Boston Aquarium tomorrow...woo hoo! McKenna has promised that she'll protect me from the evil moray eel. Eugh!!

Joke Teller

Little miss is a joke teller now, and she's even making up her own. Her favorite that she made up is:

Q: What is the loudest part of a unicorn?
A: His horn!

She also likes:
Q: Why did the man throw butter out the window?
A: To see a butter-fly!

She has lots of others and they're all pretty funny.

Heading to CT this weekend for Scarlett's first birthday party. Everyone's pretty excited. :)

McHammer

A couple of nights ago, McKenna and I are watching YouTube and we are putting up various videos to dance to, like Chubby Checker, Elvis, House of Pain (Jump Around) and I put on "You Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. I had shown McKenna that the singer's name and the name of the song are above the video. So she asked: "What kind of pants is McHammer wearing?" McHammer? As in McKenna or McDonalds? I had tears I was laughing so hard. Yep, Hammer is an Irish guy.

An Update on Reading

About two weeks ago, at bedtime, McKenna read the entire book "Go Dog Go". Ok, for one, she's only 3 1/2, but this book is 62 pages long. She read the entire thing, without help. Yeah, she's heard the book so many times, she probably has most of it memorized, but still, a 62 page book? At 3 1/2? Never mind pre-school or kindergarten, let's just jump her right into middle school!

A bee bit my bottom and now my bottom's big

Poor McKenna had her first bee encounter the other day, and the bee won. ;( First bee sting at 3 1/2. Boo! We were outside on the swingset when all of a sudden I heard her whimpering and then full-on crying. She held her middle finger out, so I kissed it, thinking she had gotten it stuck somewhere. But alas, no. She saw the bee and tried to touch it. Poor muffin! Even her My Little Pony ice pack didn't cheer her up, so we had to watch an episode of The Backyardigans. Then she was all better.
Later that night, when it didn't hurt anymore, she was very proud of herself. "It doesn't hurt anymore!" Yay!
In other news, tomorrow is Easter and we're jacked! She's getting a Dora bike (along with the obligatory hidden eggs and Easter basket) and will be sooooooo excited! Can't wait to see her face!!

Our Polite Little Girl

Sometimes out of the blue, while you're eating something like a sandwich for instance, McKenna will blurt out "I hope you enjoy your sandwich, Daddy." Very cute. Or she'll just walk up to us, out of the blue and say "I really like your shoes today, Daddy".

On the other side, we are working on some politeness and bossy issues. After dinner, she'll sometimes say "I want dessert now. Get my dessert now." We've seen that Jeni and Mommaloo may not be quite so quick to react to the lack of politeness, whereas Momma and I will be like "Huh?" I often act as though I have no idea what she said, until she offers a "please may I have..." and wait for a "thank you" before actually giving her what she wanted. She's coming around though. :)

First Haircut!!

I'm sure momma will write about it too, but today was McKenna's first real haircut. She got about an inch off the back and of course, Momma kept the hair for the baby book. She still looks so beautiful!!

Today is St. Valentine's Day and McKenna got lots of chocolate and a new Sweetie Belle and Cheerilee mini ponies! She also got a pretty orange rose.

Sweetie-Belle

McKenna's been battling a cold since the weekend, and so has Momma. She's so sweet...she woke up the other day, looked at me, and asked, "How do you feel, Momma?" Soooo cute! She's just so sweet and has so much empathy for others.
Gearing up for preschool, too...we're going to see another one next week that looks pretty promising. I can't believe she's already old enough for preschool. I'm not sure I'm ready for this!!! She is, but Momma isn't! ;)

"Why?" and another book!

So now McKenna is deep in the midst of her "why?" stage, where just about everything is met with "Why?". So curious.

Last night, McKenna and I went to Borders and pulled out a book we hadn't seen before:

Read a Whole Book!!

Last night when we were reading bed time stories, I turned a page and McKenna read the first sentence. She giggled to herself with pride. So I had her keep going and she read three pages of that book. The paragraphs were kinda big, so she got tired of it at that point.
Then we picked up her Going to Bed book, which is much shorter and less intimidating. She read the entire thing! 3 years, 2 months, 20 days old. :)

Momma had the best mid-night wake up last night. Daddy brought Kenna into our bed and I woke up to her two little arms wrapped around my neck and her saying, "I love you Momma! The house is so fun when you're home!"
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Sense of wonderment

It's amazing to see things through McKenna's eyes. So many things that we take for granted she is just seeing, literally, for the first time.
Like the other day we were making popcorn in the microwave, when she got all excited and said, "I want to see! I want to see!" She had never seen popcorn popping before, so the expanding bag the popping noises were entirely new to her! She also loves to watch things swish around in the washer machine. We'll watch for certain things - say a T-shirt - to bob up and then disappear into the bubbles again. It's great fun!

The cruise was awesome! She was so good and had such a great time. Almost every morning she'd wake up, let her big brown eyes take in the room for a minute, then say, "We're on a boat." Sometimes she'd say, "We're on a bed, in a boat." ;)

She is very excited for Halloween. She's going to be Rainbow Dash. We just need to find a pale blue yoga set or something and some colored hair spray and we'll be all set. We've already got the tail and the fabric markers. Oh yes, and a new Hello Kitty basket for all that candy she's going to get. (And will hopefully share with Momma and Dada!)

Aye...chihuahua!

McKenna saw her first movie in the theater today - Beverly Hills Chihuahua! She sat still for the entire two hours, except for one potty break, which she held until she absolutely had to go. Very cute movie with some really funny moments. Momma even teared up, the sap.

Thrifty miss

So today we were talking about possibly getting her a train table with the gift card her grampy gave her. She started naming the trains she wanted to get - Thomas and Percy and James and Mavis - and I told her that we couldn't get too many because they're really pricey.
She paused for a minute, looked serious, then said, "I'll use coupons for them."
HA! Problem solved! She's so smart!! Gymnastics tomorrow - which she absolutely loves!!! - and then Momma's yoga class. Yay!

Gymnastics tomorrow!

So little miss starts gymnastics at the Y tomorrow. I'm so excited! We bought a cute little unitard (complete with rhinestones) for her to wear. I can't wait to see her. She's very excited and can't wait to see all the other kiddos there.
She's been so amazing with her language skills lately. We actually have little conversations now, and she still asks lots of questions! She is very curious!!
Her big interests right now are ponies, Littlest Pet Shop thingees, Sagwa and of course, her baby Diego. (She especially likes when the ponies stand up on their hind legs. She calls that "doing neigh." Haha!!
But she's really out of her big time Dora and Diego phase. I can't remember the last time we watched either of them. Sagwa, on the other hand....she's in love! And it's cute that she gets to learn about a different culture (Chinese) while she's watching it. Ah, PBS Kids, you are awesome!
This summer she helped us tend a garden with tomatoes and squash and pepper (yes, singular!) She especially liked watering it and making the water go "POW!" on the shed. We also played a lot of her swing set, made fresh-squeezed lemonade, went to story time, read lots of books, played with the kiddos and just had a really good time!
She also loves wearing her hair in a ponytail like a pony. ;)
Gearing up for the big birthday...I can't believe it's been three years! Holy cow. I really want her to have fun and I hope she likes her presents!
So far we've gotten a personalized unicorn sleeping bag, a pony amusement park set and a pony carrying case. I'd also like to get her a little chair and table set, Hungry Hungry Hippos (she is captivated whenever I tell her about the game), a little carriage for her babies, some books and learning games...holy cow, and clothes! DUH! How could I almost forget those!

Potty!!

Wow, almost two months since the last update. So we've been working on potty training for about the last week or so. She's starting to get the hang of it and accidents are much fewer, maybe once a day with 4-5 successful bathroom trips. :)

She's really fallen out of her Dora and Diego phase, which lasted about a year, and is now into My Little Pony, which she wants to be for Halloween (Rainbow Dash) and a new cartoon that she just found, Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat.

McKenna's birthday is coming up in two weeks from Wednesday. We're going to have the usual small party on the deck with the close family for our soon to be 3 year old.

She will be starting a gymnastics class at the Y on Wednesday. She's even got a little leotard for it and everything. She'll be so cute.

I'm sure there's been lots more going on in the last two months, but I can't really remember it much.

Vacation, Sickness and Hitting

So much to catch up on. A few weeks ago, we took a family vacation to Narragansett and rented a house for three days. It rained for a couple of them, but we had a good time. Some of the highlights were dropping McKenna's little pony named "Smells" into the water and having to pull that out. And at dinner one night, after Momma and McKenna returned from the bathroom, after about 10 minutes, McKenna looked at me and said "Daddy, you can't go into the bathroom." So I asked, "why not?" She answered, "it's stinky".

We had another bout with McKenna not feeling great on Saturday recently. Momma had to work, so I took Kenna to Wright's farm to see the cows getting milked and everything was great. Then on the way home, she starts complaining that she didn't feel so good and even started falling asleep. When we got home and I picked her up out of her seat, she was burning up hot. Get her in the house, get the thermometer, sure enough, 101.7? fever. Dr. Conway said it was going around and nothing much to worry about. She kept her fever up for most of Sunday, but around 10 pm Sunday night, it finally broke. Cool as a cucumber. And she was pretty much better as of Monday.

Last night, I wanted to get some hitting in at Ken Ryan's batting cages, so I told McKenna she could hit too. She loved it! I got her in the slow pitch softball cage, gave her a little 24 inch bat, put a helmet on her and helped her "swing" the bat. We made contact on most of the pitches and she giggled every time. Momma was a little nervous upon hearing the news, but the little one was fine.

Next big event will be our cruise that we just scheduled for Oct. 6. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures too. The grandparents will be coming along as well. Can't wait!!

I love you, baby

The other day we caught McKenna singing to herself. It was adorable. Tonight she made up her very first song, for Baby Diego, no less. She asked Patrick where Baby Diego was, because she wanted to sing to him! Ha! It actually made me cry:

"I love you baby...I love you baby...I love you baby...I love you baby..."

;) Little muffin...

Airplane!!!

So McKenna, as discussed in the previous post, has been doing so awesome with potty time! She's been going on the regular toilet at our house. She loves it! Feels like such a big girl.
So today she was on it and the, um, pee came out spectacularly fast. Fast as an airplane, I said.
Fast forward to tonight, when Daddy IMs me after putting her to sleep:

Patrick: so I had her asleep by 9:20 or so, but she was fidgeting, so I stayed in her room and eventually laid down on the floor. Then at 9:40, "dada, I have to pee like an airplane"

Hee hee hee!! I love it!!!! ;)

Potty training, part II

So potty training (or potty "learning" as the enlightened hippy experts like to call it) is going really well! Turns out McKenna *wants* to go on the potty a lot, and especially loves trying out new ones. Today she tried the can at BJs (eugh!!) and has gone at Borders and on Momma and Dada's big toilet at home. Such a big girl! She loves wearing her big girl undies, too, and will wear them around the house occasionally to see how fun it is to go diaper free. (fingers crossed)

She's so much fun right now, with all the talking she's doing. I have yet to see another almost 3-year-old talk as well as she does.

Oh, second best purchase made by Momma and Dada ever (I'd say first, but Dada really likes our new bed!!) - a swingset! Holy cow, does she love it! It has a two-level clubhouse with a canopy that she loves to sit inside and drink her juice! It has a little ladder and two swings and a slide and a basketball net. Yahoo! BooBoo came over this morning and helped Kenna test it out. I think it passed, as they were playing on it for nearly an hour and a half!

Things she loves: Ice cream, ice pops, petting (and occasionally terrorizing) the cats, PUZZLES, Skippyjon Jones, blowing bubbles, picking dandelions, watering the garden and various other adorable activities. ;)

Getting ready for Dada's Day and our upcoming vacation! Kenna's ready to hit the beach!!

Things don't taste like they smell

Bath time and the little one grabs the bottle of watermelon shampoo to take a sniff and momma came in and started talking to me. Next thing I know, Momma asks if Kenna just drank some. Uh oh. At first I didn't think so, but then she spit some out. Call to Poison Control. Nope, kids' shampoo isn't poisonous. She might puke or spit up, but nothing else too bad. So that made for an exciting night. Lots of "Momma, make you feel better" and "My tummy feels yucky". Poor peanut. About ten minutes later, she was right back to normal. We'll see if she's pooping bubbles tomorrow.

Rhyme-time and potty

So we're trying the potty training again and McKenna seems to be taking to it fairly well. She'll actually go 2-3 times a day without argument. On occasion, she even tells us when she has to go, but that's not often. We're getting there.

She also loves a new game of rhyme time. One of us gives her a word and she can think of a word that rhymes. She's pretty hard to stump with most one syllable words right now, sometimes even coming up with one before me!

Pink!

So McKenna woke me up in the most fabulous way the other day: I woke up to her stroking my cheek with Pink (her beloved blankie). Argh!
We started some basil and cucumber seeds the other day...she's very excited and checks on them every day. Wait until they sprout - she's going to lose her mind! Tomorrow Daddy's going to make a garden for us in the backyard, which we're very excited about. We also want to plant tomatoes, sunflowers, pumpkins, squash and beans.
We went to Lowe's the other day and she picked out some Diego gardening gloves, a Diego claw-y thing, and a tiny Dora shovel. Woo-hoo!!

I ate it!

