3 months already?!

Today is Kennedi's 3 month "birthday". I can't believe she's been with us 3 months already! Time really does fly, no matter how much you try to slow it down, or how many pictures you take! Tomorrow is my nephew's 2nd birthday..before I know it K will be turning 2. Until then, we will just be trying to make as many memories as we can. Kids really do make life go by faster. Unbelievable.

Tonight was our 2nd night with cereal. The first night K didn't really get much cereal in. She got so frustrated with that spoon, she wore herself out and ended up passing out before she even finished her bottle. We tried mixing a little in her bottle, which i was skeptical of, due to way to much paranoid reading on the internet & in books. I had always thought, sure, put in in the bottle..until I started reading. More and more articles said that babies could choke on cereal in the bottle, so me, being the paranoid mom I am, wanted to stay away from that completely! We ended up trying it, and K was also frustrated with that. It made the milk too thick (duh) and it kept clogging up in the nipple. So, tonight we mixed up some cereal in a bowl, and K seemed to be much more patient tonight. She really seemed to be getting the hang of it!

A Burley/bike update: The Burley Bee with the infant insert ended up being too big for K. SHOCKER...she is so tiny! We tried to make it work to no avail. We are thinking of putting a big blanket under her little butt to maybe try and boost her up a little bit. We shall see. We did have a moment of inspiration this morning. K woke up at around 5:30 and we just decided to get on up and go walk. So, we did. We walked and walked. I was quite proud of us. Sheri even tried jogging a little bit. She was always a jogger..me, not so much. I'm trying though. When we were done walking/jogging, we came in and did a little ab routine. I'm just hoping we can keep it up!

We took K to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight. She loves going there because of all the TVs that there are to look at! It's so funny to watch her take it all in. It was nice to just have a family night. We don't have enough of those. Life is good. :)

WEIGHT a minute...that fish has got a TAIL!!

I love to travel, but sometimes HOME is just so, so great! We went out of town this weekend to Sheri's parents'. We started off the visit at her mom's, and then went on to her dad's. Saturday we attended a "wedding celebration" for Sheri's mom, Judy (YaYa) and Junior (PooPoo), who were recently married. The celebration included (just to name a few), bonnets, overalls, and fried fish with tails. I was the appointed photographer. I got to capture all the magic! They had a good turnout, and we had a good time visiting. I, however, did not partake in the eating of the fried fish with tails. I was thoroughly grossed out.

Sweet baby girl had been uber fussy since our arrival at YaYa's house. I think she gets over stimulated there. There are 2 eager grandparents, about 6 ceiling fans, and countless other things she likes to stare at. So, Friday and Saturday were quite frustrating. It seemed there was nothing we could do to satisfy our screaming child. She just was NOT a happy camper. She finally fell asleep on the way to the "wedding celebration" and then was awakened to all of the gawking grandparent figures, which just made her angry again. Needless to say, between the fussy child, and the bonnets, Mommy and Mama made a quick trip to the drink store before heading over to Nana and PawPaw's (Sheri's step-mom & dad)!

When we did get to PawPaw's, we finally got to relax a little. We took Kennedi in the pool, we had a great home-cooked meal. Janet (Nana) is a spectacular cook, and she just shows out when we come visit..like we need more food. Ugh. That's another story in itself! Back to the pool, K loves it for about 15 minutes, then she is worn out. We spend way more time getting her ready to go in the pool, than she spends in it! It's so worth it though, she looks so cute in her little swimsuit, her shades, and her little sunhat! Sheri and I have always wanted to put a pool in, and spending time in one this weekend only made our "pool clock" tick even louder. We are already plotting ways we can make one happen. We shall see.

Kennedi had the longest "conversation" by far the other night with PawPaw. He just talked to her and she just cooed back! This went on for about 15 minutes. It was the cutest thing! She is really on the verge of laughing, she just can't quite get there yet!

On to another subject, WEIGHT. I'm sure that most women are not happy with their weight, or are dissatisfied with their bodies. We are just 2 more women that you can toss on that pile. Sheri, of course, gained some weight while pregnant with K. I, on the other hand, gained weight just because. I'm calling it sympathy weight. I am at an all-time miserable level as far as weight/body image goes. So, we are slowly but surely trying to do something about it. Last week we purchased two bikes. They are really great bikes. Schwinns, actually. Then we started researching what we could do with the baby while we were riding. All of the trailer things you hook behind your bikes have an age range starting at 1 year old. Well, long story short, we finally found one. It actually has an insert for smaller babies that can't sit up yet. It should fit her up to 1 year, then she can just sit in the thing! We are excited about it. I would like to start running. I have never been an avid runner; I just can't seem to find that "runner's high" that everybody else seems to get. Maybe one day I'll have the energy and the time to try to get into it. It makes my shins hurt to think about it!

