It is in West Columbia. It is huge. It is wall to wall crafts. Hobby Lobby. It took a few hours of my life away today. I looked at holiday stuff. I looked at painting stuff. I looked at ribbons. I looked at fabric. I looked at scrap booking stuff. I looked at wall lettering. I looked at picture frames. I looked at everything. Over 2 hours and all I spent was $11.00! I was so proud of my self control! I ended up finding the perfect color pink to paint Kennedy’s hat (we are calling it a hat NOT a helmet!) The color is called Princess Pink. I looked into a variety of ways to decorate it from a professional helmet painter to a stickers. I decided I am crafty enough to make it look just the way I want it to look. I have been working on a design. I am thinking this hat will just be another way to show how beautiful Kennedy is. Her DOC band will be just as beautiful as her and she will be the next calendar girl in the 2011 DOC band calendar.

Jay bought me an awesome baby cookbook for Christmas. Jay refers to me as a “tree hugger” when it comes to Kennedy’s food. So far the only thing I will feed her out of a jar is prunes. I have no clue how to cook those and she likes the first foods earth best version. Tonight we spent a lot of money at Publix to make her weeks worth of food so I won’t have to cook when I go back to school. My goal is to get her eating three meals a day in the next few weeks. Tonight we bought her apple sauce (she loved it), apple juice to cook with, vegetables for a veggie medley, creamed veggie medley, chicken and veggies, lima beans, calliflower, vereal, oatmeal, and brocolli. I think we bought her a few other things as well.

Jay also is buying me a new sewing machine for Christmas. Well actually it is being bought with Christmas money I have been squirling away for years as well as some Jay is giving me. I can’t wait to tell you all about it once it gets here!

I am a little worried about when we get the DOC band and how to do Kennedy’s hygene. I already have a few questions about things I do with her. Currently I only bathe her every few days because her skin is so dry. With the DOC band I am going to have to wash her hair every day. I really don’t want to dry her skin out so I was wondering if any mommies reading this knows a good wash that won’t dry her skin out so bad. Another question I have is about brushing her teeth. She currently has two really big teeth on the bottom. I brush them everyday, but currently she still nurses herself to bed everynight. Is she going to get bottle rot on her bottom teeth from nursing herself to sleep?

We did Christmas Eve services. We did Christmas with the Babb’s. We did Christmas with my dad. We did Christmas with my mom. We did Christmas as a happy little family of 3. We did Christmas with my mom. We did Christmas and we LOVED it. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Christmas…

Pictres: First taste of Ritas, Jay and I at the park,

Today I have been grumpy. I have been busy. I have a thousand things to do. I am grumpy. I know it doesn’t happen very often but when it does BE WARE! I have a million things to do in only 3 days of school (yeah I get a new student the day we get back!). I have 3 IEPs and a staffing before we get out. I made and directed a Christmas program for about 30 children with Autism (it went really well by the way). I have a children’s Christmas party for Kennedy tomorrow as well as gymboree (it is the highlite of my week so missing gymboree is NOT an option.) I have present to wrap. Cookies to bake. Presents to buy. And another Christmas party on Friday. On top of all this I am trying to get a rush order on Kennedy’s Doc band which mean not one but two trips to Charlotte before the year is over to avoid having to pay my deductible. On top of that I am having to fight insurance since the Doc Band place is out of network. No one is in network!!! I also have a messy messy house. There are clothes on the floor of every room in the house and none of the clothes belong to me. There are baby toys that Kennedy has out grown, poodles that need baths, milk that needs pumping, grocery shopping that needs to be done, dishes that need to be washed, a husband who has been working 16 hour days, and baby food that needs to be cooking. In the middle of all this chaos I found my smile. In between making baby food (squash, green beans, carrots, and sweet potatos) and putting aways the outgrown toys I took this picture. You just found your smile too didn’t you…

Kennedy and I have been SO busy lately. She had her 6 month appointment the other day (yeah I know she is almost 7 months old now… we’re slow). Health wise she checked out great; however, there were some concerns Dr. D had that we will get to later.

Weight: 14 3/4 lbs – 17th percentile
Length: 25 1/2 inches 1 29th percentile

She had all of her typical 6 month vaccines and also the H1N1 and Seasonal flu shots. Now my entire family has had the flu shots and we hope this is something more families do. I have seen several very sick children at school due to different flus, and I really don’t want my baby to be one of those.

Kennedy spent her first night away from me and did great the other night! Dori on the other hand was up all night checking on my face sleeping little girl. Guess Jay and I have become accustomed to her face sleeping. Jay, Dr. B, and I woke up early last Saturday and drove to Tampa. We had a great time at the game (even though we lost) then left early the next morning to drive home. Kennedy stayed in Beaufort with Dori which she loved. Dori and Doc gave Kennedy an early Christmas present of a new car seat and she loves it. She falls asleep immediately, No fighting. No trying to sit up. Nothing… just sleep!

Thursday morning Jay and I left at 5:00 a.m. (yeah in the morning!) and drove to a doctor appointment for Kennedy. She went to the cranial experts about the shape of her head. We had noticed in the past that it was a little asymmetric, but thought the she is beautiful anyway and weren’t too worried about it. Well, Dr. D was a little bit more worried and referred us to the specialist. After meeting with them, Kennedy have pictures taken of her head, and talking with each other and other people who have been in these situations, we have decided that Kennedy needs a Doc Band. They are actually cute on some kids and moms are allowed to paint them and do arts and crafts on them. I have already decorated Kennedy’s in my head. She will be beautiful even in a helmet!

Kennedy now eats real food at least once a day. She has eaten banana, apple, carrot, sweet potato, peas, broccoli (her favorite), and squash. I have yet to give her anything from a jar (go me!). She loves to eat and if you are eating and not giving it to her get ready for the “yah, aaaaa, AAAAAA” to start! Mrs. S has experienced Kennedy’s persistent ways for getting real food as well. I want to teach her sign, but Jay doesn’t. She is also loving nursing and her bottle as much now as ever. I have been trying to work hard on introducing the sippy cup too. Sometimes she will drink out of it really well and other times she won’t. I am giving her a sippy cup with a straw for Christmas and hoping she will take well to that.

Christmas is coming and I am so excited to do all the fun traditions with Kennedy like my parents did with me. We started on Friday night. Eat a yummy warm dinner then ride around and look at Christmas decorations. Kennedy made it about 5 minutes into the ride and she was fast asleep. Oh well! I’ll post some pictures of her a little later. The camera is in the car and BRRR I’m not going out there to get it!