8 is GREAT!!!

Berkley definitely thinks being eight months old is GREAT!  Why, you ask?  Oh, well just because she pretty much gets whatever she wants, all the time... within reason of course :)  She could be summed up as happy all the time, if in any one of the following: when she's being held and walked around the house wherever I go, when she's sleeping, or when she is freely roaming about the house, doing as she pleases!!!  You can just forget about putting her in ANY type of holding device, i.e. exersaucer, jumperoo, swing etc.  Wait, I take that back, she does like the exersaucer.  For like five minutes :)  She is truly a sweet baby and I am always finding myself telling Aaron how sweet she is.  Let's just say she likes to be held, likes her freedom and likes her sleep.  And, these aren't bad things by any means, she just doesn't let you forget that she doesn't appreciate you setting her in the exersaucer, ha! 

     You attempt to pull up on anything you come into contact with!  Sometimes when you're just sitting on the floor, it's as if you are going to stand up right there, without the help of anything!  I'm not saying you are pulling up just yet, you randomly have if the object was just the right height, but it sure won't be long and I'm sure I'll be finding you standing up in your bed in no time.  Your first little tooth is just barely coming through :)  It's your bottom left tooth.  You've had your first ear infection and have been on your first antibiotic :(  You never ran fever, just pulled/tugged/made little sores in your ear over a couple of weeks, so I took you to see your doctor before going out of town. 

Probably your daddy's favorite recent milestone... you attended your first Southern Miss football game, and did great!!!

     And last, but certainly not least, you LOVE Kenadie!!!  And she would say she LOVES you more!  On ANY piece of school work, art work, doodling-type work, coloring page etc., she writes "Kenadie Zumwalt Berkley."  She's ready to see you immediately from you waking from a nap, or if she's been away from you for any length of time.  When I took you to the doctor last week, she stayed with Kay Kay, and made sure to tell me to call her after your appointment and tell me what the doctor said :)  Gee, I sure hope that's genuine and that I haven't OCDedly passed that on to her :)  She was sweet though, she wanted to know if you were sick :)

Here's to hoping that your eighth month doesn't fly as quickly as your seventh, because if it does, it means that we will be celebrating Kenadie's 4th birthday, BIG tear :(  But, she's way too excited for me to get too sad about it...  I'm sure I'll make time to have a closet cry about it when no one is looking :)  I love you my little Berkley Pie! 

Family Dedication

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

Family Dedication was this past Sunday at our church.  It was just a sweet time, where our family, along with six other families, stood before the church and committed to raising our children in Godly homes.  It is a priveledge to be Kenadie and Berkley's mommy.  It is my prayer that they grow to love Jesus and honor Him in all that they do.  May I always set the Christ-like example God has called me to be. 

   Thankful for our little blessing, Berkley.  And thankful, and I'm not joking here, that Kenadie did EXACTLY what she was supposed to do: Be very still, be very quiet, and if she felt the need to do anything other than stand there and look pretty, she could smile :) 

Extreme Makeover: Nursery Edition

On Monday, Berkley discovered how to go from laying down to sitting up all on her own.  Monday night when I put Berkley down for the night, I told Aaron that this would probably be her last night to sleep in her bed without it being lowered.  10 minutes after putting Berkley to bed... Aaron was lowering her crib!  Even though she's not pulling up yet, I could just see her taking a nose dive over the side of her crib.  I also had to remove the bumper pad from one side... she thought she needed a place to look out more than the comfy pillow surrounding her :)

  And, she gave her new and unimproved bed two thumbs up!  While her mommy was sad it was already time to do such :(

Look who's 7 months old

Happy 7 months, Berkley!!!  What do I need to document about you at the moment... hmmm... let's see.  Well, you are still technically a happy baby, but you have definitely learned how to fuss for the things you need :)  You typically get your feelings hurt when we walk out of the room you are in, and even though it may break your heart, I sure do like the feeling of being needed :)  You are still going to bed around 6:30, but have consistently started waking around 5:30, ouch!  We usually leave you in your bed for as long as you are happy, and I can just forget about you going back to sleep!  Nuh uh, not gonna happen until after you get your bottle! 

 You are crawling everywhere!!!  We've introduced a sippy cup--my that sounds strange!  I DID say "introduced", I think it has happened like two times :)  You eat breakfast and dinner and take 4, 7oz. bottles.  One thing that's different about you and Kenadie and your bottles... you WILL actually sometimes leave an ounce or so, and not want it.  You have recently shown an interest in Lily, and it's pretty cute :)  I'm sure the feelings are mutual.  She's a great sport with children! 

You really like your little blankies, all five of them!  When I lay you in your bed, I always put one under both arms, and you roll onto your side, all snuggled up in them :)  You maybe seem a little partial to the one with the little rabbit attached to the top of it, but you really like them all!  We still don't have any teeth yet, however, you have definitely had the personality of a baby who is teething!  Come on little teethies... 

I thought I would compare Kenadie and Berkley again like I did last month.  Berkley is still taking her baths in the little inflatable tub that sits down in the bath tub, apparently Kenadie was not :)  I posed Berkley out of her inflatable tub so that their pictures looked more alike.  She sure was loving the freedom!  She is still too much of a wiggle worm to take baths like this just yet!  And one more note on her being a wiggle worm... I DO NOT remember Kenadie being NEAR as WIGGLY during diaper changes and getting dressed!  Oh my goodness!  I would say I have to flip her over about 5 times during a single diaper change.  She just smiles the whole time over it all, while I on the other hand, have worked up a sweat just trying to get her diapered and clothed, ha!



