Habitot

Now that Kai is getting bigger, we have been exploring some of the attractions that the Bay Area has to offer little tykes. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Last week we went to the SF Zoo. And this week, we took Kai to Habitot, a children's museum in Berkeley.

First we let Kai explore around the Infant/Toddler Garden. He had a blast climbing all over/through/under/on the padded play structure.

Kai has recently discovered puzzles. He got one for his birthday. So when he saw these, he knew just what to do--pull all the pieces off, put them in your mouth and throw them on the floor, of course!

He harvested some wooden carrots:

And decided to test out the quality of his crop first-hand:

Kai could have spent the whole day playing in the infant area, but Yo and I got bored so we dragged him off to the other play areas. First we explored the spaceship.

He knew just what to do when we put him in front of the steering wheel:

Hopefully he has inherited his Pappa's love of cars and his mommy's superior driving skills. Once Kai figured out that the spaceship wasn't going anywhere, he preferred driving this:

 Once he got his hands on this miniature shopping cart, he refused to let it go. He pushed it out of the grocery store, past the infant garden, around the spaceship, through the make-up area and eventually ended up here:

This hallways had been converted into a virtual wind-tunnel with one wall full of fans that could be turned on with the push of a button. With bushels'-full of fake leaves to throw into the fans, this quickly became MY favorite part of Habitot. A little girl who couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 and I laboriously gathered every last one of the leaves so that we could create the ultimate whirlwind of leaves. Kai was mildly impressed, at best. But it didn't stop me from gathering and throwing the leaves into the fan again and again. Yo practically had to drag me away.

While Kai wasn't that big on the mess-making, he did get in on the raking and gathering of leaves. I'm hoping that he will hone these skills in time to put them to good use next fall.

All-in-all we had a fun time. But I'm still digging the Bay Area Discovery Museum more since it had so many age-appropriate activities and areas for Kai to explore. All you savvy Bay Area moms, if you have suggestions for any other places that we should check out with our 1 year old, please let me know.

Thanks Uncle Devin...

As y'all know, my sister got Kai a sweet car for his birthday. Devin, on the other hand put his time and talent to good use and made my little man this:

Thanks Uncle Devin. Every kid needs "that" uncle. Glad to know that my kid is covered!

Birthday Boy

It is hard to believe that exactly one year ago today I got to meet my little Kai face-to-face for the very first time. Now I simply cannot imagine my life without him. It sounds cliche, and maybe it is, but Kai is my pride and my joy. Being a mom has completely redefined for me what "happiness" is. So today, Kai's first birthday, we had much to celebrate.

Kai started his morning off in style thanks to my sister Shannon who just so happens to be the coolest aunt ever! As many of you know by now, Shannon has a flair for gift giving and always comes up with the most ridiculously awesome ideas. So this morning Kai woke up to this sweet surprise:

The present couldn't have been more perfect, right down to the chrome grill and rubber tires. As I mentioned before, Kai is obsessed with cars and now particularly obsessed with this one.

I wanted Kai to wear something special to go along with his sweet new ride, so I decided it was only fitting to reprise the tuxedo that Shannon gave him for last Christmas. I mean does it get any better than this?

Seeing that it was Sunday anyway, I let Kai sport his tux to church complete with his red Keds and a ribbon saying, "It's my birthday!" He was a hit and hopefully not too distracting.

After church Kai took a nice long nap and then changed into something more comfortable for his party. Check out the cute little outfit that my dear friend, Rhonda, gave him for his b-day:

That's right, it's a onesie with a tie sewn right on it. Casual with a fancy flair--just what he needed for his party.

Speaking of the party, we decided to go with a balloon theme because Kai likes balloons almost as much as he likes cars. With the help of Party City, we managed to make our house look pretty festive:

 We had just enough time after adding the final decorative touches to snap a couple of shots of the birthday boy with his doting parents before the other guests started arriving:

 

 

Around 4:30 PM (Mormon Standard Time) the guests came flooding in. With 10 adults, 4 "big kids" and 4 babies in attendance, we had quite the full house. The adults visited, the little kids played, and the big kids watched Disney's "Up!" to go along with our balloon theme. Here are a few shots of the action:

One of the most memorable parts of the night was watching Kai devour his over-sized piece of chocolate cake. While we had to practice unwrapping presents (and Kai never really got the hang of it) when it came to cake eating, he was a natural!

After eating (pulverizing) his cake, Kai partook in another 1st birthday right of passage, an emergency bath. He had chocolate everywhere!

Thanks to all of his nice friends and family members, Kai got quite a stash of presents. He really is one very lucky boy!

After everyone left and Yo and I were cleaning up the aftermath of the party, we both agreed that we are glad that we have a whole year to prepare ourselves for the next round. As for tonight, all three of us will be sleeping very well. Happy birthday, Kai Kai!

Made with love....

Kai's birthday is tomorrow. Not just any birthday, his FIRST birthday! I know that most of the festivities we've planned are going to be lost on him, but I want it to be special and memorable. Especially because my mom was the best at making our birthdays special and memorable for us.

Long before I ever contemplated having a child of my own, I resigned myself to the fact that I will never be the "storybook mom" that my mother was. I will not sew my children Halloween costumes or make them homemade granola. I don't cook or knit or scrapbook. I'm much better at buying things than making them. But I do believe that some things need to be done the old-fashioned way. And when it came to Kai's first birthday, nothing less than a homemade (albeit from-a-box) cake would do.

So today I spent the better part of the day baking and molding chocolate and practicing piping icing all in order to make Kai the perfect birthday cake. Granted, I am not going to quit my day job anytime too soon, but I was quite pleased with the results. I have friends with way better cake-making abilities than I have, and maybe for Kai's second birthday I'll be putting their talents to good use, but for this very special of birthdays, I thought a charmingly amateurish cake made with a lot of love was just what the occasion dictated.

Mom, I hope you approve!

More Family Pics

We finally got the proofs back from our recent (beginning of October) family photo shoot. Jen did such a great job that it was hard to decide what my favorites were. Here are a few that jumped out at me. Enjoy!