Thursday, June 16, 2005

Grandparents

McKenna is lucky to have 4 very wonderful grandparents and 2 very wonderful step-grandparents and she's been getting lots of quality time with all of them lately.

Erick's Mom (a.k.a. Nama or Mammy, she goes back and forth between the two names) always spends almost our entire visits playing doll house with McKenna or letting McKenna help her in the kitchen. McKenna LOVES to help Nama in the kitchen. However, she cannot be in there for more than 5 minutes before she asks for "antaloke" (cantaloupe). And being the good Grandma that she is, she always has "antaloke" on hand for McKenna.

Erick's Dad (a.k.a. Pop-Pop) loves to sing to McKenna. He is the only person that can scoop her up and hold her like she's still a newborn as long as he sings "Lullabye and goodnight" to her. If I ever tried to hold her like that, she'd squirm and writhe until I let her down. But Pop-Pop is allowed to. Pop-Pop came to visit us this week and he brought McKenna a treat - gummy bears and fun dip.

My Mom (a.k.a. Nama) babysits McKenna often while I'm at work. So they get lots of quality time together. Last Saturday, Nama made us a picnic lunch and took us to the park. Nama even made McKenna her very own special lunch of chicken nuggets, green beans, ritz crackers and cranberry snapple. Kenna was in heaven with all her favorite foods AND getting to spend the day showing Nama how she can go down the slide 500 million times in a row. Kenna also has a step-grandpa named Tony (we decided she can pick her own names for step-grandparents). Tony built McKenna her special one-of-a-kind toy box, he refinished a very precious Easter Basket that my grandpa had made for me and I wanted to hand down to McKenna...basically he has put many countless hours into making her wonderful gifts from his heart.

My Dad (a.k.a. Bramps which is how she pronounces Gramps) and Cheryl (who's name she pronounces "Seryl") also babysit her often. Bramps and Seryl spoil Kenna to pieces. She knows she can always ask them for "fwench fwies" and most times, she'll get it. They took us shopping last weekend and totally spoiled her by buying her all sorts of fun little gifts and outfits. McKenna is a total nature lover and she could only have gotten that trait from my Dad. She loves to bird watch which is also one of my Dad's favorite hobbies so I'm thinking she'd probably enjoy one of his special hikes that he used to drag my sister and I on. I think one of my favorite memories so far is the day that McKenna was born. She was born so close to the end of the day that visiting hours were almost over. When we called my Dad to tell him and Cheryl that McKenna had been born, we said they didn't need to visit that night and to just come the next day. I love that they came anyway. I was flying so high with excitement over my new baby girl and wanted to share her with the world but had told everyone that they didn't need to come right away. I just love that they wanted to be there anyway and was so happy when I got a call saying that they were out in the waiting room.

McKenna and Kyla are so lucky to be able to have such loving grandparents.

An update:

She is doing much, much better even though my work schedule continues to be hectic (and will for at least one more week). The tub-pooping thing happened 3 days in a row but hasn't happened since. She is less clingy and moody. And though she has eliminated an entire nap, she does still take one a day. Usually, they transition to one-nap days around 18 months so its really just a natural thing that she would finally transition to that. The time of her nap is pretty flexible. I prefer to put her down at 11am because she'll nap a little longer then. But I can put her down later and she'll still get rested enough to last until bedtime.

Some pictures:

Snuggled up on our love seat, watching Dora:


We went to California Disney again and we saw Sully from one of McKenna's favorite movies, Monsters, Inc. She was very shy around Sully but afterward kept talking all about how she saw "monsers!" (Monsters)


She seems scared but she isn't. She's entranced by The Little Mermaid on World-Vision at the Imagination Station.


And we turned the corner and found Sleeping Beauty! McKenna was also shy around her but did manage to blow her kisses as we left. She also talked nonstop about how she met "Seeping Beauty".


Here is Kenna and Daddy in "Beast's Library". This is an interactive game where they take your picture and ask questions about you and tell you which Disney character you are most like. McKenna is most like Tinkerbell, Daddy is most like Gaston (from Beauty and the Beast) and Mommy is most like Dot (from A Bug's Life). I would say it was actually pretty accurate!


Here she is lurking in the shadows of Ursula's Grotto:


Just a shot of her pretty little face:


It was pretty warm so she dragged Mommy into the sprinkler courtyard in the Bug's Land. I got shot once in the back and once in the face. In this pic, I'm looking at the parents who are sitting (dry) on the bench and laughing at me:


McKenna got much more drenched then I did. We felt nice and refreshed afterward though:


Daddy dressed her the other day and she looked pretty darn cute:


Sing it with me...."She's got....personality, Walk, personality, Talk, personality...":


My fashionistas:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Shannon, I Love your Disney Pictures! What fun! Note: You are glowing with such beauty with this pregnancy!

Nicknames: Who could have thought such a little girl could have such a big amount of nicknames! I so enjoy reading about McKenna. She always puts a smile on my face and warmth in my heart.