KEndall vs. Kindle

Normally I don't use this blog as a venting venue, but it is time.

THIS is a KEndall.

THIS is a KIndle.

There is a BIG difference between the two and no, I did NOT name my child after an electronic reading device. Poor kid. It's not her fault that the timing of her birth and the rising popularity of said device coincided rather unfortunately. In fact, had I even heard of a Kindle when I was picking out names, I may have thought twice about naming my little girl "Kendall." (but probably still would have named her that because I really do love the name!)

You see, Chris and I were very conscious of unflattering nicknames that could be made from potential first names, middle names, first and middle name combinations, as well as initials. "Kendall" seemed ideal. The only not-so-nice nicknames I could think of that could stem from her first name were "Candle" (and I don't think she's going to have red hair but that would be bad) and "Ken Doll" (which is a boy doll and may be considered derogatory to a little girl.) Of course, I am aware of the fact that kids will be kids and she will, at certain points in her life, be called names that she does not appreciate. I, for instance, grew up being called thing such as "Drooly Julie and Ju Ju Bean."

I suppose, from her perspective, there are worse things than being called "Kindle" if your name is "Kendall." I also realize that I regularly call her "Monkey" and Chris regularly calls her "Pookie" or "Pookus" - both of which she may object to in the future. For the record, I think monkeys are adorable, have always wanted one, and may actually get a monkey as my next tattoo .... and "pookie" is a well known term of affection.

But I do grow weary of people asking me if her name is spelled like the electronic reading device created by Amazon or if that is what she is named after! Yep. And if we have another kid, we're going to name it "Ipod."

Ok, rant over. Thanks for listening! :)

North Carolina Visit #2

On Saturday, Sept. 12, Kendall and I hopped a flight out to NC to surprise Saba! Nana was already out there. This was Kendall's 7th flight - she's well traveled for an 8 month old baby. She did pretty well, but slept even less than she did on her 6th flight, squealed more, and pooped not once, but twice ... the second one cleverly escaping her diaper and onto me. The guy next to us could not have gotten off that plane any faster. Flying with her by myself is getting more and more difficult. Getting both of our luggage, her carseat/stroller combo, and both of us to a rental car place and into a rental car was almost more than I could manage, but we finally arrived and BOY was Saba surprised!

Kendall got to meet Saba's new boxer girl, Maggie. It was love at first sight for both of them. Anytime Kendall got fussy, all we had to do was call Maggie in the room and we had instant smiles!

Kendall also got to share her love of beer (bottles) with her Uncle Dan and Auntie Corinna.

We had a great visit from Cindy, Kelly, and Chris Copolo who brought Kendall A LOT of cool toys!

And dressed her up as a princess. So much for avoiding the "princess" stigma. At least she's too young to understand the horrible message given to little girls (in my humble opinion) by the Disney Princesses for now.

I thought she looked much better in her "South of the Border" multicolored hat than the tiara anyway!

Chris, Kelly and Kendall

And once again, Princess Kendall. I think Nana was the culprit who put the tiara on her this time.

Kendall LOVED the balloon Nana brought her. She especially loved trying to chew it. I kept waiting for her little mouth razors to pop it, but they didn't, thankfully!

Finally, a decent picture of Uncle Dan, Auntie Corinna and Kendall together. For some reason, in every other picture I have of my brother with Kendall, he's looking at her like she might be a tasty treat!

We had lunch with our good friend Josie at a cool Thai restaurant where Kendall was equally captivated by both the enormous golden Buddha statue and the wall of wine bottles.

The last night we were there, both of us managed to get colds so the flight home was not much fun, but Nana was with us on this flight so it was MUCH easier on me ... even though I still got the pleasure of the now traditional midflight poopy diaper (just one this time, fortunately). Note how blatantly UNsleepy this child is on a flight that happened right in the middle of naptime. And yes, she's chewing on a wine bottle.

