A day in the life of Kendry...

...or maybe not.

After such a busy week we were looking forward to spending today at home, just resting up and getting a few things done around the house. I took this opportunity to do a day in the life photo shoot of Kendry to give our long distance readers a taste of our weekend life.

Awake at 7am, Kendry had his bottle and then happily watched the goings on in our little country neighborhood.

Followed by a practice run of crawling on all fours, which we're convinced he learned from his cousin Ava this last week. He is starting to prefer the all fours approach, but when he is running low on patience he darts into his army crawl instead, which, now that I think about it, is starting to look more like a salamander scurrying across the room. Given that I'm not a fan of reptiles, its almost a little creepy.

Then it was a delicious breakfast of Brown Cow yogurt. In my opinion, this yogurt should almost be called a parfait, its that tasty. For those who aren't familiar, this stuff has about an inch of cream just sitting on top when you open it. It is dee-lish! Oh, and its all natural and loaded with a great combo of fats, proteins and carbs, so its a good breakfast for my kiddo. He loves it, so mommy doesn't get to finish up leftovers very often with this meal.

8am = morning play time. Kendry does pretty well entertaining himself, especially with his wooden blocks.

Yes, my child is still in his pajamas at this point. Don't judge. It is, after all, Saturday morning, and he'll be headed for his morning nap by 9:30am anyway. Just know I don't allow him to stay in his pajamas all day long.Inevitably, as little boys do, Kendry finds some sort of mischief. This one was a toughie. Should I encourage him to pull himself up, a motor skill he is still tentatively mastering, or do I remind him that he isn't supposed to touch the electronics? Ahhh, the dilemmas of parenthood.

So the first two hours of the day went wonderfully. It was looking to be a great start to our weekend.

And then 9am rolled around and the teething monster took over my child, which is why I have no photos to show for pretty much the rest of the day. Kendry is finally cutting one of his top teeth and he took it out on me this morning. After a short morning nap (if you can even call it that), my patience was wearing thin and I had to get him distracted with something new. I opted for a trip into town to run some errands and returned home just in time for his afternoon nap, which fortunately was more successful this time. When he awoke, he happily joined me for a beautiful jog (it was nearly 60 degrees here today), and then we joined Justin in the yard as he measured and marked out his rose garden.

But, my day in the life theme wasn't a total loss. I snapped a few shots of Kendry outside in the yard, the last one being my fave.

Its amazing how in the span of a few hours this kiddo can go from being a total bear to a little angel. And I love him to pieces as both.

TOT

1. Last Friday Justin's Grandpa Wayne passed away at the age of 93. We miss you, Grandpa.

2. My mom arrives in just 4 more days. Hooray!
3. Let the climbing (and inevitable tumbling back down) begin! Last night Kendry pulled himself up to a standing position in the bathroom, and then figured out how to stand up in his crib. I have never been one to worry about Kendry sleeping with a bumper in his crib (i.e. suffocation hazard), but now I'm worried he might try using the bumper for leverage to climb up and out. I think Mommy will be removing that bumper in short order and, while she is at it, moving the mattress to a lower setting as well.

Naturally I had to capture this "first" on camera, which led Kendry to believe it was time to get out of bed already. Poor kid!

4. I just bought a complete Easter outfit (Ralph Lauren slacks, The Children's Place sweater vest and button down) for Kendry for just $12.50. EBAY ROCKS!

5. The house sure is quiet tonight with it being just the three of us again.

6. Justin has inherited many of Grandpa Wayne's beautiful roses. Grandpa adored his roses so it will be a privilege to carry them on. Stay tuned for pics of our new beautiful rose garden.

7. Oh black jelly beans, how I love thee!

8. After some furniture re-arranging this week we are finally saying goodbye to our old beat up coffee table. If you have been to our house, you know why I am excited; and if you haven't been to our house, well...just know that Justin bought the table for $10 at Goodwill about six years ago. All together now: "Good riddance!"

9. I am praying for beautiful weather on Saturday so we can take a family walk down on the levy and let Kendry feed the ducks.

