Snowpants!

Finding snowpants was an adventure. Size 2T were the right length but hard to zip up his belly and chest. The size that we bought are 3T and as you can see they are pretty long. We are hoping that maybe he will be able to wear them next year also. He like s them pretty much. He did not want to take them off at the store. We are officially ready to build a snowman...we're just waiting on the big snow.

Jake's favorite thing.

Jake's favorite Baby Kai thing is when he claps and says "yay!" He is doing it less and less all of the time and Jake has been trying to get it on a video clip before it disappears forever. Here is another video where Kai is super cute...but does not deliver in the clapping/yay department.

Gaak, gaak.

Kai and I busted out the Play-Doh on Wednesday morning. I let go of my hang up about colors mixing and we made a phone and a caterpillar and we smooshed many, many round balls of doh. Fun times. Photos and video:

Kai's new house.

We have a home! Our offer was accepted and we close on December 12th, so we should be unpacked and somewhat settled in for Christmas!

Child labor.

I didn't realize how quickly I would have a helper for household chores. Notice the way he imitates us perfectly by holding the cord. So funny. Another time that we realize that he sees everything.

In other news, Kai's Nana, Wendy, and bicoastal aunts, Sarah and Kama are in town for a long visit. He has been having a super time with them so far. He says Nana and Sarah and even picked up his cousin Leah's name in just an evening. I am happy for him to have time to spend with them. He is especially fond of Jake's mom. I asked him yesterday morning if he wanted to see his Nana, he didn't say anything at the time and then in a questioning voice started saying "Nana, Nana." We got in the car and he sat in his seat saying, "Nana? Nana?" When we got to the cafe where we were meeting her and she came over to the car....he said nothing. He eventually started saying it again. We had to go to the grocery store to pick up a cake for Jake's aunt's birthday and when Wendy walked down a different aisle Kai became very concerned. He grabbed her coat from the back of the cart and said, "Coat (it is maybe more like..."co"), Nana? Coat, Nana." And then..."Naaanaa, naaanaaa." Very cute.

Also, Kai has added more words to his ever expanding vocabulary: shower, please, coffee, airplane, people, Sarah, Nana, Leah, sit, flower, food and is consistently saying car, seat, color, cheese, coat, pull water, more, shoe and feet.

Not so much about Kai, more about the whole family unit...we are putting in an offer on a house tomorrow morning. I will definitley keep you posted on the progress in that area. When we have an accepted offer and good inspection I will post a picture of the house.

Sunday.

Today, Kai read the Sunday comics in the paper....

Then we played until naptime with his downstairs toys, including the bean table. Next came naptime. When he woke up he received a new hat from Yaya and Dan. We went to look at a bunch of houses. Then we came home and Kai cuddled while watching Little Bear with Yaya and the new hat.

Then Daddy came home and we ate dinner together and shortly after Kai went to bed. Other than a mini-meltdown before naptime and a full on meltdown before we looked at the last house of the day...it was a pretty good day. Low key and I got all of the laundry done. Yay Sunday!

Outside toy in.

While the weather was warm last week we picked up and cleaned up all of Kai's outside toys to store them for the winter. (Winter then arrived yesterday morning.) I brought his sand and water table in to wash it in the tub. After I dried it, I set it near his train table and forgot about it for a couple of days. Then I decided I wanted to turn it into a sensory table for the winter. I searched around for ideas of things to put in it and talked to a creative mommy friend for advice. Then, Kai and I were housebound on Friday with no vehicle and I dumped what ever beans and small pasta we had on hand in it. It actually worked out well because the beans I was going to buy would have been too big to fit through the funnels. Kai has had a great time playing with it, he has some dump trucks, sorting cups and measuring spoons in it. Sometimes he adds new things or takes things out. I am pleased with his interest in it. When he tires of it, I can make it new again by changing the beans or adding new little toys.

Fall plant life.

We spent a lot of time playing outside the last few days. The weather has been very mild, sometimes even warm. Kai has been interested in the seed pods and grasses of fall. I can't blame him.

Kai learned to blow dandelion puff.

We let the flying seeds out by waving one of these around and then tapping it against a swing.

Kai showing a discovery to Jake.

Jake and Kai inspect the prairie floor.

Kai really interested in the pebbles on the trail.

Leaf fort.

Yesterday, Jake fashioned a fort out of the giant leaf pile in the back yard waiting to be composted. Kai, Sami and Riley had a great time playing in the leaf fort. Unfortunately, I missed all of the best photo opportunities while inside watching Obama's acceptance speech (again) with my sister. I did get invited in to sit down and hang out when I made it outside.

Last weekend at the cabin for the season.

Kai points out where the lawn tractors are kept.

We went to the family cabin a few weeks ago for the last time for the year. My sister and her kids and our close friends Nick and Genelle and Bruce and Linda were all there also. There was lovely fall weather and we had a great time. Kai managed to stay awake on the four hour car ride most of the way there and all the way back. I can't figure out he manages this. If I am not driving I can't do it. And aren't kids supposed to fall asleep immediately upon entering the car? Furthermore...why does he fall asleep on the ten minute ride home from a playdate prior to nap time but a four hour trip over nap time he is awake? It is mysterious indeed.

