January and February in a Nutshell

Since today is the last day of February and I have a lovely new computer to work on, I thought I'd quickly throw a blog together of what we've been up to for the past two months.  Between potty training, lots of snow, time with friends and lots of time at home while Bryon is busy with tax season, Kai and I have managed to keep busy.  In fact, he often tells me, "I'm soooo busy!".

After being potty trained, Kai thought he needed to teach his new skill to Bear Bear.

  

As usual, we spent lots of time playing with cars.

Kai's new-found joy is hot chocolate which is our special treat after cold mornings out shoveling our sidewalks.

Finger-painting in ziploc bags is my idea of a messy activity done right :)  Kai is quite proud of his ability to make a lower case "i".

We also cleared out our rug and made masking tape roads all over our living room.

And, leftover styrofoam came in handy for practicing our letters.

Green beans work well for that too!

I used to make trains like this with my mom when I was Kai's age.

Holidays

After not having a computer for the past few weeks, here is a much belated update!

On Boxing Day (that's December 26th for all you Americans), we flew down to Colorado to be with Bryon's family.  Since his siblings had just flown in from China a couple of days before, we decided to give them a chance to get over jet lag before we arrived.  Our flight there was wonderful, with Kai having his own seat and being completely content with an iPod, cars, books and Etch-A-Sketch.  Then, Bryon and I continued to have a fun week with lots of time with family and friends.  Kai, however, had a rougher week.  In addition to not sleeping well the entire time we were there, and being fairly non-verbal (not usual for him at all!), he also got sick.  This meant lots of cuddle time for us (he even slept with us one night, which is unheard of for us), but not so much fun for him.  He kept telling us, "I need to go home."  I guess just like most people, it's harder for kids to be sick when they're away from their familiar home surroundings.  However, in the midst of all of this, he did have many fun moments with the family and was, as usual, spoiled rotten :)

On New Year's Day we flew home, quickly did some laundry, repacked and left for Seattle in the morning.  Bryon was taking a tax course there for a couple of days, and meanwhile Kai and I went up to Aldergrove to be with my family.  Thankfully Kai slept better that week, although he was still not feeling too well which made him out of sorts.    However, one highlight of his week was his trip to the Vancouver Aquarium with Bryon.  I was in Victoria with some girlfriends that day so I wasn't there to witness it, but he was apparently a mixture of completely in awe/completely scared of all of the fish, dolphins, whales etc.  He even got to see his first 4D movie which he loved!  I wish I could have been there to enjoy it with Bryon and him, but we'll put it on our to-do list for our next visit up north.

Anyways, although it was a good holiday, we are all happy to be home once again.

"Christmas" morning.

Our sweet little niece, Anna.  She was so content to just sit and hang out.  We're so not used to that, but we enjoyed it!

Aren't they so cute in their matching Brazil jerseys from China?

Andrew, very sweetly, read to Kai, and Kai was completely captivated.

Hanging out with cousin Danny.

And, 20 minutes later he fell asleep as we were eating...a sure sign that Kai is sick.

Lots of fun times playing with his cousin Andrew.

The best I could do at getting a picture of these two sitting still and sort of looking at the camera!

The one and only picture I got of us with friends on our whole trip...so, not the best picture but had to post it nonetheless.  Thanks for a fun dinner out JCH III and Emily!

Miracle of miracles, Kai fell asleep on the plane ride home :)

Fun with friends in Victoria.

  

Goofy cousins!

Kai ate lots and lots of blueberries at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Abby was a great bedtime story reader.

Fondue night with Grandpa and Grandma while I was out.  I heard it was quite a hit!

Notice Kai's lovely Canuck's hat from Crystal.  Thanks Crystal.  We love it!

A birthday lunch for me (30 years old!! Eek!) and Jeff (39...that makes me feel better!).

The 2 music boxes in front of Kai are his favourite things at my parents' house.  One of them has pictures of the four grandkids, and the other has snowmen that ice-skate around.