Daddy's Birthday

This post is a bit late - sorry!

After Daddy worked most of the day on his birthday (at the office, on a Sunday), we had his favorite gourmet dinner of hot dogs with a side of macaroni and cheese. Kendall gave Daddy a really cool home-made book entitled "Daddy and Me" filled with pictures of her and Daddy. She's so creative! :) Daddy also got new golf shirts, a new subscription to The Economist (can't tell you how thrilled I am to see those in the mail and then scattered around the house twice a week for another year), a gift certificate to Brooks Brothers, and a pile of pinion wood. He wasvery excited about the pinion wood ... any excuse to play with fire. (sigh!) The evening was finished off with the most disgusting cake I have ever "made." At Chris's request, I made him a cake entirely out of Zingers. Two layers of both chocolate and vanilla Zingers, stuck together and slathered with chocolate and white frosting and topped off with sprinkles. Made my teeth hurt just to look at it! As it turned out, my time spent concocting this lovely gesture was really time wasted. It was really too sweet for anyone to eat ... although my mom did give it a try and took it home with her, swapping it with me for a much more tasty cake!

Here is the yummy looking (but in actuality inedible) Zinger cake.

A week later, some of Chris's buddies came over for a Mexican dinner .... and enough Paciugo to feed an army (thank you, Vincent!). We all had a good time and we discovered that Kendall LOVES to entertain! She was nothing short of thrilled to have a houseful of people who's attention was all quite focused on her majesty. She laughed, babbled, squealed and squawked at anyone and everyone who would glance in her direction! A fine time was had by all, especially my little social butterfly. :)

Pictured here: Troy, Heather, Christy, Zach (holding Kendall), Brett, Vincent, and Daddy. And Ralphie.

Everyone again, sans Vincent.

Zach and Kendall.

Mommy and Daddy's Night OUT!

It is sad when 90% of the time "going out" means going to the grocery store and/or Sam's Club. But last weekend Chris and I actually got to go OUT for real! Chris's cousin, Paul, got married and I had my first opportunity to squeeze back into one of my formal dresses (I thoroughly heart Spanx!). It was a REALLY nice outdoor wedding at the bride's family's ranch in McKinney, TX, followed by a REALLY nice reception in a tent on the ranch. We had a great time and were only slightly embarrassed that we were outlasted by Mason and Maya (ages 6 and 4) because we're old and were out waaaay past our bedtime! Kendall stayed with Nana that night so at least I got to sleep in a bit the next morning. I barely remember when 9:30AM seemed like early in the morning to me .... now it seems like 1/2 of my day is gone if I sleep that late! Here are some pics from the event. Thanks to my SIL, Amy - I stole a lot of her pictures for th

is post! :)

Mason and Maya Harris all decked out for their first wedding!

Me and Charlie (aka "Pops")

Mason initially found the band to be a bit too loud, but according to my sources, warmed up to the idea of some wild dancing after Chris and I pooped out for the evening.

Me and Maya. Maya was the only one I got to dance with at the reception. Next wedding we go to, Chris will be required to dance with me twice.

Fran and Charlie (aka "Grandmother" and "Pops")

Brian and Amy (the beautiful couple owned by Mason and Maya)

Maya and Mason with Aunt Paula, the lovely mother of the groom.

Me and Amy. Who, by the way, is super cool and someone I totally need to hang out with more often!

Perhaps one of the most beautiful wedding cakes I've ever seen.

Lovely table setting with view of lake in background.

And this is what Kendall did while Mommy and Daddy were O-U-T. Weird kid - she likes to wedge herself in random places ....

The Animal Lovers Gene

I am thrilled to report that the animal lovers gene has definitively been passed along to Kendall! Not that she had much of a choice given her mother's love of most "things furry." Hopefully she will not inherit her father's love of shooting certain "things furry!"

The Dallas Arboretum has a Petting Zoo on Mondays and Tuesdays and we visited that for the first time this past Monday. Kendall insisted on being removed from the stroller so she could get up close and personal with what I'm certain she thought were very interesting looking dogs. She met a sheep, a pony, a bunny, some chickens, and developed a rather odd attachment to what I think was a baby mini-goat. Screamed like a little banshi whenever I tried to take her away from it. Interestingly, the cute little critter seemed to have a similar attachment to her since it followed us around and stared at us long after we walked away (with his little buddy loudly protesting our departure.)

The next day, Kendall went to her very first Texas State Fair. While she enjoyed the lights, sounds and noises (and the always amusing assortment of other fair-goers), her favorite stop was, again, the petting zoo. This was a BIG petting zoo and had significantly more interesting looking "dogs" with which to communicate. She kicked and squealed and did her (new and kind of strange looking) wristy-twisty dance as soon as we walked in, as well as upon introduction to each new animal.

Piglets!!! This was Nana's favorite part of the Fair and we are very proud of her for resisting the urge to confiscate the little runt piglet.

Here is a camel who was very gentle when Kendall stuck her hand its mouth. No marks at all - just a bit of camel slime. If you look at the picture closely, to the left of the camel, you will see a little camel blob on the ground. This was a MAMA camel! I felt very connected to her for some reason. I wouldn't have bitten her child either.

I'm not sure what this is ... Alpaca maybe ... but it was shaved much like a giant poodle. Odd. Poor little thing must have had no idea how ridiculous it looked because its behavior suggested that it visualized itself as the Don Corleone of the Alpaca (giant poodle?) world.

And here is my second favorite part of the Fair, the giraffe. It was a baby giraffe and very cute. I'm trying hard not to dwell on what a horrible life this little guy probably has and to convince myself that he gets to go run with other giraffes in a big field with tall grass and lots of trees to munch on when it isn't Fair season.

What was my FAVORITE part of the Fair, you might be wondering? Clearly it was the FRIED BUTTER! There are no pictures of the fried butter - it didn't want to stay in the plate long enough to be photographed. I have to admit I was wary at first, but I now have a new favorite meal that just might warrant a second trip to the Fair this year so I can stock up! :)

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!!!