The many faces of Kendra

Grant and I spent some time this evening watching our home videos from Kendra's birth and the first few weeks of her life and it's quite remarkable to us how much she has grown and developed in the months that have flown by since then.


So bright and aware! She's so curious about the world around her and is always looking out to see what's there. If you hand her something, she sees it, takes it and wants to explore it. Which she does...


...by putting it in her mouth.

And speaking of things going in her mouth--she's had her first taste of rice cereal (but we had it so watered down it was just rice milk, really--just practice with the spoon)!


Grant was confused that I insisted on stripping her down to her diaper before this activity began. Even in this picture you can see it running down her chest...only the precursor of many, many messy meals to come.

She's not sitting up on her own yet, but she's got sitting back down pat.


Looks pretty cozy, doesn't she? Just chillin' like a villian with the 'rents.

And as she grows she changes. There's already a difference in her fussiness.


Though we weren't able to capture it as well... Sometimes we feel like bad parents because we laugh at her for a moment before tending to her needs because it's just hilarious the way her little lip curls!

But of course, at the end of the day she's still our darling little girl.


Oh, we love her so.

Just a little case of history repeating...

Grant really loved doing this when he was a baby (it was something his grandfather started with all the grandchildren, apparently)...


Kendra's getting quite a knack for it too!



And lemme tell ya--that ain't as easy as it looks! I gained new respect for Jackie after trying this out a few times... You try balancing an over 15-pound dumbbell on the palm of your hand! We can only do this for a few tries at a time because it totally zaps me! I'm so out of shape...

Celebrity Lookalike

There have been several suggestions of Kendra looking like different personalities.

I was most surprised by the suggestion that she looked like Simon Pegg...but sure enough...

WEIRD!

Then, that very same someone mentioned she also rather resembled Gizmo. At first I was offended, because when he said, "Gizmo" I thought of Gonzo. Then I got things figured out. But I still think the resemblance is a stretch...



Then, there's the Gerber Baby. Perhaps she doesn't really resemble this adorable icon...but she's so darn cute people think she could replace her!




Of course there are other, less-celebrity folks she might resemble...

Like say, her mother.

Or, if you turn your head just right...maybe even her father!

Good parenting

Last night Kendra was getting unusually fussy for her happy self--so we gave her the last bottle of the day earlier than we normally would have. Turns out, she was also plenty tired. When it was time to burp, she was so stone-cold passed out that we had a hard time coaxing it out of her.

So, like any good parents would in our situation, instead of promptly putting her to bed, we pulled out the video camera!

Enjoy!

Kendra's First Toy

Well, we have crossed another threshold: Kendra now has a toy that she actually grabs and plays with of her own volition...and it actually keeps her entertained. It's amazing...happened all at once.

The toy is a little ducky on a surfboard. The board has something that crinckles when she squeezes it. She loves it (thanks Grandpa Pollock!).

Check it out...

These were taken on the first day she started playing with it, but now she totally reaches out and grabs it even if it's not convenient and brings it over to start munching on it. Oh yeah, she's almost ready to head off to college. It's all happening so fast!


She's even pretty possessive about it, I'd say.

That's our little girl!

Melt your heart

About a month ago, I was busying myself in the kitchen one Sunday evening. From my spot at the stove I witnessed a very tender scene unfolding in the living room. So I quite easily stopped and grabbed the video camera...



Sigh. So, so, so sweet. We're both so blessed to have him in our lives.

Getting so big!

These pictures just didn't make into the recent posts, but they're definitely worth sharing!

Enjoy!

Blue-eyed Girl

When Kendra was born, we could already see bits of me in her. She came with my baby-blond hair, my one dimple and my attached earlobes. I rather hoped that her eyes would be brown because honestly, so that there would be something we could point at and declare, "Aha! There's Daddy's [fill in the blank]."

She does have a few of Daddy's features, make no mistake.

She has a very large and round Farnsworth head.

She has extremely sweaty feet.

