21 Months

Our little monkey is getting closer and closer to being 2 years old.

Here are a couple `What are you talking about mommy?' looks.

This month, Kai has really enjoyed helping, especially in the kitchen and garden. Here he's helping make today's lunch.

Hanging out on the bench with Golgi. He loves looking out the window for bugs, something he finds facinating. He was sharing his cheerios with Golgi and is good about sharing food with everyone, even if it is his last piece.

So here's a quick list of things about Kai at 21 months:

Weight: 31lbs

Favourite food: still pizza

Least favourite food: gyoza

Favourite drink: juice (diluted)

Favourite things to do: car rides, the park (only if other kids are there), watching diggers, watering plants, making food, looking for bugs, exercising on the treadmill. I've noticed he's not into any toys anymore. He likes all the balls he has and he does play with the train set a bit, but, big people stuff is his fav.

TV shows: he finally watched half an hour straight of tv!!! This never happens, he never sits still BUT lately, at about 6:30pm he will sit in my chair with his milk and watch Mrs. Spider. He loves all the bugs on it. It's not that I want him to watch tv but it was so relaxing last night when he just sat there, in the chair, for 30 minutes!!! He normally is all over the place, all the time.

Imitations: he loves to copy body movements. If I do some silly dance moves, he'll try to copy. If I swirl my fork in the spaghetti, he will copy it. If I'm vacuuming, he'll grab the popper and do the same thing.

Talking: don't really know what to say here because he says too much now. There are a couple times a day where I don't understand what he is saying and I have to ask him to show me what he's talking about and I always get it in the end. I've noticed that I always affirm the words he says. Example: Kai: `digger, dirt ' Me: `Yes Kai, its a digger in the dirt'. This has led him to repeat words continuously until people affirm what he is saying (if I'm not there).

Favourite friends: hard to say, he loves hanging out with anyone and everyone.

Potty training: we're really not trying but he likes to sit on the toilet about once a day, pretend to go, and then ask for a chocolate chip. At least he is comfortable sitting on it because he never was before.

(If Gary comes home late, he eats dinner in front of the tv and Kai will climb on his lap and try to dig in as well--even though he's just eaten)

He is such a good little boy and I'm so proud of him. I love him so much. I pretend to eat him up because he's so cute and I say `You're so yummy, I just want to eat you!' and he says `Chocolate?'. Yes kai, you are yummy like chocolate. I love his independence and his interest in everything around him. He is truly a blessing and brings so much joy to our lives.

Stopping to smell the roses

Nothing too exciting today. It seems like life has been go, go, go this week. It may be because Gary leaves at 6:30am and doesn't return til 7pm each night? It may be because we are in the last 6 weeks of school? It may be because I was at another school meeting last night til 9:30pm? It may be because I've been helping my sisters with weding `stuff' (which I'm more than willing to do, don't take offense kiddos). Regardless, life is good.

This morning, Kai and I walked to the store with auntie Trisha and then Kai and I walked to the park. It's always a little annoying letting him walk because he does not stay on the sidewalk and it takes forever...oh well, we made it there. He made a few friends and played pass with them. He loves hanging out with other kids. He also learned to say `Ready...set...go' and then we would run up one of the hills.

At one house along the way, Kai stops to put his nose in every flower to smell it. He seriously has to smell each one. He also has a big thing for putting garbage in the garbage can. It's tough because i want to teach him to be clean and neat but I don't think I want him picking up random garbage on the street. I do let him throw wrappers found at the park into the garbage but maybe I shouldn't let him clean up any. Why do people litter? Who teaches their kids that it's okay? I don't get it.

Back at home, Kai likes to exercise. He can now work the treadmill on his own. He is currently asleep in his car bed. He has been able to sleep in it for his naps but not at night.

For lunch, Kai and I made pizza. I chopped up everything and he put it on. He was also able to choose whichever herbs he wanted from the garden to put in the sauce. It ended up tasting pretty good and he loved helping. Well, I think our little monkey is up...gotta go.

