Dear Kenzie

2 days old

4 months

8 months

Well, sweet girl, it's been four years since you've come into my life.  That sometimes sounds like forever to me, but when I think about the fact that I'm 27 (ok fine, 30.), it's hard to imagine all those years not having you around.  You have brought me so much joy.  Serious, blissfully happy, erase-all-my-worries-away joy. Like when you were a tiny baby and you would wake up and give me a big smile. . . And when you slept through the night so early on. . . Like when you tell me that I'm your best friend in the whole world.. . Or that I sound just like the girl singing on the radio in the car while we're driving. . . When you get excited on Monday and Tuesday mornings and whisper in my ear:  "it's a girl day" because it's just us hanging out until 2pm. . . You unselfishly share anything you have- even your favorite candy. . . When you draw me a card with lots of pictures of me and you- sometimes in a tent or on a swing, or with Pippa- always in beautiful dresses. . . When we look in the mirror and you say we're twins because we have the same eyes. . . When I'm cleaning your room and you pick a couple of things up and tell me to "give it to another little kid who doesn't have any toys". . . Or when you are looking through a magazine and point to a ridiculously gorgeous model and say I look just like her. . . When you tell me that you just want me to hold you or that you need a hug or a kiss.  You don't say you want one, you say you need one. 

 9 months

9 months

11 months Kiawah Island

1 year old!

You also give me some pretty awesome belly laughs (and sometimes humble me as a parent too).  Like the other day when we were walking into the store and you loudly announced that the woman just a few feet away "is getting pretty old", which was a tad mortifying considering that woman really only looked about 60. . . Or a few months ago when you pointed at some bras while we were shopping and proclaimed "Mommy, your boobies are way too small to fit into those"! . . And the other night when I threatened to spank your tail, you immediately stopped what you were doing and told me "no you can't because I don't have a tail.". . .The time when you were not even two years old and we were in the shower and you started wiggling and touching your shins- when I asked you what you were doing you said "shaking my legs" because you had asked me the day before what I was doing and I told you "shaving my legs". . . Or just this morning when you were sitting in my closet and had asked me to do 3 things for you- all at once- and I told you that I can't do everything at one time and you replied, "well, Sponge Bob can". 

15 months in the barn

16 months in the Old City

16 months in the Old City

August 2008 Jen's wedding

The way your mind works is fascinating.  You are so smart.  You could easily find your way around an iPhone when you were two and a half.  Last week you counted to 50.  And you use words like "actually" and "magenta".  I think that's pretty cool.  You are so good to me.  You love me unconditionally.  And you see the good in people.  I am so proud of the little girl you have become in such a short time and to say that I am extremely blessed to have you is quite the understatement.  I am so happy to be your Mommy.

September 2008 in the cabinet

January 2009 at the farm

February 2009 at home

3 years old!

May 2010 at school

I love you so much, Kenzie.  You are my sunshine.

I took this picture last night at Pizza Kitchen.  Kenzie is growing up and like every other parent in the world, I really want to keep her this age forever because time just goes by too fast!  She will turn four on Tuesday.  I am certain of the date because she has asked me "how many days until my birthday" for about 44 days now.  She was looking through some old pictures and asking me questions about when she was a baby and glancing at them, I realized how much she has grown and changed in just (under) four short years.  Maybe I'll post some of those.  Or maybe I'll procrastinate and never get around to it like always. . .we'll see.

This was the first official haircut that I long ago promised to talk about.  Randy told her all about how he had to go to special hair-cutting school to get a special license which means only people with that license are allowed to cut hair.  Before we left, Kenzie told him that she wanted to go to hair-cutting school so she could get a special license too.  It actually turned out super cute and I didn't have a panic attack or faint like I feared I would.  He cut off 5 inches, which means that there is still a little bit in the back that is 3 inches shorter, but honestly, unless you're really looking for it, you can't tell at all. 

I know at the time, I was really freaking out, but in hindsight, it could have been far worse.  Like the other day when I picked Kenzie up from school and was thinking "Man!  Who cut all of her little friends hair off?!  Her hair is ridiculously short!  What kind of parents would do that to a little girl?!"  Then, it hit me.  Upon a closer glance, I saw that the front was not quite right- almost like the hairdresser had an accident while cutting. . . it suddenly dawned on me that she had cut her own hair to the scalp in front- and pretty far back too.  The teacher confirmed that's what had happened.  I didn't ask if it happened at school.  It made me feel pretty lucky though, I mean at least Kenzie still looks like a little girl.  I don't mean that to sound ugly- I know that pixie cuts are all the rage for some people.

