Time for a big girl bed!

Well, we cleaned out our garage yesterday and decided to bring down Kenley's toddler bed. Right now we're borrowing a friend's crib for Parker, so we'll just see how the transition goes, and then eventually Parker will get Kenley's crib. Anyway, Kenley was very excited about the bed, but she kept jumping on it and it was driving us crazy. She jumps in her crib a lot so that will be a hard habit to break, I think. So we put her to bed and she did great, just snuggled right in and fell asleep. But she woke up cring around midnight, so I went in and tucked her back in. Then at 12:30 she fell out of bed with a huge thump and lots of tears. Back to the crib it was - I was tired of getting up! We'll try again tonight... She is a very wiggly sleeper though, I am hoping she doesn't fall out of bed every night. And speaking of sleep, since I wrote about Parker, he's had several good nights of sleeping all through the night. Maybe he just didn't know I was so frustrated with him. :)

Kenley's newest phrase is "No please."

"Do you want some cereal, Kenley?" "No please."
"Come give Daddy a kiss good-bye." "No please."
"Let's put away your tea set." "No please."

It's so cute. Today we went out to lunch and I went to wipe some salad dressing off her pants and she's like, "Oh, SANK you Mommy." And then we got home and had to change her pants to put clean ones on: "My jeans! Okay! SANK you Mommy!" Funny girl. What else? She likes to sing her ABCs but she calls them her EBEs. Hey, she's not perfect... Today I had on a sweatshirt with some writing on it, and she points at it and says, "Some EBEs!" all proud of herself. My computer's being lame but I'll come back and post a little video I took of her singing the ABCs. Oh, and she's started the charming toddler habit of wanting to do everything "myself." "Tenley do it MYSELF!" Argh. Luckily she'll let me help her do it herself. I'm clinging to that until she realizes that if I'm helping, it's not actually doing it herself.

Parker is still his happy little self. Just sits there and smiles. He's still eating a ton and is inching up on that 20 pound mark. Yes, the same 20 pounds that Kenley weighs. I think he was in a growth spurt because he was taking TWO bottles at night again for the last little while. Now he's back down to one, which still doesn't make me happy. I keep reading (my curse) that very few babies have an actual need to eat during the night by this age (six months). But if I just go in and give him his paci, he'll go back to sleep but wake up every half hour or so until I feed him, and then he just CHUGS down a 6-oz. bottle and then rolls over, totally content, and sleeps until eight. I don't even have to pick him up, he just wants food. So I don't know. When Kenley was little, she'd eventually stop taking a whole bottle and just take an ounce or two, so then I would cut out the feeding. But to chug down a huge bottle without hardly even stopping to breathe? To me, he's hungry, and I think I'd rather give him a 4am bottle and have him sleep until 8 than have him be hungry and sleep fitfully from 4am on and then be up for the day at 6ish. I don't know. I'm trying to feed him more during the day, so maybe that's why he went from two bottles down to one, but I want him to sleep from 8pm to 8am. Is that so much to ask? I need an uninterrupted night's sleep. Let me note oh so lovingly that I'm not soliciting advice here, just venting. :) I know what my options are, I just need to decide what I can live with!

Ah, the life

Until you've spent your evening with a two-year-old wearing last year's duck costume with a pink feather boa and three bracelets, toting a cell phone and a Cinderella fishing rod... well, you just haven't lived.

And another hair chop!

I finally did it! I've been wanting to cut my hair off for a while and my mom told me I had to before my class reunion next weekend! Now Kenley and I are twins!

Parker's sitting up!

So I've been all stressed out because Parker can't sit up yet. I read that they make a ton of progress in this area between 5 and 6 months, so I was ready to see something! It wasn't so bad that he hadn't done it, but he wasn't even CLOSE! Like every time I would sit him up he would just fall right over on the floor, not even sitting for one second. Don't laugh, but as of Saturday I was seriously starting to wonder if there was something wrong with his spine. Then on Sunday, he could sit! We would sit him up, and he would stay sitting for over a minute at a time! It was so weird! One day he couldn't, the next day he could! Kids are so amazing. So YAY for Parker! Oh, except you can't smile at him while he's doing it or else he gets so excited he falls over.

