Updates

1st Meal! We decided to start giving Kennadi a few bites of whole wheat cereal during the evening so she can get used to eating before we start on real foods. Everything I read was saying that once they can sit up with assistance and once they start watching you eat and showing interest while you eat, they are ready for solid foods. We are starting slow but she loves it. She didn't spit it out or make a weird face or anything, she just swallowed and opened her mouth for more. She is a good little eater!

Trying to eat the sun, she is very persistant but then gets mad at it and yells and when I pick her up after a while she gets even more mad because she wants to play but she wants the toy to cooperate. She is a feisty little one.

On Monday I took Kennadi to her first concert. Mercy Me, which is a well known Christian band, was playing on base at the beach for free. Chris had to work but I still really wanted to go so I strapped her to my front and put a backpack on my back and we went. It was awesome! Kennadi did great, she loved the music and loved watching all the people, she was so tired by the end of it but she was fighting sleep so hard so she could watch everything. There were a ton of people there, lots of Marines and their families and it was so nice to see. Before the concert Kennadi and I were watching the kids play in the water and a lady came up and said she wanted to take a picture of us because it was the cutest thing she had seen in a long time.

Trip to Barstow:

It was Chris's grandma's birthday so we drove up to Barstow for the day and had an early dinner. It was good to see family and of course they were excited to see Kennadi.


Kennadi and Grandma

Great-Grandpa playing

Kathy and Virginia


Great Aunt Kathy with Kennadi

On the trip there she was trying very hard to get this ball in her mouth

Pool Party:

We were at a friends house for a pre-deployment pool party all day. The girls did awesome, they swam and played and we didn't have any melt downs till the end of the day when they were both just done and ready to go home, Heather and I all but had to drag our husbands out of the pool, the whole day was a lot of fun!Kennadi loves her new toy, we found it at a used kids store. It folds up and you can carry it very easily and then she can play and sleep in it and it bounces as well; it also keeps her out of the sun. We brought it to the beach and the pool and it makes life so much easier!

Our friend Nick feeding Kennadi. At first he was holding her and she got really upset so to redeem himself he gave her a bottle, she liked him after that.


The guys playing some game with a ball, they had a ton of fun.

All tuckered out and napping

Playing in the crib. I checked on her in the morning and heard her sucking so I looked into her crib and she was trying to shove all of her fingers into her mouth. It was so cute, once she saw me she got the biggest grin on her face.

I asked Chris to watch Kennadi while I showered, I came out and found this. Not sure what I think of my 4 month old playing video games, she seemed to just like to play with the controller.

This is at Heather and Seth's house. Payton and Kennadi love to play together, Payton laughs at Kennadi and grabs her, Kennadi just stares at Payton. It is so funny to watch.

A New Week

Due to request I am putting up a few more pictures from Mammoth and the Jazz Jubilee. I am still waiting on my dad to email me the rest of the pictures so I will be putting those up as well. These are some from Keeli's camera.

Finally stable enough to use her new toy without falling forward and hitting her face in the toys (I learned that lesson the hard way a few weeks ago). She gets frustrated because the sun wont go into her mouth so she plays for a minute and then gets mad.

We are thinking up inventive ways to keep her cool, she is like me, she gets cranky when she is hot. Once I put the fan on her she was happy for a long time.

We went to the Birch Aquarium at UCSD. We were going to go to the zoo but due to a parade and lack of parking we decided it would be better to go to the aquarium instead. A few days ago Chris took Kennadi into Petsmart to pick up some stain remover (the only stuff that works on baby stains). She was going crazy over the turtles that were swimming in the tank, she was laughing and smiling so we thought she might like the aquarium. She liked it but not as much, she looked at all the stuff but didn't get overly excited. She wasn't feeling well this day either so that may be why. She didn't fuss the whole time though, she just sat in the pack and watched. She found her bib halfway through and played with that the rest of the time though. Maybe we dont need to spend money to go do things, just give her bibs and water bottles and she is set!

Another way we keep her cool, we got this pool and were going to put it outside but we found a bunch of black widows so we put it in the kitchen. She loved it and splashed and played for an hour in the cool water. When the house is 95 degrees I guess this feels good. Maybe we should make our spare room into a big pool for all of us!

Tired baby

This is a constant stream or drool that never ends, we have started putting bibs on her so we don't have to change her clothes so much.
Kennadi loves sitting on the couch, she just sits and watches me clean or watches the fan and chews on her hands.

I was doing dishes and she was playing and then all the sudden it got really quiet so I checked on her and she was asleep on the floor. She slept for an hour like that, I think the npise of the fan and the cool air put her to sleep.

Fingers beware: If anything goes near Kennadi's hands or mouth she grabs it and starts chewing, she bites so hard it hurts, she is definitely teething, hopefully these teeth pop through soon and it isn't a long drawn out process.

She got her first cold this week and has been feeling under the weather. The heat doesn't help.

