McKenzie Walking

McKenzie is learning to walk. Check out this video of her. I started walking when I was about ten months and she's just barely nine months now, so I'm going to have to do something to sabotage her. Maybe put a little extra grease on those wheels...

Baby Sis is 9 Months Old

Baby Sis went to the doctor today for her nine-month checkup (she turned nine months today). She's healthy. The doctor says she's taller and lighter than most babies her age. Daddy says that means she's going to be "a looker". I don't know how Baby Sis can be so light. She eats so much! Yesterday she ate a whole bowl of macaroni & cheese all by herself. Today she tried brocolli and she liked it.

Here's a video of me reading my favorite book: The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton. In case you don't know it, it goes like this:

The sun has set not long ago.
Now everybody goes below
To take a bath in one big tub,
With soap all over - scrub scrub scrub!
They hang their towels on the wall
And find pajamas, big and small.
With some on top and some beneath,
They brush and brush and brush their teeth.
And when the moon is on the rise,
They all go up to exercise!
And down once more, but not so fast,
They're on their way to bed at last.
The day is done. They say goodnight,
And somebody turns off the light.
The moon is high. The sea is deep.
They rock and rock and rock to sleep.

2006 Christmas Letter

Here's the Christmas letter I wrote in December 2006. That was just a few weeks ago.

I wanted to write earlier, but my Mom and Dad have been dragging me all across the country and they forgot to bring my computer. We’ve been to Disney World, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, NC, Austin, TX and Dallas, TX all in the past two months! What more could a two year old ask for?

A lot has happened this year. First, there’s someone new in our family. She showed up sometime in April and I call her “baby sister”, “stink bug”, “pretty princess”, or McKenzie. She’s really pretty and she’s already a lot bigger than when she first showed up. She babbles a lot, eats real food, and is getting ready to stand on her own.

Right after McKenzie showed up, we moved to Grandma’s house in Atlanta. Actually it’s our house now. Grandma and Grandpa are in Salt Lake City on a mission, so we’re taking care of their house. I miss my friends from Charlotte, but Atlanta is good, too. I go to gym class, play with my friends in play group, and hang out at the library reading books and doing puzzles. Soon I’ll be starting Joy School.

Mama stays busy just following me around. But somehow she also finds time to go to her own gym class, read a lot, and still keep the family running smoothly. Daddy’s been traveling a lot with his job at Initiate Systems. He’s flown over 75,000 miles this year and been from Boston to Los Angeles and just about everywhere in between.

For Thanksgiving we went to Orlando, FL for a week. We went to Downtown Disney the first day, where I played at the Lego store and rode on a merry-go-round and a train. I had so much fun that when we went to the Magic Kingdom the next day, I kept saying I wanted to go back to “Disney”. I warmed up to the Magic Kingdom, though. I got to fly in an elephant, ride a rollercoaster, and drive a race car.

In December, I went with Mama and baby sister to Salt Lake City to visit Grandma and Grandpa (Daddy was working in Chicago that week). I even got to see two Grandmas and two Grandpas all in the same trip. I got to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the lights on Temple Square, the LDS Children’s Museum, and snow!

For Christmas we went to Texas. We spent a week in Austin while Daddy worked there. It’s a fun place; maybe we’ll live there someday. Then we went to visit my cousins in Dallas. We went bowling, saw Christmas lights, and ate tamales. I had so much fun I told Mama and Daddy that I wanted to take our brand new house home with us.

Well, I gotta go jam on my new guitar. Daddy’s making ice cream in his new ice cream maker. And Mama’s helping McKenzie figure out her new toys. But they told me to tell you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

2005 Christmas Letter

Here's the Christmas letter I wrote in December 2005. I was one-and-a-half then. I'm so much more mature now.

Now that I’m smart enough to read, Dad says it’s my turn to write the Christmas letter. I wouldn’t mind, except he makes me take out the trash, too. Oh well, I have a lot to write about anyway.

I’ve been to almost every corner of the country this year: from San Francisco in the West to Boston in the East, from Chicago in the North to the Gulf of Mexico in the South. Having seen so much of this country, I think it’s time my Mom and Dad took me to Argentina, or maybe Texas.

Dad’s been traveling a lot lately, what with the new job and all. He left Bank of America in August to join a little company called Initiate Systems. He works from home when he’s not traveling and I’m the man of the house when he’s gone.

Mom keeps busy enough just following me around. When we’re not at home reading, playing with my cars and trucks, and learning new words, I take her to the library, to the gym, and shopping. Sometimes I think I’m wearing her out.

But I have to get lots of attention while I can. My Mom and Dad keep saying something about a baby sister coming in April. I don’t know how they’re going to fit another kid in my crib, though. My sister might have to sleep on the sofa.

Introduction

Now that I'm two years old, my dad says I'm old enough to have my own blog. Actually, I'm practically two-and-a-half.

I'd tell you all about my life so far, but there's so much to tell, and I can't remember that much of it anyway. Instead, I'll just include Christmas letters I wrote in years past in the next few posts. They'll catch you up well enough.

In case you're wondering where the title for my blog came from, it's from my dad's favorite book: To Kill A Mockingbird.

The sixth grade seemed to please him from the beginning: he went through a brief Egyptian Period that baffled me - he tried to walk flat a great deal, sticking one arm in front of him and one in back of him, putting one foot behind the other. He declared Egyptians walked that way; I said if they did I didn't see how they got anything done, but Jem said they accomplished more than the Americans ever did, they invented toilet paper and perpetual embalming, and asked where would we be today if they hadn't? Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.