Happy Easter!

This year was Kai's first Easter as he arrived the day after last year.

Easter 2012

We woke up this morning to find that the Easter Bunny left Kai some goodies by the fireplace.  In his basket he got some squeezie fruit and vegetable packets (we just tried these on Friday and he loved them!), a new shirt, a bigger hooded towel (he's outgrowing his infant ones), an Easter book, and a chick sippy/straw cup.  Next to his basket was also a basketball hoop for the bathtub.

Checking out the loot!

We had a few hours before church, so Kai ate breakfast and played for awhile.  Because we let him sleep in this morning, he went down for a late nap - about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for church.  Luckily he was still in a good mood, just a little slow to want to get up. :)

The church service at Prairie Lakes was great!  It was about remembering that "It is finished!" and because Jesus died for us, we can forget about our past mistakes and move on.  After church we picked up Kai in the nursery who was cuddling one of the girls working in his room.  She said she thought he might have dozed off for a few minutes at the end.  I guess that's what happens when he only gets a 30 minute nap!  We ate a late lunch and then played some more.  Kai must have been worn out because he took almost a 2 1/2 hour nap!  I also enjoyed a nap. :)

Trying out his chick cup!

We had planned to go on a walk when Kai woke up but that wind was way too strong and the temperature was not as warm as I had thought it was going to be.  So instead, Kai and I drove to Walgreen's to return a Redbox DVD and picked up some whole milk for him to start trying this week!!

Oh!  During lunch we also discovered that Kai's 2nd tooth has popped through!  We didn't even know he was teething this time. 

Spring Break Sleepover

I'm on spring break this week and we started it off with having Ava over for a sleepover!  On Sunday, my mom, dad, sister, and myself got pedicures (my parents are going on a cruise over Easter and my mom convinced my dad to get one).  After pedicures, Ava came home with me.

We got home just after Kai had woken up from his nap and he immediately crawled right over to her.  He sure does love her!!  Those two chased each other around the table, read books, and played with the rest of Kai's toys.

After a messy spaghetti supper, it was bath time!  Kai stayed in until his fingers and toes looked like little prunes, which was much longer than his normal bath.  Ava could have stayed in the bathtub all night!!  I finally had to convince her to get out because it was quickly approaching Kai's bedtime and I figured that she would want to play a little bit longer!!  Kai went to sleep about 30 minutes before Ava, so she got some iPad time in before bed!

On Monday morning, Kai woke up bright and early at 7:00am and Ava must have heard him playing because she was up only 30 minutes later.  Those two watched tv (Kai rarely sits still but Ava can get him to sit on the couch with her), ate muffins for breakfast, and played some more.  When Kai took his morning nap, Ava and I curled up on the couch: me with the laptop and Ava with the iPad.  She was excited to wake him up and wanted to get in his crib with him, however, Kai was not in the mood for guests and they both got out right away!  I had planned to go to story time at the library after Kai's nap, but the snow ruined our plans.  I decided to take Ava home before lunch because I wasn't sure what the weather was going to do for the rest of the day.

We had such a fun sleepover with Ava and we can't wait for the next one!!    

Eleven Months

Only one month to go before our sweet baby boy is one! Seriously, where has the time gone?!  This morning I weighed Kai on our scale at home and he came in at the same weight as last month, 20lbs 3oz.  Our rough estimate of Kai's height is also showing about 29 inches. He's had a rough month of teething and now has a cold so hasn't been in the mood to eat much.

At eleven months Kai is:
-wearing size 3 diapers
-wearing 9-12 or 12 month clothes
-wearing size 3 shoes
-still drinking 6oz of breast milk every 4 hours (sometimes he drinks from a bottle, sometimes from a sippy cup, and still nursing when I'm home with him)
-eating three meals a day plus two snacks
-taking two AWESOME naps!!  (9:00-10:00am & 1:00-3:30ish)
-going to bed around 7:30-8:00pm
-not sleeping through the night
-pointing at everything: people, dogs, toys, food, objects around the house
-talking a lot: he's always been a babbler, but now we're hearing actual words such as 'no', 'hi', 'boo', 'dada', and 'mama' only occasionally
-beginning to climb: he climbed up onto the hearth a few weeks ago and Tyson put him on the stairs at our friends' house today and he climbed all the way to the top
-sporting one teeny tiny tooth!!

