After watching his daddy use the hammer to hang some decorations in his room today, Kenton wanted to hammer, too. So we found his toy tools and let him hammer away.

He slept in his new big boy room last night and for his nap today. So far he really seems to like it and things are going well. He did wake up at 6:00 this morning and refuse to go back to sleep. Usually he sleeps until about 7:30. I think being in the new room was a little more exciting so he didn't want to lay down and go back to sleep. That's been the only problem we've had so far, though. Hopefully this will be a pretty easy transition for all of us.

We had chocolate pie for dessert tonight. We're pretty sure Kenton enjoyed it.

Kenton and Edward worked hard today to finish up Kenton's "big boy" room, so he can move out of the nursery before his baby sister arrives. Edward finished painting the walls, put down the area rug, arranged the furniture, and put the curtains up. Kenton helped install the safety rails on the bed, as you can see in the picture. When I got home Kenton was very excited to show me his "new room", but had no interest in sleeping there tonight. We'll try again tomorrow!

As big and grown-up as he seems sometimes, he still looks like my little baby when he's sleeping.

We bought a potty tonight. We weren't planning on this. We'd decided that potty training could wait until after the new baby arrives, but today Kenton looked at his daddy and said, "Kenton want use potty." So after a little discussion we decided that if he's that interested, we might as well give it a try. We headed out to Wal-Mart and bought the only model they had in stock. It plays music, which we're not real excited about, but you do have the option to disable that feature. We brought it home and Kenton was quite enthusiastic about getting it set up in the bathroom and giving it a try. He sat on it for several minutes, talking about the things one does on the potty, but didn't accomplish any of those things. We had to force him to get off it and take his bath, then he wanted to try again after the bath. Again, no results, but he was very excited about trying. We don't have a real plan for this potty training--I guess we're just going to follow his lead and let him try as long as he's so interested.

We bought some bubbles this afternoon and Kenton definitely had fun with them. At first he was content to just watch as we blew bubbles, then he was chasing them and trying to grab them. Edward caught one on the wand and let him hold it and look at it up close and that was very cool, and he wanted to "hold da bubbies" every time we would blow some. That entertained him for a while longer, but he started putting the wand in his mouth after the bubble would pop so we had to stop the bubble fun. Although the label says they're non-toxic, I'm guessing that licking the bubble wand is still not a good idea.

Isn't he the cutest little pirate you've ever seen? We did a pirate program at the library this morning, and although Kenton didn't attend, he and Edward were in the building when it ended. So my coworkers dressed him up in the pirate hat and snapped a picture. He got a pirate tattoo, too!

We haven't used Lucy's crate much in recent months, so Kenton was very curious when we set it up today. We know she'll have to be crated some when baby girl is born and there are strange people coming and going in the house, so we're trying to get Lucy and Kenton used to the idea. Lucy wasn't excited to see it, but Kenton had a great time playing it. He even took his toy car inside and sat on it in the crate for a while. He thinks it's a great new playhouse.

Kenton has outgrown his little car, but it is still one of his favorite toys. He refuses to give it up. He doesn't really ride it much, but loves to push it around and begs to take it with him every time we take a walk. Here he's using it as an easy chair to sit in while he watches his Thomas DVD. He really does more than watch tv these days, I promise. It's just that it's really easy to snap pictures of him while he's sitting still in front of it!

Last Sunday we checked out a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD from the library, and that is all Kenton has wanted to watch since. We also got two Elmo videos, but Thomas wins every time. Considering his fondness for Elmo, this is a really big deal. The picture shows his preferred viewing position--sitting in his bean bag with a few of his favorite stuffed buddies. He usually watches for a few minutes at a time, then gets up and runs around, does some other things, and comes back to the tv for a few more minutes. This evening he was really watching intently, though, and didn't even pay attention when Edward snapped a picture of him. We bought a Thomas DVD earlier today, our first DVD purchase for him. When we were at the mall he spent almost an hour at the Books-a-Million playing with their Thomas train set. He wasn't ready to leave after an hour, either. We had to do some coaxing, but at least he didn't throw a fit. You can't tell since he has on a bib in the picture, but he is wearing his Thomas t-shirt, too. We've had a very Thomas day!

Kenton loves fruit, but has never been much on eating his vegetables. However, today Edward found him eating frozen green beans that he'd dumped all over the kitchen floor. If only we'd know that was the secret to get him to eat veggies, we would have let him try it months ago!

Sunday mornings at our house usually means pancakes or waffles for breakfast. Today it was pancakes, which Kenton loves. He has recently discovered the joy of dipping food, so pancakes were even more exciting since we gave him a little syrup to dip them in. He used to be content to eat them plain, but no more. He also got chocolate milk to drink, which is his very favorite drink ever. But you could probably guess that from the way he's turning his cup up and chug-a-lugging in the picture.

We had lunch at Firehouse Subs today, where every kid gets a plastic fireman's hat. Kenton is very into the hat an has been wearing it around the house all day. He also liked to put it on our heads, but it doesn't fit too well and he gets irritated by that. At lunch today, I think Kenton out-ate both of his parents. Edward and I split a large sandwich and a bag of chips. Kenton had a full-sized peanut butter & jelly sandwich, a bag of cheese nips, a cookie, and probably 1/3 of our chips. I didn't think little boys were supposed to start eating you out of house and home until they were about 12 years old!

Kenton and me, one year ago. He wasn't even walking yet--now he's running, jumping and climbing! I can't even imagine what a year from now will bring, but I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

Isn't he a mess? He looks like this most of the time now. He's always scratched and bruised from some fall or bump. I don't think he's clumsy as much as he just doesn't pay attention to where he's going when he's running around. There are too many other interesting things to look at! We think the scratch on his cheek is actually something he did to himself. He went to bed Monday night looking fine and woke up Tuesday with that on his cheek. When Edward went to get him out of his crib that morning the first thing he said was, "Daddy, cheek hurt." We were going to take him to have his picture taken yesterday, but thanks to the big scratch had to reschedule that. His drooling has finally gotten better and he doesn't have to wear a bib constantly anymore, but he some days are worse than others. This was obviously a "more drooly" kinda day. Even all scratched, bruised, soggy, and splattered with food, he's still pretty cute. :~)

Kenton is starting to understand what tools can do. This picture was taken several weeks ago when Nana and Papaw were down visiting, and he was content to play with his toy tools while daddy and papaw used the real things. Today he saw his daddy use a screwdriver to change out the batteries in his toy train. He threw a fit until daddy let him hold the screwdriver, then tried to use it to "open the train", as he put it. We're going to have to make sure he can't reach the screwdriver because I have a feeling he'll be taking things apart before long!

Kenton is certainly developing an "I can do it by myself" attitude. Here he is trying to dry himself off after his bath tonight. No matter how much he protests, he still needs a little help, though!

Could he be any cooler? :-)

Over the Memorial Day weekend we drove down to Panama City Beach to visit with our friend David, who was vacationing there. Kenton didn't care much for the ocean this time, but he was a big fan of playing in the sand. He shoveled and poured sand in and out of the bucket happily for about an hour, and probably would have played longer if we'd let him. We enjoyed our time there, but the 3 1/2 hour car ridewas not too fun for this very pregnant woman. Kenton was a much better traveler than I was on this trip!