Still Sick, Kissing and a Party

Unfortunately, we've all been battling a bit of sickness.  We've all been coughing and on Tuesday, Kennedy got sent home with a fever.  It got all the way up to 102 degrees, but it never slowed her down a bit.  On Wednesday, Rachel had to stay home with her while we let her fever settle.

On Saturday, Matt and Courtney had a party for Addison's second birthday.  They had a bounce house setup in the backyard.  All the kiddos certainly enjoyed hopping around in there.  When it came time to open the gifts, Addison had some help from the other kids, including Kennedy.  Kennedy got one of the bags and dumped it upside down.

After the party, Matt's parents Mark and Nina offered to watch Kennedy and Addison while we went out for dinner.  We headed out the door and had some pizza.  When we got back around 9:00 PM, the kids were still going strong and had grins up to their ears.  On the way home in the car, it wasn't five minutes before Kennedy was asleep.

On Sunday morning, we got to enjoy the nice weather out on the deck.  Kennedy has learned a new trick.  She'll occasionally decide to be sweet and give you kisses.  She can't quite pucker up, so she sticks out her bottom lip and starts humming "umm."

This upcoming week will be Kennedy's last week at her current daycare.  It will be bittersweet.  On one hand, it will be nice saving more money and being at a more centralized location.  On the other hand, it will be hard to leave Kennedy's caregivers who have been helping us take care of her since she was only ten weeks old.  We'll have to report back on how the last week goes.

Miss Independent

The weather has been getting cooler, so we went to the park a couple of times this week.  On one of our trips, we were able to catch Kennedy smiling.  She enjoys getting to run around or even just going for a ride in the stroller.

On Friday, Rachel participated in a scramble golf tournament.  Her team scored a 78, but still finished next to last.  The course was beautiful and the weather was great for the most part.  It rained a bit, but only for a few minutes.

Kennedy continues to be Miss Independent.  Any time we try to feed her with a spoon, she gets pretty upset and starts to cry.  The problem is, she isn't skilled enough with the spoon yet to eat things like soup.  Oh, and boy does she make a mess.  We'll have to start thinking about preparing Kennedy her own meals so we don't continue to run into this problem.

Tech, Teeth, and Pigtails

Jason got to take advantage of a neat opportunity.  He had an opportunity to serve as a quasi adjunct professor for a capstone environmental design class at Texas Tech.  His graduate school advisor recently got promoted to the dean of undergraduate studies for the College of Engineering.  They'll have full time faculty to administer the class, but they didn't have anyone available with a PE license to help out.  So Jason and another colleague got the opportunity to serve as a consultant and advisor to the students as they work on their year-long design project.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, he went to Lubbock to meet the students.  He enjoyed getting to spend some time being back on campus.

Once again, Kennedy is getting more teeth.  Now that her molars are here, her canines are starting to come in.  And just like before, it looks like she's getting all four at once.  She's a trooper though.

Rachel ran in a 5k on Saturday.  It was the "Color Me Rad" run.  The participants get colored powder thrown at them as they run along the course.  Rachel got lucky because it was right near her work where she had access to a locker room to get cleaned up before we headed back home.

Kennedy has started to climb up and go down the slide on her own.  She kept herself pretty well entertained going around in circles.  That makes unloading the dishwater much easier!  She normally wants to "help" with that chore.

As you can see in the photos below, Kennedy spent some time visiting on the iPad this weekend.  She is getting better about engaging with the FaceTime app.  It served as a nice distraction from her pigtails.  She normally pulls them out as soon as you put them in.  We were able to distract her long enough on Sunday that she kept them in for about 30 minutes.

Trip to Nebraska

On Friday, Rachel was off with Kennedy.  It was an inservice day at Kennedy's daycare so we thought it would be a good opportunity to take Kennedy by the new daycare.  They let Rachel take Kennedy to her future class for about an hour.  She was struggling a bit, but we think that she will ultimately settle in just fine.  We'll probably take her by once more before she officially makes the transition in October.

Jason made it home a few hours early because we were heading to Nebraska for the weekend.  We hit the road at about three o'clock in the afternoon to go see Tyler, Lynsey and Kennedy's new cousin, Brody.  The total time in the car is about eleven hours.  We were worried about Kennedy being in the car for that long, so we decided to split the trip into two days.  She sure had her moments that were... "challenging," but that is to be expected from someone her age.  All around though, she did about as well as could be expected.

Once we made it to Tyler and Lynsey's house, we were able to see Brody for the first time.  After we settled in, we watched some football.  After the game, we headed over to downtown Columbus for dinner.  On Sunday, we were able to visit and spend some time out on their deck before it warmed up.

Kennedy was a little unsure of the dogs when we first arrived. By the time we left, she had warmed up to the point where she was chasing Ozzy around the house.

We wished we could have stayed longer but sure did enjoy our time we got to spend with Tyler, Lynsey, and Brody. It won't be long before Kennedy and Brody are getting into trouble together!