A week with Mimi and PapaCrow

This week Mimi and Papa Crow came to watch Kensie. I had to go to CT for work and Chris had things to do after work, so they came to town. Though I was not here for much of the visit, here are some pictures from Mimi...

Here is Kensie asking to be picked up. She does this A LOT now. And she whines like the dickens if she grabs your knees and looks up and you don't pick her up. I can't wait until she can talk like a real human being...

Here she is playing with the air purifier. Love that strong wind! Maybe she is thinking about a modeling career...



The bear hat is still a favorite around the house. Something about it just makes her so happy!



PapaCrow took Kensie for numerous walks.... not in her stroller, but really walking. She made it past our block and about halfway through the next block before turning around. She loves to shuffle her feet in the leaves. What a great fall picture!

Kensie Dancing

Everybody loves Kensie!

This week Kensie's grandparents are here to visit! And how lucky we are to have them here, because Kensie came down with a nasty case of croup on Tuesday, and wouldn't have been able to go to daycare. She has been tired and clingy, but once in a while she feels good enough to play with her toys and enjoy walking around outside.

Below she is wearing her new bear hat! With the cold weather coming up, she is just going to have to get used to wearing a hat, even though I have NEVER been able to get her to keep one on for more than a minute before. Fortunately there are matching gloves that look like little bear faces, too, so she sort of forgets about the hat and plays with her hands when we get her bundled up.

Kensie is continuing to walk all over the place. She definitely walks more than she crawls now. With Pumpkin back at the house, she has even more of a reason to be mobile... chasing kitty is so much fun! She still squeals at the sight of Pumpkin, which usually prompts Pumpkin to exit the room...

Kensie also has many new Parisian clothes to choose from this fall. Gigi picked up many things for her during their last trip to France... thank you, Gigi!

Last pic is of me and the bean... even though she is sick, she still seems to perk up when I come home from work and hold her. Nothing like mama's love, right?

Discovering the Muppets!

This weekend our friend Randy came to visit. He showed Kensie how to look up fun kids videos on uTube. She LOVED the musical numbers from the Muppet movies, Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer. It's the first time she has really watched "tv" before and enjoyed it for more than one minute. I went on Amazon and bought a muppet DVD set, so she will have more to watch on the big screen. Because honestly, watching tv on the laptop is just too tempting for her... she wants to push all those buttons!

Thanks to Randy for the Elmo book and toy, too! Kensie does love her Elmo!

Whistling Dixie

Kensie was puckering up a lot yesterday. I was waiting for her to break out in a whistle... though she never did. I think she just liked the way her new face felt and how much attention I gave her because of it!

For all the Zoolander fans out there, I like to call this one "pink steel."

The latest on our Kensie

So what has been new with Kensie? Well, she got to meet a bunch of potential babysitters yesterday. For the most part, she was shy and quiet, but at least she didn't embarrass me by whining or crying while I tell the person "she is such a great baby... very easy to take care of!" The good news is we have a list of people to call when we want a date night, which is very important to our sanity!

Kensie has been sporting her fall fashions lately. I've put away her summer shorts and t-shirts for good. Usually it's jeans and a cute top. The Michigan sweatshirt didn't seem to help us against Iowa last night, but we can't hold that against her. If she looks a little teary, it's partly because of the loss, but also because she has a cold. Her first snotty, ooky, annoying cold. The hardest part is when we try to put her to bed, because I think she has trouble breathing through her nose...

This morning Daddy decided to wear Kensie like a hat! She loved it!

Other recent "milestones" are small, but still cool in my book. She has these flashcards of animals. We look through them at least 4-5 times a week. She can now find the one of the dog and she makes a barking sound. She does it on her own... brings me the card and barks! She is also walking a lot more on her own without prompting... which is a bit scary, because I think she wants to "walk" down stairs, too! When I tell her "no" she generally stops what she is doing, which is very useful. Forever the climber, she continues to use the elliptical as her own personal gym, and climbs through the bars and such like a mini gymnast.

This weekend with the Moenssen's

This weekend our friends Keri, Dave, Vaughn, and Drew came to visit. We watched the Michigan vs. MSU game on Saturday... boo hoo! It was very hard to get Kensie to sit still for a picture in her new cheerleader outfit, so I'm posting the best shot I got!

Here is Dave trying to get Drew to do the "open mouth" smile!! Kensie used to do this... I think it is just so cute!!

After the game we decided to venture out to the city and see Millenium Park. Here is Vaughn looking like he is big enough to stomp on those skyscrapers in the background!

We had to see "the bean" while we were there, which is this giant metal sculpture in the shape of a bean. Our bean loved the bean!

Our trip ended at Buckingham fountain... which is the fountain you see at the start of "Married with Children." The trip ended because it started to pour down raining!! We had umbrellas but it was still a long wet walk back to the care... which was an adventure in itself. Seems though we parked in the only structure you can only access from one place --- on the complete other side of the park from which we were. But the night ended well with warm stuffed pizza at Giordano's. MMMM mmmm good....

Bye-bye!!!