Grammy and Auntie's Visit

Deric's Mom and sister, Kamiren, were amazing and came out the week that we moved into our new house!  They helped us unpack boxes, set up the kitchen, clean, unpack more, etc.  We would still be unpacking boxes if it weren't for them.  Here are a few pics that we took when they came! 

 

McKenna's 16 Month Update

16 months old!

 

Our sweet McKenna turned 16 months a week ago!  It's amazing how she seems to learn something new every day.  Her language skills are flourishing and I can hardly keep up with all of her new words.  She's learned some new signs as well and is constantly signing "help" around the house when she can't lift something or get what she wants.  She's also signing "eat" and saying the word when she wants a snack or when we tell her it's time to eat.  She's learned new animal sounds and she amazes me when we're reading a book and she just says an animal sound that I didn't even know that she knew.  She continues to love to read and will say "please" or "book" or even sign "help" to read a book when she's in the mood, which is quite often. 

McKenna has always loved being outside but lately she's learned to say "outside" and is always telling me that she wants to go out and play and throws tantrums if we don't go out and play.  We've gotten into a good routine of walking to the park, just up the street from our house, after dinner each night so I think that's helping her love of the outdoors.  There's a sweet family that has a daughter that was born two days after McKenna that comes to the park almost every night as well so it's been a mini play date in the evenings which McKenna just loves.  She's also gotten better at riding on a little tykes ride on toy.  She just loves it but sometimes prefers to push it to the park.  She's getting better at actually moving it with her legs though. 

McKenna newest physical skill is to climb into and out of chairs.  We have a set of four chairs and a table in the playroom and she has to climb in and out of all four chairs multiple times.  The chairs are still pretty tall for her but that doesn't stop her.  She is becoming quite the adventurous toddler.  She also loves climbing up the slide at the park and can do it all by herself now if we let her.  It's so frustrating when bigger kids are playing though because McKenna doesn't understand how to get out of the way and she's constantly trying to climb up the slide when bigger kids are sliding down.  Can't wait to see what next month has in store for us!

McKenna's 14 and 15 month update

 

 

14 Months Old

 

 

 

15 months and 1 day!

 

 

Well I'm a little behind posting McKenna's monthly updates.  Her 14th month birthday came in the midst of getting ready to move into our new house and now she's turning 15 months so it's a combined update this time.

McKenna is continuing to grow and amaze us with what and how quickly she's learning new things.  She now attempts to say her ABC's when she sees letters on things such as a t shirt, sign, etc.  She will even attempt to sing them with me at times.  She is continuing to learn and understand new words.  Added to her list of words is up and down, yay, making grunting sounds when she sees a picture of a pig, a bow wow sounds for dogs, she's said read a few times, and a ta sound for touch.  She's starting to blow kisses and even sign thank you which look very similar to each other although she seems to understand the difference. 

McKenna has really taken to feeling the beat of music and will start dancing when she hears a song that she likes.  She has quite a few funny dance moves and her favorite is stomping her foot, while moving in a circle! 

She now has eight teeth total although they all aren't 100% in yet but moving up.  We think there must be another tooth coming in that we just can't see yet because McKenna has woken up the last few nights when she's normally a great sleeper. 

McKenna seemed like she was down to one nap a day but is back to a quick morning nap on days we are home and will fall asleep in the car if she hasn't gotten a morning nap in.  I'm hoping we are officially moving to one nap a day soon because she likes to nap right in the middle of many toddler morning activities.

McKenna seems to really enjoy the new house.  She has lots of space to run and play and loves her big play room.  It's full of all my kindermusik/music therapy instruments which she loves.  Her favorite seems to be a big gathering drum.  She loves her new bedroom and loves having all of her books back and out of storage.  McKenna just loves reading and now hands us books when she wants to hear a story (which happens all day long).  We got a library card last week and McKenna has already listened to her new library books multiple times.  She especially loves the "Hello Texas" book we found.

McKenna is starting to understand the concept of cleaning up and will help put things back into a box/container if I ask her or even when I sing the clean up song.  Sometimes she gets distracted though and takes things out again!  We're still working on this skill!

