Kendall Update

Just reading back over a few of my most recent posts. Since they have been so sporadic, I've realized that I've been terrible on keeping you all up to date on Kendall. She is of course a baby and therefore accomplishing new feats every day.

Kendall has been sitting up on her own for quite a while (6 months). She is very strong. She can roll over and keep her balance on her hands and knees but WON'T. That's right ... she's somewhat lazy. Not because she's content to just sit, but because she wants to be where the action is. She wants to walk like her big brother and the rest of us. She has no interest in crawling - she wants to simply go straight to walking and is happiest being supported under her arms and allowed to "walk" wherever she fancies. She also wants to be up where the action is ... none of this laying on the floor stuff. She is always happy up in the arms of someone who will carry her wherever they go (believe me, she is very demanding of this). I think the church nursery workers take shifts carrying her around all morning.

Kendall is quite vocal. She has a great set of lungs. She has expanded her vocabulary from "ma ma" to include "gran-ma", "uh-oh", "O" (Cole) and "Elmo". She definitely knows the latter. She can spot Elmo from the other side of the room, pick out his voice on a CD and recognize his likeness anywhere. Pretty sure his 2 biggest fans live at our house.

Kendall has also picked up some dance moves. Her big brother loves music, dancing and singing. Kendall has acquired a side to side sway and a head bop (I'm pretty sure those are not official terms in choreography). She breaks out spontaneously to any tune that motivates her. I'm trying very hard to capture this on video.

Monkey see, monkey do would definitely describe our little girl. She is definitely good a mimicking gestures and sounds. You should hear her and her daddy growl at each other. She waves hello with or without visual or verbal prompting and for a short stint clapped her hands.

At almost 8 and a half months, Kendall still has no teeth. She still eats mush. She loves cereal and fruit, but vegetables ... not so much. I usually sneak bites of veggies in between spoonfuls of the stuff she likes. I need to keep it random though or she catches on. She's one smart cookie. She had her first rice crackers this week in the nursery. She eats them so systematically and with hardly any mess that its almost fancinating to watch.

This is no achievement, but I'm pretty sure she has the longest tongue ever. She can stick it out with a perfect point and lick the bottom of her chin.

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting but I think that gets you caught up.

She's a pretty cool kid. I'm in love.

Blog Re-vamp?

I'd talk about how sporadic my blog posting has been lately, however, I think that's been the topic of my last few entries. To be honest, I just haven't had the energy to do a lot of blogging lately. I seem to be so busy with keeping up with life that it's been tough to stop and write about it. Don't even get me started about needing the patience to sit and post pictures (blogger could really use some improvement in that area). Besides ... all my pictures end up on facebook where the friends I really want to see them can look at them easily.


All that to say, I'm considering a blog revamp. I find the best time for me to blog is in the middle of the night. That's right ... I'm regularly awake at 2 am. Now, both my kids sleep through the night beautifully so that is definitely not the problem. I am also a self professed night owl, but that hasn't been keeping me up lately either. I'm being completely vulnerable in saying this, but I stay up thinking at least once a week. Our son Cole has had many developmental delays identified in the past year and a half, and was part of an Early Intervention program before we moved. That being said, if I'm not able to fall asleep right away, I usually lay awake thinking about the things I can do to help him along or what is next on the professional path in our new surrounding. This is definitely the case after a bad day. I thought perhaps blogging would be a good outlet to get all those thoughts, frustrations, hopes, disappointments and joys out of my head and into space that could maybe be identifiable for others as well. I'm not sure about this yet, or, whether I'll revamp the current blog or simply start a new one to stay a little more anonymous. Perhaps some of blogging friends have a few pointers me?

A Celebrity in the House

On Sunday I had Kendall dressed in a solid red sweater dress with red tights. For the rest of the day whenever I would enter the room with Kendall, Cole would say "Elmo" usually followed by "baby Ken-all". I guess she sorta did look like his favourite little red monster. The minds of 2 year olds are very amusing.

