Kaya lost her first tooth this morning! Bottom middle right.  It's been loose since Monday when we were in Maine!

Hide and Seek

So today Brandon was chasing a ball around the family room, and I turned my back for one second (to put something in the dishwasher when he wasn't looking since he goes insane when he sees it open!). So suddenly he disappears and then I call for him and hear his trademark ahhh aaa sound from behind the couch. I have never lost him behind the couch before! Also today was his last day in the infant room :( we loved it there! But it is time to move up (after our Maine vacation)

Another tooth!

Brandon's next tooth is coming in - the other top middle one. Very cute!

Standing up from a crawl

today was the first time I've seen Brandon stand up right from a crawl.  Usually he crawls over to something first, pulls up, and then walks, but today he's been standing up directly and he is very stable.  He's also been chasing Kaya around the island, which is cute (and distracting as I type this up!).

Brandon the Model

Here are his 10th month pictures from the Picture People!


Love this one!




Action Shot: You can tell he's on the move!



Definitely Chadd's kid!



Not a great shot, but I love that you can see him standing





He loved this drum!



Enough already!



Mr. B's Bad list

I feel like I should make a list of all the "bad" things Mr. B tries to do. 

- pull up on the oven handle
- stand on the dishwasher door when it's open
- bite the cat(s)
-sit on the cat (Guiness, because Morphey has a brain)
-knock over the fire extinguisher
- bite the hairdryer
- climb through his exersaucer
- break the mini blinds
- push Kaya's table around the room

and this is just the short list.  I also need to write about his love of the palm tree on our porch, but that is a whole separate post.

Party and Bolt

The kids and I spend alot of time in the car driving to and from school and work, so we listen to satellite radio alot.  Kaya loves so many of the songs and always tries to get me to buy them on itunes..but that is another topic.  So on Monday, we heard this one song, and the girl in the song is saying how she wants to "party, and bolt, party, and bolt".  Okay, so I think that is what she's singing anyway.  After the song Kaya asked me "why does she want to party" (or so I thought).  I answered something to the effect of "you know, she wants to party, parties are fun, etc etc". 
Kaya's response? "Oh.  I thought she was saying she wanted to potty!".  I had to laugh out loud.

Mr. B's shoes!

Yesterday (Sunday)  I took Mr. B to StrideRight and we had him measured for (and purchased) his first official pair of shoes!!  He's a size 4.5 and his shoes are super cute - gray and orange.  Daddy wishes he had a matching pair!  Mr. B. is now practicing walking in them - he doesn't really like wearing shoes (or socks, or even pants for that matter) too much, but now that he is walking more regularly it is time to get him used to protecting his feet. 

Cold Hair

Ever since she was a baby, Kaya has had a thing for hair.  When I carried her around as a little one, she would always have at least one arm wrapped around my neck so that she could grab my ponytail.  For years she has fallen asleep or gone into relaxation mode while holding onto a piece of my (or a grandma's hair).  Now that she is older and can express what she is thinking, she's been asking specifically to grab my hair - or others.  For example:
- Last night as I was laying with her in bed, she asked me to "please remove my ponytail so that she could find my cold hair".
- She has tried to grab Papa's hair, only to find (and comment) that it's not long enough to grab.
- She loves to grab Momo's and Nanae's hair
- sometimes she has commented that someone's hair is "not cold enough".
It's really too cute that she finds hair as a comfort object.  :)

Big Sister Helpfulness

One of the nice things about having a kid 4 years older, is that the big kid can help feed the little kid! Too bad she won't help with diapers.

A Kaya Motorcycle Memory

Kaya played alot of starfall, and one of her (many) favorite parts was M for motorcycle.  She would get so excited everytime the motorcycle would "pop a wheelie!"  Later on, on the way home, she told me how she wanted to ride a motorcyle sometime, and I could ride behind her.  too funny.  she wanted our motorcycle to be red, momo's to be purple, and papa's to be pink!

Mr. B is really moving now

He's really a speed demon now! we are very proud of him.  He has started to walk across the house basically.  He can stop, start, and turn on a dime, and he can even recover if he starts to trip.  Yesterday he walked while quite intentionally kicking a toy like a soccor ball.  We have our hands full with this one for sure.  We have had to remove all the knobs from the stove since he likes to rip them off, we had to remove the lowest book shelf because he was trying to use the bean bag chair as a bridge to climb up to it.  It was really only a matter of time before he was swinging from it anyway.  The other night I gave him an aluminum bowl to play with, thinking that since it is shiny, silver, and metal that it would appeal to him.  I was right - but he then proceeded to rip the metal handle and latch off the side.
Over this past week we've been pushing the finger foods and table foods a bit. So far he loves cheerios, and has had small bits of pears (liked), avocado (wasn't sure), and shredded cheese (seemed indifferent). he did not like the veggie burger for sure.