McKenna's 13 Month Update

Time just keeps going by too quickly!  I can't believe that yet again our little girl is a month older.  I guess McKenna is officially a toddler now since she's walking all over the place, again hard to believe!  McKenna is soo cute walking around the apartment just talking to herself, her toys, and her kitties!  McKenna still has falls and her walk can look like a waddle but she gets around pretty well.  She still likes to be held at times but she wants to get down not too long after being held unless she's tired or needs comforting from taking a tumble.

McKenna continues to add more words to her vocabulary.  She's added the words, "kitty", "ok", "yeah", and "please".  She continues to love to read and has favorite books now.  She really loves Dr. Seuss' "The Foot Book", "Pat the Bunny", and "Brown Bear".  I take her to two story times a week at local libraries which she just loves.  Some of the books are a little advanced for her but she listens as long as she can and enjoys watching the other kids. 

She continues to love her weekly music class, unfortunately not Kindermusik because the closest class is too far, but it's still lots of fun!  She really watches the teacher and the kids in the class.  She's constantly bouncing on my lap to the beat, thanks to her early Kindermusik classes, and her Mommy is constantly singing and bouncing her!  I'm sure hearing all the songs I sang in utero and playing my guitar helped too!

We've joined a Mommy and kids playgroup and McKenna has loved meeting new friends every week and going on play dates!  We never really had a chance to join a playgroup in GA so it's been fun to be able to go on play dates and make new friends.  McKenna got to eat frozen custard for the first time on a play date last week!  She loved it and ate the entire cup all by herself!  Maybe if we feed this to her regularly, she'll put on some pounds!(jk)

McKenna has already been to the pool at our apartment quite a bit and loves it!  There are these awesome fountains in a wading section that is perfect for McKenna to walk around and splash in.  We are sure going to miss the pools at our complex once we move!  Next week we will begin Mommy and Me swim lessons at the YMCA so I'm sure McKenna will love those!  Maybe she'll even learn to swim?

Separation anxiety has really hit this month.  McKenna has been fine as we've visited a number of churches this last month but dropping her off at the YMCA has been a different story.  She screams every time I put her in the childcare area and they've had me come get her three or four times.  This last time, I gave in and brought her paci in which helped me get through my workout without getting paged to pick her up.   I'm sure hoping that this goes away quickly.  The move across country probably hasn't helped and she's no longer going to a MMO once a week which I think was helping. 

Aside from the new separation anxiety, this month has been a great one so far!  McKenna is really becoming such a little person and it's so fun to watch her grow.  I find myself feeling so proud of her as she learns a new word or figures out a task or just plays by herself!  We are so blessed to have our McKenna Grace!

Here are pictures of McKenna getting her first real shoes from Stride Rite!  She actually loved the store and couldn't stop walking all over the place taking shoes off the shelves.  She loves her new kicks!

Getting her feet measured! 

Taking a break to read books!

Trying on the first pair of shoes

Testing out the winners!

Showing off the new shoes!

McKenna loves her new shoes!

McKenna's One Year Update!

McKenna turned one year old on May 14th!  We just can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  It seems like yesterday we were quickly trying to finish the nursery and prepare for her arrival.  McKenna arrived the day after Mother's Day one year ago! McKenna has changed our lives forever in the best way and what a year it's been!

At McKenna's 12 month appointment, she measured in the 3rd percentile for height and weight at 27 inches and 17 lbs and 2 oz.  She still continues to follow her curve that she's had all along and is just going to be a petite child.  It makes sense though because she has grandmothers that are petite and parents that aren't giants:).  Our new Pediatrician, Dr. Gomez, is fantastic!  He seemed pleased with McKenna's achievements and said right away that she's smart and very active!  He did suggest that I continue her three solid meals a day with nursing sessions but to make sure that she gets the solids first to allow the higher calorie foods to fill her up.  Hopefully that will help these next few months as she becomes even more active!

McKenna really started to try to walk 6 days after her one year birthday.  I took her to a morning story-time at a library nearby and she just let go of my hands and took a few steps.  She continued just letting go of things throughout the day and even just standing up without holding onto anything and walking.  She's still refining her walking skills but is continuing to walk even further before falling and will push our hands away frequently so she can do it by herself!  She's started to want to get down more often instead of being held and has learned to stiffen her body and head butt Mommy to get down.  She's also started to climb on things and is continuing to make her Momma nervous!

