New Milestones

Some new things Kai has been practicing this past month...

1. Riding a trike (one that you use your feet to propel).

2. Not using a highchair anymore (learning this one in Hawaii and it's stuck)

3. Using a big boy fork...none of that baby plastic stuff.

4. Jumping. This is really cute since he hasn't quite mastered it yet. Most of the time he ends up on the floor  or his feet don't quite take off. But every once in awhile he gets the momentum at exactly the same time and both feet leave the ground. He lands with the biggest smile in the world.

Preschool Celebration

Today was Kadyn's preschool celebration. Though we forgot the camera for the actual celebration Kadyn wanted to try out his outfit (with a few additions and subtractions) after bath tonight.  They did 2 different "programs." The first was a song where they counted to 10 in Japanese--they held Japanese fans they made. And the second was a Spanish song where they had on sombreros and ponchos they made. After the celebration his teacher gave them star sunglasses and a little box of art project supplies and balloons. Here a little combo of it all...

And another momentous occasion...Ryan cooked delicious fish (as he said, it's the first meal he cooked without the help of a bbq). Yum!

Road Trip

 On the spur of a moment (very un-mom like) I decided to get out of town while Ryan worked on our kitchen cabinets. After I realized I had a meeting after lunch on Friday and wouldn't be able to take a 1/2 day off of work to drive to Spokane, I decided on heading up to Portland to see Rachele, Jay, Elise and Nolan (step-cousins).   We went strawberry picking on Saturday. Kadyn did a great job while Kai was content tromping on all the berries trying to follow his brother all the while eating everything in his carton.

It's a good thing that carton was full of raspberries...Mommy is a thinker!  Strawberry picking is hard to do when you're allergic to strawberries. So, instead of a basket of strawberries I brought Kai some raspberries that he could eat.

We had our very own Sound of Music.

 

On Sunday we stopped in at OMSI on our way out of town. The kids had a great time playing in the science center.

Some pointers when traveling alone with kids...

1. Pray the kids take a nap on the drive.

2. Bring extra binkies to keep in the center console because inevitably one will end up flying through the air and out of reach. 

3. Pray for naps.

4. McDonalds play places are a great place to get wiggles out.
5. If you see a naked child coming out of the playground at McDonalds you might want to consider removing your children from the playground. It is possible that the naked child pooped on the slide.
6. Pray the kids take naps.
7. Bring an unseen movie to put in the player.
8. Plan on hearing said new movie 4 times throughout the drive without actually seeing the movie.
9. Let the kids pack a travel bag...it's much more exciting when they are the ones picking out the toys.
10. Bring lots of special snacks and keep them within easy reach.
11. Don't bring any snacks you don't want to spend the drive eating because you will inevitably eat all said snacks throughout the duration of the drive in order to stay awake--even if the snacks consist of 1/2 a bag of pretzels, a bag of m&ms, countless handfuls of teddy grahams, skittles...should this go on?
12. Pray the kids take a nap.
13. Plan on hearing "are we there yet?" every 20 minutes after the first 1/2 hour passes.
14. Again, pray for nap.
15. If you're fortunate enough to have kids actually take the much prayed for nap, drive. Drive fast. Do not stop. Shove another handful of pretzels in your mouth and DRIVE. 

Beautiful Moments

No, these do not have anything to do with my kids. Just two beautiful moments that happened in the grocery store that I had to share…

1. I was trudging in to the grocery store, two kids in tow (which is a story in and of itself), when I noticed this elderly couple, the wife was helping her husband with a walker and a tank of oxygen. As she was getting him situated with a cart she was asking him if he was sure he wanted to go in alone. He fluffed her off and said he was fine, that he had some things to get, and that he wanted to get them alone. I didn't think much of them again until I was in line. The elderly man s.l.o.w.l.y walked in line behind me. Beautiful moment #1; he was buying his wife roses. No wonder he wanted to do it alone. I had to turn around to choke back the tears. 

2. Almost every day there's a homeless Gulf Vet that sits at the corner of the street by the local Safeway grocery store. He rarely looks up but stares somberly 5 feet in front of him. I've never given him money, I've actually never seen anyone stop, and I've certainly never seen him smile.  The other day I saw him actually in Safeway picking out some food to eat. When I say some food, I mean the smallest thing of potato salad (maybe a spoon worth) and a few, what looked to be, olives from the deli. As I saw him head back to the dairy section I watched as he looked at the prices on all the milks and picked out the smallest individual size they had. I could feel God's pull. I made sure to get in line behind him at the check out isle. In line he saw Kai (I had taken him with me) and gave a smile. He tried to get Kai to smile back. While he was distracted with my son I told the check out lady that I was going to pay for his food. Beautiful moment #2; when she told him that, he started to cry. He said that it was his birthday just the day before and that was the best birthday present he could have received! Could he have been pulling my chain? Sure. I don't care...it cost me less than $5 and it put a smile on his face.

Just a few more Hawaii pics

Oh how I am longing to go back...

Kauai...aka...Paradise

We spent a week in Kauai with Grammy and Pops. We had an amazing time. The flight out was great! The kids were even commented to about deserving the "Best Kids on an Airplane EVER Award." Kadyn carried his own suitcase full of toys, books, games, etc the entire way. Grammy and Pops were waiting for us when we arrived at the airport.

After swinging by Costco we were ready to head to the resort. (Yes, we ALL fit in the car along with our suitcases!)

Kadyn wasn't so sure about the pool at first and hung on to Daddy with the death grip. Kai wasn't sure about anything at first and cried upon being set in the sand, cried when I put him in the bath, cried when I tried to feed him...needless to say, he went right to bed after we got to the resort.
 Throughout the week Kai warmed up to the sand and even the ocean and pool by the last day. We went to a lot of great beaches for the kids. Low or no waves and lots of great spots to find "sea creatures" which was Kadyn's favorite part. Oh I have so many memories flooding my mind right now. One of my favorite was going out in the mornings before everyone else woke up with Kadyn (the first morning both kids were awake by 4:15am but after that Kai would sleep till 8. Kadyn was up by 6:45 at the latest each morning). One morning in particular, Grammy joined us and we were putting our feet in the hot tub. All of a sudden Kadyn decides that it would be ok to sit in the hot tub...still in his jammies. It was so cute :)

The flight home deserves it's own blog but I'll give you the short version. Kai didn't fall asleep (despite benadryl) for almost 2 hours and was a little stinker. Kadyn fell asleep before we even took off but he woke up 5 minutes after Kai fell asleep SCREAMING. S.C.R.E.A.M.I.N.G Yes, we were THAT family. Ugh. After 2 more screaming fits he finally fell asleep in my lap and I didn't dare move...an inch. I stayed that way for another 2+ hours. Double ugh. However, the other 2 flights went flawlessly. Kai ended up making up for his lack of sleep by sleeping 17 hours the next night only waking two 1/2 hour periods.

Below are 2 of my favorite photos capturing both boys beautifully. What a great time and great memories! Thank you Grammy and Pops!!

Happy Birthday Mommy