No more pull-ups! YAY!!

I never thought I'd say it - but I'm a little sad. She is truly a BIG GIRL now. She is pretty much potty trained all during the day even at nap time but she used to be soaking wet in the morning so I was still putting a pull up on her at night. Well Friday and Saturday night she was completely dry in the morning so I figured she might be ready for just panties - and she sure was because Sunday night she ran away from the pull up screaming "i'm a big girl i don't want a pull-up". So I decided to let her try even if it meant a fun mess in the morning. Sure enough the last TWO NIGHTS she has wore big girl panties and been completely dry still in the morning. YAY!! :)

We spent a lot of time outside this weekend. Kendall was either in the pool, running through the sprinkler or playing with her sand toys. Daddy was REAL FUNNY and showed Kendall how to push mommy into the pool ~ ha that was a good time.

And I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures or not, but we did get her ears pierced again on Friday. There was only one person working - but Kendall was antsy so I said alright let's do it. And Kendall is seriously crazy because she did not cry - she LAUGHED. For the second side she helped the lady count to three. Every time she wakes up she touches her ears and says "my earrings are still here mommy" and she even helps me clean them. I had a nice talk with her beforehand about NOT taking them out and she is doing really good with them so far!

Little Miss Attitude

Kendall and I have had to have a little chat about her "attitude". She was ignoring me the other day so I said "excuse me" and she turned around and said "no excuse ME". I thought - oh i don't think so honey. So I got down eye level with her and said "I don't know where you've picked up this attitude, but in this house that is not how we talk to each other so you can talk like that all you want, but you will be in your room A LOT." She said she was sorry. Every now and again a little snottiness gets thrown out there but I remind her of our talk and she changes her tune real quick. :)

Friday night we went to the Hudsonville Fair with Adalynn and Jordan. Kendall had such a blast. She got to pet the animals and climb all over a bunch of tractors and ride a roller coaster (or a train). She wanted to ride some of the big rides but she's not tall enough yet.

Oh yes and she keeps telling me that she wants "earrings" and I keep telling her it hurts and she just says okay so during our long weekend coming up I may take her to get her ears pierced again. She may chicken out but who knows - she has been pretty daring and tough so far. At least I can reason with her this time and tell her not to take them out and EAT THEM. EW!

Another birthday party!

We got to enjoy Maison's first birthday party on Saturday - Kendall (as well as the other kids) had a blast. All week Kendall kept telling me she was gonna sing 'had a birday" to Maison and she sure did. And as you can tell - the rest of the kids were more interested in the cake than Maison was.Shane provides great entertainment...Breanna was over on Sunday and the girls wanted their hair done alike - if Kendall's hair ever gets as thick as Breanna's I don't know what I'll do with myself. The little side ponytail I did for Breanna is as thick as all of my hair put together. Kendall's is far from thin though - when I put a ponytail in today I used one of my hair ties and it held it much better than the little rubberbands for little girls....geez I have to start sharing my stuff this early on? Breanna makes things very easy on me when she's over - Kendall follows her everywhere and when I try helping her, she tells me "no mommy banna do it". And Breanna loves it so hey I'll gladly kick my feet up. When Uncle Andy comes over without Breanna, Kendall doesn't normally say hello she says "where's banna" and looks past him. Sorry Andy!
She has been very "i do it mommy" with things lately - the only thing that I have a hard time not redoing is her socks. I know, it's small and I don't fix them, but I don't want the daycare teachers thinking I'm a complete knob and don't know how to dress her. But she is so proud of herself when she's done so I figure if that's the worst thing they think about me who cares!

Who cares if you just had a bath

Sorry - no pictures, just a story. Hopefully I'll have more pictures after Maison's birthday party. So last night I gave Kendall a bath even though it wasn't bath night because her and Evan at daycare had a nice little wood chip fight and her hair was full of dirt and other fun things. So after her bath she looks out the door and tells me she needs to "take a walk on the driveway' - okay girl whatever you say. So we put our "fittops" on and walked down the driveway. Then she got on the grass and said "come on let's look in the air for birds" so we laid down and looked for birds. She made me start CALLING for the birds. I'm sure the neighbors thought I'd totally lost it. I was trying not to laugh at her because she was so serious about screaming "tweet tweet come here birdies". Then she wanted me to chase her so when I caught her I twirled her around and when I sat her down I acted like I was dizzy and fell and she thought that was hilarious. So then she pretended to fall. So her hair stayed clean - but the rest of her did not remain so clean, including the pajamas - oh well, she'd have gotten dirty again eventually.

Go Fish

oh yes and if somebody could tell me what song she is seranading us with at the end I'd appreciate it...

So yes with this hot weather we are in the pool everyday. Kendall who loves to eat wants to swim more than she'd like to eat. Tonight she told me she wanted to be like Laila and jump off the diving board. So I put that life jacket on her and off she jumped. She came up laughing. Now she won't take the life jacket off because she's realized how to keep herself balanced and afloat and she has discovered that if she runs in the water she can move really fast. I like that she's not afraid of it - but it's kind of bittersweet because before the life jacket was on I was trying to get a bee (calmly) out of the pool and I turned back around and she was underwater walking to me. Geesh if she was a little more afraid I know she wouldn't get off the steps! She will stay in that pool until she is shivering cold.

