No more zip-up jammies!

The title above is the mildest of what I wanted to entitle this post. And, although I DID take pictures of the incident, I do not feel that it is necessary or appropriate to make them public. Long story short, Kendall decided to "help" change her poopy diaper last night. Sometime in the night or early morning, she unzipped her jammies, removed one leg, and then her diaper. Then she removed ALL of the poop pellets from the diaper (that was then allowed to stay in the crib once it was emptied) and tossed the pellets out of her crib. The term "tossed" should be construed loosely because, judging by the placement of some of the pellets on the far side of her bedroom, she was practicing her pitching skills. This, of course, had to happen on a morning that I was working so when I went in to get her, I was showered, made up, and wearing a nice skirt suit. I suppose I should be thankful for several things.
(A) She was slightly constipated so the poop was in pellet form.
(B) She did not pee on herself (or the sheets, blankets and about 10 stuffed animals in her crib) following the removal of the diaper.
(C) Her father was not the one getting her up this morning. This would have done him in!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year at Grandmother and Pops' house! Kendall did very well ... although I'm sure it helped that no one complained that her diet that evening consisted of a couple bites of stuffing, bread, cranberry sauce, strawberry jello, grapes, and a cupcake. I made sure she'd had a decent lunch so she could enjoy her Thanksgiving feast without nagging parents pushing meat and veggies on her. She was quite excited about getting into her seat!

Then she patiently (and I use that term loosely) waited for her dinner to be served. Note the turkey day bib made by Nana.


After dinner it was time to play with Mommy's shoes. The child is a shoe-aholic already!

I was a tad stunned to see that she can actually walk in high heeled shoes that are 3 times the size of her foot!

As an added bonus, cousins Mason and Maya (Kendall collectively refers to them as "Mice") came by with Aunt Amy and Uncle Brian. Kendall had a blast playing with them! And, of course, eating dessert with them.

"Yummy cupcake!" Apparently all cupcakes are now called "Mick-cakes" regardless of whether or not they have a Mickey face or ears on them.

Although these pictures might give the impression that Kendall "wound down" at all at the end of the evening ...

She, in fact, did not. We left very close to 8:00 (her bedtime) and I really thought she'd sleep in the car. I even let her have a binkie, Bo Bear, and her Mick blankie! Not so much. She repeated "Home. Eat. More." the entire ride home. So when we got home, she had some dry cereal. How she possibly stuffed any more in that little body I do not know. She finally fell asleep right around 9:00.

It was a very nice evening! The food was fabulous and the company was wonderful. And the entertainment (Kendall) was, as always, worthy of an award!

Daddy is a good sport!

Can't wait 'til she wants to paint his nails! :)

"MICK" the Elf!

Kendall received a special delivery from the North Pole! Her "scout elf" came from Santa to make sure she's a good girl from now until Christmas. She paid very close attention to the story (at least the first 3/4 of it) and then was SO excited to open it up and meet her elf. She even gave him a couple of kisses ... through the case, of course, because children cannot touch Santa's scout elves or they lose their magic. He will be flying to the North Pole nightly to report on her behavior and give Santa suggestions for gifts. It will not surprise anyone to know that she has named her elf "Mick," and he has formally been registered as such in the North Pole Hall of Elves.

The decorating of Kendall's Christmas Tree ...

... and undecorating ... and redecorating ... and undecorating ... and redecorating ...

... all with Hi-hi's of course!

The most patient dogs EVER!

"Vafus" (Ralphie)

"Boo Boo" (Rehnquist)
"Gingis" (Ginger)

A new Holiday tradition

This past week, Kendall and I began what I hope will now be an annual tradition. We picked a child's name off of an angel tree and bought "Christmas" for a little girl living in a shelter for battered women. We picked a 2 year old little girl so Kendall could help pick out her gifts (and I would have some idea of what she might like!) As it turned out, Kendall did not come shopping with me and that was probably a really good thing since it took twice as long as I thought it would. Next year I hope she can have a more active role but what I picture happening is going shopping with Kendall, buying HER every toy she picks out, and then buying a second identical toy for the Angel Tree kid. Here are some pics of us AT the Angel Tree:

Notice the green purse. It contained Hi hi's.
And Daddy came to visit us since his building is only 2 blocks away from my building.

This was quite the humbling experience. My kid is absolutely cleaning up for Christmas and this little 2 year old girl is getting only what I purchased for her ... which actually ended up being A LOT more than I had anticipated! But her tag listed ONE toy item (a Dora DVD) and clothes. I got her a bunch of clothes, but also got TWO Dora DVD's and a bunch of toys too. Hope she has a good Christmas and that she and her mother get the help they need to get back on their feet soon!

Lefty or Righty?

I know it's too early to determine Kendall's "handedness," but this picture my mom texted me at work today amused me. Her dexterity with utensil usage continues to improve in both hands BUT it makes me wonder if the fact that she's using her left hand for the mac and cheese (the preferred food, although peas are a close second) means something?? She does typically feed herself with the left hand. And she typically scribbles with her right hand. And she typically hits me with her right hand (that behavior is improving).

Upon further reflection, my best guess is that this picture means nothing more than my incredibly bright (and food oriented) child has figured out that she can eat faster if she uses both hands!

The past week in pictures

Aside from perhaps TWO of these pictures, you'll notice a common theme in the rest of them. I actually did not even notice the theme until about the 10th picture I uploaded! I'm thinking the play kitchen is going to be a most welcome gift to Kendall's world. The child is quite "food centric" these days!

This is a picture I snapped with my phone in the car. Just thought her choice of "fashion" that day was entertaining.

Here is a picture I took of Kendall when my mom and I took her to the ponds to feed the ducks. She has never been a fan of bread ... until she introduced herself to a loaf that was 2 weeks past its "sell by" date and was intended to be duck food. Sorry ducks - we'll be back soon when Kendall is less hungry ... although those moments are rare and fleeting!And here she is at a playground where she was "serving" various delicacies (aka dirt) from a window. I believe we had "blues, mac cheese, apples, ham, mick cookies, pie, japes (grapes), bennas (bananas), strawberries, peaches, and peas" on the menu.


Later, she decided that the refrigerator might be a nice place to visit for a while and kept trying to get me to close her in there!
Love this "vegging out" shot in front of the TV. Of course with a snack. I have entitled this picture, "Daddy's DNA, hard at work!"
Food, it turns out, can also be worn on our appendages. As well as stuffed in our ears, but hopefully that won't be a recurring behavior.
We returned to the Children's Museum after taking a few months off because of the State Fair and the fact that the weather has been nice enough to finally be outside. This is the first time she's paid much attention to their play kitchen area and "sampled" all of the fake food. I don't even want to know where it's been but it was early in the day so I will continue to delude myself into thinking that perhaps they sanitize their equipment and toys overnight.

Then, of course, the real food had to be brought out. Nevermind the museum's "no food or drinks" policy. You just can't tease a toddler with fake food and not expect them to develop a hankering for the real stuff!

We did actually play with some non-food items while we were at the museum!

I have no idea what is an appropriate age for her first tootsie pop, but apparently 22 months was as long as she (and her Nana) could wait. Despite my concerns that it was a choking hazard, Kendall thoroughly enjoyed it and became a sticky mess in record time. And it didn't take her many "licks" at all (though I did not count) to get to the tootsie roll center! At which point it was rudely confiscated by Mommy.

We also thoroughly enjoyed Grandmother's Halloween cupcakes!