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.
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.
1 comment:
Dear Liz,
Thanks so much for the update.
I enjoy Kai's blog so much!
It is hard to be present in the present. Your attention to detail
is awesome!
Post a Comment