Makenna the Carnivore...and on the Brink of Toddlerhood

Right after Makenna's first two teeth appeared, I blogged that it was a prelude to her life as a carnivore...well, that day has arrived, my meat-loving friends. My friend Amy once blogged about food milestones in her home aren't just about baby foods, but about cool foods like Oreos. Well over here, it's things like ice cream, cookies, hot dogs, and meat in its finer forms: steak, brisket, and smoked sausage. While Makenna has been chowing down for months now on chicken tenders, ham, plain chicken, etc, The Day of the Brisket had yet to arrive. But to our good friends Joel and Tiff, Makenna is a meat-eating machine now. On Memorial Day, she had her first full-force Texas meal: brisket, baked beans, potato salad, butter bread, and we can't forget the peach cobbler! We are thrilled with how well she eats. She eats anything I put in front of her and it is tremendous fun to watch her enjoy food. To add to the toddlerhood tendencies, she had her first real meltdown-tantrum last week when I wasn't giving her what she wanted to eat. She was screaming, throwing food, throwing her sippy cup, you get the idea. Kyle and I looked at each other, not sure what to do! He started laughing and I shrugged and said she was having a tantrum. I think he was amused to see the silliness of a tantrum! Hmmm...And yesterday, my sweet little baby girl took one tiny itsy-bitsy step towards me. She let go of the couch towards me, moved her left foot one little step, and went to her hands and knees. So we're waiting for the next time she does it with two steps!

I've been organizing all of our miniDVs from Kyle's date of birth until now and I've been watching some of Kyle's footage. As I watch Makenna grow, I'm reliving Kyle's babyhood. And as I watch his videos, I see him all over again, like for the first time. It's like my eyes have changed and I see things differently now, better now, like my lens have been cleaned. I forget what he was like because I'm always growing with him. He seems timeless to me at times, like he's always been the way he is now. Watching the videos of him and seeing the similarity with Makenna at this age is just really cool. Today I was watching some of his first steps, and he looked just like she does now. I also came across footage from about 14 months ago when we told him we were having a girl. I was amazed at the little boy in the video--it was a baby Kyle. He could barely put together sentences and had such a tiny little baby voice. His playing was also unsophisticated, babylike play, very sweet and quiet play. I hadn't realized how much he had changed over this last year--it amazed me. It makes me so thankful again that I'm seeing everything now, truly seeing everything, and not just blazing through life, but really living life now.