Little Swimmer

Kendall has been in swim lessons over a year now - we started her at 6 months. Looking back, it is crazy how much Kendall has changed in the last year, and how awesome it was to take her swimming for the first time. Since that first swim lesson, Kendall's love of the water has only grown. Now when we put her in the tub she floats on her back and sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to us, just like in swim class. And after we clean up all the bath toys, she lays on her belly kicking like she does in the pool and yells "SWIMMING!".

When we get up on Saturday morning, she asks "Swimming?" and on the way over to the YMCA she chants "Swimming, Swimming, Swimming". The kid loves to swim.

And now, she can do almost do it without mommy. (Videos below are on the long side)

Swim instructor told me last week that she will probably be ready for the next swim class in 6 - 8 months. What? I don't think I will be ready to give up my mommy and me swim lessons by then. How can she be getting so big already?

But then again, toddlerhood is fun. Just look at those hugs!

Draft

This is from back in April. Kendall has been missing football, and searches the house to find Daddy's football whenever she can. So when Daddy busted out his Bear's jersey again, Kendall got excited, and Mommy groaned because it meant Daddy would be sitting on the couch watching the football draft for 3 days.

Kendall used the time wisely and practiced her running and passing. With a bit more training over the summer she will be ready when the season starts in the fall.

Working on our letters

Lately Kendall has been very into her letters and numbers. Whenever we are out, she points out all the letters and numbers she sees on signs. In the grocery store, she points to the number above each aisle and announces it for us. Kendall can count to 20, sort of, but she can only identify the numbers up to 10, so when you get to aisle 12, it is 1 and 2!

She has her ABCs down pretty well, although sometimes she likes to free style the song a bit and sing them out of order. We have a set of blocks with letters on them, and inside the blocks are something to represent the letter - like in the in B there is a bunch of bananas, in N there is a nest. Her favorite is the M with a monkey in it. Why? Because of the Monkey? No, because when you turn an M upside down it is a W.

I was admittedly kind of shocked when I first saw her do this for the first time. She was sitting in the living room flipping the block right side up, then upside down, saying "M", "double" (aka "W"). Where did she learn that?

Cooking in the Kitchen with Momma

I'm on a video kick this evening. I'll set this one up for you.

Kendall has her own set of kitchen utensils. They were purchased to stop her from opening the kitchen drawers and pulling everything out. The utensils failed in their task, but they do prove to be quite entertaining while mommy makes dinner.



No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed!

And you thought this would actually be a video of Kendall jumping on the bed.

Lots of Blocks

Whenever Kendall comes home, she makes a beeline for her toys, and immediately pulls out her blocks. We have 2 big backs of blocks - locked up tight with zippered tops. She will pick up the bag of blocks and lug it over to us, grunting the whole way, and then asks us PLEASE (both signing and saying "please"). How can you resist that? We unzip the blocks and hand them back to her, then she promptly turns the bag over, dumping the blocks on the floor, then wades through them, kicking them all over. Repeat with second bag. 

After this ritual, Kendall gets down to business building her towers of blocks. For a kid who used to be dead set against block organization, she is sure focused on building these days.

Blocks seem to be an ever present part of our living room decor these days. Nate and I just walk around them, and occasionally on them. When Nate comes home from work, the blocks start a new. Daddy is Kendall's favorite construction partner (although Grandma has been seen getting in on construction during the day lately).

As soon as Daddy gets home, the ritual starts again. Or, if the blocks are already out, whatever toy Kendall was playing with is forgotten, and the blocks return to focus. She continues with the blocks until dinner, and then returns to them after until bedtime. When bedtime comes, Kendall reluctantly helps pick up her blocks, placing them back into the bags, waiting for them to be zipped back up, and then placing them back onto the bookshelf. Until tomorrow when we do it all over again.

Shoes!

Kendall loves shoes. Loves them to the point that we have to hide all the shoes in the house, both hers and ours. Kendall is a shoe girl, and nothing makes her happier than a new pair. She gets positively giddy when you take her shoe shopping. The favorites are a pair of pink Wellie boots and a pair of pink Crocs, both of which she has mastered the art of putting on herself. Even if they do end up on the wrong feet from time to time. (Mom's favorites are a pair of Converse All-Stars - pink, naturally.)

Kendall seeks out shoes throughout the house, and already having a pair of shoes on does not deter her from putting on another pair over them. Nate and my shoes are generally best for the double shoe look - they fit nicely over a pair of crocks.

More often than not, Nate and I leave our shoes out when we walk in the door - and they end up on Kendall's feet walking around the house. More recently, Kendall has started putting our shoes away for us in the closet. Very helpful.

The morning from the pictures above, and the video below, Nate, Kendall, and I were all making Sunday breakfast. Kendall snuck off and put on the shoes - and continued to entertain us, as always.

Cute - even if picking up shoes from all over the house is getting old.