This weekend...

Before I start, I can't believe I didn't blog about this right when I found out, but, my friend who had to have surgery and was unsure of what the results would be, found out that it was not cancer (it was a benign mass)! Yay, she just needs to recover for the next 6 weeks or so. This is very exciting and such an answer to prayer!

And now onto the boring day to day (what a great way to start it hey?). Friday after work, Gary had a baseball game and when he got home, I went out for coffee. We then prepped for the wedding photos that would be taken on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I got up early to head out to Vancouver for our football game. The weather was beautiful and it was a VERY close game but we won! Woohoo! I had 4 TD passes which is always a good feeling! I hope you don't think I'm bragging, we all keep track and post our stats on the website:) Then, Kai went off to grandma's for the day and night so that Gary and I could take pictures for a wedding. It was a beautiful day, sunny with cloudy periods, couldn't have been better. Beautiful wedding, a lot of fun, and, a long day! Kai slept at grandma's for the night which made me very excited to see him on Sunday morning! He came and gave me the biggest hug as I hadn't seen him in 24 hours, tears were def. present:)

Sunday afternoon I went shopping with my littlest sis (I have 4 of them) as she is all grown up and graduated and starting her career next week!!! It was very fun shopping as it wasn't my money and she is a cute size 6 which means everything looks good on her. We bought a lot of fun clothes, and I even got a few things for myself. When is the last time I bought myself something at the mall? When is the last time I spent 2 hours shopping?! Wow. Then, I headed out to my good friend Ali's place for her 30th birthday. I wish I had brought Kai along as there were other kids there and he would've LOVED it (he loves going on `tar' (car) rides, getting out of the house, playing with kids, eating food etc) but Gary was super busy at home so I wanted to relax and hang out rather than follow Kai around everywhere. So, Kai stayed with Gary. Then, I came home and started editing the 700+ pictures for about 3 hours....good times.

Today, I feel exhausted. I should do some marking but I just don't feel like it. I'm usually the kind of person who marks things the same day I get them. However, I'm slacking off a bit in my old age:) Maria, Ani, and B-belle came over this morning. Kai had a fun time playing with them. Kai and Ani played in his room, unsupervised and without any screaming for quite a while, these kids are growing up! Here are a few photos...

They love their snacks; cheerios and craisins.

Drinking their milk in the tent I wish I never bought, and that Kai had forgotten about for a couple weeks, but he wanted it up today.

B-belle starting to sit up. Kai is really good about bringing her toys if she loses one. He is now a good helper at daycare with the twins there and he really does love babies.

Kai has really gotten to the stage where he wants to do things himself. Most commonly heard thing is `Kai do-ed it, no please, Kai do-ed it'. He wants to do EVERYTHING. Fortunately, I have time to allow him to do it himself now. He needs to be part of every single thing we do from combing my hair to making dinner to pulling weeds. Today he helped me wash the stove top. His favourite things to help with are gardening and cooking.

This is his terrible, fake crying face. He does it all the time now. He can turn it on and off in a second. I do have to say that i do not enjoy this part of his developmental growth, but it does make me laugh a lot because he is a terrible actor.

The cutest thing he does now is the following:

Me: Kai, how much do you love mommy?

Kai: (th)Is much!

When he did it this morning, he was in his fake crying mode so it looks like he's sad but normally he gets the hugest grin when he says it. I melt!!!

I love this kiddo so so so so much. I really wonder what God's plan is for us family wise but I'm at the point now where I am totally content if Kai is our only biological child. It took me a while to get here but we are just so blessed with him and I really hope that we will one day have another child or two added to our family! We (Gary, Kai and I) have a lot of love and we're ready to share it:)

Gary's Night Out

Last Thursday, Gary was able to go to see the Mariners play the Orioles. The reason he went was to see one of our previous students, Adam Loewen, as the starting pitcher for Baltimore. He went with a few teachers and here are just some of the pictures. I asked Gary to blog since this is all about him but he's a little busy preparing for his Wilderness First Aid course that he is taking all week. So, I'm unable to say much about the game but we are all very proud of Adam.

