The Latest and Greatest

Here are Parker's 5 month monkey pictures. He is growing up so fast. If you look closely on his right leg, you can see a tiny mark where he was burned by the buckle on his carseat this week. So sad! I am telling you, this kid is a tank. He just eats and eats and eats. He's still sleeping pretty good, and just the most good-natured baby you will ever meet. He is so happy and mellow. I am truly amazed at how happy he turned out, considering his grouchy start.



As we were taking these, Kenley wanted to hop up and be in some pictures as well. I love these because you can really see how happy Kenley is to be a big sister. She just loves her little brother so much.






Poor Kenley - this week she was playing out back and got COVERED in ants. Hundreds of them all in her hair, her clothes, on her face - it was NASTY! So every time she sees a black speck, she's like, "A ANT! A ANT!" I don't blame her for being freaked out. It was pretty gross. Kenley is at such a fun age with her vocabulary (not so much with her tantrum throwing). She loves learning new words and she's quite the chatterbox. I think about 6 months ago she knew 20-30 words and now she knows hundreds and speaks in sentences. That's really pretty amazing. She's doing great with her potty training. She'll take herself to the potty without any reminders, even during nursery at church! She loves her big girl panties, and I feel somewhat redeemed for buying cheapo generic diapers because boy is she STOKED to have characters on her undies! Seriously, it's so brand new and exciting for her.

Well, we're off to Nauvoo this week. I'm sure I'll take several hundred pictures so I'll have lots to share when we come home. Wish us luck with the babies. But Kenley is so excited to go on an airplane and see Annie, it makes it all seem worth it. Then when we get home, it's time for a birthday party! Kenley's turning 2!

The Hidden Pocket

"Where are your markers, Kenley?"
"In my POCKET!"
"That skirt doesn't have a pocket."

"Oh, um, well okay. I guess there is THAT pocket."

Another visit from Grandma Teddy!

We had a fun visit with Grandma Teddy last week. We shared lots of laughs and just spent the evening enjoying each other's company. I feel so lucky to live by my immediate family, and extra lucky that I get to see my Grandma so often even though she lives in Alaska. I just love her so much and it makes me so happy to watch her get to know my kids.

Camping!

Dang, we're brave! Well, sorta brave. We decided to do the Poway Lake Family Campout this year, figuring that if the kids lost it we could just leave and head over to my mom's. It was kind of crazy with the tent, especially when your kids aren't used to sleeping in such close proximity to you. "Mommy! Daddy! PaPa! Yay!" But it ended up going okay, I think. We went with Scott, my mom, and Kirk, so we had a lot of extra hands and help. And Kenley woke up just giggling with joy, so I guess the sacrifice of no sleep was worth it! I think we've got a new family tradition!

Big News!

Huge Breaking News: I think we are potty training! I've been sort of making half-hearted efforts to get Kenley to pee on the potty lately, and she's been doing a good job, so I was going to start for reals in a week or so. But Grandma and Grandpa Hampton rolled into town with some Nemo fruit snacks, and apparently those are prime currency for Miss Kenley. We've gone three days in big-girl panties, with only a few scattered showers! And I haven't changed a poopy diaper (on her) in almost a week! I can't even tell you guys how excited I am! So here's a picture of her in her panties, which she decided to pair with her fabulous hot pink cowboy boots. Enjoy!

So, I've been really into digital scrapbooking, and it occurred to me the other day that I should just post my pages on here, and that way I could save myself some work because I put my cutest, best pictures in both places. You may not get as much writing from me that way, because I don't tend to do a lot of journaling, but I don't think I'll get too many complaints. Hmmm... I did just notice that you can't click to make them bigger. That might be a problem. Well, anyway, here are some I've done from the last month or so.

Parker

Time for Mr. Parker. What a sweet little baby he is. Now that he can smile and laugh he doesn't seem quite so grumpy all the time. He has the best smile ever - I can't even describe it. When he sees me and I smile at him, he smiles back so big it almost sends him into convulsions.

He is on a pretty good schedule these days. Throughout the day he eats, then he's awake for an hour to an hour and a half, and then he naps for about an hour and a half. So, roughly a 2.5-3 hour cycle. I can live with that. One of his most fabulous qualities is that he gets very sleepy in the afternoons, right when Kenley takes her long nap, he takes a nice long 2-3 hour nap. Does he love his mama or what? He can fall asleep all by himself in his crib, and can sleep from 7-9 hours at night. Notice I say can and not necessarily does. He's only just about to turn four months old, he still has his moments. But he is a much better sleeper than Kenley was when she was a baby. It was way easier to start training him to sleep on his own when he was so little, plus he's just naturally a better sleeper. He is in a growth spurt right now and eating like crazy, every hour and a half or two hours (with the exception of nights, thank goodness). He is growing so quickly, and I truly don't think it'll be that much longer before he is both as heavy and as long as Kenley. She is just a tiny little thing, and I think Parker has more hope for a normal height range. Thanks, Hamptons.

I'm pretty sure that there has never been a baby so worshiped by his big sister. Kenley just loves on him! Except she doesn't quite get that the closer she is to him the quieter she needs to be. This fact, combined with Parker's overly active startle reflex, leads to the following interaction occurring several times each day: Kenley pops up right by his face and shouts, "PaPa! I yuv you MUCH!!!" Poor Parker's lip starts to quiver, he dissolves into tears, and Kenley keeps toddling by. And I sigh.

Hmmmm... Parker's likes and dislikes.... let me think. He really likes Mommy and Daddy (smart boy!), the fan, being "nakey," eating, laying on a blanket, and staring at his bedding set. The mobile, bumper, and curtains are all fascinating and wonderful to him. Oh, he also likes to have one arm out of his swaddle and scratch his crib sheets as he drifts off to sleep. Dislikes... baths (why do my kids always hate baths?), being scared by Kenley, laying on his stomach, and being licked by Lucy.