Great Uncle Jeff and Aunt Diane came down from Lynchburg, VA to meet Kendall as well. Will post pictures from them when they send them to me! We had a great visit with everyone and will have to make it back to NC more often as there just wasn't enough time in between naps for us to visit everyone we wanted to see.

Deep Thoughts

I wonder if anyone else has ever pondered this question? I said it when Kendall was a newborn and I will say it again. I fully believe that human offspring are born a bit too early (NOT that I wanted to be pregnant any longer than I was.) However, it makes little to no sense to me that adult humans generally need more than 2-3 consecutive hours of sleep to be functional and/or pleasant, but infant humans need to eat every 2-3 hours to be functional and/or pleasant. Someone is going to draw the short straw there, hopefully the adult human. Also, very few newborns are particularly pleasing to the eye at birth. Yes, mothers are hormonally programmed to think their own newborn is cute, but on the whole, well meaning friends typically smile and say "Oh, he/she is gorgeous!" and then walk away wondering why the baby's head is so misshapen and why there are so many red splotches all over it's wrinkly face. I was convinced when Kendall was a newborn that she was the most beautiful baby ever born (thank you hormones) but I look at her now next to pictures of her when she was a newborn and NOW she is beautiful! NOW she can smile, laugh, interact, hug and give kisses. While part of me wishes she'd stay a baby forever, I would never go back to those first few months where all she did was sleep, eat, poop and pee ... and really all I did for her was feed her, change her, and move her from place to place in the house.

Does anyone else think that perhaps human babies should be born a bit more "advanced"???

THEN:

NOW:

UPDATE - she's BACK!!

I have just knocked on everything wooden in this house in hopes that I'm not going to jinx her, but I do believe the aliens have returned Kendall the Good Sleeper! She is now back to 11 hours of consecutive nighttime sleep. YAY!!!

MISSING: Kendall the GOOD sleeper!! REWARD if found!

If anyone happens to see THIS child, please return her to me! My perfect slumbering angel (who has been sleeping 11 consecutive hours at night for months now) seems to have been replaced by a child who requires company for no apparent reason whatsoever at all hours of the night/early morning. Nothing appears to be wrong with her, other than the need to be social at incredibly inconvenient times for her parents. Her nap schedule was perfect. Her bedtime ritual unflawed. All I can come up with is that Kendall the GOOD sleeper has been abducted by aliens and Kendall the BAD sleeper has been deposited in my house. At this point, I'll pay good money to get my good sleeper back! I'm tired. Why isn't she???

PS - I should also mention that the alien replacement Kendall chooses to scream rather than sleep in the car. Never before have I wished for earplugs while driving.

Girls' Trip to the Arboretum

Today Kendall and I took advantage of the (finally) less than 100 degree temperature and went to the Arboretum for her lunch. When she took forever to finish her bottle due to the plethora of more exciting things to focus on, it occurred to me that she had never really SEEN the Arboretum. Even though I took her there a lot while I was on maternity leave, she was in a carseat and typically asleep. Since then it's been WAY too hot by the time they open (as an aside, 9:00 AM is a ridiculously late time for an outdoor garden facility to open in Texas). We had a really nice time and I think she enjoyed looking at the giant colorful fish because she practically twisted herself into a pretzel in her stroller to keep looking at them when we walked away. The place was crazy chaotic with out of control children and mothers chasing them every which way. My child is so good .... and sedentary! :)

Here are a few pictures I managed to get during our outing. It turns out that putting her on her stomach was not such a brilliant idea. No sooner did I snap the picture than those chubby little fingers curled around a fistful of grass. Kendall then promptly fed herself said fistful of grass. Her hand/mouth coordination is impeccable. Fortunately she found my shrieking to be highly amusing because she laughed and I was able to extract most of the blades of grass from her mouth. I was looking for a new green veggie for her to try, but grass was not on the list!

Battle for the Bottle

First they battled over the TV remote. Now she wants his beer. Is nothing sacred for Daddy anymore? At least she's leaving Mommy's wine alone for the evening! :)