Pictures taken by cousins.

Kai's new pet.

Kai has a new pet fish. It is a red female betta, she has no name currently. He likes to feed her and actually does a pretty good job of doing so. He also likes to stick his fingers into the bowl in attempt to touch her. He sits on a chair near the counter where her bowl sits, points at her and says, "feesh, feesh!" He loves her. Maybe her name is Feesh?

Trip to a buffalo farm.

Last weekend we went to a small zoo with my sister and her family. We were the only people there and spent some time talking with the owner. He started out with buffalo and got so many calls from schools interested in going for field trips that he decided to open to the public. He now has camels, lots of geese and ducks, a couple of giant hogs, goats and various other creatures. Kai and his cousins had a blast there. It was a beautiful afternoon to spend outside. The kids got to pick pumpkins and we are still deciding what to do with Kai's little pumpkin.

No time for flashcards.

There is this blog for which a friend sent me the link. Thankfully for that friend I cannot remember which friend it was. This blog has been really bugging me. Click here to see the blog. You have probably clicked, checked out the blog and are left wondering what my issue is. Well, let me tell you. The blogger's son is right around Kai's age. Did you see the skill with which he wields a glue bottle? A paintbrush? How about the way he attaches things to the areas that he has applied glue to? Notice that he is usually clean, clean, clean in his booster seat and jammies. What gives?! I feel like perhaps I missed some crafting window that opened and now it is closed until age three. While it is nice to have some ideas for creative activites to do with Kai that reach beyond coloring with crayons or finger painting, I am feeling like we are a little inferior. I thought we might try one of her activities. I looked for something outdoors to start and found a water "painting" activity. Kai was supposed to use a paintbrush with water to "paint" the deck. I showed him what to do and attempted to engage him in the activity. The blogger's son spent so much time at this activity that she was able to grab an extra cup of coffee. My son jiggled the paint brush all around the water container until almost all of the water had splashed out. Then he grabbed the container, dumped the remaining water out on the way to raising it above his head and then chased Annie all around the deck waving the container in the air.

In spite of myself and my fears that Kai cannot use a glitter shaker, I am currently working up the energy/strength/positive thinking skills to start doing a daily structured activity with Kai. Kai is probably ready to have a little structure inserted into his day. Now we just have free play. If he is interested in coloring, we get out the crayons until he starts eating them. He asks to go outside and into the sandbox every day. I pretty much let him decide what activity we are doing almost all of the time. I think I might try to strike after nap time. He is generally cooperative and in a pleasant mood after naptime. There are a couple of sites that don't make me feel like an inadequate mommy crafter and I checked out a book from the library full of toddler appropriate activities. I am going to plan our activities for the week over the weekend and start with one planned structured activity per day on Monday. I will keep you updated on what we are doing and how Kai is faring with the glue bottle.

Fun with paper products.

Last week we went to dinner at Jake's grandparents and were joined by his Aunt Cindy. Aunt Cindy works for a paper product manufacturer and brought a bevy of paper towel three packs for everyone to share. After dinner, the paper towel three packs became giant stacking toys. It all started with Grandma Judy fashioning a tractor parking garage for Kai on the dinner table. The activity morphed into paper towel three pack diving, paper towel three pack throwing, paper towel three pack towers, covering up Grandpa John with paper towel three packs and finally hitting paper towel three packs with a fly swatter. I am pretty sure that the adults had just as much fun with the paper towel three packs as Kai did.

Kai and Riley.

Some photos of Kai and Riley playing at the local family cafe.

I'm not saying he's a genius.

I have a lot of back blogging to catch up on this weekend. With photos. In the meantime...

I had a moment with Kai similar to the first time I saw him put the square block in to the square hole. Sheer wonder bordering on disbelief.

Kai spends a lot of time playing with his trains on the train table. Jake and I set up track for him and occasionally change up the configurations. Kai has gotten really, really upset when a train falls off of the track or table since the first time we set it up. He becomes so frustrated that he just stands back and says "uh-oh" and "oh-no" alternately and will start tearing apart the tracks and throwing things on the floor if he doesn't get the train back on to the track. We have tried encouraging him to fix it himself. Usually, we end up fixing it for him and then everything is fine until the train derails again. Also, he has a hard time with lining up the magnets that hook the trains together correctly and can usually only push one or two trains at a time effectively.

Tonight some sort of switch must have flipped in his little baby brain. I was puttering around picking things up while he was playing and when I sat down by the train table I realized that he had six trains in a row. All of the magnets were in the right order so they were staying together and on track for the most part. When a car would start to derail he would put it back on the track. He was pushing it so carefully around the table - it was amazing. Then two of the trains derailed on their way around the corner which led up a hill. He was upset by it, but attempted to fix it himself. Several times. He would take the car that had fallen off and try to attach it to the others. If it would not stick correctly with the magnet (they repel slightly if the poles are not right) he would put it on the front of the train where the magnet would stick. The minutes watching him play with his train tonight really felt like a gift. I really felt that I was watching him learn how to control the trains and his frustration with them. Not to mention figuring out how magnets work! He also now makes a choo-choo and whistle noise while he is playing with the train. The cutest thing was that he knew that he was being awesome. He would get the train through a bridge and down a hill would look to see if I had seen what he had done. It seems like everything is starting to make sense to him. At least in the train department.

