Crate and Barrel

If you do not enjoy diaper stories, I recommend you stop reading here.

Don't say I did not warn you... eh, it's not that bad.

We are furniture shopping. Kendall is ALMOST sitting up, and enjoys standing, so Nate and I are pretty sure our days of having an inactive baby are numbered. Take into account my indecision and the turn around time on a new piece of fabulous furnishings, and we needed to start shopping back in last August.

So, we spent this past weekend doing some family furniture shopping. The main focus point of this shopping was for a cocktail ottoman that would not turn into the "table of death". Out we go hitting the furniture galleries, specialty shops, etc in the Schauburg area. Then, like a mecca to my kitchen obsession, the bright shiny new Crate and Barrel Schaumburg calls its siren song to us. I am a sucker for new fully stocked stores. Especially ones with the full line of furniture.

So, by this time, we had been out for a while. Kendall had napped, had a bottle, and was generally enjoying the car. Good stuff. Then I went to take her out of the car. OMG. Kendall has bombed out diapers before, but not generally while we are driving the new car with no room to change her. Let's just say it was lucky we decided to put pants on her this day, and that I had a change of clothes on hand. I was so shocked by the present she had created for me I could not even begin to concentrate on the Crate and Barrel (I know, the horror). I wandered aimlessly, not able to truly enjoy the splendor that is a fully stocked new store.

After this adventure in parenting, we headed back home. But the next day, we were out there, ready to take on the furniture stores again. This time we decided to start with the Crate and Barrel, to see if there is a fabulous entertainment center waiting for us to find it.

Then, I went to take Kendall out of the car. Rinse and repeat. She sullied that Crate and Barrel parking lot 2 days in a row. I had to have a talk with her about ruining mommy's favorite stores. Not cool. At least this time I made it through. By the way, there was no fabulous entertainment center, and that Schaumburg Crate and Barrel is not as nice as Old Orchard.

But we did order a new ottoman (NOT from Crate and Barrel). Should be here in 8 weeks.

Kendall and the Bear

Similar to a hunter checking out their prey, Kendall eyes Daddy's giant hand.

Admit it - you thought this would be about a teddy bear.

Solid Food Attempt #2 - FAIL

Kendall's new thing is a keen interest in anything you are eating. She stares at you, she stares at the food, then she launches herself towards the food to grab it. The other day she picked up an empty Pepsi can and tried to drink it. Better not leave beer bottles lying around. This, along with the other cues, led us to believe she is ready to start those solid foods. We started with the rice cereal this past weekend (see attempt #2 below).

Because I feel I don't have quite enough going on, I've decided to make her baby food. Actually, I'm really excited about it. I love to cook and this is something new. Can't wait to introduce her to the wonderful world of food. Just got to get the hang of the cereal first.

4 Months - OH MY!

This post is a few days late. I have had it sitting in draft since last week, but only now am I getting around to getting pictures and video added to it. Kendall turned 4 months on 2/10/10 - and we can't believe all the new things she is up to!

Kendall at 3 months
Weight - 14lbs 15oz (99th percentile! Kendall likes her bottles)
Height - 23 3/4 inches (75th percentile)
Sounds like - A happy laughing baby. She sings along with the songs on her play gym, laughs, and "talks".
Likes - RAINFOREST PLAY GYM, her changing pad, her beautiful bedroom, the swing, the soothie pacifier (and only the soothie pacifier), the Winkle, her monkey blanket, bouncing on the exercise ball with daddy, eating, her crib, doing situps, sitting upright facing out to the world, and putting those darn minions in their place, sleeping in the car
Dislikes - dirty diapers, tummy time (ugh, it is not done sitting up!), mommy working (more on that later)
Things she can do - eat, poop, spit up, put herself to sleep (sometimes), follow you around the room with her watchful stare, stand (fully assisted), sit (assisted), smile spontaneously and in response to your smile, giggle/laugh, push up into a cobra position from her tummy, sleep through the night (but chooses not to sometimes)

Kendall at 4 months
Weight - 16lbs 9oz (95th percentile)
Height - 25 inches (75th percentile)
Sounds like -Depends upon her mood (just like mommy). Most of the time she is "singing" and "talking" to us. There is a lot of jabbering going on. Other times, like when she gets tired, she makes a throaty grumpy noise - similar to someone trying to burp the alphabet, or "Danny doesn't live here anymore Mrs Torrence" from the "Shinning" (it cracks us up every time). She also squeals with delight when we tickle her and kiss her (video later).
Likes - Standing, like it is her job. Chewing on ANYTHING she can get her little hands and mouth on. The jumperoo (and I can sing all the songs - not as well as the jumperoo lady as I do not sing well). Listening to Nate hum the theme to the "Odd Couple". Grabbing those feet - don't want them to get away! Bouncing on the exercise ball with daddy, rainforest play gym, the Winkle, eating, her crib, doing situps. Oh, and hanging out in the bjorn at the Jewel with mommy (not so good for mommy's back).
Dislikes - Tummytime - and she will roll right on over if your try to put her on her tummy. Being in the carseat without moving (in the house or in the car - have to bounce/swing her in the seat until we are ready to leave the house).
Things she can do - eat, poop, spit up, put herself to sleep (sometimes), follow you around the room with her watchful stare, stand (fully assisted - but bearing weight), sit (semi-assisted), smile spontaneously and in response to your smile, giggle/laugh, push ups, sleep through the night (but chooses not to sometimes), roll over tummy to back - in both directions

Kendall is also full of giggles. This video shows me making a fool out of myself, as both Nate and I do daily just to hear those giggles. We get this response anytime we kiss on the Kendall - she LOVES it.

