Life with our Spudette

        When McKenna was sick over Christmas we were at Jason's parents house and thankfully, since we were both sick too, his mom was able to take care of her. More recently McKenna and I both were showing cold symptoms, nothing major but McKenna was eating less and sleeping more, so I called in to the doctors office and we went in later that day. Turns out I had bronchitis and McKenna had an ear infection so we were both put on amoxicillin. Since being on our medicine we are both doing much better and McKenna is back to her normal self!

Happy baby girl!

          At McKenna's appointment we got her most recent stats as a 7 month old. She weighs 19.1 lbs. (84.39%) and is 27 in. (89.84%) long. Growing like crazy and is completely healthy except for the ear infection that she is getting over. We couldn't be happier with how she is growing. Her tricks to date include:

• recognizing both mom and dad (she's done this for quite some time but it never gets old)
• eating small/simple finger foods by herself (puffs, yogurt melts, etc.) even without any teeth

No teeth but super happy to gum-up her food

• attempting to wave, usually its a full arm wave to dad when he's leaving for work. She does try to wave with just her hand...she gets the motion down but its never AT anyone :)
• still taking two amazing 2 hour naps and sleeping through the night (Babywise...read it!!!)

She usually sleeps the wrong way....her head should be on the left side of this picture :)

• still loves her jumper for the most part, not as much recently because of her ear infection
• is content and happy to sit on the floor with toys while mom reads or cooks/bakes in the kitchen (although we did have an incident because she was sitting in our kitchen.....a nose dive + a hard kitchen floor = a bloody nose...thankfully she was ok even if I wasn't

Sitting on the floor getting her sign ready to wish Grandma Kim a Happy Birthday

• 'talking' saying consonants such as da-da(her favorite), ya-ya and ma-ma , her little voice is a constant reminder of the many years we have to look forward to of her voice, God-willing, filling our home
• she has also been very vocal during church, in the sanctuary, and when we are in our church's atrium. It echos in both of those rooms, they are large with vaulted ceilings and McKenna will not stop talking when we are there
• she sits on her own, falls rarely (remember the nose dive?), for the last few weeks she has been rolling all over the place and in the last two days she has started pushing herself up on hands and knees. She isn't crawling yet just getting up and rocking somewhat but I know it's in the near future!!
• McKenna has also been joining me at the gym! We belong to a small gym and their nursery hours don't always line up with the times I am able to work out so most of the time she is sitting on the floor next to me. We are developing her love of fitness from the start :)

          Besides all of these physical milestones and achievements that McKenna has reached we are also trying to instill values, morals, and good healthy habits in her. [Some people (I've met these people in years past) would say, 'You're trying to teach a baby? You can't, they are too young to learn.' When comments are made like that I quickly have to turn off that defensive part of my brain holding all of the knowledge I gained while getting my Degree in Early Childhood Education and turn on the understanding part. While those people are wrong because of course you can and should teach young children, this idea of teaching VERY young children is newer and only recently gaining popularity.] We are helping to teach her these things by doing them ourselves. Both Jason and I know that by implementing these positive habits in our life we will be showing her and any other future children (no, there are no future children in the works right now) how to live God-pleasing lives. An example being saying prayers, every night, whether it's Jason or I are putting her to bed, we hold her hands and say a bedtime prayer. Developing that as a habit so early on in her life will stick with her later on.

         Developing a new good habit is not a strong quality of mine so I have been consciously trying to work on myself. Since my last competitive soccer season working out constantly has been difficult for me to do. I enjoy playing sports and working out with people but when I'm by myself my motivation seems to disappear...especially when I look around the house and realize how many other things I could be doing. The last few weeks I have been able to set a work out schedule and for the most part stick to it! My hope is that this will be the first of many good habits I'll develop.

       What are some good habits you've had to a)work on for yourself b)are instilling in your children?