First Haircut!!!!

So, I felt it was finally time to get Mackenzie her first haircut. Her hair has grown out amazingly evenly, and it wasn't even a necessity at this point, but I thought getting it trimmed up would be good since it had never been cut in almost 3 years! And she is just all about getting pampered and being a princess, so I knew she'd love it. Both sets of grandparents were in town for Keelyn's baby dedication (post on that to come.....) so I enlisted both grandmas to come along, leaving the little one with the granddads. She had a blast at a little hair salon for kids. And I got a nice little keepsake of her little blond locks :) (Oh - and I took a lot of pictures......)










Our little priss waiting on her turn at the salon





















Fixin' Belle's hair in the waiting area :)
















Ready to go in her firetruck seat














First snips......














Love this - watching her hair get braided!
















All done, getting jewels added to her braid!





















We were quite the paparazzi! I love this picture - you can see Granmommy in the mirror taking a picture of Meemi with her camera and me holding mine!
















With her hairdresser :)
















With Meemi & Granmommy














Ta Da!! Love that little hand flip she did in this pic!

Puffs.....Oh How I've Been Waiting for You!

We've had a couple recent firsts around here lately..... First, Keelyn is now sitting in her high chair. She looks super tiny in it (but maybe that's because she IS super tiny!). But she does look super cute. This was her first time in it about a week ago. Then, a couple days ago, I started her on eating puffs when I put her in the high chair. Keeps her occupied for a good while. Oh, how I've been wanting to get to this stage! I wonder if I feed her too many??? Nah....

The other first was Mackenzie got to go to her first sleepover at Aunt Natalie's house. Here she is all ready to go in her swim outfit (the first activity of the event was the pool!) with her own little suitcase. She was so excited. And, not surprisingly, she didn't really want to leave when I picked her up the next day! We didn't even make it to the car before she told me she missed her Aunt Now-Wee. And has periodically repeated it since them. (Mostly when she's in trouble with mommy, guess she knows she doesn't get in trouble at Aunt Natalie's house nearly as much!) We (ALL) can't wait for the next sleepover!

Roly Poly

So, this video is about 3 weeks old, but this was when I finally got Keelyn rolling over. It's at the beginning of the video and then I waited awhile because she had sometimes rolled back, but not in this one. She just gets mad and end of video!

My Beautiful Rolling (sort of) Baby

As I mentioned earlier, the weekend that Meemi & Poppee came was absolutely beautiful. When we got home from the zoo, we hung out with the doors open & played outside. Keelyn was on her mat playing with her toys - which she's really into these days. She studies them so intently. She seems so much more into toys than I remember Mackenzie being. I think Mackenzie just liked to roll around! No time to stare at toys! Keelyn is quite different. She looks at the toys & has little interest in rolling. BUT that weekend (at 4 1/2 months) she had her first non-spontaneous roll (she'd flipped in her crib a couple times) and Poppee was the only witness as we were all outside doing sidewalk chalk with Mackenzie! He yelled for me as she was trying to get over, but I just missed it. Then, I watched for a long time, and no second roll! Oh well :P She now rolls over from time to time in her crib, a lot of times at 4:30am and then cries & can't go back to sleep (so that's fun). So, I guess she can roll, but most of the time, doesn't care to do it. She is so different from Mackenzie...... Check out this post on Mackenzie at this age, or even actually a little younger :)

Anyways, here's a few shots of Keelyn as I waited for her to roll & captured her studying & playing with her toys:

So happy on her play mat

Notice the look of concern when her sister lays next to her! Mackenzie can be a little wild around Keelyn & she's not sure what to think of it :)

Potty Training.....Check!

Well, I hope I'm not jinxing anything, but it looks like we may be down to only one child in diapers! That's right.....Mackenzie seems to be potty trained!!! Can I get a big WHOOO HOOO????!??! We're going on about 5 days of doing all of her business on the potty.

Here's how it happened.... After so much success with giving up her paci after letting her pick out a princess doll at the toy store, I thought we'd try the same thing with going #2 on the potty (she was basically already trained for #1, we just had to get past doing #2). I gave it a few weeks in between, to give her time to be excited again over picking out a new toy. We went to the toy store and walked down the princess aisle. Which was funny in & of itself....she just couldn't decide on just one! "I want this one, no I want this one, how 'bout this one??".....so we put a bunch in the cart and then compared them. Even then she couldn't decide between a bigger princess doll or a cash register with princesses on it, or a little set of miniture princesses & a wand. Well, I determined that the register & mini princesses/wand were the same price as the big doll, so I steered her in that direction to get both because I had a plan for having two toys.....

We rode all the way home with her holding the toys in her lap, and me reminding her that she had to do her business to get the toys.

I told her that I would let the register be her potty toy - to be played with only when trying to do her business on the potty. The mini princesses/ wand would be the reward for going. She came home & immediately sat on the potty with the register and did her business. Thank goodness she needed to go, because she wanted to do it right away! And she got her reward. Wow. She is really motivated by new princess toys. First the paci & now this. Couldn't believe it. But here we are, about 5 days later, and she has been in panties ever since with no accidents. YAY!!!! I think it's safe to say, SHE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!!

*Note: I'm opting to not include pictures of her on the potty.....I'm sure she'll appreciate that one day!! Although it was tempting because she looks so cute sitting up there, so little on a big potty, playing with her cash register. But that will be something I'll have in my mind to cherish as a little mommy memory!

