Friday, July 10, 2009

Copy Cat

We are still attempting to recover from our trip . . . and it has gotten HOT which is making it that much harder. Zachary is having a really rough time with being potty trained this week and is being overly aggressive with his friends (I think from missing them and being overly excited to see them). Kenzie, as one might have guessed, is having a difficult time getting back on track with sleep. She seemed to be on a path toward doing better (3:45 the first night, 4:45 the second night and 5:30 the 3rd night) . . . but then this morning she got up at 4:30 again. So who knows what will happen.

But, Mackenzie is cracking me up these days. She is such a little copy cat who DESPERATELY wants to be big like Zachary and wants to do whatever Zach & Luca are doing at any moment. This is turning into a series of adorable actions (and some slightly scary ones). When I vacuum, Kenzie wants to vacuum. When I dry my hair, Kenzie wants to brush it. After Zachary goes potty, Kenzie runs and gets clean undies from the drawer and tries to hold them at Zach's feet so he can step into them. If you let her, she climbs up to sit on the big potty chair fully clothed.

She wants to eat the same food as the grown ups the same way (whole, not cut up and with a fork & knife). When I do my excercise videos Kenzie lays on the ground next to me with her feet up in the air. She's ready to write, type, cook, clean and play just the way the big kids & grown ups are!

Kenzie really is a crazy kid. My new tag line is that we thought Zachary was going to be our wild child until Mackenzie came along. She doesn't walk anywhere, she runs. She climbs absolutely everything and is a little houdini when it comes to getting out of places she shouldn't. We never once used a 5 point harness on Zach for anything (high chair, stroller, etc.) because he never showed interest in climbing out. Now I wish everything had a 5 point harness to keep Kenzie IN. Today at the store she climbed out of the basket seat (including a buckle that was pulled tight).

She also has quite a strong personality. She can already out tantrum Zachary and is difficult to redirect. I'm a little nervous about parenting this strong willed little girl we have . . . but she is quite the little joy too!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Square One

I think that the worst part of taking a trip is the residual effect it has on the kids when we get back home. Not only did they fail to sleep for the duration of the trip . . . but we are back to square 1 here at home too. It took us months to get Kenzie to sleep on her own through the night in the nursery with Zachary. After a week of not sleeping on the road, we put her to bed last night in her own bed only to have her wake up screaming at 4am. We let her "cry it out" until 5am when we gave in and got her up for the day.

Zachary, on the other hand, slept brilliantly last night in his own bed - from 8pm till the light turned green at 6am. But he has been running around out of control since we got home. I think he is overly excited to be home, so he is throwing toys all over and not listening. He also thinks that he gets to watch tv all the time since he got to watch a lot of special tv and movies on our trip.

Oy vey!

A fun thing that happened on our trip is that Kenzie had a language explosion - verbal AND signing! Before we left she had hardly any spoken words - mommy, daddy & kitty rounded out her vocabulary. Now she is saying "more" when she signs the word. And she learned a lot of animal sounds with Grandma. When you ask her what animals say, she can answer "moo, baa, ssss (snake), woof and neigh". She also added lots of different signs to her repertoire. She can now sign horse, cow, yes, up . . . and many more . . . but I have to go help Zachary who is crying uncontrollably for no reason whatsoever.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Our Week Away

Let's just say that we are certifiably crazy! We attempted to take a 10 day trip to Northern California with the kids (2.5 & 15 months) and it may take months to recover from our week long sojourn!

A lot of fun was had amidst the chaos . . . and more importantly, many loved ones were visited. But I am going to voluntarily stick close to home for a while and try to recover!

Saturday June 27
We headed to Tim & Tash's place in Sacramento. We kicked off our little vacation with a Moore Family get together. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the Moore's. We haven't seen Charlie & Annie & Audrey in quite a while . . . and missing the Garrison's this trip most likely means we won't see Megan pregnant with baby #4 at all.

But we had a great time "swimming" and jumping on the mini trampoline (with no broken bones to show for it). Aunt Tash got a pinata for the kids to break and we pretended that it was the 4th of July. We had red, white & blue cupcakes and Uncle Tim & Uncle Brian set off some fireworks!

Sunday June 28
Justin & the kids went swimming with Tim & Tash & the girls & Grumpa while I headed out to Roseville for Alli's baby shower. It was wonderful to see some of our old college friends and visit with Alli & Ramak as they get ready for their first baby (Ramalli)!!!

We were supposed to go out to Davis to visit with the Whitakers . . . but Justin got sick overnight and the kids had an awful, awful 1st night trying to sleep away from home. So, we actually threw in the towel with the intent of heading all the way back to Burbank . . . but despite daily discussions about heading home, we actually did make it through to the end of our scheduled trip.

Monday June 29
We packed up the car and headed to Hayward Monday morning. Sadly, the Walker's doggy Molly had to be put to sleep that day. She was 15.5 years old and had the best doggy life I think possible . . . but it was a very, very sad day for the Walker clan.