Recently, McKenna has been telling me about her adventures with eating various animals. We were driving around the other day and out of the blue, she mentions that she ate all seven of Grampy's cats. So I start asking about other animals and sure enough, she's also eaten dogs, sheep, tapirs, bears, goats, frogs, ducks, chickens and more. So tonight, as we were walking out of CVS, she looked up at the moon and noticed it wasn't full. So I mentioned that a part of the moon was missing. She immediately shot back with "I ate it", and then the requisite giggling. She claims to have eaten most of the animals with either ketchup or tartar sauce (no mustard!), but admitted that she ate the moon plain. No additives. She's planning to give it back in a few days so we can have another full moon.

Birdies!

It's been so nice eating breakfast in the morning with birds singing in the background. The other morning Kenna and I were eating our Kix when we heard a birdsong right outside the door. When I opened it a crack, there was a beautiful, scarlet cardinal right over the deck on a tree branch. McKenna broke out in her big smile when she saw it.
We've been having a lot of fun lately with her newest obsession, Skippyjon Jones. He's a Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua and gets into all sorts of hijinks. Oh, she loves him! So we've got two silly books about him, and I'm sure we'll be expanding the collection shortly.
Oh, and the poor thing had strep throat last week! Yargh. We think she got it from across the street, as one of her little friends had it. So antibiotics for 10 days. ;)

Little Miss Affectionate

McKenna is so affectionate lately...even more so than usual! We'll give her a kiss or a hug and she'll say, "I love Momma!" or "I love Dada!" Today she was riding her little unicorn when Dada asked what makes her happy.
"Riding Uni," she answered.
"Anything else make you happy?" asked Dada.
"When Dada talks to me," she said.
Bah!! So cute! She even gave me a hug when I was, um, indisposed. Just ran in and gave me a big old hug. Well, OK, I asked for it, but still! Very cute! Then she ran out of the bathroom, saying "I love Momma!" ;)

She's cutting her next to last molar, and it's giving her one heck of a time. Either that or she's finally becoming a toddler, emotion-wise. Poor thing will break down over the smallest things, like not being able to put her socks on or find her Candyland Diego. And this is full-blown crying like when she was a newborn. Makes Sofie yowl, too, just like she did when McKenna had the crying jags as a baby. The funny thing about these, though, is that you can usually distract her enough to get her to stop crying. And when she does stop, it's immediate. And hysterical. It goes something like this:

"Wahhhhhhhhhh arghhhhhhhhhh DIEGO yarglllllllllllllll wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Momma walks into the room. Tears immediately cease and a grin breaks out on her face.

She's looking forward to Easter and getting a basket full of goodies. ;) I ordered a Diego basket for her...she's going to love it! We also got her a trumpet you can bring in the tub and fill with water to make different sounds. That'll be in there too. And Peeps. There will be Peeps. Little one loves those...And of course, an Easter egg hunt. Woo hoo! Should be fun. Little muffin. ;)

She's also gotten to see Poppaloo play 1) the trumpet and 2) the accordion on her recent Thursday visits. She loved it! Even got to play the accordion a bit.

Sniff. "Momma necklace! What on Momma's necklace?"

Diego Live!

Last Saturday (Feb 16), we went to see Go Diego Go Live! at the PPAC. Momma and I were most interested in watching Kenna's reaction to seeing all her heroes live on stage. Man, she did not disappoint. From the first moments of walking in, seeing the rainforest on stage, with butterflies flittering around and an occasional snake slithering by, her interest was piqued. Then Alicia's voice would come over the speakers announcing how much more time until the show would start.

Finally, showtime! Out came McKenna's favorite character, Alicia! Right there and singing with Scarlet Macaw, Sammy the Sloth, the tapir and some others that Kenna has only seen on tv. But the best was near the end of the first song when we all called out for Diego and he burst out, swinging on a vine, to save a howler monkey! McKenna bounced up and down with glee and calls of Diego! Diego! Diego! and points. Just that was worth every penny.

They also had a 20 minute intermision half-way through and the poor little one thought it was over and started crying for more. We re-assured her that they'd all be back out, and we headed out to the lobby for cookies and photos.

One of the sponsors had a backdrop of Diego's family and Baby Jaguar and the Bobo brothers, and we could take a free picture with them. McKenna was quite happy to stand with them and we got the picture online the next day. And the warm chocolate chip cookies at PPAC are pretty good too.

After a second 35 minute show, it was all done and McKenna was very happy to have seen it all. She even asked to see it again. On the way out, like the dumb sap parents that we are, we hit the souvenir stand and got McKenna a green tshirt, some light up whirly toy, and a little Diego doll. She loves the shirt, I think the toy is already broken after just a couple days, but she's crazy about Diego. The next morning, she did one of her 5 am wake-ups just to play with him. And just today, she's treating him like her baby. She's wrapping him up in her pink blanket and cuddling him. Very cute.

After the show, we grabbed a decent dinner at Cilantro for burritos and finally headed home exhausted. It was a great show that would be recommended to any Diego fan, and I would take McKenna again if they do another one with him or with Dora.

As for latest things with McKenna, she still sleeps until about 8 am and goes to bed at 9 and often falls asleep closer to 10. She wakes up at some point in the night and we bring her into our bed for a three-way cuddle-fest. :)

Of sides and stuff

McKenna's been really into learning about shapes lately. She can point out an octagon, hexagon, triangle, square, rectangle and pentagon with ease. We're always pointing how many sides they have - triangle has three, pentagon has five and so on.

So the other night when I was putting her to sleep, she asked "How many sides do I have?" Hee hee! I really had to think quick on that one. I said two - the front and back. But further investigation has led me to believe that humans have as many as six sides: front and back, top and bottom and inside and outside.

Huh! Who knew?? ;) Our little hexagon.

One-Upping Momma

Not only is our little girl starting to figure out shapes, tonight she almost even spelled her name. We were writing on the whiteboard at Daddy's office and she asked to write her name. So I asked what is the first letter. She said "M". Astonished, I wrote an M. I asked "what's next?". She said "C". I put up a C. Next was two "I don't know" answers, and then right back with "N", and then an "A". Yeah, she forgot an N, but we'll let it pass. She is only two. :)

Where is he?

Two really cute and funny things:

Like other parents, we wonder what McKenna dreams about when she sleeps. Does she dream about Dora? Boo Boo? Hanging out with us?

Well, the other night I found out! I checked on her when I came home from work, and she starting talking in her sleep.

"There is he is," she said, pointing her little arm. "Map!"

Haha! So our little one does dream about Dora and friends while she's sleeping. I wonder if she ever dreams about the cats??

The other funny: I was wrestling with putting her down for her nap today...she just didn't want to go to sleep! She kept singing songs and climbing her feet up the rungs of her crib ("Hopscotch!") and rolling around.

Then she started singing, "Rollin', rollin', rollin', boy my butt swollen, rollin', rollin', rollin', chinchilla!" HAHA!! It made *me* roll!!!
(This, by the way, is a little song we like to sing that makes us crack up.)

Neg!

So little Miss Muffin is as happy - and funny - as ever. She made up her own word for poop the other day.
Neg.
Yup, neg! Have no idea where that came from, but it's hysterical. So is her reaction when she's doing neg - she'll get all tense, stick out her little arm to stop us from approaching, and say "Leave...you...alone!!" Which really means leave ME alone and always cracks us up!

It's amazing how affectionate she is. Today she was sitting on her changing table as I was doing her hair when she just threw her arms around my head and said, "My mommy!" Arghhhhhh!! I told her she was going to make me cry happy tears.

It's a little rough not being around her and Daddy at night...still getting used to that. Well, I doubt I'll ever get totally used to it, but it must be done. Daddy always does a great job of keeping me informed of their galavanting, sending me cell phone pics and e-mails and videos every now and again. Those are always great.

Tomorrow we have toddler storytime at the library. Yippee! She always has so much fun. But I swear, sometimes I think she's just there for the glue sticks... ;)

Falls Asleep On Her Own!!

January 5, 2008 is a momentous date for McKenna's parents. It is the first night she went to sleep in her crib without first being rocked to sleep by either Mommy or Daddy. It is the culmination of a few nights of Daddy and Kenna working toward this.

Our normal routine is to say good night to everyone, Dora, Diego, Thomas, Percy and the cats, then head into the bed room for some reading of books while McKenna sits in the parental lap. Then after books, McKenna gets a big warm-milk bottle (yeah, we know she's two years old and too old for a bottle, but it's an indulgence we'll let her keep for now). After the bottle, once in a great while, she'll already be asleep, but that is a rare treat. Usually there is a good 10-45 minutes of rocking, singing, talking and whatever else it takes to calm her down until she drifts off to sleep and then we get to place her in the crib for her overnight nap. As long as she doesn't wake up again, on the way to the crib, as she is sometimes apt to do.

Lately, Daddy has switched up the routine on her with the goal being no more chair rocking. We started this two days ago, and was met with some resistance and ended up back in the chair, but tonight, no such ending. Here's how tonight went.

We did the usual good nights to everyone, including Mommy who is at work. I repeatedly explained to McKenna how it was going to go, bottle first, then in the crib for reading some books, then lights off and sleep time.

The milk went fine, she drank that whole thing up no problem. Then into the crib. As I was getting my selection of books together, McKenna said "throw books in crib". I said no, I'm not going to throw books in the crib, I'm going to read them to you. She answered, "Nenna read". I said to her, do you want to read the books or Daddy read? She answered, "McKenna". Ok, I gave her four books, including her favorite Dora book, pulled up the side rail and left the room. She quietly "read" the books for about 15 minutes and then I hear "Dada, come back". So I went in her room and she said "Light off". So I turned off the light and said that it is time to go to sleep, but I'm going to stay with you until you fall asleep. She laid down after I removed the books and said "Rub back". So I gently rubbed her back and then she cutely said "Sing songs". She's the only person in the world who would ever request to hear me sing a song. So of course I oblige. After maybe 15 minutes of song singing and back rubbing, the eyes are closed and we have the twitching, a sure tell-tale sign that she's drifting off to sleep, already in the rem stage. I slide the side rail back up, quietly leave the room and call Momma to share in the excitement. Hooray for McKenna!

Now let's see if she can do it again tomorrow night.

Best thing ever

So little Ken woke up a tad early today...5:30 a.m., to be exact. (This was not good news to Daddy, since he was the one that had to get up with her, Mommy having gone to bed at 2 a.m.)
She opened her eyes, said, "Momma's home!" and then "Kiss!" (of course, I had to oblige!!) and then smiled and said "Hug!" and gave me the biggest bear hug with her soft little arms squeezed around my neck. RAH!!!

She's so funny with the language now...absolutely amazing with the words she can string together. I like that she's starting to ask lots of questions, too. It's so cute! Today I was rocking her to sleep and my stomach was rumbling so loudly that she asked, "What was that?" Haha. And today I was looking at the Oriental Trading catalog and she saw a little flamingo on the cover and asked, "What...kind...of...animal...is...that?" So cute! After that she was saying flamingo! over and over. ;)

Christmas and Showing Off

McKenna had her best Christmas to date and of course, Santa spoiled her rotten. This was the Christmas of Dora and Diego. I think everything she got from Santa had at least one of them on it.

We started on Sunday the 23rd at The Dels to see Eddy and Danielle and have their Christmas, and Ashley and Terry were there as well. Poor Momma had to work, so she headed out a little early while Kenna and I stuck around a bit after.

Then Christmas eve was spent up at Grampy Laverty's house in Tyngsboro with Karen, Auntie Shannon, Uncle John and cousins Mike and David. Uncle Mike showed up much earlier in the day, but didn't join our festivities. Santa Claus even made an early appearance on Christmas eve as Mike was really excited to see him and McKenna didn't seem too sure of what to do. She simply raced back and forth between rooms and then finally sat on Santa's lap and requested "presents". The showing off part was during one slower part of the night when Karen showed McKenna a mouse pad with a picture of four cats on it. Karen asked McKenna if she could count the cats. McKenna not only counted them, but did it in Spanish. Yep, she loves speaking Spanish now. She even requested kisses from Grampy in Spanish. Every day when we come across something new, she'll ask us how to say it in Spanish and often she'll remember. She knows her numbers, colors and other assorted words such as arriba (up), abajo (down), abuela (grandmother), gato (cat), perro (dog) and tortuga (turtle). She even told me about the Big Red Chicken, instead calling him Pollo Grande Rojo.

We got home from Grampy's around 10 pm and McKenna got to sleep around 10:30. But first, she did leave cookies and milk out for Santa.

In the morning, she started with her stocking, first opening a ball with what else, Dora on it. Then going through a great deal of hair products. Some with, you guessed it, Dora on them. She didn't eat much the night before, so we decided to feed her before the big present opening.

She was so cute when she got started. Just as we predicted, she wanted to immediately play with whatever present she just opened and like a real kid, any clothing got immediately cast aside. Let me play with that toy. What she seemed to like best was the Diego Rescue Center, which is a model of his actual center in the show, and she loved the four cat house that she picked out from a catalog. She's even named the four cats that came with it. The gray one is Tessie, named after one of Grampy's cats that McKenna liked, the black one is "Nighttime", the red one is "Cinnamon" and our favorite name that she came up with is the white one is "Splat". She's named Splat because I asked if she wanted to name her snowball, but then McKenna remembered the day before, she and I threw some snowballs in a parking lot and marvelled at them going "splat" when they hit the pavement. So the snowball looking cat was named "Splat".

The other exciting gifts that she got that really seemed to get her going were two new DVDs. Each one seemed to send her into hysterical glee with kicking and screaming. Luckily we got it on video. It's not posted as of today, but should be shortly.

Then the afternoon was spent back at Dana's parents' house for yet more present opening and dinner.

After all that, we finally settled back home and collapsed, while McKenna continues to play with her cats and Diego Rescue Center.

