Kendall is 8 months old

Kendall:  Why are we only 4 months away from your 1st birthday?  Why have these past 8 months flown by in the blink of an eye?  You weren't really interested in looking at the camera this month for pictures. I really cant believe how fast you are growing.  Sweet girl, I have enjoyed every single minute with you.  When I bring you into bed with me each morning I love our  snuggle time, it makes my heart melt that you still love to snuggle with me cause I know that wont last forever.  I don't know if I'm a little more sentimental about things with you because your my last, but often times I find myself going into our room at nap time to watch you sleep.  I want soak in your sweet smells, watch your little belly rise and fall with each breath, the way you grip your lovie in a way that makes you feel safe and the smile on your face each time you see me.  You are such a good baby, you are always so happy and I love your little gummy smile.  You have become so curious about your surroundings and anything that you can put in your mouth. 

I love you to the moon and back!

Love,

Mommy

SLEEPING:

You are such a great sleeper.  You are still taking 3 naps a day {9am, 12:30pm & 5pm}  You can sleep anywhere and pretty much through anything.  While on our beach trip a couple weeks ago, you took a nap on the beach twice and you even slept while on a train ride, even through them blowing the loud whistle!  You wake up around 7am each morning {on rare occasions you wake up around 6am, but I bring you into bed with me and we snuggle and you go back to sleep}.  You go to bed each night at 8:15pm.  You don't really liked to be rocked to sleep, you would rather just be put down while your awake and put yourself to sleep.  Every once in awhile you will fall asleep on me and I love those days!

EATING:

At the end of your 7th month we introduced you to puffs and to these melt away fruits {which you love}  You do really well with both.  You are still eating baby food 2 times a day lunch and dinner.  In the morning when you wake up you will drink an 8oz bottle, the rest of the day you drink 7oz of formula.  While your eating you like to take your bottle out, cry for a second and then put your bottle back in your mouth.  You do this at almost every feeding, I'm not sure why.  Mommy has gotten splattered with baby food quite a few times from you spitting after I put a spoonful of food in your mouth....gross!

STATS:

Weight:

Height: 27" long

Clothes: 6-9 & 9 months

Shoes: ? {your feet are so small, I haven't found shoes that fit you}

Diaper: size 3 {they are big but 2s are to small}

Teeth: 1 {bottom left}

LIKES:

* mega blocks

* splashing in the bath

* playing peek a boo

* your sisters, you think they are funny

* your exersaucer

* babbling

* singing/dancing dog

* anything that makes noise 

DISLIKES:

* having your diaper changed

* people yelling {it scares you}

* having to wait for her bottle to get made

DEVELOPMENT:

* When you sit on my lap, you grab my shirt and pull yourself up to stand

* You can get up into a girly push up

* You like to bang your toys together to make noise

* You use your thumb and pointer finger "pincher grasp" to pick up your puffs

* You can feed yourself your puffs, you almost make it into your mouth everytime

* You've just started being able to pull yourself up onto your knees 

* You lift your hands up when you want to be picked up or someone tries to pick you up

* You lift your arms up when someone says "How big is Kendall, so big!"



SIGN LANGUAGE:
* 6.12.13 while sitting on the floor playing, you started getting fussy.  You looked over at me and did your first sign, you signed "night night".  I have been doing baby sign language with you since around 4 months old.  I knew at 4 months that you wouldn't be able to sign back to me but I wanted you to get use to the signs.  My way of teaching you is, I will do the sign and say what I'm signing and then I will have her do the sign {with my help} while I say the sign.

TALKING:
Well your not really "talking" you are more babbling.  You have really found your voice these last few weeks and your not afraid to use it!  At the end of your 6 month you said your first word "dada" but you haven't really said it again since, so were working on "mama" now. 

YOUR BIG SISTERS:
They have been great with you and you love them.  Now that your able to sit up, they are way more interested in playing with you.  They will sit with you on the blanket and play with you with your toys.  Kaylee likes to play peek a boo with you, that girl can get some good giggles out of you.  Keira likes to give you hugs and when she does you go in for a nice tug on her hair. I put some of their old baby toys away for you when you got big enough, recently I brought some of them out and your sisters think they are new toys for them!

