Giggling

But don't worry. All of the Not Happiness is made up for tenfold with the Giggling. View these videos as proof, if you don't believe me.

This is the Homer's dog, Jax. He will chase that ball all day long if someone will keep throwing it. Kessa loved it. Unfortunately, I was only smart enough to bring the camera out during the tail end of it as her giggles were calming down.

This phenomenon has only ever happened twice. But I was giggling as much as she was whilst it happened.

Oh man, Kessa loves going upside down. (Tragically, another tail-end video. And please forgive my fake giggle. It was making her laugh, too.)

And apparently she also loves balloons. And Sarah. (You can ignore Shawn in the background. He came with us to FHE and didn't realize that we were making a video.)

Not Happy

Sometimes Kessa is Not Happy.

This makes us Not Happy.

Getting into things

Now that Kessa is mobile, she's much more likely to get into things.

Like her books:

Or the diaper bag (which is always filled with goodies) (aww… cute bumGenius):

Or her toys:

Or the TV stand (which houses all of the fun things.  Like remotes!  And Wiimotes!  And Mario Kart wheels!)

Finger Foods

Kessa is figuring out how to pick up finger food. It is rather entertaining. Although she is much better now about getting things between her thumb and forefinger, it has been a talent she has had to develop. For example, check out this video. Please note that half of the Cheerios end up in her fist, on the back of her hand, or in her seat, etc.

Snow!

Ok, BJ loves snow a lot more than I do.  Let's just be totally honest here.  He sees beauty; I see cold.  But there is one time that we can both agree on the beauty of snow… tree branches covered in snow.  Especially from the comfort of my front window.

My new (old?) hobby

My mom tried to make me into a good old-fashioned homemaker.  I balked at it.  She taught me how to sew, cook, crochet, knit, etc.  And like any rebellious teenager, I did just enough to satisfy her, but not enough to gain any real skill in it.  And like any rebellious teenager that grows up into a responsible adult, I regret that now.  I wish I could go back and glean from my mother's knowledge.  I wish I could spend those years developing those talents so that I could just be totally awesome at them now.  But I didn't.  So now I'm having to relearn all the skills my mom so valiantly tried to teach me.  And when I start doing them, I realize that I love doing them.  Turns out, I really want to be an old-fashioned homemaker.  Who knew?  (Sorry, Mom!)

My current hobby that I'm relearning is crochet.  I've always been good enough to make a quick hotpad in an hour or two, but that's about as far as it went.  A few months ago I saw a really cute picture of a baby wearing a crocheted hat and I decided that I really wanted to make Kessa a hat.  So I got on Ravelry.com (which you have to join a waiting list to become a part of, but my friend Katya talked me into joining ages ago, but I'd never done anything with it) and looked up free crocheted baby hat patterns.  And then I started crocheting.  And I have to admit, I'm quite pleased with the result.

After I made my first hat, I realized it would be much cuter with a flower on it.  So I looked up flower patterns.  But instead of sewing it on, I decided to attach it with a baby alligator clip, which allows me to switch out what flower I have on the hat on any day.  The first set I made I gave to my cousin for a baby shower gift.  I was well pleased with the result.  Then I made three more for sisters in my ward (both of my visiting teachers and also my visiting teaching companion, all of whom had babies this winter) and then I made two more for my newest niece, Tamra.

I do have several hats and flowers that didn't make the cut.  But that's what learning is all about, right?  One of them turned out just fine, but it was intended for Kessa and was just simply too large. Remember how her head was in the 1 percentile?  Yeah, I have to make her hats smaller.  But I think she's finally growing into it.  3 or 4 months later.

Then one day while cleaning I happened across a pattern for a stuffed bumblebee.  I was intrigued.  I just happened to have the yarn from BJ's Mega Man afghan leftovers, so I started crocheting.  By the next day I had that done, as well as a stuffed bird.  And then a stuffed kitten in pajamas.  I'm currently working on a baby triceratops (not pictured).  These also make me quite happy.  (Side note: Kessa was rather intrigued with the bird.  So I let her play with it.  She entertained herself for quite some time by putting the wing in her mouth, biting down, then pulling the wing out through her clenched teeth.  Which is why the bird looks as though he is accusing the bee of doing something wrong in the picture.)

I'm toying with the idea of selling the hats, flowers, and stuffed animals as a way to earn a little extra money.  If any of you would be interested in buying any, send me an email*.  

*(My first and last name, all one word, at gmail.com)

Things that are not Kessa

Dear Ryan.  The next few posts are for you.  Here is proof that we have a life outside of Kessa.  (A life which she is a large part of, sure.  But not specifically revolving around her.)

This'un will be about our church calling.  BJ and I are Primary teachers!  We teach the 11-year old class (all of them will turn 12 at some point during the year).  Last year we had all boys until the very end of the year when a girl moved in.  This year we have mostly girls with a couple of boys that come here and there.  Both years have been a lot of fun.  We have enjoyed our Primary class.  I'm really excited for this year because we're teaching Old Testament.  Adult Sunday School is great and all (no, really, I really enjoy it) but Primary allows me to teach stories.  Sure, we teach doctrine and how to apply it to your life, but our main focus is stories.  Which makes me very happy.  Very happy indeed.

We are also focusing on learning the Articles of Faith.  Last year we thought about this in… oh… December.  Maybe November?  Either way, we didn't have a whole lot of time.  So we didn't try to memorize all 13.  Instead we had them learn #4 and #13.  They didn't get it perfect, but they did pretty darn good, considering.  So to reward them, we had a party.  We watched Up and ate popcorn popped on our stove top (thanks to a wedding gift popcorn popper).  It was a lot of fun and the kids really had a blast.  Which is good, because we're doing it again this year.  Except we're doing all 13 Articles of Faith.  Hopefully this party (which includes some of the kids we have this year still) will serve as motivation.