15 Months Already???

Keelyn had her 15 month appointment this morning. Still small - no surprise there, but she did gain more for the same period than Mackenzie, so I think she's doing pretty good. I was hoping to wean her off of the morning & night bottles, but have been waiting to see how big she was b/c taking away a bottle will definitely take away some calories as she doesn't want to drink too much out of a sippy cup. So, the doc wanted me to keep on with two bottles. We'll see..... At some point, we've gotta take 'em away and let her learn how to get her calories elsewhere, I just don't want it to be at the expense of her not gaining properly since she's so tiny.

On another note, she was pretty long! 30 inches, or the 40%. Pretty tall for a McKay/Ramsey :) The doctor was also very impressed with how much she's talking. I guess I'm just used to it since Mackenzie had a lot of words early too. I need to go look though, I wonder if Keelyn has more or not. She has b/t 10-15 words, a couple signs, and likes to have "conversations" in her own language (so did her sissy!). The doc was also impressed with Mackenzie's conversational skills - and said I guess that runs in the family :) I said, yep - they come from some good talkers in their family! HA!

So, for my reference, her numbers were:

• Weight: 17 lbs, 12 oz (<5%)
• Height: 30 inches (40%)!!
• Head: 18.5 inches (75%)!!!!! BIG head :) That's why she's so smart!
  

Nooks & Crannies

Keelyn is enjoying exploring and getting into little nooks lately. One is our unfinished cabinet in the kitchen. We are taking our sweet time getting this thing done, but I don't think the kids mind! They are both going to miss their little cubby hole when we actually get a real cabinet there!
Oh - and a favorite rite of passage at the McKay house......getting into and out of Skylar's crate. Makes me think I should wash the dogs blankets a little more frequently.....

Oh What a Girl!

Mackenzie is keeping us on our toes these days. Her humor & quick wit are impressive (IMHO!) for a three year old - and she really makes us laugh a lot these days. She uses phrases that I don't know that she knows, or with great inflection, or just at the right time! Like today, she's eating breakfast at our island bar. The bar stools are too high for her to get on & off (which is kind of nice, can't get down til I agree that she's done eating! But I digress....). Anyways, after eating her eggs this morning, she says, as always, "Mom! I'm DONE!!". So, walking over to her, I say, "Would you like me to get you down?". To which she replies, "That is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!" What a girl!

PS - This picture was of Mackenzie climbing into her old infant exersaucer bouncy thing! My how she's grown! Oh - and she insisted on putting on her "glubs" (gloves.....AKA socks) for the picture. I mean, what princess doesn't have her glubs on at all times! And certainly for a picture!!

My Two Girls

Today, I put Keelyn in one of the outfits that was also Mackenzie's (which I guess is alot of her outfits, HA!). Anyways, after uploading today's photos, I remembered I had some good ones of Mackenzie in the same outfit. So, I went searching through my old photos on my computer and found them. It was fun comparing them at about the same age. They really look quite different. I usually say Mackenzie looks like a McKay and Keelyn looks like a Ramsey (my family). Sometimes they favor each other, but when I look at this, they look very different!

Mackenzie (left) at 17 months & Keelyn (right) at almost 15 months

Bustin' Outta the House!

So, we've been stuck at home basically since Sunday with pink eye, so today was our first day that we were clear to go out and hang out with friends. So, we called our friends, Holt & Sophia, who also have had pink eye to meet us at our favorite food joint, Chick-Fil-A. I was glad to bring my camera along and continue my new years resolution b/c I have so few pictures this past year with their friends. It's sad, Keelyn has almost none with her friends like Kenz did! But when she was little, the camera was just one more thing to carry and I didn't have the arms for it then! But now that they're a little more manageable, I can now bring it along :)

Keelyn & Holt - one of her many boyfriends.....seems all of Mackenzie's little friends have baby brothers, meaning Keelyn has mostly (only?) boy friends!

Mackenzie & Sophia - enjoying the slide

Who's In Charge??

One thing I love about trying to keep up my blog & making the entries short & sweet, is that I can/hope to record some of the just simple but funny things that happen or that M says each day. Today, the scene is the playroom:

Keel: AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! (Screams at Mackenzie b/c she wants the toy M has)
Me: No, no Keelyn. She had that first.
Mack: (walking toward me) Says, "No No Keelyn!". Then, turns to me and says, "We're in charge, right???"

Oh Dear.

Happy Birthday Aunt Natalie

On Saturday, we took my sister to dinner to celebrate her birthday. A fun, but crazy, new annual tradition. Last year, I remember having to have Brannon walk Keelyn around b/c she started crying during dinner. Wow, things have changed. Wait, no they haven't! Keelyn has suddenly decided after many wonderful months of sitting quietly in her seat at restaurants, that she has a new low tolerance for that business. She doesn't want to eat much, wants out of her seat, and wants to mess with any and all things on the table. When stopped from playing with such items as my knife and glass of red wine, she began throwing a fit. So, Daddy finished his meal and got to walk around with her. Ah......maybe next year, we can have a nice, calm meal to celebrate Aunt Natalie's birthday. But then, again, maybe not. But we'll have fun either way!