10. I have the most wonderful hubby! Justin took today off from work to recuperate after this last week's events, and he kept Kendry home with him for some daddy and son time. But here is the clincher: he did 3 loads of laundry while I was at work! As it turns out, he DOES know how the washing machine works.

Artsy Fartsy

Kendry turns 1 in a little more than two months (eek!) and my attempts at keeping his baby scrapbook and photo album current are thus far beyond pathetic. I am hoping to have most of his first year monumental events captured in the scrapbook by his first birthday. This weekend I accomplished two pages; at this pace I just might reach my goal.

This is Kendry's first Halloween page. Kendry gave us the perfect scared pose in the bottom left photo. That is his cousin Ava in the monkey costume that he is clinging to for dear life. Kendry loves to grab Ava, poor girl.

This page is going in the beginning of his scrapbook. I call it my "waiting for Kendry" page. I found this layout idea online and fell in love with it. I had the perfect pregnancy picture for it too, thanks to Katie White. Would you look at the size of my belly?! Craziness!

Happy Boy

I got the camera out tonight for some updated pics. Poor Kendry is still trying to cut his top teeth (going on for about two months now), and tonight they were really bothering him. But he managed to give me a few smiles. Of course, he always smiles for Daddy.

We got him a new cap just in time for baseball season."Shhhh, Daddy, my big belly wants to tell you something.""Will I ever have that many teeth?""The few I have are trouble enough already."

Animal Sounds

We recently got a Leap Frog book for Kendry that makes farm animal noises. Kendry finds the animal noises quite funny, especially the mooing of a cow.

TOW

1. Kendry had his 9 month appt this last Monday. He measured 30.5 inches long (97%), and weighed 22lbs 9oz (81%). Oh, and I don't remember the exact measurements, but his head is in the 96th percentile. Rarely does anyone actually mention this measurement, but as many of you know, there are small head genetics on the Gimlin side of the family. Rest assured, our big boy's head is proportional to his size. :)



2. We are very much looking forward to going out to dinner with some friends this Friday night and, many thanks to Amanda, it looks like we'll have a babysitter for Kendry. The restaurant is in Genesee (about 20 minutes away) and is supposed to be good eating. I asked a colleague if she had ever heard of this restaurant and her response was: "They have a restaurant in Genesee?" Could be interesting...


3. Kendry's Auntie Andrea got him the cutest OshKosh jeans for Christmas this year and I couldn't help but take a picture of him in them. Too cute!

4. We enjoyed a wonderful Superbowl Sunday this past weekend. After church, a quick nap at home, and visiting Justin's grandparents, we attended the annual party with Justin's colleagues. Justin brought his own homemade chicken wings (spicy and BBQ) and I brought Peanut Butter Whoopie Pie cookies (recipe can be found in the Feb. Better Homes & Gardens). Both were a hit! Kendry was a little hesitant around all the new faces and the shouting during the eventful game, but otherwise he did incredibly well. He even laid down for his afternoon nap in his pack and play in a back room. While he didn't have a Seahawks (or any other football team) jersey like his mommy's to wear, he did have a onesie with a football on it that says "My Dad is my Hero". All dressed and ready for the game:

5. This last weekend Kendry and I left Justin on his own for a few hours. When I left Justin had already climbed the ladder to take down our icicle lights, and he had climbed the tree in the front yard to take down the lights there as well. I figured I was okay to leave knowing he wouldn't be falling off a ladder or out of a tree while I was away. When I returned home I was puzzled to see a tow rope attached to one of the huge (and dying) trees in our back yard, not to mention an axe stuck in the trunk of the tree. Mind you, the trunk of this tree is about 2 to 3 feet in diameter, so taking this tree down is no small feat. But it seems my hubby got inspired to hack down this huge tree while I was gone. Fortunately, the buddy he was hoping could help him was out of town that morning; once Justin realized that he lost his motivation. (sigh of relief!) Something about trying to take this tree down without professional help has me a little worried, but Justin will stop at nothing to get rid of it.