She has been superhard to wake up in the morning. I keep trying to put her to bed earlier and earlier but she is still a rock to wake up. She will look at me and groan and pull the covers back over herself. I even try opening the blinds (which i swore i'd never do to my own child) and she puts the pillow over her head. So now I just open the blinds tell her time to get up and I leave, she eventually gets up on her own.

Except for at night she is potty trained :) No pull up at nap time or all day at all anymore. She took some time adjusting to her new classroom and teachers - but after our vacation she has not had one accident. I'm so proud. The last few times she did have an accident she had her Elmo panties that daddy got her on and she'd tell me "Mommy, I peed on Elmo and Zoe".

Grandpa hooked the bike carrier up on Sunday and Kendall Aunt Becky and I took a trip to Brady's house. At first Kendall asked if every single house was Brady's. I finally quit answering and when I turned around she had her feet up and was totally relaxing. She loved it in there - but I am too old to pull almost 50 pounds because it totally wiped me out ~ even all the running I've been doing did not help me!

I know we all say it - but man do they grow up so fast! I still can't believe that she's almost three. Which she reminds me of everyday because ever since Kolton's birthday party all she talks about is "going to chuckie cheese for my birthday". So a heads up to you parents - that's where her party will be this year. Not my favorite place either but the kids seem to love it. When Lynee' asked her when her birthday was she told her "20 minutes". It took her a few days but she did finally learn how to walk in her flip flops or "fittops" as she calls them. She would sleep in those things if I let her. The only pair I could find that fit her high arches were at the dollar store! Woo hoo! She also has learned that gum is a wonderful thing. She does not swallow it and even if it falls out - she'll put it right back in there.

bathing beauty

Kendall where are you?

now you see the sprinkler.....

now you don't.....

Pool party 2008

Laila just figuring out it's fun to go all the way under
are you picking or plugging?

brady got used to the water fairly quickly
Tyler wasn't so sure about the big tube - but he sure didn't mind the water!

A last minute pool party was planned and turned out great! Thanks for everybody who came. I sure had a blast and it looked like the kids all got along and enjoyed themselves. Congrats to Jordan, Adalynn, Kendall and Laila for jumping off the diving board - oh yes and Mitchell you did too! I'm so proud of you guys for being so daring. Laila is for sure completely fearless when it comes to the water because she would just jump right in and not care if she went under or not. Kendall absolutely loves the pool and other kids so she was so happy last night and she fell asleep the second her head hit her pillow.

little young don't ya think brody?

Laila's big splash

Nice leg's addie!

good job Jordan!

Vacation 2008

having a blast with Meredith

the waves were so big - grandpa ron got to hold them both

Meredith nor her sister Maison are afraid of the water AT ALL!!!

having fun dinging the bell

"supamin" ice cream is her favorite! grandpa catches the drips...

grandpa would build it - she would stomp on it
mommy fell asleep and got spryaed by the water gun - very funny trick grandpa

enjoying lunch with Meredith Maison and Jenn

alright alright i'm updating i'm updating! we've been on vacation the last week and a half and when we got home last night, the last thing i wanted to do was sit on the computer.

Kendall has had a busy summer. She loves it outside. I got her a little bike with training wheels and she just loves it. And there is always the pool - she wakes up on the weekends and that's the first thing that she says "can I put my woo soup on?" Even if it's not warm out she wants in there.

For the past week Kendall has been out in Grand Haven camping at the "ocean" as she called it. Thursday to Sunday it was just her and grandma and grandpa and then I went out on Sunday. Kendall loved the beach - absolutely loved everything about it, the dirt, the water - all of the kids. She was just in her glory. She was leary of the lake at first - but by the end of the week she wouldn't stay out of there. Her and grandpa swam and swam and dug "ponds" and made castles. She slept just fine in the trailer too - which made me more than happy. Her friends Meredith and Maison joined us on Tuesday and Kendall and Meredith get along so well ~ i love it. Meredith had fun with grandpa ron too. The sun is turning Kendalls hair super light and even though I put 50 sunscreen on her 5 times a day she has tan lines.

Kendall is enjoying her first REAL babysitter the last part of this week. (by REAL i mean, not a friend of mine or a family member, b/c yes, so many of you have helped in that department)Brady's aunt Haley is watching her thursday and friday and so far - Kendall has been an angel (haley's exact words), which is good. She had no potty accidents while at Haley's house. Tomorrow they are going to Milennium Park - I have a feeling Kendall isn't going to want to come home!

She is starting to have some pretend friends. Right now her friend is the Puma from Diego. He follows us everywhere and she's always telling him to "stay away puma i'm busy". She loves pretending - she "bakes" me cakes and won't walk away unless i eat them. She is also still infatuated with birds. At the beach she was constantly chasing the seagulls - i'd have been so mad if i got pooped on while it flew away! And at home any bird in the yard she just has to "get him mommy, he needs me". It's hilarious.