Go Go Go

I remember the days that I thought Kennedy would never walk.  The days a year ago when she would crawl backwards, and get stuck under entertainment centers, tables, etc.  Then came crawling forward.  And cruising, and independent standing.  Then one or two random steps.  Then 5 or 6 steps.  All of the sudden 20 steps!!!  And now I can't stop her!  Literally, in October when we were house hunting she made a record of 22 steps.  By the time we moved 3 weeks later, she was a full time independent walker.  Now, 6 weeks later, she's running.  Girlfriend does not stop.  She doesn't want to do puzzles, she doesn't want to watch Signing Times, she doesn't want to stack blocks.  She wants to run around the house, playing with whatever happens to be in her path, for a few minutes at a time, but mostly tearing things apart and getting into everything.  Throwing things into the Diaper Genie, pulling things out of the trash can, throwing books off shelves, emptying laundry baskets (clean or dirty), and emptying every cabinet.  We're still missing TWO pairs of my husband's glasses.  Yes, I said two.

We recently found a place called Monkey Joe's.  When we took Kennedy for the first time last weekend, my husband had an alarmed look on his face, when we walked in to find huge bounce houses.  He was definitely concerned.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I felt like bounce houses were a little old for her, even on the toddler level, I wasn't sure what she would think.  Well, she loved it.  She crawled under, through and around all the different obstacles.  Jumped and flipped off inflatables, went down slides, crawled, climbed, ran and bounced.  We took her back today, for a play date.  She was all over.  Literally throwing herself against the sides, and sliding down.  Bouncing, sliding, running.  I am not sure which of us got more exercise but I can tell you, I'm exhausted.  I was looking forward to photos of Kennedy and her friend, Ben, playing.  Unfortunately, Kennedy didn't spend enough time in one place to even think about getting a picture today.  Hopefully if we keep hanging out with Ben, his talking will rub off on her.  Of course, there's also a chance that her wildness may rub off on him.

This was a video of her the other day, before she got too completely wild.

And this would be her today.  I know.  The worst photo ever.  But the best one I could get, as she threw herself across the bounce house.

And just to show what a goofball she can be.  

Yes mom, I'm eating crackers for dinner.  But give me more.

What?  I'm just working on my splits.

Look for me in the gymnastics portion of the Olympics in a few years.

Other random videos that show miss wild thing in action:

Checking out Daddy's office, after Monkey Joe's last weekend.  

(She walked circles through daddy's building several times.)

And this morning's run in with Mr. Penguin....

On that note, I'm going to bed.  Because tomorrow is a long day of keeping up with her, while juggling a 20 pound baby on my hip.

Weekend Wrap Up - Big Steps

Wow!  What a busy weekend.  I think we've felt a little guilty that Kennedy has been stuck in the house so much.  Combine that with wanting to reward her for being such a wonderful big sister, we made sure that she had a blast all weekend, despite some lousy weather.  So in the past 48 hours we went to Busch Gardens, an indoor play center and the park.  I'm really not sure who is more exhausted. 

And there's one thing I always say.  There's a few ways to get Kennedy to do something. 
1) Blog about how she's NOT doing it.
2) Express concern to the therapists about how she's not doing it.
3) Stop practicing it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I felt like we weren't getting anywhere with speech and communication.  Kennedy has made it clear that she has a pretty good understanding of things.  She can follow simple commands and recognizes objects.  But we've been at a frustrating standstill with her language or signing skills.  Since I blogged about my frustrations the other day, Kennedy decided to prove me wrong.  She started signing eat and more this weekend.  Did I mention that we had cut back on the amount of work we were doing with signing, per our speech therapists suggestion.  And now she's going to start signing.  That's my girl! 

I also finally got a video of her walking with her push toy.  I've been trying to catch this on video for awhile, but I never seem to have my phone or video camera on me at the right moment.  Or when I do, she's so distracted by it, that she doesn't walk.  One of these days, she's going to be walking on her own!  I am voting sooner than later. 

And here are some photos from the weekend.

Mom, why does it always rain?

Oh my gosh the carousel is so much fun!

The elephants are really funny mommy!

It's been so long since I've been swinging!

Push me higher daddy!

Don't stop!

I love the swings! Can't we get some.

Catch me daddy!

Peek-a-boo people!

Oooooh!!! Catch me daddy!

Peek-a-boo daddy!

