Where Have You Been All My Life?

Mackenzie met Wayne's dad (that lives in England) for the first time , and I would say that they hit it off really well. She never cried, and she seemed to like his strong, silent type.

He stayed with us for a few days before making his rounds to the girls houses.

Here are some pictures.

First Crawling Video

Here is Mackenzie's first crawling video. You can see how unsteady she looks. She almost bites the dust once. She does, however; say "Did It" when she makes it to her destination...listen closely.

(Sorry it is sideways and very dark. I am just learning how to use our picture camera as a video recorder.)

Don't Stop Me Now

"Hey Mom, don't stop me now." I know that is what Mackenzie is saying every time I put her in her exersaucer or some other contraption that keeps her from getting into 'stuff'.

Why is this phrase new to her? You guessed it. She is CRAWLING. And she LOVES every minute of it. She crawled for the first time while her Grandad was staying with us (last Thursday, January 15th), but it took her a few days to really get the hang of it. Now there is no stopping her. She is a baby on the move.

I was getting used to the idea that she may never crawl. Her Doctor had mentioned when she was young that she may never crawl because she is so tall/long, and that was all right with me. But Mackenzie tricked us all again. She is a crawling machine. Her favorite thing to do is look for a little speck of grass or dirt or fuzz on the floor as far away as she can see, then she crawls over to it as fast as she can, sits up, picks the speck up and eats it. I have to tell her, "Mackenzie, what do you have?" In which case instead of eating or tasting it she will hold out her hand and give it to me.

She chases the dog and they play. No really, they PLAY.

I have a video coming. Her first long crawl is sideways on the video, but I will also post one that is right side up.

WARNING - TMI POST

For those of you that are men, are women without children, or are a person that simply does not want to know the gory details of my life and my body this post is NOT for you. There is too much information, but I am writing it anyway.

Read on at your own risk.

For those of you that are not aware most breastfeeding mothers do not get their monthly cycle for a while. Actually, it can be a VERY LONG TIME before that monthly visit from Mother Nature arrives, and that is exactly what I was counting on.

I have been nursing Mackenzie since she was born, but recently she has been going about 4 hours between feedings (give or take). That means that my body decided to kick back into gear and yes, to my horror, I have started my period. YUCKKKKKKKKK! So I had the entire pregnancy and an additional 10.5 months to enjoy my freedom without it. That is a total of 19.5 months, and I must say that it was Great, but now it is over. So sad :(

Folding Clothes

Anyone that has had a small child knows what it is like to fold clothes while the baby/child is not taking a nap. Typically I fold the same pile of clothes a minimum of 3 times while Mackenzie unfolds them. It is a fun game for us, and the clothes eventually get put away. Especially when I let Mackenzie do what is in the following pictures.

Pig Show Down

The other day I caught Mackenzie and her pig having a show down. See evidence below.

Pulling Up

I have been meaning to write and tell everyone that Mackenzie is officially pulling up and standing on her own. In the pictures below you can see where she pulled up using a fan box (the first time she ever pulled up on her own). I was putting her clothes away while she sat on the floor behind me. I turned around and there she was standing using the fan box. I almost missed it. The next pictures she used a chair at my Mom's house. My, my...what do we have coming next?

Christmas 2008 - 1st

Christmas 2008 was Mackenzie's 1st Christmas. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with Mackenzie's reactions. She seemed to know EXACTLY what to do. Yes...she ripped into the paper like there was no tomorrow. Only she was more excited about the paper than the gifts; that is until we threw away the paper and she only had the gifts. She loves her pink pig pillow, her drums, pooh bear keys, pop up animal buttons and switches and her cd/dvd player...oh, and all of her clothes. She will lover her ceiling fan as soon as it is hung. For now she likes using the box to pull up on. Who knew?

We had Christmas with my Brother, Sis and the Boys first. She loves those clothes and really loves the V-tech play and learn piano. Especially the microphone. She just licks it (LOL).