It's been a fun week off with the little girl. We go out every day and find new things to do. We've read new books, played at Borders, thrown snowballs in the closed rock climbing gym's parking lot, played at the YMCA and she went to lunch with Mommy and Meredyth at Cuban Revolution. One more day together on Daddy's vacation, then it's back to work.

Hopefully next Christmas with her is as much fun as this one was!

Poor little miss...

So the little muffin had a ttraumatic episode this morning while watching Dora. She's got such a sensitive little soul...She's going to be such a sweet little girl!

Dora was wishing upon a star this morning as we were watching our daily dose of TV. Kenna was thoroughly into it until a comet started flying around the screen and knocked the poor star out of the sky. Poor Kenna looked crestfallen, pouted, cried, "Star!" and started to cry. I felt sooooooo bad!!! (As I'm sure she did, too!)I hugged her and told her that Dora and Boots would find the star, and that seemed to appease her a bit. Poor thing...I felt so bad that it bothered her so much!
It sort of bothered me that the star was crying, too...it just seemed a little too much for a toddler to handle. Of course, I could just be a little sensitive...but I don't think such little kids should be exposed to sad things like that on TV. It's almost like a treat for her, we let her watch it so rarely.

In other Kenna-related news, her language skills are really ramping up lately. It seems to go in spurts...she'll go crazy with the sentences for a week or so, and then just chatter away using her newfound skills. It's so cool! Today she asked me like a five to six word sentence. Unbelievable!! The other day she asked me what kind of soup was on the counter.
"What...kind...of...soup...is...that... momma?"
Hee hee! Being a mom is so awesome!

4:15 am

When McKenna starts sprouting her molars, she doesn't sleep really well. She doesn't get to sleep too easily, usually taking about 45 minutes of cuddling until she's asleep. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is when she wakes up at 4:15 am, ready for the day. Not cranky or upset at all, she just seems like she's had a full night's sleep and is ready to get up for the day. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy are not. Her latest episode was a couple days ago. One good thing is she will sit still while her favorite tv shows, Diego and Dora are on, so Daddy might put one or two of these on and get a little more sleep while McKenna sits in a state of cartoon bliss.

We know she has two molars in, and the third might be on its way. Hopefully we get all four out of the way soon and quickly. Or I might just have to invest in a sturdy set of pliers and take care of those teeth myself.

(just kidding...)

Evanescence Night

Last night was Evanescence night. :)

PUKE, the sequel!

Oh man!! Right after that last post (when Kenna and I were sleeping) Kenna woke up and did puke no. 4. Poor thing! That was the end of the puking, thank goodness, but she had a fever for the next day and a half. Finally, just as she was starting to get her appetite back, I got sick! Right on Thanksgiving night. Yuck! I had to leave work and everything, right on deadline, too.
So it passes, and enough time goes by that I think Patrick will escape the horrible virus.
Alas, it was not to be. Woke up at 2:30 Wednesday morning to poor Daddy heaving his heart out in the bathroom. He threw up every 45 minutes after that until 7:30, poor thing. He even fell asleep in the bathroom once.
So Momma and Kenna played nursemaid to poor Daddy, who also had the fever and didn't look too good. Kenna was very helpful - she kept reminding him to "Drink your Gatorade!" Hee hee!
Thank goodness that's over with. Ugh!
We've been making a lot of Christmas decorations, like a Santa face for the front door and a chain made out of construction paper. We're going to decorate sugar cookies, too, once Mommy can get to the store and buy supplies!
We went to see Santa last night at the mall and Kenna was sooooooo impressed (although Momma and Dadda were not - Santa looked like he was on quaaludes or something)! She even sat on his lap and asked for presents. And smiled like a pretty little girl! Rah!
We can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning...she's going to be soooo thrilled! (So are we!)

PUKE!!

Yep, our first real vomiting episodes this morning, beginning at 7 am in our bed. I had just gotten up to clean up after the cats who puked when I hear another puking noise in the bedroom. I thought it was the cat who just did the deed in the living room. Then McKenna started crying. I figured the cat puking in there woke her up and scared her. I wish. I walked in and Mommy says "She's throwing up". Oh boy. So I got some more paper towels for our scared little girl. We eventually moved her to the bathroom, but she was done. She kept tasting her mouth as this is a new (gross) taste for her, so after things calmed down, we gave her some water and juice. Not good. About an hour later, while reading books with Mommy, round 2. This was full projectile spray time, though not a drop hit the floor. You could wring out the sweatshirt that Mommy was wearing as well as Kenna's pajamas. And then she wanted a hug from Daddy. Oh man, anyone but Kenna, no way. So we got that settled down and decided we'll wait a little while on the fluids. We sat down and watched a Diego episode, then Mommy wanted a nap, so Kenna and I looked at pictures of cats and chinchillas online. She started fussing, so we went to read some books and voila, round 3. I caught the first blow in my hand and got her to the bathroom sink, just in time for the full blow, but Kenna wasn't comfortable that way and was clawing and climbing to put her head down on my shoulder, so I did. But she wasn't done yet. Another full blow down my back. Warm and apple-y. At this point, Momma is fully awakened, from Kenna's crying, and comes in, evaluates the situation, where Kenna just had a couple more small heaves and says, "oh, not that much this time". I show her my back and then "ohhhhh".

Now Kenna's pretty tired, so she and Mommy laid on the couch and both fell asleep. They fell asleep more than an hour ago and are still snoring away.

Poor little one.

And tonight was going to be Mommy and Daddy date night, with the grandparents coming over. Guess we'll look for another night! :)

Trike tyke!

Kenna first pedaled her tricycle today, all by herself!! YAY!!!

Our little yogi

So today while Pat and McKenna were home, she whipped out my yoga mat and started doing poses. HA! He was amazed.
"Do you know she knows four poses?!" he asked. Hmmm...I could only think of three...
I guess she showed him her plow, triangle pose and down dog. BAH!!! And then he taught her child's pose and tadasana. Bah ha ha!!

Putting words together and another World Series title!

The Red Sox won the World Series last night! Hooray! McKenna even got to see a little bit of it, as she loves to cheer for the Red Sox. With her "Go Manny!" "Jacoby!" "Go Beckett" and of course for Papelbon "(make 'em) MISS!!".

But anyway, she's getting so big, just turned a month past her 2nd birthday. She's really stringing words together, sometimes three or four at a time, like "another binky, clean" when hers gets dirty.

She's also counting a whole lot. She has gotten to 11 a couple times, but she'll usually forget 6 and 7 when doing it.

She also loves trains right now. Friday night, we went to the Providence train station and saw all the trains. We even stepped foot on one of the MBTA commuter rail trains and the ticket taker gave her a ticket! She was so excited. Every time she hears the bell, she gets so excited she has to be picked up and she claps and kicks. It's so cute.

Her likes right now are far and away Diego being number one and Thomas and his train friends being second, probably without anything else really being too close.

She's such a good little girl too, rarely getting in much trouble. The trouble she does get into usually involves curiosity and choosing to do things she's been asked not to. She's not mean or rough at all. And she loves to play.

She's also still having a great time at the Wood's house a couple days a week, she loves playing with the kids, especially Olivia and Amber.

Halloween is in two days and we'll have lots of pictures of our little black kitty cat. Meow!

Little Miss Manners

So today I handed Kenna a cup of apple juice when I heard a tiny little "thank you". Ha! How sweet! All our politeness drills seem to be paying off... After all, she did say, "Give it BACK, please" when we checked out our DVD today at the library. ;)
She's starting to come up with these really funny toddler sayings, too. Like today she was saying, "Stinky...stinky." When I asked her who stunk, she thought a bit about it and came back with "Gordon!" (Her new choo choo.) Bah! So we had a big laugh over stinky ole Gordon. She also thoroughly enjoyed when her Siamese cat doll took a ride on her new Emily choo choo tonight. We had a very good mini-vaca...and momma can't wait to see daddy!!

Give it BACK!

Kenna's been counting to 10 a lot lately...it's crazy! She'll just be playing with her letter magnets or lining up her Little People and she'll be like, "One, two, three,four,five..."
It's just the girls this weekend as Daddy's playing golf in Florida. He said today was very hot and humid...just his kind of weather! Haha. She kept saying, Golf! Dada!" all day. Tomorrow we're going to get her pictures taken at Babies R Us. I can't wait! Her outfit is adorable...just need to figure out how to do her hair. ;)
It seems she's learned a new phrase at Jeni's house, which she tested out the other day at storytime. We were checking out a Thomas DVD, and I had just given it to the chick behind the counter when Kenna put her little chin on the counter, looked right at the lady and said loudly, "Give it BACK!!" HA!! I wanted to dive under the desk. It was so cute, too...she just said it in her cute little voice, very calmly. I reminded her that it's not a nice phrase and had her say please. Hee hee.
We've got four days off, which is just what we needed! I feel like I miss so much of her days (well, nights, really) and it's nice to be able to reconnect with her, as Patrick put it.

Counting (not crows)

Last night as I was trying to get McKenna to sleep, she starting mumbling and talking to herself. She likes to just talk and say random things. Sometimes very funny, but they always keep her up and we need to remind her that it is sleep time and time to be quiet.
Except last night as I was holding her and sitting there still and acting like I was asleep (the daddy-technique of boring her to sleep), I heard her say "1,2,3,4,5". I was pretty impressed with that, as she usually skips 3 when she counts to five. So I thought not bad. But without much of a pause, she continued, "6,7,8,9,10". I immediately asked her, "what'd you just say? Say that again." But nothing, just more mumbles. So I tried starting it for her with "1,2,3" and she'll often finish. But it was not to be.
So there it is, 10/11/07, the first time she counted to 10. Amazing.

More parties!

We had another party yesterday, this time for McKenna's cousin Ben. She kept saying, "Ben! Ben!" all day. They had a jumpy and a cool swingset and balls and a magician, which she thoroughly enjoyed, especially when he let everybody pet his white rabbit!
She is just crazy with the words lately...putting together two or more at a time, like "Happy birthday to you!!" and copying us all the time. We have to be very careful with what comes out of our pieholes from now on! Haha. I can usually catch myself, but there was one time I heard her say "Crap!" after I had. Ooooops!
I miss her and her daddy so much at night. I hear about all the fun things they're doing, like the turtle and the mall and mini golf, and I want to be with them so badly!! But we need the money, and I'm fortunate that I can work at night rather than having to work during the day and put her in daycare (which, of course, as everyone knows, was never an option with me!!) So on the days I work she'll hang out with Olivia and Jeni for an hour or so until Daddy gets home from work. They all love her - the kids are always fighting about who's going to play with her! Haha.
She's going to the dentist for the first time on Tuesday. That should be interesting! It's very kid-friendly, with lots of toys and TVs and stuff, so she should enjoy it. I think the visit's just to get her used to going to the dentist - I don't really think they'll do anything to her teeth other than look at them.
She had her two-year check up this week with Dr. Conway. She did so well!! Only cried when she had to lay down and when she got her shot. ;( Poor muffin. But we quickly distracted her with a lollipop, so all was well.
We made homemade pretzels the other day, too...she enjoyed mixing and making all the shapes! She chose the cinnamon bun-shaped one when it was time to eat. I think she ate more mustard than pretzel!
She's getting really tall, too. She just looks so big - it's amazing!

FORE!

Golf was on tv yesterday and McKenna noticed, so she starting putting her hands together like holding a golf club and then started swinging and saying "golf" and "hit". So I asked if she wanted to go hit golf balls. "yesssss". We went down to the mini golf and ended up playing about 10 holes. She was so cute walking around the course with her own golf club and her yellow golf ball, that she picked out all on her own. She even hit the ball into the hole one time all by herself. I'd line her up and tell her to hit the ball. One time it was about a foot away and she hit it in. Very exciting. The course was 18 holes but she lost interest after about 7.
Also yesterday she showed her understanding of the difference between day and night, light and dark. We were sitting at dinner and she pointed outside and said "dark", I agreed, it was dark outside. Then she put her hands up like when she says "all done" or "all gone" and I asked her what is all gone. She answered "light". So I asked where did the sun go and she answered "night night", the sun went to sleep.
She also mentioned a "what's up, dog" to me. Hilarious.

A Great Birthday!

McKenna had a wonderful second birthday party. And Daddy's a little slow to update the web site with all the pictures and video we took. If others have pictures of the day, we'd love to have a copy to put on the site.
McKenna was looking forward to her birthday party for days, even more excited to see everyone. It was a much smaller affair than last year as we had about 11 people this time. In attendance were Mommaloo, Papa, Tracie, Mike and Mary Jean, Eddy and Danielle, Grandpa Rich, and the whole Wood family. Oh and the very special guest of honor which absolutely lit up McKenna's face (as you'll see on the video) was none other than everyone's favorite red monster, ELMO!! Elmo showed up and gave everyone tickles and even got tickled himself.
Before the cake and pizza, we were treated to the Wood's jumparoo, which McKenna kept asking for all day "Jumpy! Jumpy!". Once it was set up, she was in and out, in and out and bouncing around inside, having a great time with Chuck, Amber and Olivia.
McKenna got some great gifts, which she's already looking forward to coloring the thank you cards, much like she did the invitations.
After the day wound down, our little two year old was completely wiped out (as were her parents) and everyone headed off to bed fairly early.
Thanks to everyone who came and for those who didn't, we look forward to seeing you at McKenna's 3rd birthday next year!

