TGIF!!!

Happy Friday! Its the end of another long & interesting week for little Kenna, and she's capping it off on a sour note. The little one has caught whatever it is that's going around, not quite sure if its just a cold, or if its the flu. Nevertheless, she's not feeling her usual 100% =( She's got a big weekend ahead of her, so we'll do our best to make sure she's well rested for the upcoming festivities. Saturday is Makenna's baptism, a really important event for the little one, and Sunday will be her first taste of Halloween with a trip to the pumpkin patch. We'll have to play Sunday by ear depending on how she's feeling, so hopefully the weather doesn't bring her down any more than she already is. Happy Friday & have a great weekend!

Social Butterfly

Just like any other kid, Makenna starts off shy when she first sees a bunch of new people. She'll even act that way around people she knows, but hasn't seen in a while. That being said, we've noticed that it takes her no time at all to warm up to all those around her.

Yesterday was a full day for the little one, as Mommy brought her over to Daddy's work to visit for lunch. What a way to break up another monotonous day at the salt mine! It had been a couple of months since she last visited, so my co-workers were all amazed at her size. As I took her around the office, she marveled at all the new things to look at, and some new faces as well. She warmed up to a few people so quickly, that I found it hard to get her back!

She then spent the afternoon with Grandma, as we went in for our monthly appointment for Baby Coconut. All went well, and we had another chance to listen to baby coco's heartbeat. It was so mellow & rhythmic, nothing like the "hard house" beat of Makenna's! They scheduled our hospital appointment, so barring any unforseen circumstances, baby #2 will be born on February 5, 2008. Keep your fingers crossed! We still have to wait until December to find out what we're having, so we'll let everyone know then.

Kenna's day ended up at cousin Cole's 3rd birthday. We normally don't have Kenna out past her bedtime, especially on a school night, but we made an exception. Kenna wasted no time hanging out with all the grown-ups as well as all the kids. While we stayed for only an hour or so, Kenna kept going strong, posing for pictures, waving hi & bye, just having a grand old time! Needless to say, we had no problems putting her down for the night!

She keeps on growing...

So it seems that our little girl is growing up way too fast. No, she's not walking yet, and no, she's not standing up on her own just yet either, as the picture would suggest. We just can't get over how quickly she's picking up on things. We just started her on solids a few weeks ago, and that's going great. We're really beginning to see exactly how big her appetite is, and can't help but laugh as her mouth stays open while we feed her! Her stomach has become a bottomless pit, and now we understand why she remained fussy after ounces and ounces of milk/formula. The supply couldn't keep up with the demand!

She's still working at mastering the crawling motion, and even though she's not that quick, she still moves faster than expected. Yesterday she ended up in front of the dvd player, and I caught her reaching up for the buttons! Ahhh, the makings of a little troublemaker!

Cousin Wesley's First Birthday

This past weekend the Arbolante's celebrated Wesley's 1st birthday. From the looks of it, everyone had a great time, and the food was excellent(as always)! Kenna did her best to hang with the bigger kids, as you can see in the last couple of pictures. All in all, it turned out to be a fun event! It won't be too long before we celebrate Kenna's 1st birthday...


HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY WESLEY!
Mommy & Kenna enjoying the festivities
Do these glasses fit my face?
The wagon kids enjoying a ride

Kenna crawls for Barney! Happy Friday!

As of late, Makenna has been very persistent in making attempts to crawl. She's grown tired of her activity center, and only likes to be in it for short amounts of time before letting us know that she needs a change of scenery. Since she's learned how to sit up on her own, she really enjoys playing on the floor with her toys. She's also mastered going from the sitting position to the crawling position, although there have been instances where her timing was off and she ended up face down on the carpet! Being the trooper she is, she's learned to shrug that off and just carry on.

She's picked up on how to roll from belly to back and vice versa, as well as spinning on her belly to change directions. The next natural step would be for her to begin crawling, and even though she's been working on her "army crawl," she's finally realizing that her legs need to do some of the work! We were fortunate enough to catch this little "glimpse of things to come" on video. She still has some work to do, but you can see the foundation of what looks to be a very active little child! Enjoy & Happy Friday!

Middle of the week...

Alright, so even though the Dolphins are winless at this point in the season, Kenna likes to play with this ball. She's been doing pretty well with eating solids and as I mentioned before, her diapers have redefined the word "stink!" She finds it pretty humorous when we change her, especially when I'm hacking and gagging, but I guess its just a part of life...

