Breakfast.

Breakfast has been a challenge for Kai and me pretty much since he began eating food. I was sneakily feeding him eggs while he was distracted by Sesame Street or Clifford. He caught on to my tricks and is not having any of it any more. This includes all breakfast foods such as cereal, pancakes, waffles, toast. None of it. He is not interested. Initially, I thought that perhaps he just preferred to take this meal in liquid form since he demands that I sit and nurse through at least half of Sesame Street. Then, I offered him crackers with soy nut butter. That was acceptable. As was cheese and crackers. Monday morning he requested noodles for breakfast, which were leftovers from a fantastic dish I made for him the night before. He ate those noodles for breakfast Tuesday also. Yesterday he asked for noodles again and I made macaroni and cheese. He ate half a box of Annie's mac and cheese. He is currently eating the other half now. It is crazy how much he is eating at breakfast now. Apparently he just isn't into breakfast fare. Of course, he is two, tomorrow his favorite foods could be cereal and pancakes and he will gag at the sight of a noodle.

Here is the recipe that convinced Kai that animal protein isn't all bad:

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food: Mini Shell Pasta with a Creamy Smoked Bacon and Pea Sauce.

Bugs.

While I was working on the last entry Kai came over to take me into the kitchen to show me that "the bugs" was not on the wall anymore. He lifted up the rug to reveal a nice sized black and white spider. Awesome. We used a piece of paper and a glass to take him outside. I put him on the back steps and Kai told him, "Go! Go!" After I shut the door, I had to reopen it so that he could say good bye to the spider one more time. Then Kai walked away to the living room talking about bugs and spiders really quietly to himself.

Trip to a zoo.

We took Kai to the NEW Zoo on Saturday. It was super fun. The last time we took him to see animals he was still quite small and non-communicative. To be able to hear what he thought of the animals was pretty cool. He named all of the animals that were there. Those that he didn't know he would carefully repeat after we told him the names. He has added otter and llama to the list of animals that he knows.

Kai feeds goats. He was determined to only feed the "baby" goats.
(Those without horns. Wait. Are those called horns?)
A bigger, more aggressive goat kept coming over and Kai would leave the area
to find the "babies" to feed. Very cute.

Riding the train. Kai had a hard time following the hands and elbows in the car all times rule.

We fed giraffes crackers. Kai was a little nervous about the business and was happy
to let me do the feeding.

Giant marshmallow on a stick.

Kai took a few bites of this bad boy and decided he was over it.

Fun times with cousins.

So, I was sitting here trying to describe in one word the place that my sister and I took our children. There is no one word. It is in the same building as the movie theater, it has arcade games and a carousel, bumper cars, laser tag, a train ride, a giant crazy hamster cage looking thing and a toddler play area with a coloring table, riding toys, blocks and small ball pit. What is the word for that? That is where we took them. I was pretty nervous about the hamster cage aparatus. This is where they spent most of their time. Sami and Riley did a fair job for watching out for Kai while in it. They only lost him a couple of times and were pretty fantastic about finding him again. When my sister asked Sami how she convinced Kai to go down a giant tube slide, she shrugged and said, "I pushed him." Awesome. He was pretty psyched when he reached the bottom though, so it must not have been too scarring.

I didn't get any shots of them in the hamster cage. You can see some of it in the background here.
I am sure there will be a rainy day that finds us there in the future.
I will get a picture or five then.

Easter.

It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the following:

Kai, Easter 2008


Could not: Walk, talk, show any interest in eating the marshmallow peeps.

Kai, Easter 2009


Up from bed, searching for eggs and basket all through the house. Saying and enjoying marshmallows.

We spent the early morning at home enjoying Kai's basket contents. Favorites were Buzz Lightyear (duh) and a Dora video. Then we went to my mom's house for breakfast because I was feeling pretty lazy about cooking for us. Back home for a nap and then back to Mom's for dinner and hunting for goodies. Kai was really into finding eggs. And super into eating marshmallows.

The same chair from the first picture, now at his hip instead of his armpit!

Chocolate chick for breakfast.
Fantastic.

Gardening.

Jake, Kai and I worked on getting our vegetable garden ready to go for planting since we had some nice weather. Kai has a small shovel and garden rake to "help" us. Soon we will be able to get some vegetables in the ground. I am a little worried about the bunnies that hang out in the neighborhood. Especially since the fence that used to surround the garden did little to keep them out. I have some ideas about natural repellents to try and Jake borrowed a live trap from a friend at work. We are going to start a rabbit relocation program. There is a nice cozy park that is far enough away to confuse them. I was sidetracked by thoughts of the veggie eating bunnies. I meant to share that Kai was really excited by the worms although he did not want to touch them. He called the smaller worms babies and wanted me to keep finding them and pulling them out for him to look at on the rocks.

Snack with dinosaur.

I did not coach Kai in anyway to do this. I was actually pretty impressed with myself for thinking to grab the camera. In the second video, he points out that I need to clean the counter where he has been eating his snack. Helpful.