A Few Kai Funnies...

Kai's teacher told me this week that Kai is pretty insistent the the kids "use their words". Apparently he was going up to them saying "words, words". I guess it helped...she said the other kid began to use his words since "his friend, Kai" told him to. I am going to call that leadership and not bossiness:)

Today in the post office I heard a lady talking to Kai while I was at the counter. I heard him say "Yes" and she said "oh, that is really neat". I asked her what he has said and she said she had asked him if his daddy flew jets (he was playing with his airplane)...to which he answered a very confident "yes". I laughed in my head and told her he worked with airplanes but was not a pilot. It was just funny how confident he answered her although he really didn't understand what she was saying. Funny boy...

Sweet Face

I caught Kai by the window in some great light this afternoon and had to take advantage...I love this kid!

Relaxing...

We arrived in Ellensburg Friday and have been enjoying our time relaxing and hanging out. It was a long drive here with much snow, chaining up and driving slow, but we are so very happy to be here. There has been a terrible amount of snow in McMinnville and Portland since we left so I am glad we left early!

Kai is in heaven here at Gramma & Pa's with tons of room to run and play and rooms to hide in. He is especially happy hanging with his pal, Tess, the most patient dog in the world. I am typically not big on animals, but this dog I love. Kai is either chasing after her, taking her ball or riding her most of the time and she deals with it all with a little wag of the tail. Here are some pictures of Kai enjoying his time so far:

Hanging with Tess
Licking Gramma's frosting bowl

Enjoying a little reading by the fire

Riding the rocking horse

Tyson and I have been enjoying our time too. It is so relaxing here and it is nice not to have a zillion things I should be doing...well, there still are a zillion things I should be doing but they are at home so I can't do them...and it feels great. I even took a nap yesterday...yay! Today I am working on a cape for Kai...I have seen the idea a couple places and thought it would be a great gift for Kai that he could take it to Peru since it will fold up small. One of the places I saw the idea was from my friend, Jenna, she has beautiful baby items including blankets and tata tents...check out My Sugar Nut. All that to say I am currently trying to make his cape...it is nice to have some time to do it. From the thread on my sewing machine I can see that last Christmas

was the last time I have sewn and it was Kai's baby blanket. Wow, time flies!

Arctic Blast 08 Update

Yes, that is the official name of the weather this week--Arctic Blast...really? The news was on all morning covering the snow...school closures everywhere, traffic reports, accidents, pictures people have sent in of the snow. It is funny to me how the world stops here when there is snow but I guess we are just not used to it and don't have the equipment to deal with it like places that typically have snow do...so I will keep my mocking to a minimum:)

So, it has officially been a snow day today. Preschool canceled, church office closed and Tyson came home early. It was the perfect day for staying in sweats (wait, I do that anyway), making scones and enjoying a latte. As soon as I began walking up the stairs with Kai this morning he started saying "snow, snow"...before he could see outside. So, I decided to give it another try...he again wasn't diggin it...this was his face most of the time and he refused to move his feet.

But, when Daddy came home this afternoon he tried it again and had more fun...it is probably that Daddy is more fun and I am totally okay with that:) He especially liked the eating of the snow...

And we eventually even got some smiles...that's the boy I know:)

Snow!!!

"Arctic Blast '08" gave us some snow. This morning there wasn't much and we missed it, but this afternoon it started again and we thought Kai might enjoy it. We were wrong. He was tired and not at all into it which is unlike him. We stayed on the porch for a few minutes and then he was done. It snowed all evening and when I measured it a little while ago there were 5 inches on our back porch. I think Kai's preschool is canceled tomorrow so I'm guessing we will have another chance for him to enjoy the snow;) I'll keep you updated...

Get your cookie on...