First Haircut!

Well, we finally went and got Kenley's hair cut! It was getting so scraggly I had to put it up every single day. Anyway, we went really short and it is adorable.

BEFORE


DURING
Kenley didn't really know what to think about the whole thing. She just sat there with big old eyes and a nervous expression. She was very serious and I think a tiny bit scared.




AFTER
So cute!!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kenley!

Today is Kenley's birthday! I wanted to write a little bit about the things we love about her, and what she's like right now. Just skip right on if you don't want to read a bunch of bragging on Kenley, but I gave birth to her so I'm going to brag on her all I want today! Not that I hold back so much on any other day...

One of my top favorite things about Kenley is her good manners. My Grandpa Pierce was a fanatic about manners, and he passed away about two weeks before Kenley was born. I really truly believe he caught hold of her in heaven before she came down and gave her a good talking-to about having good manners, because hers are unbelieveable. She is always saying, "Yes pees," and "SANK you!" and "Cuse me" and it is just so dang cute. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I think I have a soft spot for manners because it was so drilled into me by my own parents and grandparents, so I just think it's so adorable.

She is funny. Every day she makes me laugh right out loud. Today she was playing with a dolly and took it into the car, and she was saying "Scawey! Scawey!" in a really high-pitched voice, and then in her own voice saying, "It's okay, baby!"

Kenley LOVES movies. She is a slave to commercialized characters. She loves Elmo, Disney Princesses (especially Cinderella), Thomas the Train, Nemo, Cars, Alice in Wonderland, Dora, Curious George, and the Berenstein Bears(?). She would watch movies all day long if I let her.

She is still so sweet to Parker. She runs to get him toys when he cries, and jabbers away to him. She can make him laugh harder than anyone else (by doing far LESS amusing things, actually).

She is totally potty trained, and did it pretty much all on her own! Thank you Kenley for that unexpected gift!

She has an incredible memory. Seriously. She can tell me where ANYTHING is ("Where are my shoes?" "In your room!" "Where is your Nemo book?" "In the car!"), and after she sees something once it is imprinted in her brain. Today she went and got a broom and tried to use the handle to sweep a toy out from under the couch. Okay, I know that doesn't SEEM brilliant, but to us it was. Maybe this is more impressive - when we came back to San Diego, we had just gotten into the San Diego airport and I told her we were going to get on the elevator, and she goes, "It's over HERE!" and points to this little tucked-away corner where the elevator really is, although you can't even see it from where we were standing. I just stared at her. Another time I was pulling out clothes for this winter, and she was absolutely insistent that her MeeMee (Joanie) got her a particular shirt. The scary part is that Joanie DID get that shirt for her, but it was a year ago and Kenley has NEVER worn it.

I love that Kenley is sweet and kind, yet strong and independent. I could never have imagined that I could love a child so much. People occasionally ask me if I wish I'd waited longer to have kids, and I always say no. I can't imagine what in this world would be better than this, more fulfulling than this, more beautiful than they are. We sneak in every night to watch these sweet babies with their little angel faces and every single night it almost makes me want to cry. Kenley has made me fall even more in love with James, to see how sweet of a daddy he is to her, how he does her hair and teaches her to love the Simpsons (grr).

I have a special bond with Kenley because she is my oldest, I had all the time in the world to just gaze at her perfect features and savor every single moment. I still try to savor the sticky kisses and snuggly lap-sitting, because I know it will be gone before I know it. But for now she is our little bug, the best thing I have ever done in this world. I love her sparkly smiling eyes, her blonde curls, her perfect rosebud lips, her very imperfect teeth, her cute little nose, her adorable toddler body, her mischievous expressions, and her sweet little voice. Happy Birthday Kenley! We love you!

Nauvoo!

We are back from Nauvoo! It was such an awesome experience. We got to spend so much time with Andrea, it just refreshed me. I miss my little sis so much. We took so many great pictures, so I'm just linking to the album so you can see however many you are interested in. Enjoy!

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=960121189660904306/l=306780568/g=7686048/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

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!