Lots of words

McKenna is turning two in just a few days and we have the big bash on Sunday with family. She's still doing many of the things described before, potty, walking, talking, swimming and playing. We're all members at the Y now, so we probably spend even more time there now. Momma has her new job and works five nights a week so we take advantage of hot meals at the Y twice a week. They're usually good and only $4 for the two of us. How do you beat that?
Last night at the Y, we ate, went swimming and played on the playground where McKenna climbs everything (because she thinks she's a monkey) and went down all the slides. I showed her how to hang from the monkey bars with her hands and then hung her upside down from a bar by her knees (I held her feet so she wouldn't fall). She loved it! She's such a little girly tomboy.
And her words are amazing. A couple of nights ago, she broke out with "1,2,3,4,5". Yep, she counted to five. Amazing. Last night she said "bathing suit" for the first time and she loves to run around the house with her pink blanket tucked into the back of her shirt neck like a cape and claim to be "super baby!". Oh and she's discovered the joy of piggy back rides. Always asking for "piggy back".

Will update more after her birthday. Some surprises to come!

Waaaaaaaahhhh!!

Couple of momentous events happening recently that show how big a girl McKenna's becoming.

Today was her last-ever lapsit storytime at the library. She has now graduated to the toddler storytime, where in addition to the stories and songs the children get to make a fun little craft.

It's just makes me so nostalgic to think that when I first started bringing her she couldn't even sit or crawl and I'd have to tote a bottle or formula along for a post-storytime feeding. I'd look at all the other mommies with envy, especially the ones with older kiddos, because they all seemed to be handling motherhood so easily. I felt like such a newbie inside, sure that I had not clue what I was doing.

But lo and behold, it's two years later and McKenna (and Momma and Daddy) have grown in so many ways. McKenna's now walking and talking and chooses her own toys at storytime. She claps her hands and stomps her feet along with the music. (Heck, Miss Chantal even pulled out a parachute today, which McKenna grabbed right onto like a pro!) She feeds herself (most of the time) and plays with her friends across the street and goes to the potty with pretty regular success. And she doles out great big happy hugs on many occasions. (Those are so awesome!)

Mommy's going back to work in two weeks, and Daddy's holding down the fort at night. It's been an amazing couple of years...and it's so nice to see her growing into her own little person.

(On a side note, Miss Chantal also gushed about her "graduates" and how she was losing so many to the toddler class. That made all the proud mamas very happy.)

Now for what happened to Little Miss Destructo yesterday. Phew! Little stinker almost gave me a heart attack. In the span of 15 hours (minus two for a nap) she managed to 1) hurt her lip while climbing on Daddy's side table; 2) scrape her legs and knees pretty good at the playground; 3) drop Daddy's very heavy laptop on her foot; 4) fall shoulder-first into her Little People house while falling off the couch; 5) scrape her chest while trying to climb up the stepstool; and 6) scratch her back in an unspecified manner. She's got the bruises, scabs, scrapes and Band-Aids to show for it all, too. God forbid we had to take her into the doctor's office now. We'd be hauled away for toddler abuse, I'm sure.

More!

More potty success, although we've been pretty sporadic at using it the past few days. The other day she peed in it, looked down (she loves to see where it goes), looked up quizically and said, "More!" Haha!
Tomorrow is Story Land...yahoo! I went to the yuppy bakery today to read and start our list of what we need to bring (and a rough outline of how our days will go...maybe) It is huge. I am so anal! Wrote everything down, even diapers and wipes. DUH!
We can't wait to see her face on all the rides. She's such a little daredevil - she'll want to go on everything twice, I'm sure!!
She had a very full day yesterday - woke up early to watch Daddy swim the bay (yay Daddy!), went to see airplanes and cows in the afternoon with Daddy, and went to Amber's birthday party at night. Phew! She had a ball at the party and even went into the jumpy after a while. Of course, she always had to bring a ball in with her. ;)

Milestones

A couple of milestones to report!!
Yesterday McKenna swam by herself for the first time (with floaties, of course!) in the Y pool. Yippee! She was very proud of herself and didn't want me holding her AT ALL after that.
She made a little friend in the changing room by sharing her fish. They shared a hug, too, and the little girl almost ate all the fishies!

Today was POTTY day...the first time Kenna went pee on the potty! YAY! And not just once...or twice...but THREE times she did pee on the potty! She got lots of praise and kisses and some moo (ice cream) for a treat. Then we went to Toys 'R Us and got her a little Thomas coloring/sticker book.
All in all, a couple of very proud days! (Even though it's 9:42 p.m. and she's still wired. Damn ice cream!!) Haha.

Cwah-sahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

McKenna made me laugh hysterically today. We were fingerpainting outside near the pool when she decided to take a dip. She had a regular diaper on, so her butt looked gigantic when she stepped out, which of course made me crack up. When I commented on her big, fat diaper she grabbed it and started shaking her butt up and down. BAH! When she saw that I was nearly peeing my pants she said, "Hunh!!" and did it again. And then quickly looked back to make sure I was laughing!
Oh God, she's so funny. My stomach was killing me.
I had to write (again!!) tonight, so I went to visit in the living room for a little bit. She climbed right on me, laid down on my torso and gave me a big hug. Awwwww! It's moments like these that make every midnight waking, reflux screaming and "Nooooooooooo!!" worthwhile.
She doesn't like when I write and close the door...she's constantly running in to visit. Daddy tried putting a gate in the hallway to deter her, but that didn't go over so well.
Tomorrow we've got swim class and Daddy's in Boston for the Web CT conference and Mommy has to write (AGAIN!!) at night.
Vaca and Storyland in two weeks! YAHOO!!

Word rotation

Duh! I almost forgot to write down her current word/likes rotation!!

Words:
Howareyou, Boo Boo, Cuck, Ambah, door, pee (with the Little People house)

Likes:
Balls (any and all kinds), pools (again, any and all kinds), ice cream ("Moo!")

Da-DEEE!

So a couple nights ago, I was giving McKenna her bath and just sitting on the edge of the tub when McKenna tapped my leg, looked up and me and said for the first time, "Dad-Deee!" instead of Dada. I was quite happy to hear that. We even got a couple Ma-MEEs out of her, but Momma prefers Momma.

Kenna always has that little proud of herself look when she does something like this. She's very cute.

Busy couple days

So yesterday, Kenna and Daddy went to see a triathlon in Webster, MA. That meant Kenna getting up at 6:45 am and on the road by 7. Kenna is more like her Momma when it comes to waking up in the morning. Very slow and very cranky when rushed. But there were promises of swimming in a big pool, so she tolerated that really well.

We got up there, saw the start of the race and then went for a dip ourselves. She loved it of course, and waded around the water and fell in once. Then it was time to head home after indulging in some yogurt and blueberries. Mmmmm...

Daddy had a baseball game, so Kenna and Momma went to see Papa, Mommaloo and Koko.

When she got home, we went for walks, played with the basketball and hoops! Kenna's favorite thing in the world right now is orange basketballs and a hoop.

Bath time and bed time.

Tonight, Daddy and Kenna went to the Y to use the pool, but after going for about 3 months, we learned that Dada is supposed to pay $5 to use the pool. Not information we were given at signup time. So that didn't work out so well. Then we went into the kids playroom where Kenna had a little accident on one of the toys (she had on a swimmy diaper, not a really absorbent one), so we hustled outta there.

Stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home for a big vanilla soft-serve, which the two of us shared. "MORE!!"

Then home and bath time. For the first time ever, no bath chair at all tonight. Just Kenna sliding around the tub on her bum. After a little while, Daddy spots something brown in the tub with her. Yep, big ol' piles of poop in the tub. Kenna pooped in the tub. Ugh!

Luckily Momma cleaned it all up, as Daddy probably would have puked.

Quiet time for a little while in Kenna's room for the three of us, then reading the new Richard Scarry book with lots of words, some milk and quickly off to sleep.

The little princess...

Noooooooooooo!

So Miss McKenna is learning how to say the dreaded "no!" That's been the big word this week, and she's using it often.
When it's time to take off her shoes, we hear, "Nooooooo!"
If I try to play with her pretend microwave, she protests, "Noooooo!" and runs down the hallway. Tee hee.
If she gets a spoonful of something she'd rather not have (say, a bite of cheese instead of grapefruit), we hear, "Nooooooooo!"

Oh well...we knew this stage would come. It's actually pretty funny how adamant she is with it. NOOOO!

She also started saying Hershey this week. That's the big brown lab next door. The other day she was running down the hall with a remote control to her ear, pretending it was a telephone. When I asked who she was talking to she said, "HAHshee!" Ha! That cracked me up.
She also has a new little play house (the farm had to go back to the library) which she loves. She really is into pretend play. She'll pretend that the mommy, daddy and baby are eating and always puts the dog in the doghouse. Mommy, meanwhile, is preoccupied with the toilet. She's always on the throne! I'll ask where the mommy is and she'll say, "Pee!" (Is it just me, or is it just weird that a play house comes with a toilet - with a liftable lid, no less!)

Swim classes start next Wednesday...she's going to love it! Storytime, too. This is her last Lapsit storytime...after this it's on to Toddler storytime. Holy Cow! I can still remember bringing her to the first couple of times and she couldn't even crawl yet!! ;)

White girls can't jump

OMG, how could I forget to write about her current obsession with basketballs and basketball hoops?!! She's crazy about them. We got her one today at Toys R Us and that's all she's been talking about. "Hoop!" "Ah-ROO!"

She's also quite fond about her sunglasses. Everytime we draw someone or something with eyeballs they must have glasses. And they're always green! HA!

NINE!!

As we were getting ready to attend the annual "Burning of the Gaspee burgers" at Miss Meredyth's house, I was in the kitchen with McKenna and turned my back to her when I hear "NINE!". I had to double take, because I was wearing a baseball jersey with number nine on my back. I asked her what was on Daddy's back and she repeated it! NINE!! Very amazing little girl.

So then of course we had to show her off at the party. She'd name the color that each person was wearing and was even brave enough to go tickle a few people that we sent her after! And of course, we had to show off the "NINE". The best part is she seems to get the concept. I can ask her what is after 1 and 2, and she will get those right, but struggles with what comes after everything else, except what's after 8.

"NINE!!"

Bacon 'n eggs

That's what Dada calls the pig and chicken that came with the Little People farm we got from the library. Ha! Kenna loooooves it! She'll blast into the living room and all of a sudden we'll hear, "moooooooo!" "baaaaahhhhhh!"
This morning she was sitting in her high chair with bacon and baahhhh when all of a sudden she put them snout to nose and made the universal kissing sound. HA! She was making them kiss! I nearly rolled over.
After breakfast we went to the library. We haven't been in a while and Kenna loved playing with the choo choo and new games. She even shared her trains with another little boy who wanted to play!! My sweet little girl...
We went to the pool yesterday and had great fun. She just loves the water and those darn balls! ;) Maybe after her toddler class ends we'll sign her up for a baby swim class. Little fish!
She's been doing pretty well, too, with putting herself to sleep. We'll read a few books and then I'll tell her I love her and that it's time to go to sleep. She protests wildly for a minute or two but then settles right down and starts talking to herself. Usually within 20 minutes she's asleep, and the house is just too quiet... ;)

It only took 20 months, but...

McKenna fell asleep on her own tonight! Can you believe it?!?! As Daddy's previous post says, she wants to get into her crib at bedtime but just turns about. Tonight Daddy had a baseball game, so it was just her and I. We started the bedtime routine around 8:30, with moo and some stories. (It was sooooooo hot as it reached like 90 degrees today) Poor thing was sweating up a storm. Starting talking when I tried to rock her to sleep. Tried putting her head on my shoulder but didn't stay too long. Went into the crib but kept tossing. I even went into the crib with her, which she loved. Kept patting my head and saying, "Momma!" (I love that!!) When that didn't work, I got out (she mildly protested), sang and scratched her back some more, then gave her a kiss, told her I loved her and to have a good sleep. She was just chatting up a storm, not crying, so I figured I'd quickly do the dishes and go back in. I had the monitor on while sudsing away, and she just kept chattering along. All of a sudden I heard "Pink!" and then silence. And more silence. And more silence! I couldn't believe it! Could it really be??
A peek into her room confirmed that, yes, Little Miss McKenna had *indeed* fallen asleep on her own! Our big girl! I can still remember all the naps she took on my chest because we couldn't put her down. And now she's all independent! Our little pea.

Swim Time!

Last week, McKenna got to go in a real pool for the first time! She wore a floatie on her back and I dragged her all through the water at the Attleboro YMCA. She smiled and shrieked the whole time. I guess she liked that a little bit.

Adding to Momma's list of things that McKenna likes now include looking down sewer grates and throwing rocks or whatever is available down there. She also loves yellow flowers, including dandelions.

I changed our bedtime routine now where she has milk in a chair of her choice in the house, then change into pajamas, a book or two and sleep time. She keeps wanting to go in her crib on her own, but isn't showing much inclination to fall asleep yet. So after a few minutes, I pull her back out and she rests her head on my shoulder and drifts off to sleep.

She can also (from memory) correctly tell the colors of many Sesame Street and Shrek characters. The only one she's having trouble with is Grover, who she claims is green. I think she confuses him with Oscar sometimes.

Bad bad!

Yes, McKenna has bad, bad parents for not writing in her blog as often as they should! Needless to say it's been a busy time, with us deciding to move, then painting the house, then deciding not to move...phew! Glad that's settled!

We've been having lots of fun in the warm weather and playing a lot with Boo Boo, Ambah and Chuck. We even enrolled McKenna in the Hockomock Y, which she loves. It's fantastic - they have this awesome kids' gym with tiny little ball pits and slides and trampolines and balls...then she gets to sing and play with a parachute...oh, so much fun! She loves it. Did I mention they have a turtle tapestry hanging on the wall? Yeah, she likes that too. ;)

She's going to be in the Sun Chronicle again next week...this time for a picnic article Mommy's writing.