Mammoth Trip and Other Fun

Well we are officially done traveling for a while but it was all tons of fun. I think we have a good little traveler on our hands. Once we got to Mammoth (the getting there wasn't so fun as Kennadi screamed for much of the drive) Kennadi was awesome. She was a little thrown off for the first few hours but once she warmed up she was all smiles. I took her all around town and she was a trooper. We went to the Jazz Jubilee a lot and she seemed to really enjoy the music. She met a lot of people that I knew growing up including many families who have kids that I used to babysit for. The kids are all grown now and it makes me feel very old but it was nice to see them all! She also met many of the parents of kids I grew up with including the woman who was my daycare provider as a kid. Kennadi behaved very well other than a few frustrated whines when every person came up and grabbed her hands and got in her face. We have come to find out she likes her space and does not like her hands being held, so as long as people kept a little bit of distance she was very sociable. She and I stayed in Mammoth for 5 days and we could have stayed even longer! We needed to get back though as Chris missed his daughter and wife and it was our 3 year anniversary and we wanted to spend it together. This was the 1st anniversary that we have been able to spend together since we got married so it was nice:) In Mammoth Kennadi was sleeping 7-8 hour stretches which was awesome, but now that I have her home she is back down to only 5 or 6. That used to seem like a lot to me but then I got used to 7 hours and now I am tired during the day again. But hopefully she will build back up to 7 or 8 and we can all be happy and well rested again soon!

For our anniversary the Heather and Seth watched Kennadi and Chris and I went out for sushi and some much needed adult conversation. Of course I was worried that Kennadi wasn't behaving herself but I knew Seth and Heather would take great care of her and she would have fun playing with Payton. Turns out I didn't need to worry as Heather and Seth said she was a total angel for them, so unless they are lying, I am a proud mama;)

This week has been awesome because Chris has been out on the range and able to go into work at 7 and be done by noon, he is also doing this monday through friday and has the weekend off. This is very different than his usual 18-20 hour work days with only 3 weekends a month off. He does the same thing next week so I am really excited to see him more. We are able to do things as a family and plan for things which is amazing! Tomorrow we are going to the zoo so that should be a fun trip. We also want to make a beach trip sometime soon, so probably Sunday or next week sometime. Needless to say, I really hope that someday Chris can have a normal 9-5 job because I am really enjoying having him home and so is Kennadi. She doesn't know what to do with all this attention!

Mammoth:

I put her hair in pag tails and this is what it looks like when I took them outThis is how it looks after her nap

Trip to the park with Drake and Nana Kennadi and Cousin Dylan

Nana bought Kennadi a monkey at the toy store and she loves it
Great Grandma Newbry and Great Aunt Lyndi meeting Kennadi
Auntie Keeli bought Kennadi a Chico hat, she seems thrilled with it:)
My dad would run around the Jazz site giving orders to the volunteers while holding Kennadi, at any given time he was surrounded by ten women oggling Kennadi, he loved showing her off

Aunt Kama spent as much time holding her as she could



Proud Grandpa

Grandma Lynda and Auntie Lianne



Keeli couldn't get enough of Kennadi (until she cried)

Ready for the pool
Swimming with Shelby- the water was freezing but as long as she had her fingers Kennadi didn't mind

Sleepy head

Auntie Lissa reading a book

Saying goodbye

Back Home:

Ok, so this is the latest adventure with Chris as a dad: it has been very very hot here and even hotter in our house due to lack of air conditioning and constant sunlight. So last night we were talking about what you do when it's hot and Chris says this: "our yard is slanted enough, we should make a slip n slide, kids love that" So I am thinking he is talking like someday down the road, next thing I know he is talking about how he can do it and get Kennadi down it. I continued cooking dinner figuring he might give up on the idea when he realized it wouldn't work. That didn't happen. He came in and said "ok I'm ready I need your help" So I grabbed the camera and head outside and this is what I find:

Poor baby had no idea what her dad was going to do at this point

Still doesn't really know

Hmm she has a hose on her back and doesn't even flinch, she must be really hot plus the hose water is warm

This look says "mom what is he doing now?"

She surprised us both, she didn't freak out or cry, Chris slid her down and she startled a little but then just laid there till I picked her up. I think the water felt really good to her.

This, however, is how she looked after. A little shocked maybe?

Our little visitor: we went out to the garage to work out last night and I opened the door and saw movement, this is the little friend who popped out of the door crease as if I was disturbing his space. I freaked out and told Chris to take care of it and when I came back out to the garage what does he have? A spray bottle with water in it and a broom. I think the lizard liked the water (duh it was 100 degrees all day). So Chris used the broom to brush him off, then he ran away and 3 seconds later ran back in! I think he likes our garage. So out came the broom again and he swiftly swept the lizard into the driveway and under the car along with a plastic bag (the one used in the slip n slide). So I close the garage door and what does Chris say? "Open it I want my bag back" Are you kidding? At least wait for the lizard to run but nooo, I had to open it. So as I do this Chris asks the following: "Where is the dust pan?" As this point I just laughed and let him do whatever he had in mind. He disappeared and came back and said the lizard was gone but he made me do my work out facing the door to make sure he didn't come back. What a night.

Dad's water bottle makes a good toy

Yeah I think she knows how cute she is and works the camera what do you think?







Our laughing girl. The only thing that makes her laugh is this noise, hopefully that changes:) She was also doing that high pitched screech everytime she laughed, hopefully it is as hilarious to everyone else as it is to me.