We're slowly introducing Cheerios for her to try out. In fact, when we gave her one to eat yesterday, she gave us the "bitter beer face" probably due to the new texture in her mouth. Of course the cereal itself is pretty bland, but its not like we've given her lavish gourmet meals just yet either. At this point, all she knows is that the Cheerios go in her mouth. It'll be more fun to watch her in the coming months, as she gains more of her finger dexterity to be able to pick these things up and feed herself!

As for our "baby coconut," everyone keeps asking if we know the sex of the baby, and the answer is still no. We haven't done the sccond ultrasound yet, and we don't have an appointment scheduled to do so. I'm sure we'll know more by next week since Enz is due for her monthly checkup. Hopefully we can set something up soon so we can determine if this will be a junior or juniorette! For now, Enz has been playing baby coco some music in the evenings, much like she did for Kenna. The baby responds, but tends to be a lot more mellow than the energizer bunny we currently have at home =) Stay tuned, and Happy Hump Day!

Reluctantly supporting the Raiders...

Ok, so being a man of my word, I went ahead and had Makenna pose in the winning team's outfit. The original bet was to have Kenna wear the outfit of the team with the better record when the Raiders & Dolphins played. The Raiders had the better record going into the game so Kenna should've worn the outfit all day. But being such a big kid, she doesn't fit into the clothes labeled for her size! HA! Anyway, here it is for all you Raider fans out there. Enjoy it, because A) I don't think she'll be sporting the silver and black many more times in the near future, and
B) This outfit doesn't fit her anymore!

Belly crawling...

Now that Kenna can easily sit up on her own, we've noticed just how much she enjoys it. She really likes sitting on the floor whenever Barney is on, she enjoys sitting up in her high chair, and now she really enjoys bath time! Sitting up in the bath gives her the opportunity to play with the bubbles and splash around rather than being on her back "stewing in her own filth" so to speak! Hehehe, she's not that dirty!

Lately, we've seen great changes in the little one. Yesterday the both of us were playing with Kenna and we noticed just how persistent she's become. She has pretty much mastered going from a sitting up position to a crawling stance. From the crawling position, she knows how to get where she needs to go, even though she hasn't quite learned how to coordinate her legs & arms in order to actually crawl.

Last night though, we heard her grunting and pushing so we kept a watchful eye on her as she attempted to move forward towards her toys. She tried rolling over and spinning on her belly, but neither one of those attempts took her in the right direction. That's when she did it-she started to crawl forward, little by little. She hasn't picked up on it yet, but by the looks of it, she should be extremely mobile very soon! For now, she's practicing her army crawl, and once I get a chance, I'll catch that on video.

Dada's Little Girl

To some, this may sound like a bunch of noise, but if you listen carefully, Kenna is saying dada! It usually starts off as lalala and then she gets the hang of changing it up. She's been saying dada for a couple of weeks off and on, but the last couple of days she's been fairly consistent with it, even saying it on command! We're working on getting her to say mama, but we're pretty sure she'll end up saying "Marino" first! Turn up you speakers for this one & enjoy!

On a different but equally exciting note, Enza finally felt Baby Coconut "flutter" last night! What made this extra special was that the fluttering went on for most of the evening after dinner, and well into the night. Enza was actually beginning to wonder why she hadn't been able to feel this baby, especially since she's hit the 20 week mark. Our next appointment isn't for another couple of weeks, so the fact that she hadn't distinctly felt the baby move made her worry just a little bit. After last night, our little coconut erased all doubts by making his/her presence known! Maybe it was the hamburger Mommy ate for lunch? Hmmm, another beef eater-looks like we'll be having another big one! Happy Hump Day!

Kids...

As of late, Makenna has really been into her "big brother" Marino. She has always taken a liking to him from the beginning, but lately she can't take her eyes off him. When Makenna hears Marino wake up and give himself the morning shake, she whips her head in whichever direction the sound comes from. Whenever Marino prances into the room, Kenna fixates her stare on him. Even when we try to talk to her while he's in the room, she'll focus on the dog before even beginning to hear us.

I guess we're pretty fortunate in that Marino loves the little squirt in return. Whenever we're not looking, he'll try his best to sneak up to her, smell her, and lick her face, feet, or hands-whatever's within immediate reach. It'll be interesting to see how both Makenna & Marino react with the upcoming addition...

I'm a big kid, look what I can do...