Several words currently in rotation: Hot dog, iPod, eat, 'side (outside), pune (prune), Pud Pud, ah-roo (orange).

She's also becoming a little ham sandwich! She's so funny!! On Mother's Day I was sitting at the table with Mommaloo when she ran up to me, gave me a huge grin, and then reached up and grabbed my boob. Another huge grin. HA! We nearly peed our pants. No idea where she learned that trick!!

Well, almost time to wake her from her nap. She's been giving us an awful time at night with her nighttime routine. She's just not tired at 8:30 anymore.

Little nut-nut...can you believe she'll be 2 years old in just four months?!?! How time flies...

Almost springtime!

We've been so busy this winter that we can hardly believe spring is almost here! Right now Kenna's asleep and I'm writing in the kitchen with the door open and the sun streaming inside, with three cats streching out luxuriously and keeping me company. I can't wait for her to wake up so we can go outside. It's about 60 degrees today!

We've had a lot of fun the past few weeks. During school vacation week we saw a live owl during a program at the Audubon Society in Smithfield. McKenna dressed for the occasion, wearing her "You're a Hoot!" shirt. Ha! We learned about different owls and their calls and what they eat. They brought out a tiny screech owl for the kids to look at. He was really cute, but McKenna didn't seem too impressed. I mean, she liked him/her and all, but I think the format (kids sitting in chairs, chickee with owl standing in front of the "class") didn't appeal to her all too much. But she kept looking at it and saying, "Owl! Owl!" And we got a little owl stuffed animal in the gift shop that hoots when you squeeze it. She likes that a lot!

We also went to Mother Goose storytime at the Plainville Library, which she really liked. That library is so cute - very bright with lots of toys and puppets and great books. The librarian brought out a drum for the kids to play, and maracas, and we even got to sing songs and march around the room. She was a little shy at first, but then bounded up with the rest of the kids to go put away her maraca (sp??).

And on Friday McKenna had her first gynmastics class! Oh my word, I have NEVER seen her act the way she did yesterday morning. She ran around the room for the entire hour. It was crazy! She just couldn't control herself, there were so many new things to look at and play with (especially balls!) But she did two forward rolls and a backward roll after warming up to the teacher, who was really great with the kids. Then she climbed up the uneven bars (Miss Lori called it "climbing the mountain") and got to swing for a few seconds.
To say she had a good time would be a tremendous understatement!! She had a blast!

And now we're looking forward to spring, when we'll get to spend lots of time outside. I can't wait...I hope she has fun too. ;)

Daddy-Daughter WEEKEND!!

So mommy had to work writing all kinds of stories this weekend, so I got to spend a lot of time with Kenna. Saturday was fun, we just putzed around the house a bit in the morning, and Kenna and Momma went to check out a new day care place at the church. In the afternoon, we did our jet setting around town. We had a few errands to run, but then we ended up at Petco, and she loved it there. Lots of Ssshhh (fish), hop hops (bunnies) and kokos (dogs, getting groomed). She was able to run around a little and look at all the fish, and point at the rabbits over and over again. They also had a little plastic house inside their bin, and when one rabbit went inside it, Kenna would point and say "In, in, in".
All was pretty uneventful until a little after 10. We'd had about 2 weeks of nights with mostly uninterrupted sleep. We'd put McKenna to sleep at 8, then around 4 she'd whimper and we'd bring her into our bed, where she'd go right back to sleep for another 3 hours. Well last night, she started with a whimper at 10, but that turned into a full blown wail. Mommy and I took turns comforting her for more than 2 1/2 hours. Finally she was down for the night at a quarter to 1. No real late sleep in either, as she was up by 8. But that was ok, as Daddy had big plans for Kenna's morning. Momma had a 9 am appointment to interview someone, so she was out by then. Kenna and I had breakfast, threw on some clothes, and jumped in the car. Off we headed for the Roger Williams Zoo! I was a little nervous about it at first, as when we left at 9:30, the thermometer read 25 degrees. And most zoos aren't indoor endeavors. But it's $6, so I figured we can try it out. We got to the parking lot and I think we were about the 10th car there. We went in and swung by the first couple exhibits. Nothin'. Uh oh. Where are all the animals? Finally, wildebeests. Yeah, all huddled together in the far away corner. Hmm. This isn't fun, and McKenna's getting whimpery. So then I spotted the elephant and giraffe area. None outside, so we headed up to their house. On the way, we saw a huge seal in his pool. He was just flopping around in the water, really happy.
Then, we got into the elephant and giraffe house. First two things we noticed was a little smell and it was nice and warm. There were only giraffes in there and they were eating. We were told the elephants would be out shortly for their daily baths. Very exciting. But we didn't want to wait, we wanted to see monkeys. So we headed back out. We found a little farm area, which had rabbits (hop hops), a pig, a goat, some small cow thing, some sheep (bahs) and chickens that roamed free. The sheep and rabbits were on opposite sides, and whichever one we were near, Kenna wanted to see the other one.
After leaving the farm area, we saw some of the zoo workers and I asked where we can find something that looks like a monkey. They pointed to the tropical forest. Very warm and humid in there. We saw little monkeys, called cottontops. Because they were brown, except for their heads, which were all white. Other than those, we mostly saw birds and snakes in there. Oh and there was also the bat cave, which Kenna mentioned but didn't seem too impressed by.
We headed back out and found Australasia. Pretty neat. A big fish tank with lots of colored fish and some snails (Gary) inside. There were more snakes, a monitor, some birds, a tree kangaroo and then we saw them. McKenna's favorite. TURTLES!!! She loved them. One would swim over to where you were standing and seem to wave, as he treaded water. Lots of fun there. I unbundled McKenna and let her run around in there for a while. When it was time to go, we saw some camels outside, which never have impressed McKenna too much. So, figuring we'd seen all the indoor things, we headed back to the elephants to watch them get their baths, which was fun. Three big girls in there getting hosed down. I think McKenna was most impressed with finding some hay on the ground and realizing that it was elephant food. She got a little cranky, so it was time to head home. A short nap in the car, some mac and cheese at home, and then a 90 minute nap. Some more snacks, and back into the car. To go find Momma.
She was at the library working on her stories. We tried to sneak up on her but she recognized her little girl's voice when she was still repeating "two, two" from the elevator ride. We did a little playing and a little reading, and all three of us headed home. Dinner was grilled cheese and some soup. More playtime after dinner and then bath night. Kenna seems to like her baths a bit more now that she has some bath crayons that Auntie Yvette got for her. Post-bath, it was hair drying, put on jammies, read some books and fall asleep. Ahh, now Daddy can rest, and go to sleep. I fell asleep at 10:30, only to wake up again at 12:30 to poor Kenna with more teething pain and freakout time. Luckily, this one lasted not much more than an hour. Except that when it was done, I wasn't tired, and I had a stuffy nose. So I got up, got a decongestant and sat down at the computer and just finished writing what is probably McKenna's longest blog post to date! Hooray! And it was a very nice Daddy-Daughter weekend. The little peanut is always so much fun. :)

Oh how storytime has changed...

So we went to storytime today at the library. So much fun! (We can't wait in line outside the library at 8:30 a.m. on registration day like the other mommies, so we ended up in the last class at 11:30. And just what is up with those crazy moms, anyway? I only have one child and can barely get out of the house before 10 - some of these chicks has two and three tots and make it out at the crack of dawn!!)

Anyway, Kenna had a great time! Poor thing even shed a few tears when it came time to leave. Miss Chantal read a book about turtles (!!) and monkeys and dogs, and Kenna kept saying "Turtle! Turtle!" And before the story, Miss Chantal was telling parents to hold their child on their laps when Kenna ran into the center of the rug - which we all sit around - flopped on her back, smiled and started kicking furiously. Ha! It was so funny! All the other momma laughed, too.

It was so poignant to see how much she's changed since our first storytime when she was, what, three or four months old? She couldn't even crawl then...I remember looking at the bigger kids and thinking, "Wow! I can't wait until she can walk, or talk..." And here she was, doing all that and more. I had to keep reining her into my lap; she just wanted to do her own thing and explore.

We did the baby hokey pokey - which she loved and kept doing at home later - and she nearly peed when the toys came out. (One lovely toddler found it necessary to fling the toys at the other kids...mainly little babies. Nice.) I remember having to carry her over to the toys and pick one out with her...this time she flew to a basket and started playing away. She didn't look my way until it was time to read a book. She even followed Miss Chantal as she put the toys away, she wanted to play so badly!

So we had lots of fun, and Momma had lots of little reflections on just how fast these 16 months have gone by. It's amazing.

I discovered today that she has a whole vocabulary that only I understand. Probably because we spend most of our waking hours together!
She'll say "may-mah" and "dohr" and "cah" and I know she wants to play Peek-a-Boo with Zoe on Sesamestreet.com. (She hides behind a mailbox and a car and a door.)
I know "puh-pul" means her little purple kitty, and when she says "hat" after I say "yoga", she's thinking about her little friend at Itsy Bitsy Yoga whose hat she admired.
It's pretty cool that I have her little code figured out.

Two really funny things before I forget:

- We were doling out treats to the kitties the other day (one of Kenna's favorite things, since Pud eats them out of her hands) when I asked her to give some treats to Puddy. She looked at me, took a few steps toward Pud and chucked the unopened bag o' treats at Puddy's feet, where it landed with a thud. Bah!

- Today we were in the bathroom when Kenna sat down on the floor, grinned and passed the most ginormous toot ever. "Toot!" That's my girl...she already knows to sit on a tile or hardwood floor for maximum flatulence sound effect. ;)

Itsy Bitsy Yoga

Hooray! Check out McKenna in this Attleboro Sun article!
Ring Around the Yogi

TURTLES!!

We took McKenna today to Regal Reptiles where they have a whole lot of turtles, as well as snakes, lizards, alligators and other creepy crawlies. But McKenna loved the turtles. She even got to take a plastic one home. That was all she could talk about for the rest of the day was "turtle, turtle, turtle". Only a couple more weeks until Momma takes Kenna to see Owls at the Audubon Society. She'll be all about owls again after that.

Am I not turtle-y enough for the Turtle Club?

(Anyone who recognizes what movie that line is from gets a big sloppy kiss from McKenna!)

So McKenna's been into turtles lately. Really into turtles. She has some Franklin books and has been reading them like mad lately. One even has an owl in it!

We were eating an avocado the other day (it was cut in half) when she looked up and said, "Turtle?" I looked down and realized that, yes, an avocado half does indeed look like a turtle shell! Bah! That one cracked me up.

We are hanging inside today...with temperatures in the single digits and the wind chill way below zero, we figured we might just have to miss storytime today. It's just tooooo cold!

Her latest nickname is Smacky. We'll let you all figure out why. ;)

Oh, Kenna's going to be in the paper Tuesday!! Mommy's writing a column for the Sun Chronicle, and McKenna's picture will be on it, along with Momma's. So exciting! We'll have to buy a bunch of copies. ;)

Very self-assured

Today we went to Zachary, Perry and Cameron's birthday party at the party store on Mendon Road. McKenna had a ball! The first thing she saw when we got there were 1) all the balls and 2)the massive SpongeBob bouncy thing. Hoo boy!

She was darting around the whole time, so fearless and fancy free. The mother of Jeff's brother's wife (phew!) said she had been watching her and she seemed "very self-assured".

I thought about that and realized that yes, she *is* a very confident little girl! That's so great. She's always exploring at the library and going up to new toys and new people, and has no fear of anything. The only time she cries is when she's really hurt; other than that she hardly whines or cries at all.

Compare that to the other little girl at the party, who was crying every other minute. The girl *tripped* and she cried!! Kenna falls flat on her face and she just dusts herself off and keeps on going.

I was just so proud of her. My confident little girl!

In other Kenna news, we wrote down all the words she says or says pretty well. The tally was 50. Unbelievable. She's insane. We met another 15-month-old at the library the other day, and her dad said she could say about five words. He asked how many McKenna said and I had to lie so he wouldn't feel bad ("Oh, she knows around 10 or so...")

Even Dr. Conway said she was "very advanced" when we kept gushing about all her accomplishments. Big girl! ;)

Rough night

The bottom line might be "don't give you baby any shots". Like as in immunizations. Unless you want a rough first half of the night like last. First, Mommy had some work to do, so it was my turn to give Kenna a bath, read to her, give her the bottle and put her to sleep. But before bed, she was a little more hyper than usual. And usually, she's just about asleep at the end of the bottle and then drifts off quickly when it is replaced with her binky. Not last night. She seemed as though she wanted to sleep, but just couldn't get comfortable and kept twisting and turning and eventually just wanted to get off my lap. So I turned on the light, and read about 5 more books to her. After that, we tried again. But that's when the crying started (McKenna's, not mine yet). So rather than risking a total freakout, we decided to let her run around the house again. This was 9 pm. She's usually asleep easily by 8. She tore around the living room for another 35 minutes, I gave her another small bottle, and when that one was finished, bink bink, eyes wide open, still wanting to tear around the house, still wide awake. We sat there for another 20 minutes until Mommy took over at 10. After about another 15-120 minutes of wrestling, arguing and crying, McKenna finally faded off to sleep for the night at 10:30. Or so we thought.

