No crutches!

Daniel went in for his post-op appointment this morning and got some pretty good news. Everything looks great and, because of the location in his knee where the procedure was done, his doctor has decided (with a little encouragement and input from Dan I'm sure) that he will be better off in a brace for the next 5 weeks. As long as he is wearing the brace that keeps his knee locked between 0 and 20 degrees, he does not have to be on crutches. Yippee!! No more pushing Kenna down the hall in her stroller while he then hobbles along behind her - I really should have taken a picture of that...it was too funny (I only let him stay home alone and do that a few times while I ran to the grocery store). Anyway, he will still have to be off work and use the CPM for 6 hours daily until closer to the end of Feb/first of March and will probably not be toting Miss K around too much, but NO CRUTCHES!!

Pull-ups

Kenna has decided that there is way too much going on in the world to spend it all on your tummy. She still hasn't decided that she likes it better to crawl on her knees and spends most of her day scooting all over our house on her belly. But Friday she decided it was time to stand up!

She has a funny way of moving from her tummy to her feet though. She will get up on her knees long enough to grab onto something but will then use her stomach to lift her bottom off the ground while she is balancing on her toes. Then she will step onto her feet and next to the table. Man, I wish I had ab muscles like that!!

I'm not sure if these pictures really give you an accurate picture, but I think you get the idea! She has taken on of the pieces off of the table and likes to have it in her hands at all times...even if it makes holding onto something a little more difficult.

(Of course she had to stop and look at the camera!)

SUCCESS!!

Somewhere in the midst of all of that work, she dropped her little green toy...so you have to bend over and get it!

I wish these pictures came with sound effects - she makes the funniest grunting noises when she is trying to reach the lid - this happened frequently tonight!

She then has to show off her prize!

Her new trick does have a slight downfall though. Since Miss K was only a few months old, she has liked to fall asleep in her own bed (I think I have posted about that before). She will let you rock her for a little while, but then it is time to lay her down and let her get comfortable. This worked really well when it was bedtime but also worked for naps....not so anymore! Since she can stand up, she likes to hold onto the side of the crib and toss her pacifiers (we keep several in there so she can find one in the middle of the night) and her blanket onto the floor and then yell until mommy comes to put them back in the bed. This hasn't happened at night yet, only at nap time. I guess we have our first battle on our hands!!

Will she ever crawl on all fours, or is it straight on to walking....

9 months

Kenna went for her 9 month check, which thankfully, does not involve any shots! The doctor said that she looked great and was very impressed with her 'talking.' For those of you have not been around her recently, she is talking (in her own language) all of the time! She does say a few words here and there but I don't think she cares too much what is coming out as long as it is noise! She weighed in at 18 lbs 6 oz and was 27.25 inches long - puts her right at the 30% for both. Guess she likes hanging out around 30% as that is where she has been pretty much all of her life! :) They did prick her finger to do an iron level and she just frowned at the lady and then tried to peel the band-aid off so she could eat it. It didn't seem to bother her too much at all

Here are a few pics of Miss K and her daddy getting some snuggle time in before bed tonight. Apparently they have been missing out on their bonding time together since Daniel had his surgery the other day. I thought these were precious.

Surgery Update

Thank you to everyone who kept us in your prayers yesterday...we really appreciate it!

Yesterday turned out to be quite a long day, especially for my starving husband who had not had anything to eat or drink since midnight on Tuesday night. Daniel's surgery was originally scheduled for 1:30 and we were supposed to arrive at 12:30 but they called us around 10 to ask us to come in an hour later as they were already running behind. We ended up not going until 2:30, and because of some major problems (a mess as his Dr called it) he did not go into surgery until 6:30pm. We spent the majority of the time trying to best each other on Cash Cab. Since Daniel rarely reads this, I am going to go ahead and say that I won. :) Of course, by this point, Daniel was fantasizing about every single food commercial that came on tv....poor guy! I tried not to eat in front of him, being supportive you know, but eventually I had to give in to the granola bar in my purse.

His surgery lasted between 1.5 to 2 hours and then we had to spend some time in the recovery room before we could go home. We left the hospital at 10 and got home a little bit before 10:30. Thank goodness for Ouida and Mercy who had Kenna all safely tucked into her own bed. They were so sweet to spent the last two days with us to help take care of Miss K and then, today, her daddy as well. Thank you!

They had originally planned to go in and just clean up some cartilage damage or scar tissue that was left over from his ACL repair 9 years ago but found that he would need a little more work. He had a decent sized spot on his knee that did not have any cartilage remaining at all. To solve this problem, they did a procedure called a microfracture where they make a series of fractures in the exposed bone so that it will produce a different type of cartilage. This is not the same as the original cartilage, but should hopefully alleviate a lot of the pain for a while. He will have to be on crutches for 6 weeks and use a CPM machine for 4-6 hours a day for those 6 weeks. At that time, they will decide when and how he can start going back to work. Should be fun! :) Daniel is already devising ways to tote Kenna around our house while he is on crutches...most of which I am quickly vetoing!!

I am really glad that he had this done, as his knee was not going to just get better on its own. Hopefully he will have a fairly uneventful recovery. So far he is following all of the rules and doing everything he is supposed to do so we will see!

Thanks again for all of the prayers. They really make a difference!

Knee Surgery

No pictures to post today...sorry!