Here's a cute video of Kendall playing

            

WATCH ME GROW

COMPARISON OF THE GIRLS AT 8 MONTHS

KAYLEE | KEIRA | KENDALL

 

What do I do about....

BACK TALKING!

My 4 year old is the worst at back talking and mumbling under her breathe and I'm not sure what to do about it.  I know this isn't proper behavior for a 4 year old, or is it?  I've tried time out, I've tried getting down on her level and telling her it's not nice to talk to mommy or daddy like that, I've even popped her in the mouth right after she's back talked, I've taken toys away.  I'm not sure what else I can do, cause all the those things listed above don't seem to phase her one bit.  After she gets into trouble she's good for a short time and then she's back to back talking.

Don't get me wrong she doesn't back talk all the time but it happens more than I want it to.  She is a good kid and I know this all just may be a phase.  She might be acting out cause she doesn't get enough one on one attention from her dad and I.  It's really hard to give her that attention with 2 younger siblings and I feel bad.  I don't want her to feel left out.  When she wakes up from her naps earlier than her sisters I try to do something fun just her and I.  I would love to go out just her and I and have a fun mom and daughter date.  It makes it hard with Jason working and grandma working during the day to do something.  I don't know, maybe I need to stop making excuses and just take her out after Jason gets home from work for like an hour or so.

Is this just something 4 year olds do?

Is she just testing her limits to see how much she can get away with?

I'm trying to nip this little problem in the butt real fast cause she has a 2 in a half year old sister who is listening to her every word and is starting to talk back as well.  I will not tolerate back talking!  I hate it and I think it's very disrespectful.  I'm not raising my kids to be that way. 

I would love to get some advice from other moms who've been through this and things that worked for you or just any advice on things that you may think will work.

ADVICE NEEDED

 ready...set....go!



Our final weekend at the beach house

As our final beach weekend came to an end on Sunday afternoon and we returned home to yucky rainy weather, it made me wish we were back at the beach basking in the beautiful sunshine!  Our beach house journey has sadly ended, I love going to the beach.  All the memories that were made on this trip, I will cherish forever.  We had a great time and the girls had a blast.

June 22nd
Grandma and Grandpa came and picked up the girls on Thursday night {6.20.13} and took them to the beach with them.  The girls were so excited to be with grandma and grandpa, they haven't been able to spend their Monday and Friday with them cause they go to beach each weekend.  So the girls were able to spend the whole day with them on Friday.  Grandma said they did great, they played at the beach and just had a great time.  Jason, the baby & I headed to the beach house early Saturday morning.  We got there and unloaded our stuff and headed down to the beach, the girls were so excited to see us.  Kaylee couldn't wait to show us that she could play in the ocean and she wasn't afraid.  We spent time at the beach playing before we went back to the house to eat lunch and then put the girls down for a nap.  That night we walked around a street fair and then we were going to go to The Boardwalk and onto the wharf for dinner.  But there were so many people at the boardwalk and all the parking lots were full so we changed plans and went to a different place for dinner.  Each time we've gone out to dinner with them, they have been awesome, they color until food gets there and they eat all their dinner.  Since they were so good, grandma stopped on the way home and got them a cookie.

* * * *

June 23rd
Sunday was our final time at the beach.  We got up around 7:30am got the girls all ready and waited for everyone else to get ready and we were going to walk down the hill to eat breakfast on the wharf.  Once we were done with breakfast Jason's mom and step dad walked back up to the beach house and we told them we were going to stay and take some pictures of the girls on the beach.  It wasn't nearly as warm as it was the day before.  {For Jason's moms birthday she told me she wanted a picture of the girls at the beach}  So we walked down and went under the pier and took some pictures, we tried to take more but it was just to cold for the girls.  Since the girls did so well, we told them that we would go to the candy store and they could get some candy.  Once we got our candy we called grandma to see if they were going to meet us back at the beach.  They met us down at the beach with all the beach toys and we had a good time playing on the beach.  The fog really started to roll in and we decided to head back up the house.  We ate pizza for lunch and then packed up our stuff and headed home.  We had a great time.

mommy's masterpiece!

tickles from grandpa

mommy & Kaylee's final masterpiece before her and Keira smashed it

Keira was being a stinker!

Kaylee was yelling "candy"