I love....

Makenna, I love....

-the way you put your arms around my neck so tightly when we are out and about and you ask me to carry you
-the way you say "I lub you"
-the way you look at Daddy when he is being silly with you
-the way you still get the hiccups when you laugh REALLY hard
-the way you repeat or pick up on just about everything I say, like
      -what do you tink?
      -Huh?
      -guess who's coming mommy?
      -2 more minutes!
      -watch for a bit
-the silly things you say
     -nope, nuffin!
-the names you have for your diapers and underpants
    -circle diapees (target diapers with polka dots)
    -minnie diapees (pull ups)
    -bibbidy bobbidy boos (pull ups with Cinderella on them)
    -pony tail underpants (underpants with My Little Pony on them)
    -Elmo diapee
                     .....and how you manage to tell me that you wet your pants
    - oh no!  I spilled!
    - oh no! I poop on Pony Tail!
    -Minnie all wet!
-the way you eat most of your yogurt, but when you get to the part you can't quite scoop out you look at me and ask me to "mama, get the rest"
-everytime we ask you what you want to pray for your response is "frozen babies"
-when I ask you to say bye to the nice lady, you say "bye nice lady" or bye to your teachers, you say "bye my teachers"
-the way you get SO very excited to hear that your Oma and Papa or Grandma and Grandpa are coming over and how sweet you are when you see them
-when I ask you who is your favorite, you will list off everyone you can think of and say "mommy, ____is my fabrite"
-when you see me coming and you tell your friends "that's my mom" over and over again
-when you grab me by the hand and say "c'mon mom, it's time to play"
-when I ask you to do something and you say, nope, I still.....
     -playing
     -watching
     -reading
     -bouncing (you told me this today when you were playing with your princess paddle ball)
     -drinking
     -eating
     -drinking
     -tinkling
-when you know you are getting crabby so you come to me and tell me you "need a minute"
-when you start whining when you ask for something and I ask you - are you whining?, the way your voice instantly switches to a very sweet - ppplease, mommy;)
-snuggling with you on your big circle chair in your room
-watching you learn so very much right before my very eyes
-the way you make so many people smile
-when I ask you your name and you say "Kenna Lee Best!" so very excitedly
-how excited you get when you go potty on the potty.  I give you high five and you look at me and say "no, slowly" and make me give you a soft, slow high five.
-the way you cover your face/mouth when you get very excited
-when you cover your ears at certain parts of your Princess videos - you do it every time, knowing the loud screechy bird is coming
-when you belt out Strawberry Shortcake at the top of your lungs in a public restroom while I'm trying to get you to tinkle.
-the way you twirl around and dance in the living room when you listen to music
-the way you make me smile and laugh every single day

I love you, baby girl.

Love, Mama

Potty Training Time!!

Here's Makenna Day 1 in underpants!   Love the Elmo slippers & bow in her hair;)  ha ha!

 

I must say I was pretty impressed at how well she did the first few days.  I wasn't sure she was ready, but she starts "school" in 2 weeks and they want all the kids in pull ups so I thought I better at least try and see. 

Since then, she has done pretty well.  She did get mad at daddy yesterday and peeed on him as he was carrying her downstairs.  I don't think it was intentional, but I had to admit I laughed a little when I saw his wet spot on his shirt.

 

Pooping has been a bit tougher to get her to do.  I've tried just about everything - a half hour on the potty with the Ipad - nope, she holds it in until about 5 minutes after she gets off the toilet. 

 

I have been giving her stickers when she goes potty and she knew that when she finally went poopy she could have the Strawberry Shortcake DVD I bought for her.  In fact, she will even tell you she doesn't get it until she goes "poopy on the toilet". 

 

Well, after a week of trying yesterday she finally pooped on the potty!!  Brad and I were out to dinner and Grandma and Grandpa were over so we missed it, but she was SO excited to tell us when we got home.  She ran outside saying "I did it! I did it!"  Too sweet! 

 

Some of my favorite moments from this past week:

-Her first "accident" she was standing on the fireplace and she yells to me "oh no, I spill mama!" 

-When I put her underpants on and she looks at me and says "don't poop on Elmo!" or "don't get Abby wet"

-When I left her on the potty this morning and ran to grab something and I hear her saying "too much, too much" only to get back in there and see toilet paper all over.

