Mondays

I'm so excited that my friend Molly has landed her dream job with her dream schedule (1/2 time!). Hopefully that means that I'll get to have a whole lot more of Molly in my life. On the flip side, Kai is sure going to miss having his buddies around every Monday. Thanks for the fun times, Graham and Liam! Don't be strangers. Come over and play anytime...and bring your mom with you!

Blame it on the Easter Bunny....

Kai got to participate in his share of Easter fun this year. We started off our Easter weekend enjoying an egg hunt and a bbq over at our friends' house. Although I talked up the egg hunt with Kai, once the hunt got going and the other kids were running around the backyard hunting for eggs, Kai was much more excited to have all of his friend's toys to himself than he was about finding the eggs. I guess I should have emphasized what was in the eggs rather than the eggs themselves if I wanted Kai to care.

But eggs-aside, it was a great party and Kai had a lot of fun:

Kai at the starting line. Not exactly the "eye of the tiger" expression, huh?

With much prompting and encouragement from Yo and I, Kai finally mustered the will to crouch down and pick up a few eggs that we pointed out to him in this bush.

Despite his lackluster performance in the Easter Egg Hunt, Kai's weekend started out on a really good note. Unfortunately, Easter may always be a little tainted in Kai's memory because of it's association with these:

In case you can't tell from this picture.... Kai loves his binkies. In fact, he loves them so much (even more than chocolate) that last year I got the brilliant idea of stuffing all of his Easter Eggs with binkies. Ever since he has associated those little plastic eggs and the Easter Bunny with new binkies.

This didn't really pose a problem last year when Kai was 18 months, but Kai's love of binkies became more of an obsession. And despite the fact that he has only been allowed to have binkies when he's sleeping for over a year now, they became more and more of a fixation in Kai's life, which is not appropriate for a boy who's 2 and a half. And after a failed attempt about weaning binkies down to nothing in the fall, I came to the conclusion that the only way for Kai (and his parents) to break our dependency on these magical little corks was to go cold turkey.

So I told Kai that the Easter Bunny needed his binkies back. We talked about it every night the entire week before Easter--about how Kai was a big boy and that the Easter Bunny needed his binkies for little babies. And I promised Kai that the Easter Bunny would bring Kai some really cool toys in exchange for his binkies.

The night before Easter I let Kai pick out a place where we would leave all of his binkies for the Easter Bunny to find. He chose the shovel of his favorite digger. So we piled all the binkies we could find in there and I took Kai off to his room to go through his bedtime routine binkie free totally skeptical that this would ever work.

I have to admit, the first night was hard. Kai cried and cried for his binky. I ended up sitting in his room with him until he finally fell asleep. He held onto my fingers through the slats of his crib like his very life depended on it and a few times tried putting my fingers in his mouth for a quick suck. Eventually his snobs turned into snivels and his snivels into snores. Poor little guy. But after a couple of hours he fell asleep and only woke up once for a brief amount of time later that night. 

The next morning I was so proud of him and excited to show him the treasures that the Easter Bunny had brought him in exchange for his precious binkies (which found their final resting place in the bottom of our nastiest trash can...just so Yo and I wouldn't succumb in a moment of weakness).

 Kai was delighted by his stash. The Easter Bunny may have been a bit more generous than usual this year... funny how guilt works.

After playing with his new stash of toys for a while, we even got Kai to participate in a little egg hunt. Turns out chocolate is the only motivation that he needed.

After our egg hunt, we got dressed in our Sunday finery and headed off to church...and I even managed to snap a couple of pictures before hand (ok, we were 15 minutes late to church because I snapped pictures):

We topped off the evening at a friend's potluck Easter dinner. The food was delicious, the company was great, and we didn't have to do any dishes. Perfection!

As for our new, binky-free lifestyle, I am amazed at how well Kai has adjusted. The first few nights he cried for a little bit and we had to go into his room more often than usual, but since then the binky rarely gets mentioned. When Kai asks where his binkies are we remind him that the Easter Bunny took them (nice to have a fall guy). And he seems to accept that explanation as fact. I know it's silly, but I'm proud of my big boy.

Now we need to tackle the big boy bed. Bunk beds get delivered by the end of this week! Stay tuned on Kai's new bedroom (in preparation to share it with a little brother).

How Great Thou Art!

