Kindi is 10 Months Old

 So I'm sure there are some of you out there wondering if All is Still Wells.  Well let me put your minds at ease.  Yes we are still here.  And everyone is doing well, for the most part.  We all went through this nasty bug that's been roaming around.  Kaden got it first and I spent most of the night up with him while he threw up.  Poor little man.  Is there anything worse than watching your babies suffer, when they want so desperately for you to fix it and there is nothing you can do?  Kindi had it a few days later.  She only spit up hard a couple of times one morning, but then she developed a nasty nighttime cough that kept us up most of the night for several days.  I got it next and had to miss church to make an appointment with my toilet.  Yuck!  Gosh I hate being sick, and the whole day I felt like I had terrible morning sickness only I'm not pregnant.  It stinks to feel that way even when it is for a good cause, but when it's for nothing...  GRRRR  Jeremy had the most mild version I think, but his also lasted the longest.  Today though I think we are all better, maybe a lingering cough or two here and there, but the kids have been doing a great job playing together in their rooms most of day without the excessive whining that had been permeating my home.  Ahhhh I even had time to get Kindi's pictures posted.  WOW!

 Stop to smell the roses.  (Alright so she is really eating it, but it's still precious.)

 How did my baby get into the double digits already?!  Look at her looking like a big girl.

Kindi Kae is totally getting into giving kisses these days.  The only problem is that there really isn't anything pleasant about them.  If you have spent anytime around Kindi you would see that she is always drooling.  Not just a little bit, but a constant stream, maybe even a waterfall, is running down her face at all times.  Now pair that with the classic wide mouth baby kiss...  Yeah, it's kinda nasty.  And she not only kisses she is practicing her french techniques.  She plants a big slobbery one on me (I try to deflect her to my cheek, but she prefers my lips) and then waggles her tongue around too.  When she is done I need a bath towel to wipe up the slime!  And yet even in the midst of all that unpleasantness...  I love each and everyone of those kisses!

 She has enough hair for a ponytail!  Isn't it stinkin' adorable!

 Kindi is walking.  I have mixed emotions about this.  It's so exciting to see her reach that milestone (2-3 weeks ahead of Kaden) but she is my last baby and she is growing up so fast.  She definitely isn't proficient in the walking department, averaging 4 steps or so, but she is getting there and on occasion can walk all the way across a room.  Most of the time she finds crawling to be more efficient still though.

 My children adore each other!  They are the best of friends.  If one wakes up before the other they anxiously wait for the other.  Kaden begs for 'My sissy.'  And Kindi points and stares at Kaden's door with anticipatory squeals.  You can just hear her begging him to wake up.

We've had our ups and downs just like any other normal family, but let me tell you...

I wouldn't trade this crazy, busy life I have for anything in the world.

Kindi is 9 Months Old

Our Kindi is 9 months old and straining to be a big girl.  She spends most of her days pulling herself up and then letting go so she can stand in the middle of the room without anyone helping her.  Just like her big brother.  The last couple of days she has figured out that she can also walk around a little bit if she holds on to something.  I expect she will be running before we know it.  

It has been so nice now that she is crawling like a pro.  It is like she is a completely different child.  She is happy most of the day now, she doesn't need to be held all the time and she spends lots of time either chasing Kaden around or even playing by herself.  Now she has learned the art of climbing stairs though.  Oh does she ever get angry when we put the gate up at Mom's house.  She crawls up the two steps allowed her, holds onto the gate and cries her little heart out.  Completely devastated.  Hopefully she will learn how to safely come down the stairs soon too.

She is getting so pretty!

Kaden is 2 Years Old

 Somebody help!  I think I am in shock! 

How in the world do I have a 2 year old already?

 Granted he is the cutest 2 year old I've ever seen, of course I'm probably a bit biased!

This is his 'Hmm' face.  He says that when I ask him where something is in one of his books.  It cracks me up!

 I was trying to get him to hook his thumbs in his vest...  He didn't quite get it.

My beautiful son brings so much light and laughter to us.  He is always coming up with something new.  He loves to 'eat' random objects.  He 'grabs' something, pretends to put it in his mouth, then while he chews it he puffs out his cheeks, and waggles his head while stomping and swaying side to side.  You have to see it to fully appreciate it.  He is talking now.  Most of it is still pretty illegible to people outside these four walls, but it is getting clearer and clearer.  We are even 'playing' potty training.  Neither one of us is quite ready to get serious about it yet I think.  Maybe now that Kindi is starting to crawl I will feel like I can give it the amount of attention it needs to be successful.  

