Busy December

 

Just like everyone else, we have had quite a busy December. We are really looking forward to Christmas this year - it's the first year that Kerala seems to really get it. She has been into decorating the house, wrapping presents, making presents and walking around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. Last night, Kerala and I walked around a few blocks looking at all the lights and had such a blast. Everytime she would see a new house with lights on it, she would run up and scream "Look Mommy!" It was really fun. She keeps asking for Santa to bring chocolate which is just really sweet - occasionally she will also say that she wants a digital camara like her friend Griffin, but for the most part she just has her heart set on chocolate. Speaking of Griffin, Kerala went up to her buddy today at art class and said "Griffin, I want a hug." Griffin wasn't too psyched about giving her a hug, which is surprising since at the beginning of the class he told Ms. Carrie that Kerala was his wife.

Kian is doing really well. We had his nine month visit last week. He did not do well with shots, it took him much longer to calm down then in past visits. He is still pretty tall, but is thinning out a bit. The doctor said it was normal since he is very active and his milk intake has started to decrease with the increase in solids. The doctor was very impressed with his physical and verbal development - he kept yapping at the doctor the whole visit. Kian is still working out cruising and has even stood a couple of times by himself. He also seems to have taken a turn with solids - the last two days he has devoured grilled cheese pieces. Right now, he is on soy cheese since he seems to have a slight sensitivty to dairy products, but the doctor said to try moving him to cow dairy products in another month or so. He has been a bit fussier than normal because he has a cold - but when I say fussier than normal he is still generally a pretty happy little guy.

 

Kerala and Kian - BFF

 

Kerala has been really sweet with Kian lately. Last week at art class she was suppose to paint things that made her happy and all she wanted to paint was Kian and music. Also, as Kerala and I were walking to a holiday market in our neighborhood this past weekend, she told me that she wanted to buy Kian something for Christmas at the market. It was really cute - she ended up picking out a somewhat expensive Mario Brothers ornament which I ended up persuading her not to get. Finally, she kept giving Kian little kisses on his head and telling him everything would be okay while I was comforting him after a fall this weekend. It's so sweet to see how nurturing she is with him.

Kian is doing really well. He is starting to move along with finger food. So far we have tried the Gerber puffs, shredded apples and cheerios. It's pretty cute because he will start to kick his legs when he sees the finger foods. He is also doing really well with cruising on furniture and will even move from one peice of furniture to another so long as they are pretty close to each other. Troy and I need to start video taping him - we were lucky enough to catch the night Kerala first stood up by herself on video, so we are hoping to do that again with Kian. He is still such a happy little guy and always laughs and smiles - it's just unbelievable how mellow he is.

Happy Belated Halloween

 

I have been meaning to post Halloween pictures for the past two weeks, but I have been busy at work. So a belated Halloween update. Kerala was a ghost (thanks Grandma Perry for the costume) and Kian was a pumpkin. We tried getting Kian to wear the mouse costume that Kerala wore the last two years, but he wanted nothing to do with it. The week leading up to Halloween was full of Halloween parties. The Sunday before, we had a pumpkin carving party at Kerala's art studio. Kerala painted a pumpkin and did a ton of other Halloween crafts. Kerala and Kian wore their Halloween costumes to Spanish and music class that week and had a little Halloween party at our house with a couple kids that they regularly play with. We started off Halloween with ballet class - most of the kids wore there costumes which was really cute and then we made our way down to Wicker Park for a Halloween festival and trick or treating with Kerala's buddy Griffin. Kerala had a lot of fun at the festival but did have a major freak out because of the band that was playing there - it was just too noisy for her. After we came back for lunch and naps, we headed out to visit my mom and then to our friends' annual Halloween Party. Kerala did really well with trick or treating. Kian was not a fan, but I think it was just too cold for him. The only downside to the day was that Kerala was way too amped up for sleeping.

 

Since our last post, Kerala has been really into doing puzzles and learning her letters. She does a couple of puzzles each day and is getting to the point where she does them without our assistance. One of the puzzles is an alphabet train and it's been a great way to help Kerala learn her letters. Also, we have made great progress on potty training - today was our first day with no accidents. I am so excited about the prospect of only one in diapers.

 

Kian has been pulling up on everything and has learned how to climb up the stairs this past week (scary)! He is progressing okay with his solids - he doesn't seem to be moving as quickly as Kerala in this area and he still will not take a bottle or sippy cup. Also, whenever he sees the camara he busts out in a smile which is really cute.