Saturday a few of us girls got together and did some holiday baking...it was super fun and just what I needed. Girl time and sweets and Christmas cheer all wrapped into one. Fun times. Kai slept through most of it but did very much enjoy decorating the cookies. Or should I say, undecorating...he loved eating the frosting as you can see below. Thanks for a fun day girls:)

"I Shot"

Yesterday I had to take Kai in for a quick shot appt at the doctors. This was the last of his normal immunizations that we couldn't get at this last appointment. So we are pulling up to the doctors office and I hear Kai saying quietly to himself in the backseat "owee, owee". Does he recognize this place I thought to myself. After we headed into the exam room he was extra clingy...then when the nurse came into the room the second time holding the pink tub that they always carry the shots in he freaked out. "owee mommy, no"! What?! How does he remember getting a shot, that was months ago? Crazy! I guess he is just now able to verbalize things so much better so we get to know what he is thinking. As we left the doctor he started the "I shot, owee", over and over." Then he started to connect the word "shot" with "nice shot" as in what daddy says when they watch basketball because he started to say "shot, b-ball". It is just so fun to see his little mind work. For the rest of the day I heard "I shot, owee" many times and lots of pointing to his band aide. Bad news kid, we've got a few more of those coming before we leave for Peru....sorry.

*side note*

I have never written the word "owee" before. I wasn't sure how to spell it so I typed it in to google. I came across this article that spelled it this way and as I read I found it a bit ridiculous. Here are a couple blurbs from it:

"The American Psychological Association announced today the results of a six-year study that found a definite correlation between the decreased use of the term "boo-boo" by parents with their children and the increased use of the term "owee" by the same group under similar circumstances."

"We have strong evidence that these parents suffer from an unconscious 'sounds dirty' mindset, which, compounded with their overprotective nature and their inability to recognize their prepubescent children as sexual beings, makes them borderline psychotics."

So we say "owee", not "boo boo"...are that makes us psychotics huh? Interesting. I am happy to say that the article ended this way:

The APA-sponsored study has its critics. Rolf Peterson, Director of Clinical Psychology at George Washington University, vomited, "Not only is this study professionally flawed, both in its concept and execution, it is also one of the worst misuses of corporate funds I've ever seen. To consider linguistically careful parents to be psychologically disturbed is a horrible misuse of psychology and all its stands for."

Ummm, yeah! Thank you. Wow, there are some crazy things on this internet:)

Crazy Sweet Boy

Kai is getting older and more independent. He always asks for a fork when I feed him anything (including goldfish today...and yes he speared the goldfish with a fork)...and he insists on doing most anything by himself. He is climbing up on everything...including our bed...which is crazy to me...it is pretty high but he grabs onto the covers and climbs his way up...There are lots of funny things he does and says every day and I need to remember to write them down but in general he keeps us on our toes and laughing a lot.

As crazy and climby as he is lately, he has also become super sweet and cuddly and kissy. Oh, how it melts a mommy's heart. A couple weeks ago he figured out how to kiss...not the slobber open mouth kisses that leave your cheek soaking wet, but pucker up and make a smacking noise kisses. They are much more pleasant and I get them way more often...which I love, of course. He will just wrap his little arms around my neck and put his forehead to mine and look at me and smile and then quickly kiss me and laugh. Or he will take my face in his hands and kiss one cheek and then move my head to the other side and kiss the other cheek and repeat over and over. I love it. I know it won't last for long and I love it. He has also been very good about letting me rock him before bedtime...he used to never sit still long enough to be rocked but now I can do it forever! And tonight when we walked into his room at bedtime he pointed to the rocking chair and said "rock?"...he asked to be rocked. I am just treasuring his kisses and cuddles while I can..he is growing too fast!

OMSI Deal

We have been wanting to take Kai to OMSI again. Last time we took him was January and he loved it but was just barely walking and couldn't do very much. See here to see how little he was then. We decided to head up there today and were so excited when we got there and found they were having their $2 days...yay for happening to go on a deal day! It was packed but still so fun. Kai had a great time again, there is so much for kids even at his age. His favorite was anything to do with putting balls in tubes or anything involving balls at all:) I can't say who had a better time, Tyson or Kai..but I do know that I loved watching them together. Tyson is so great at teaching Kai and showing him new things, the kind of dad that gets right in there and participates with his son and I love it.
Wait...Kai's favorite was probably a toss up between balls and the water troughs. We let him play and splash (assuming he wasn't splashing other kids) and he had to be torn away from them. Thankfully Tyson reminded me to bring a change of clothes so he wasn't wet all afternoon...