The Things She Tells Us

"This morning, I woke up and recognized it was day time, so I got up!!!"

"Mommy, what shirt am I going to wear when I go to heaven?"

"When your tummy hurts, it's called electricity, and you have to go to the electricity doctor."

"Mommy, I colored the stool blue.  I colored it goodly."

Kenadie's prayer at bedtime, after reading We're Going On a Bear Hunt:

"Dear God, thank you for our family and thank you for keeping us safe and please help a bear not to get us and if one gets in our house, please turn it into a statue.  Amen"

"Mommy, look at Berkley, she's sitting like a gorilla."

After picking her up from her Sunday school class and asking what her story was about:

"Kay Kay, see, Jonah was swallowed by a BIG fish because he said NO to God, and that was wrong, Kay Kay.  He should have said NO sir!"

Lindsey: "Oh Kenadie, you're such a big girl drinking out of a big cup.  That makes me sad that you're growing up on me."

Kenadie: "Oh Mommy, I'll be okay.  I'm just trying to be big like you.  Can I be big like you when I grow up?

Lindsey: "Why sure you can!"

Kenadie: "Oh yay!!!"

"Berkley, when you grow up, you'll be bigger than me, but I won't mind.  I'll still love you when you're bigger than me."

Lindsey: "Would you like for me to paint your toe nails?"

Kenadie: "No thanks.  My toe nails have  faces, and when you paint them, they can't see!  That's why."

Lindsey: "Oh Kenadie, I'm tired of washing clothes." (actually was saying to myself, kinda)

Kenadie: "Well Mommy, if you're tired of washing clothes, then just stop washing."

The way she writes her name:  Kenadie ZumwaltHx  When I told her there really wasn't an "Hx" in her name, she told me "Oh Mommy, I just like to pretend that those letters are in my name."

"Mommy, come quick!  I see a spider!  It's a mean one."

(I stomp spider)

"Awww... Mommy, why did you stomp him?  He was just a mean, friendly little spider."

"Mommy, are you going to recycle me?"

Little Girl, Big Day

Dear Kenadie,
Today, me, Daddy and Berkley took you to your first day of school!  Thank goodness it was just 3 year old preschool, because this mommy of yours is soooooooo not ready for you to head off to "big school" just yet!  You were so excited, probably the MOST excited I have ever seen you be in your short little 3.10 years of life :)  You were plum giddy with excitement, and it was ever so cute!  I'm pretty sure you didn't notice my silent meltdown... I knew it was going to happen sometime, I just wasn't sure when!  Well, it hit me hard and kinda out of nowhere when I was fixing your hair to go, and you were looking all happy at yourself in the bathroom mirror with your sweet little apple dress on that Kay Kay and I made for you.  It was at the moment of putting your big red polka dotted bow in your hair, and it was when I said "Okay, look at Mommy so I can put your bow in your hair" that I silently lost it.  For a second, I felt like I was putting your graduation cap on!!!  Oh my!  I have no idea why my mind goes 15 some odd years down the road, but it does :(  It just hit me at that moment that I was getting my baby ready for school!  I thought my moment would come when I kissed you and told you bye for the first time, but no, it was all about the fixing of the hair!  Sniff, sniff...

Okay, so on to the part about you being so excited!  Before we loaded up, I had to take your picture, of course!  Did you expect anything different... probably not :)

  The entire car ride to school was filled with "let's remember to make good choices", "remember to obey our teacher the first time" and the likes there of :)  We are soon arriving at school, which is also where we go to church, and you are wanting to hold my hand :)

We love our sweet teacher, Mrs. Melanie!

  Even with your eyes closed, it's still cute :)

And off you go...

Okay, so now is the part where me, and your fan club wait for what seems to be forever to go back to get you!  We ran a couple of errands, gave Berkley her bottle etc.  I think I forgot to mention, but Daddy took off the whole day today, yeah, you are a pretty lucky little girl, who has one daddy that's crazy about her.  He didn't want to miss a thing :) and although I captured just about your every move in a photo, he insisted on not missing out :) 

 You with your sweet friend, Ally

and one with Mommy

When I asked you what your favorite things about school were, you had three: 1)You love Mrs. Melanie, 2) Playing on the playground, and 3) Getting your backpack!  You appeared to be in disbelief when I told you that you get to go back tomorrow :)  You have looked so forward to going to school!  I am so glad it has apparently lived up to your expectations :)  Now, if I can just get you to take off your beloved backpack to go to bed :)  I love you my sweet girl!  I love seeing you so happy--makes my heart melt :)

 

How It's Done

Crawling that is... Yes!  Berkley was definitely crawling better than she was sitting up at one point!  She's not up on all fours yet, but she can definitely get where she needs to go!  And yes, it happened OVERNIGHT! 

"Hmmm... that toy over there sure does look more fun than these over here...  Now where is that sister of mine to go get it for me?  She never lets me out of her sight!"

"Oh, alright... I'll go get it."

"Will I get there faster if I hold my mouth open?"

"Got it!"

"Okay, that was fun for a little while.  On to something else.  I really think I was having more fun before I came all the way over here."

"I'll just go right back to where I was.  The toys were better over there anyway."

"Maybe just one little scoot more..."

"Ahhh... I think I'll just stay here for a while... seeings how THIS is what I really wanted all along."

Berkley, slow your little self down!  You weren't supposed to start crawling until next month like your sister did :)  Just a note about the second child: Berkley is just about over the exersaucer and swing.  Kenadie lasted happily in the exersaucer until she was at least 12 months old, and as for the swing... I was worried she was going to outgrow the 30 lb. limit, but not Berkley :)  Kenadie must be making the outside world look way more fun!