6. While its not one of the more popular events, I'm really eager to see some XC skiing on the Olympics this year. I would love to take up XC skiing as a hobby next winter.

7. We need to find Kendry a little Seattle Mariners cap before the baseball season starts. Justin is determined for Kendry to experience his very first MLB game this year, especially with Junior still playing for the M's.

8. You will never guess what I bought Justin for Valentine's Day this year. I am so excited to see his reaction cuz its something he has been wanting for quite some time now.

9. I'm fairly certain my Easter black jelly beans will be on candy shelves come Monday...

10. For those who actually read my "ten" blogs, I'm thinking to steal Justin's nightstand this weekend and accomplish that next project on my to-do list. I'll let you know his reaction.

Strollin'

Kendry recently figured out the whole process of putting one foot in front of the other. In fact, now when he practices walking he takes enormous steps. Perhaps he has his mommy's long stride.

One of his favorite activities is for us to take him "walking" around the house:

I fully realize that once he starts walking he'll be getting into even more than he is these days with the army crawling, but at least walking won't leave him with the dirty shirt he gets from scooting around on the hard floors.

Army crawl

Whew! It only took me about four tries, but I finally got the program to work with me. Here is our little crawler in action:

Ten on Wednesday

1. Kendry has his 9 month check-up next Monday, which means he only has five more days to pack on the pounds for his official weigh-in. His eating habits have been a little finicky over the last few weeks; we are attributing it to his teething. But finicky eater or not, he is definitely a healthy, growing boy.

2. One of our favorite pastimes while shopping at Costco is hitting up the sample tables. Forget about making lunch - just head to Costco around 11am on a Saturday or Sunday and you can enjoy quite the smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, pasta, soup, fish, bread and pastries. I do draw the line at actually standing there and waiting for the next batch to come out of the pan or microwave though - for some reason that appears a bit desperate to me and, please, I’ve got shopping to do. But do you ever notice the poor guy/gal who got stuck with manning the sample table for milk or vitamins? Seriously, does anyone even approach those tables except out of pity?

3. I have decided that for my 30th birthday I want to go to Silverwood Theme Park. What better way to ring in a monumental birthday than acting like a kid again?! Plus, I have never been there.

4. Kendry has become our little army crawler; he crawls all around the house on his belly rather than on all fours. I got a video of him crawling but had trouble getting it to upload this morning. Grr! For those of you on Facebook, I did manage to get it uploaded there.

5. I am thinking to go with a bug theme for Kendry’s first birthday. Only three more months until my baby boy turns 1!

6. It was nearly 50 degrees again yesterday. I wore my long pea coat to work because it was still decently chilly in the morning, but when I headed out for lunch I felt like I was dressed for the wrong season. Obviously, Punxsutawney Phil hasn’t been to Lewiston in the last few weeks or he would know that spring seems to have arrived already.

7. GO COLTS!!

8. As many of you know, I don't have a dishwasher. Our house was built in the 50's and I'm not sure anything other than the floor and the sink has been updated since then - save for the GE appliances we purchased shortly after we moved in. But I digress. These days I feel like I spend half my evening at the sink, hand washing the day's dishes. I'm tempted to start keeping track of just how much of my life is spent at that darn sink. Perhaps that will help convince my hubby that we at least need to find a portable dishwasher to use until we can remodel the kitchen.

9. I have actually made myself a pot of coffee the last few mornings at home and have gotten minimal negative remarks from the peanut gallery (aka my hubby). For those who know Justin, you know this is a huge step because he hates coffee with a passion. Boy, does that morning cup help get me going, especially when I get up at 4:45 to hit the gym.

10. There is a man at my gym who wears an 80's style cut-off sweatshirt for his workouts. Think "Flashdance", but with a guy who is about 6ft and 220lbs. And when I say cut-off I mean he doesn't just cut around the neck and arms, but he also cuts off the bottom to make it nice and short at his waist. Now imagine him doing overhead presses... Ahhh, just another day in Clarkston.