Monthly Email to Kenz

Every month Poppa, my step-dad Frank, writes Mackenzie an email for me to print out and keep for Kenz to read later in life. Although they usually make me laugh...many times they bring me to tears. I'm so glad she will have these special things to help reminder her of people that love her.

August 31 2010:

So...Kenzie, my dear, what's this I hear... about you and a shoe, how big you are and... you're driving a car...oops, that's wrong, you can't drive, except maybe your mom and dad crazy and that makes me and Ceecee glad, 'cause what goes 'round, comes 'round.

But now... back to you! Twenty-four pounds... not all that big but certainly no twig. And almost three feet tall, wow, that a long way to fall... so you be careful, okay?

You use a binky, you know your feet are stinky, you make a face like a fish, you play in your dish and top it off by throwing a kiss! You bring Ceecee so much joy, you are like her favorite toy, and me... well you make me happy and kind of sappy... especially when you put your hands together and clappy!

Your loving Poppa

One Word... Happy!

Well, it's been 3 consecutive weekends at home and it has been WONDERFUL!! We do love our summers and love that we get out and enjoy the sunshine but it has been really nice staying home and just hanging out! Saturday we woke up and had a delicious family breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants and later in the day Kenz enjoyed her first Happy Hour sushi with Amy and Coulter... no sushi or alcohol was consumed by Kenz. We finished off our weekend with a fun BBQ rib dinner with Sonja and Mark! Amongst all the eating over the weekend we prepped for our big Labor Day weekend in Crescent Bar! We can't wait for our last fill of sunshine and good times with friends.

Funny Kenz story for the week: When it's poop time for Kenz, all is quiet and her playing stops. Seconds later, all playing and talking resumes. In preparation of potty training (many many months, if not years, ahead of us) we talk about the potty and what poop and peepee are. The other day our sweet angel looks at me with her red face, a stern look and grunts. Trying to hide my laughter, I say to her, "did you make poo poo?". She nods her head yes but says "no". So I ask her again and she walks over to me, turns around and sticks her tush out as if to have me smell it for poop. So I do and she turns to look at me and says "ewww, stinky!" And off we go to change her diaper.

One Sleepy To Go!!

Today is day 4 of Blake being gone and we have one sleepy to go before he comes home!! We can't wait to see him! Thankfully Kenz has been a good girl for me and we have had a ton of fun, especially during bath time!! Every morning and night we send Daddy a picture and leave him a voice message so he can hear her voice. Last night however, we called him and Kenz took the phone from me, which was on speaker, ran out of the room and kept saying, "Hi Daddy!" over and over again. It was quite entertaining and she definitely melted Daddy's heart!

First Excursion!

On Friday Mackenzie's class went on their first excursion of the summer. The brave daycare providers, all 2 of them, took all the little ones to a special park where they played in the sand, on the slide, in swings and all over the playground for several hours of fun! Much to my amazement the kids were all good and great little troopers. Since the outing took much of their day, the parents needed to provide lunches for their little ones. So there I stood in the kitchen the night before the BIG day and made my little girl her first sack lunch!! I took everything in me to not buy a lunch box knowing that it would not be used for many more years. My masterpiece consisted of a box of apple juice, jelly sandwich (it's okay grandma's, it was sugar free jelly), peeled apples and goldfish, or as Kenz says "ffffssssshhhhhhh".

A Proud Mommy!

Today I took both the kids for checkups, first up, Mackenzie for her 15 month appointment. Although the doctor always gives her a five star check up, I was especially proud today. When asked how her vocabulary was and how many words she knew, I said, "Geez, too many to count!" Doc says, well, 10? ... um YES! 20? Definitely 20! 30? Yes! 50? I'd say 50 is a good number. "WOW!! I was looking for 3 or so, but 50! Great job Mackenzie!" Beaming with pride the doctor then asked Mackenzie to show her the book, Kenz did. Then asked her where her nose was, Kenz showed her. How about your shoes, Kenz did, and proceeded to say, "Tinky!" Which is how she says 'stinky'... because our girl, thank you Daddy, thinks she has stinky feet! Again she got high scores on her comprehension level! The stats: 24.8 lbs and 32 in long! I wonder if she knew she was about to get 3 shots in this picture! Next up, Hudson. Our fur child Hud recently came down with epilepsy. It has been very trying time for both Blake and I. He was initially put on medication and after having his seizures increased after a few weeks, our vet, who we LOVE, has upped the dose, again. So now we are in week 2 of the higher dose and so far, no seizures. Thank goodness! Our hearts hurt seeing our little boy anxious and we hope that he soon will get back to normal. Cross your fingers!

On a happy note, we are doing pizza outing number 9 this weekend to celebrate my birthday!! YUMM-O!

H.O.T!!!

Holy moly it was warm out this weekend!! We decided to delay our camping trip with the Portland Laidlaws due to the "heat wave" that came through the Pacific Northwest. We did everything we could to keep cool and thankfully we were successful! Sunday was our best day as we had an doggie date with the Fuller's at the water dog park and followed up with an impromptu bbq in their back yard. There was a hose and a naked Kenz... all was right in the world!

Cool Diapers

Complements of Auntie Rachael's new job with Kimberly Clark, Kenz got some cool new diapers! They look like denim jeans and Kenz LOVED them! What a cute tushie!!