For those that don't know, Kendall LOVES to dress up. She is gathering quite a collection and as I type this she is wandering her play room in a head band with cat ears, her cinderella nightie, striped leggings and her blue, plastic high heels. She thinks that she is a princess. When she sees a princess on tv or in a book, she will say look mommy, a princess, like me. And being a princess leaves her to what she thinks is complete accessibility to anyones high heeled shoes, and pretties. (defintion: Pretties are jewelry and accessories for your hair; things that to Kendall make you pretty) When we are at my parents Kendall can usually be found in one of her aunts rooms exploring the closet for the perfect pair of heels or in the chest which holds all aunt michelle's hair pretties and chunky jewelry. Her imagination is just blossoming and she can make any room her palace. Just recently we were climbing through the play set at the park and she reached the top and said, "we are in the tower of mines castle guys." To explain the picture above, Kendall asked Aunt Meghan if she could wear her princess shoes. This was at the end of a reception for our pastors installation service on Sunday and Kendall walked around making sure everyone saw how pretty she was in her dress, stockings, and heels.

To continually egg on this interest in all things princess, this past weekend Kendall received a stuffed Cinderella from my sisters boyfriend Eddie, from his business trip to Disney. She thinks this doll is just fabulous and carries it around much of the day. Cinderella already needs cleaning since it seems Kendall had a mystery injury while in sunday school and had a little cut on her finger that bled on Cinderella before they could bandage it. We are hoping to get it cleaned through the magic of oxyclean which my mom has, I am out, and not only that my mom has more patience with stains. So we will be sending Cinderella to the doctor to get fixed up.Kendall will most likely cry, but we can't let Eddie see Cinderella in this state, she is brand new, and not only that at least 3 times a day since she has had the doll she breaks into a crying spell because Cinderella has "bled on her dress, from my boo-boo, oh my boo-boo look mommy, it hurts." (the cut is barely there, but she likes to relive it) So for my sanity as well, Cindy needs a new look.



Ethan is still at the frustration stage with the mobility. He is now completely pulling up on things and slowly and cautiously cruising around and will occasionally turn and release to grab the next available thing. He is quickly learning though, that not all things are stable. I back him up completely though. When you think too much about walking, it can be pretty scary.

He is starting to take an interest in books, and will say, 'book.' They are mostly picture books that contain animals, but for awhile there I thought he was turning into his Daddy and opposing books. It's good to know that he will be cuddling up for story time with Kendall and I soon. And as far as Andy and the reading...he will read about current sports until his eyes begin to hurt. Put a book in front of him, forget it. To confess to his senior year professors, I did ALL of his papers that had to reference reading any sort of book. I on the other hand cannot imagine not reading. Beyond reading close to 200 children's books a week, some over and over again, I also average 2 to 3 grown up books a week. I mostly read when I am rocking the kids. Sometimes at 3 a.m. after Kendall has woken up scared of the monsters. What I think has been 10 minutes turns into 90. And we wonder why I am super tired. But Andy does pitch in and melt to Kendall when she asks, "Daddy, can you read this?" And he has been taking her to the library and picking out pretty good books. I think we are converting him. :) Baby Steps, its ok to start with a fairy tale.

So we jump into another week which seems like it is going to be a normal week with nothing much planned before we start to get busy again...famous last words.