thepedersons.net

Yes, hard to believe she is already a year old! Yesterday she actually walked across a room for the first time. She’s taken a few mini sprints of 4 or 5 steps the last month or so, but I think we can now say she’s officially walking. She stood up from the floor without pulling herself up on anything, turned around and walked across the room to daddy without throwing herself into him the last few steps — all this without being prompted!

What else is she doing? She plays peek-a-boo, she does itsy bitsy spider, pat-a-cake & little teapot. She likes head-shoulder-knees and toes, although she usually only pats her head. She likes to chase after Eric when he runs down the hall. She’s blowing kisses and started making the smack sound, instead of just saying mmmmmmwa. She’s climbing up the stairs and climbing on all of Eric’s stools - I foresee an emergency visit in our future, as she hasn’t figured out how to get down gracefully! When she gets hurt, no matter where it is, she rubs her head. She’s also started swimming lessons - I think we’re going to have another fish in our family, as she loves it!

What is she saying? Da-da (daddy), ni-ni (night night), aaawww-daaa (all done), nana (banana), uck (truck), mom-mom, ka-ko (cracker) - sometimes she says kkkkk for cracker, cookie, cereal, or any other food she likes for that matter (pronounced like the back of the throat ch in Christmas).  She also uses that sound to drive Eric’s cars around. She says ahhhh-doe for a lot of things… Eric (although his name has an ever so slight different pronunciation from the rest), Spencer, Grandma, Grandpa, etc., etc. Dog also has a slightly different pronunciation - ahg-dog. One day it sounded like she said cha-cha for her pacifier. I figure if she’s going to be addicted to it (only at sleeping times) it might as well have a cute name, so I’m trying to make that one stick!

She keeps us laughing and definitely on our toes. You can see pictures on our family photo website.

Hard to believe she’s coming up on 11 months!

The other night we were having dinner all together. Kendra looked at Curt and said, clear as day, “da-dee, all done. Ny-ny”, which is “Daddy, I’m all done eating and ready to go night-night” in Kendra speak. Does this count as her first sentence?!?

Then on January 14, she took a few steps unassisted! She’s REALLY not too sure about that. She was pretty proud of herself at the time, but every time we go to “practice” more walking, she won’t stand on her own, so I can let go of her hands… she just tries to plow into me holding on before I can pry away her fingers. Oh well… it will all come too soon!

Last thing is that when she wanted to let us know she didn’t like something or didn’t want something, she would shake her head from side to side (as in ear to one shoulder, then ear to the other shoulder), like she was bopping to some music. Her whole upper body would really get into it. Now she’s starting to get the true “no thanks” head shake, side to side, looking over one shoulder, then the other. Of course she’s doing it before I captured the other one on video.

Peek-a-Boo!

Continue reading »

In the past few weeks Kendra has learned some new skills:

• Saying Uh-oh (over and over and over) after she drops something, someone else drop something or she sees something on the floor she doesn’t think belongs there.
• Crawling (started on Sunday Dec 28th)
• Pulling herself up on things (started Dec 31st)

She is really good at cruising around on our furniture and getting into everything that she shouldn’t.

I know I haven’t been keeping up with posts on Kendra’s latest doings. I need about 4 more hours in each day (mostly for getting more sleep). Last night, we had our first real family dinner where Kendra ate basically what we were eating. I don’t know why, but it seems like a big milestone. She had plain tilapia (the rest of us had breaded) and sweet potatoes. The rest of us also had green beans, which I guess I could have pureed in my Bullet, but I didn’t think to do so. I don’t know if it was because she was really hungry or that she really like it, but she devoured the fish!

I now weigh (unofficially) 18# 8 oz and am 27 1/4″ or so! I’m just about out of my infant carseat! My latest doings are to grab my toes with my hand. I haven’t shoved them in my mouth yet, but I’m sure I’ll get there soon.

Continue reading »

Where has the time gone! I can’t believe it’s already been 4 months! Kendra had her check-up yesterday. She is 26″ long (97 percentile) and weighs 16 # 12 oz (97 percentile). Her head circumference is 43 cm (90-97 percentile). We are going to have some tall kids, not unexpectedly. She had her shots and is so far tolerating everything very well. Doctor gave the go ahead to start solids next month, but we’ll see. We may give it a go later this month.

She is a very happy, chatty baby who loves her big brother! He is the one who can get the big belly laughs from her just by smiling at her. She is trying to roll over, but hasn’t quite done so on her own (she’s always had a little nudge from one of us). A few weeks ago she started interacting with toys. She’s studying them, grabbing them and making a pretty good attempt at getting them to her mouth. Her arms are still flailing wildly, so when I’m holding her, she’s often giving me a good whap on the back. She loves to grab my hair, too.

Continue reading »

There are just no words! ;b

My dad and I were discussing how Kendra looks like a doll or cartoon character. He mentioned that she “looks like one of those dolls”… a Cabbage Patch Kid!

In Kendra’s defense, Eric could have passed as one, too! I guess since my family couldn’t afford to buy me a Cabbage Patch Kid growing up, I felt left out, so I created my own real-life Cabbage Patch Kids!

A few weeks ago, Kendra started noticing her hands, and is getting them to her mouth a bit more consistently, although not enough to give up the pacifier… yet.

Last week, Kendra seemed to “discover” her feet. She sits in her car seat, working her abs by holding her head up, and peering down at her feet. She’s in awe at their movement!

This week she’s starting to expand her “vocabulary”, making new sounds that I can’t even begin to spell. She’s also started gurgling her own spit (boy are we proud!). When she does it, I sometimes can’t tell if a diaper change is in order, or if it’s just her new noise again. Today, she also started squealing a bit, testing the volume of her voice, lucky us.

I think she’s going to give Eric a run for his money someday soon. I don’t know who will be able to out-talk whom.

So, I was on the lucky end of a dirty diaper the other day, when I got a big reward. Kendra was in a particularly good mood and was chatting with the mobile that hangs over her changing table. I started chatting with her and suddenly I got a big giggle out of her! I called Deb in and she let out another good one just in time for Deb to hear.