Current Kai.

Borrowing this from a couple of mommy friends' blogs:

Is Kai....

Eating with a fork? Kai loves eating with a fork. He will attempt to all things on to a fork if there is one handy. He has used adult sized forks with supervision and success.

Eating with a spoon? He has eaten yogurt successfully with a spoon, but not much else. A fork is almost always the better option for him. I have not been brave enough for cereal or soup, so there haven't been any spoon only meals.

Fingers only? Most snack on the run are eaten with fingers.

Favorite foods: Cheese, Cheddar Bunnies, green beans, broccoli, pickles and Cheerios.

Foods Kai dislikes: I can't think of anything that he has tried that he has really not liked at all.

Favorite toy: He loves to sit on his Bilibo, loves the train table and all transportation toys in general. He spends a lot of time outside in the sandbox or pushing the bubble mower.

Favorite person: Aside from Jake and I, his cousin Riley is hands down his favorite human ever.

Words that only you understand: Most of the words he uses are pretty clear.

Words that others can understand: Kai has about 15 words that he uses regularly. Some are: Daddy, Mommy, Annie, Riley, Mom (my mother), Dan, choo choo, down, bye, hi, go, out, no, off and boat.

Is your Kai a climber? YES. He climbs everything. All the time.

Does your LO have a lot of hair? He does, although it is hard to tell because it is so blond.

Stats: height/weight: 34.5 inches, 29lbs 15oz

How many teeth? 12 with the lower left canine about to poke through.

Do they like tv? He does. It isn't on much, but when it is he usually checks out what is on to see if it appears interesting. We were at a restaurant with football on the tv that he could see and he was really excited by it.

What show(s)? He watches a little Sesame Street.

Do they like music? Yes. Very, very much. He asks for the stereo to be turned on often and he has started singing and plays the harmonica and drums on everything. He has been starting to pick out the beat in songs when he is drumming from time to time. It is pretty cool to watch.

Favorite songs? "Walking in Your Footsteps" by the Police has always been a favorite of his. He likes when we listen to Bob Marley and anything bluesy and/or with harmonica.

Are they a dancer? He is a little stiff, but he has some moves.

Do they have a temper? Yes. Not usually too bad, but when he is having teething pain, watch out.

Do they throw things? Yes. He loves to throw. He counts to three before he does it usually. Throwing is not limited to balls. One of his favorite things is to throw shoes down the stairs. He thinks it is hilarious.

Do they hit? Sort of. He uses things (all sorts of things) to pound surfaces like a drum or like he is using a hammer. Sometimes I am the surface. We are working on this.

Do they have tantrums? He has recently started with this. They are usually sort lived. He cannot tolerate things being spilled, dropped or broken. It is really, really upsetting to him.

What do you do to stop the tantrum? I try to let him work through a little bit of it. We use distraction and the magic cure of nursing frequently.

What do they do on a daily basis to make you laugh? Kai is super funny. He has us laughing all of the time. He gives silly little looks and loves to be chased but stops after a few steps so that the chaser can catch him. He has started saying "ummmm" which is funny every time.

Do they like to wear shoes or barefeet? He wears shoes whenever we are out of the house and most of the time that we are in the yard. He asks for them to be taken off before he goes into the sandbox and sometimes takes them off himself when we are in the car. He prefers barefoot to socks.

Do they like to be outside? He loves to be outside. He goes to the door and tries to turn the handle or looks at us and says "bye."

Anything else you want to tell about or brag about? Kai has an amazing little personality and is a charmer. He is really fantastic to be around and I am thankful to have so much time to spend with him. I can't wait for those of you who haven't seen him in a while to be able to spend some time with him.

Rainbow, puddles and pebbles.

Jake, Kai and I were out to an early dinner this evening and when we left the restaurant there was a giant rainbow. It was still sprinkling a little bit and we ended up doing some playing in the parking lot of the closed bicycle shop next door. Kai was really interested in putting pebbles into a seemingly bottomless small hole in the asphalt. Here are the pictures and video.

I apologize for my shoddy camera work; it didn't occur to me that I couldn't turn the camera until after I had done it. Listen for Kai's new words!

New words.

Kai gained two words that he has said over and over and over this weekend. One is Riley, his cousin. The other is bubble. Both are pretty cute. Riley comes out more like Rye-ree. As soon as he woke up this morning and hit the floor he ran out the bedroom door yelling "Rye-ree! Rye-ree!" He has never picked up a person's name so quickly, it is pretty cool how much he is into his cousins.

Three linked words.

I am not sure if it counts as a sentence. Kai brought me a portion of my mom's chip and as he handed it to me said, "That for you." Then he turned right around and walked back to where she was sitting. He has also started calling the dog, "Aaaaannnnie. Aaaaannie." He even told her, "Hi, Annie" as we walked in the door one day. He does a lot of repeating and says random words here and there, but still only uses about 15 or so on a consistent basis. It is pretty exciting as he gets closer to being able to tell us what is on his mind. Well, he is usally able to communicate what is on his mind. It will be nice though when he has the words to make it an easier process for everyone involved.