Island Love

One thing I am LOVING about our newly renovated, new to us home, is the island we put into the kitchen. Oh how I missed having an island in our in-between rental house. And this island is way better than the one two houses ago! It's huge, has the sink in it, and when I stand at it I am facing out onto our view of the golf course! And I spend a lot of time there, so it's so nice. And I love having the girls sit up there to eat, do artwork, or help me cook. We just got new barstools that are perfect, they go up for shorties (the kids) and can be lowered for adults. And to top it off, we got a little baby seat that hangs on the island for Keelyn so she can be part of the action. And she loves it!. (Brannon loves that we could move the high chair back into the garage!). So cute!

Cloud Dough

So I'm really enjoying the new internet fad, Pinterest. I've spent the past few weeks "pinning" all sorts of fun ideas - like crafts, recipes, kid activities, etc.... But I began to wonder if I'd ever actually DO one of the ideas! And it sometimes makes me feel a little inadequate when you read all these blogs where people make these homemade awesome things for their kids, homes, & themselves. Well, today, I did one! YAY ME! I made "cloud dough" - a home made recipe for this moldable sand like substance that they have at our local children's museum. Well, it was super easy. And Mackenzie loved it! She told me "Thanks for making me this special play dough!" and "You're a GREAT mommy!". I felt like Super Mommy for a few minutes :) And with that type of reinforcement, I feel inspired to maybe try another one. But not right now.......

Familiar?

The other night, Keelyn was giving some love to Skylar on the couch, so I grabbed my camera and took a few snapshots. There was a feeling of deja vu, so I looked back at some pictures of Mackenzie around the same age. I guess this is about the age that they become more interested in loving on the dog. Glad she doesn't seem to mind :)

Keelyn January 2012

Mackenzie Sept. 2009

Even Keel

I wanted to record some things about Keelyn at 14 months - poor second child just doesn't get her life documented quite as well as #1! But I'm trying....in bullet form as the pop in my mind!

• She is a peanut. At one year, she only weighed 15 lbs, 13 oz. Which is not on the charts, if you're counting! But she is healthy, a pretty good eater, so everyone is pleased.
• She is really picking up some words - I'm wondering if we'll have another talker! She can say mama, dada, sissy, doggie, all done, thanks (tay), hi, bye bye, cheese, and baby. There may be a couple more, but that's all I can think of right now.
• She is such an easy kid overall. We came up with a great nickname for her a couple days ago - "Even Keel". And she is just so content, plays by herself alot, and is just so easy going. However, as she's getting a little older, she is starting to assert herself when she doesn't get her way! Ah.....round two of tantrums, not sure I'm ready for another round!
• She loves baby dolls! So much more than her sister ever has. In fact, Mackenzie has upped her interest in dolls when Keelyn started playing with them! She also loves playing outside - if someone goes out with out her, she starts going "uh-uh-uh" at the window and sometimes throws a mini-tantrum to go out too! And of course, she LOVES her sissy!
  

Cheese!!!!

On days we get dressed nicely (school, MOPS, church) I like to get my quick pic of them in their little outfits. But if I don't get it before we leave, I have a VERY small window when we get home b/c the deal EVERY day with Mackenzie is that if she puts on a regular clothing outfit for wherever we're going, she can put on whatever princess dress she wants when she gets home. Well, she wastes NO time in getting out of normal clothes and back into her proper princess attire! This quick pic this week we had just walked in the door, I grabbed my camera, snapped one of Keelyn and Mackenzie already had her pants off. So, I snapped one of her in just her shirt, which she loved and then started posing in her skivvies! What a girl!

Here is Keelyn, saying another new word, CHEESE! And she does it at the appropriate time with a smile! Love this kid!!

Sisterly Love

While I'm on Blogger, for the first time in I don't know how long, I can hardly stop posting with just one! So, here's a couple quick pics depicting some sisterly love. This age is seriously so fun to watch this budding lifelong friendship develop. Now that Keelyn is walking & starting to talk - so much fun for Mackenzie. Favorite pastimes include putting baby dolls in their strollers and going "shopping" around the house together (with Keelyn just toddling behind Mackenzie :) ). Oh - and Keelyn only has maybe 10 words or so right now (need to count them I guess) - but her most recent word is "sissy". She says it with a big smile on her face. Melts. My. Heart.

Okay, Let's Give this Another Try.....

Blogging, it seems, is kind of like exercising.....once you miss a few days, and then a few weeks, it gets harder and harder to start up again! BUT, this is really my only way of documenting this quickly passing time with my sweet girls. So, I'm going to try to post more frequently - but shorter quick posts. And thanks to idea from a blogging & real life friend of mine (J.N. - hope you don't mind, I was once told mimicking is the sincerest form of flattery!) said her new years resolution was to take a pic of her sweet boy every day. I liked that. I mean, I love to take photographs. The problem is, I'm always trying to get a "good" picture - which isn't gonna happen. Now, I just take a few pictures regardless of what they are doing & don't try to make it my most professional looking photo. Just a photo. So, I'm going to try to take pictures each day & then blog quick blogs with these quick pics. We'll see how it goes....... I'm trying to be positive!