Back to the cabin; Kai really seems to enjoy being at the there. I am looking forward to next year when he is a little bigger and maybe able to keep up with his cousins a little more. Right now he gets left out a lot because they are doing things that he is not really ready to do yet. Like play on the dock with out thinking that he can walk on water. Or will he still think he has super powers?

Burning dilapidated furniture.

Nick and Genelle enjoying the fall day.

More photos from Halloween.

Halloween.

We helped Kai to dress up as Yoda to match his cousins who were also Star Wars characters. We already planning the second round of matching costumes for next year. We went trick-or-treating with my sister and our new friend, Jessica, her son and mother. We let Kai have a couple of Smarties and then after he was in bed we ate all of the chocolate! Kai had a fun time collecting treats for us. He would say "treeeet" all the way up to the door and then when faced with the candy offering stranger he would say nothing. Most times he wouldn't even pull his treat out of their basket. He did see a super cute little dog that he was wholly enamored with. Jake, Kai and I went to do a little shopping and to have coffee together in the downtown area in the next city over on Saturday and we found a stuffed version of that little dog. Kai loves it and calls is "woo-woo" which is Kawainese (term coined by my brother-in-law) for woof woof.

Kai sends a message.

Kai would like to remind everyone to vote today if you have not done so already.

Time change.

The change in the time has Kai a little screwed up. Yesterday he got up at about six but we were able to convince him to stay in bed with us until about seven. He took his nap about normal time but only slept for a half hour. Then, this morning, he was up and at 'em at ten until seven. There was no convincing him that he should stay in bed. Nap came around the normal time and he slept about his normal length of time. Tonight after dinner at about six-thirty, he burst into tears because Dan told him not to go downstairs yet and then took me to sit on the couch where he rubbed his eyes and asked to nurse. So, I decided to get him ready for bed. He was asleep quickly and now I am wondering if we have a whole new schedule. I wonder if he could have a summer schedule and a winter schedule? Is that normal/possible?

Kai and his feesh.

Today Kai was playing quietly in the living room while I was putting dinner together. All of the sudden I heard his little feet hitting the floor with the sound of toddler running and Kai shrieking, "feesh, feesh, feesh." He ran over to the dining table, home to the fish, and started to climb up a chair. I went over to spot him and to see what the commotion was about. He had a bathtub squirter in the shape of a fish (it lives in a play cubby, not the tub) and was taking it over to the fish bowl. He really, really, really wanted to put it into the bowl with the live fish. We got the toy fish a plastic bowl and fed him some tissue paper food. It was a good solution for Kai for about five minutes and then he made it up to standing on a chair and was mid-toss of the fish when I got to him. I distracted him by having him put the fish on different parts of his body. This was sufficiently boring and he moved on to playing with his castle toy.

Language explosion.

All of the sudden, Kai is picking up new words at an astonishing rate. He says new words every day. He has been really stubborn about learning body parts. Like maybe he just wasn't into them or something. Then, out of no where the other day, he just started pointing to features of my face and naming them. First he said eyes, so I decided to press my luck and maybe annoy him by asking him about my mouth. He pointed to it and said mouth, then ears, nose and so on. Through experimentation, I have learned that he also knows his own face parts and those of the cats , dogs and various animals in books. I was impressed that he knows that people ears are ears and so are the cats' and the dogs'. Noses also. I was kind of under the impression that it might be tricky.

He is also using his expanding vocabulary to order me around and to tattle on Jake. He calls me, or leads me somewhere by the finger, and shows me where he wants me to sit and tells me what to do. Mostly, it is "nurse." When he and Jake are playing he will frequently call for me so that he can tell me that Jake won't let him stick a finger in an outlet or that Jake is playing with a train improperly. He accomplishes tattling mostly through body language, but there are some definite words in the mix of babble.

He has been consistently doing the sign for bird and he says, "gawk, gawk, gawk" when we see birds. Mostly geese. I have tried to show off this baby trick to friends and he pretends he has no idea what I am talking about.

It is a super fun time. It is really incredible to be able to effectively communicate with him most times.

A new game.

Jake and I have a new game that we play in the car with Kai. We yell like crazy when we take off from a stop sign or turn around a corner. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" We don't do it all the time, mostly if Kai is having a hard time being in the car. He sometimes initiates the game though. It is pretty much one of the most hilarious things ever to him. His cousins were a little confused by it, but I am sure that soon I will convince them to play along.

Here is Kai, mid-yell.

Play dough.

I officially threw in the hat on play dough making and picked some up last week. Kai thinks that it is pretty fun, especially when his cousins are here to play with him. Here is a photo of him in my mom's hat checking out how it measures up to his foot. For a couple of days he compared many things to his foot. It started one night with puzzle pieces and has since, sadly, passed.