Grandma Love

I'm really fortunate to have an excellent relationship with my mom, and I'm even more fortunate that she has lived close to us and has developed such a special relationship with Kennedy.  Kennedy adores her and it shows every time she comes over!  I think Kennedy will be pretty excited that Grandma is moving in!!!  She should have moved in today, but thank you very much Tropical Storm Debby, that's been delayed by another day.  It will be great to see their relationship grow and also to have some extra help!  I'm pretty sure Kennedy is looking forward to swim time with Grandma, in the first few weeks after Caleb is born.  And I know she already appreciates that Grandma is willing to chase her around on her hands and knees.  Something that is getting increasingly difficult for mommy to do. 

I'm not really sure who won this game, but I'm assuming Kennedy.  One thing I can determine is which one of them got tired out first.  But I'm sure you'll figure that out by the end of the pictures!

Mess Making Skills

I try to plan activities every week that coordinate with developing Kennedy's skills like speech, fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, social, etc.  This has been a long week full of appointments, and rain, so we had minimal swim time.  The weekend isn't looking much better with the chance of a tropical storm headed our way.  So today it was time to get creative.  We worked on Kennedy's mess making skills, and let me tell you, this girl did an AMAZING job! 

I made finger paint out of pudding and food coloring and put her in the giant bath tub and let her go to town creating her own masterpiece all over the tub.  She had a blast and I didn't have to worry about what happened if she ate the "paint."  In fact, before working on her masterpiece she got to partake in the yummy goodness of vanilla pudding! 

Freshly prepared finger pudding paint!

Bring it on mom!  I'm ready!

I need to taste my supplies first.

What do you mean I'm not supposed to eat it all?

I'll paint a mural.

You're right mom!  This is fun!

 Can we do this more often?

Can we leave this for daddy to see?

 Look what I did mom!

I love the way this paint tastes!

This is the best thing ever!

Just a few last minute touches.

Can we do it again tomorrow???

Stair Climber

Any time Kennedy does anything new, it's a huge accomplishment.  She works so hard to perfect her milestones and we celebrate them in a grand way.  Well, today at the pool she gave me the shock of my life.  I should preface this by saying, we've never really worked on climbing stairs.  We've used the stairs as a tool to help her pull to stand when she was shorter, but we've never worked on climbing stairs.  Because, quite honestly, that's not something I was ready for her to be able to do!  Needless to say, today when she climbed the stairs and got out of the pool I was shocked.  We were sitting in the water, on the steps, playing and splashing.  She pulled herself to stand, and proceeded to climb up the steps, and out of the pool.  Then she crawled across the patio, not seeming to care that the pavement was hot or scratchy!  I wish I had my phone with me to record it, one of the many times she did it.  But unfortunately, I don't usually keep it on me while I'm in the pool.  I'm pretty sure our pool monitor and probably all the other people there thought I was nuts, making such a huge deal out of her climbing the steps and getting out of the pool.  But like I always say, we celebrate every milestone!  And this was a big one considering we've never worked on it and I wasn't expecting it! 

Even though I don't have any video of miss stair climber, I have some really cute pictures of her enjoying Grandma Grace's beans and rice!

Ooooh these were yummy yesterday!!!

I hope there's more than this.

These are so good!

Give me more!

 

 How come you don't make this for me?

Happy Father's Day & Catching Up!

Slacker blogger back again!  I promise, some day I'll get around to posting more than once a week.  But no guarantees on when that will be. 

First off, I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!  Especially to my wonderful husband, my own father and my father-in-law.  Kennedy is so lucky to have such an amazing father and such wonderful grandfathers.  

We're in the middle of a whole lot of excitement!  Counting down the weeks until Caleb makes his appearance, for one!  It's hard to believe there are only *weeks* left.  Since my last update...over a week ago...we took Kennedy to the beach.  That was a fail!  She was very interested in eating the sand and shells, and less interested in everything else.  Combine that with the "dangerous marine life" warnings, and our day at the beach quickly turned into an afternoon at the pool.  And the main reason for my slacking this week, was a sick little monkey.  Fortunately she's well on her way to being back to normal and life has gotten crazy again.  But for a few days, there was a lot of snuggle time with mommy. 

Here's a random dump of Kennedy for the last 9 or so days!

And, I'm off...

Well this is interesting...

I think I want to try snacking on some shells. I know there's plenty.

What do you mean I can't eat them?

I think I like the pool better mom.

The only time I ever sit on the bed with Signing Times and a snack is when I'm sick.

Tylenol makes it a little better.

I'm cute and I know it.

I'm so funny...

Mama...I think I'm going to get into real estate.

Father's Day with Papa Sam and Grandma Grace. 
Someone decided to take half a nap and was worn out after pool time.

Vacation Wrap Up

Vacation was wonderful, though the weather was pretty depressing for more than half the trip.  Lots of rain, wind and clouds.  Clearly someone forgot that we live in the sunshine state.  Kennedy didn't know any better though and had a blast!  She's not such a huge fan of the beach, or maybe it was just the insane winds and unusually large waves.  Here's a few (okay - a lot) of pictures from our trip.  I took 480, so I'll do my best to narrow it down.  She just has such silly expressions! 

Pool time with daddy!

Do you think I can have something better than water?

Yes, this is exactly what I had in mind!

Look mom, I ate almost all my chicken!

I'm stuffed!  Let's go!

You people are so silly.

No mom, I don't like to sit and relax anymore.  Let me down!

I really wish you'd let me crawl, this is the last picture!

We're in a hotel, do you really think I'm going to bed?

Is that my breakfast???

 

 Pool time with mommy!

 Seriously? More water?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Enjoying my after dinner walk!

How come your eggs don't come out like this mom?

I'm done with lunch.  Can we go swimming now?

Um, dad. I don't know about this.

Why is all that water coming at me?

Can't we go to the pool?

This is much better!

How come our pool at home isn't like this?

Yeah, I'm going to get that!

Just wait a minute...

Is that my food? I'm hungry!

What do you mean it's not my cheeseburger???

This is ridiculous!

Really mom?

This is so fun, we need to come back more often.