Kevin and Renee - Baby Updates & News

My mom and dad bought Kennedy an electric piano for Easter and it’s been the highlight of many play times since. She has figured out how to turn it off and on, start the demo music, and when we ask her to turn the volume down, she does it right away. Our kid is a genius and we are mere peons that are allowed to witness her greatness day by day.

We got this video of her rocking out and hamming it up for her parents. I’m seeing many recitals, shows, plays and impromptu performances in our future.

Kennedy is talking a lot. Much of it is still in her native tongue of “Kenish” but when she gets going and you look into her eyes, you know she’s having a full on conversation with you. Right now, we’re in the copying phase which means mommy and daddy need to start checking our language at the door. Especially Renee. She swears like a sailor. It’s actually quite shocking.

But Kennedy is saying words like hi, bye-bye, cheese, pretty, fish and shoes quite clearly and she has her own words like wawa (water) and gaa (cookie). A personal triumph of mine is when we’re changing her diaper and she reaches down and says “paa-tee.” Yes, that’s your potty. Let’s move on and save the “Anatomy 101″ lessons for a couple of years. I’m already hyperventilating just thinking about those conversations.

All of that is great, but what has been cracking us up is her complete refusal to say “mama.” Mama was her first clear word and she said it all the time. Then it was replaced with the glass-shattering and demanding scream and she’s never looked back. However, she’ll say daddy all day long. In fact, we can get her to somewhat copy my sister’s names, grandma and grandpa and other words, but when we get to mama, it’s ALWAYS “dad-dee” with an emphasis on the “eeee.” I, of course, find it hilarious.

So that’s a long story to set up this next video. Proof that I don’t make this stuff up.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted some random photos, so here are a few taken over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy and remember to click to enlarge.

Hey stranger!  A funny story has brought me back to the land of the blog. I do have some new videos and photos to share but those will have to wait for another day.

There have been plenty of moments where I’ve paused and just soaked up being a new parent. Tonight was one of those times. I was in the bedroom relaxing (ok fine, I was in the bathroom reading Entertainment Weekly, which is about as relaxing as it gets these days), when all of a sudden Renee started yelling for me in the kitchen. I ran out as fast as I could and she was obviously extreamly angry at something while holding a spooked Kennedy a couple inches away from her body. What was said next was comedic gold, at least to me.

“Dawson just pissed all over the floor, Kennedy slipped in it and now we’re both covered in pee.”

See what I mean? You just can’t make this stuff up. All I could think of was “keep a straight face and don’t bust up.” Renee wanted to do nothing but beat the dog but in a selfish effort to avoid a urine soaked daughter, I encouraged her to go clean up the two of them while I solved the case of “Dawson and the Leaky Bladder.” I’m pretty sure that’s where the humor ended. There’s not a lot of joy in mopping up dog piss throughout the kitchen and down the hallway. But it did make for a fun story to share.

Finally! We were able to get Kennedy’s dance moves on camera. She “turns it off” the second we pull out the video recorder but she finally performed for the world to see. Look at those moves! She’ll do this every day at my office door when I’m playing music and it’s just awesome.

Kennedy loves balloons right now. She’ll spot them from far away and start saying “boh” over and over again. Renee got me a number of balloons for my 30th birthday and Kennedy had a good time playing with them in the house. In this video, she got a few wrapped around her ankle and starting running all over.

We are back after a wonderful week in Orlando, Florida earlier this month. I would of had this post done a week ago, but Kennedy got sick, passed it to Renee and the two of them tag teamed me. Thankfully, it only knocked me down for a couple days, but Renee is still out with ear and respiratory infections and Kennedy is on her 14th box of Kleenex. I’m sure our house is one big living, breathing bacterial frat party. Ew. I need to buy a can of Lysol, stat!

Anyway, you may remember that back in August, we took a trip to Orlando with our friends Ryan and Cherry and brought my sister Bonnie along to help watch Kennedy (read about that trip here). The result was a great vacation that was a ton of fun, but we were running at a hundred miles an hour during the hottest part of the year. We decided to go back because we had a free week to use from our vacation timeshare that expired in April and because we booked so late, our choices were basically Vegas and Orlando. We thought it would be fun to go with just Kennedy and visit during the winter at a much slower speed.

Now if you take out the plane rides, it was a pretty low key vacation with a ton of memorable events. Kennedy doesn’t do “sitting still.” We’ve known this for awhile. She has one speed and that’s “GO.” So we had bought a portable DVD player, a new Air Buddies movie (she loves her some dogs), and a backpack stuffed with 324 other distractions for us to siphon through on the plane. What we didn’t plan on was sitting on the runway for 45 minutes and not being allowed access to any of that. Whoops. She screamed bloody murder for 45 minutes and was fine once we got rolling. I, on the other hand, was emotionally spent, socially scared and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Renee was calm and collect, as always. She’s the pure definition of “super mommy.”

On the way home, the 4 hour and 15 minute trip from Orlando to Salt Lake was even worse, with Renee and I spending a good 3 hours of that flight in the world’s smallest bathroom with her SCREAMING. The girl has got to learn to keep it together. Talk about being helpless and at your wits end. At one point, a sympathetic dad who I’m sure was trying to help, handed me a piece of paper with the book Happiest Baby on the Block noted on it. As soon as he whispered that “it really does work” I felt like returning his “kind advice” with a swift jab to the juggler.