Kindi is 8 Months Old

Well I'm only half a month behind this time...  

My Kindi girl is 8 months old.  And she crawls!!!  

She just started crawling the day after Christmas.  She is still pretty slow and adorably deliberate with every placement of her hands.  She also still has a tendency to forget to move her hands...  She doesn't tolerate the face plants very well.

 I am so excited about her new ability.  I always suspected that she was extra cranky because she so intensely desired to follow her brother around and play with the toys on the other side of the room.  Turns out I was right!  Yesterday, while I worked on the computer and Jeremy and Kaden had a date, Kindi roamed around playing in Kaden's room (where most of the toys are) for at least half of an hour!  All by herself!!!  If you haven't spent much time with Kindi you won't realize what a miracle this is, but for this often haggard mommy it was a slice of heaven!

 Today she was so sweet following her daddy into the kitchen.  We were all in the living room and she was doing a great job playing with the books.  Jeremy went to work in the kitchen and she took off (like a snail) to hunt him down, twice.  Squealing with glee when she made it around the corner and there he was.  

She is still Kindi though, don't worry.  She still knows how to throw a fit, does not tolerate any kind of pain, and is a total Mama's girl.  But life just got a little bit sweeter (and a lot less cranky) in the Wells' household.

7 Months Old

So... since Kindi turned 8 months old today I figured I should post her 7 month pictures...  :)  Maybe I will get her 8 months up before she is 9 months.  And while I'm at it, maybe I will start posting our daily activities again... maybe!

Saving His Pennies

My Grandma Wilson got both of our kids piggy banks when they were born.  It wasn't until recently that Kaden cared one whit about this, but now he loves it.  I keep it up on his dresser so he can't play with it and break it, and I have made sure that he doesn't know that it opens!   He did however figure out that if you turn it upside down and shake, then you can put the coins in again.

I had such a terrible time trying to keep Kaden from eating (although he just sucks on them) any coins that managed to escape us.  So I started taking him to his room and getting his piggy bank down every time he found one.  Now instead of putting it in his mouth he brings it to me so we can put it away!  He shows me his coin, then we run to his room where he throws himself down on the floor while I grab the piggy.  I never make him sit while he puts his money in, but that seems to be his preferred way.  He has quite the array of faces for me to enjoy while he plays with his money.

I can't remember what was happening here... I think he was just starting to cheese for the camera.

Sucking in air in his favorite gasping sound.

Oooo

A Boy's Gotta Do...

Kaden has such a helpful spirit.  This is a good thing, and we hope he stays that way to balance out the stubborn side to his spirit!  So even if it is less than helpful we try to be patient and let him do his thing.

Kaden loves to pick the tomatoes.  He relished the afternoons when Daddy was home to take him out to the garden to bring in the tomatoes for me to can.  He often came bursting into the kitchen carrying some new treasure that he (or Daddy) had picked to show me.  Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, squash, beans, they were all wonderfully exciting!  Unfortunately it wasn't until the end of the season that he figured out you are only supposed to pick the red tomatoes.  But maybe that was because the season was so stupid this year that we didn't have any ripe ones until the end of the season!  Once he figured that out though, he could often be found wandering around the garden and yard with a big juicy tomato dripping from his fingers and mouth.  Just like an apple!

We had an incredibly irritating problem with flies this year.  After watching his Daddy successfully combat the nasty vermin, Kaden knew that he too was destined to be a fly killer.  He cracked us up, he would hear or see a fly and whip his head around to follow it exclaiming, "Uh, oh!".  If he could find a swatter within his reach he was quick to flail it around, accomplishing nothing but bringing a smile to our faces.  Which is even better than killing flies!

Oops!  I forgot to rotate this one.  So tilt your head to the left for a moment!

We are having issues with the wiring in our 1950's house.  It just wasn't made to handle two computers, including monitors, modems and speakers, two printers, and a phone.  Go figure!  So we were having problems with them all just randomly blinking off for a moment, kind of like a quick power flicker, but only in this one corner of the house.  Then Jeremy heard the outlet sizzle, so we had to do some rearranging.  Now we have extension cords running all around the room trying to spread out our power draw.  I think Jeremy and Max are going to put in a new breaker and outlet just for the computers next time they make it down.  As you can see, Kaden was a great helper as Daddy was crawling behind the desks trying to replace the fried socket and reroute things.