Although it rained a bit this weekend, we didn't let the presence of foul weather keep us from doing what we had to do. Of course the majority of things had to be done while it rained, so we ended up dropping the little one off at Nonna's house so we wouldn't have to deal with exposing her to the elements. Besides, Nonna hadn't seen Makenna for a few days, so it made for some nice "catch-up" time for the two.

Sunday we met up with some friends for breakfast, and this was the first time they got to meet Kenna. Sure they've seen pictures and heard stories, but this time they actually got to see Kenna in person, hold her & play with her. It took Kenna all but two minutes to warm up to them! Since Kenna has gone through a major growth spurt as of late, and now that she's capable of sitting up on her own, we put her in a high chair for the first time at breakfast. Initially she sat in the chair and stared at it, but after a minute or two, it was like she was at home and she just went about her business.

Later that day, we took her to the store and figured that since she was big enough to sit in a high chair, the same should apply to a shopping cart. Sure enough, she enjoyed the ride! The first thing she did, as do all kids around her age, was try to put her mouth on the handle of the cart! YUCK! Once we strapped her in, she wasn't able to reach the handle and just sat back and minded her own business as we pushed her through the store. Seeing her grow so fast is making us worry that we won't be quite as prepared for the next one. The time is moving so fast, and since we're so involved with watching Kenna go through all these new stages, we sometimes forget that there's another one on the way!

Kenna's first full day with Grandma

Yesterday was Makenna's first day with Grandma, and when I went to pick her up after work, it seemed like all went well. Both Grandma and Kenna were having a great time, and according to Grandma, Kenna didn't give her any problems. It must have been one of Kenna's good days, which made it extra special for Grandma, especially since it was her first time watching the baby alone.

We'll admit, both Enz & I were a bit apprehensive at first. I mean, c'mon now, it's been well over 35 years since my mom has had the responsibility of raising a baby. So it was safe to say that she suffered from a bit of "ring rust" if you will. Our biggest reservation was that we didn't want her to change up Makenna's routine, especially since Makenna's been really good about doing things the same, day in and day out. But my mom was able to follow through and with Makenna being in such a great mood, it made it that much easier for us to put our guard down.

With that, now we can ease my mom into more and more responsibilities as Kenna continues to grow. We're counting on both of Makenna's grandmothers now more than ever because Baby Coconut will be with us sooner than we think! Happy Friday and have a terrific weekend!

Makenna likes oatmeal

As we continue to introduce solids to the little one, we've noticed a difference in her afterwards. It seems that she's much more content now, and she has a lot more energy later into the evening. Of course another by-product of solid foods is solid waste, which in turn, brings out a whole new level of "stink," but that's a given!

Anyway, she's enjoying the change up in different cereals, and she'll hopefully continue to do so for the next couple of weeks until we begin the veggie introduction. For now, here's a short video of Kenna as she enjoys the taste and texture of oatmeal. Happy Hump Day!

Change in weather...

This past weekend was a fairly mellow one with the ever-growing family. We mainly did things to get more prepared for the arrival of Baby Coconut. Our little Baby Peanut is not so little anymore, and dealing with her is a task within itself. We find ourselves constantly wondering how we'll be able to do it with yet another crumb snatcher on our hands! With all our family close by, I'm sure we'll be able to handle it.

Aside from being football day on Sunday, we took Makenna for a morning walk. It was a lot cooler than the past few days, so we bundled her up like we were taking her up to the snow! She loved wearing the beanie, and to our surprise, she enjoyed the mittens as well, even though she's got a scowl on her face that would lead us to believe otherwise! The rest of day was pretty easy with Kenna as she wasn't feeling all too well to begin with. But even though she was congested, she was still able to keep us entertained with her happy disposition!

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Rice, Rice Baby!

So since Kenna has reached her 6 month mark, and per the doctor's suggestion, we started the little one on her journey into the world of solid foods with rice cereal last night. Being the obsessive parents that we are, we decided to catch this milestone on video to share with the world. Keep in mind that Kenna was feeling a bit under the weather, as she didn't do well with her last set of shots =(

Most of the time, she had the "bitter beer face" look, probably because she was trying to figure out what kind of slop Mommy was feeding her! According to Enz, she did a lot better this morning so if her attitude permits, I'll try to post a happier video at a later time. For now, enjoy, & Happy Friday!

Daddy's Girl for sure!