Just in case of another problem, we hurried off to bed to get in some sleep. Sure enough at 1:30 we hear the usual stirring that sounds like she wants her binky put back in, so Momma went in and gave it to her and came back to bed. A few minutes later the crying began again. Mommy suggested giving her some Oragel, so I did. She was quiet for a minute or so and then the real crying began. Total, complete freakout, sobbing, kicking, wrestling, slapping. After some advil and another 8 oz bottle of milk, and at 2:30, McKenna finally settled in for the night, until 7:30 am, her usual wakeup time.

The temper tantrums are not fun, and the poor little thing can say so many things, but the one thing she can't say yet is what's wrong. Still trying to figure that part out, but I'm attributing it to her immunizations that she got at the doctor's office yesterday. Yeah, it's all Dr. Conway's fault. :)

Words words words!!

Kenna is just a fountain of words lately! Her favorites include owl (of course!), haaaaaaaaaaaat, color-color (drawing), Elmo, Ernie, Ed-DY, Sssssss (fish and Sofie), mailman, car, Boo Boo, bah-bah (ball and Babar), choo-choo, Pud-Pud and teddy. PHEW! This kid is s-m-r-t smart!

We've been having a lot of fun during the day since the weather's been so beautiful. With temperatures in the 50s, it's no surprise that our daffies are starting to come up! Hopefully they'll come back in the spring.

We've been visiting the library a lot lately. McKenna loves to play with the train set there, and the puzzles and blocks and stuffed animals and books and magazines, etc. etc. etc! She loves the library.

Today we went to Old Navy and scored big-time...got an OWL shirt (it says "You're a hoot!" Ha!), a purple shirt and hat, a pair of sleeper jammies and a shirt for Momma for $37.

Yesterday we went for a walk in the neighborhood and played with Boo Boo. I think she touched every toy they had in the living room - and they have a lot! She kept giving binkies to Boo Boo...she's so sweet!

We've been coloring a LOT, too. That's about her favorite activity right now...it's even eclipsed reading, although she still likes that too. She just doesn't like sitting still on your lap for too long.

Sometimes we'll print out some owl or Elmo coloring pages from the computer, or draw Elmo and Ernie and KoKo and Ed-DY on blank paper. She even knows some colors, like pink, black, yellow, blue and purple.

I know everyone thinks their kid is the smartest one in the world, but I really, really think McKenna is a baby savant. She knows letters and colors and tons of words, and she's only 15 months old!! We're so proud of her!!

Slacking...

Yeah, Momma and Dada have been slacking on the blogging and McKenna's been doing so much in the last month. And of course, it was CHRISTMAS!! The little one is now tearing around the house. Walking and almost running everywhere. It's hard to keep up with her sometimes.
She had a great Christmas, as she had three of them. On the 23rd, she got to see her Uncle Eddy, Auntie Danielle, Papaloo, Mommaloo, Auntie Tracie, Kokoman, and her cousins, Ashley and Terry. McKenna got so many clothes that we don't even have room for them in her drawers. But they're all so cute! She'll probably only have time to wear each outfit once before she outgrows them. Then Christmas Eve was spent at Grampy's house up in Tyngsboro. Uncle Mike, Melissa, Ben and Logan were there as well as Auntie Shannon, Uncle John, Mike and David. David was not feeling well, which caught up with Momma the next night. But she got even more great stuff there. Then on Christmas morning, it was just the three of us. McKenna by now had figured out the concept of "open" and seeing cool stuff when she ripped the paper off the presents. Everything she opened was her favorite, as she didn't want to open anything else and would play with whatever she just opened. She got some magnet letters for the fridge, a big learning house, and a TMX Elmo. Mommaloo and Papaloo came over later and we got some Chinese food from the Fortune House.
Daddy was off of work for the week, which worked out well. Momma got sick on Christmas night and was pretty much laid up for two days. Then poor little McKenna got a head cold and was stuffy and drippy from the nose for a couple days, and then finally, later in the week, Dada finally caught on and got McKenna's cold. So it was a rough week in the Laverty household. We were basically stuck inside the whole time and wasn't until New Year's Day that the three of us got to get out of the house together. We went to the Providence Children's Museum, which McKenna absolutely LOVED!! She had so much fun on the first floor that when we started up to the second floor, she turned around and went back on her own! She loved the fish tanks, the mirrors and the toothbrushes. But then once we got upstairs, she loved the digger trucks with the rubber rocks, and the hall of time, with all the older houses, especially the plastic food they had inside. She also got to play in the toddler area and crawl through the cave and go down the slide. After a few hours, it ws time to call it a day and head home and Daddy's vacation week came to an end.

The things that McKenna is really into right now are Elmo, Spongebob, Ernie from Sesame Street and owls. She just loves owls right now.

Hopefully Mommy and Daddy will do a better job keeping up to date now.

Awwwwwwwwww!

McKenna did the cutest thing tonight! I had to research some things, so Daddy was putting her to bed when I snuck in to hear some of their bedtime stories. ("Five Little Monkeys", I believe!)

I knelt down by her side when, after a few seconds, she leaned her head against mine and put her little arm around me. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!! It was so sweet...just thinking about it makes me tear up again. Yes, Kenna, your Momma is a cornball, but it's only because she loves you so much...

More Words

Let's see, today I taught her how to say "pie". She recognizes the letter D, so if we can just teach her C, she can recite, A B C D! Yesterday while I was feeding her, I was wearing my Red Sox hat and she pointed to it and said "B!". The smartest 14 month old ever!
And she loves to say "hat".
Oh, and also while I was feeding her yesterday, she had on her "I love Dad" bib. She actually looked down, pointed to one of the letters and said "D!". This kid not only recognizes the letter D, but recognized it upside down!!

Roseola...cha cha cha!

Baby Measles, Roseola, whatever the name it struck poor McKenna hard this week!

She was a little cranky Sunday at Mommaloo's and had a dry little cough when we got home. Oh, and her sleep was horrible! Crying out every half hour, poor thing and breathing really heavily. We pulled her into bed and discovered around midnight that she was soaked. Had to strip off her warm fleecy pjs and trade them for more lightweight ones.

She woke up Monday morning a little cooler, but still with a fever. And threw up about a minute after waking up. Even sweaty and about to throw up, she was smiling and pointing things out in the room. So we went to visit Dr. Conway, as she was scheduled to get a flu shot that day.

Fast forward to Monday night, when - again in bed with us - McKenna's fever spiked to 102.7!!! We called the dr's office, who instructed us to give her Advil and Tylenol in staggered doses. We just held her and put a cool Spongebob face cloth to her forehead and neck. Again, even when she was so hot and sick and weak, she'd look up at Spongebob singing at her and do her little Spongebob boogie dance. Poor thing...we felt so bad for her. Before we had her, I remember people saying they'd do anything for their children. I so understand that now. I would have given anything to pull that fever out of her and put it into me. She's so innocent, and it broke our hearts to see her so sick.

Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same, lots of Advil, Tylenol and early naps (she was falling asleep at 11:30 - noon and napping right through her lunch!)

On Thursday she woke up with spots all over her forehead, neck and chest. Called Dr. Monti's for the third time this week! Being Thanksgiving, it took the doctor a little longer to get back to us, but we were actually able to take her into the office and get the diagnosis. Thank God! I was so scared she had chicken pox or measles or some horrible disease. Another thing, pre-kids, you never think about is the capacity parents have to worry! All week I just had this anxiety settling in my stomach like a dull stone.

Since we couldn't really travel for Thanksgiving, we improvised and had our own celebration, just the three of us! Daddy cooked two teeny Cornish game hens and I made plenty of sides - stuffing, potatoes, turnip and carrots, butternut squash, green beans and cranberry sauce. Kenna even had a little feast on her Spongebob plate. ;) (I must say that Pat's dinner looked a little scrawny. More like a fat pigeon than a chicken.) We took lots of pictures for the Web site.

But now Kenna's fine and travelled outside for the first time yesterday to ride in her car with Daddy. Today they went to BJs and Home Depot and the library. Yay! No more sick baby!!

Apparently the telltale signs of this virus are the high fever and rash. Some kids get such a high fever (the baby book said temps of 106 aren't unheard of - oh joy!) they have seizures. Patrick had those as a kid so I'm always worried about that happening to Kenna. I guess I had roseola as a baby, and was put on phenobarbatol (sp?) to lessen the chances of a seizure occuring. Yikes.

We're just glad to have our little peanut back. And I'm sure she's glad to be back!!! Tomorrow we'll be joining Mommaloo and Poppaloo and Koko for a secong, belated Thanksgiving. Gobble gobble!

Words

Let's see how many of McKenna's words we can remember:
Mama
Dada
Kitty
Koko
mailman
(sponge)Bob
The letters A, B and M
bum
baby
Elmo

And things she has signs for:
cookie
cat
phone
sleep
bottle
hi
bye

ABCs

As faithful readers of this blog are well aware (and if you're not a faithful reader, then you should be!), McKenna is the smartest little girl ever. Seriously. She is only 14 months old and already knows THREE letters. THREE!! A, B and M are the lucky ones in question.

At first she started saying "Mmmmmmm" when Daddy pointed to the letter M in her alphabet book. That was like a month or two ago!!! A few weeks ago she started pulling the letters out of her new daycare center-esque foam floor in the living room, and after a while I noticed she would say "Ayyyyyyy" when she grabbed the A. And this morning Daddy started teaching her B, which she already knew how to say as evidenced when she asks for her ABC book. "Ayyy Beeeeee!"

We're beginning to sense that we're really in trouble with this one. She's going to pull stuff that we never even thought of. (Something, I'm sure, that Mommaloo and Poppaloo and Chico will find utterly hilarious.)

Da-Da

Even though one of McKenna's first words was "Da-da", she hadn't been saying it too much until just a couple days ago. Mommy just called me at work, and put McKenna on the phone. I started talking to her and the first thing she said was "Da-da". Awwwwwwwwww. Brightens up a rainy day.

Little love muffin...

So McKenna is quite the little love monkey lately! She's always giving little spontaneous hugs and kisses to her stuffed animals and Momma and Dadda. They rock! She'll put her little arms around you and lay her head on your shoulder and give you a little tap with her hand. It's amazing. Just fills me with joy.

Poor little girl has her first ear infection. ;( She started getting a cold Halloween night - we're sure she got it from someone at David's first birthday party. I've never seen so many kids in one house. It was like one giant germy petri dish.
She had a fever and runny nose Wednesday and Thursday and seemed to be getting better Friday and Saturday. But Sunday afternoon the fever reappeared so we went to visit Dr. Conway, who thought he saw the beginnings of an infection in her right ear. So now she's on antibiotics, which he said might "soften" her stools a little. The last time she was on antibiotics she got diaper rash from all the "soft" stools she had! I'm plying her with lots of bananas in the hopes of binding her up!

This week's been rough with the cold. Her sleep's been horrible and we've been pulling her into the bed every night. Hopefully she'll start feeling better at night. She seems fine during the day...we've had a lot of "at-home" time this week so she could rest. Perhaps we'll go to the library tomorrow and get her some fresh air.

She's taking tons of little steps now. You can tell she's getting a little more confident with each passing day. She loves to draw in her Hello Kitty coloring book with her big, nontoxic, washable crayons, and will play for hours with the refrigerator magnets and Tupperware containers. ;) Her favorite words lately are hat, Barbar (and an accompanying elephant sound), baby, Dadda, Momma and mailman. She loves that damn mailman!

So many new things!

McKenna's been accomplishing a number of amazing achievements lately! Yes, I know I'm a little biased, but can I help it if we have the smartest little girl ever??

For instance, she can now say "mailman", "momma", "dada", "kitty cat" and "bad-bad". Haha...the last one cracks us up.

She knows the signs for kitty, eat, bye be, all gone, sleep and cookie, and she can point out her eyes, hair, nose, mouth, toofies, belly button, hands and feet. So smart!!!

She's starting to reject certain foods as she experiences new textures. She loves the *inside* of kidney and white beans, but hates the skin. She always spits them out on her tongue. We also had a turkey and cheese sandwich today, and she didn't seem too keen on the turkey. Kept pulling turkey strings out of her mough. ;)

This is funny - we were taking a bath last night, so I stripped her down while she was traipsing around the bathroom. As soon as her diaper was off she looked at me, aimed her butt up in the air, and peed on the floor. HA! Then she started dipping her toes in it. She's such a little monkey! She's probably going to kill me when she's a teenager and discovers I wrote about her peeing on the floor when she was one. Tee hee!

Yesterday we had a great time...took her to Phantom Farms with Mommaloo and Poppaloo. Kenna had her first hay ride and posed with pumpkins and went down the slides and sampled some apple crisp...yum! She was pooped when we got home and fell fast asleep. It was funny to see just how much bigger she is than compared to last year's trip to the farm.

Today we went to the library and pulled out books and played on the stairs. We even met an 11-month-old girl who had more hair than McKenna! I think she was jealous... ;)

Hakuna Matata!

It's a wonderful phrase...Hakuna Matata, ain't no passin' craze!

Tonight McKenna discovered my Simba slippers and would not put them down. She held one in each hand like little prizes, waving her arms up and down and smiling. She even took them into the bath with her and cried when Momma tried to wring them out. She only dropped them when she saw the bottle. Nothing gets between my girl and her bottle!

She took her first steps this week! One step Wednesday afternoon - she was holding on to the trunk and took one step toward her little house - and four steps Thursday night. Yay! Although I've been sort of nervous about the walking, it's fun to see her developing a new skill. (Something which she has no problem doing, by the way. She is so smart it's scary.) So she'll be teeterin' and totterin' soon. Way too soon for Momma and Dada!

