Easter and the visitors from Seattle

We were lucky enough to have our cousins from Seattle visit us over Easter. This was possibly the most exciting thing EVER for Kendall. With her cousins a bit older than her (Madeleine is 7, Margot is 5) Kendall was in heaven following the girls around.

We celebrated Easter here at our house with a fun dinner. The girls all got to run around outside since the weather was nice and we enjoyed a huge meal. The leftovers never did get eatten since we had all our visitors in town - and we were on the move.

Every morning of the week the Wallace family was in Kendall would wake me up and ask to go see her cousins. She was so excited, and would run to get dressed and get ready, even if momma wanted to sleep for a few hours more. It was like Christmas, but there were 2 living, breathing cousins to play with all day.

We hit up the American Girl store (which is possibly the most frightening place I have ever been), as well as saw Sue at the Field museum.

I had never taken Kendall to the museums before since I thought she was too young to enjoy them, but she really got into things at the Field. Especially the underground exibit. The kid loves dirt.

Kendall had such a blast with everyone in town, she was hartbroken when they left. She continually got up in the morning and asked to see her cousins. Nate and I had to explain they went home, and when that didn't work, we bought a puzzle map of the US and let geography help us. Oddly, she picked it up pretty quickly and if you ask Kendall where her cousins live she will point out Washington State as well as where she lives in Illinois. Good memory that one.

Either way, that US states puzzle eats a lot of time - that's a lot of states for a 2 and 1/2 year old to put back into a puzzle!

January/February/March 2012

Although my New Years resolution was to catch up on the blog and keep it updated, I failed miserably. You would think that I would have a lot to show for January, February, & March, lots of things that were keeping me from blogging, but you would be wrong! I think we hibernated most of the winter.

Nate built his latest and greatest Lego model of Robbie House.

Kendall continued to play "Where's Kendall?" in her bed nightly.

And then it got really warm in March. Unseasonably warm in the high 80s. Which was fun for about a minute. But it was really interesting to see our world in bloom so early - heck, it was still winter and the grass was turning green.

Kendall started to picked out her own clothes as well, leading to some outfits rather reminiscent of Punky Brewster.

And through it all, Kendall kept up with her swimming. Somewhere in this time frame Kendall took a good turn at swimming and actually started to enjoy herself again. She likes to participate with the class, to a point, and swims on her own the whole class (with the help of her trusty backpack). We are working on moving her into the big kid class without momma over the summer. Momma is looking forward to not having to jump into the pool ever Saturday morning as she has for the past 2 years.

Here is some video of our spinning swimmer (sorry for the lens cleaning partway through). A few weeks ago the swim teacher asked one of the older girls from synchronized swimming to come over and show Kendall a few moves, now that is all she does in the pool.

The last bit of news for this time frame was that we had a big family announcement. We found out back in November, and told the immediate family over Christmas, but in January it was time to announce that we were expecting another Greaney in August. In March, we were lucky enough to find out that the new baby will be another girl. Kendall will be a big sister to a little sister sometime around August 1st! We are all super excited to expand our family.

I'm using this as an excuse to my lack of blogging - I'm a tired momma these days gestating and running after this crazy Kendall!

Christmas 2011

Christmas may actually still be more exciting for Nate and I than for Kendall. Thing is, we get to spoil our little girl rotten and buy all those cool toys that we've been seeing. That and spending Christmas Eve having a few drinks and putting the toys together is just a good time.

Christmas Eve always starts out with Grandma & Grandpa Gorman joining us for dinner. This has been our tradition since before Kendall was born, and now instead of going out we have dinner here at our place.

Those aprons were a birthday gift from Nate to me. Aren't they cute?

After helping me make dinner, we all settle down to do presents.

After we say our good nights, Nate and I get down to business getting the tree ready for Christmas morning. This year there was not much Christmas Eve assembly required. Nate took care of that as he built Kendall a fabulous kitchen set - a replica of our kitchen. It is huge and awesome - and definitely a very cool Christmas present all stocked full of cooking utensils and food.

Isn't Nate crafty?

The brand logos on the appliances say "Kendall"

Once we got this all setup in front of the tree we could sit back, relax, and wait for Kendall to get up and check it all out on Christmas morning. Lucky for us, Kendall still doesn't really understand Christmas presents and doesn't wake up super early. So, on Christmas morning we all ambled into the living room to check out the loot - and got this video of her reaction. This is a long one.

This was not only the Christmas of the kitchen, but also of Rapunzel. Tangled is Kendall's favorite movie and she was thrilled to have her very own Rapunzel. She went everywhere with us for a while - and as a result, these pictures of Rapunzel are the best that will ever be taken. She is a bit worse for the wear now.

