Halloween Block Party

On Wednesday, Kennedy's physical therapist came by to check on her neck progress.  Kennedy got an astounding report card.  The physical therapist could hardly see any flatness left in Kennedy's head.  She also observed that Kennedy had a 50/50 split between looking to her right and her left sides.  She said that she will need to check back in with Kennedy at six months and expects that she'll be able to discharge her.  We were pretty happy to hear that news.

On Sunday, we had a little block party with the folks from the neighborhood.  The kiddos got dressed up in their Halloween costumes and the parents brought some food and drinks to snack on.  We spent a couple of hours chatting with the neighbors and had a good time.

Nothing too eventful, but we sure enjoyed another week with our little sweetie.

Sports and Rolling Over

Last Sunday, Jason went to Los Angeles for a conference so Rachel had her first taste of taking care of Kennedy by herself.  She was a real trooper and Jason sure missed his girls.  When Jason returned on Wednesday, Keith "Pops" also made it through town for a conference.  He sure enjoyed getting to see Kennedy and we enjoyed getting to see him.

We've had the TV on sports quite a bit this week since the Texas Rangers are in the World Series.  We've started to notice that Kennedy really enjoys watching the sports on TV.  We think that she really likes the vivid colors because she'll even get a little fussy when the commercials come on.  She also loves to sit on the floor right in front of the TV.  When Jason was a kid, he loved to sit on the floor right in front of the TV.  Kinda makes us wonder if Kennedy will like to do the same.  The snapshot below shows how she really focuses in on the TV.  Yikes.  We already foresee battles about watching TV in our future.

Kennedy has also started to roll.  Rachel put her on the floor to go take care of a chore and then when she turned back around, Kennedy was on her belly.  Since then, we've started to notice that she keeps trying to roll to her left.  We haven't seen her roll all the way over again, but it's not for a lack of trying.  That's pretty exciting to see her go to the left since she previously kept leaning to the right.  We hope this is another sign that she continues to build strength in her neck.  The photo below shows her in action.

It was time to update Rachel's phone to the new operating system so we had planned on doing it this weekend. When we started to back up the phone, our computer decided to act up once again. Lately it has been crashing quite a bit and it is especially frustrating since we have only had it since January. This weekend it pushed us over the edge. We were afraid of what might happen if it crashed in the middle of an update and more importantly, losing all our photos of Kennedy. So, we made the full transition over Mac and got a MacBook Air. So far we are blown away by it and can't hardly put it down.

When Pops came through town, he brought Kennedy's first Halloween costume.  Puma made Kennedy her lion costume by hand.  When Jason was a kiddo, Puma used to make his Halloween costumes and he loved to dress up.  It's pretty special to now have Puma make Kennedy her costume.  On Sunday afternoon, we made out way over to the Pumpkin Patch at our United Supermarket.  We snapped several photos of her wearing her Halloween bow and several with her in her lion costume.  Boy, you can try and convince us otherwise, but there is nothing cuter than this little girl!

Tummy Time

On Monday, we had an interesting experience with the air conditioner.  Rachel was getting ready for work when she suddenly heard what sounded like hail.  She looked outside and it wasn't raining.  About that time, she realized it was the outdoor AC unit that was making quite a racket.  She was running short on time so she turned the AC off and headed off to work.  That evening, Jason got home and went to go check it out.  As it turns out, some poor critter had gotten in there and was on the losing end of a battle with the AC unit fan.

We continue to meet with our neighbors in the evenings as we go for group walks.  It's nice getting to visit with them.  One of our neighbors has pointed out that we also have an unwanted neighbor, a coyote.  She has shown us pictures and said that she has observed him in the brush on the east side of the community.  We suspect that he's been attracted by all of the bunnies that live in that area.

Enough of that talk, we know that Kennedy is the reason you're checking in so we'll give you an update.  Kennedy had another good week at Montessori.  She did have a couple of "blowouts" this week, but we suppose that is just part of living life as an infant.  We also continue to work with her on her neck stretches.  She's making a visible improvement in holder her head up during tummy time.

Lots O' Smiles and First Week of Daycare

On Monday, Kennedy started her Montessori program.  It was a little tough for Mom, but Kennedy did great.  That makes it a little easier.  Plus, it is a pretty good school.  She was an extra good girl this week as she slept through the night every day this week.  That meant we actually had to go wake her up each morning.  That has been a pretty fun thing to do because she is such a happy baby in the mornings.  She just smiles and smiles at us.  This is probably the best part of our day.  It reminds us of that old Folgers add with a twist... "best part of waking up..." is seeing Kennedy smile.  We snapped a couple of photos on Saturday and Sunday morning to try and share the moment.  It doesn't quite do it justice, but you get the idea.

On Wednesday, the physical therapist came back by to check Kennedy's status of her neck.  She got a very favorable report card as she's made quite a bit of improvement is just a week.  The therapist felt like she probably won't need a helmet if we keep us the good work.  We still need to give her more tummy time, but it's pretty hard since she hates it so much.  We've been trying to work it in for little segments and she's starting to show some improvement.  Still a lot of work to do though.

On Thursday, many of the people in our neighborhood with little ones have started a 7:00 PM stroller club.  We went on a two mile walk.  It's been nice getting to know the neighbors a little better.  We should be able to share some notes the kiddos.

On Sunday, we all got our eight miles in.  Rain and all!

Puma, Giggles and New Friends

Jason's mom, "Puma," came to town to help watch Kennedy for the final week before heading to daycare.  We were sure lucky to have her come help us out.

On Tuesday, Kennedy giggled for the first time.  Rachel had her looking in the mirror.  Rachel was leaning forward and Kennedy belted out a string of giggles.  We haven't quite been able to recreate it, but we have been able to get small giggles out of her.  The video below shows a sample of one of her giggles.  For some reason she finds it pretty funny when we pat her cheeks with her feet.

A physical therapist came by on Wednesday to help us get a better handle on Kennedy's neck development.  She was getting a flat spot on her head because she favored her right side.  The therapist gave us some great pointers to help get her facing to the left.  The bad news is that we won't get to use the swing much anymore.  We've been employing her tips and after only a couple of days, we can already tell a big difference.  She is naturally turning to the left and she is holding her head up better.  In the picture below, you can see the rolled-up blanket to help her face left.

On Saturday, Puma had to go back to Amarillo.  That evening, we met up with some of our neighbors.  The boys went to ride mountain bikes at Lake Grapevine while the girls wen shopping.  Afterwards, we all went to dinner.  They also have a young son named, Conrad.  He was born several weeks before Kennedy.