We have a lot more to share of Kendall and our happenings. Hopefully I will get to posting some more later this week. Coming up, solid food attempts, my brilliant idea to buy a bar shirt for the baby, and lots and lots of pictures (I have a hard drive full of them, and we take more every day).

Teething BITES

Kendall is officially teething. Yes, this is early, but it is what it is. We had thought she was teething about a month ago, but thought "no way, it's way too early!". Turns out, it never too early.

Kendall has her two front teeth coming in on the bottom. Saw the nubs for the first time yesterday. It explains all that drool and chewing she has been doing for the last month. As a result of these new teeth, she chews on EVERYTHING. Her favorite is her stuffing her own hands into her mouth as far as they can go. Usually this works better when she shoves in just two fingers, which in turn end up practically down her throat. Choking baby noises are adorable. We have to keep stopping her and pulling those darn hands out of her mouth. Give her a toy, she will chew for a second, then puts a hand back in her mouth. Chomp, chomp, chomp.

Luckily, the teething does not seem to bother her too much, it just makes her slobbery, and in turn, Nate and I are slobbery. The fun part is what she now chooses to play with - anything that she can stuff into her mouth. The Winkle, toys on the jumperoo, the seat of the jumperoo, toys hanging on the play mat, Violet, Sophie, frozen washcloths, burp cloths, blankets, the edge of the computer desk, and my personal favorite, my hands.

These pictures were from Sunday, before we figured out there were actually teeth present. There I am, sitting there, minding my own business, and BAM I have a baby aggressively chewing on my hand. She was quite happy about it, I was frightened by the faces.

P.S. An update on Kendall's new features. She now rolls in both directions from her tummy. Nate and I were very impressed. It is actually hard to keep her on her tummy now, she will just roll herself back over. When on her tummy, she kind of "swims" with her arms and legs, then gets mad and starts screaming at us. Ah Kendall, if you only knew you could crawl, but then again, she prefers to stand. (I beter start baby proofing!!!)

The Kendall - Now With New Features!

Nate got me a cute little Flip Camcorder for my birthday way back in December. I've been taking video of Kendall to document her growth, pretty much obsessively. I have a ton of little videos that I have been playing around with, but until recently, they have been nothing to write home about.

As I shared in a previous post, Kendall learned to roll over last Friday. I have to say, it was the highlight of my day. She proceed to continue rolling over, a grand total of 4 times, and then stopped. I have not been able to coax her to do it again. I'm going with it was not a fluke since she did it 4 times, but that she has now tired of rolling over and wants to do something new. Like sit up, or walk around the block.

Luckily, I was able to snap this video of her stupendous rolling abilities prior to her quitting. This is actually her final roll. As you can see, she is relatively proud of her accomplishment, or confused as to how she ended up on her back. Either way, she can roll and we can check that one off the development list. Check! Pardon my crazy baby voice.

Kendall also started another new and exciting party trick this weekend. She talks. Well, more like makes noise, but it is like talking, in a guttural way. The video below shows off her "talking" skills along with her mad chew on Winkle skills. She really likes that Winkle. Anyway, she has found her voice, and I think we are in trouble. She is going to be a talker. She does this same thing while we hold her, and I assume is telling us about her day.

Anger Management

When I was pregnant, I got really mellow. I'm a worrier and a screamer, but while pregnant I was all mother earth and happy and content all the time. I used to joke that the baby was sucking up all my anger and I was in for it when she came. Kendall came along, and although she made her demands clear, she was fairly easily calmed down. Until this week.

I went back to work after the first of the year. The weeks leading up to that, I was really torn about it. I really wanted to go back to work and use my brain (all that drama on TNT was rotting it), but Kendall got to be so much fun and I wanted to be with her all the time. I finally convinced myself it was going to be harder on me than on her. I was wrong.

Kendall is not taking my working well. And as I had predicted, she has inherited my temper. Grandma Gorman watches Kendall while I work, sometimes at our house, sometimes at hers. This is great - Kendall knows Grandma and loves her. Problem is, mommy is still in the house, and Kendall knows it.

The first week went okay. She got a little upset, but would calm down and go about her routine. She would scream and look in the direction of my office, hoping I would come out. But come week 2, she got serious about her demands. She was cool for a while, and then started screaming and would not stop. She was screaming so hard she was choking - throwing a full blown fit. If she was mobile, she would have been laying on the ground kicking and screaming. It got to the point that I had to go intervene, and as soon as I picked her up, she stopped. And smiled. All she wanted was mommy.

After work, I would hold her, and instead of wanting to play, she just wants to snuggle on my lap. She quietly sits there and smiles. It is like she thinks I will put her down and walk away if she is too loud - she can stay with me if she is good. It is heartbreaking.

During week 1, she spent 1 day at Grandma's all by herself, and she screamed a lot less. She knows when I am in the building, even if she hasn't seen or heard me all day. So next week, she is going to Grandma's by herself while I work. Hopefully this will help her transition to not having mommy all day.

On the otherhand, I found going back to work good. Makes me much more aware of the time that I have with Kendall and Nate. I love the cuddly baby after work. Makes my day's off so much sweeter.

Take today for example: Friday's are my day with Kendall. She spent the entire day with me, smiling, happy, talking, just completely content. We played, we cuddled, we talked. And when we did tummy time, Kendall rolled over for the first time. I thought it was a fluke, but she did it again for daddy when he came home from work. I was so happy to be there to see it!