Shoes: not new but now said like 15,000 times a day. Shoes (soos) are her FAVORITE things.) We have shopped high and low looking for cute size 2 shoes that are made for walking. Acually it is the equivalent to a 6-9 month shoe. She loves all shoes.. my shoes, her shoes, shoes in stores, Dadd’s shoes. She was even checking out strangers shoes in the library today. We need to save our pennies now to afford this girls shoe habit.

Bow: She now will say bow when she sees one of her bows, sees bows in the store, wants a bow, feels her bow, or sees a strangers bow that she wants. She actually tried to swap with a little girl at a wedding who had a bigger bow. She took her bow out and followed the other little girl around offering her the tiny bow in exchange for her big bow.

Doll: Kennedy has a sweet doll that was given to her by the Kirkleys. They are a sweet family that is so good to Kennedy. They gave her a soft doll when I was pregnant with her. She now says doll every time she sees her sweet doll.

Amen: Ok it only happened once but it was SO cute. We said our blessing and I ended by saying Amen. Kennedy looked at me and said “Amen” in the most southern voice ever.

People’s names: Dori, DeeDee, Mama, Daddy (Dah), and LaLa

Blow (bow): with her birthday cake toy

Toddler – –noun
a person who toddles, esp. a young child learning to walk.

Ladies and gentleman… my daughter has become a toddler!

It officially happened Wednesday, but I was scared that it was a fluke and didn’t wanna jinx myself!

1. She loves being outside and playing in the water. At the lake she will stand at the glass window and bang on it to go outside. She loves being in the lake, on the boat, or in the kiddie pool. At home she will beg for the chalk to draw on the sidewalk. She brings me my shoes when she wants us to go outside. She does not like playing in the spinkler.

2. She poops the same time in the same place every day. I’ve tried to catch her the last two mornings to get her to do it on the potty, but I wasn’t fast enough. I LOVE potty training. It gives children such a since of independence. As soon as she can walk, I plan on starting to work on it.

3. Kennedy is old enough and I think she weighs enough for her car seat to turn around. This said, I had planned on her being rear facing until she could say “Mom please let me turn around.” I’m having second thought now though because the back of my car gets SO hot. I think she would be cooler if she faced forward. I will ask the pediatrician about this on Monday.

4. She can drink out of a sippy cup if it is something really yummy or if she is really hot. She loves to drink sweet tea from her sippy cup. She would still rather nurse. She doesn’t like whole milk. I’m doing good to get her to drink a few ounces of it a day.

5. She has several words now. Hi, bye, mama, daddy (dah), dog, duck, Dori (Dorwee), DeeDee, lauren (lala), see, wassat, stop, mine, no, one (un), two (oo), three (ee), four (or), uh oh, balloon, night night, Potter, boat, shoes,ball, and I’m sure I’m missing some. She doesn’t use them all the time. She definatly doesn’t use them when we ask her to. But they are there. She now will point at stuff she wants.

6. She won her first reading medal from the library. We read 15 books so she won some cool prizes. She loves to read.

7. She can’t walk. She can pull up, cruise, and crawl like a champ.

8. She loves shoes and jewlery. She really likes to wear my shoes (could be bacause she has very few pairs that fit her of her own) and she LOVES jewlery. Typically she can be found sitting around the house the Mardi Gras beads around her neck. My mom thinks this means she will be a party girl. I hope she’s wrong!

9. She loves to hug and kiss. Sometimes the hugs hurt and sometimes the kisses are slobbery, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. She loves stuffed animals and likes to hug them too.

10. She sleeps on a good night from 8:30-6:30. She naps usually 1 hour per day. That is all she needs. That is all she wants. If she naps in the car she won’t nap again.

11. She loves to give Potter a hard time. She likes to trease him wither his toys, mess with his bed, and threaten his food. She thinks that it is funny when he growls at her. We don’t think it is so funny.

12. She is very social and loves children. She really likes older children.

13. She’s a democrat. We decided perhaps she is liberal. She does like some crazy things! She went with me to vote in the republican primaries. Every time I clicked a name she would yell “No! No No No! Mama No!” Needles to say the people at the polls were cracking up.

The average one year old has 4-6 teeth.

My daughter now has 10.

I think she’s a

I got an interesting email this week from a website that has been sending me updates since pregnancy. It started with your pregancy this week, then your baby this week, and now they send me your toddler this week. I must say that I usually don’t even open these emails. I haven’t for months because Kennedy is no where near other kids her age. It make me big headed to see the areas she is advanced in and sad in the areas she is delayed. I don’t like to see what she should be doing. Today for some reason I opened the email and the header was “things you never thought your would do.” This got me thinking on the things I said I wouldn’t do and would do that I have or have not done.

Things I said I would never do (but did):

“I will never let my baby watch TV.” Yep, she watches Blues Clues every morning while Jay and I are getting ready and she enjoys Yo Gabba Gabba from time to time.

“I will never let my baby sleep in the bed.” Kennedy has spent many a night between Jay and I and every morning of her life she has joined us in bed for a little while before getting our day started

“I will never let a child nurse when they have teeth and especially when they can ask for it.” Kennedy has been seen on several occasions pointed at my boobs and saying “mmmmmm”. Another note she is over one year old and has 10 teeth. And yes I am still nursing and not sure when I am going to stop.

“I will never let my child eat junk food.” Kennedy likes McDonalds, Wendys, Hardees, Sonic, and don’t even get me started about how much she likes cheesepuffs, cupcakes, and ice cream. You may have seen us at the Sonic happy hour a time or two as well.

Not only did this article get me thinking about the things I said I wouldn’t do, but it also got me thinking about the things I said I would do.

“I will not have a baby on a schedule.” I stuck to this one. We don’t have to rush home for nap time. We don’t have to end a dinner with friends by 5. We let Kennedy nap when she is tired and we aim for an 8:30 bed time. She eats when she is hungry and she nurses on demand.

“I will make my own baby food.” I made everything. She never ate any babyfood from a jar.

“I will never let her leave the house in a onsie.” Kennedy never sets foot outside the door without being fully dressed in a beautiful outfit with a matching bow. I try to dress her in her best clothes everyday. I understand she will mess them up, but when you grow so fast you might as well wear your nice clothes daily.

“My family will sit down for dinner every day.” We eat as a family every night We sit at our little table in our little kitchen, we pray our blessing, and we eat as a family. Kennedy always eats what we eat too. No short order chef in this family.

Things I said I would do but haven’t

I said I would vacuum every day… I don’t

I said I would mop every day…. I don’t

I said I would continue to treat Potter like a person… I don’t

I said I would cook dinner every night… I don’t (although I do cook sometimes)

Overall I’ve done and haven’t done some things. One thing I said I would do was make sure that little girl knew I loved her. I want her to know that we prayed for her. That we wanted her. The we dreamed of her. And that she is everything and more than we dreamed of. This I can easily say we have done.