The Sweetest Sound

I'm not sure what's been in the water (or formula, more like it) lately, but we have had a fussy baby on our hands! The past few days have been pretty similar in the fact that Kennedi wakes up quite happy, has a bottle, sleeps a little more, wakes up happy again, has another bottle, stays happy for about 30 minutes, and then proceeds to go into a series of meltdowns for the rest of the day. Right at this second, knock on wood, she is in her swing quietly (with the exception of a few loud, random farts) watching ESPN. Yesterday we were both so frustrated I finally took K outside. I didn't even put on shoes, I just walked out. We walked up and down the street, and she enjoyed it. My feet, however, did not. They are still sore. Next time I'll make time to grab shoes.

Speaking of ESPN, the child watched every softball game we put her in front of. The College World Series was a couple of weeks ago, and she was starting to track things really well at that point. If she was in front of a softball game, she was happy! What can I say..like Mommy, like daughter!

We are up to about 5 ozs everytime we eat, so you know what that means..BIG BOTTLES! Ahhh..already she's growing up too fast! Sheri said we should make some 6 oz. bottles and we could make some money off of them. I guess those parents that want a slightly smaller bottle would buy them. This way they feel like their kid isn't quite growing as fast as they really are. Ignoring the inevitable! I do have to say though, this bottle is almost as big as she is!

In other baby news, K is cooing up a storm. We aren't quite at a laugh yet, but we are getting there. A few times Sheri and I have looked at each other thinking what we just heard was a laugh, but we determined it was just an exaggerated coo. :) She is holding her head up really well now, and can support her entire body weight on her legs, which isn't supposed to be happening yet apparently! We are trying to increase her tummy time, but she HATES it! She is loving sitting in her Bumbo chair though.

I, trying to be the good Mommy, have started to piece the scrapbook together. Lord have mercy, I didn't know where to start. I think I have finally organized enough, though, and have actually gotten about 5 pages done. Between Facebook and Grumpy Gills I haven't had time to do much more. Plus our printer is not printing pictures at their best quality. Needless to say, it's frustrating.

Sometimes I catch myself just staring at her. Like right now, she's just sitting over there, kicking her little legs and twirling her fingers together. I wonder what she's thinking. (She's probably thinking "Mom, seriously, I know you heard me fartin' over here..now could you please change my diaper?") Ok, I'm back...I had to change that diaper. P.U. :) All the stinkies, all the tantrums don't add up to the completeness I feel when she's lying on my chest, though. When she sleeps, the whole world is at peace. That sweet breathing is the most perfect sound in the world.

Ya gotta start somewhere...

So why not start here? This has been a long time coming, and why not at 1:30 in the morning..? I'm sure if you're reading this, you're wondering where "Baby Graffiti" came from. Here goes...My partner (Sheri) and I have been wanting to start a blog for our life for a while. Now, we have a baby..a 2 1/2 month old baby. We mainly want this to document her life. If we get mentioned every now and then, so be it. :) Plus, my sister-in-law has one and I think it's awesome to read the adventures of her family! Back to the title. I struggled and struggled coming up with something that wasn't cliche. I finally had the idea to get her to come up with one of her favorite words, and I would come up with mine. So, there ya have it. It's as simple as that. One of my favorite words is "graffiti" and one of her favorite words is "baby." Wow..I know. Now looking at it, it kinda makes sense. Graffiti is any type of public marking that may appear in the form of simple words, or elaborate art. Baby..well, baby is self-explanatory. So, these are the simple words of our life & baby, sometimes more artsy than others.

So, background information comes first I guess. I'm Robin. I have a partner (Sheri), a daughter (Kennedi), 3 dogs (Jackson, Pacey, & Maggie), I teach, I coach, & I have a long list of things I probably should be doing besides being on this blog. Sheri is a professor at Auburn University. Sheri has a journal that I bought for her to chronical Kennedi's life. At least the beginning of Kennedi's life. As you can imagine, that journal is empty, hence the blog.

Kennedi Lee was born March 26th, 2010 at 8:57pm. She was 20 inches long (although we think they didn't quite measure her right since she measured exactly the same at her one month check-up) and weighed 7lbs 3ozs. We fell head over hills right when she came out..of course! She had the perfect amount of brown hair and blue eyes. (We're not sure where the blue eyes came from...they seem to be hanging around though). Maybe I'll have the energy to go back and write the birth story one night..but not tonight.

I guess if we're going to chronicle daily events, today we went to eat with family friends (Tonya, Cheri, Austin, Lucas, & Kelsey) at Durango's. I, of course, had Kennedi dressed up cute, in jeans and a Ralph Lauren polo t-shirt. Well, it was so hot in there that Kennedi ended up coming out of the jeans and chillin' in her Pamper. She hates getting hot, so that made her a much happier camper!