It was my last day in the G37 a couple days ago and Kenzie and I had gone out for one last errand in it.  On a whim, I pulled over next to the railroad tracks to take some pictures of her.  Had I planned it, I would have picked a different outfit, but whatev.  Once I convinced Kenzie that I would know when a train was coming WAY before it ever came close, she enjoyed taking pictures.  Well, for about 2 minutes.  It was blistering hot that day and 2 minutes was all we could stand.  This one was the best of the bunch and I used it for her birthday invitations. 

This is a picture from Easter. I know that was a long time ago, but still, a cute picture worth posting. We don't have a lot of family shots since Erin or myself is usually taking pictures. It was the perfect day for hunting eggs. We had beautiful weather and Deloris was finally able to convince Mom to come up to the farm. Everyone had such a good day. Plus, since Kim stuffs like 200+ eggs and there are only 5 kids to hunt, we are still eating Easter candy. And yes, it still tastes good.

Remember when you were a kid and you used to say the "Eeinie-Meenie-Mynie-Moe" rhyme to decide things like who gets to eat the last piece of candy or who gets to hide first during hide and seek? Well, evidently in Kenzie's group of friends, it's just used to see who gets to BE Moe. Being Moe doesn't seem to have any special benefits or anything, but if you're not Moe, I guess that's almost like saying "you lose". Even though you weren't playing anything. For example, the other night, Kenzie was playing outside with her friends and ran to me crying. She was upset because the other 2 girls had both been Moe, but she hadn't yet. Make sense? Yeah, me neither.

It finally happened.

You know, my intent was to post pictures of Easter, cupcakes, Dollywood, and the two 5K races Erin and I have ran and talk about how awesome all of those times were.  Instead I am going to be a Debbie Downer and tell you how one of my worst parenting nightmares has now come true.

I have never let Kenzie use a pair of scissors.  The reason is because I didn't want her to cut her hair like every little girl seems to do at one point during childhood.  A couple months ago, I received a proficiency report on how Kenzie was doing at school in just about every aspect that is preschool life.  She was graded "mastered", "can complete with assistance", or "needs improvement".  I was bursting with pride when almost every field (over 4 pages) was filled with "M"s for mastered.  The only things did not score an "M" on was something about staying on task while not talking (and who could I blame for that?  I mean, I'm kind of a chatterbox myself), willingness to try new foods (no shocker here), and ablility to cut on a straight line.

With scissors.

Well, of course she couldn't do that!  I had never stuck a pair of scissors in my three year old's hand; let alone teach her how to CUT things!  And maybe that's a little backward on my part.  I admit that.  But since then, they have been using scissors at school.  And I have been telling Kenzie how she is to only cut paper.  That's all.  Nothing else.

Especially hair.

We had a neighborhood yard sale on Saturday and Kenzie's hair was pulled back in a clip for the better part of the day.  Later she took a shower and after her hair had air-dried for awhile, I brushed it out.  This is what I saw.

Nothing super surprising at first, just a little. . .off.  Or something.  It just wasn't quite right.  Then:

This time I noticed that the bottom of her hair was virtually non-existent and I kind of started to hyperventilate.  I asked Kenzie when and who had cut her hair and she told me that she cut it at school on Friday but that it was an accident.  She showed me how she happened to have the scissors behind her head and accidentally happened to cut off 8+ inches.

Yes, over 8 inches.

I will spare you the details of how I nearly passed out and how Erin thought that it was totally the school's fault.  All I can really say is that this happened on Friday and we can't fix it until tomorrow (Tuesday) because Randy, my hair man, isn't open today.  You might not think it's that bad.  And that's what my friends and neighbors all tried to convince me of this weekend.  But when you brush it out and it looks like this:

You know something has to be done.  I intend to chronicle the hopefully-not-so-traumatic hair repair in pictures.  Kenzie is upset because she says that her long hair makes her a princess and I am upset because I tried so earnestly, so diligently to prevent this from happening.  I guess I should just be thankful that she didn't cut it all the way to the scalp (or really any shorter at all) and that she didn't hack from the front.  I mean, at least I can still put it in side pigtails (albeit thin ones) or a ponytail and people don't notice.  Or at least they pretend not to. . .

Less Talk, More Pictures

Stories are nice and all, but I'm behind on my updates here.  And I figure that if I don't throw all these pictures out here now, with commentary here and there of course, then it might be summer before I get caught up.  Easter is this Sunday and I'm sure I'll have pics and stories from that day too.