Then we had Christmas Eve with Wayne's family and we forgot the camera :(

Then we had Christmas Morning with my Mom - fun, fun, fun.

Then Christmas Lunch at my Mom's with my cousins - more fun.

Then Christmas evening Dad & Mum and Hayley came over - even more fun. (Oh, and Mackenzie like to fall asleep with Eeyore from Hayley)

(See Pictures below)

Play Date

We had a lovely play date yesterday. Mackenzie played and I ate :) Seriously, our play dates consist of the children playing and learing how to "share" while the mothers eat and take pictures of their children. We do have some adult conversation mixed in there as well. The babies in this group are Noah, Mackenzie, Sawyer and Hayley (in order of age). (I could only upload 5 pics)

The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing But The Tooth

OK, so that was a long title just to say that we have MORE TEETH on the way. Mackenzie currently has 4 teeth. The top two front teeth and the bottom two front teeth. Well, tooth number 5 is trying hard to make it's grand entrance. I expect it should arrive by the end of the week.

This is the tooth on the top left next to her big front teeth. The one on the right side looks like it will be a few weeks behind the left one. And I don't see the next two bottom teeth, but the doctor says that she sees the tooth pockets. Whatever those are? Apparently she thought Mackenzie's bottom two side teeth were going to come in first, but NOPE...Mackenzie does things her own way, and she wanted 4 teeth on the top first!

This is a bit sad because with every new tooth (and new stage) Mackenzie is growing up. She looks so much more mature lately, and is acting like a little adult.

Good news...she has not bitten me while nursing in quite some time. Granted I pump all day for her daytime feedings and she nurses at night, but hey, no biting is wonderful.

Now we just need to finalize her new sleeping routine and we will be doing really well.

Mackenzie Stats

I can hardly believe how fast Mackenzie is growing up. She turned 10-months old yesterday (January 4th). I have pictures to post, but they are all still on my camera. I am sure I will get around to it one day, but for now, here are the new stats for Mackenzie.

Over 32 inches tall (over 2 and a half feet)
Over 24 pounds in weight
Wearing mostly 18-month clothes because of her height. Anything smaller is just too short on her. (I am told she could be wearing the same size clothes next winter...humm. I hope so, she has some cute clothes.)

She doesn't really crawl, but she does get around...mostly by rolling or scooting. Then there is the ever so popular throwing herself from sitting to tummy in the direction she wishes to go. It doesn't really matter what she chooses because at two and a half feet tall she can reach and get to almost anything.

She can pull up all by herself, and she can even balance without holding on to anything.

She also has a very good vocabulary for her age. Of coarse she mimics anything I say. Like today I handed her a jacket because it is cold outside and she repeated me by saying "daket". She can do this with most words that are not too difficult, but when I talk about her vocabulary I am talking about words that she says not having to repeat them, and she uses them in context.

She Says:

"da-da" = Daddy
"ma-ma" = Mommy
"na-na-na" = Nani (my mom)
"lei-lei" = Lexi (our dog)
"tisses" = Kisses
"ess" = Yes
"tan-too" = Thank You
"peas" = Please
"dut" or "du-kkk" = duck
"tis" = This as in What's this? I want this. and Do you want this?
"did it" = Did It

Mackenzie first started saying words other than Da-da and Ma-ma at 8.5 months old, but Wayne didn't believe me. Then my Mom came over and heard her say kisses and yes without me telling her and that proved that she was talking. Wayne still isn't sure, but we were out with friends yesterday and our friend handed something to Mackenzie and she said thank you. The friend completely understood her. So if that isn't proof I don't know what is.

Oh, Mackenzie is calling me. I better go for now.

Catching Up

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here. I have a lot of catching up to do on my BLOG, so there will be several posts over the next few days.

Look forward to:

Mackenzie Size Stats at 10-months
Thanksgiving
Auntie Laura's Graduation
Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve with my brother
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Years Eve
Sleeping/Eating Schedule
New 'tricks' and 'words' from Mackenzie

(All with pictures) so please stay tuned