Tuesday June 30
Tuesday we mostly hung out around the house for the day. Justin & Zachary were still a tad under the weather and nobody was really up for much activity. In the afternoon, Justin's godmother Leslie came over to visit and then in the evening GG Janie came for dinner. It was wonderful to see them both and watch them catch up with the littles.

Wednesday July 1
Everyone seemed fine when we woke up Wednesday morning and the kids even slept decently overnight. So Wednesday we attempted a trip out to Mountain View to visit with Helen, Mike & Aimee and Helen's parents Janice & Ed. I was super excited to find out that our trip overlapped with Helen & Mike's because we don't get to visit with them very often!

But while we were in Mountain View, Zachary spiked a really high fever and became super lethargic. Justin's comment was that this was the first time he has ever "seemed" sick in his little life. So our visit was a bit on the short side. But it was still wonderful to see them for a little while.

Thursday July 2
Thursday we went to visit Papa Chuck at the police station in Fremont. He always loves showing off the kids to all of his coworkers and Zachary loves to sit in the police cars. This time Mackenzie was even able to get in on the action pretending to drive too.

Thursday night, Justin & Papa stayed with the littles so that Gma & I could go visit Jennifer & Dan Zaretzka and their new twins! Fiona & Jacob are only 2 weeks old and together weigh about what Zach did when he was born!!!

Friday July 3
Friday we headed up to visit Uncle Sean at Camp Wente for the weekend. He is working as the Aquatics Director at Boy Scout Camp again this summer and we went up to camp with him for the 4th of July weekend. On the way up we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit with Uncle Ryan & Emo Christine. They just moved into a new house that we got to see and we went to lunch at the restaurant where Ryan bartends, Stout Brother's Irish Pub.

Up at Wente we set up camp and jumped right in to all the fun things Sean had to offer. Justin & Papa took Zachary swimming down at the lake while I attempted to put Kenzie down in the motorhome for the night. Unfortunately, the kids simply aren't good travelers yet so sleep while camping is non existent!

Saturday - Happy 4th of July!
Saturday morning we headed into Willits to watch the 4th of July parade. It was really, really cute. We got to play at the park while waiting for the parade to kick off. The kids had little flags and pinwheels from Gma to wave and they really liked all the fire trucks & ambulances that went by!

Saturday afternoon we spent at the lake swimming and boating. Zachary got to go in a kayak, a motorboat ANd a catamaran. Kenzie just got to go on a kayak . . . but it was her first time on a boat and she seemed to really enjoy it! They were pretty darn cute in their little life jackets . . . and as usual, they seem to love the water!

Saturday night we bar-b-qued and played games to round out the weekend.

Sunday July 5
Sunday we packed up camp and drove back to Hayward. Zachary got to go down to the water one last time to catch some fish with daddy. All weekend he wanted to "go fishing" so we made sure to fit that in before heading out. The drive back to Hayward was about 4 hours from Wente, so luckily we decided to take an extra day off and split the entire drive back to Burbank over 2 days.

Monday July 6
To round out our trip, Mackenzie protested much of the ride back home. During the week we turned her carseat around so that she could see us, watch Zach's movie and play / eat easier. While this seemed to make her happy during the week, it did nothing to appease her on the 6 hour drive home. Luckily Justin took the extra day off so that our drive home really was only 6 hours (rather than the 8 - 10 it could have been yesterday)!

Since neither Kenzie or Zach slept very well, we got on the road home much earlier than we had planned. So by 1:30 we were back at home, starting to unpack and thinking about recovering!

Whew! We managed to fit quite a bit in despite Justin, Zach & Kenzie all getting sick. But it may take all the way till Christmas for me to consider leaving home again!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Mackenzie's Teeth!


  1. 3rd Molar (wisdom tooth)
  2. 2nd Molar (12-yr molar)
  3. 1st Molar (6-yr molar)
  4. 2nd Bicuspid (2nd premolar)
  5. 1st Bicuspid (1st premolar) - July 4, 2009
  6. Cuspid (canine)
  7. Lateral incisor - March 21, 2009
  8. Central incisor - February 6, 2009
  9. Central incisor - February 2, 2009
  10. Lateral incisor - March 22, 2009
  11. Cuspid (canine)
  12. 1st Bicuspid (1st premolar) - June 15, 2009
  13. 2nd Bicuspid (2nd premolar)
  14. 1st Molar (6-yr molar)
  15. 2nd Molar (12-yr molar)
  16. 3rd Molar (wisdom tooth)
  17. 3rd Molar (wisdom tooth)
  18. 2nd Molar (12-yr molar)
  19. 1st Molar (6-yr molar)
  20. 2nd Bicuspid (2nd premolar)
  21. 1st Bicuspid (1st premolar) - June 24, 2009
  22. Cuspid (canine/eye tooth)
  23. Lateral incisor - March 21, 2009
  24. Central incisor - November 22, 2008
  25. Central incisor - November 17, 2008
  26. Lateral incisor - May 28, 2009
  27. Cuspid (canine/eye tooth)
  28. 1st Bicuspid (1st premolar) - June 24, 2009
  29. 2nd Bicuspid (2nd premolar)
  30. 1st Molar (6-yr molar)
  31. 2nd Molar (12-yr molar)
  32. 3rd Molar (wisdom tooth)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

So, Kenzie & I have had the chance to play a lot together this week alone since she has given up napping altogether. She appears to need to transition down to 1 nap . . . but in the process is fighting any and all napping opportunities.