First Dentist Appointment and My Tough Guy

 

Kerala had her first dentist appointment this past week. It went pretty well - Kerala has no signs of any tooth decay which is great, but the appointment was a bit rough. The pediatric dentist was wonderful. The dentist demonstrated exactly what she would do to Kerala on a stuffed bear, Kerala was able to sit in my lap for the exam and the dentist was able to do the whole exam and teeth cleaning while singing "Wheels on the Bus." Kerala was just not happy and screamed during the exam - understandable since I am sure it was scary for her. She perked up as soon as we left and headed off to art class. This past week was probably the coolest class yet. Kerala and her buddy Griffin painted canvas and then got to splatter paint on the canvas. They were basically trying to replicate the work of Jackson Pollock. Kerala had a blast and I can't wait to pick up her final work product this week. I can't say it enough, her art class is by far the best kids' class we have been to (and we have been to a lot). She just lights up when she talks about it and as soon as we walk into the studio.

I know I have written over and over about how easy Kian is as a baby - well this past week he amazed us all by not even crying during his flu shot. He just looked down at where the nurse stuck him with the needle and went on with his business. We also had the nurse do a weight check on Kian since I have been a bit concerned about his milk intake. Good news is the boy has gained over a pound this past month. He is still progressing with his pulling up - although he pulls up a lot in the bath which is not an ideal place for him to practice. He also kept trying to "swim" in the bath. He would lay on his belly and just flap his arms and legs - he was having a blast.





 

Updates

 

I know it's been awhile since we have blogged, but we have had a lot going on. I went back to work about two weeks ago so you can expect fewer blogs from us compared to when I was on leave. So far we are all adjusting pretty well to me being back at work. I am home on Mondays with the kids which has been wonderful and I have been getting home fairly early the other days of the week. Kerala loves our new nanny, Emily, and the change for her has been almost seemless. For Kian, he has had a bit of a hard time because he will not take a bottle. Emily has been doing a great job with spoon feeding him his milk or using a dropper so he gets plenty of milk during the day, just not in a traditional way. Any suggestions on bottles/sippies would be appreciated.

This past weekend we discovered that Kian can do his first "trick." When you sing the hello song from his music class he will move his arms up and down like we do in class. Although it is a pretty simple act, it's pretty amazing because you see that he just gets it. It's so cool. We did experiment and he seems to only do the arm motions with the hello song. He also is an official crawler and has been pulling up on things. We have to be pretty careful because he is very strong and he can tip over his leap frog table by pushing on it.

Kerala is doing really well. As I mentioned, she really likes our new nanny so she has been pretty happy. Kerala is still doing a lot of imaginary play - her newest thing is to pretend like she is "Miss Carrie" (her art teacher) and pretend that she is giving us snack at art class (goldfish/pretzels and raisin juice). She will play Miss Carrie for an hour straight and just has a blast. She also has been pretending to cut my hair with her play dough scissors. I must say that it is actually quite nice having her do my hair since it's like a scalp massage - at least until she gets the "scissors" stuck in my hair, then it's a bit painful. Also, she has been really cute with Kian - last night she insisted on reading him his bedtime stories which was adorable. She was reading him this book about puppies and she kept telling him about the pictures and kind of asking him questions the way we ask her questions about books that we read together - it was too cute.

My maternity leave ended on a great note - Troy took off the last day of my leave and we had a fabulous day at the kids' music class, playing at the park and then having JT and the boys over for dinner.

 

Organic Matter

 

Cheers to good friends and organic matter! Kerala, Kian and I were finishing up dinner on Wednesday when Kerala told me that she had an orange peel up her nose. I thought she was being silly and I started to laugh it off, but she insisted that she had an orange peel up her nose. She loves to peel oranges and is constantly smelling the peel. Anyway, I looked up her nose and what would you know - she had an orange peel lodged up there. I calmly called Troy at work and told him the situation and he suggested having the neighbors come up and hold her down while I tried to get it out with tweezers. We don't know our neighbors super well so I called Tamra. Being the good friend that she is, Tamra was over in 10 minutes flat. We both took turns trying to hold her down and perform the operation but we were not having any luck. Fortunately for us, Kerala's doctor's office has fabulous hours and were able to get us in in 20 minutes. When we walked into the office, the receptionist greeted us by saying "You must be the orange peel patient." Despite everyone's efforts (three of us holding her down and one person performing the procedure) we were unable to get the peel out - at this point I am starting to freak out a bit. The doctor decided that because Kerala did not seem to be in any discomfort (although she was getting a constant whiff of citrus) and we were dealing with organic matter to just keep an eye on it and squeeze nasal spray up her other nostril over the next couple of days - basically, we would either force it out or it would start to shrink and fall out itself. As Tamra pointed out, thank goodness we were dealing with an orange and not a piece of meat which would take a while to begin to dissolve. Good news is that the orange peel came out this morning. Hopefully we won't have any more episodes like this - although the doctor did say this was somewhat common for this age and warned me that if she put something up there once there is a good chance that she will do it again.

