1st Birthday!

Kendyl's first birthday was bittersweet for me. I mean on one hand it's a huge milestone and it's super exciting. On the other hand my baby is growing up. Either way she had a wonderful birthday with lots of friends and family around and she certainly did not mind all the attention :) This year has been incredible. She has brought so much to our lives and we are so thankful to be her parents. Matt and I look at each other all the time and say wow she is such a good baby. Being a parent certainly comes with it's fair share of hard days, but when she gives us slobbery kisses, waves goodnight or takes those first steps none of the hard days seem to matter. She is such a joy and a blessing and for all the people who told me it was all worth it when I was pregnant you were 100% right. Kendyl bear, we love you very much and thank God every day that you are in our lives. Happy birthday peanut! Now, on to the pictures. We are lucky enough to have a photographer in the family who was willing to take some pretty incredible pictures of Kendyl on her birthday for us. There were so many wonderful pictures to choose from. I tried to narrow them down, but there are still a ton!

She LOVED her cake!

I am letting my child reach for fire...hmm. Mother of the year!

3 generations of Crooke boys

The Crooke-Small family

Austin was so excited to pull Kendyl in her new wagon. I don't think we were prepared for how fast he was going to pull her. Ha ha.

Aunt Debbie, Aunt Sherri and Grandma

Grampy Mike and Kendyl

Giving the dinosaur "kisses"

Grandpa Mally

Granny and Aunt Meghan

PRESENTS!

This is my favorite picture!

Grandma and Uncle Jay

11 months

Yet again I am way behind on posting. Kendyl is doing fantastic. 11 months was really fun. She reached the major milestone of walking. Her first official steps have been taken although they are still not the preferred mode of transportation. Matt and I will sit a couple feet apart in the family room and let we walk back and forth to us so she can perfect her new skill. Plus, she has a lot of fun doing it because we clap and get all excited each time. She is starting to really understand small commands such as say hi/bye, goodnight or come here. She has the waving thing down and does it often. I especially love her queen wave. Though she still only has 2 teeth I am letting her eat more solids now. So far she is not a picky eater at all. I try to let her try all kinds of foods so she becomes used to different tastes. I am terribly picky and I definitely don't want her to be the same way. As she gets older she manages to get more and more mischievous. She has gotten really good this past month at opening cabinets and pulling things out. One day she spilled half a box of cheerios on the kitchen floor. She is still in a size 2 shoe for the most part and she is in 18 months for clothes. If she had it her way though she would just crawl around in nothing but a diaper all day. She hates when I put shoes on her and if possible will pull them off. One night it got cool enough to put her in pants and it was so funny because she was pulling at them like "what are these things on my legs?" Her favorite toy in the whole world is rocks. When she sees them she will make a beeline over to them. Poor thing has bruises on her shins from crawling in them, but she doesn't seem to care. We recently ordered her a forward facing car seat and she loved it. The night we got it we took her for a "test drive" and she was just looking all around and smiling and talking the entire time. It is so much nicer to put her in this car seat because she actually likes it now. She is back to letting me rock her again. I found that if I grab one of her blankets that she will sit with me for a few minutes and snuggle. Those are my favorite times. Though she is pretty independent she definitely can be a sweet heart too and I love that. Lastly, her new thing is to crawl around the house with my flip flops on her arm. She puts them on like they are a bracelet. It is the funniest thing!
Here are her pictures from 11 months. I never actually took and "11 month" picture :(

She loves getting into my purse.

First night in the "big kid" bath. Aside from bottle time this may be her favorite time of the day.

Right before we switched her to the tub she learned she could drink the water from the faucet.

We call this her Mowgli crawl because she looks like Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Normally though she will drag her knees in the rocks.

Snuggle time with Katie :)

"I found your flip flops mom"

"Now let me just put them on like this"

"I can crawl with them on different hands..."

"...or the same hand!"

10 months!

We are officially in the double digits. I cannot believe it! I just want to put her in a time capsule and keep her this way forever because 10 months was so much fun! She is super close to walking. She has even managed a step or two, but were not there quite yet. There are still only 2 teeth, but the other day I noticed one of her side teeth on the top is very close to popping through. She is getting into EVERYTHING! You literally cannot take an eye off of her for 2 seconds before she has managed to make another mess. I love this curiosity though. She gets so excited when she finds new things to get into and I get such a kick out of it. Since she is getting older is starting to develop some likes and dislikes I thought this month I would compile a list of those things so I will not forget them:
Dislikes:
Being rocked or held like a baby
Green vegetables (there is only one kind that I can get her to eat)
Her car seat. I cannot wait to turn her around!

Likes:
Dogs. Especially small ones. She starts screaming and squirming whenever she sees them.
Katie...kind of goes with dogs, but the two of them are getting along a lot better these days. Katie has developed a real patience for Kendyl
Bottles, snacks, chicken...food. Especially whatever we are eating
Music. She has started to dance to it a little which is pretty cute.
Playing on our bed. She thinks its the coolest thing to throw herself backwards because she lands on soft pillows.
Pictures of people that she knows...or of herself.
Her crib. She has learned to bounce while holding on to the side of the crib which she thinks it pretty exciting.
Blankets. She doesn't have one narrowed down. but she loves to roll around in them.
Being outside. I try to take her out every night once it cools down a little.

Here are the pictures from the month:

She does this little hoppity thing when she gets excited. She was trying to get the camera.

Love that face!

She had such a fun time throwing rocks!

This is her new smile...haha!

This picture just makes me laugh

There's that new smile again :)

Her golf ball rolled under the couch :(

Kendyl and Uncle Jay

She wont crawl with her knees on the grass :)

9 months

I am way past due for this post. We have been so busy now that I am back at work. Hopefully I am able to remember everything I wanted to put in this post. So far each month continues to get more and more fun. I miss her being my little snuggly baby, but watching her grow and explore is such a blast. She is now standing on her own and waving. She understands small commands such as come here or give kisses. Her favorite word is "mukum." Not quite sure what it means since she doesn't say it at any particular time. She still only has her 2 bottom teeth. At her 9 month appointment her doctor said that it looked like she had her top 4 teeth coming through but there is still nothing. Her personality comes out more and more each day. She is a very curious, independent little girl. She will not even let me rock her to sleep anymore. I guess this is a good thing, but it definitely makes me realize how fast they grow up. Her sleeping and eating are still excellent. We have these little Gerber snacks for her that she just goes wild for! She is making a lot of noises and babble and she get get around a coffee table pretty quickly when she holds on to the side. The "I only want mom" phase seems to have subsided. She definitely bonded with Matt when I had to leave her for a work trip (for 5 whole nights!). At her 9 month appointment her weight was 20.6 lbs (75th percentile) and her height was 26 3/4" (25th percentile).

9 month photo shoot

Her curiosity landed her under the glass on our coffee table

I still wash her in the sink because it is much easier to keep her in one place (most of the time)

Maybe she was so happy because there weren't any shots this visit?

Poor thing was sick as a dog this day. She has 103 degree fever and was completely lethargic all day. At least I got some cuddle time in :)

"Helping" get her breakfast ready