Seven months and three going on 13

Another month has passed and Marissa continues to make me smile daily.  She anticipates my tickles and wants to be included in everything Kennedy and I do.  As long as she is near us and has a full tummy she is happy as can be.  I'm so thankful for her mellow demeanor and ability to sleep so well....especially as I tackle parenthood alone right now.

Her big sister makes me laugh and challenges me as a parent daily.  Kennedy is so kind, smart and intuitive.  That's both wonderful and difficult at the same time.  Dually, I am so thankful for Kennedy's company, her conversations and her ability to sleep so well as we live without her daddy.
She follows my niece, Briana all over the house when Briana comes home from school.  Kennedy loves music and they listen to Briana's "M3P" player (that's what Kennedy calls it even though I've told her it's actually called an "MP3"player).  When we are home I tend to put on the radio instead of the TV and as a result Kennedy can sing lyrics by many artists including KC and the Sunshine Band, Lady Gaga, Neil Diamond and her new favorite....Christina Perri.  Here we are Friday night hanging out in her room.  My co-worker, Linda got her these awesome candy princess wall decals.  I had to post both videos because I think they are simply priceless.  Enjoy!

Pez

Kennedy - 'I want some Pez mom'
Me - 'No candy, eat your supper and if you do well then we'll talk about it after supper.'

Kennedy didn't so so hot at eating her supper so the answer was no candy.  As I sat on the couch feeding Marissa she kept asking over and over for candy while she held it in her hand.  I continued to say no and that typically works and she gives up.  Last night it got unusually quiet and so I called out for Kennedy.  No answer.  Again, I called out asking where she was.  No answer.  At that point I knew she was sitting somewhere scrambling to the open the candy, eat it and come back in the room like nothing happened.  This was her first sneaky and devious move.  It was bound to happen at some point I guess.

Finally she came into the room empty handed.  I asked her where she was and what she was doing.  With no eye contact and a quiet voice she said 'nothing' and stared at the floor.  I asked her to show me her tongue and teeth because if she was eating candy her tongue would be pink and there would be candy in her teeth.  Busted!  We had a 'talk' about the candy.  I said she needed to go find the candy and throw it all in the garbage and she would need a punishment for not listening to mom.  Simply throwing the candy away seemed good enough as she was totally compliant knowing she did the wrong thing. 

As she ate breakfast this morning she reminded me that she didn't know yet what her punishment was going to be.  What a kid!  I had to jog my memory to remember what she got in trouble for...the candy, of course!  I told her the punishment was throwing it away and I was disappointed she didn't listen to me. 

Ten minutes later I came back in the kitchen to clean her up and get her dressed.  Her Life cereal was all gone and she at all her strawberries. 

Kennedy - 'Mom, can I have some Pez now?  I ate a good breakfast.'

As I sipped my coffee on the way to work Kennedy snacked on her Pez in the backseat.  The little stinker.

BTW - have you eaten Pez candy as an adult?  Yuck!

Fun girls!

The girls and I certainly have fun together...If Chris was home it would be MORE fun but we sure keep each other entertained.  Kennedy loves to role play so often I'm the beast and she is the beauty or I'm the little girl and she's mom.  Lilly even gets to participate when Kennedy designates her as a specific character.  Marissa is patient with us; she just wants to be where ever we are and that works no matter what we are doing.

The big excitement this week is Marissa's new vocabulary...she says "da, da, da, da, da, da..."!  Catching that on camera was tough especially when the big sister was there to 'help'.

Kennedy and I have been having beauty shop once a week. My multicolored pedicure was last week and this week we got out the old rollers from beauty school and she loved it!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Chris sent us two dozen roses and hopefully he'll get our box of Valentine's goodies in the next couple days.

 Here is the little beauty princess.  She didn't want me to touch the curls after we took out the rollers...she was afraid they would go away.  Little does she know it would have taken a lot to lose all those curls!  Sadly, I don't have an 'after' picture.  Next time!

Happy 41st Anniversary to my parents (2/7/70)  They came to stay with us for a long weekend and the girls had a ball!  I think grandma and grandpa were worn out after their visit but they had a great time too.

 

She's a "Mini"

Kennedy is almost finished with her first gymnastics class - it's called the "Mini Class" (mini stands for three and four year-olds...they become "Stars" at age five).  I thought it would be a good winter activity and since she tries to hang on anything with a handle or bar at home it seemed like a logical choice.  Activities consist of log rolls, egg rolls, table-tops, a lot of balance beam work (with hands on the hips), the bar, forward rolls and last but not least...a trampoline.  She loves it and is quite good!  I give the teacher, Ms. Bridget a lot of credit because she manages to keep them interested for an hour.  Oh, and she has a lot of patience!

 That's a table-top...in case you were wondering :)

 Do you notice that one thing is not quite like the others?  

Yes, Kennedy is the only one with the BIG red mat so she can reach the bar.

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But...she's also the only one that can do this all the way up to the bar!  They hold a toy between their feet and pull their legs up to the bar while hanging.  

Holy abdominal muscles!   

Here's the future gymnast...or not.  She's a cute cheerleader though!