Whatcha doing Daddy?  Need some help?

Our ever resourceful son.  If you can't get in by climbing over Daddy's back there must be another way.  Just climb under the desk instead!

More recently Jeremy has been tearing down the garden getting it all ready for the long cold winter months.  He had some T posts in the ground that he needed to pull.  They were stuck really good, so he called in his back up... Kaden Raymond to the rescue!

The worked and worked at it.  They dug out the bottom with a shovel, shook the pole, and pulled really hard.

Kaden is such a mimic, so in perfect Daddy fashion he grabbed the pole, pulled hard and grunted.  It was priceless!

And in perfect little boy fashion he decided to climb the extra hog wire that hadn't been torn down yet!  He was quite impressed with himself as he went up and down.

Enjoying the Outdoors

Jeremy had tossed a few chunks and pieces of the old metal pipe they removed from under the house when he replaced it all with that new PEX pipe.  Kaden found the stash and was trying to put pieces back together.

So proud of his accomplishment.  (Actually he just found a piece that was already put together.)

Which made a great hammer! 

 That old clothesline pole is blocking the view, but he is beating on that concrete block with his pipe hammer. 

Kindi in a box.

Kindi loving being in a box!

She thought it was great.  It was the perfect size, it helped her sit up and she could even kick her feet and flail her arms and not tip over!

Owie!

Kaden got an owie!  How did he get it you ask?  Well... have I mentioned before about how much he and his cousin Kori (who is only 5 months older) love to hate each other?  They get so excited when they see each other.  She screams, "Kaden!" and they run and touch or hug each other.  Then they pretty much fight from then on.  This particular time they were fighting over whether or not the door on grandma's little cabinet should be open or closed.  I don't know who wanted what, but my guess is that Kaden wanted it open and Kori wanted it closed, because Kaden ended up with a nasty pinched finger!  It had a cut on it and a gnarly blood blister on the top.  I tried to clean it and bandage it, but do you know any nearly 2 year old that will leave a band aid on their finger?  So a few days later when it looked like it was getting worse again my mom came with her doctor supplies and bandaged him up good!

She left some extra stuff for him to play with in the hopes that it would distract him from tearing the stuff of of his finger that needed to stay covered for awhile so it could soak up some medicine.

Luckily Grandma Linda was there for the weekend and he had so much fun bandaging her up that he forgot to rip his own bandage off and managed to keep it there all the way through a nap!  His finger is mostly better now, you can still see where the owie was, but it doesn't hurt anymore.  Although once in awhile he remembers that it used to hurt and he will go around the house saying, 'Owww' and having everyone kiss it better!  In fact he even had the frogs on his wall kissing it better this afternoon.

6 Months for Kindi

 Man how time is absolutely flying!  My little baby is already half of a year old.  She is getting prettier and prettier and more and more fun.  Also more and more cranky...  It is absolutely killing her that she can't chase her brother around the house.  She gets so frustrated and angry that she is stuck in the same place while he runs from room to room.  But when he plays with her... she is in heaven!  The other day she was in her bouncer and he was playing with the toys on it with her.  She was so ecstatic that she started screaming (this time it was a happy scream, and not her usual grumpy scream).  Kaden found that to be quite amusing so he screamed back and her, then she screamed, then he did, over and over again for several minutes!  Is this something I should be worried about?  It was really funny and cute, but are my children always going to communicate with each other by yelling?!

 Wow this butterfly costume makes my petite little Kindi girl look like a chunker!  

Kaden got dressed up too and took some pictures with her.  He loved that they both had hats with antennae on them.  

Kindi much preferred to lay on the costume rather than wear it!

 She sits up like a pro now.  When she first gets up in the mornings, before Kaden wakes up, I will bring her into my room and she sits on my bed giggling and screaming and cooing.  She's so excited that she is getting to be a big girl and although I am loving watching her I wouldn't mind if she would slow down a bit.  I do have to admit that I am looking forward to her starting to crawl though.  I believe that she will be much more content when she can move around by herself and can chase her brother instead of always getting left behind.