Laughing

We are having a lot of fun visiting our friends and family in New Mexico this week. It is amazing how fast these visits fly by. Kennedy has done great this trip and has been in a happy mood the whole time. I thought that the travel and time difference would throw off her schedule, but she is napping and sleeping like a little lamb. My parents have been getting lots of quality time in with Kennedy and today her Gramms made her laugh harder than I have ever heard her laugh before.

4 Months (and some change)

Our 4-month pictures are a little Tardy to the Party, but better late than never! Kennedy still protests tummy time, but seems to really enjoy sitting upright. She also loves books. When we sit and read she has started reaching out to turn the pages and she interrupts my storytelling with her own sweet babble. When I let her hold the book herself, she furrows her brow and stares at it like it is the Wall Street Journal.

We ordered our Christmas cards this week from Shutterfly. My friend Caroline and I set up a mini-photo shoot at my house with our girls. Even though I got a 'card worthy' shot out of that session, I was getting greedy and had Greg help me try to re-create it on Sunday. In my mind, this impromptu sesh was a hit, unfortunately that really wasn't the case when I uploaded the pictures. Here are a few outtakes of Kennedy in some of her festive Christmas attire.

Candy Cane Legs

Olive getting in on the photo action.

Is this Olive's debut on the blog? I think it might be.

Thunder-Boom

A terrifying thunder-boom woke me and Greg up at about midnight. Ok, it woke me up and I woke Greg up. I am afraid of thunder, lightening and tornadoes. Add The Dark to this list and you have the four scariest things in Amanda's World. Dallas is, unfortunately, not the most ideal place for someone who is inexplicably frightened by The Weather to live.

Anythunders, as I was laying in bed it got me thinking about what Kennedy might grow up to be afraid of. Will she just inherit my irrational fears? (Like I possibly did from my mother...) Or will she develop some of her very own?

I don't think this will come as any surprise to anyone reading this who knows my mother, but she has a few irrational, and some pretty funny things she is afraid of. Bees, freeways, being alone in the house and cats. She is terrified of cats. She thinks every single cat she comes in contact with is going to surprise attack her. Like the cat has been sitting in his little kitty room drawing up plans for the precise moment when Lainey comes to visit. And then our of nowhere, straight for the eyes.

I expect we will go through the normal childhood fears of the dark, monsters and bugs, but hopefully, I can keep from passing on some of my silly fears on to Kennedy.

Copycat

Kennedy will try to copy our facial expressions from time to time, or will stick out her tongue if I stick out my tongue at her. But this morning she started copying me when I smacked my lips together. I think she is pretty impressed with this awesome new trick she learned as she has been doing it for the past 30 minutes now.

Feeling Better

We had our follow up appointment with the pediatrician this morning and found out Kennedy gained 6 oz over the weekend. She has her appetite back but still has the unfortunate diaper situation. Until things are back to normal she is still on the special soy formula. Once she is 'regular' again we will try giving her milk and her reaction (or lack of a reaction) to the milk will tell us if her sickness was a milk allergy or just a virus. She seems to feel better though, so we met up with our friends Caroline & Emily and Ashley & Alex for a picnic lunch at the Arboretum. The weather was gorgeous today and all three babies were in great moods and enjoyed their time outside. Such a fun afternoon.

Kennedy - 4 months

Emily - 6 months

Alex - almost 9 months

The girls were exhausted after playing in the grass.

The Flu?

The stomach flu. Or not. We're not sure. It was sort of a perfect storm - Greg had stomach Yuckies, Kennedy got her 4 month immunizations and had to drink some special juice to aid in some, ahem, constipation issues. The rest of the week, well, I will spare you the details but everything just went right through her. Although she never ran a fever, she slowly lost her appetite and had more dirty diapers in one day than she would normally have in 2 weeks. On Wednesday the doctor thought it was a reaction from all of the above factors and that the Constipation Cocktail worked a little too well. Greg and I were starting to get worried because she is already so small and felt smaller to us both last night. We went in to see the doctor today for follow up and found out that she had lost about 1.5 lbs in 4 days and is now weighing in at 9lbs.

Obviously this was very concerning, but the doctor thinks it is 1 of 2 things: either a more severe case of the Yuckies that Greg had on Sunday, or a milk protein allergy triggered by some virus. From now until Monday we have her on this super special Expert Care (read: expensive) soy formula and Pedialyte.

Update: She seems to like the soy formula and is sucking down the Pedialyte like crazy. As soon as she sees the bottle she gets so excited, puts her hands out towards it and won't let go. Hopefully she will continue to eat like this for the rest of the weekend!

Giggles

I don't know what it was about "ha ha" but I said it to Kennedy at the store today, and she thought it was hilarious. As we walked up and down the aisles she just giggled and giggled at me.

This was the icing on top of an already successful grocery trip. I was too embarrassed to go back to my neighborhood Tom Thumb for the 4th time in 5 days, so I ventured out to a new market. I was cautiously hopeful to see my new store featured a robust "International Foods" aisle. You see, crumpets had become part of my morning routine in NY, and I just could not find them anywhere in Dallas. I was just telling Greg how much I was craving one and was about to resort to sourcing some online, when I stumbled on the "British Foods" section today. I audibly squealed when I saw crumpets sitting on the shelf. Can't wait to toast one and enjoy it for breakfast!

Un Petit Bébé

Kennedy had her 4 month check up at the pediatrician this morning. Developmentally she is right where she should be and size wise, well, she is a very petite girl. She is only in the 5th percentile for weight, but its nothing for us to be concerned about. She eats plenty and is growing, she is just a wee one. She is rolling from her tummy to her back and just starting to roll from back to tummy. She grabs everything within reach and immediately puts it to her mouth for further investigation. She is cooing, babbling and giggling a lot and her noises are a lot more deliberate and loud these days. We are going to introduce rice cereal in the next few weeks, and once she gets the hang of eating the cereal, we will start giving her fruits and vegetables. The jury is still out on whether I will be making all her food myself, or using store bought.

4 Month Stats:

Weight: 10.5lbs, 5%

Height: 24 in, 54%

Head circumference: 14.8, 1%

She has recently started enjoying peek-a-boo, so we were playing a little while we were waiting for the doctor.