And she produces copious amounts of ear wax. Yup, ear wax. Huge globs of it fall out about once a week--it's so nasty. Maybe that's just a baby thing I've never heard about (kinda like cradle cap--that was certainly a surprise).

You can imagine, I was rather hoping for the brown eyes to mark her as her father's daughter. Though she was born with a fighting chance of getting those brown eyes to go with her blond hair...


They have only lightened up with time. She's definitely a blue-eyed girl.


I guess blue eyes ain't so bad though...

Personality Profile

Well, we have been wondering just what kind of a person our little baby was going to turn out to be ever since the moment we knew she was coming. We still wonder and know that her infant personality will be much more obvious when a sibling or two comes along and acts completely different, but we've picked up a few things.

1) Kendra is generally a very happy baby. Seriously. She smiles quite easily and is content to sit in her swing or lie down for long periods of time. Often during the day she wakes up from her nap and doesn't fuss for over an hour after she's woken up.


2) Kendra is an excellent sleeper. Holy moly, is she ever! She started sleeping for 7-8 hour stretches when she was 7 weeks old and by the time she was at 3 months, she was sleeping for 12 hours at night. There are some babies (one of them might have grown up to be her father) who get up at night to eat (I emphasize it because it takes a long time!) until they're 10 months old.

3) Kendra does not like strangers. This is one of the few exceptions to number 1--it doesn't matter if she can still see Mom and/or Dad. It doesn't matter if Mom or Dad is holding her. If she sees a strange face for more than about 15 seconds, she turns away screaming. This happened twice in a row within one minute of each other at church.



4) Kendra can belch like a beer-drinking, tail-gating, middle-aged baseball fan. I have a friend who is also known as "The Toe-Belcher" among our circle of friends, because when she lets one rip, it's like it's coming all the way from her toes. Kendra is the same way. At first, it took a looong time to get a burp out of her, and half the time she'd fall asleep before actually getting the job done. However, she's got it down. I set the bottle down and often before I can even sit her upright to pat her back and coax it out, she's already blown out my ears with a belch. It's particularly hilarious when she does it, say, in Sunday School when there are only 10 or so people around.


5) Kendra hates having her diaper changed anywhere but her changing table. At home, she's a delight and smiles and coos when we change her diaper. Even if she has a fierce diaper rash, she seems to have a pretty fun time on the table. However she screams like a banshee if she has to be put on one of those public restroom changing tables. And putting a blanket under her head doesn't help. I could clearly hear her screaming from the other side of the church building when Grant changed her diaper there a couple of weeks ago. And it's a pretty big building.

6) Kendra is a pretty easy-going little girl. Along the same lines as my first observation--with the exception of seeing strangers and having her diaper changed away from home, she really doesn't get worked up into a fuss very often. And she's pretty easy to calm down if she does get fussed. She doesn't mind how I slap a headband on her every time we go out (people will know she's a girl!), or having things "just so" or she can't eat, sleep, and she wasn't at all fussy for the 45 minutes I spent combing and treating her cradle cap earlier this week. She just goes with the punches, it's a sweet, sweet deal.


It'll be interesting to figure out other ways she's unique, but so far...we just couldn't have asked for a better baby than the one we got!

Kendra Learns to Fly

Kendra has been growing up so fast. She's so fun now that she's not as tiny and delicate as she was. She's been doing so well sitting up

And learning to stand...


And even FLY!

She shows so very much personality


Though it seems like sometimes her favorite expression is surprised. We get this look all the time


She still retains her favorite habit of sucking on her hands


She loves to sit back, though,


and at the end of the day, she's still our little girl.

While I was at work

Ashley sees some cool stuff while I'm at work




Yup, that's right. Besides just being generally adorable, she rolled over! Well, rolled/fell. This part of the bed is suspiciously close to where Ashley's patootie rests at night, and there might have been an indention there.

She told me to say that, by the way. I have nothing but respect for her patootie.