Bawter Tee!

Today I have the car again. Boy, is that dangerous, it just causes you to go out and spend money! Kai and I went to the mall and I bought him a hat. He'll need one for the summer so I wanted him to help pick it so he would actually wear it. I let him know he was super cute and he actually managed to keep it on all morning. Phew. I also bought some sidewalk chalk because Kai has never done it before. Here's some pics of him with his new hat, ready to use his sidewalk chalk. I never get him in a hat (besides a toque) so i think he is adorable:)

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Can you tell that my pointer finger is bruised and swollen? I don't get many injuries so I'm a bit of a baby about it. I got it in our exhibition game yesterday...hopefully its all good for Saturday. At least it is my left hand, maybe I can tape it up and look all tough and stuff. Have I mentioned how much I love playing football?

I'm such a sucker but I also bought him his own watering can today. He loves it. He wants to water every single plant...twice...at least. There is nothing that can lure him in the house, not his blankie, not even a chocolate chip:)

Auntie Jan came by today to `cuggle' with Kai and probably ask me to do something for her:)

I love his talking. Yesterday he said his first 4 worded sentence `Mommy take a shower'. I hope he makes sense to everyone else because there are some words I don't think others would get. For example, he always says `bawter tee' which means water (the) tree. He's had what we'll say are some digestive issues this week but I think it's because his last 2 eye teeth are coming through. What a pain those teeth are!

One last thing, I do just want to publicly let you all know how great Gary is. He is not home til midnight tonight so he made 2 dinners last night and put one in the fridge. Isn't that sweet? It's not just a plain old dinner either...it's a funky one with pork chops and pears (sounds crazy but should be good!). He also biked to work today so I could have the car.

Finally, I am so pumped that Saturday is suupposed to be sunny. This is wonderful because I have a football game but more importantly, we are shooting a wedding. Phew...our last one was in the rain so I'm glad this one will be sunny with clouds which is perfect!

Excise! (Exercise)

(Kai in his fav. jammies...they have airplanes and helicopters so he loves putting then on. Somehow, they are size 3 but they must be a small size 3!)
This weekend, I found something for a great deal. Well, I don't know if I would recommend it for anyone else as it is pretty low end but perfect for me!!! I got a manual treadmill. It's small, quiet and cheap (on sale for $25)! I wanted something that I could use in the winter or use when Gary is out and I need to stay home because Kai is sleeping. The plan is, that if I want to watch tv at night, I need to be walking at the same time. During commercials, running. I did it yesterday for an hour and it was fabulous! The other thing, oh boy, you're really going to think I'm cheap now, is that our heat starts turning down at 7 pm so by 9 pm, Gary and I are both bundled up in blankets. Now, if I use the treadmill, I'm nice and warm:)

Kai loves it. He always wants to excise (exercise) and does it quite well. His body weight and strength is not enough to move it so one of us has to walk behind him. My diet/eating healthy and exercise is going well EXCEPT I made a very, very delicious dessert last night. I think chocolate mousse is my favourite thing in the world, so if you can handle it, check this out! Yum. Yum. Yum.
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Work was good today. I had a student teacher for 2 classes so I was evaluating her instead of teaching which was a nice change. I had ball hockey practice afterschool and we were short players so I played too, what a great feeeling. I miss ball hockey. My favourite two things to play are football and ball hockey. I'm so glad I have opportunities to play right now.
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Kai was absolutely NUTS yesterday. He didn't fall asleep until 10pm on Saturday night and Sunday he did not nap the entire day. I believe its because he is teething. Wow, i don't know who that kid was but I'm glad to have Kai back today! He is such a chatterbox. One of his favourite `jokes' is:
Kai: `Birds eat merms. Mommy?'
Me: `Does mommy eat worms?'
Kai: `Nooooooooooooooooooooo. Daddy?'
And then we go through everyone he knows. Each time he says no, he thinks its the funniest thing ever that the person might eat merms (worms).


