Video @ 5 weeks old

20 seconds of riveting baby action! Well, not really. But you can see how she has changed since her first video a month ago.

I can see!

This past week Kensie has spent an increasing amount of time awake and looking around, so we decided to give the Tiny Love gym another try. The first time we put her on it (at 2 weeks old) she screamed bloody murder. But today, she was so excited to be on the mat!

She kicked her legs and waved her arms. She punched Mr. Monkey and backhanded Mr. Giraffe, like a debt collector for the mob. It is so neat to be able to see!

Bumpy start as a new Wolverine fan...

Yesterday Kensie watched her first Michigan football game. Unfortunately it was a sad day for wolverine fans, as you can see from her picture below. A new coach and rookie players made for a poor showing that had us groaning throughout the whole game. Even with home team advantage, playing in the Big House, Michigan only seemed to score when the Utes made mistakes! C'mon coach... better turn things around for next week!

A week with Pops and Gigi

Kensie spent this week with her grandparents, Pops and Gigi. The great thing about that is she got LOTS of walks around the neighborhood. Sometimes up to 4 walks a day! Most of the time this put her right to sleep. However, one night Chris and I tried to use this "sure fire" way to calm her down at 4am, and it failed miserably! She cried all the way around the block, surely waking up a few neighbors in the process. Just goes to show you that there is nothing routine about babies. As soon as you think you have them figured out, you find out just what little devils they can be!

Another interesting thing about Kensie is that she seems to have a special sense for when mom wants to eat a meal. Especially dinner! Every day while Pops and Gigi were in town (except the one night Chris and I got to go out alone) we had to monitor Kensie's mood and sleeping patterns for hours in order to time when dinner hit the table. The cooks would pre-prepare everything for the meal, so when the moment seemed right, the cooking could begin or a course could be served. Sometimes it worked and all four of us got to eat together, which was really nice. Sometimes we would take turns holding her around the table. And other times I reheated my meal, after bouncing Kensie through an hour of Law and Order.

Kensie meets Grandpa Smith

Saturday afternoon Kensie met her Grandpa Harry for the first time. Even though Grandpa probably hadn't held a baby since he held me 30 years ago, he did quite well with sleepy Kensie. She stretched and yawned, but mostly just enjoyed being held while she snoozed.

Godparents

This past weekend Kensie met her future godparents, Pete and Sabrina.

Milky minutes

Kensie has acquired a number of nicknames. The main one is "milky minutes." We started calling her that after seeing the cellular phone commercial that has a family having breakfast and the dad spills milk all over the rollover minutes sitting on the table. The dad tries to throw away the minutes, but the mom reminds him how her sister would be happy to have those milky minutes, since the sister has another cellular plan, where her minutes expire. Anyway, Kensie was spitting up a lot when we first saw that commercial, so we playfully berated her for throwing away her milky minutes with no apparent shame. Needless to say, we have started to feed her with a bib on, to catch those inevitable milky moments.

We also call her variations on "bean." Like our little bean, or beaner. We don't mean for people to think we are calling her a Mexican (as used by comic Carlos Mencia). It's just that when she is all curled up, she kind of looks like a little lima bean.

And sometimes I call her my little monkey, since she makes all these weird noises and moves her arms in animalistic ways. This is most common right when she wakes up! By far some of her cutest moments are when she is going from sleep to awake. She is just like a grown person... trying so hard to get up in the morning for work, but really wishing she could keep her eyes closed and catch 5 more minutes of dreamy sleep time.

Kensie goes for a walk

Yesterday we (and the weather) finally got our act together and we went for a walk with Kensie. For the past few days we have had heavy rain and hail, so stroller rides were not in the cards. But, Saturday was 80 and sunny; and the weatherman said it was one of the ten best days this summer for outdoor activities! So, we packed up the diaper bag and took a walk to the park near our house. Wolcott Park is about a mile and a half from our house. It has tennis courts, baskeball courts and a playground. The cement is blue on the playground, which we think is because it is "soft" concrete. Kensie slept the whole trip, even over the bumpiest of sidewalks, so we will have to go again, and see if she approves of the playground environment. The other kids seemed to enjoy it, but who knows with Kensie! After two weeks of life, we have learned that she either likes or hates everything, and she has no reservations about making her opinion heard. Maybe she will grow up to be a movie critic? Or a radio talk show host?

First Bath

Well, after one week in this world, Kensie was ready for a bath. Her umbilical cord fell off during her pediatrician appointment on August 4th. It was fortunate that Mimi was here for a visit, since I had no idea how to bathe a baby. I had the tub and the tiny wash cloths and a variety of baby washing products... but was unsure how to make it all work. See poor cold Kensie below in her fancy baby tub!

After watching me try to bring warm water up to my chilly baby for a few minutes, Mimi said to just hold her over the sink and wash her there with the water running on her head. Who would have thought that would be so easy!

When it was all done, Kensie thoroughly enjoyed being all bundled up in her towel. In fact, she was so cute after her bath, that I think we will give her another one today! Love, Jess

Kensie meets Mimi and Grandpa

Kensie met her Mimi and Grandpa this weekend! They were absolutely smitten with her good looks and charm, which was to be expected.

Kensie did require quite a bit of attention the first night of the visit. It was as though she knew that mom and dad wanted to have fun and she wasn't having any of it. So, Chris and I took turns calming her -- using our extensive parenting skills, accumulated in the past 6 days. She finally settled down around 11pm, after 2 hours of fussing and such. Not bad, eh? Love, Jess

Kensie's visitors

Kensie had her first visitors at home on Thursday. Michelle, Valerie, Jodi, and Kelly all came bearing gifts and love! Each one took a turn holding the little munchkin, and thank god -- she was in a good mood! Sleeping most of the time and letting everyone snuggle and rub her baby soft skin.

Here is Michelle holding Kensie. Michelle is in school to be a doctor, so she was able to provide technical explanations, as I regaled the group with the "story of my labor."


Here is Valerie holding Kensie. Val has already jump-started Kensie's fashionista wardrobe by giving her an oh-so-cute Juicy Couture hoodie and pants set!

Here is Jodi holding Kensie. Kensie got her sea legs while in my belly on Jodi's boat this summer. Wonder when her first boat trip as a human will be??

And here is Kelly holding Kensie. Thanks, Kelly, for the adorable outfits and PINK Longaberger basket! I don't think we will ever have to wear an outfit twice, due to the generous nature of all of our friends and family!

On Friday I had to take an unplanned trip to the doctor's office, and Jenn was able to come over and watch Kensie! Thank you, Jenn! It is so good to have friends willing to help out in a pinch.