"Paci, please"

Don woke up this morning with a little girl in his bed and the first thing she muttered was "paci, please." It was Makena's first night without her paci and she just knew her Daddy would feel sorry for her. He didn't of course but it is very sad and hard to hear her ask for her paci. I decided after we got through shots last Tuesday it would be time to get rid of the paci. On Wednesday, she got sick and we convinced her to give it up Wednesday night to try to keep her from coughing so much, but she was ready to have it back for nap time on Thursday. Because she was not resting well, I gave it back to her because I thought it would help her rest.

We decided we would try the trading method. On Saturday she picked out a toy and it remained on the counter until Sunday afternoon when I told her she could open it when she brought me her paci(s). She immediately went to her bed and got 2 paci's and brought them to me. All things were good until bedtime. We continued to tell her that she now had her big girl drawing pad and drawing book instead of her paci. It took an hour or so, many prayers and some rocking time, but she finally went down. She did at one point yell at us that she needed a new diaper, which was funny because she knew she knew that would probably get us to go in there. Brooklyn woke her up with a blood curdling cry around 2 so Makena ended up in our bed but slept good.

Nap time was pretty much the same as night time. I rocked her and she went to sleep but she woke herself up coughing and at that point wanted up. She ended up laying down with Daddy and sleeping a couple more hours.

Night #2: Daddy put her down like normal and then in a few minutes "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" emerged from the room. After a while Daddy went in and changed her diaper. Then she requested Mommy come rock her. She is down now.

Love my big girl and am a little sad to see that paci go, but I know it is for the best. However, I won't miss the stinky slobber all over her face in the morning or hearing her get choked while she sleeps with it in her mouth.

From a Mommy trying to stay strong when I hear "paci, please"...stay tuned for more paci updates.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Happy Birthday to Daddy...Hawaiian style!! Last year on Don's birthday we found out that we were expecting Brooklyn. This year marked two precious bundles to hug and squeeze.

We found these dresses in Hawaii last year and they are so cute on the girls. Thought these two pics of Makena were super cute. Shows off her beautiful smile and personality.

Daddy and Brooklyn.

My sweet Hawaiian girls.

Brooklyn is 4 Months

At 4 Months old, Brooklyn weighed 13 pounds 10 ounces (47th percentile), was 25.25 inches (80th percentile) tall, and had a head size of 16.25 inches (56th percentile). At her doctor's appointment Dr. T told us to give her some probiotics to easy the tummy discomfort to see if it would help her sleep at night. Brooklyn had also stopped taking a bottle but she told us to keep trying. We still weren't getting much sleep over night but hoping the changes would make it better.

Brooklyn is a little jumper. Her legs never stop and they are really strong. She loves her sister and they laugh together. It is so precious to watch.

Happy 5th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to us!! Don and I were able to celebrate our 5th Anniversary at the Gaylord Texan. We only spent one night away from the kids and were so thankful for Grammie and Gramps coming to brave the night of potentially no sleep. We ate ate at Big Fish in Grapevine. I had wonderful crab legs and Don had fish and chips. Yummy!! We walked down main street and enjoyed the festival music. We then rounded off our day away with a big breakfast and a little shopping.

Here are the beautiful flowers from my hubby. Love you!

While we were away...Brooklyn decided to take 3 bottles really well (throughout the night) and then decided not to eat for 11 hours until I got home. She wasn't upset or hungry. This proves she is ready to sleep through the night and not be fed which has not been tackled at this point due to all the screaming that would take place and fear of then having two kiddos to take care of during the night. Soon...very soon. Makena enjoyed her day with Grammie and Gramps. She and Grammie drew pictures and wrote words. Makena loves to color and "write".

Thanks again for coming while we enjoyed ourselves for the evening.

Happy Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day! After a long night Mother's day got off to a rocky start but we ended it with time at worship, lunch at Anamia's and some family time. We missed having Chris's family with us and Grannie B, but we had a great time.

Makena's 2nd Birthday Party

A Sesame Street celebration with family and friends.

Happy Birthday Makena!

Happy 2nd birthday Makena!!! I can't believe my little girl is 2. This is how we greeted our new two year old. You can see her 4 prize possessions. Two paci's, one pink big blanket, and one "triangle" taggie blanket.

On to her presents...Elmo attire for our birthday celebration the following day.