Other than the orange peel, we have been having a pretty good week. Kerala really enjoyed the disco last week and we were honored by going with Henry who won the dance contest for his age group with some pretty cool moves. Kian is starting to crawl on all fours - he still prefers the inchworm crawl but it seems likeeach day he is crawling more and more. He is also getting much better at his solids.

 

6 month/2.5 yr Updates

 

We had Kerala's and Kian's 2.5 year and 6 month doctors appointments yesterday. Both kids are doing really well. Kian was such a good little guy the entire appointment and a lot of times when the doctor was checking him out he was just laughing and having a good time. I scheduled their appointments at the same time and Kerala asked that Kian go first, which really helped Kerala since she saw that Kian was not being hurt by the doctor so her appointment was a lot smoother than normal. As for stats, Kian is my big boy and Kerala my tiny girl. Kian is just under 18 lbs and is still 90% for height and his head circumference is just one inch smaller than Kerala's. Kerala is petite but the doctor isn't worried since she is doing great developmentally. Overall, a fabulous appointment.

We have enrolled Kerala in an art class (painting 101) and I must say this is the best class we have ever done. Kerala was so engaged the entire class and was just really excited about it (she has actually been talking about hte class the last two days). For our first class, she did a color wheel and learned all about mixing colors. I am really happy this class is on Mondays since that is my day off when I return to work next month.

As for Kian, he is still inch worming along. He still gets on all fours and rocks, but his mode of transportation for now is the inchworm. He is getting quite good at moving from a tummy position to sitting up and has been babbling up a storm. We have also increased his solid consumption so he has two solid meals a day. Today he gobbled up all of his rice cereal and pears. I think we may start him on a veggie tomorrow.

I am excited about this coming weekend - we are going to a disco with the kids. A local concert hall is having a kids' disco which should be a lot of fun.

 

Swinging at the Park

 

Kerala has two favorite activities at the park - swinging on her tummy on the big kid swings and "pushing Silas in the swing." I put pushing Silas in quotes because she imagines that she is pushing her friend Silas (I am pretty sure she has never actually pushed Silas in the swing although they have swung next to each other since they were babies). It's pretty cute how she will pretend to lift Silas into the swing and take him out. Kian is becoming fonder of the swings and seems to really like it when Kerala pushes him although we do have to remind her that Kian is too little for under dogs and not to push him too high.

Lately our conversations with Kerala have involved some pretty serious subject matter. We have been talking about how I am going back to work in a month and she has been asking some really good questions about it. The other day we were on a walk and she was asking if Emily, our new nanny, will take her to the park and I told her she would and then she asked if I would see daddy at work. I told her that daddy and I didn't work at the same place but that we would see each other for lunch sometime. She then asked if she could come to lunch with us. You can tell that she has been thinking about me working since she will bring it up at various times and ask questions about it. We have also been discussing her grandpas which was a topic I wasn't really prepared to discuss but she started to ask about where my daddy was. I tried explaining to her the best that I could that he was no longer with us. I know I didn't do the best job explaining, but for now she thinks her grandfathers are in the sky and was saying "cheese" to them on our way home from our friends' house.

Kian is doing really well. He has moved from a tummy position to a sitting up position a few times and is getting quicker with is inch worm crawling. He is also doing pretty well with solids. We started him on rice cereal which he seemed to do pretty well with and then moved him onto bananas (did not like) and apples (seems to tolerate slightly better than apples). I am also happy to report that I finally have gotten him on a nap schedule where he takes his naps at home. Right now he will take an am nap around 9:00 at home and wake up around 9:45 or so. Once he is up we are out the door doing some morning activity. He then goes down right after Kerala finishes lunch and will generally sleep 1.5 - 2 hours. If he takes a shorter afternoon nap then he will typically nap again late afternoon but overall it seems like he is moving to two naps a day. His bedtime has also been pretty smooth - he is usually in bed by 7:15.