Just wanted to let everyone out there in the blog world know that Dan is having knee surgery tomorrow. They are planning on doing a scope and cleaning it out some, but they have also mentioned (several times) that it could end up being more extensive depending on what they find. We are praying that it will be a quick and easy recovery (as easy as recovery from surgery can be right?) and that he will be back on his feet soon.

Thanks for praying!

My Little Diva

I used to be so good at updating. I'm not sure what has happened recently, but I will have to get better or my sister will be updating more than I am...I can't let that happen!!

Everything has been going pretty well here...just staying a little busy! Do you think this precious nine-month old has anything to do with that?

I saw this shirt when I was in Canton with my mom and sister and just thought it was too cute. Every little girl has to have a little diva in them...

And what diva doesn't love to play with her shoes?
Kenna continues to enjoy playing with her leapfrog table. If we have been out and about and walk into the living room she gets downright excited to see it. She will practically dive out of our arms trying to get to the floor. I also think she just likes being able to play standing up. She hasn't quite mastered that on her own but she keeps trying! When you see her and she has a nice yellow bruise on her forehead just assume it is from hitting the table on the way down when you let go and try to wave with both hands. Poor thing...she is getting better about it though!




We gave Miss K her first biter biscuit yesterday. My sister told me that they were pretty messy...should have taken her clothes off first. She absolutely loved it and really enjoyed making a mess.

She went straight to the bathtub after this even though it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Funny story about that....I was carrying her around because I didn't want her touching anything with her filthy,sticky hands. I went into her bathroom and started the bath water. When I turned around to go to her room and put her dirty clothes in the clothes hamper, she started crying. As soon as I walked back into the bathroom to check the water she quit and was happy as could be. Daniel was out in the garage so I decided to tell him what I was doing real quick. Kenna threw the biggest, loudest fit I have ever seen when we walked out of the bathroom to go to the garage. I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk and Kenna was screaming so hard there was almost no sound coming out. Daniel couldn't figure out what was going on! As soon as I put her in the water, the screaming stopped and she was the happiest baby for the rest of the afternoon. Guess my little diva likes her bath!!

Who needs new toys?

It has been a week or so since I have posted any pictures, so I decided it was time for a Miss K update.

She is now officially into everything! I have chased her all over our house tonight, and yesterday, she pulled a plant over on top of herself. (I really wish we would have taken a picture before we sat everything back up, but we weren't thinking about it at the time.) It is officially time to baby proof!

Every day when we we walk into the living room, whether it is first thing in the morning, or in the afternoon, she dives for her table. She still loves it! I'm glad she has found something she enjoys so much. Now that she has "mastered" (and I use that term very loosely) the art of standing by the table, she is slowly started working her way around. She goes around, and around, and around....little bitty side steps. It is so cute!!

Do you think she knows what a camera is?

Concentration....

And, really, when you get tired of that, why worry about finding another toy. A box works just as well!

"Daddy gets a Wii for Christmas and I get a new box!" I love watching Kenna pushing the box around on her knees.

A box apparently makes a great surfboard!

I sat down on the couch to eat my dinner and looked up and she was gone. I found her in the kitchen. When I said her name, she looked up at me, grinned, and then crawled away as fast as she could...straight to the refrigerator!

I would say that she is a girl after my own heart, going after a snack (she does love to eat!), but she really just wanted to talk to the baby in the fridge....


I can't believe that she is already nine months old! I know I probably say this all the time, but it does seem like she was born just yesterday. She goes for her nine month appointment next week so I will give you some official updated stats then.

Four years

I cannot believe that Daniel and I have been married for 4 years today! Time has definitely flown by. He is an AMAZING husband and father and I thank God every day for bringing him into my life.

Happy Anniversary Daniel!

Kenna and the "Wheel"

I am not sure if I have mentioned this previously on the blog or not, but, my daughter is in love with "Wheel of Fortune." Daniel and I are not regular "Wheel Watchers" but happened to have it on not too long ago and Kenna fell in love. Kenna does not really watch TV (she actually couldn't care less if it is even on most of the time) at all so I was really surprised at how she will focus when the show comes on. She will be very busy playing (in the floor, in her jumper, wherever) until she hears the sound of the wheel and then she will stop playing to watch. It is actually a little entertaining to watch her! She and I were playing in the floor the other night when something more important came on TV. I took a few pictures of her and her wheel. She just rolled over to make herself more comfortable.

I decided that she was definitely too close to the TV, so I scooted her back a bit and she was still just as focused...look at the concentration!

Once she figured out I was taking her picture, she did smile for the camera before turning back to the game.

You may recognize the outfit she has on....it is what we bought the day we found out we were having a girl! I can't believe she is already wearing it. When we bought something for winter, I was sure it would be 'forever' before it would fit....time sure has flown!

Kenna Speaks

So she probably doesn't really know what she is saying and thinks that this is just a great new sound, but I do!!

I guess I have to be fair and note that she did say Dada several times one day, but she has not said it since :(

So, even though she doesn't know what she is saying, is it considered her first word? Or is Dada? Or do you wait until she knows who she is calling when she says it?


Here is also some video of her just playing with her table. It really doesn't do justice to Miss K in full play mode, but it was right before bedtime last night and she was starting to wind down a little bit.

I really wish I would have filmed a little longer after she fell down because she started making the funniest noises while she was trying to get back up! She really didn't care that she had bit the dust and wasn't that upset. She loves to work her way around the table to the ottoman (which is why we keep them next to each other) and she keeps trying to let go of the table and stand on her own. She hasn't lasted for more than 2-3 seconds, but I see it coming in the near future!!