The Holidays Begin

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving at Kai and Christine's place with some great people. Everyone brought a dish to share and the variety of deliciousness was amazing. We played a few games of Uno, Speed Scrabble and of course, Wii. Kendra was the hit of the party, being passed from person to person as she shared the cuteness. :) It was a very enjoyable way to spend the day.

We did a bit of shopping on Friday, but nothing crazy early like my normal way. We did end up buying Kendra's Christmas gift, and put it together. We figured she doesn't know the difference if we give it to her a few weeks early, and she'll be able to use it longer. The exersaucer will help her build muscle by forcing her to balance in the seat. The light-up-grabby-jingly-musical things will help stimulate those brain pathways while guaranteeing to drive her parents batty. She adores it already.

On Saturday we decorated the house. Christmas music playing in the background all day (we have about 500 different Christmas songs) slowly drove Dan ever closer to the six pack of IPA. We got the tree up, candles happily flickering all over and lights outside winking a cheerful hello. Kendra was even less impressed than Dan. I swear, I'm in a house full of grinches. Good thing I have enough Christmas cheer to wear them down!

(The Pinkard website has also been updated with a new PDF scrapbook page.)

New and Effective Workout Routine

I think I have stumbled across a great new workout routine! Since everyone is always looking for great, easy ways to loose weight and work more exercise into their daily routines I'm going to share with you my wonderful discovery!

Step 1: Find a cranky baby. It doesn't have to be yours. In fact, if you can borrow one from another woman I guarantee she'll be your best friend for life. One bonus point for every pound the baby weighs.

Step 2: Strap the baby to the front of you.

Step 3: Begin cleaning your house.

Calories burned:
Dusting - easy

Vacuuming - moderate. Difficult if you manage to continuously bounce the crying baby while simultaneously pushing the vacuum.

Mopping floors - difficult. Extremely difficult if you add plies in every time you dunk the mop and wring it out. Make sure to bend at the knees and work those gluts!

If you are really, really lucky, at the end of your fabulous workout your cranky baby will be asleep. So your cool down will be walking continuously to keep the cranky baby asleep.

Hand Me The Screwdriver...

Our dishwasher died this past week. Totally kaput. It was a cheap one and came with the house. We've hated it from day one and it's demise will not be mourned. It only did a mediocre job at best.

So this weekend we headed out to price shop and compare, and ended up finding one we really liked at a pretty decent price. It's a Frigidaire brand and has some nice features - including the ability to wash only the upper or lower racks, and "caged" silverware holders - excellent for washing binkis and small bottle parts.

As you can see, Kendra was a big help to her daddy. They do marvelous work together! (I was working on actual paid work!)

We' ve Been Busy!

It's been a busy couple of weeks! Here's the basic recap...

November 9 was Dan's 33rd birthday. To celebrate, we invited a bunch of friends over for some smoked ribs and BBQ chicken - and of course carrot cake. We had a wonderful time, and Dan's ribs were beyond amazingly delicious.

On the 10th we went to see Cowboy Mouth at the Tractor Tavern. It was an awesome show! It's only Dan's 5th (or is it 6th) time seeing them, but he still loves them. We enjoyed a great sushi dinner with Hemant beforehand at a new sushi place in Ballard that just opened.

The week went fast, as week's do. I joined a Mom and Tot Weight Loss Challenge. It's a group of mom's who meet weekly with kids in tow to learn about nutrition and talk about the challenges of loosing weight as a mom. How do we fit in exercise? How do we instill good nutritional habits in our kids? Things like that. We all paid $40 to join, and $10 goes to a charity that helps to fight childhood obesity. The rest goes in a kitty and whoever looses the most weight at the end of the challenge, wins the kitty!

Friday we got a wild hair and decided to make the most of where we live. We packed up our camping gear, Kendra and some food and headed out to Ocean City State Park. We arrived after a deluge that left many sites in the camp underwater. We were able to find a good, relatively dry site, though, and as a bonus it was on the trail to the beach. The Pacific Ocean was about 1/4 mile from our campsite, with nothing between us but the dunes. Laying in our tent that night we could hear the waves crashing on the sand.

We wandered to the beach as soon as our tent was up. Dozens of people with lanterns were wandering up and down digging for clams. Apparently we stumbled into the middle of clamming season. It was fun to watch and we talked to some people about the technique for finding the little buggers. You need a "clam gun" to dig into the sand, so next time those little guys better watch out - we'll be digging too!

There were bonfires on the beach, and a few cars driving around. The waves were huge and beautiful. I loved every moment of it. We went back the next day as soon as we were packed up. It was just as wonderful in the bright light of day. We met some of the clammers from the night before and they relayed how nutty the RVers thought we were - camping in a tent with a baby in November! We had plenty of toasty warm clothes for her, though, and she slept in the sleeping bag with me. If anything the poor child was hot! We're assuming she enjoyed it - since there is no evidence to the contrary!

After a quick drive on the beach (I've always wanted to try that!) we headed for home. We took the long way back and drove up the coast. It was beautiful! We arrived back tired, smelling smoke and sea and thoroughly happy with our adventure. Check out some of our pics here.

Dan is in NY all week, so I get to play single mom. It should be quite interesting!

Our house gets a little louder...

I don't know what she's saying, but it sure is cute. When do babies discover consonants?

4 Month Baby Check-Up

Kendra had her 4 month doctor visit today - which means more shots. She had to get five vaccinations this time. It once again resulted in a very red-faced, screaming baby. I dosed her with Tylenol this time though, so hopefully her evening will be a little easier. As of right now she is still sleeping.

The good news - she is growing like a weed, and has almost caught up developmentally. {ding, ding, ding} And on the doctor's table, we have KENDRA - weighing in at 11 pounds, 6 ounces and 23 1/2 inches long!

Her length puts her in the 50-75 percentile - a very average little girl. Her weight, however, only puts her in the 10%, so she's still pretty small. The doctor isn't worried, though, because she is gaining and falls within normal parameters.

Developmentally she can do almost everything a normal 4 month old can do. The only thing she's a little behind in is muscle control. She should be pushing up on her arms more than she does. Again, no worries, she's just a little slower than average for now.

The doctor is going to try and get us insurance approval to put her on an antibody treatment for RSV. Apparently it's very expensive - basically unaffordable unless insurance will cover it. It consists of monthly shots of antibodies to help her body fight against a specific respiratory infection called RSV. Only at risk babies are offered these shots - at risk is premies, low birth weight and kids with heart/lung problems. Since we have no other children, and Kendra's not in day care or regularly exposed to other kids, she only hits a few of the "at-risk" criteria. We'll see, I guess.

Website Update

The family website has had a much needed update. Check it out!

(More thorough blog update coming.)