McKenna continues to be a very social child and gets people's attention everywhere we go!  She's constantly waving to strangers and flashing her contagious smile.  She especially loves seeing other kids when we're out and about and gets soo excited.  McKenna continues to love to play peek-a-boo.  She loves games where she chases us around the house.

McKenna has really started to comprehend more and already has some words and approximations. She says uh-oh, Mamma, Dadda, Go-ria (for our cat Gloria), meow, quack, bow wow, and round round (while we sing Wheels on the Bus).  Her favorite sound is a lion growl which she sometimes makes for other animals too but she knows to growl when you ask her what a Lion says!  She continues to love reading her books and will listen to three or four at a time.  I'm amazed at her attention span and how she really listens.  She knows to turn pages well and knows when to turn pages in books that we've read a lot.

For McKenna's actual birthday, we took her to the Fort Worth Zoo.  She loved it!  She was fascinated with all the animals.  One highlight was the parakeet and cockatiel area.  She got to feed the birds sesame seeds on a stick.  She was also brave and petted a chicken which she loved!  She also enjoyed getting to see the gorillas up close at feeding time.  We also got to see McKenna's favorite, the Lions and we even heard a real Lion roar! Grammy (Deric's Mom) came to visit for the week so McKenna's birthday was even more special!  I've posted pics from the zoo below!


McKenna was amazed as soon as the entered the zoo!

Our first stop, the Flamingos!

McKenna loved seeing the elephants!

Petting a chicken!

We posed for a quick family pic on our way out.  We had such a great time!

Watching the gorillas eat dinner!

 

 

McKenna's First Birthday Party!

McKenna got to celebrate her first birthday, almost a month before her real birthday!  What a lucky girl!  We decided to have party, a month early, with our friends and family Georgia before making the move to TX.

McKenna's party was held at East Cobb Park and of course we went with an owl theme!  We found the owl themed tablecloths, cups, plates, etc. all at Wal-Mart!  I couldn't resist such a cute and savvy find!  I made the table decorations myself using the invitations that went with the table wear and tissue paper flowers.  I made a custom invitation for the party on Shutterfly so I didn't need the paper invitations that matched the owl napkins, plates, etc. but I knew I could do something with them!  I ended up hot gluing a pipe cleaner inside the invitation and glued it shut.  I then made a double sided tissue paper flower and stuck the glued invitation in the flower like a place card holder!  I also made huge tissue paper flowers that Deric hung with monofilament on both side of the pavilion.  Deric made the banner that we hung on McKenna's high chair and it turned out soo cute!  I made the owl cupcakes with a basic cake mix, betty crocker icing, oreos, and m&m's.  They were pretty simple but time consuming!  I decided to tackle the smash cake and I'm so glad that I did.  It wasn't perfect looking and clearly made by an amateur but I'm proud to say that I made McKenna's cake!  I even added her favorite, banana puffs, to make owl feathers which I doubt a professional baker would have used!  Once of my favorite decorations unfortunately had to come down because of the spring winds.  I had pictures of McKenna from the last 11 months and had them hung with cute owl and flower clothespins (Michael's dollar spot find) to monofilament from one side of the pavilion to the other.  It was so much fun looking back at pictures of  McKenna and seeing how much that she's grown! 

Although it was a cold morning, McKenna had a great birthday party!  We were so thankful to have had my family there and some of our dearest friends from church and even some of my middle/high school friends!  Unfortunately we did not get as many pictures of everybody that attended as I had hoped.  Deric and I were so busy talking with everyone that we didn't get as many pics like we had planned.  We so appreciate each of you that came and celebrated our amazing gift from God! 

We did get some great pics of McKenna eating her smash cake.  After a few bites, she realized that the icing was delicious and wasn't shy digging in!   I think she recognized the puffs that I put on as the tummy feathers so that helped out.  We haven't given her cake since, but I imagine she's going to love it when she gets it again on her real birthday. 

As I close, I can't forget where we came from and where God is taking us.  So many of you that are reading this or who came to McKenna's party prayed for us to have this sweet little angel.  After going through a miscarriage almost 3 years ago, followed by constant bladder pain (Interstitial Cystitis) all from the miscarriage, I wondered if we would ever be able to try to have a baby again and if would we miscarry again.  I'm so thankful for each of you in our lives that prayed for us, over us, let me cry on your shoulder, and were just there for us.  It is by His grace that we have our McKenna Grace.  Happy birthday to our sweet blessing from above!