He loves watering plants. Loves it. Whenever we are outside, he needs to water the tree. He loves it more than basketball or baseball right now (the only activities we have in our backyard).



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I do not like these next 2 weeks at all. Two years ago, these were the last few weeks of my mom's life and def. ones that I do not like to remember. I'm thankful that I got to say goodbye but there is something wrong with seeing someone you love deteriorate drastically in front of you. It has gotten easier but if I ever have to tell someone that my mom has passed away, it seems like I'm acting and that is the script. If you still have your mom around, appreciate her and don't take your relationship for granted. A mother daughter relationship is so special. Now as a mom, I can imagine what she felt for us. I'm so blessed to have had her in my life.

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Now I will change the topic so I don't end on a sad note. Gary has been a cooking machine, planning very elaborate and wonderful meals. I am so thankful! Gary and I are very different in some ways, but similar in others. I know that is very obvious but I'm glad we have such similar values and beliefs because otherwise, the differences that we have would make things quite difficult. Next month, it will be 3 years that we've been married. Maybe we should do something special. Hmmmm...maybe we will.
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Well, time to hit the treadmill! Have a great monday night watching `House'! I love it!

Laid back weekend

Yesterday I was at home and we had a car for the day! We (I) decided to take Kai to the pool. I'm hoping that he will begin to like the water before we go to Disneyland this summer (with all the Chapmans). We stood on the edge of the pool for 10 minutes where we watched the ladies jumping up and down in water aerobics and Kai just said `Kai's house. All done.'. He really did not want to go in. After the 10 minutes, I brought him to a step across the baby pool and he stood on that step for another 10 minutes. Finally, he became interested in the toys that were there (buckets, shovels, balls) and ventured in up to his chest! Woohoo! Within the hour, he was lying on his back (while I held him of course) and was kicking his feet. I wouldn't go as far to say that he enjoyed himself but he didn't cry and he did splash around. I don't know why he doesn't like it. He loves bath time and he's not really afraid of anything. I guess I'll just keep bringing him once a month or so and hopefully it gets better!

What is up with the snow?! We didn't have any that stuck to the ground but that wind today was FREEZING when I went for a run. We didn't have football this weekend so Gary was able to play a softball game today. I just hung out at home and relaxed.

Kai's favourite hobby; washing his hands and getting `pope' (soap)

He decided he wanted to nap in his car bed today, it was his first time sleeping in a big boy bed!

He enjoys colouring and likes it when we trace his hand. He always asks us to draw basketballs, baseballs, and tennis balls. When we write the letter `K', he says `K, Kai!'. If we ask him to spell his name, he says `A-I'.

Aw, will my lil Kaisie's feet be that big one day?!


Another picture of him colouring at his table. I'm very surprised that he hasn't tried colouring the walls yet! Although, he did lash out with a crayon and hit my camera lens today, I'm very thankful for lens covers!

There was this weird little area on the side of our house that couldn't really be used for anything but always has a lot of sunshine. Today we built a little garden bed and now we just have to fill it up with composted soil and dirt and plant a few seeds. Maybe we'll wait til it warms up a bit! Kai enjoyed watering the tree over and over again while we were building it. We also planted some strawberry plants so I'm excited for those too!

Digital scrapbooking

I wanted to try it out so i just downloaded a few free papers, letters and embellishments. I think I could get into it, but there is limited `stuff' that you can get for free so it may not look as good as I would like. For example, they only give you letters A-J for free in hopes that you buy the rest. These letters were the only ones with the full alphabet. Each one took about 20 minutes (I had to work on my photoshop skills a bit!) so I bet I could whip up some pages pretty fast:) Then, I could just print them up at Costco for about $2 or so....hmmmm....could be fun!

Yummy Dinner

(Kai helping daddy...AKA taste testing)

Gary has planned our meals this entire week and i appreciate it so much! He will be gone a lot in the next month so I'm glad that he is doing all the cooking this week. This book is one of my fav's and we had some great cajun seasoned fish and corn cakes tonight...who knew I liked corn cakes?

