Odds and Ends

Other than ripping holes in our jeans from so much play time on the floor, this is what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks...

Alec's 2nd Birthday Party

As usual, Kai enjoyed the birthday feast :)

Last week we had so much rain that our backyard became completely flooded!

Having Grandpa and Grandma here was a special treat, especially when Grandpa was willing to make great faces along with one of Kai's favorite library books, "Funny Face".

Kai also had a great time making playdough cookies and other treats with Grandma.

Grandpa and Grandma also brought lots of Easter eggs which Kai loved hunting for.

Kai immediately proclaimed that this duck was his "favourite friend" :)



 

Our first bike ride of the season.

We celebrated 2 years of owning/living in our house on March 20th.

The other day Kai wanted to go outside, so I asked him to go get his outside clothes on.  This is what he looked like when he reappeared a few minutes later :)

Lunch time reading with daddy.

Surviving without Bryon/Daddy

As I've probably mentioned a lot before, Bryon is really busy at this time of year which means we don't see him much, and last week he was gone on his much-deserved and much-needed mid-season tax break which meant we didn't see him at all.  He had a great time with four of his college friends on a ski trip to Revelstoke B.C. (sadly he forgot the camera so I have no fun skiing pictures to share).  We sure missed him, but I made sure to have lots of fun things planned to keep us busy/sane in the meantime :)

Trying on mommy's clothes is always fun.

This craft was fun too, but I'm pretty sure some glue-covered Cheerios were ingested in the process :)

 

The sun came out and City Beach Park was beautiful so we spent a couple of mornings there.

Kai likes feeding the lion, but always gets frustrated when the lion doesn't actually eat what he is offering!

Sometimes he puts sand on top of the lion and then brushes it off while saying, "I'm giving the lion a hair cut".  Apparently this is very exciting!

This is a typical movie-watching pose.

Cedar St. Bridge is an old covered bridge crossing Sand Creek, which now houses several shops and restaurants.  Recently they added a place called "Creations" which has loads of art supplies for children to create crafts as well as a bunch of toys which Kai enjoys just as much as the crafts.  We've been going there most Fridays with friends which makes for a great end to our week.

We attempted real finger-painting this week which Kai wasn't too sure about at first, but quickly entered into enthusiastically.

And we used paint brushes to paint our cardboard barn.

Rewind 4 1/2 months...

I wrote this post about Kai a few days after he turned 2, and then (as I often do) forgot to finish it and forgot to post it.  So, it's not complete, but my memory is failing me (already!) and I'll just post it as is.  Without further ado, let's rewind 4 1/2 months to see what Kai was up to at the age of 2.

I realize it's so cliche to say this, but where have the last 2 years gone?  My baby is 2!  It's hard to believe, except when I see/hear/feel his attitude I fully believe it :) Yes, 2 is definitely here and I have to admit that the attitude is already exhausting me a little bit.  And, people keep telling me that 2 is mild compared to 3!

In its own way, 2 is really wonderful.  In fact, in many ways it's even better than any age before it, but it does have its difficult moments.

These days our house is filled with many opinions, emotions and words like, "No!", "I do it myself" and "Hey, watch out!" as our little terror busts around, running, jumping, slipping, falling, wrestling and enjoying the new found freedom of opening doors.

In addition to the chaos though, there are times of peace.  As always, I am so thankful for Kai's love of reading because it means that we get to sit and cuddle while learning all kinds of new things.  Kai has never been a sitter.  He has always hated to just sit on our laps unless we have either food or books.  So, we unashamedly use these things to bribe a cuddle out of him. :)  Reading is also fun these days since I randomly discovered that Kai not only has the main plots of the stories memorized, but the actual words.  One evening I paused before the last word of a sentence while reading to him and he blurted out the word correctly.  So I started experimenting and soon discovered that even in books that we hadn't read together for weeks, he knew the last word/s in every sentence!  It continues to amaze me how incredibly fast/well their little brains are growing and working at this age.

These days Kai also loves to help out and be involved in anything we're doing.  He especially enjoys "helping" me make supper.  He likes to set the table and  stand up on a chair at the counter and ask innumerable times, "What's this?" or "What's that?", while sampling all of the ingredients he can get his little hands on.  He also sneaks many plums and apples for himself when I'm up on the ladder picking from our abundant fruit trees.  I'm sure that at his check-up next week we'll see that he has no problems with his weight!
I keep reminding myself that Kai might not always want to hang out with Bryon and me as much as he does now.  He is constantly saying, "Mommy come too-too" as he tries to entice me to participate in all of his adventures, and although I may have other things I want to get done, I've been trying to put those aside to enjoy these little moments together with him.

Changing Mr. Duplo's diaper :)  And of course, there is always a truck close by.