We see this all of the time!

Other things about Kai at eleven months:
-he lays down for both of his naps pretty well, usually without crying at all.  However, the night is still a disaster
-loves walking with the motorcycle that Nana & Papa got him Christmas.  He is getting much better about turning and when he gets stuck, he'll just walk around to the front of the bike and push from that side
-loves books!
-loves his cousins Ava and Ella! :)
-he can be a good cuddler when he's really tired, but he doesn't like to sit still for too long these days
-we'll probably start weaning from the bottle and nursing soon.  I want to be bottle free (at least during the day) by his birthday AND my goal is no formula.  We haven't used any formula yet so we just have one month to go!

Still crawling all over the place!

Winter Fun!

As a teacher, I enjoy a snow day every now and then.  But after 5 days (and counting), I'm over it! I am ready for spring!  However, we've been trying to keep our active little monster busy and there have even been a few days nice enough to head outside.


In fear that the snow was all melting and I hadn't taken Kai's picture in the snow yet, we headed outside for a 2 minute photo shoot!

Luckily one week later, we got dumped on with snow (again) and we were able to get some REAL pictures in the snow!

Ava sure does love him!

Ella loved riding in the sled!

One thing that I do love about winter is being able to stay home on the weekends.  Once the weather gets nice, it always seems like we have plans and are running here and there.  It's nice to spend time at home and one way we did that was with pancakes for breakfast!  Kai loved them and ate a whole (small) pancake!

 

After a pancake breakfast, the Malcolm girls and Nana & Papa came over in the afternoon for some more sledding fun!

 

With all of this time spent indoors, Kai has had plenty of time to explore the house.  He's only done it once, but he climbed up onto the hearth of the fireplace one night before bed.  He was so proud!!

"Mom, look at all of this snow outside!"

Teeth

Well, sooner or later we knew our toothless 10-month old was going to get teeth.  I'm secretly (or not so secretly) glad he's getting teeth later.  No teeth = baby.  Teeth = toddler. 

My parents watched Kai on Saturday 2/16 and she called us to say that she felt a tooth on his bottom gums when she was taking a piece of food out of his mouth.  Tyson and I weren't surprised because she had noticed that his gums were looking a little different lately.

Kai showed NO signs of teeth until the tooth actually started to pop through his gums on Thursday, 2/21.  He woke up with a 101.5 fever.  I gave him some Tylenol and sent him on his way to daycare.  He had a fever all day and Aunt Wendy came to the rescue by bringing him some Tylenol!  He didn't sleep well Thursday night and woke up Friday with a fever over 102.  Luckily I had (yet another) snow day so I was able to stay home with him.  He was definitely not himself!!  He refused to eat any solid food and would only nurse (but not very much).  He took 3 naps and even fell asleep on my lap when we were watching t.v.  That hasn't happened since he was a teeny, tiny baby!!  Friday night was by far the worst!!  He would fall asleep and wake up 10 minutes later, screaming.  Poor babe must have been in so much pain.

On Saturday, Kai woke up without a fever but he still wasn't completely back to his normal self.  He still didn't eat much until suppertime.  I still gave him some Tylenol before bed because that's when his gums seemed to bother him the most.  By this point, we were also attempting to apply Orajel as well.  Finally on Sunday we had our happy baby boy back!!  He was ready to eat and play!! He enjoyed a blueberry muffin AND pancake for breakfast, oranges and spaghetti & meatballs for lunch, vanilla ice cream for a snack after sledding (thanks Nana!), and veggie soup on Sunday night for supper.  He barely left a trace of his meals on his tray.

His tooth is definitely visible now, although not much of it as popped through.  He is going to look so different when you can see more of the tooth!

I know it's blurry, but he looks too cute not to share!

Promoting good oral hygiene with his new banana brush!