Aside from all of Kenna's quirks, sounds & noises, she's consistently surprising us with her ability to imitate. She can make her favorite sound (raspberry) on command, and will even mimic us whenever we do it first. She's already doing the whole "gimme five" thing, although sometimes it takes a little coaxing for her to figure out what we're asking.

Its very enjoyable to see how curious she's become while trying to imitate what Mommy & Daddy do. What's even more enjoyable was the sound that she made yesterday on her own, and it wasn't a fluke! On more than one occasion, and in front of witnesses, Kenna busted out with "da-da-da-da!" I didn't believe it until I heard it, and it wasn't even left to interpretation. It was clear as day, she said "da-da." Both grandmothers heard it, as well as Enz & myself. And with that, we're just waiting to hear her say "ma-ma" next!

Tale of the Tape

Yesterday was Makenna's six month appointment, and right off the bat, her doctor was impressed at how she sat up throughout the duration of the visit, all while being completely attentive and focused on him. She stared at the doctor as if she understood everything he was talking about! Maybe it's because she knew exactly what he meant when he told us that we can start her on solids? Whatever it was, she found him to be quite intriguing, and only took her stare off of him to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror-what a ham!

So in regards to her current status, here are her numbers. At six months of age, she weighs in at a healthy 19 pounds, putting her in the 97th percentile for her weight. Yeah, apparently we starve this kid! She is 26 inches long, which places her in the 50th percentile for her height. Both her mommy & I aren't exactly "towering" figures, so for her to be in the "average height" group isn't too big a deal. Finally her head circumference was something like 43.5 cm, which is in the 75th percentile. Big head = big brain?

She had another series of shots as well, and of course those put her over the top. She wasn't too thrilled with the oral vaccine she took, and the shots in the legs didn't help any either. She didn't cry for too long, which was good since she was going to spend some time with grandma. We dropped her off to stay with grandma for a couple of hours while Enza & I visited the doctor regarding baby #2. All in all, this was a good day for Makenna. We're starting the solids tonight so hopefully we'll have some great footage of little Kenna making a big mess! Stay tuned...

Give Me 5

Kenna's new thing is to give five on request. And while she's still working on doing it every time, she's probably getting tired of hearing us ask for it without really knowing what it does! Nevertheless, its fun to see how she's learning to respond to us. It's not quite a "high-five" but hey, much like everything else, you need to crawl before you can walk! Here's a short video clip of Kenna "practicing" giving five.

The Brighter Side of Kenna

This past weekend came and went rather quickly, and the little one seems to know when we're both home. On the weekends, Kenna likes to wake up early, prompting us to start a morning walk routine. Its been a little chilly in the mornings, but Kenna doesn't seem to mind, especially now that she's sitting up in her stroller, she's just enjoying the sights!

It was just a normal weekend, and Kenna was in a GREAT mood! After a week or so of her fussiness, it was a welcome change to see her laughing, smiling & playing without much of a whiny peep. I'm sure there will be more days like that in the near future, but for now, we've had a chance to catch our breath and enjoy the happier side of Kenna! What a relief!

Saturday evening, we paid a visit to Auntie Gina & Uncle Jason's place as they were having a little get-together. While we stayed for only a couple of hours, and well into Makenna's bedtime, she didn't show any signs of wanting to leave. She hammed it up for the camera, and was in awe of the new surroundings. Once we got her in the car though, it was lights out! And even though she was up past her bedtime, she woke up bright-eyed & bushy-tailed early the next day, ready for her morning stroll.

Makenna is 6 months old today!

First off, Happy 6 month birthday to the little stinker! Seriously, where has the time gone? It seems like we just went through the whole process of getting everything ready for her arrival, and here we are six months later! We're experiencing a bit of deja vu at the moment, with preparations for Baby Coconut's arrival. It's strange how life works, especially with the thought of our children being only 11 months apart. Any closer and they'd be twins! We'll see just how Kenna handles sharing the spotlight!

We breathed a giant sigh of relief last night! WHEW! Kenna was a bit more calm and relaxed, and we were able to put her down for the night without much of a fight. Grandma came by for dinner and some quality time with her little angel, probably tiring her out in the process. She also got to see Kenna as she enjoyed bath time. As we prepare to start the little one on solids, we're having her join us at the dinner table in her high chair. Grandma had a great time watching Kenna watch us, and she did so last night without any fuss. She seems so interested in what we're eating, and all of us are anxious to see her initial reaction to having something other than milk! Happy Friday everyone!