Kai Boy

It's been a while (too long) since I last gave a good Kai update. With the end of Kai's school year fast approaching, I've been thinking back on the year to how much my little ray of sunshine has changed and grown over the course of the year. While I still think of Kai as being an overgrown toddler in a lot of ways, it truly boggles my mind that a short 7 months ago he was still a 2-year-old. Just look at how little he was on his first day of school:

He still wears that t-shirt, but it barely skims the top of his shorts now and those shorts fall just above his knee. 

Here are just a few of little things that make Kai seem like quite the big boy these days:

• He picks out his own clothes and dresses himself. Most days it goes better than this:

• He's can hold his breath under water for several seconds and swim 5-6 feet at a stretch;
• He's branched out from garbage trucks to whales and dinosaurs. He does an awesome impersonation of both;
• Now that he is older, Pappa loves taking Kai on adventures. Recently they went to a car show and ran the Rave Run together:

• He can identify all the uppercase letters by sight and sound. 
• He's mastered his balance bike and loves to go on long rides with Pappa
• Speaking of Pappa, Kai likes to call him "Yo. I swear it's a power play. Usually he will refer to Pappa as Yo when talking to me collusively. "Oh Mommy, did Yo do something wrong?" he will ask innocently when he senses that I am annoyed with his father (which totally NEVER happens....ever. Ha!)
• For months Kai's been climbing to the top of this big, fake boulder at a nearby park and for months he's been getting stuck up there because he can't get back down. I've been telling him that if he can't get down he shouldn't climb up, but he's been too afraid to jump despite my constant coaxing and reassurance that he won't get hurt. Well, thanks to Peter Pan, he finally mustered the courage and did a belly flop off the top of that 7(+) ft rock onto the sand below. He cried a lot, but luckily wasn't hurt other than having the wind knocked out of him. When I asked what he was thinking he said he was trying to fly. I responded, "You can't fly, Kai," and he came right back, "Yes I can, Mommy. I just fly down." Hopefully he'll stick to climbing up (something he's much better at) in the future:

• His "pet name" for me, on the other hand is "Mother"which sounds more like "mudder" when he says it. He uses this name begrudgingly when I am ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do like, "Kai, you need to go pick-up your toys first and then you can have a snack." "Ok, Mudder" he will reply as he plods off to pick up his toys. Hilarious!
• He is finally useful around the house. I have help with chores like vacuuming, wiping the table, picking up his room, fetching me cliff bars, and righting Ari when he topples over (the last one with mixed success...it's a work in progress).

• It comes as a surprise to some people that Kai loves the limelight at such a young age. Recently Kai had a chance to demonstrate his brazenness in front of a crowd at a church talent show. Most of the kids his age were a little squeamish about doing even a group number. Kai, on the other hand, did not bat an eye as the only solo act under the age of 6. He marched right up on stage, just as we had rehearsed, and sang his little song into a microphone and marched right back down as if it were nothing. My heart, on the other hand, was racing a mile a minute the entire time. 

Despite all this growing that Kai is doing, he still continues to be a little bundle of sunshine most days. He loves people and people seem to just love him. On his little school campus he is some kind of pseudo celebrity. Every adult and a lot of the kids all seem to inexplicably know who he is.

Then again--maybe it's not so inexplicable after all:

I like to think that when Kai's teachers describe him as a little ray of sunshine they mean it in more of a figurative than literal sense... but it seems pretty clear from the picture that either interpretation might be fair. 

As a three-year-old Kai continues to experiment with the intensity of his emotions. 

He practices being really happy:

And really mad:

But his temper tantrums seem to be tapering off little by little. And he is getting better and better at using his words, rather than his actions, to express his feelings. And luckily for me he is a really sweet and loving and happy kid most days with plenty of hugs and kisses for his mommy so I have a well of goodwill to draw from whenever he is being ornery and driving me crazy.

Ari - 9 months

I can't even tell you how many times I have sat down to write this entry, only to be interrupted. But here we are on the eve of Ari turning 10 months old and I am determined not to go to bed until I get this entry written and posted.

To be quite honest, Ari's 9th month of life was pretty miserable for the poor child. He caught a cold on Easter weekend that he just couldn't seem to kick. A week or so later he broke out in a fever and the following day he woke up wheezing so much when he breathed that it even made me nervous (and I'm notoriously nonchalant when it comes to my children's ailments). So I called the doctor and was able to get him in for an appointment that same day. The doctor listened to his chest for a couple of seconds before diagnosing him with Bronchiolitis (most likely caused by RSV, but that was not confirmed). To help with his breathing the doctor prescribed an inhaler that he needed to use 3 times a day for a couple of weeks to see if the symptoms would subside.

The inhaler did seem to help, but the poor child still had a hacking cough, stuffed nose and on-and-off low grade fever for the next few days. I would like to say that he was a trooper through it all, but he was pretty tired and cranky and exceptionally clingy for a few weeks. Not that I can blame him.

After two weeks he was beginning to finally get over his never-ending illness and I was able to wean him off of the inhaler. I am happy to report that he hasn't had to use it since. But I am hanging on to it just in case, as I have read and been informed by his doctor that kids who suffer from bronchiolitis are more likely to suffer from asthma. Apparently doctors aren't sure whether bronchiolitis has a triggering effect and actually causes asthma, or if kids who suffer from bronchiolitis are simply more prone to suffer from asthma--and vice versa.

While month 9 was most definitely punctuated by ill-health, Ari did hit a few other landmarks worth mentioning. His 7th tooth broke through the gum during this month. He mastered picking up (the tiniest of) objects with his pointer finger and thumb. He also became very proficient at mashing solid foods with his little teeth and apparently has quite the adventurous palate--scarfing down Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Indian food and basically any other "grown-up" food that we offer him. While this has been fun for Mommy who loves to experiment with what her big boy can/will eat, there are days that I just wish he would take a pouch of pureed vegetables and fruits like other babies... they are so convenient and nice and healthy, too. Oh well!

The child also mastered sitting during this month. Boy can that kid sit. He is a steady Eddy on his bum and has a surprising reach from a sitting position. To reach objects in front of him the child will stretch further and further forward until his legs are in a full center-split with his belly lying flat on the ground and his arms stretched out in front of him. Once he gets his hands on his target he is equally good at inching himself back into a sitting position. He is almost as adept at reaching to his sides and back as well. I call him my ninja baby because it is not often that we see the child actually move (as in roll, or worm, or do anything that remotely resembles crawling), but I swear that if you turn your back on him for one second and then turn back again to look at him, he will have something in his hand that you know was across the room when you last looked. And you will have no idea how it got there. So whenever I put Ari down, I have to do a quick scan to make sure that there is nothing within about a 3 foot radius all around him because if there is so much as a speck of something dangerous and enticing on the ground, he will find it and he will promptly put it in his mouth. I literally thank the Lord that this child is not crawling yet, because I think that Ari will teach me what true child-proofing requires.

As for his 9-month stats, Ari's head measured in the 91st percentile (a leap from 50% in the previous check-ups, which leads me and Ari's pediatrician to assume that there may have been a significant margin of error on this one). Height wise he is 30.25 inches (98%) and weight wise he came in at 20 lbs 12.5 oz (65%). I was actually surprised that he didn't weigh more because he is one solid kid and has the fattest, squishiest thighs you could ever hope to get your hands on to.

Here are a couple more pics from this month: