My favorite things that Kai says or has said recently.

"thanks" - this is almost always unprompted and used correctly.
When he has something on his head: "I'm a pirate." - said in a gravely pirate voice
When he is a pirate: "I need a boat."
In the morning when he wants to cuddle on the sofa, watch Clifford and nurse: "Where covers?"
When he is tired of being out somewhere: "I wanna go home."
When he is tired and ready for bed: "I wanna go home." - sometimes while he is on the changing
table getting ready for bed.
When I don't answer him promptly: "Liz!"
When referring to the bridge that we walk under frequently: "cave" or "tunnel"
When pulling something imaginary from the back of his trike: "Have pizza."
When giving a hug: "Gotta hold tight."
When putting on his shoes: "Baseball shoes, baseball throw." - Almost every time and then he
pretends to throw a baseball.
When someone he likes very much leaves: "Wait! Wait!"
"Noodles" - He loves them and this just sounds super cute because it comes out noonles.
"A treasure." - In reference to my breast while taking a quick break from nursing.
"Kid." - Any child who is a little older than Kai.
"Only." - He just started using this as part of his every day vocabulary this week.
When playing with fire trucks: "Oh no! Kitten in a tree!" - I think this is from a Curious George
episode.
When playing with my yarn or knitting needles: "Play string."
Before he throws a ball: "Fast!"
When he wants us to go somewhere with him: "Come on. Hurry, hurry!"
"Crashing" - Said right before he rams into something or someone.
"Chocolate milk juice."
"I throw rocks in water with Dade." - As we were leaving to go to a breastfeeding meeting. He
was fairly certain we were going somewhere much more exciting, obviously.
"Are you 'putering?" - Said just now to me.

Last night, he told me his toy shark was sad and that we needed to give him some pats to help him feel better. I took this as proof that he really is listening when I tell him to help someone feel better after he has made them sad by being too rough.

At the grocery store this week I gave him a juice box to buy myself the last 20 minutes of the trip in relative peace. It was the first time that he has really ever had juice and the very first juice box. I had to buy a pack of five and now he asks for a "juice box" from time to time.

I am pretty sure I am forgetting somethings. Maybe I will add more later if they come to me.

Hike on his own two feet.

Last week we went for a hike at High Cliff State Park. This was Kai's first ever hike that he used his own feet for. The trails were pretty easy going as you can see in the pictures and he was a little trooper. He walked much of the way and spent only a small time in the back carrier. It was definitely slower going than Jake and I are used to, but I was able to take some photos and it was really exciting to have Kai walking along with us. I have way too many pictures to choose from, so there are going to be a bunch below:

Before we set out on our hikes, we climbed the tower in the picture above.
And played on the playground below.
Metal slides and merry go round!
The finest in dangerous (fun) play equipment.

Some scenery photos follow below:

Spring leaves!

Jake spotted this lady slipper.

Jake and Kai build an ant house.
It is really hard to see, but the ant made some of the photos.

Kai really liked exploring the rocks in these open areas.
I was nervous about ticks/poison ivy so I tucked his pants into his socks nerd style.

Pictures from a rainy afternoon.

This week we had a rainy afternoon. After nap, Kai and I put together train track which ran under the train table, out the playroom door and all the way down the hall to our bedroom where it ended in a loop.

Here is where the track started, it went under the table and around the other side.

Out the playroom door and down the hall.

The big loop in the bedroom.

View from bedroom back to playroom.

Pictures from a rainy morning.

We had a dreary, rainy morning last week and after being spoiled by the awesome spring weather it was quite a shock to be stuck in the house. We played with Play-doh. Several colors. Which got all mixed up.

We cooked the fluffiest pancakes ever. I used a recipe from the Pioneer Woman. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I will probably never use another one again. If you want it follow this link.


Kai watched some Little Bear while I did some cleaning. We stayed in our jammies until at least 10 am, it may have been later. (Look how big he is, standing there by the chair!!)

Thankfully, the sun came out after nap and we didn't have to come up with any more things to fill our time in the house.

Time to mow the lawn.

After the long winter, I was really happy to see that the lawn had enough warmth and sunshine to merit a mow. Kai was also pretty excited about this.

Can't believe I forgot the camera.

Yesterday we went out to Jake's grandparents' farm for the first time since it is really and truly spring. And - I left the camera at home. On the way there, I thought that it was unfortunate, but not too big of a deal. Then, it turned out that yesterday was probably on Kai's top five days list so far. Jake's grandpa had his giant tractor in the shed. The giant tractor had a giant bucket on the front. It was a lot like this one:

You can imagine that this would make this two year old boy's day. Let's be serious, it probably made his week. He was able to climb up and sit in it. Amazingly, he was able to keep himself from touching buttons. He was really cute about it, talking about using it to dig holes and about being patient and waiting for his turn on the tractor. I am sure that we will be there again soon. Hopefully, the tractor is still out and I can catch some photos of him on it. Jake took some with his cell phone, but I don't know how well the photos will transfer.

He also had a pretty fun time with his grandparents and has started to call them all grandma. There are two grandmas and one grandpa at this house. Kai was calling them all grandmas. Jake tried to help him out with the grand-pa. Kai was pretty sure that he was saying "grandma-pa." Grandma Judy made a great lasagna from dinner which Kai called "pizza noodles" and very much preferred the top layer. He had pizza noodles for breakfast today also, thanks to the take out that Grandma Judy sent home with us.

There was another major event while we were there. Kai hopped for the first time. He has been wishing that he could hop/jump for a year. Finally he did! Twice! He seems to have forgotten how now, but I am sure it will be back any day now.

Again with the lazy blog habits.

I was remembering that I hadn't posted anything in awhile. I was happy to see that it was a shorter time than I thought it was at least. Kai has been healthy and fantastic the last couple of weeks. The weather has been mostly nice, so we have been spending a lot of time in the garden and yard, playing at parks and going for walks and bike rides.

Jake's schedule at work has changed in response to the poor economy. Instead of working seven twelve hour shifts in two weeks, he is working a normal Monday through Friday schedule. Eight hour days with weekends off. There are several down sides to it, one is that he has to rotate through all three shifts. It hasn't been too hard on Kai. He seems to get kind of confused. The first day that he was on 2pm to 10pm shift, Kai woke up from nap and whispered to me "Hide, Daddy coming." When I told him that he wasn't coming because he was at work, Kai became really, really upset. We had talked to him about it, but I think that he was pretty sure that it was a day off. By the end of the week he seemed to get it.

I have been going to a Thursday night knitting group for a month or more. I either go before or after bed depending on Jake's schedule. When he was on 2pm to 10pm shift, my mom came over to our house to watch Kai for a couple of hours while I went to knit. Kai had a fantastic time playing with her. He was talking about her the entire time I was getting him ready for bed after she left. It made me feel really glad that I had called her. Since we moved to our new house, they haven't spent a lot of one on one time together. Usually his cousins are also around and he loves that also, but I think it is a positive thing for Kai and my mom to have a relationship outside of the other grandchildren.

One day last week we were out for a walk to one of the near by parks and we heard drumming. After playing at the park for a bit we went to find the source of the drumming. It turned out to be the local university's drum line. They practiced for almost an hour and Kai and I spent time watching and found an ant hill in the roots of the tree that . Kai had a small toy excavator with him and he was digging with it near the ants' "house" to "help" them. He also shared some of his snack with them. He really enjoyed the drumming. When we first heard it, he started marching around patting his belly and encouraging me too join in.

We live just a block and a half up hill from an area where a big river goes through locks. Jake and Kai walked down Sunday afternoon. There are stairs down most of the second block and Kai walked the entire way up and down. They spent time at the river watching the water and some Canadian geese. When Kai woke up from nap yesterday, Jake decided that they should take me on the same walk. Kai was sort of acting like a tour guide on the way, pointing out the stairs and then the bridge and "cave" (area under the bridge), a big stick that they left next to the cave, and a hundred other things until we got to the river's edge. As we rounded a corner, Kai stopped and hung his head and said, "A goose, a goose, I miss it." Clearly, he was disappointed that the geese didn't seem to be there. Once Jake showed him that they were just in a different spot he perked up and ran the rest of the way to the river's edge. We had fun throwing rocks into the river, which Kai was referring to as "baby dirt." Not sure why. Then we decided to have burgers at a restaurant with outdoor seating that we passed on our walk. Kai kept telling me that we had to be patient and wait for our food. I have been working with him about taking turns and being patient and he has really latched on to the idea of being patient. He talks about being patient a lot and seems to really understand what it means in different contexts. I love witnessing him gain a better understanding of language all of the time. It is still incredible to me when I am able to have a conversation with him or ask him to do something and he says "sure" and then does that thing. It sometimes feels like a miracle.

I guess that is it for now. I will try to remember anything else fun that I missed blogging about in the past couple of weeks. I will also try (again) to remember to take my camera places so that I have new photos to post.