We had a great weekend with lots of sun and outdoor fun. Yesterday we went to Narragansett to see Auntie Yvette and the kids. She loved digging in the sand at Scarborough (no chicken bones there!!) and thoroughly enjoyed Buddy, a German Shepard mix the kids took out for the day. We also went to the lighthouse where we saw Nanny's name on a plaque. It was beautiful there, windy and rocky with a steely blue surf.

Today we went to Grampy's house for Ben's birthday. We got to see Ben and Michael and David and lots of cats! Kenna actually kissed Fletch and rested her head on him - twice! Such a sweetheart! Then we went to the crazy crowded farm across the street and chickens and bunnies and goats in trees. Yes, goats in trees. It was the strangest sight! A little goat ramp made out of wood led from their cage up into the trees, where it ended at this high little platform. At the bottom kids could put food into little cups and use pullies to raise the food up to the waiting goats. Like I said, it was a very strange sight indeed.

After tossing and turning from 4 to 5 a.m., Kenna let us sleep until 8:30 this morning. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Hee Hee

Poor Dada. Kenna really is giving him one heck of a time. She seems to be doing better lately, though. We'll keep crossing our fingers!

She's such a little ham lately! She loves to imitate you and can pick up practically any gesture we make. This week she's been doing "Here Comes the Bumblebee" with her thumb and forefinger, just like Mommy and Daddy do. She also imitates the cats taking a bath, which we do by making a slurping sound and pretending to lick the back of our hands. Yesterday she even crawled up to the scratching post and put her hands on it, just like Sofie! Then I pretended I was Sofie and crawled furiously through the living room with a crazy look on my face, just like Sofie. She loved it, even though I thought this morning's imitation of Sofie by Daddy was hysterical. ;)

She's been loving her little car lately - every nice afternoon we go for a ride and usually run into Boo Boo and the kids. Kenna actually got to play inside Boo Boo's house yesterday. She was happily overwhelmed by the sheer number of toys. She wouldn't even look up from them, that's how intently she was playing!

Then she capped off the day by going to a Republican fundraiser while Mommy went to play Scrabble. I hope Daddy gave her a nice long bath last night to wash off the elephant stink! Haha. ;)

Wacky Sleep

McKenna's been sleeping in lately. 6 days in a row that she's slept past 7. Yesterday she slept until 8, today she woke up at almost a quarter to 8. She's also going to bed a bit later too. She's really giving Daddy a hard time with bed time. Last night she finally went to bed a little after 8:30.

Status of McKenna Today

Some things about McKenna now:
Favorite Toy: The little House that Jenny gave us
Favorite Friend: Olivia (BooBoo)
She goes for walks in her new red car with Mommy or Daddy pushing
She's sometimes been only taking one nap a day lately, and sleeping until after 7 am. She goes to sleep at night around 7:3-8:00.
She drinks whole milk, warm or cold.
She eats dinner with Mommy and Daddy and loves just about everything.
Still won't let Mommy talk on the phone without yelling at her.
Loves any dog that she sees. Laughs at the cats. No idea what's so funny about the cats.
She doesn't say many words, but understands a whole bunch. She knows what the mail is with her little house, knows where BooBoo's house is, knows where the clock is, knows the difference between Mommy and Daddy, still loves belly buttons, gets a bath most nights around 7 o'clock, her car seat is facing forward as of a couple days ago and she will occasionally stand up for a few seconds without holding on to anything.

Kenna's Birthday!!

McKenna is now 1!! Hooray! Her birthday was attended by almost 50 people and I think a good time was had by all, especially McKenna. She even got her own piece of cake, which she ate about half of and wore the other half. The people who came were:
McKenna, Momma, Daddy, Mommaloo, Poppaloo, Grandpa Chuck, Uncle Eddy, Auntie Danielle, Auntie Tracie and Joe. Tantes Janet, Rita and Elaine, as well as Uncle Kenny. Janet came with her son John and Elaine came with Raymond. Jason and Audrey made it. Paula and Glen made the trek up from Westerly as well. On Daddy's side, Grampy and Karen came, Uncle Mike and Ben, Auntie Shannon and David and Michael. Auntie Yvette with Emily, Michael and Clara. Deane and Rachel. Also our neighbors came, Paul, Karen and Lyndsy Fontaine, as well as Chuck, Jenny, Chuck jr, Amber and McKenna's best friend, Olivia (boo boo). Mommy's friends Barbara and Jeff with Zachary, Perry and Cameron, and Mommy's other friend Michelle.
McKenna got some great loot too! Lots of great clothes, which she desperately needed, along with some really cute toys. Mommy and Daddy spoiled her with her first car that we already use to take trips around the neighborhood, and a Lil Tykes roller coaster which alas, isn't here yet, but should be within a couple weeks.

So now we're looking at some swim lessons for McKenna. We'll see if she wants to do that over the winter. :)

Nutella!

Man, Daddy and I are craving that stuff lately! Daddy's been making candy sandwiches (Nutella & peanut butter) with it, and Mommy spreads it on Kenna's Arrowroot cookies. Yum! Luckily, Kenna loves to share!

We hit the Children's Place today and got two outfits, a jacket and some socks for $75. Not bad! Of course, at the end of the transaction the chick handed me a coupon for 15 percent off - next month, of course!

Kenna's top right tooth started sprouting today. So now she has six teeth in all...woo hoo! These last two were a killer, boy. The poor thing woke up every half hour last Monday and at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, had a little fever Tuesday and Wednesday, and has been nursing a stuffy nose ever since. We just kept applying Baby Orajel (a lifesaver!) and dosing the poor girl with Advil. Which, by the way, works soooooooo much better than Tylenol. Tylenol is crap!

She's still looking for bellybuttons! In fact, we got this cute little book where you lift up the flaps and find the baby's bellybutton and hands and other baby appendages. When we try to find the baby's hands, Kenna looks at me, smiles, and this little light goes off in those big brown eyes. Then she points to the top of my head. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what she meant, but today I realized she's pointing to my hair! The words "hands" and "hair" must sound really similar to her. ;) She's such a smart little monkey!

The other morning I gave her a little piece of crust to chew on during breakfast. Instead of putting it her mouth (as she does with almost everything else!) she brought it up to her hair and started combing. Ha! It's about the same size as her little comb, so I guess she figured that's what it was. ;)

Tomorrow is Primary Day, so we're going to go vote. Her first time in a polling place! I'll desperately try to shield her from any rabid Democrat types that may be skulking around...

One more nice little memory I want to jot down before I forget. Saturday was my turn to sleep in, so I took full advantage of it (especially in light of our week of horrible sleep). At one point Kenna and Daddy stuck their heads in, and when they left I could hear her saying, "Momma! Mommmmmmm! Momma! Momma!"

It's moments like this that make me so thankful to be her Momma. ;)

TOOTH!! and claps

McKenna has one more tooth! Top left.

Even better, she can clap now too! And she even has a different wave for hi than bye now. Cutest little girl ever.

Uno's!

Went to Uno's in Attleboro for dinner tonight and McKenna was a little freak! She was so excited, sitting in her own chair, got to play with crayons and throw them all around. She'd shriek with excitement, and eventually she was so loud and excited, we just had to start giving her food to keep her quiet. She started with her Cheerios, but quickly moved on to Daddy's pasta and some of Momma's vegetable soup. Everyone who saw her raved. :)

Today was also Daddy/Daughter day. McKenna helped me to turn in the cable box as we no longer have cable tv. Antenna and free tv for us now. We then went up to the mall to shut off our cell phone service and get that switched to pay as you go. Then she got to play with the big kids in the mall's indoor playground. She loved it! Crawling around and pulling herself up on the various things in there. We read a couple books and then came home for a 90 minute nap. After nap time, we went for a walk, got a new high chair from a yard sale down the street. Came home for some Kenna dinner and Momma came home with the Uno's suggestion! Another great day with McKenna and Daddy!

Fun week!

It seems that McKenna is learning something new everyday! She's *always* on the lookout for our bellybuttons, lifting up our shirts to make sure they're still there.

She can also point to her nose, mouth and hair. It's so cute! And lately she's been clamoring to read "Baby's First Book," a little tome with weird looking little characters who also point out their noses and hair. She also like to sing and point to the letters in the front of the book.

We've had a really good week...lots of fun stuff to do and beautiful weather. And best of all, Momma quit her job to be a work-at-home mom. I just could not put her in daycare, not even for two or three days a week. I just felt like I'd be dropping her off at a stranger's house. I had a pretty good feeling that our daycare provider was loving and warm, but really, how would I ever really know?? I wouldn't have been there while she cared for her and would have been wracked with guilt while I was at work. It just wasn't worth the measly $600 a month I would have been bringing home. I can easily bring that much home - and more - by freelancing.

With that weight off my shoulders, this week has been great! We had a picnic at the park near my old house and saw two dogs (!!!), took some walks, went to Wright's Farm and saw some cows, and just hung out and had fun. Just Momma and Kenna. ;)

Belly Button!

McKenna now knows where here belly button is and where her nose is! When we ask her where it is, she points it out! Smartest little girl ever. And to further show she understands, if I ask her where my belly button is, she lifts my shirt and looks for it.

Ham hocks!

I must write about what a little ham McKenna is. (She has figured out how to make us laugh and then repeats the antics over and over again to her willing audience!)

She loves to blow raspberries with her mouth, and practices often. Lately, when she's eating seems to be her favorite time. So yesterday she was digging into her sweet potatoes, when all of a sudden we heard:

"Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhtphhhhhhhhht"

As she grinned, we saw sweet potatoes EVERYWHERE. I mean *everywhere*! On her chin, on her thigh, on the table, on Daddy's leg. Had the cats been nearby they would have been covered, too.

Us: "No, Kenna (trying hysterically to stifle laughter), you don't spit out your food."

Her: (smiling broadly) "Huhhhhhhnnnn!"

And so the scenario played itself over and over again until we couldn't feed her anymore, we were laughing so hard. Thankfully we taped it, so look for the video soon!

Kenna loves vacations! And bling! And toilet seats!

Daddy was on vacation with us this week and Kenna had a blast! We spent a lot of time hanging out together and playing and even had a picnic on Chicken Bone Beach (aka Lincoln Woods where Kenna dug a cigarette butt and then a chicken bone out of the sand. She didn't seem to mind, but Momma was thoroughly grossed out!
She's got a third tooth now, the right side tooth on her top gums. At first we thought it was a front tooth, but nope, it's a sidewinder! So that brings the grand chopper total up to three. Yahoo! And, oh boy, is she ever using them! She thinks it's hysterical to chomp down on Mommy's bare shoulders. She'll bite, jump up and down, look at Momma with a big ole grin on her face, and then bite again. It's actually really funny, albeit painful too!
She's also started pulling herself up to a standing position. First time was Thursday night when I was at class! Yargh! Thankfully Daddy videotaped it, being the smart Daddy he is! And this morning I went to start the car to get the a/c going and when I returned to Kenna's room there she was, standing up in the corner, grinning at me!
She'll be walking soon, I can feel it. ;)
She also has exceptional taste in 1) choosing bling and 2) picking out toilet seats. Really! She went to HD the other day with Daddy because we needed a new toilet seat. Well as soon as they got to the seats she pointed at one and Pat bought it. She *allegdly* did the same thing with a beautiful heart-shaped diamond necklace that Daddy just had to buy for me. Yahoo!
Well, time to wake her from her late afternoon nap. She's been rising at 5:45 lately and having wacky naps. I don't think we've been this sleep deprived since her newborn days!

More vacations, bling, toilets seats...

Duh! I forgot to mention that she's been saying "Momma" and "Mmmmmmom" like crazy for the past two days. It's awesome! Not entirely sure she knows what they mean, but it's sweet to hear nonetheless!

Won't you take me to...Shanty TOWN!!

Yeah, first heat wave of the year. Upper 90s outside, hit 91? inside the house today. So luckily Mommy heard of a way to cool down an additional room, but putting up a sheet in the hallway between our room, where the A/C is, and McKenna's room. It's working really well. We've gotten as much as a 15 degree difference between McKenna's room and the rest of the house. So that's good for her sleeping, as she doesn't like the heat too much either. Plus, it gives the two of them another room to play in during the day when it's this hot. Luckily, it's supposed to cool down tomorrow. Can't wait.

Oh, tonight was another McKenna and Daddy night. Went to the library, read some stories, played with blocks and the stuffed animals, came home, bath, bottle and sleep. So far, so good. :)

"Test Daddy" night

Mommy had class tonight, so it was McKenna and Daddy night. Everything started off just fine, we played in the house, went outside and crawled around the lawn, took a bath until about 6:45, had the bottle and fell asleep at 7. Well, almost. She woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed a couple minutes later. She had no interest in going to sleep and only screamed and cried and pinched and punched Daddy until about 7:30. So McKenna went back out to the living room to play for a little while. She was so happy, giggling away, crawling and rolling around. Then at 8, she starts getting a little cranky again. We try putting her to sleep, nope, nuthin' doing. Same thing for another half hour, screaming, crying, punching and pinching. Until finally, she crashed at 8:30. Ok, tough enough, but time to do nightly chores. 9 pm, WAAAAAHHHH!!! She's awake again and doesn't want to go back to sleep. This time it was only 15 minutes of wailing and cooling down. It's 10 pm now, and she's still asleep. I'd call tonight a tie.

Fireworks!

Big news - Kenna has been sleeping in her crib, in her own room, since last Wednesday (6/28). Yay! It took a little convincing by Dadddy until Momma would agree to the move, but it's improved sleep for all of us! Kenna now has so much space in which to roll around, and Momma and Daddy have the bed back to themselves. (Well, at least until 4:30 a.m., when Kenna rises with the birds and wants to play)

The Zoo!