Over the years I have grown to appreciate Easter so much more than I did as a kid. Like most kids, Christmas was my favorite holiday with all of the festivities and traditions and gift-giving that surrounded it. Easter, on the other hand, was a holiday I looked forward to, but that came and went without too much fanfare.

Now that I'm older and can better appreciate the meaning of the holidays, I still love Christmas, but feel a deeper spiritual connection to the significance of the Easter season, and the miracle of our Savior's atonement and resurrection that we commemorate.

As a parent of a two-year-old, I found it to be a much bigger challenge to talk to Kai about the meaning of Easter than it was to teach him the basics of the Christmas story. But I was grateful for the added reminder to have a dialogue with my son about the significance of having a Savior who loved us enough to sacrifice his life so that we might be able to return to our Heavenly Father someday.

Kai was a bit young to grasp some of the concepts that came up, but at the end of the day, I think that he knows that Jesus loves him and will always love him and forgive him even when he makes mistakes.

In fact, just yesterday I was apologizing to Kai for being short-tempered with him earlier in the day. I had just spent an hour painstakingly scrubbing my floor when Kai unintentionally left a trail of milk and slimy oatmeal throughout the entire room. I got mad, even though he didn't mean to. And he started to cry. And I immediately felt bad, but needed to simmer down (and finish re-cleaning the floor) before I was ready to talk about it.

So when I finally got around to talking to Kai, we were both in a better frame of mind. I told Kai I needed to talk to him and he hopped obligingly up on my lap. I explained to Kai that I felt bad for snapping at him earlier and that I was wrong to lose my temper. I told him that I was sorry and asked if he would forgive me. Kai listened to what I had to say very intently, and when he heard me say I'm sorry, he did just what I do for him after a timeout, he said, "I forgive you, Mommy" and gave me a big hug.

But then he surprised me and said, "Jesus forgives us, too."

I held onto that hug as long as he would let me and felt so grateful for his sweet reminder. And grateful that with all the mistakes I make as a Mom, I'm getting a thing or two right, and that I have a Savior and a son who are willing to forgive me so readily. 

Bestemor!

When people find out that Yo is from Norway, they usually ask how often we make it back there or get to see his family. They are always surprised when we tell them that we make it back every year to year and a half, but that we get to see at least one person in his family twice a year.... Bestemor!

Ever since we had Kai, Yo's mom has come to see us every Fall and every Spring. And we are so grateful that she has made that a priority in her life.

Visits from Hilde are something that all three of us look forward to. She is one of those easy guests that just blends right into our routine. This trip was no exception. While we enjoyed taking Hilde shopping and out to eat and on a couple of preplanned excursions, for the most part we just enjoyed having the extra company in our home and getting to see Kai interact with his Bestemor.

Again, I was really slacking on taking pictures (I think I snapped a few cute ones on my phone that I will have to upload later), but luckily Yo thought to take the camera along when he took Kai and his mom on an excursion to Pescadero to check out the goat cheese farm and a nearby beach.

In typical Hilde-fashion, she already has her next trip out to see us planned. So we are looking forward to a return visit in October when she and Stein will get to meet the newest addition to our family. Vi er glad i deg, Hilde! (Hope I got that right, Hilde, Yo wasn't around to correct my pitiful Norwegian.)

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

A couple of months ago I was busy equipping our playroom at the office and had my good friend, The Mostess, on the look-out for some second-hand toys (she is the queen of finding bargains). In true Mostess fashion, she took my plea for help to heart and started bombarding my email with craigslist posts for all sorts of great toy finds. That's how we became the proud owners of a train table.

I fully intended to bring the table to my work, but after one day of watching Kai entertain himself playing with that table for hours at a time, I knew I would be crazy to let that table out of my house. So it is the newest (and bulkiest) addition to our playroom and this is how we spend many hours of every day....

Miami on my mind

Our highly anticipated trip to Miami came and went too quickly. If you discount the first 3 days of our trip where Kai was an absolute impossible-to-please, didn't know what he wanted, and nothing could make it better, nightmare....it was a dream vacation and just what I needed.

Despite his orneriness upon arriving in Miami, Kai was actually good on the plane. Of course that didn't mean that our travel went without a glitch (I swear I'm cursed). We arrived in Miami on time and in fairly happy fashion, but our luggage didn't make it (including Kai's car seat) so we found ourselves stuck in the back of a mile-long line to put in our missing baggage claim. And I found myself stuck borrowing my mom's clothes and wearing day-old underwear for our first day on vacation. (Luckily I had the foresight to pack an extra set of clothes and pajamas for Kai in our carry-on.)