Kaya's first bowling trip

Kaya went bowling with school yesterday, and she loved it!  She even got a strike!  Her teacher told me that Kaya's method of bowling was to quick roll the ball, then run away from the lane, and then look back to see where it went.  hey - that's Mommy's method of bowling too!  The pictures of these kids in little bowling shoes were way too cute. :)

On the way home from school, Kaya informed me that she was ready to go back to Disney "right this second".  She said that she hadn't been there in "a whole month" (it's been 18 months) and that she wanted to ride the Dumbo ride again. When I told her maybe we could ride a similar ride at Hershey she informed me the Dumbo right has elephants.  She also remembers how she and I had to hide from the loud fireworks at Epcot.  Considering this happened a year and a half ago, I am impressed with her memory!

Brandon has been doing great.  He's been taking a ton of steps and getting really brave! And his top middle right tooth is DEFINITELY on it's way in, we can see the whole outline of it now.  It is really hard get a glimpse of it because he is so wiggly. Hopefully this is the cause of his sleep issues because we could really use some extra rest.

A Kaya Pizza Memory

back when Kaya was one, she was eating Pizza with Momo and Papa and Momo was cutting Kaya's pizza up into these tiny.little.pieces.  Which was appropriate because Kaya was practicing with finger foods still and that's what we typically did at that time - cut her food up into small pieces so that it was more managable for her.   Anyway, this one time, Papa was holding Kaya while Momo prepped the pizza, and Papa was holding his own slice of pizza in his other hand.  Kaya must have been hungry and tired of waiting, because she leaned over and took a huge chomp out of his pizza slice :)

Mr. B is Walking

Brandon has been taking lots of steps recently - he started taking steps in May and over the past week has been able to take several steps in a row towards Mommy or a cat or something he really wants.  But last night he took tons of steps totally unassisted - even out to the center of the room.   Probably at least 10-15.  And he's cruising alot faster too.  He seems very proud of himself.  I will try to post a video when I can!

Official start of walking : July 1, 2012.  Now if only I could get him to stop eating the fuzz from the carpets!

In addition to walking, I think there might be a top tooth coming in - middle front, the one on the right.  I thought I saw a little white spot.  Might be a false alarm so I will keep you posted.

In related news, he is still sleeping like crap!  I even fed him FOUR solid meals yesterday and mixed formula in with his oatmeal in an attempt to fill his tummy.  He still woke up about 4 times overnight.  I have to conclude that he is either teething, has an ear inection again, or is waking up out of habit.

Uncle John the Swim Whisperer

As you know, Kaya finished swim lessons a few weeks ago.  And although she was successful, she has been afraid still to go into the pool without her swim vest on.  So we've been using that which is fine because if she gets tired then I dont worry because the swim vest is a backup.  Anyway, Uncle John is home for the 4th of July and was able to visit Friday night.  Kaya was in the pool and was suddenly MORE than happy to show him (minus the vest) everything she learned in swimming! Seriously, she had that vest off so fast it was incredible.  Uncle John must have a special type of magic because she would never do this for us.  :)
(Looks like she remembers everything she learned too - bobs, face in water with eyes open, superman, taking arm strokes, roll overs, etc). 

Water

 

We opened the pool on Sunday, and Kaya and Brandon had a fabulous time in the water! Brandon is so crazy - chadd held him very tightly while he stood on the steps, but the kid got a face full of water many times!

Also the kid is a bit of a daredevil.  here is a picture of him pulling up on the oven handle.  He actually gets his feet higher up on the glass, but we have been too afraid to get a picture of that yet!  On Tuesday, he did a chin up like this on the door handle of the fridge at school.  It's just a mini fridge so it doesn't even have a real handle, just a little indentation that is used to open the door. I think we have a climber on our hands.

Haircut for Kaya

I cut several inches off of Kaya's hair this morning (at her request - I gave her the option of going out to get it cut professionally or by Mommy and she chose Mommy) and it looks so great! Lots of compliments on it from family, friends, and school.  Not only is she super cute, but it has all these added benefits: doesn't get caught in clothes while getting dressed, doesn't get caught in car seat straps, no more tangles/knots to brush out and scream over, plus she likes it.  Too bad Baby Brother still wants to pull it!

Abigale's 5th Birthday

We went to Abigale's 5th birthday party on Saturday, and both kids had a great time.  Kaya especially loved playing dress up with Morgan in the basement.  The girls were too funny with all the stuff they put on, plus they were walking around in these plastic play heels that I bet I couldn't even walk in, given the opportunity. 

She also hurt her right wrist a little bit on the big bouncey slide.  She walked around the rest of the day calling it her "ankle" and then informed me later that she knew it was really her wrist, but that she liked saying ankle better. 

Brandon had a good time playing with Alex's toys and biting whatever he could. ha ha.

Earlier in the morning we visited the grandparents and great grandparents for lunch in Reading.  A very nice Saturday!

Giving it a shot

In October, a month after her 4th birthday, Kaya had to go to the doctor and get her 4 year old shots.  She got two shots - one in each arm.  She was so upset at the doctors office and was screaming and crying and carrying on, and at one point she stated that she "didn't want holes in her arms" and why did "they put holes in my arms".  The doctor and nurse actually had to turn away so she wouldn't see them starting to crack up, because they had never heard that one before. 

She was fine by the time we got to the car by the way. 

However she worried about shots for weeks after that.  And then at Momo's house one day, Momo was saying they would go do something, and said something to the effect "Let's give it a shot!" and Kaya was completely shocked - like "shots?!".

Update in June 2012 - Kaya informed me that she wants to go to the doctor so that she can get two shots, and get two band aids - one with scooby doo, and one with garfield.  kids are funny.

In the car with the kids

I spend alot of time in the car with these two kids, since their school is across the street from my job, which is about 45 minutes from home.  So Kaya and I do alot of talking.  Mr. B. doesn't talk yet, but he does try to speak/scream while he tries to abuse his toy squeaky book.  He's so destructive!  Another post on that topic later.

So in the car Kaya and I have some good conversations.  Lately she's been really interested in driving.  For example, a few weeks ago she told me that she knew how to drive already, but her legs just weren't long enough.  She also knows what the pedestrian crossing sign looks like, all of the traffic signals, and today was asking me about brake lights. She always wants me to speed up so that we can make it through green lights! I am pretty sure I will hire a professional when it comes time for her to get her learner's permit.

First Field Trip / Bus Ride

Kaya went on her first school field trip today.  They went to the Upper Merion Township park.  It was her first ride on a bus too.  And she got to share a seat with Ryan.  Thank goodness!!!

 These kids were only too happy to pose for pictures.  Jasper has a great smile.  I love this picture of Ryan and Kaya alone at the table having snack.  It seems like they are having a serious discussion about those blueberries!

Kaya's Swim Lessons at West Chester

For the second year in a row, Kaya is taking the intense lessons at West Chester university.  This year she is learning how to take arm strokes and kick while on her belly, and then roll over and swim on her back.  It's really a great program!  Getting her there has been a little dramatic.  It went something like this..
Day 1: lots of whining about going, crying, and having to be torn from Nanae when it was time to go in.  Mommy hid outside with Brandon.  The funny thing was that JJ was the teacher who got to lead her down to her class.  JJ was a great teacher last year in Nanae's pool, but the poor kid always gets the blame from Kaya for being the first person to teach her how to swim this way.  She had a phobia about swimming for so long - anyway it is ironic that of the 20 or so teachers that are leading the kids down, she gets JJ.  Too funny!!!
Day 2: More screaming, big fit in the locker room to get her in her suit, which gets stretched out during the process.  the process being that both Mommy and Nanae have to physically stuff her into the suit while she trying to Karate kick us.  Meanwhile, Brandon looks on from his stroller wearing his best (and much practiced "what the %#>! is wrong with my big sister" expression.
Day 3:.  Less whining and more cooperation.  Still many tears.
Day 4:  Less whining, less tears.
Day 5.  NO WHINING.  Calm kid.  very odd.
Day 6.  Kaya informs us that she "likes swim lessons now".  Has H8ll frozen over?  Kaya has been talking about how she likes her teacher and her classmates, who are named John and Chris. They all like to burp at each other from what I can see.   Also Momo came to watch today.
Day 7: Kaya states that she wants to sign up for another 10 lesson session.  Pretty sure I have mixed up kids somehow.  Momo and Papa came to watch today.   They started practicing jumping in from the side of the pool.
Day 8: Still happy to go, no whining, no drama.  I have almost stopped dreading this routine!!
Day 9:  Kaya is ready to be done with lessons, but is taking big arm strokes now.  She also jumped off the driving board!!! I have it on video.  I am so proud of this kid.