It's Gone

That's right folks.....the paci is a thing of the past at the McKay household. Since my newborn won't take it & my 2 year old just gave it up like it was no big thing, they are no longer needed at our house! I'm still amazed at how easily Mackenzie gave it up, though..... Here's how it went down:

Brannon was getting anxious to get Mackenzie to give it up. (Me - I was fine with it b/c I was too scared of having a second child not sleeping through the night!). BUT - I knew it was probably time & was a little worried that Brannon would just take it from her one night and that would not have been pretty.

So, I decided to go to Toys R Us last Friday and get her a new "lovey" that she could pick out to give her something else to comfort her at night. So, she picked out a little stuff winnie the pooh attached to a little blanket. Perfect. Then, I thought, as we were passing the princess aisle, that maybe I would also let her pick out a toy to have if she gave up her paci. So, we walked down the aisle & she was in heaven. Finally settling on a Beauty & the Beast (Belle) doll that has a wand, plays music, and has flowers that bloom on the dress (a bit odd, but she loved it). In fact, she held it in its box all the way home! And when she asked to play with it, I told her it would be hers if she gave up her paci.

I had actually intended on giving her an additional night with her pacis, but by the time bedtime came around, she WANTED her Belle doll. She knew what she had to do & Brannon went up to room with her, opened the Belle doll box, and made the exchange when she threw her pacis in the garbage. She never looked back. She now happily goes to sleep, sleeps through the night & for naps, with her Belle doll & Winnie the Pooh lovey by her side! Wow. Would never have guessed it would have been that easy. She was seriously addicted to her paci. I guess that shows you how much she LOVES her new Belle doll!

She's Growing Up.....

A few weeks ago, right after she turned two, we decided to go ahead and move Mackenzie on up to a big girl bed. I was pretty nervous about it, since she is such a good sleeper, and I especially LOVE that she stayed in her crib in the morning & after naps for around 30 minutes playing & talking to herself. I was SOOOO worried that given the freedom to get off her bed that she would quickly give up that 30 minute wake-up period. Brannon wasn't worried at all. He was super confident that she'd handle the transition with ease.....

Turns out, he was right. After the first night, where she didn't want us to leave her & seemed super excited to be in the bed, it took a long time to get her to sleep. Then, the first nap, with the light in the room, she got out a few times, and I had to go put her back in immediately (thank goodness for the video cam!). After almost 2 hours of playing in her bed, I went up and put her in her crib (which we hadn't taken down yet in case this didn't work out!). She was SOOOO upset about not getting to sleep in her big girl bed, it turned out to be a nice punishment. And the next time or two, she had trouble falling asleep/getting out of bed, I would threaten to put

her back in the crib. It did the trick. She LOVES her big girl bed (as she even calls it, which is really cute!). Rarely gets out of it. Plays for 30 minutes or so after naps & in the mornings. It has been a really easy transition. I had to tell Brannon he was right :)

Here's a couple pictures, it took me a while to take some - had to wait til her new bedding arrived & then I just never had a camera in her room at nap/bed time. But alas, I finally got some. Enjoy :) The big girl in her bed.

Big Girl & Busy Day

Today, we had Mackenzie's 2 year appointment. I cannot believe it has been 2 whole years since our first well visit to our pediatrician. It seems like yesterday......

I had scheduled this way in advance, as you have to do it seems, and did not realize she would be on fall break from school. As luck would have it, we are desperately low on groceries and we had to make a trip to Wal-Mart before our doctor's visit. I just don't like going there these days with her (I generally do long grocery trips while she's at MMO). She's actually really good in the store, but the entrance & exit as we pass the wonderful $.25 rides, she flips out if she can't ride them. Today, I tried to use it to my advantage - if she pottied and stayed dry, then she could ride one. Well, she did just that. So, on the way out, I paid (lost) actually $0.50 for the carousel ride. She freaked out no less when it ended than she would've if we hadn't rode one at all I think. So much for it helping! I did snap a few pictures of a her riding - what else would I do with a minute of watching her go 'round & 'round......

Anywhoo, we made it to the

pediatrician. Mackenzie was very excited to see her doctor. She kept saying "where's MY doctor??". To me, to the nurse, to anyone! When we did see the doctor, I enjoyed hearing all the praise from the doctor about her - "she's quite a chatterbox", "she's very verbal", "she's a smart one". I think these things, but hearing it from a professional makes it less of my personal bias & more real :) She did say with how smart she is, she'll be a tough one! I smiled and said, "I know! It's already started!". Oh well, I'll take my smart/more challenging child any day of the week. It is so fun to already have such a communicative little mini-me (okay, mini-brannon) to hang out with!

She's also growing nicely these days. She was 24 lbs 13 oz, and almost 33 inches tall. That puts her about 25% for both weight and height. She's looking like she might be a bit taller than mommy, probably got those genes from daddy too. Not too tall (that's probably not a possibility in our family) but a little taller than me I suspect. Still has a proportionally big head (65%) but maybe that's because she's such a smarty pants!

More Big Girl Advances

I've recently gotten very tired of cleaning out the high chair after every. single. meal. Therefore, I began thinking recently about just having her sit in her travel booster seat at our table. Tonight, began that new step to big girl-hood. She seemed to enjoy sitting at the table with me (daddy was working late, so he'll have to enjoy it tomorrow night!) And I thought it was fun as well. Seemed like we were actually enjoying the meal together - more than it does when she's in the high chair & I'm at thetable. I look forward to many a conversation over dinner in our future - which seems quite possible these days given her expanding vocabulary & chatterbox-ness.