Catching Up - Photo Bomb

Things have been pretty hectic around here the past week.  Kennedy is keeping us on our toes more and more every day.  We had PT today and her therapist was amazed at how much progress has been made in just the past two weeks.  I think it's safe to say that she's well on her way to walking independently.  Like a lot of other things, it's just a matter of her gaining the confidence and comfort to take off.

Here's some photos and videos of the past week.  Also, some professional family photos!

Hey mom!  Look what I can do!

 

Hi blog reading people!

This is good chicken.

More ice cream please?

 This is good stuff.

I adopted mommy's pillow.  I hope she doesn't mind.

I don't want to go on another car ride.

Grandma, what are you doing?

If it means I get Cheerios, I'll check it out.

This isn't so bad after all!

 Does this thing sing anything else?

You don't mind if I move this table, right?

Do you people want some dinner entertainment?

And last but not least, here are the family/maternity photos from a few weeks ago.  Kennedy was less than interested, but we still got some great photos. 

Baby Steps!

This has been an exciting week. And yet, the first time I've managed to write a post AND it's lacking a lot of photos. But Tropical Storm Debby, Grandma moving in, being 9 months pregnant, and day to day life with a 16 month old hasn't left a lot of time for blogging.

Kennedy is making huge progress in the area of gross motor skills. This has always been her weakness and an area that we've worked hard on! She's been capable of pulling up for some time now, but only did it when she was really motivated to - usually by something she wasn't supposed to have. All of that had changed in the past week or so. She's now pulling up and climbing on everything. She's getting into things she never knew existed - like her brother's dresser. I've caught her climbing into and out of things and becoming quite the dare devil. She still thinks it's best to plop down on her butt when she's done standing though. And the dramatics that go along with it are hysterical...to us and her.

 

She's continued to enjoy climbing out of the pool, and it's become quite the hit to see.

 

She's started to cruise the furniture more and more. She'll now take steps to get around her activity table and is starting to stand independently for a few seconds. Tonight, for the first time, with some help from mommy - she walked from the family room to the kitchen with one of her push toys!!! She's definitely not ready to do it alone, since the push toy moves faster than she does, especially on tile, but I feel like we've made some huge advances on the way towards walking this week! We're far from being an independent walker, but I have the feeling that in a few months I'll be able to stop chasing Kennedy on my knees!

I promise. More pictures to come this week!

 

A lot of Randomness

I promised more updates and more photos this week, and I've once again failed. It amazes me how quickly the days fly by lately. Between chasing a toddler and getting the house ready for a new baby, I'm not sure how I have time to breathe. Especially on days like today. You know, the days when you spend 2 hours chasing a big lizard around your house. Keep in mind, I am seven months pregnant and had a cranky teething toddler on my hip. It made for quite a site. In fact, if there wasn't still a big lizard on the loose in my house, I might even find it comical. Instead I'll be having nightmares of lizards crawling into bed with us. Oh the joys of living in Florida...

It's been quite a week in our house. I'll just give the highlights, with the promise of many more details and photos to come.

- Less than a week after getting the iPad, Kennedy has mastered pointing! She absolutely loves the iPad and if she sees me using it, she usually comes after it.
(Don't mind her bed head or my lack of captions, I still have no good solution for blogging from this thing.)










- At nearly 15 months, Kennedy is FINALLY getting her first tooth! I'm not sure why I was so excited for her to get teeth. She's definitely not been her usual self this week, and I'm thankful to have figured out the reason, but I miss my happy girl! She's not completely miserable all the time, but we've had more fuss and tears in 3 days than we have in 15 months. I'm pretty sure teething has cussed more fuss than open heart surgery. However, fruit pops seem to help a little. (But the $20 worth of teething supplies from Target seem to do nothing.)





- Kennedy has also continued to take off with gross motor skills. In just a few short weeks she's started to transition from sitting, to crawling like a maniac and now pulling up on absolutely everything! Nothing is safe. Gross motor has always been Kennedy's weakness, so all of these improvements are wonderful to see! She also does a great downward dog yoga pose. I guess she's ready for that any day now.
(Excuse the poor photo quality here....darn cell phone, I never have the flash on when I need it.)









-And last but not least, we've made some big changes in our therapy services. Early Steps has finally agreed to provide us with weekly physical therapy, at the expense of our Developmental Therapy. So we've cut that back to once a month and will be taking advantage of their PT services. This will also allow us to integrate private speech therapy. I'm looking forward to utilizing some new resources o Ed the coming weeks!