Flying aside, the trip was wonderful and I wanted to take a few minutes to share some highlights and photos.

The weather overall was beautiful. We did have a few days of 60 degree temperatures that got to just above freezing at night (you’ll see us in sweaters in a number of photos below) and it rained one of the days, but other than that, we enjoyed 70 degree temps with zero humidity. A night and day difference from what we experienced in August.

Because of the weather, we spent two more days at Disney than we had planned. The rest of the time was spent at the resort, or exploring the city. We had such a great time with Kennedy and we were able to hit all four parks at Disney World. Being with Kennedy really changed the focus for us and almost made Disney entirelly new (this was our third visit). She loved running through the play areas at Magic Kingdom, walking through Mickey’s House, and even enjoyed a few of the rides. Renee and I took turns riding some of the major rides and we actually got a ton in. Because of single rider lines and Rider Switch Fast Passes, we were both able to ride in under 30 minutes combined in most cases. It was nice.

We probably had the most fun at Animal Kingdom. The last time we went was a few years back and it was in the summer as well. Because of all the vegetation in the park, it feels about 10 degrees hotter than it is and we were just miserable that day. But this time around, the weather was perfect (one of the best days all week), Kennedy was in an awesome mood (she loves animals) and we had a really nice time. Here are some photos from the Safari ride and the petting zoo:

While Animal Kingdom took the “best park day” award, I think the Indy Speedway at Magic Kingdom was probably the best surprise. Besides animals, Kennedy loves cars and trucks. When she sees one on TV or in one of her books, she’ll point, pretend to steer a wheel and make an engine sound. It’s adorable. And when she saw the cars at Magic Kingdom, she just lit up. So we waited in line with her and had a BLAST driving around on the track. She sat in my lap and just beamed the entire time. It was a real joy for us to see her get such a kick out of a ride we would have never paid any attention to previously.

We did go a little snap crazy, but how could you not? Everywhere you turn, there’s a new “photo opp” to be had. We already had shots of the two of us in front of all the major attractions and landmarks at the various parks, so we wanted to take some with Kennedy as the focus. Renee also had a great idea about taking some photos next to things we knew we could find again when we go back in the future. So we found some Disney characters in Downtown Disney as well.

    
    
 
A great memorable moment that I had to share was our trip to Downtown Disney. It was getting pretty late (around 9PM I think) and people were starting to clear out. Kennedy was on her last leg when we turned the corner to a huge Disney plush store. There was hardly anyone around, so we got her out and just let her run. She had a blast taking animals off the shelf and bringing them to Renee. We’re in the process of leaning “please” and we’re sure we heard it a few times as she brought item after item to mom. It was all I could do from pulling out my credit card and giving her free reign of the entire store. It was that cute. Yep, I’m hosed.

Finally, we wrapped up the trip with an Orlando Magic VS New York Knicks basketball game. Our seats were at the very top, but it was a fun diversion from the rest of the week and something new to do.

There are so many other stories and great memories that were made during this week, but I think the thing that I enjoyed the most was spending some quality time with Renee and Kennedy together. We are both pretty vocal about missing the constant time alone that we had before Kennedy, and it’s been hard to do anything as the three of us up to this point that hasn’t been a meal out, an errand or just relaxing around the house. I think it was great to do something as a family and really bond together. Kennedy’s 17-month birthday is just around the corner, and I would have thought our “family” would have been past its infancy by now, but I’m realizing it’s just getting started. I’m not sure if that makes sense or not.

Also, I have the luxury of working from home and seeing Kennedy every day, but I don’t get as much one on one time with her. This trip really allowed me to not only enjoy spending time together, but watching her enjoy her surroundings. It’s what “growing up” and being a kid is all about and we’re just starting to hit that phase. Playing, interacting and providing opportunities of joy and happiness for my daughter. I don’t want to miss a beat.

If you got this far, thanks for reading this whole thing. I have a few more post ideas for the coming weeks so keep checking back. Peace out.

Well, I think it’s safe to say that we have entered into a new phase of development. Kennedy’s independence has fully bloomed, exposing a little girl that refuses to communicate in anything but grunts, screams, soft whimpers, outstretched hands and an occasional claw or attempted biting for an added exclamation. A couple weeks ago, the two of us turned to each other after a night of pure exhaustion and wondering what the “terrible twos” were going to be like.

Needless to say, there haven’t been that many “photo ops” over the past month, so I apologize about the updates. We’re simply too busy chasing Kennedy around the house, moving obstacles out of the way and giving Dawson (our dog) temporary shelter away from ear tugs and tail pulls.

On the food front, we have yet to get Kennedy to move past Gerber’s wondrous blends. We have had success in getting her to eat a bite of peanut butter and jelly, bits of popcorn and despite our best efforts, she has discovered French fries. Anything else gets quickly discarded to the floor in a fit of anger. Funny, funny!

Thankfully, Kennedy is an absolute joy to have around and even though it seems like an uphill battle already, that smile and pure laughter will make any day seem brighter. Thanks for continuing to watch the blog. We have a scheduled vacation to Orlando (we’re going back, more on that later) in two weeks and I’m sure we’ll have lots of stories and photos to share.