Day 10: swim lessons ended well! She loved Devon as a teacher and was proud to be done.

Bright Horizons and Ms. Elizabeth and Infant 1

Kaya loves, loves, loves Ms. Elizabeth, who was her preschool teacher from January though the beginning of April.   Then Ms. Elizabeth moved into the infant room to be Brandon's teacher!  Every single day, Kaya has to go and hug her hello in the morning, and goodbye in the afternoon (and sometimes she gets to hug her at other points throughout the day too!).  She just loves her so much.  Kaya is very behaved when visiting the infant room and loves to play with the baby toys and to crawl through their tunnel.  She gets so excited to see Ms. Elizabeth when she gets to the door that she gets up on her tiptoes and does this crazy little dance, and then shakes and acts like a status (with this crazy smile included). 

Brandon is doing great in school!  The first few weeks in the infant room he would get a head bump every day because he was always pulling up on something, or trying to rip something off the wall, and he wasn't very stable with standing yet.   he has falled from pulling up on the mini book shelves, he has falled after crawling on top of the drum, and he has tried to climb up on one shelf, then onto another shelf, in order to get at a radio.  He's so crazy.  We call him the Bruiser now.   I was joking that I should get a stamp for signing my name since I have had to sign so many of his incident reports.  After a few weeks that stopped and now he is very very stable! he started to take his first steps at the end of May and is taking even more now in June.



We also got a very funny school picture taken of Brandon where he looks like this giant baby growing out of a flower patch! It doesn't look like him at all, but it is hysterical.

Swim lessons and the diving board

Kaya jumps off the diving board about 40 seconds into this movie.  :)

Brandon the climber

Brandon has started using toys to climb up on other things - so a few toys have been retired!  and he has been trying to swing from the oven and can get his feet above the glass! what a crazy boy.  I immediately purchased yet another baby gate from amazon.

Hershey Park Trip

Kaya has had an awesome month!  On Saturday Jun 9, we went to Hershey Park with Momo and Papa.  Kaya got to ride her first roller coaster that went upside down with Papa, and later with Mommy.  She rode the Super Duper Looper and loved it!  Papa bought her an "I survived the super duper looper tshirt" to document the experience.  She also loved riding this spinny ride called the falcon.  Mommy and Papa thought it was scary, Daddy thought it was ok, but Kaya insists this is her favorite ride ever!  Kaya also was able to ride the Trailblazer, the Whip, the Kissing tower with Mommy and Brandon, and so many other rides at Hershey.  And then she got to eat cotton candy at the end of the night.  What a great park!  She also went home to spend the night with Momo and Papa.  What a great day.   Good thing we have season passes this year.
Brandon seemed to enjoy Hershey too, although he was stuck in the stroller most of the day and was very patient!  he did like trying to eat the grass near the trailblazer when Mommy took him there for a little break.  Poor guy didn't get to ride anything but the kissing tower, but next year he'll be ready for more!

Brandon is 9 months!

Big Sister Helpfulness

One of the nice things about having a kid 4 years older, is that the big kid can help feed the little kid! Too bad she won't help with diapers.

I also love this picture of them on opposite sides of the door. Pretty sure Kaya is pretending to be either a mean dragon or a mean dog. Not sure why the dragon and/or dog can't be nice for a change.

The Exersaucer

Mr. B was so tired tonight, he passed out in his exersaucer. Cute!

Dutch Wonderland and Mother's Day

We went to Dutch Wonderland for Mother's Day.  It was a great day - great weather! And we bought combo season passes to DW and Hershey park, so it is going to be a fun summer!  Kaya had a great time at DW - she got to ride the skyride for the first time with Daddy (in previous years Mommy was too afraid to let her ride.) and while she was on the skyride she saw that there were REAL horses to ride!  So of course we had to get her a horse ride, and we bought her the extra red hat too.  And the overpriced but priceless photo from DW.  It was such a great day!  What a great weekend too. :)

For mothers day the kids made stuff at school - a bag with brandon's footprints on it, and a card with a picture of Kaya.  I love school for being brave enough to paint my baby's feet and then deal with the aftermath (he hates it!) afterward.

Brandon is 8 months!



8 month picture



during which he wanted to eat the sign..

Checking to see who is taller!