Then to a birthday cinnamon roll...yummy!!

2 year old photo shoot in Mom's wedding dress. Isn't she the cutest?!?

The morning Makena turned two she started singing her ABC's. She became obsessed with me singing that song.

She weighs 26.5 pounds and is 34.75 inches tall.

Along with singing, she jabbers new words and will repeat just about anything. Most of the stories are in front of us only. She is still very shy when around others, but we see the arms flying, wobbly running, giggly little girl with very little hair and beautiful blue eyes.

She loves the big wood park and feeding the ducks and turtles.

Favorites:

Toys...kitchen, diapering all of her babies, her new castle she got for her birthday a few weeks back.

Food...Strawberries, grapes, pizza

Clothes...Elmo PJs, anything cool

Shoes...Crocs and "Starfish" shoes

Time of the day...Going to get the mail with Daddy

TV Time...Elmo Sing Along

Book..."I am a Big Sister"- She now can "read" the book herself. It is so cute to see her sit in the rocker by herself and tell the story as she turns the pages. I believe we have read this every night since Brooklyn was born. Thank you Grammie for picking out such great books.

Songs...ABCs and Little Bitty Fishy

She also loves bible class and her church friends.

We love you Makena! You are a true light in our lives from God.

I think they might be sisters.

See any resemblance??

Brooklyn Kennedy

Makena Ashtyn

Brooklyn 3 Months

Brooklyn is precious in her very own special way. Her very unique personality gets more vibrant every day. She has the cutest belly laugh and the biggest open mouth smile you have ever seen. She can get a little impatient from time to time. I think she gets that from her Daddy. :) However, she may have to wait a little longer because most of the day I run a zone defense. Overall, she is a happy baby and I have loved every minute with her. She is going to be chasing Riggins and Makena in no time.

Brooklyn stands upright with the strongest little legs. She can stand holding on to my fingers. She is having problems going more than 4 hours between feedings at night. Her feeding changed right at 3 months and we haven't seen very long stints of time at night or during the day. She started nursing only 5-10 minutes each time which is less than half what she was doing before. We plan to watch her weight to make sure she continues to gain weight. The thought is that she is just getting more efficient. At 3 months she weighs an unofficial 13 pounds. Two pounds more than last month.

Thank you God for my precious little girl...and my big girl too! They are so amazing.

Potty Tr....Trying

I am really behind in the blogging world. I have yet to post a month 2 update for Brooklyn and she is about to be 3 months old. Not to mention a number of events that I have yet to post pictures for between now and then. We'll just chaulk it up to trying to get enough sleep and having little time to get on the computer without a couple of sweet little distractions. However, I wanted to make a note about today. My little...or actually big...girl is changing by the day. She amazes me with what she can say and do. I bought her some big girl panties a number of weeks ago in anticipation of potty training at some point. I have showed her the panties a few times. She has put them on over her diaper and other times just ignored them. However, today she decided she wanted them on so I thought we might as well try. We have sat her on the potty before baths and other various times over the past number of months with the hopes that she wouldn't be afraid of the big potty. Every once in a while she would go, other times she would not. So after her nap we ditched the diaper and put on Makena's big girl panties. We sat on the potty every few minutes (using a 15 minute timer). After a couple of hours we still had no success. She drank a huge glass of milk as this point so I knew it had to be coming. We sat on the potty again...nothing. However, just a few minutes after I took her off the potty down her legs it came. She wasn't sure what to think. We cleaned up the mess and I asked her if she wanted panties or diaper and she of course insisted on the diaper. I continued to remind her that we were going to have to sit on the potty. After dinner and getting close to bedtime, I told her it was time to go try again and we had SUCCESS! She did both and we danced and sang! I think she thought she was pretty big stuff. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I don't think I am quite ready for hard core but we are going to see how it goes. If she is interested tomorrow, we'll try again. But today was a good day...in 4 or 5 hours we had one accident and 2 successes. Love my girls! I can't believe they are growing up so fast.

Brooklyn is 2 Months Old!

Can't believe my baby is two months old! Here she is on her big day. Happy 2 months Brooklyn.The Lee girls were in town...here is Makena with Hannah and Faith.

Here is Melanie, my BFF, with Makena and Kara with Brooklyn.

My sweet girl sleeping.

And I couldn't resist the "bow head" picture.

