The final month of the first year!

Gosh, it's almost here! The first birthday. Our little girl has become quite the little lady. What is new for her? Hmmmm well she was walking on her own for 2 days and now she has taken a step backwards but refuses to crawl. She only wants to walk and hold your hand. She had a double ear infection so maybe that is part of it. I came around the corner in the grocery store and ended up behind Matt and her walking down the isle of the store. Do you know where my mind went?? It flashed forward about 20 years from now when she could very well be getting walked down that isle! My heart sank. I want her to stay a baby! I don't think I could ever let her go. I refuse to and now I have made up my mind! :) A couple of other things she is doing is saying "hi" to everyone, she points and asks "what's that" in her own little way, and also tried to put her socks on her feet. She is learning how to feed herself with a fork as well. Right now we put it on her little fork and hand it to her, then she knows what to do. Here are a few pictures! Enjoy!

Portland (more pictures)

Kenz and mommy playing in the room

Crazy bed head!

Kenz and daddy with downtown view

It was very windy!

Portland!

The 3 of us left on a road trip to Portland, OR on Easter for my spring break. We just went for a few days. It was a GREAT trip down. Mackenzie is a great traveler!! She never got fussy the whole way down. We got checked in to our hospitality suite at the Hotel Vintage Plaza in downtown Portland. I now know what a fugi tub is. That and the king size bed were the best parts of the room, everything else was ok I suppose. It was a good size room but it wasn't fantastic as the description made it sound. We weren't in the room much anyway I guess. Mackenzie loved playing on the HUGE bed. For dinner we went to a gluten free fish and chip place, it was pretty good. I couldn't tell a difference. Mackenzie slept great in her pack and play that night. The next morning we were off to breakfast at a gluten free cafe' (Portland is very gluten free friendly). On our way the car broke down!! We had to call a tow truck and have it taken to a service center. Thank you to Jason for being available to look up all of the places for us to call!! So, we never made it to the cafe. Luckily we broke down in a good neighborhood and it wasn't far from the service place or a grocery store. I am so glad we had the stroller with us. The tow truck operator was so nice and very helpful. They got to us within the hour and there was room in the cab for the car seat! The service guy was so helpful too! He helped us find a rental for a very reasonable price while they worked on the car. I believe we had a blown hose and lost all the coolant. The car was fixed by the time we needed to head home. How awesome is that! We walked all around Portland, went up to 23rd and had some good Thai food. Mackenzie even liked that. We went to a chocolate shop, Moonstruck, for some truffles. Man, they have great truffle flavors. They were sampling a dark chocolate with chili powder and boy did it have a kick to it! We went to Powell's bookstore for a little while also. We didn't do anything real special but hang out and walk around. We had a great time and it was nice to be away from home. The one great thing was the weather! It was supposed to rain but it was sunny and partly cloudy. Cold at times but it never rained on us. We went to Mothers Bistro for breakfast ordered food off of the kids menu for Mackenzie for the very first time. Pancakes, yum. We had some really good french press coffee too. While waiting for the car to be done we walked across the river and back, a very long walk. But we enjoyed it. Mackenzie did great. Then, we headed home. Here are some pictures.

Mackenzie hanging out in the tow truck

Car being hooked up

Mackenzie standing looking out the window, don't worry it doesn't open.

Walka Walka

Fun with Mommy and Daddy

Yay!

We'll teach her "eye" when she can be a little more gentle. :)

I love it when we're cruisin together