Overall, a successful Christmas morning.

We spent Christmas Day with the Greaney family enjoying a relaxing time at Grandma & Grandpa Greaney's. Kendall loved playing with Grandma & Grandpa and her Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. Nothing like some quality family time to round out a holiday, and tire out a very active 2 year-old.

December 2011

Remember how I mentioned Kendall was in a toddler bed? This came with a few unexpected pitfalls. Most notable was the fact that she is now free range. This is great in the mornings when I don't want to get out of bed and she just walks in and climbs into bed with me. Free range is not so good when she has a lot of toys and clothes in her room that she can entertain herself with until she falls asleep.

Let me walk you through a typical evening after Kendall has finally settled down and fallen asleep. First, this all starts off around 8 when we get her into her PJs and tucked into bed. Then, depending on how tired she is, you will hear banging coming for her room for up to an hour. Once it gets nice and quiet for an extended period of time, you know, after you finish watching that show you DVRd, you open the door and find the following.

All the dresser drawers are open, I could have sworn I closed these before putting Kendall down...

Where is Kendall?

All the stuffed animals and books are removed from the bookshelves...

Oh, there's Kendall, amid all her clothes, animals and books.

I think the funniest night that this happened we actually could not find Kendall. We could hear her snoring a little when we went into the room, but the blanket was pulled up over her head covering the pillow. Or so we thought. When we pulled back the blanket to get her some air we found that she had created a dummy Kendall out of stuffed animals and covered it with her blanket. Took us a good couple of minutes to find her asleep behind the chair. Can't say she isn't inventive.

Arlington Heights Christmas Tree Lighting - 2011

This was the 2nd year that we hit the Arlington Heights Christmas Tree lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving. It is a really nice little program with some singing and speeches, followed by lighting of the big Christmas tree and a large light display in the park right downtown in Arlington Heights. Not only is it really pretty, it is a nice excuse to get out of the house and walk around the day after Thanksgiving.

Last year the lighting totally freaked Kendall out, but this year, she was in awe and wonder. The whole park lights up at once and so did her eyes.

After the initial lighting we walked around and checked it all out. I was hoping for some Christmas card photos, and although we got some great ones, I never got around to those Christmas cards. Kendall ran around and took it all in - dragging us along behind her.

Definitely fun for all of us, and definitely a new tradition for our family in the coming years.

November 2011

November was a quiet month for team Greaney. Momma was busy working, as was Daddy, and Kendall spend a lot of time "reading" to us and playing with her toys. She also continued with her swim lessons, and when she decided she wanted to participate, she showed us how she could really swim.

In Kendall's downtime, she also enjoyed relaxing Sunday mornings reading the paper. Mostly the comics, but she takes her reading very seriously. After breakfast, you will find her pursing the ads with momma and then moving on to the funny section.

Halloween 2011

This was Kendall's first year trick-or-treating. Although she was a little bit leery at first, once she realized the strangers were giving her candy we practically had to pull her off the street. We visited both Grandma Gorman and Grandma & Grandpa Greaney, as well as their neighborhoods, to do a little trick-or-treating.

 As you can see, Kendall was a beautiful butterfly. Her choice in costume entirely. I spent a solid day tracking down those butterfly wings and altering them to fit, but the result was definitely worth it - she made a super cute butterfly, and had so much fun!

Kendall's 2nd Birthday - Party, Party, Party!

On October 10, 2011, Kendall turned 2! What a wild ride the last couple of years have been, but to see how much our little girl has grown is an absolute joy. From a bouncing baby girl to a big girl who loves to run and climb and sing. She is full of energy.

To celebrate, we actually had 2 parties. Grandma and Grandpa Gorman were out of town for Kendall's  birthday party (and her birthday fell on a Monday), so we celebrated a little early with a dinner, cake, and of course, presents on Sunday.

Kendall's actual birthday fell on Columbus Day, so Nate and I took the day off work, and Kendall got her big present, a new bike! She was in love, but couldn't quite figure out how to peddle.

We even got a video of her first attempt riding that shiny new bike outside. A little long, but enjoy!

To really celebrate the big day, the 3 of us hit Lincoln Park Zoo. There is no better way to celebrate your 2nd birthday than to check out the Lions, Rrwarrr!

To round out the birthday celebration, we had a Very Greaney birthday party for Kendall the next weekend. Kendall's Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins were all in attendance to help us celebrate.

Overall it was a grand birthday! We'll have to see if we can keep up this party pace next year!