Watch your back Snooki....

Kendall's practicing her fist pump....

Beach Day

I don't know what was really more strange about today, the fact that it was 100 degrees at our house at the end of September, or the fact that today was Kendall's first trip to the beach. Really, both have an explanation. We do have heat waves quite often this time of year, and the weather was so cloudy and chilly all summer long that we never made it to the beach. Well, we did go once, but forgot to check the tide charts. We lugged all our stuff (including Kendall) down three flights of stairs only to find the waves hitting the cliffs. Needless to say, there was no beach that day.

So, since Dan worked all weekend (and most of last night), he took most of today off and we made it a beach day. Kendall did pretty well and only cried a little bit when she stuck a handful of sand in her mouth to see how it tasted. We came home and played in the wading pool in the backyard to wash all the sand off. All and all a pretty good day!

I'm 8 Months Old!

Kendall turned 8 months old this past Monday! I think I'm going to have to find a new way to secure my sign for these last few months...

My how things have changed in the past month. Kendall is now a very active crawler and pulls up to her knees at any chance she gets. She's also now starting to pull up to a standing position, which makes me very nervous given that 50% of our house is travertine flooring. Now that she's mobile, she's into everything. We've started our babyproofing, but we still have some things to do. She loves the water, both the pool and her baths. Turn the bath water on in her bathroom and she comes crawling and grunting! I've never seen a baby move that fast!

In the past month, Kendall has also started to pick up and eat small bits of food. So far she loves the baby puffs, mum mums and cheerios, but I did give her a few tiny bits of kiwi recently and she ate them. We going to be trying new food over the coming weeks. She's getting plenty to eat though, I recently measured her at 29 inches in length and just over 20 pounds. Very unofficial stats, but she does continue to grow! So does her hair! It's finally growing back in, and it's a very light brown color. Surprisingly, much lighter than the hair she was born with.

Although she really has changed over the past month, a few things do remain the same. She is still chewing on EVERYTHING and drooling constantly, but we haven't yet seen any more teeth. We go through a bib or two a day. She's still a great sleeper, now sleeping about 11 straight hours at night, with two 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps per day. She still wants her dad to put her to bed, and she still thinks Lani is hilarious. Peek a boo is still her favorite game, but it's pretty easy to get her to smile and laugh. She's a happy girl!

Something new every day

For the past few weeks, Kendall has been growing and changing just about ever time we turn around. Three weeks ago, she was only scooting and rolling. Now she's crawling, pulling up on her knees, standing on her own for a couple seconds at a time, and walking with assistance. Then today, I turned around from my post at the computer and saw this:

She pulled herself to a standing position all on her own! Another first! I snapped her picture and made a mental note to tell Dan about the day's events when he got home. About 2 minutes later i heard her making noise, and she sounded like she was a lot closer to me. I turned around again, and saw this:

I'm guessing she walked herself over along the edge of the pack and play, because this whole sequence of events didn't take that long, and I didn't hear her fall or sit down. It's a possibility though. Either way, she's now pulling herself to a standing position! I love watching her grow and do new things, but lately it's all happening so fast!

What Can I Find In Here?

Now that Kendall is crawling, she's all over the place and into everything. We've captured these in the past week:

Mammoth Vacation

The Weatherbys were in need of a vacation this summer, but with me not working (yet), the grand plans that we had for sipping Mai Tais on a beach in Maui were put on hold. Instead, we opted for 6 days in Mammoth at the end of August for some biking, hiking and relaxing. We go to Mammoth just about every winter, but had never been in the summer. We're really glad that we made the trip and had so much fun that we hope to make it a yearly event.

I have to admit, that I had second thoughts about driving all that way with Kendall strapped into her carseat, especially after flash flooding and a mudslide forced us to take a 3 hour detour on our way to Mammoth. Our 6 - 7 hour drive took 10 1/2 hours. On the plus side, I can now say that I've been to Death Valley!! Once we were there, we had a great time, and my parents even joined us for a few days. Dan got in two full days of mountain biking, we hiked to an old mine, visited Mono Lake, enjoyed the Mammoth Rocks festival, ate some great food, and relaxed. Here are some pics:

The weather was pretty cool, but we were able to swim one day

Even Dude joined in the fun

Dan's view from the top of the mountain

Enjoying some time with Dad after his ride

Hiking to the Mammoth Consolidated Gold Mine

Mono Lake

Not so sure about the museum exhibits

Mom and Kendall

Kendall found these bears in her room the morning we headed home