A bin full of animals...

We're headed to the Sweet 16!

Although it looks like she's more into whatever is going on outside, Kendall enjoyed watching the games with us this weekend! She was clapping, cheering, and handing out high fives to anyone that would raise a hand. With the Aztecs in the Sweet 16, we'll be enjoying more games next weekend!

Catch it!

About a month ago my mom taught Kendall to blow kisses. As with any new thing, she did it a lot at first, but then stopped spreading the love. It seems to be back in style as she's started doing it again!

Please ignore my annoying, nasally voice!

I'm Free!!

Kendall's head has been officially freed!

After noticing a bright red spot on Kendall's forehead Thursday night, we spent part of Friday afternoon at the doctor's office having her helmet examined. We thought that it was rubbing her (which it was), and the orthopedist suspected it was from her head growth (which it was!). The adjusted the helmet and then decided to scan her just to see where she was at. Surprisingly, Kendall had a growth spurt over the past few months, and the growth had been in all of the right places! Check out her scan - the blue line represents her current head, while the red line represents where we started:

Not only had her head circumference increased by almost a centimeter, but the growth had occurred where we wanted it - in the right front and left rear quadrants. The 6.0 measurement that I talked about last month was down to 2.8!! The orthopedist was shocked! She told us that her measurement is only 3.3, and that this was likely as good as we were going to get. What we thought was going to be a 4 month ordeal was quickly shortened to an easy 9 weeks!

Now, we're not totally out of the woods as we still have the Torticollis to deal with. Her head tilt is still about 5% and the facial asymmetry is still a bit noticeable to those who are looking for it. This will likely be an ongoing problem and we have to work with her on a daily basis to strengthen her neck muscles.

She's been very patient with all of this, and has come such a long way. We're grateful that things weren't a lot worse and that she's a happy, healthy girl! And, it really is nice to see that baby mullet all day long!

My head is going to be rounder than yours

I don't even think that I've used the word "rounder" correctly here, but it gets my point across.

Kendall's helmet is working!!

We had our first check in last week and the helmet is doing it's job. The measurement that the doctors, physical therapists and orthopedists use to gauge a baby's progress is a complicated analysis of circumference, asymmetry and length vs. width. A measurement of 0.0 would indicate the presence of a perfect head, which anything under 6.0 is considered normal. Kendall started with an overall measurement of 5.9 and is now down to 5.0! This is great news considering that she's only been wearing the helmet for a month now, and we were told that it might take a while to see results since she's nearing the period in her life where the head can't be reshaped any longer. But, we can see the differences already!

Even though she's now within the normal range, we're going to keep going and see what progress she makes over the next 1-3 months. She doesn't mind wearing it (she actually tries to put it on when we have our daily hour break), and now that she's walking, it has saved her noggin on a number of occasions. It will also help to shape the bones in her face, which will reduce or eliminate her facial asymmetry. This was my main concern all along, and how we originally discovered the problem.

We check back again at the beginning of March, so keep your fingers crossed for even more good news!!

We have a walker!!

The Littlest Chiefs Fan

Kendall did find time after celebrating her birthday to cheer on Dad's beloved Chiefs. Sadly, they got spanked, and were eliminated from the playoffs.

At least she looked good that day...

A Party for our Pup

We celebrated Kendall's first birthday a few days after her actual birthday by throwing a party for our sweet girl. We chose a puppy theme because Kendall LOVES doggies, and although I could think of a million cute birthday party ideas, I wanted her birthday party to be a reflection of her at this moment in time.

Kendall had a lot of family and friends at the party...

...Papa Steve and cousins Dustin and Cati....

...and Aunt Dusty

Kendall's friend, Lily, checking things out

I tried to add special touches like this monthly photo banner that I made. It included all of the pictures that I took on her monthly "birthdays" over the past year

Kendall's friend Knox deciding which doggie to adopt

Opening presents with mom

A happy birthday girl!

A tired birthday girl

I think that the party was a huge success. I'm proud of way everything turned out, and I'm glad that I put the effort into the little personalized touches. I'm also so thankful that we have such great families and friends that were willing to travel from near and far to spend the afternoon with us. A special thanks to my friend, Stacey, who came down from San Francisco for the weekend and was a huge help with the preparation and cleanup! We have one lucky girl!

Birthday Photo Shoot

A week before Kendall's actual birthday, we took her for a little birthday photo shoot. Here is the picture that we had printed for our families:

And, here are some of the cute outtakes:

I'm 1 Year Old!!

Last Thursday, our sweet baby hit the 1-year mark. It's been an amazing year filled with highs and lows, but it's been such a treat to watch her grow and change over the past year. We started the year with a myriad of medical issues (weight loss, jaundice, severe reflux, and a pesky intolerance for milk), so it feels like a huge accomplishment that we all managed to make it through this first year! I am very excited about what the next year will bring!

We had Kendall's official one year appointment at the doctor's office yesterday and he had high praise for her growth and development. Here are her official stats:

Weight: 23 pounds, 3 ounces (84th percentile)

Height: 31.5 inches (99th percentile)

Head: 18 inches (71st percentile)

I could tell that she's gone through a major growth spurt lately as I did laundry the other night and clothes that fit her a week ago look like they shrunk in the dryer. Her feet have also caught up as she's now wearing size 4 shoes. Her 6-9 month shoes fit her on Christmas Eve.

As you can see from the above picture, we are ending her first year with additional trips to the doctor for her new fancy helmet. Although her Torticollis has gotten better, her head was still a bit misshapen, and the helmet should help to round things out ver the next 3-4 months. She was just in the range that a helmet was recommended, and she would have been fine without one, but we went ahead and decided to do it. She's tolerated it very well, and spends 23 hours a day in it. I think the only downside to it is how stinky her head gets!

At one year, Kendall has also developed quite the personality. She has no problems letting you know if she's unhappy about something, but it's usually pretty easy to figure out what that is. Most of the time she's a happy little girl who is looking to do anything that will get a laugh. She LOVES her stuffed animals, and usually has one in hand at all times, but is also pretty stoked about the new toys that she received at Christmas and on her birthday. I think the baby toys were boring her.

We did get the green light to start trying milk products, so we'll be slowing starting to move her to milk. She has had dairy at times (mac and cheese is a favorite), and it hasn't seemed to bother her, so hopefully the milk intolerance is behind us. She's still a good eater, willing to try most things, and surprising us with just how much she can eat at one sitting if she's noshing on something that she really likes. Fruit usually keeps her in the high chair for quite a while.

I don't have any pictures of her on her actual birthday, but have quite a few from her birthday party that I'll include in another post. Here's a cute picture of her enjoying her new chair the morning after her birthday:

And, here's our last look back at the past month:

48 Weeks Old

49 Weeks Old

51 Weeks Old