We are all just gonna ignore the fact that I’m 2 months behind in these postings, k?

Another trip under the little tyke’s belt as we headed to Sanford, Florida for this years turkey festivities.  It was the Meisel’s turn to spend this holiday together and we all trekked out.  It was Kendyl’s first  Thanksgiving but being  only about 8 months old she didn’t know what was going on and didn’t even get to eat turkey.  We had a blast all of us together including Barry’s paternal grandparents, Uncle, and his 4 cousins and their families.  Sadly, I have no picture of the entire clan.   

 Gramps was the entertainment for the little ones with his violin, mandolin, guitar, and harmonica.  It was mesmerizing…

Kendyl got to go to the beach again but this time she was a little more “involved”.  She was only 3 months old when we were in California so this time she actually got a bit wet and experienced the sand.  All 3 of the little cousins were stinkin’ cute!

McKinsey LOVED the sand and wanted to share her experience with Kendyl’s face

 

These are Barry’s 4 cousins (minus the sleeping baby).  I’m sure they will all love me for posting this picture but a) it is the only one I have of any of them and b) it is super fun.  They are all 4 sisters (obvious I know) and are great ladies.  Ironically, Barry’s Dad had 3 boys and his uncle had these 4 girls.   

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.  The next few pictures are some Barry’s super fun, very talented cousin, Elisabeth (she has the shorter hair in the above picture)  took on Thanksgiving day.  Thanks to her we used a couple of these on our Christmas cards too!  Kendyl was a bit tired so she wasn’t her usual all-smiles-self but still they are some super cute shots!

This is one of our all-time favorites…

yep…8 months!  That is really all there is to report I think.  Kendyl took her third plane ride for Thanksgiving and did great.  But that will be a different post.

We took a little trip out to North Carolina.  Originally it was for my cousins wedding but they changed their date.  We decided to keep the trip booked anyway.  Kendyl and I stayed for a week and Barry stayed through the weekend.  Kendyl’s newest 7 months developments were sitting really well by herself and starting to ‘use’ (play with) a sippy cup.  

My brother came for the weekend as well.  That was SO nice since we barely see him (he’s in pilot training for the Air Force in Texas).  We all got to go to the NC State vs. Duke football game.  Jeremy’s girlfriend and family are giant State fans and do a ridiculously huge, incredible tailgate for all the home games.  It was really fun and the food was A-mazing!  We’ll skip the talk of the game (State lost BAD) but we do have some SUPER cute pics of Kendyl in her little cheerleader outfit. 

Click HERE for more pics of the game.

At the end of September Barry’s younger brother, Darren, wife Janelle, and daughter, McKinsey came to visit.  Like Rachel the week before, Darren had work out here so the whole fam tagged along.  It was nice to spend the days with McKendyl back in action!

At the end of the week we spent a couple nights at “the cabin” near Breckenridge.  It was relaxing, cold (there was even a light snow dusting for our Californians one morning), and fun.

 Click HERE for all the photos

While at the cabin we had a fire out back and made smores.  McKinsey was also just on the verge of crawling. 

In the middle of  September Barry’s older brother, Jared and wife Rachel with son, Judah came to visit.  It was really a business trip for Rachel so we unfortunately didn’t see her too much.  We drove around downtown Denver, went to Boulder and the dog park.  Rachel had a couple afternoons free and one of those afternoons we went to our pool.  It was great to see them and hang out but made us miss our weekly dinners we used to have when we lived near them in Chicago. 

I’m sure I’ll be saying this  for the rest of her life but I cannot believe she is this old already!  She is getting more and more active and has started on some food.  So far she is master of rice cereal,  avacado, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.  Her favorite though is a toss up between the cereal and the butternut squash.  We gave her the first meal while my parents were visiting so they could be in on the experience.  Pretty cool.

First “real” food…please excuse my awesome face as your intro.

She now sleeps pretty much through the night, and no, it has nothing to do with her starting food.  It has to do with us “letting” her learn how to put herself to sleep.  Yes, we have been letting her “cry it out” for about a week now.  We took away her pacifier and let her figure things out.  She has done GREAT!  The longest she ever fussed and  cried was 45 minutes and that was only once.  Usually she fusses and/or cries anywhere from 0 to 10 minutes.  She  now sleeps on her stomach- her choice.  So that is a HUGE development and we (especially me) are excited for more than 4 hours straight of sleep .  So far she has been going about 8 hours straight, then I nurse her and she goes another 4 or so.  Pretty stellar.

She L-O-V-E-S her doorway jumper!  Sometimes she’ll be in that thing for 45 minutes.  That’s a better babysitter than the t.v. right?

First jumper experience…

Second jumper experience.  She might take after her dad’s dunking ability.

We had a 6 month doctor visit and here are her stats:

head: 16 3/4 inches (50%)  up 3/4 inches from 4 months

weight: 15 lbs. 14 oz. (50%- shocker I know because she is so ‘puffy’) up 2 lbs. 4 oz. from 4 months

height:  25 1/2 inches (50%) up 1 1/2 inches from 4 months

So she is our perfectly porportioned little puff-a-lump (my newest nickname for her).

My parents were our third round of visitors this month.  Originally it was supposed to be just my dad and just for the weekend.  Well he had a trip come up at work in Colorado Springs for the whole week before his scheduled weekend so he gladly volunteered for that.  Because it was going to be all week instead of a weekend he wanted mom to come too.  So it was great to have both of them for almost a week!  We went on a hike and since they were here over our birthday Barry and I had a night out without the precious kiddo.  It was also grandparent’s day while they were here.  Kind of cute that they were with their only grandkid on their first grandparent’s day. 

My dad and Kendyl just reading 5280, the Denver magazine. (Get it? 5,280 feet? Denver is the mile high city.)

We also went on a super short hike because of rain.  We still had fun and it was beautiful. 

Our birthday night out we went bowling at this super swanky bowling alley and then got dessert at P.F. Chang’s which is all within walking distance of our apartment.  We came home to a sleeping baby, homemade peach cake and presents from the parentals.  It was a nice birthday!

 

 I just had to include this picture.  We bowled 2 games.  Barry won the first one but to my surprise I won the second game…He is the top score (B Riz) and I am the bottom one (A Town).

The proud grandparents.

Correction-she doesn’t have a tooth.  The nurse practitioner said the white “tooth” is a pearl something and is kind of like a calcium deposit and will go away.  Well lo and behold it has gone away.  So she is back to being toothless!!!

Barry’s cousin, Amy and her husband and little Clara came to the Denver area for a while to visit.  They used to live here and have quite a bit of family in the area so had to spread their time between everyone.  They took us to a Rockies game and then spent the night here.  The babies did well, considering the game started at 7.  Clara slept a little at the game and Kendyl, well, didn’t.  But, she was happy the whole time.  It was a really good game too. 

Clara is just 5 weeks younger than Kendyl.  She is super tall and thin..unlike our little puff-a-lump.  Clara is just about as tall as Kendyl. 

as a disclaimer-Kendyl's toosh is that large because of her cloth diapers...she really doesn't have that big of a booty!

We had a little photo opp of the girls but they were generally unaware of each other.  Still cuties though!

On Labor Day Amy’s aunt had a cook-out and we were invited!  It was super relaxing and we had great food.

These first 2 videos make us think we might have a potential left-handed child. 

Yes, I do realize in the video below that the Bumbo is a) on the counter which is warned against and b) slightly hanging off the counter.  She survived.

Maybe she won’t even use her hands to write, throw or eat…What she does in the video she has done a few times.