This is what we do...

...when it snows, rains, or is just plain or dreary, wet and cold.

We go for walks on the ice in the freezing cold.

We chill out on the porch while mommy shovels the sidewalks.

We bake muffins while wearing our long underwear.

We attempt to walk in the deep snow and tell mommy to get a move on with the shoveling.

We fall down.

And try to get up.

But just fall down again and beg mommy to let us go inside where we can walk properly.

We play with our nativity set.

And of course we play with balls.

We ride our new rocking horse while growling and making ferocious faces.

We play hide and seek in our newest favourite hiding spot.

We try on daddy's tuques and blindly play soccer.

And when things get really desperate, we rent our first Baby Einstein video at the library.

And, best of all, when daddy gives me a bath, he lets me run around naked.



We clean the house.

 

And that's what we do.

Gramma and Papa!

Gramma and Papa came to visit us, and as usual it rained for their visit :( 
But, we still had lots of fun despite the bad weather.  Basically, Kai was just happy to have two very attentive attendants at his beck and call :)

Gramma and Papa brought Kai some new onesies and he wanted to model them right away, along with his fleece from Aunty Lala.





Kai loved that Papa let him use his cell phone.

Getting ready for a few ski runs at Schweitzer with Papa, daddy and mommy, while Gramma shuttled us from the bottom of the run to the top (they don't let Kai on the lift yet).

Papa and Gramma treated us to a night in Spokane before they flew out the next day.  We stayed in a  nice hotel right on the river, walked, shopped and dined downtown and had lots of fun in the hotel pool. 

Fourteen Months and Counting...

Tomorrow, our sweet, exuberant, mischievious, persistent and loveable little boy will be 15 months old. 
So, before he leaves 14 months behind, here is a post I've had written for a while and just found in my drafts.

Joy.

I would say that fourteen months is an age of joy.  Yes, there may be the occasional tears and screams, but overall there is just so much joy radiating from our little guy, and that makes my heart so happy.

I figured it was time for a Kai update, more for my sake than yours.  Sometimes life just gets away from me, and I need to sit down and reflect on what is going on in the present.

Favorite Activities:

- Walking - yes, we have a walker!!  He took his first tentative steps just after he turned a year, and is now a full-fledged walker/runner.  This has resulted in many many bruises, welts and goose-eggs but he perseveres as we applaud.

- Throwing and kicking any and every ball in sight.  Kai still has a great obsession with balls and would be entirely content if he had no other toys.  The other day he was at a friend's house and after pawing through all of the toys and not finding a ball, he settled for playing with a plastic tomato for the rest of the day :)

- Playing in the snow - sledding and skiing!! (much to his father's delight)

- Reading, either to himself or with us.  Often he'll sign "more" repeatedly so that we'll read the same story over and over to him.

- Hide and Seek.
- Being chased and tickled (okay, maybe I just like doing the last one to him!)

Least Favorite Activities:

- Being held for too long (unless we're reading to him).

- Riding in the car seat for long periods of time.

- Having his diaper changed.

- Pretty much anything that requires him to stay still!

Favorite Foods:

- He is currently obsessed with kiwis.  His appetite surpasses mine (no small feat!) at many meals.  And, he hates to have an empty plate sitting in front of him.  As soon as his plate is clean he holds it in the air until we take it away from him or refill it.

Idiosyncrasies:

- Still loves to eat anything fuzzy - from dust bunnies to lint.

Attachments:

- His "heehee" blanket.  This is a blanket that was originally my brother's, then mine and now Kai's.  As I've mentioned before, he adores it but we don't let him take it out of his room (otherwise I'm sure it would go everywhere with us, and it's not small!).  The other day I decided to wash it before his morning nap, and when he went up to his room to play after breakfast, he walked around for about 5 minutes looking in every conceivable hiding spot, saying "oh no" in a sad pitiful voice the whole time.  Then when I showed him that it was in the washing machine, he wailed "oh no" until it was finished washing, and then wailed again when I put it in the dryer.  "Oh no" is right! 

Words:

- He understands so much these days, but still doesn't say too many words.  His current favorites though are "oh no" and "wow".  He uses them repeatedly, and will even create situations in which to use them, such as hiding one of his balls, saying "oh no", removing it from his hiding spot and saying "wow!".

- He is also very expressive with his hands, and has some very funny gestures (thankfully all appropriate ones!) that he uses consistently.

Holiday Fun

Ugly Christmas Sweater party 2010 courtesy of our small group.  Good times.

The party was perfect timing since we'd already bought these ensembles for our family Christmas card :)

Breakfast burritos at Joel's before Brian Dreibert left us after a fun visit and an apparently epic day of skiing at Schweitzer with Bryon and friends.

As we contemplated various New Year's Eve activities, we decided that just being home sounded really good.  But, during the day we did go with our neighbours to take our kiddos swimming.

Christmas 2010

We celebrated Christmas Canadian style this year since it was our year to be with my family.  O.J. wasn't home, but the rest of our immediate family was able to be together, even Great Grandma Gamache.  It was a very fun and relaxing holiday, despite Santa delivering 2 new front teeth to Kai for Christmas :)  Thankfully we had grandparents/aunt/uncle/cousins to entertain the wee monster while Bryon and I caught up on some much needed sleep after a not so restful night.

As usual, I wish I'd taken more pictures but here are a few to share...

The grandkids. 

You wouldn't believe how hard we worked to get Kai to even give this much of a smile.  He's definitely not into posed pictures.

We opened presents on Christmas Eve.

Kai thought it was so funny when he'd pull off a tiny piece of paper.  This made for quite the long gift-opening process.

The kids and Bryon and I made a treasure hunt for my mom to find her gift since this is what she always does for us.

She had to solve all kinds of rhyming (thanks to Bryon) riddles, and perform a few tasks such as singing Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer.

Kai danced the whole time that grandma and Emma were singing :)

Christmas PJs, and a new book before bed.

Then the party really got started!  Yes, this is my 64 year old mom and 90 year old grandma playing Wii!!

Stockings and breakfast at grandma and grandpa's on Christmas morning.

Christmas dinner was lovely, with both family and friends there to celebrate.  Kai especially Loved the cherry pie, just like his daddy.

But, he wasn't so much into us forcing him to don the crown from his Christmas cracker (that's a Canadian tradition for all of you Americans!).

Getting ready to ski at Hemlock.  It was a great day until my sister-in-law Jenn hurt her knee badly on one of the runs.  Sad ending to a fun day.

We ended our 5 days in Canada with a combined birthday celebration for my mom and dad.  Their birthdays are just one week apart, and they both turned 64 this year.