Are you ready for some...Soccer!

It's soccer season! Ella is playing soccer for the first time, and this is my first experience ever with soccer! Growing up in a small town, we didn't have soccer, so I don't know ANYTHING about it. I told Ronnie that this will be the sport our girls are good at and want to play, since I, who loves to follow and play most all sports, doesn't know a thing about this one. Thankfully Ronnie has had some experience with soccer, mostly just intermurals, but enough to know the basics, or we would really be a mess!
Thankfully, 3 year old "Wee Kick" soccer at the Y isn't quite competitive enough to require a strong knowledge of the sport, so I'm ok for now. :) Maybe I can pick up on some of the rules and positions before 4 year old soccer next year.
So Ella is, without a doubt, the cutest soccer player ever. I love getting her dressed in her uniform each Saturday morning. And thankfully this is the one day a week that I am able to convince her to let me put her hair in a ponytail. So far, soccer is going great. She is making huge improvements each week. Before each game her team has a 20 minute practice session. The first week of soccer Ella did great during the practice. I couldn't believe how much she was getting into it, and she did great kicking the ball into the goal! Then when it was gametime, she became shy and didn't want to stay out on the field. So I did what every great mom does, and bribed her with Chick-Fil-A to keep her out there. ;) Theh second week she was the opposite, she didn't want to practice, but when it came time for the game she at least willingly stayed on the field. (For 3 year old soccer, this is a big deal, and one point our team didn't even have 4 kids willing to be out there, and the games are supposed to be 4 on 4.) Last week she did GREAT! She did awesome during the practice, and then at game time she was running all over the place! She wasn't exactly kicking the ball and trying to score, but she at least ran along with the ball! A little progress each week makes us ecstatic! Maybe tomorrow she will try to run AND kick! :) Here are a few pictures of our cute little soccer player.

Toms!

I've been wanting a pair of Toms for a long time. If you don't know about Toms, check out their website. For each pair of shoes sold, Toms donates a pair to a child who desperately needs shoes. It's really a great company with a cool story. They have really cute shoes, and the prices aren't that bad when you factor in that you're also helping a child get a pair of shoes.
Anyway, while browsing the website I came across "Tiny Toms" - toddler sized Toms. After seeing those adorable shoes I decided that we all needed a pair! We all had fun picking out which pair we wanted. I let Ella look at the website and she chose the ones she wanted. Here are our new shoes!

Ella's new kicks

Kendall excited about her Toms!

This picture was much harder to take than it looks. Unfortunately I didn't get Ronnie's shoe in the picture very well!

We love our new shoes, and are excited that we were able to help four kids get a new pair of shoes!

Pee Pee in the Potty!

It was a big night at our house - Kendall peed in the potty for the first time! As I mentioned in my post two days ago, she has been asking to sit on the potty a lot lately, but tonight was the first time she actually "performed." I was getting ready to put the girls in the bathtub, and Kendall started pulling the lid up on the toilet and saying, "I wan poo, I wan poo."

I went crazy cheering her on, and Ella came running up the stairs and started cheering for her and giving her high fives. Ella was so excited that she even grabbed some toilet paper and said, "I'll wipe her!!" She's such a little mommy.

I'm not actively "potty training" Kendall. She's only 17 months. But any time she wants to practice I am more than willing to let her! She wants to do everything big sis does, so maybe she will end up being trained early!

Kendall is 17 months!

Last week was Kendall's 17 month birthday. I'll be honest, I didn't actually realize it was her 17 month birthday until after she was already in bed that night. It's true, at least for me, that you don't keep up with that stuff as well with the second child. I used to always make sure I took tons of pictures on the monthly "birthdays" and also weigh the girls. I do have lots of great recent pictures to post, but as soon as I got my awesome new camera, the memory card slot thingy in the computer decided to quit working, and I've yet to find a cable that will hook up to my computer to load pictures. Bummer!! Hopefully I can get that worked out soon. Here are a few updates on Kendall from the past month:
- She is talking a lot more. A couple of months ago I was worried about her small vocabulary, but it has really picked up lately. Her favorite words right now are "pizza!!" and "poopy!!" She also likes to ask for cheese (she got this from Ella). She'll says, "I wan chssss, I wan chssss!" The kid could eat all day, and loves cheese. Definitely my kid.
- She wants to sit on the potty a lot. Yay! If anyone is in the bathroom, Kendall will go in and say "i wan poo!" (aka, I wanna poop!) She's yet to actually do anything in the potty, but anytime she wants to sit, by golly I'll let her! She'll figure it out eventually!
- She knows lots of body parts, few animal noises. She can identify most every body part - hands, fingers, feet, toes, knees, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, head, hair. But every animal says "mooooo." Every one. We'll get those animals eventually. :)
- She's all about Daddy! Since Ronnie is around a lot more, she's turning into a Daddy's girl. Every morning when she wakes up she asks for Daddy. If she sees his car parked outside she really gets excited and tries to go up to our bedroom to wake him up, yelling "Daddddddyyyyy! My Daddddddyyyyy!"
- She's mean. Mean as a snake. I'm not kidding. This child is rough. It's usually targeted towards Ella, but I've also been the victim at times. Pulling hair, pinching, pushing...I guess it's because, being the younger child she's always had to stick up for herself, but it's getting bad.
- She's super sweet. I know, I just said she's Lucifer mean, but she can also be a sweet little snuggle puppy. She gives great hugs and kisses and is often very loving. She always gives Ella big hugs when she tells her goodnight at bedtime. Today when Ella got her allergy shots she was kind of upset because her injection sites bled, and Kendall was so worried about her.
- She loves telling everyone "hiiiii!!" and "byeeeee!" It was really funny because at the allergist today one of the nurses said something about her being like a Wal-Mart greeter, because every time someone came in she made sure to greet them about 10 times. I cracked up, because Ronnie and I always used to joke that Ella was going to grow up to be a Wal-Mart greeter because she was so friendly to people. I've always been more reserved and quiet with people I don't know, but I'm glad my girls are so friendly!
- Kendall weighs in around 25 lbs. For comparison's sake, Ella is 30 lbs. (26 months...5 lbs difference, ha ha)
More posts, and hopefully pictures, to come soon!