We went to the zoo on Monday and it was nice. Small, but nice. Momma and McKenna loved the mist tent, and we saw a few animals. We started with the emus and kangaroos, then otters doing backflips, some big noisy bird with a big nose, llamas and goats, the lions, sloth bear and some other red headed birds. We saw a rainbow boa snake, and finished with ocelots.

The nachos were good too. :)

Mamamamamamamama!!!!

Yes! Today she finally said it! Mama"! So what if it may only be babble...it's music to my ears! ;)

Mona Lisa smile

Kenna's nearly crawling! At first she was pulling herself around by her arms, then gradually adding a torso pivot and some rolls to get where she wanted to go. Now she pulls with her arms and pushes off on her toes. And sometimes she even raises her butt and almost crawls! We predict the crawling will come soon. Sooner than we're ready! We still need to babyproof everything and buy gates. Yikes!

She also started eating Cheerios this morning. It's very entertaining to watch. You can just see the little wheels turning as she tries desperately to grab those suckers in her little pincer grasp. We give her helpful illustrations by making lobster claws with out thumbs and forefingers. ;) She's getting really good at it, too! Only a few times has she "lost" the Cheerio inside her fist or on her face. Ha! We got a great pic of one stuck to her chin.

We also checked out another day care person today. Her name was Oumo (sp?) and she was really nice. Her husband said that Kenna has a Mona Lisa smile. So true. I always call it the Cheshire Cat smile, but nope, it's really more of a Mona Lisa smile. Just a little hint of a grin at the corners of her mouth, so pretty and shy. Little peanut. ;)

Death to Harleys. And telemarketers.

So Momma and Daddy hate motorcycles lately. Namely because our next door neighbor felt the need to take his hog out at 8:40 last night. Thanks, Paul! We owe ya one! McKenna screamed for an hour-and-a-half. Just when she fell asleep again - wouldn't you know it - Paul came roaring back home. Daddy's turn!

I just don't see the appeal of those noisy beasts. There's also one that goes down Hines Road nightly. I want to give them all (the bikes *and* the riders) a huge collective banana up the tailpipe!

Momma also hates telemarketers, who always seem to wait until Kenna's napping to call.

In more pleasant news, Kenna can give kisses if you put your face in front of hers, ask for a kiss and make the universal smooching sound. She'll also kiss those cute babies she sees in mirrors and books. What a cutie!

She also tried a sippy cup the other day. She thought it was OK, nothing like the bottle, though. ;)

Baahhhhhhhhhh!

Is that the sound llamas make? Or is it something along the lines of "thhhhhhhhptttttt" as they try to spit at you?
Kenna's favorite llama buddies from down the street have a new addition to their brood - a little mocha-colored baby. She's so cute...a little more than two weeks old now. At first she was just a little brown lump laying next to her Momma (Sheeba, whom Mommy always thought was the boy. Ooooops!). On the second day she was wobbling along her mother, shaky footing like a colt. Now she bounds around while Sheeba chases after her, as if to say, "Um, hey...don't go too far!" It will be fun to watch Kenna as they grow up together.
Kenna's still jabbering up a storm ("Kah" and "Da da" and "Ba ba ba" are what you'll hear the most in the Laverty household these days, along with the sound of Mommy kicking Daddy's *ss at Scrabble) She's also spinning and pulling herself around with her arms. We think crawling will be here soon!
She really loves bath time, now that she has a big girl tub seat. When it's really warm Daddy will give her a nice cool bath before bedtime, a muggy day ritual she's come to enjoy. Hunh!
She's also sleeping through the night...yay! Has been for a few weeks now. We'll put her in the sidecar around 7, feed her around 10-11 p.m., then we won't hear from her until around 7 a.m. YAHOO! So funny how to think how we thought this day would never come!
She's such a big, sweet girl. ;)

DDDD

Another 4D today, Daddy-Daughter-Date-Day! McKenna let me sleep in a little though she was super-hyper in the morning. Momma finally got me up around 8:30 and then it was time for Kenna to take a nap. After nap time, we played around the house for a while, rolling around on the floor, going in the jumpy, going outside. After another 2 hour nap, McKenna had a whole bowl of peas and oatmeal. We headed out on two errands. We went to the Lincoln Woods beach. McKenna loved it! I sat her down in the sand and she loved digging. I took her shoes and socks off so she could feel the sand on her feet. I would bury her feet and she'd kick the sand off. Then she'd kick and laugh loudly. She loved it. Then was just little food shopping and now it's nap time again. ZZZZzzzzzzzz....

She's getting so big...

Wah! I look at all the things McKenna can accomplish now, and it takes me back to when she was just a little lump o' baby. She's gone from being so tiny and fragile and helpless to robust and curious and thriving in just seven months.
It's amazing to see her really examine her toys, bang them around and otherwise entertain herself. It's a poignant thrill to watch her go to town in her exersaucer while remembering that I couldn't put her down for a second just four months ago.
I see her getting so big, and now I know - I really understand - that the time really does fly. It's gone before you know it.
I love to see her growing up and doing new things, but part of me pines for that little baby I could hold in one arm. But all the while I look forward to all she (and we!) will accomplish in the future.
So I guess I should just try to live in the present moment and savor every little morsel our bright, beautiful cherub throws our way. ;)

Choppers!

Kenna has a TOOTH!!!!!!!!! Bottom, left side! YAY!! Mommy felt something sharp while doing the daily ooth probe, thought it was probably just a nail, when there it was...a little white sliver on her gum.
Bring on the steak!

Holy Baptism, Batman!

Mommy apologies for the big delay in blogging, but our computer was toast for a few weeks. Thankfully we're now connected again! Yahoo!
Kenna is getting baptised Sunday. Her dress is so beautiful - all silk with little flowers at the waist and hemline, with a little bonnet to match. Much to our chagrin, however, there will be about four or five other babies being baptised that day. She'll still be the most beautiful baby there, though!
She's said her first word, too! It is............................................................................da da. Yay for Daddy! But Mommy doesn't really think it qualifies as an official word, per se. She thinks it's more like babble (plus Daddy coaches Kenna every day by saying, "Da da! Da da! Da da!") Of course, when she says "Ma ma" it will be a true word.
Our smart little pea also understands the sign for milk, which we use for her bottle. We were on her play mat the other day when I started making the sign and she started crying...the same cry when we put her bib on!
Such a smart monkey!
She's about to wake up so I'll write more later.

6 Month checkup

McKenna had her six month checkup a few days ago and she's doing great. She weighed 19 pounds, 1 ounce and is 27 1/2 inches tall. She's right at the top of the charts for her age.

She also got three shots from the doctor. Mean, mean Doctor Conway, he made her cry. I kept reminding her that it was Dr. Conway hurting her, not Daddy. She didn't seem to get it. Other than that, she's doing fine, a little dry skin here and there.

We got her a jumperoo the other day too, which she absolutely loves! She'll bounce away in that thing and just laugh and laugh.

She also outgrew her original car seat and is now in her big ol' Britax Marathon seat, which she loves, as evidenced by the fact that she falls asleep in it every time she goes out.

I think that's all for McKenna updates for now. We're still working on teaching her that fastball. :)

Oh sunshine day!

(With sincere apologies to the Brady children...)

Can it really be 68 degrees out today?! That's what the old stroller said while Kenna and Mommy were out for a walk. And the Graco don't lie!
We did our usual loop around the neighborhood, visiting the llamas (Chico greeted us like a sentinel, while Sheeba just hung out near her stall) and greeting an adorable little Yorkie named Molly. Kenna dug her. And Mommy dug the fact that her daffies are coming up! Yay!

We also went to lapsit storytime at the library, where saw lots and lots of BABIES! We read two books and sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She'd had enough after 25 minutes, though; just a little too much visual and auditory stimulation at once.

Yesterday she started holding her bottle by herself. She's like, "Pshah. Get outta here. I can hold my milkies very well on my own, thank you!"

She gets to go to a triathalon conference tomorrow with Daddy...have fun, Kenna! Maybe she'll learn how to cut her creeping time in half.

Of nicknames and such...

Little Kenna has so many nicknames now that they're almost hard to keep track of. But we'll try. The following are currently in rotation:
Muffin
Love Muffin
Sweet Pea
Little Pea
Pea
Peanut
Nut nut
Big girl
Kenna
Kenna Cat
Miss McKenna
Pretty girl
Kenna Pants
and
just plain old Pants

Phew! What a list. And I'm sure it will only grow with time. ;)

We're currently making plans for her christening. It will most likely be on April 30. Daddy and I are trying to figure out where to eat afterwards. The problem is that nearly every restaurant in Cumberland sucks, but we have to pick one that's close. Hrmmmm.

McKenna and Daddy went up to Tyngsboro on Saturday, where she had her first encounter with the jumperoo! Apparently she loved it, and bounced around for a good 45 minutes. Daddy was afraid to tell Mommy because it was one of those jumpies that attach to the doorway, which Mommy isn't crazy about. But hey, as long as she had fun and nobody got hurt, Mommy's happy!

Kenna now weighs about 18 pounds. (We figured this out in a very scientific way: Daddy weighed himself, then weighed himself while holding Kenna. Haha.)

This weekend we have to get her a convertible car seat - she's almost outgrown her infant seat. She's only five months old!!! ;)

She has her six-month checkup next week. More shots. ;( She takes them like a trouper, though, my brave little girl.

Mommy's maternity leave has been officially extended until September. We are going to have so much fun in the spring and summer! We're going to be outside all the time.

She now has the following foods in her repertoire: Bananas, applesauce, peaches, green beans and carrots. And a whole bunch of yellow poop to show for those peaches! Yum yum!

Daddy's Day!

Today was the day after McKenna's 5th birthday month. And Mommy's regularly scheduled day off. So McKenna and I got to hang out around the house. We played together early in the day by running around the house together and making airplane noises, reading some books, like Five Little Monkeys, Moo Bah La La La and the baby face book. Then we went to Lowe's to get some smoke detectors and to Joann Fabric to get curtain tiebacks for Mommy. When we got home, we had some rice cereal and green beans and then took a nap on the couch together. It was snowing outside and Mommy came home while we were sleeping. Not too many naps for McKenna today, maybe a total of an hour. She's on her way to an early bed time tonight.

Babies, glorious babies!

We got to do one of McKenna's favorite things today. No, not eating, although that's a pretty good guess. We got to stare at babies! Woo hoo!
We went to a new moms group and met a bunch of fellow newbie mommies and their charges. Kenna, although a little taken aback at times because of the noise, was absolutely enchanted. She kept looking at this one little girl in particular - Josie - and the two of them just kept giggling and reaching for each other. It was so adorable! They even fussed and cried at the same time, too.
The other moms were really nice and chatty. They were doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers and stay-at-home-moms. I had a really good time - it's amazing how good it feels to talk to other women who are going through the same experiences. I wish I would have had this group during the first three months, when everything was so new and hard and a tad stressful.
One of the babies there had reflux, and her mom couldn't breastfeed because of it. I guess it affected the way the baby latched on. So she's pumping and putting the milk into bottles for her little one. Now that sounds familiar! I wonder if the reflux is what kept Kenna from latching on?
It was so nice to see a lot of mommies bottle feeding. I think two of the women nurse. I wasn't "ashamed" of bottle feeding her in front of them, as opposed to the AP group, where they would probably give me the hairy eye if I dared to produce something other than a huge fleshy booby for Kenna.
All in all it was a good day! Now we've just got to make it to Stroller Strides so Mommy can lose these last 10 pounds and finally throw away these damned size 8 jeans!!!!
Kenna's library is now approaching the size of the good old Rumford Public Library. I might have to issue McKenna a card soon. Perhaps I could have John O'Toole organize her tomes into a handy Dewey Decimal System catalog? Haha. We bought a bunch of books Friday, including Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever (which Mommy had when she was little), Click Clack Moo, an artsy counting book from the Met, and two books filled with - what else? - BABIES! She particularly likes the last two.

Movie Star

McKenna was in a movie at Daddy's work today, where she was one of the babies "acquired" by Daddy's office. She was the cutest star of the whole movie!

Kenna's 'Complishments

Little Kenna is doing so many things now! This week she's started reaching for things - really reaching her arms up and trying to pull things toward her. (Read: into her mouth) Her favorite objects to reach for include Mommy's hair, Mommy's food, her bottle and Dicky the Duck. She's always smiling (when she's not hungry or tired) and laughs like a little monkey now. She laughs when you kiss her cheeks or tummy, and when you play peek-a-boo. She's also very social and turning into quite the little ham! We went out for lunch with Michelle yesterday, and everyone in the deli came to say hello and say how cute she was. Of course, she flashed her little Cheshire Cat smile at them. And tonight she saw a two-month-old baby and LOVED her. Just kept smiling and going "hunh!" She's also on solid food now. She usually has oatmeal and bananas for breakfast and rice cereal and green beans (eugh!) for dinner. Perhaps next week she'll try some carrots. Her banana/oatmeal concoction is delicious. (Mommy usually has a few spoonfulls as well...she's lucky Kenna likes to share!) Kenna's also rolling over from her front to back, and can get halfway from her back to her front. She loves to sit up with help, and just started playing with the aquarium in her crib. She'll press the little seashell to start the music and spin the little crab (he has been named Mr. Krabs ;) like mad. Our little girl's getting so big! Now if only she would sleep through the night... ;)

P.U.

Kenna's pooping her little heart out right now. I love the look of intense concentration that flashes across her face when she does her business. She's not foolin' around!

Sleepy McKenna

McKenna just wouldn't go to sleep for Daddy tonight. No pony for you!