At 2 months old Brooklyn weighed 11 pounds and 23.5 inches long. Her head is 15.5 inches around. She is growing right on track. Dr. T said she looks great. She loves to stand on her legs. She does not like to bend at the waste. Makena was like that too. Brooklyn is so alert for her age. She really makes eye contact and smile the cutest open mouth smile you have ever seen. She may be my little social butterfly. She started cooing and making noises. So precious!

Sleeping and eating is not very scheduled and is still on demand. She is still eating 6-8 times a day and varying times she is sleeping through the night. The longest is around 7.5 hours between feedings. Therefore her 1 month start of 7 hours did not continue on an everyday basis but we take what we can get and try to make it through the days Mommy doesn't get much sleep.

Brooklyn continues to be a mover and a shaker. She squirms and kicks all the time. Sometimes I wonder if she doesn't sleep very long at night because she kicks and moves constantly. A lot of the time she sleeps through it but I think it wakes her some as well. We stopped swaddling her because she would scream and fight until she got her arms out.

Brooklyn still has her blue/gray eyes and the little bit of hair she was born with. She continues to look a lot like her Daddy but maybe with my nose. Hard to tell at this point but it continues to look broader than Don's...more like Makena's. I think she is going to favor Don more from those beautiful blue eyes to her long little toes.

Weekend with Granny B

When Granny B comes to town, the girls can't get enough of her. Makena has nothing to do with the rest of us when "B" is around. She wants B to get her out of bed, dress her, play with her, give her a bath, and put her to bed. Like I said the rest of us kinda disappear. Makena will occasionally share B with Brooklyn.And Riggins just hangs around trying to squeeze in a little B time too.

We love you Granny B! Thanks for spending last weekend with us.

Happy 65th Grandpa Don...

Makena, Brooklyn and I never had the chance to meet Grandpa Don, but we know we see pieces of him every day in Daddy Don. Happy Birthday Grandpa Don and thank you for raising such a wonderful man to pass on your wit and wisdom. Most of all thank you for teaching him about his Lord and Savior. Although we never knew you here, we are striving to be united with you one day in heaven.

22 Months for Makena

A few pictures from the last month...

At the Woodpark with B

Swinging with B

Diapering Little Sister

Her new obsession...thanks Daddy

Patting Sister

Where does she get this from??

Makena was jealous of Papa getting hugs from B

Chip off the old block

Makena likes the play mat too!

Things to remember about Makena's 22nd month.

"I wuv you, mommy"

"I wuv you, daddy"

"I wuv you, reecies (Riggins)"

"I wuv you, Brook"

"Peese and tank u"

"I sorry, momma", which is sometimes not needed so we are working on that too.

"microwave"

"help deeshes"...she loves to help at the sink, which usually includes a soaked shirt.

More diaper changes on Elmo and her babies and dressing them than you will ever know.

Elmo, elmo, elmo...

Ahhh...Daddy put her Elmo videos on her iphone (an old one that doesn't fully work). Sometimes the batteries have to die for a day or two. :)

Loves for me to sing:

- The Itsy, Bitsy Spider

- ABCs

- Twinkle, Twinkle little star

She counted to five while we were cooking. I was totally shocked but I haven't been able to get her to do it again.

She loves Bible Class and Small Group. She loves to talk about all of her classmates and friends (Heidi, McKenna, Jackson, Baby Ryan, and many more). She can say most of their names.

If you talk about Granny B, she will tell you she is with "Pawpaw" and "Ty-er" at home. "Pawpaw" is usually checking his "cows". I can't wait for her to see the cows again. It has been a while since she has been around them.

Eating:

- She is still picky. There aren't many staples. Her tastes seem to want variety. Strawberries will be great one day but the next she will only eat bananas. Grapes and crackers are usually a good choice. She likes peanut butter and honey. On occassion she will eat a bite of chicken.

- Potatoes and refried beans are good most of the time, but other veggies are off the table right now. I still put them on her plate but usually she won't eat them. We are working on her eating more and more of what we eat. She loves fruit, just not the same kind too close together.

- She loves to eat with her fork and spoon and is now sitting in her booster seat so that little sister can join us at the table in the big high chair.

Loves Reading:

- "I am a Big Sister"

- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

- If you Give a Pig a Party

- Her Bible

- We have had a few more successes on the potty but we haven't started potty training yet.