We spent our days in delightful fashion: enjoying Miami's beautiful weather at every possible opportunity, getting out to do some kid-friendly activities, and eating (copious amounts of) delicious food. Here are pictures of some of the highlights (ok, they are the only pictures I took. The rest of the time I was too busy eating):

My mom and I took Kai to the Miami Zoo. They have the coolest carts there that you can rent to get around. Kai enjoyed his front-row seat.

Kai has a cool Grandma that is really good at doing Grandma-like things like spoiling her grandson. My mom bought Kai this awesome truck that became the best and worst part of the trip. It was the best, because Kai obsessed over it. He wanted to push it every second of every day around and around the neighborhood stopping to load up every interesting stick and rock and leaf that he found in the truck bed. It was the worst because Kai wanted to push it every second of every day around and around the neighborhood stopping to load up every interesting stick and rock and leaf that he found in the truck bed. Everyone in my family took their turns escorting Kai on these occasions. And everyone got really sick of that truck...except for Kai, of course.

It is no secret that Kai loves to bounce. He came out of the womb wanting to bounce and he has been bouncing ever since. So my mom was so excited to take him to a place called Jumper Roo's that is chock full of bounce houses. Kai was in heaven. And with a diet coke in hand chilling on a lounge chair watching one smiley (and red) toddler face bouncing up and down from a distance.... I was in heaven, too--so much so that I took him back 3 times. 

Since we were in vacation mode, I decided to let Kai ride the over-priced carousel in the mall. Besides, it bought me a few more moments to enjoy my pretzel in peace.

My sister, Shannon, joined us for the second half of our trip with her oldest son, Riley. I enjoyed some much needed sister-time and Kai enjoyed the extra attention he got from Tia. We went to the beach together, did some leisurely shopping (while my mom was kind enough to watch Kai) and just had fun hanging out and goofing around. As for Riley, Kai thought he was the coolest. I always pictured Shannon and I having kids at the same time, but there are some major perks to having some big boys to idolize when you're a little guy like Kai.

The end of our trip came WAY too soon, but this was one of those rare vacations where I actually came home feeling re-energized... and also ready to go back soon... Kai had a really good time as well.... just look at the hug he gave me to say thank you for being such an awesome mom and having such an awesome family. I miss you family! And tell the Cubans I miss their cuisine.  

That sounded like the end of this post, huh? Well, I can't wrap things up without mentioning my bad travel karma continued on the way home. Our flight out of Miami was delayed over an hour. When we finally left, our plane which was supposed to be making a b-line to Houston was rerouted, so we got to enjoy a 4 hour trip that took us as far north as Little Rock before dropping back down to our southern destination and arrived in Houston just in time to see our connection to SF rolling down the runway without us.

Four hours later (after 1 AM) Kai and I found ourselves in a dingy Houston hotel with a flight out of Houston booked for mid-morning. Not a fun thing with a 2 year old, but everyone we encountered was so nice and accommodating to us. One airline worker not only gave Kai some food to eat while we were waiting for our hotel shuttle (which, consequently, never came), but even insisted on me taking one of his t-shirts to wear to bed after he overheard me telling Yo that I was not looking forward to wearing the same clothes for another 24-hours. I always appreciate reminders about how good and sweet and giving most people are. It makes me feel so grateful for those strangers who have been kind to me when I needed kindness the most.

Back in the saddle...

My friends tell me they admire my cleanliness. Truth be told, I am a total scatter brain when my life is not organized. Case in point, I discovered after getting back from Miami (more on that soon) that the cord to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer was not where I usually keep it....thus my 3 month hiatus from my blog. Yes, that's all it took.

I finally got around to searching for that cord today. It took all of a minute to find it. Go figure. So I've got some major blog updating to do.


So sorry for the blog-dumping.... I just know that if I don't get up-to-date now, it'll never happen.

Kai-isms #3

While watching some older boys playing soccer...
Me: Kai, do you want to play soccer when you get bigger?
Kai: Umm....I want to be a guy.
Me: You are a guy, silly.
Kai: I want to be a man....with a hat.

Ttotally out of nowhere:
Kai: I'm speechless, Mommy (while shaking his head in disbelief)

In the bathtub after creating some bubbles of his own (if you know what I'm saying!):
Kai: Excuuuuuuse you!