-She has 2 kinds of pull ups - Minnie Mouse ones, Tigger ones and Cinderella ones.  She calls her Cinderella ones "bibbidy bobbity boo"

-When she saw the neighbor kids outside and ran out there in just her underpants yelling "I did it!" after she got off the potty.

-She keeps waking up from her nap saying "oh no, I poop on Tigger!"

-My all time favorite is when we are waiting for her to poop and I ask her if she's got any and she looks at me and says "Nope, nufin"

 

I'm pretty sure the neighbors think we're crazy because I've had her dressed in virtually nothing but underpants all week.  Ha!  Here we are before dinner tonight.  She wanted to go outside and jump in the puddles - love the look!

 

We love you, silly girl!

Makenna's 2 year pictures

Thanks again to Ben and Corie for taking this year's pictures.  They turned out AWESOME as usual:)  I am posting a few of my favorites here and the rest will be on the right side with a link to all of them.  Enjoy!

 Definitely my favorite!  No, I did not curl her hair for these and yes, she is seriously just that cute!

Her supermodel pose

I actually got tears in my eyes when I saw this one.  That look on Brad's face is one he saves just for Makenna - It's his "you are my precious Kenna-girl and I love you more than I could have ever imagined I could love anyone" look.  Such a good daddy.  Such a sweet girl.

Love the tippy toes - dancing with my daddy

 

Thanks again, Ben & Corie!!  We LOVE them!

Mmmmm Merton Custard Shoppe

Zoo with Drew!

Friday was Drew's special day with Oma & Papa - what better day than to spend it in Milwaukee with us at the zoo!!

2 years ago, this dinosaur exhibit was here and Madison came down for her Special day to see it.  This year Drew was very excited to hear it was back, so Oma and Papa surprised hm and brought him here to see it & us! 

I wasn't sure if Makenna would be scared of the dinosaurs, but she did great.  I think it helped that Drew was there helping her to be brave.  This particular dinosaur spit water and the 2 of them had a great time trying to dodge the spit!

Woah

Love, love, love thi sshot of her holding on to his thumb:)  She had to be holding his hand just about the entire day.  It was soooo very sweet.

Drew is such a good big cousin!

Riding the dinosaur

Once Oma and Papa left the zoo for Drew's 2nd surprise of the day (a Miller Park tour), we ran into Annika!!  Makenna was BESIDE herself excited to see her!  AKANA!!! 

This little one melts my heart.  On the far left is Annaliese - Makenna's birthday buddy and the other little sweetie that Elizabeth used to watch and on the far right is her big sister Evangeline.  Best buds!

Riding the dinosaur

Love the death grip Makenna has on Annaliese in these:) 

What a GREAT day!!  On the way out, we ended up running into Miss Stacey, Ollie & Sam, too.  We had soo much fun at the zoo today! 

What we've been up to...

We've been having LOTS of fun!!!  This summer has been busy, busy, busy - too much fun to blog:)  Here are some pics from the last few weeks:

My little super model

Playing under the pirate ship

Sending my princesscesses down the slide!

I am so silly mommy!

Here they go!

We've been taking nightly walks to the Pirate Park & Makenna really has alot of fun there.  She met a new friend - Zoe there the first time we went.  Zoe is 3.  Monday night Zoe and her mom & dad were walking past our house and Makenna got sooo excited to see her she ran out from her sandbox to say hi.  She and Zoe proceeded to show each other how they could "twirl" in their dresses and chased each other around while we all chatted. 

Tonight we headed to the Pirate Park again and Zoe and her mom and dad were there.  As we were walking up the trail, I pointed out to Makenna that Zoe was there to which she responded - "I luv Zoe!"  They had so much fun running around the park and chasing each other.  Looks like someone has a new friend!

This weekend we went to the Air Show down by the lake.  Makenna was too excited to chase kids around and play with her toy airplane to actually watch the big airplanes...

Face Painting!!

She LOVED her heart on her cheek!

We also made it to the State Fair this weekend

Here we are watching a little goat try to talk to us.  Makenna really liked it and couldn't take her eyes off him.

Wouldn't be the Fair without a Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger - YUM!!  She didn't actually eat any, though she did polish off most of our cheese fries.  Yummy!