Anyway, I just now noticed that her bottom 2 molars have cut through. So I laid her on my lap to get a better look. While trying to distract her I started talking about her teeth . . . and she pointed to her teeth. So out of curiosity, I asked her where her ears were . . . and she pointed to her ears. She was able to repeat this feat for her eyes, mouth, nose, head, fingers and toes!!!

Poor 2nd kids really do get neglected! I have no idea how long Kenzie has been able to point out her body parts . . . but she totally can! To further my experiment I pulled out the COLORS book we have read a million times so far this afternoon and started asking her to point out where things were. She could point to the correct picture for almost everything. And if I named something she didn't know, she wouldn't point to anything but instead would look to me to point it out!

We have a super smart baby girl on our hands! Not sure I can keep up with my wild & crazy, super intelligent kids!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Behaving . . .

So, I had to get a new phone today (which is a whole story unto itself) . . .

But this meant venturing into the dreaded phone store for an indeterminable amount of time with two littles who were more than likely going to think that any amount of time was too long. Anyway, before we headed inside I had a little chat with Zachary about how he needed to behave in the store if he wanted to go to the park after.

The store, predictably, took a very VERY long time . . . and after a while Zach started to get impatient. As he escalated in speed and volume, I got more and more frustrated. So finally I looked at him and very sternly said, "ZACHARY EUGENE WALKER!"

He threw his hands up in the air like a police raid and said loudly, to the amusement of everyone around, "I'm not being a have! I'm not being a have! Can we still go to the park?"

Monday, June 22, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

We had a fantastic (and of course wild & crazy) Father's Day weekend! We took the kids for a quick weekend away in Palm Springs. We started off the weekend visiting Grandma & Joe in Indio for a couple of hours. Then we headed back over to our resort for an afternoon at the water slides (sans naps). Later in the evening Tim & Tash joined us with Maddy & Bella for a poolside dinner and more swimming.

Father's Day morning we brought Grandma & Joe back to the hotel to join us for Father's Day brunch. It was a bit hot out and breakfast started a little later than anticipated . . . so that made for a crazy, slightly chaotic meal (but the 4 kids 3 and under might have done the trick too). The waiter brought the kids crayons to color with and within minutes they had melted through their wrappers into little piles of liquid wax!!! But breakfast was nice and we were able to follow it up with a couple more hours playing in the pool.

At naptime we packed the kids into the car and headed home. Kenzie obliged by falling asleep almost immediately . . . but Zachary skipped his nap completely for the 2nd day in a row (even after not sleeping well overnight). I told Justin that we have to stop planning back to back trips because the first weekend away makes me want to cancel the following trip! We had a great time . . . it is just so exhausting and hard to get back into the groove at home.

Tim & Tash came back home a couple of hours after us and we rounded out Father's Day with a bbq here at the house and ice cream sundaes! Hope all the dads out there also had a wonderful Father's Day!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

TV Toddler

Well, I'm sad to say it but Mackenzie has finally joined the ranks of TV watching tots. This week has marked her very first TV watching experience.

I do have to admit that in this day and age, I'm very impressed with us and our ability to keep the TV out of our house as much as we have. Zach didn't watch his first TV show until 18 months. Kenzie came in a tad earlier at 14 months. But in reality, they still aren't watching much at all. Zach is allowed to watch one episode of Dora, Blue's Clues or Diego while I'm making dinner each night. And up until this week I've been able to keep Kenzie entertained in the kitchen with me while Zach watches . . . but all of a sudden she became super interested and wants to join Zach. She only stays interested for 5 minutes or so before she wanders off again, though.

In addition to his one show a day, Zach is allowed to watch one movie each weekend. But in reality he hasn't watched movie in weeks . . . and he only watches his one episode a day about half of the time. So I don't think I have to worry quite yet about rotting the kid's brains with television. And with summer coming they are spending more time in the water outside before dinner and then we just eat on the porch. So hopefully they will watch less and less as summer progresses.

Anyway, the kids are doing pretty well this week. Mackenzie is so blasted cute I can hardly stand it. And Zachary is a super duper stinkweed most of the time so I'm mostly having to step back, relax and try to remind myself that I'm arguing with a person only 3 feet tall! But he's still a smartie pants and a sweet kid (when he's not pushing or taking things away from Kenzie).

Today I told Zachary we had to go to the grocery store to get stuff for our Father's Day BBQ this weekend and he asked if we could make daddy cookies for Father's Day. Then when Justin came home for lunch Zach told him excitedly that he made cookies for him all by himself!

This weekend we are meeting up with Tim & Tash and the girls out in Palm Springs for a quick water resort weekend away and visit with Grandma & Joe. We are looking forward to our little adventure. Then we are coming back here in time to bbq with Karoline & Mateo for Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Hope you are doing something equally fun!