That's all I've got for now....I'll post some adorable photos of Kennedy and Grandma this weekend when I get some computer time. Now, I'm off to eat some ice cream and make sure there are no lizards lurking under my bed.

Location:A Lot of Randomness

Must. Get. Cheerios.

Kennedy has been "crawling' so to speak for awhile.  Whether it be army crawly, scooting, whatever you want to call it.  We've been working on the hands and knees crawling, but this kiddo has always hated being on her knees.  Until recently.  She's been getting on her hands and knees for brief amounts of time, and yesterday she just decided to go with it.  We are mastering the hands and knees crawl!  Of course, her biggest motivation is - you guessed it - Cheerios!

She has definitely taken off with it and has been crawling on her hands and knees with more confidence and a little less effort.  I suspect in no time, I won't be able to keep up with her!  I could not be any more proud, especially because I know how hard this little princess has been working at this!

Midnight Milestones and Other Antics From Kennedy

Kennedy is growing up.  Becoming much more mobile.  She learns more and more every day.  This is such a fun age, but she's also getting hard to keep up with!

She has started escaping from play areas...  I caught her trying to get out the front door yesterday.  Good thing our house is mostly baby proofed....

 I didn't do anything.  I didn't try going anywhere.  I'm not guilty at all.

Last night I went to bed, and just as I was getting comfortable and dozing off, I felt something on my hip.  I rolled over to see Kennedy sitting on the bed with a huge smile on her face.  Two minutes before that she was sleeping on her belly.  She then continued to show me over and over how she could now go from her belly to sitting up.  I always say that we celebrate all milestones and I could not be more proud.  But practicing this from 11pm until 1am was a bit extreme.  Hopefully we all get a better night of sleep tonight.  (Though, for that to happen, I'm pretty sure I should be sleeping not blogging.)  

What else has Kennedy been up to?  Let's see, she has 3 ball poppers.  The most annoying part of all of them is that the balls fly every where, and I used to have to chase after them constantly.  Now that Kennedy is mobile, she is willing to fetch them, when they bounce out.  However, she has discovered the art of throwing balls.  She laughs every time she foes it and then waits patiently for you to retrieve it and throw it back.  Okay, so maybe she isn't very patient.  This afternoon she was standing and eating Cheerios off the ottoman.  When the Cheerios were gone, she got down on the floor, then laid down, and rolled over, in search of any lost Cheerios that she may have dropped.  It was a pretty silly sight to see. 

I'm pretty sure I dropped a few mom.

Did they go UNDER the ottoman?

Must. Find. Cheerios.

Vacation Photo Bomb and Other Updates

Kennedy is getting more and more mobile!  Pulling up, scooting, and just getting around!  She *can* crawl, but Kennedy is Kennedy and she does things the way she wants.  And she doesn't like being on her knees, so she uses her butt to get every where.  It's been 3 weeks since we saw our Early Interventionist last and she was just blown away at the advances that Kennedy has made over the past few weeks.  She's also *talking* more and more.  And I can't forget about her new found love for yelling.  She's not unhappy, but she loves to yell.  At the top of her lungs.  Sometimes in hotels, at 11pm.  Sometimes in the close confines of the car...for three hours.  And even in doctor's offices.  Kennedy makes herself known. 

Today was also a Cardiology follow up.  Kennedy rocked it!  We got another perfect report and Kennedy weighed in at a whopping 17lbs 13oz!!! 

Here are some pictures from the past week.  And I promise, you'll start seeing more updates from me! 

Sleeping on Aunt Michelle and Uncle Sam's pool table.

Hi Great Grandma.  I like your necklace.

I can't handle all this family time.  I'm exhausted!

Enjoying the beach!

I think we should start every morning with a walk on the beach.

Hanging out poolside!

 Yes, I'm cute and I know it.

And sometimes I'm shy.

Mom, stop taking pictures,  I don't really like this hat.

Daddy, can't we get a pool at home?

Swimming is fun!  But don't think I'm going to sleep more tonight.

Okay, maybe swimming made me tired.  I'll nap now.

 Did someone say I was getting ice cream?

With sprinkles????

 

I had a little bit of ice cream, and now I'm up partying.

Mom, why don't we ever bring my bike on vacation?

This thing is so much fun!

Look mom, I'm steering!