Gary and I just got back from school half an hour ago (its 10:30pm). To all those that think teachers have the best job ever because they have summers and holidays off, it's true that I really do appreciate those holidays BUT when you add up all the extra evenings for staff meetings, AGM's, grad stuff, coaching, parent teachers, retreats etc...it sure adds up! I really can't complain that much but anyone who coaches senior sports (aka Gary) def. puts in their time!

Here are some pics of Kai showing how he can `guggle' (juggle). He just moves his hands up and down really fast while holding onto the balls the whole time. He then made it more exciting by standing on one leg:)

So, I kind of started a diet this week. I haven't really tried dieting in years. I don't like dieting because I don't like depriving myself of food, one of my greatest pleasures. Also, we did a cleanse 2 years ago which was the hardest thing ever and i can no longer eat brown rice because of it. We already eat quite well but I thought I would make a conscious effort to avoid cookies. So, no more baking here! I still have a good 7 lbs on me from having Kai. Not really a big deal, I'm happier/content with my body at this age than I have ever been in my life. Maybe it's because I kind of feel like it's okay if I'm a little squishy, I had a kid, and a big one at that! However, I'm slower (football, running etc) than I used to be. I really think that the little extra weight slows me down so I'm just trying a little to eat healthier snacks. I ate 3 carrots the other day as a snack (wow, that sounds like a huge snack!) and I just felt hungrier than ever. The other thing I noticed was that the carrots tasted terrible. Really, it tasted like a watered down, old carrot. I miss home grown carrots, so, this weekend we are building a garden! We already grow our own herbs and have a cherry tomato plant but now we are going to build a raised garden bed and grow some carrots and peas! We also have strawberry planters that need to be filled. Finally, we will have a purpose for all that compost turned soil that we've been making over the past 2 years! I think it's great that Kai learns how to take care of a garden too, he loves to help water the plants.

Well, I'm off to bed. One final note is that several people have asked me about why I am/was sad. It is not for myself, it is for a very good friend of mine who may have a serious illness. She had surgery yesterday and we don't know all the details right now. I don't know if she would feel comfortable with me saying anything so I won't use her name. It's just tough as she is young and has a little guy just like me. Old people getting sick makes more sense in my head, but young, healthy people that are my age? Grrrrrr.... I'm just sick of cancer. My mom had it and passed away nearly 2 years ago. My dad had it in September, had surgery, and is now okay. Ya, I've got some great genes. Anyway, just praying that the surgery went well and that there is some good news on the horizon for her and her family.

Giggers

My friend Maria reminded me that it is National Poetry Month. I don't have a favourite poem so I thought I would write one on the mornings events.
Today I saw something I've never seen in my son,
It seemed to last forever, what a tantrum!
We had been outside watching the tractors and diggers,
And when it was time to go, he cried and said `Giggers!'
When I said we could watch them after a bubble bath,
He cried and stomped, I couldn't believe the wrath.
His crying subsided for a minute or two,
While he ate a strawberry which to him is quite new.
The crying and complaining lasted almost half an hour,
While he cried out `Giggers! Giggers!' with a face that was sour.
Once he was in the bath that was bubbly,
He played with the froggies and the situation was no longer ugly!
He did not mention the `Giggers' for the rest of the day,
But I'm nervous when he wakes, `Giggers!' is what he'll say.
What happened to the days where all he needed was a `cuggle'?
Or all I had to say was `let's do a puzzle!'
I have to be strong and not give in to his rants,
What happened to my little cutie pants?
Is this the start of the terrible two's?
If it starts earlier, does it end early too?
Maybe things were just a little too easy for a while,
and now tantrums happen to make me more humble:)
My boy isn't perfect or a super manner man,
It's time to read some books and do what I can.
I love him so much, its strange watching him act so nutty,
I hope that I parent him the best I can, I love you buddy!