Valerie visits!

This last weekend Valerie came to visit us and she and Kensie had some good times playing with Kensie's laptop! Kensie would just laugh and laugh as she opened and closed the laptop. She's not so into playing the games or pushing buttons... but she loves the opening and closing.

Thanks Valerie for the housewarming gift! We will certainly make the time to go out to eat soon... as long as you are up for babysitting!!

Kensie walking... finally!

Go Blue!

Life in the new house

Moving in is hard work! But, fortunately we had a lot of help from Mimi and Grandcrow this weekend. The kitchen items all have proper homes in the various cabinets and drawers. The office is organized. The guest room is usable. Kensie's room is kid safe. The TV room is comfy. And our bedroom is all done except for the 4 huge boxes of shoes I have yet to go through and organize in some way....

It was really nice to have my parents here to help watch Kensie or clean. My dad was really great about pitching in to feed her or take her for long walks in the neighborhood.

Some things that Kensie is doing lately of note.... She loves to look at pictures of babies. Babies in books, on tv, in picture frames, in magazines, and especially in real life! And we think she may even have said "baby" at one point, because we kept saying the word to her as she pointed to various babies in frames on the fridge. She is also teething, with her top teeth about 1/3 of the way poked through. This makes for a pretty crabby Kensie a lot of the time... but she sleeps more, too. Kensie has learned how to climb down stairs now. Which is a lot less frustrating for her, because she doesn't have to wait for someone to get her when she gets to the top now!

Pajama girl

Well, Kensie has graduated to wearing pajamas to bed. No longer will she be wearing the kind with feet that zip up the front! Real top and bottom sets, with cute pictures on them! I got a few with Disney characters on them, but mostly it was these very inexpensive sets from Walmart! I couldn't believe how cute and what a deal these Walmart jammies were!

In other news, Kensie finally had her one year check up. A month late, but it was the soonest we could get her in at the new practice we found in Chicago. Anyway, she is right on target with all her milestones. She is pulling herself up, cruising around, has taken a few tentative steps, can stand for long periods of time, points to things, and claps her hands. Her stats were a bit of a surprise, with her dropping to the 30% range for weight (she is 20lbs 12 oz), 50% for height, and 75% for head. My baby is shrinking! But, the doctor said not to worry, she is "just fine!"

Today we move into our new house in Elmwood Park. We closed on the house yesterday. Chris bought paint for the bedrooms, and we are going to clean and paint while we wait for various service people to show up today (electrician, fridge and mattress delivery, etc.). Hopefully Kensie will love her new big house and all the room to explore! We will get our actual furniture next Tuesday... so that gives us all weekend to get the house ready for our things.

PS: In the picture above you can see the oven in our apartment. Kensie LOVES to take the pots and pans out of the drawer below the oven. At first I was just like, whatever... it's noisy, but she seems to be having fun. But the other day I realized she is making real developmental progress. She doesn't just bang them, she moves the items from the drawer into the cupboard next to the oven. Back and forth she takes these items. Sometimes she tries to get in the cupboard, too... what a weirdo!