When it comes to Kenzie, I have the most tolerant cat in town, possibly in all of Tennessee.  She may not be happy about it, but Pippa will let Kenzie dress her up and do anything she wants.  What a good sport.  The top 2 pics were when Kenzie said they were dressing up to go to a dance.  The bottom picture is from a different night when Pippa had to be Snow White (that's Kenzie's Snow White dress up skirt that Pippa is modeling).

These are from the Deer Farm Zoo in Sevierville.  If you live even relatively close, it is so worth visiting.  Kenzie's favorite animals are the goats (like I even needed to say that- she's been begging for a goat for about 2 years now).  My favorite was that oxen-looking animal.  I just wanted to take him home!  The bottom picture is Kenzie's first pony ride.  We weren't sure how she'd do, but she loved it!  She has asked a couple of times when she can go back and ride Patches.

One day Kenzie wanted me to put all of her hairbows in her hair.  Every single one.  I convinced her to stop around twenty-something.  (It doesn't look like that many in the picture, but trust me, there was a bunch!) She also has on cat ears.

Our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt a couple weeks ago on the first really pretty day of spring.  The kids also got to decorate their own sugar cookies with as much icing and sprinkles as they wanted.  If I recall, Kenzie did not end up taking a nap that day.

I don't really think these next two need any explanation.

Kenzie and her friend Lauren last weekend:

Mommy's sunglasses and Daddy's hat:  witness protection program:

I walked into the living room the other day and this is what I saw:

I noticed it was unnaturally quiet in the house on Wednesday.  I found Kenzie just standing in my bedroom looking at her finger.  Then I realized she was holding a lady bug. 

Okay, I do have one funny story to share.  For the most part I let Kenzie put on whatever accesories and shoes she wants with outfits (as you may have noticed from the pictures), but sometimes I have to draw the line and tell her that things really just don't match.  Like when she wants to wear 2 different shoes.  A few days ago Kenzie was upset and crying while we were in the bathroom, in front of the mirror, combing her hair.  To distract her, I said "Hey Kenzie, look- we look just alike!  We have the same eyes!"  To which she replied, "Yes, but I also have brown hair.  So I match.  And you don't match."

Introduction to skating

Going. . .

Going. . .

Gone.

This past weekend, Kenzie's cousin Gracie turned 7.  That's Gracie with Kenzie in the second picture.  Her party was at Hamilton Skate Place in Chattanooga.  Kenzie had never skated before, so when we first started out, she insisted on Erin and I both holding her hands at all times.  She gradually got good enough to trust herself with just one of us, and by the end of the party, she didn't really want us around at all.  We all had a great time. 

The weekend before that, it snowed so we decided to go sledding.  Now when I say it snowed, I don't mean it snowed like it did in the rest of the United States that weekend.  We weren't that lucky.  But it was enough to have a little fun.  We didn't get much, but it was a very wet snow which made for icy slick sledding trails- you really can't get much better. . .or dangerous.  We met up with Adam, Ashley, and the kids and started out on a normal, tall but non-frightening hill.  Then Ashley's Dad took us to this really super tall, very steep (ultra scary and terribly perilous looking) hill (I don't even know if it counts as a hill; perhaps "mini-mountain covered in nothing but grass and ice" is a better way to describe it).  In the pictures you will notice one of Erin and Kenzie appearing to be sledding across the street on the pavement.  That is actually what happened as the hill was so high that if you made it to the bottom without flipping your sled (like Adam) or chickening out and putting a foot down (like me), you would fly right across the street into the grass on the other side.  Curbs included.  I was convinced I would bust my head into a million pieces that day, but miraculously, that did not happen.

And yes, Kenzie is wearing rain boots.  That was the best we could do.  We don't have much need for snow gear here in Knoxville.  At least her feet stayed dry.

Kenzie and Baylor climbing Hill #1.

Erin, Adam, Kenzie, and Baylor- still Hill #1

Quick hug from Mommy before we journey to Hill #2

Erin and Kenzie atop Hill #2.  My camera was zoomed in.  For real.  It doesn't look that high, but it really was VERY high.  And steep.  From the bottom, it doesn't look scary, but after you make the mile-high trek to the summit, it is very ominous looking down (especially since the end of the hill is pavement).

They were still moving fast here. . .and didn't stop until they were pretty far into the grass.

Adam and Ashley

I was very happy to be alive- I had just come down Hill #2.

It was a pretty awesome Saturday.