The Menagerie in the Bed

As Kendra has (thank goodness) begun to develop verbal skills, she is able to make requests very clear.

Up until this point, the only things she's ever had in her crib were 2 blankets, her lambie and her seahorse.

One night as she was going down, she asked (in her own little way) for one of the toys in the bucket in her room.

Then another.

Then another.

The requests kept on coming...

There are even more friends in there with her now.

And she specifically asks for The Little Mermaid board book now.

Every.

Single.

Night.

Whatever works, kid.  Whatever works.

28 Weeks

And we enter the 3rd trimester...dundunduuuuuuun!!

It's getting pretty real--we're pretty excited to meet this baby boy!

Like father, like daughter

Kendra's developed a habit of pulling everything out of her big toy bucket to see what treasures she can find at the bottom.

When she found one of Daddy's old shirts, she insisted on wearing it.

All.

Day.

Long.

We had to roll up the sleeves a lot but we were able to make it work.

She might have learned from Mommy how comfy Daddy's old shirts are...

Artist in the making

Kendra got some Color Wonder for her birthday.

They've been a big hit with both of us.

Because it turns out, it's nice to be able to take my eyes off for 2 seconds and know I won't be cleaning her art off anything.

But there's a way you can tell how into something she is, can you see it?

Check that tongue.

That, my friends, is the face of concentration.

Buddies

On Valentine's Day Kendra's cousin came over so her parents could enjoy a little lunch out together.

She's the youngest in her family, so when she hangs out with Kendra, she's the "Big Sister", it's pretty cute.

They have some fun.

And while Stephie was here, she kept noticing how Kendra has a LOT of toys and clothes remarkably like ones she used to have...we do get great hand-me-downs.

FISH!

Grant and Kendra have a very special relationship.

They have little things just for them to do together.

Like feeding the "FISH!"

She's old enough now that Daddy just puts some food into her hand to sprinkle on the water.

And then they just sit back and watch the show...

Now that's quality time.

Birthday Fun

Someone very special had a birthday recently...

So she got a special treat.

She took...maybe two bites of the thing, though.

Eh.  The mix was only a buck.

But we have the mold now (thank you Valentine's Day clearance aisle) so we'll let her give it another whirl next year.  And the year after that.  It'll be a little tradition.  :)

We went to her cousins' house for dinner and festivities, it was all kinds of the Big Fun.

We got her this neat little toy.

You can program it so that it calls your child by name and pick what songs are on it.

We've been using it to work on letters and suddenly keyboards, magazines and anything with writing on it has become much more exciting for her as she points out H, F, B, S, O and a handful of others.

Yeah, it's random.  She's still not even super solid on any letter in her first name, and we've been working on them for months.

My Dad and our family there sent a very cool percussion set and other goodies:

We feel a lot better with this little nudge towards becoming a band geek. We would be extremely pleased to raise up a whole bunch of awesome band geeks.

And amazingly, she only hits the drum with the sticks!  Yeay!

But this, by far, takes the crowning moment of the party (opening her first present).

We're pretty sure that's the definition of "hilarious" in video form...

But seriously, we can't believe this happened two years ago...

Where does the time go?!

24 Weeks

Now that I'm actually 27 weeks (and apparently in the last trimester according to my newsletters) it's probably time to post the latest Bump picture.

Rolling right along...

Mmmmm, crackers!

Sometimes for dinner instead of fixing an actual meal, we totally just snack in our house.  One of our favorites for this substitution is saltines and cheese slices.  YUM.  One evening when we made this swap we realized a little later that the remainder of the package of saltines that was still open (yep, we'll own it, we totally polished one off and tore into a second) was MIA, we couldn't figure out where it was...we're still getting used to the fact that we're at that point in our lives where we aren't the only people in our home with the ability to move objects at will.

Kendra had absconded with the remaining saltines and proceeded to sit herself down on one pedal of the elliptical while setting out her treasure bit by bit on the other pedal.  She stationed herself there pretty comfortably for quite some time.  And she's done it with plenty of other snacks since.

I wish I were that cute when sneaking my snacks in...

Sunday Best

It's fun to dress kids up.

Especially little girls.

Even if they only have a navy cardigan to put with the black short sleeves.

Because their cuteness totally makes up for it.

We get the BEST hand-me-downs!

Accessorizing

When the cold weather settled in, it became obvious that Kendra needed a hat.

It quickly became her favorite item of clothing.

So much that she wears it inside as well as out.

And she looks pretty darn cute doin' it, too.

Even with that amazing ensemble that's completely mismatched up one way and down the other.

Daddy put her in that outfit.