In Transition

So the Brown family has been M.I.A. as of lately.

Since my last post ...

We sold our house in Alberta (one week from the day we listed). I packed all of our belongings in 2 1/2 weeks in the midst of farewells and good bye visits with friends.

The moving truck was loaded up Sept. 7th and sent on its way while our family drove to Edmonton, put our vehicle on the train and then flew to Ontario.

Once in Niagara, Dave, Kendall and I headed to Kingston for 5 days, in which time we bought a house.

We returned to my Mom's in the Falls and then Dave flew back across the country a couple of days later to attend his Arrow Leadership course in BC for a week.

After his return he headed back up to Kingston to start his new position as Lead Pastor on October 1st.

In the mean time the kids and I crashed at my Mom's place until we got possession of our house October 29th. A couple of days were spent painting and setting up Cole's room and then our moving truck arrived on November 1st with everything we hadn't seen for 2 months.

So here we are ... officially residents of Kingston, Ontario. There are still boxes piled all around the house, and Kendall's room is still in the midst of being painted, but our house is already feeling like a home and not just because we haven't had one for a while either ;)

In the meantime the kids have continued to grow. Kendall has begun eat cereal and then refuse to eat cereal. as well as sitting up on her own. Having Mommy out of her sight is always a cause for great distress, and she will always demand to be in the center of the action rather than be sitting by the sidelines in any exersaucer, jumperoo or chair. He favourite and only word is "Ma ma".

Cole is still working on his 2 year molars and drooled through 4 shirts today and seems to permanently have his hand affixed to his mouth these days. However, when all 5 digits are removed his speech is improving every day and he loves to sing more than anything. He also loves his new room and has been sleeping in a twin bed since being at Grandma's. Upon seeing all his toys once again after a couple months he told them all "I missed you" as he excitedly examined each one.

So as you can imagine there's a whole lot of stuff to be blogging about these days, but since we've been so busy, time to do so is scarce. Currently keeping the kids fed, clothed, clean and happy on top of unpacking and painting is about all I can handle, and with adding Dave's new job on top of that, life is pretty full. However, stay posted. I will try to update. Maybe even some pictures of the new house as I managed to get a room or two completely tackled. For now I leave you with a picture of the front exterior taken in much warmer weather :)

The Next Chapter ... For Those Still Reading!

Okay, so usually I have some lame excuse for not keeping this blog up to date but this time I think my reasons are pretty valid. Here's a re-cap of the last month and-a-half.

• I had some day surgery that took a few days to recover from.


• The day before my surgery Cole came down with a nasty case of croup and spent 8 hours in emergency.


• I packed for a trip to Ontario


• I cleaned my house in order to have guests stay at our place while we were gone


• I was doing a baby clothes exchange with those guests, so I organized 5 diaper boxes of Cole's old clothes.


• Spent 5 days in Kingston candidating at a church


• Spent another week in Niagara visiting my family


• Returned home and unpacked everyone


• Got our house ready, cleaned and organized to list and sell


• Been keeping the house clean every minute of the day ... just in case

Oh ... and I have the normal "look after a 2 year old and a 2-3 month old" stuff in there as well. I'm sure there were a few other things I forgot too.

And just for clarification ... YES we are moving away from Grande Prairie. Dave has accepted a position as Lead Pastor at a church in Kingston, Ontario. This of course made my family back home very happy, but all our friends here in Alberta very sad. However, they are awesome friends and very supportive. Of course this is a decision we have spent a lot of time in prayer about and is very bitter sweet. We know Kingston is where God wants us to be, and knowing we will be close to at least one side of family is a wonderful thought. However, we love our home, friends and church in Grande Prairie so we will be very sad to leave them all behind. No moving date as of yet, but Dave's last day of work is August 31st. Please keep us in your prayers, especially when it comes to the sale of our current house.

And now for a few pictures ...