Well, that's our little boy. Hope you enjoyed such a detailed glimpse into our day! We are about to start him on rice cereal, he's starting to laugh more, and we're still waiting for that first roll-over (which probably won't happen until I actually put him down on his stomach, so don't hold your breath). Should be fun!

Kenley

Oh, this little girl is so very funny! She likes to walk into a room and ask casually, "Hey guy. What doing?" She feels so bad for Parker when he cries and tries to soothe him by telling him "it's okay" and "hello" (???). But her "it's okay" all starts with the "g" sound, and her hello is this bizarre little English-accented Eliza Doolittle thing, so see if you can picture this.... "Allo? Allo! Allo, Pa-Pa! Git go gay. Git go gay, Pa-Pa. Allo? Allo? Allo!" I'll try to get a video because I know it doesn't sound that funny. You'll just have to trust me. There are so many things she does that I just will have to video because I start to write them and they just don't sound as cute.

She is also starting to make jokes, putting things on her head (a tortilla chip for example) and saying, "Hat!" or "Bow!" and then looking at me like she is just the most hilarious person ever. She must get that from James. Those Hamptons always think they are so funny. ;)

She's started learning her colors, but everything is amazingly either yellow or pink. She can pick both colors out of a group, so I know she knows them, but I think yellow is the most fun to say. Sample conversation with James this morning: "What color is this Kenley? "Lello!" "No, it's blue." "Boo." "That's right, blue. What color is it?" "Lello!" "Okay, moving on. What color is this?" "LELLO!!!!!!!" (passes out with delight since given color actually is yellow.)

On the tails of a not-so-smart story, here's her smarty story of the week. I was laying on my back with her on my feet doing that old-as-time kid trick and telling her, "You're flying! You're flying!" After she got down she went over to a pile of Parker's onesies, picked out one with an airplane on it, and excitedly told me, "Fying! Fying!" Aw. I didn't even know she knew what an airplane was.

Kenley is such a sweet little girl. She's really good most of the time, so sometimes I find myself losing patience with her tantrums because I kind of forget she's not even two yet. But she is still absolutely enthralled with Parker, and has now graduated to trying to swaddle him (with more success than Grandma Kerry), and change his diaper. She is always so excited to see us, and I find myself missing her like crazy when I'm away from her for very long.

It's funny to me how she categorizes things. One day we were out for a walk and I taught her the word "sunshine" (one of her new faves). That night we were reading a book and she points out a cartoon sunshine and says, "shunshine!" That's really pretty amazing, if you think about it, to connect a blinding light in the sky with a small (LELLOW!) circle with triangle spikes protruding from it. On the other hand, she's way TOO gratuitous with the word "bow" and nothing I can do or say can convince her that the hood of a jacket is not a bow.

Which reminds me... I told James I'm sure this will be the only time we are lucky enough to have a child who LOVES both sunscreen and jackets. Kenley just about dies of happiness if I apply sunscreen to her or tell her she needs to put a jacket on (well, as long as I am quick enough putting on the "bow"). Weirdo.

Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings. I wanted to take a minute and write a little more than I usually do about both kids. But now Kenley is waking up from her nap so Parker might have to wait (story of his poor little life). I will add quickly that Kenley has developed a total phobia about cows and James and I find it pretty hilarious.

4th of July fun!

We had a great 4th of July this year. We went to Old Poway Park and walked around. They had a little train running, and since Kenley is currently obsessed with "choo choos" we thought she'd love it. She did not. She was actually quite terrified. The picture of her with Kirk is from the train. Again, what she did love was the ready access to food! Then that night she stayed up to watch fireworks. She didn't know quite what to think and watched them all peeking from behind her blankie.

Summer means trips to the beach!

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to house-sit for my dad and Joanie while they were in Alaska. While it was somewhat nervewracking to have my kids in their spotless, beautiful, not-really-childproofed house, it was fun to be so close to the beach and my family down in San Diego. Here are some shots from the few trips we took to the beach. MAN, it was a lot of work to get two babies to the beach! Parker didn't seem to care for it, but Kenley loved it! Well, I think she loved that she had constant access to food, although she had to learn a hard lesson that just because the lady on the towel next to us is eating watermelon didn't mean that she would get to. It was a little heartbreaking. But she loved playing with her sand toys and the water!

LONG overdue blessing pics!

Sorry for the delay in the blessing pictures. We took over 150 pictures that day (not kidding), so it was overwhelming to think of sifting through them all. But here are some good ones.

It was a really nice blessing day. All six of Parker and Kenley's grandparents were able to be there, as well as one set of great-grandparents who came down all the way from Alaska! It was so neat to have everyone there and I was just overwhelmed with love for my family, and feeling so blessed to have everyone close by. I was a little bit sad that day because I particularly missed Andrea. It's tough to have her gone and missing everything, both big and little. I know she's doing the right thing but it's still a little hard.

Not quite ready for the big time

Last night Kenley found these big-girl panties in a box. Upon studying them, she determined that surely they must be a hat. Sadly, despite her best efforts, they did not fit in the way that she thought a hat probably should, causing much devastation to our poor girl. I mean, I was laughing and taking pictures, but really... poor girl.









Here are some other random cute pictures from last night.

Portraits in the morning sun

I decided to try doing some portraits of Parker at home this morning, and I think they turned out really cute!

Mr. Monkey Man, Month 2

Parker is starting to grow! He has just been a tiny little thing, but he's been growing so much lately! He's also starting to smile, as you can see! We had his two-month appointment today, and since he was born he's gained five pounds and grown five inches!

Parker and his monkey twin. If only he had an X for a belly button...