McKenna is TWO!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

I can't believe McKenna is two today. It has been an exciting year and time has flown by so fast. however, she is so "old" for her age and so independent that it almost seems like she should be turning three.

McKenna is still full of fire and determination. Although, lately these days she is wanting to be a little more girlie. She dresses up in heels and likes to play with her babies and she also likes fingers painted. Two days ago she asked me to paint them and put nail art stickers on them. She pranced around the house displaying her "cute" as she called them nails. A few hours later she came to me and said "Mama, Mama" and then held her mouth wide open saying "Ahhh". She did it a couple of times before she also lifted her hands to show me that there were no longer stickers on her fingers. Where did they go? You guessed it! She ATE them all!

What is with this girl and putting everything in her mouth! It reminded me of an email I sent a while back before I was blogging.

Here it is:

The Mischievous Adventures & Mishaps of Miss McKenna


Let me start by saying that our sweet girl is one of a kind. As parents we all think that our kiddos are wonderful, and my McKenna is no exception. She is wonderful, smart, precious and a lot of fun, but when she turned one she also became something else... Mischievous. It's not just the mischief part that makes her unique. It is the combination of the mischief plus her uncanny ability to climb onto anything that will remotely stay still, her lightening fast speed and of course her "too smart for her own good" intelligence. This combination I can assure you is DANGEROUS. So, the past several months have been a series of adventures that bring
hilarity, amazement, and usually white knuckle fear into our lives.

McKenna's Mouth

EVERYTHING goes into McKenna's mouth. Before you have children you are warned about this phenomenon, but my first child didn't put anything in his mouth so I had no idea what everyone was talking about... until McKenna came along. She puts everything in her mouth - she puts things into her mouth before she even looks at them and then takes them out to inspect them after the fact. It is amazing and
DANGEROUS. I have long gotten over the disgusting germy factor of this. If she was going to contract some crazy disease from week old cheerios that she finds on the floor, or a lint covered fruit snack she retrieved from the cushion of the couch that has "been there God knows how long?", or a shriveled dried up French fry she found somewhere in here car seat it would have happened long ago. However,it is the inedible things that I worry about. She loves talking out her ponytail holders and chewing on them, relishing acorns, rocks, or sticks from our outside adventures, and yes she has even dipped her toothbrush in the toilet for a taste of toilet water. But this morning she topped it all!

Austin had just returned with the kids from picking up dry-cleaning and I was upstairs checking my email. He brought both of the kids in and went back out to the car to get the dry cleaning.

All the sudden Caleb screams "McKenna's eating a screwdriver!"

"I screwdriver?!" I scream as I am running down the stairs.

"No, it's nails Mom. McKenna is eating nails!"

At this point panic sets in. I rush around the corner and find McKenna in the garage (I guess the door didn't get closed all the way and leave it to McKenna to find a way out of the house 30 seconds after Austin just brought her in) There she is with a handful of upholstery tacks that she found in a drawer in the garage and a few in her mouth. I am horrified. I manage to get them all out, and pray that she didn't swallow one. Why would upholstery tacks even look remotely appetizing? What would posses her to put multiple tacks in her mouth after she put one in and realized that not only it wasn't food, but it was also sharp and metal??

These questions add to the list of many that I have on this journey of parenting. I am sure most of them will never be answered I just will have to muddle through, pray like crazy and try to relish all those moments that pass way too quick.

So, Happy Birthday Baby Girl and today may the only thing that you put in your mouth be CAKE, and lots of it!