Excited x 25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This evening I took a trip to the grocery store with Kai and was reminded of a few things.

• Kai loves people...I mean loves them. Every single person we passed in the store got a "hi" followed by a "hi, hi, hi, hi, hi". He apparently never gets tired of saying hi, but I'm pretty sure the people got tired of responding:)
• His vocabulary is growing every day. Almost everything I put in the cart he named-- apples, bananas, cereal, milk, eggs, cheese, grapes, fish (goldfish), crackers...the list goes on but I was impressed.
• He knows people in his life and associates things and places with them. On the way home from the store he sang a little song "dada, mama, tt, boppa (gramma), ba (pa), wik (vic), mimi (melissa), deek (Jake). Anytime I say we are going to school or church he shouts out "Deek, Deek!". He has a little friend named Jake in his class and he loves him and I hear his name numerous times a day. His first little friend I think:) He also asks TT? and peeks his head into the laptop every time it is out asking to talk to TT (Taryn who is in Spain and we Skype with). Then he proceeds to ask for Gramma & Pa...it is too funny. Also, there are not many blonds in his life so every time he sees one he shouts out "Mimi"...which is what he calls Melissa (she has blond hair).
• And I was again reminded of what a little joy our son is. He has this contagious personality and is so excited about everything. Everything he says is exaggerated and excited like it should have 25 exclamation points after it. Tiring, yes, sometimes...but I love his energy and am incredibly thankful for him

Thank you Kai for bringing such joy to not only your daddy and I but to everyone around you. We love you son!

This last Sunday Tyson & I headed to Idaho for a training for Peru with our friends Daniel & Abby. We had three days of training...cross cultural training and a seminar on raising supporters for our ministry. It was a full three days with my mind desperately trying to take everything in. I don't know if I left feeling more prepared or just more aware of how difficult it will be. Well, I don't know that I will process it all right here but all in all it was a great few days. On our way over to Idaho we met up with Tyson's parents and they took Kai home with them for three days so we could focus on our training. A huge blessing to us on many levels but especially knowing he was getting some quality time with Gramma & Pa. Here are a few pictures of him having a grand old time in the hot tub with Pa. I think he must have been getting some swimming lessons because he came home laying on his back in the tub with water up to his cheeks with no hesitation and kicking his legs the correct way. Way to go Pa!

Really?

He'll hate it later, but I just can't resist...

Da, da, da, daaa...the Pumpkin!

We had a fun little Halloween party of our own last night. Melissa & Caitlin brought some yummy food over and we cooked it up and hung out together. They also brought Kai a costume the night before. They came across it at Goodwill with tags still on and decided it was a must for the Kai guy. I was just fine on passing on Halloween this year seeing that I don't enjoy it all that much and knew Kai would not know the difference, but mostly because I didn't want to stress about what costume to get him or spend any money on it--especially when he would not know or care anyway. But, I was super excited when they came across this great deal and brought it over for Kai. So, we dressed Kai up in his little pumpkin costume and and every time the doorbell rang he would run to Caitlin or Melissa so that they could take him downstairs to answer the door. He had a great time handing out candy...although, we were probably the slowest house in the neighborhood to get candy from since he would get distracted by their costumes and just stare sometimes. But, all in all he did a great job and I was very grateful for Caitlin and Melissa's help in answering the door a zillion times:) Here are some pictures of our little pumpkin

Handing out candy with Caitlin

Showing us the candy he is eating. He had his first candy yesterday (at least the first I have given him) and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Pumpkin Carving

Kai had lots of fun carving his pumpkin last night. He LOVED playing with the gooey insides of the pumpkin...he was entertained for quite a while. The boys were a little indecisive about what to carve but in the end agreed on the Super Kai logo...well done Daddy:)

Fall

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. It was perfect for kids...animals, corn maze, hay pyramid to climb on, hayride to the patch, and lots and lots of pumpkins. Here are a few of the zillion pictures I took...