 

Happy 6 Month B-Day

 

Kian turned 6 months today. He is doing really well. We celebrated his birthday with a trip to the Children's Museum with Kerala and three other little ones - one of them Kian's age and the other two kids are from Kerala's Spanish class. Kian really liked the crawling only areas and was super psyched to see himself in the mirror. It was pretty difficult managing him at Kerala in those areas though because Kerala could not understand why she couldn't go and play with Kian. Kian is getting faster with his inchworm crawling and is doing really well with sitting up. We are going to start him on solids this weekend, so we will see how that goes. I think he is going to pretty psyched since he is always eyeing what we are eating.

Kerala is doing pretty well. I say pretty well because we have been dealing with some major temper tantrums lately. The worst one was Sunday when she had a meltdown at the zoo because I made her hold my hand in the parking lot of the zoo. We have had similar meltdowns over the last couple of days - another one for holding hands in the parking lot, being upset over time outs for hitting Kian, etc. I have talked to other mother's of 2 1/2 year olds and, forunately, I am not the only one going through this. On a really positive note, Kerala used her potty five times yesterday. Today we had some set backs and she used it only once, but that's okay. We are making progress with potty training and I couldn't be happier with how she has been doing.

As far as some cute Kerala stories, every morning when she sees Kian she will say "Hi Kian. How are you? I am good, I am fine." If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she responds with "I want to be a firefighter." Also, if you ask her what she is saving her money for she will say "I am saving for college."

 

First Teeth

 

We are excited to report that Kian's bottom two teeth are popping through his gums. I had no idea that he was teething since he really hasn't been fussy. In fact, the only way that I discovered it was when I was looking at him while he was laughing and saw two white spots on his gums. Also, Kian has started to inch worm crawl. He basically will propel himself forward to get things that he wants. He still gets up on all fours a lot, but he hasn't made much progress with figuring out how to move everything together for a traditional crawl. He is still a happy little guy and will laugh at anything.

Kerala is doing really well. Every day I am amazed by something new she has learned. I am proud to report that she has learned her phone number. She has also been really into reciting stuff from her spanish class. She will line up her animals and sing "como te llamas?" like we do in class and will respond by saying "me llamo duckie" etc. It's pretty cute. She is getting to have quite the imagination as well. Tonight, she was driving us on a train to Paris to see Madeline and then to New York City to see Ellen. At both places, she pretended like we were eating a chocolate dinner. She is such a funny little person.

Troy and I have been really busy the past few weeks with putting our condo on the market. We have finally outgrown our condo and need to move to a house. I am going to be really sad when we move out. We are checking out houses this weekend and hopefully the process of selling this place and purchasing a new home will be smooth. It is pretty hard keeping this place picked up with two little ones and then being out of the house when people come to see it. We are generally out and about each day, but it seems like the times that are most convenient for the prospective buyers are the times that we would normally be home for naps/meals.

 

Siblings

 

Kerala has been really psyched about sitting up with Kian lately. Kian is getting to the point where he can sit up by himself for short stretches of time and for a very long time with a bit of assistance. Yesterday, Kerala really wanted to hold him in her lap but seemed to be a bit surprised about how big he has gotten. It's crazy that he looks almost as big as her and he is only 5 months old. The two of them wear the same size disposable diapers and he is one size down in cloth diapers.

Kian is doing really well developmentally. Over the last couple of weeks he has been super happy about being on his hands and knees and over the last week or so he has started to rock back on forth on his hands and knees so I don't think crawling is too far off. He still doesn't seem to have the strength or coordination to start crawling but you can tell he is eyeing objects and trying to figure out how to get to them. We really need to watch out if an object is in his radius because he is quite good at scooting in circles and inching a bit to get to things. Kian has also been laughing like crazy lately - if you look at him and exclaim "Hey, look at you!" he will laugh so hard - it's the kind of laugh where you expect him to start crying or wet his pants.

Kerala is also doing really well. She has been pretty excited about the big girl pool and is getting more and more adventurous. Also, we got Kerala her first doll house and she loves it. It's pretty cute when she plays with it because she uses it more as a garage for her trains and cars and kind of ignores the people and furniture. Although, she does make the daddy of the house go to work every day.

Tomorrow we are off to have a play date at the pool with our friends Jonah and Kate and possibly Ella and Natalia.

 

A Trip to the Beach

 

Kerala and Kian had their first trip to the beach this past weekend. Unfortunatley, I did not take any pictures while we were on the actual beach since we had our hands full with the two little ones. Instead, you get to take a look at a photo of Kian in his favorite position and Kerala and Daddy at the pool. We had a great trip and really enjoyed getting away. It was particularly wonderful since we got to spend quality time with Troy who has been working a ton in July.

The kids did pretty well on the actual beach. Kerala spent most of the time digging in the sand looking for rocks and racing up and down the beach with her buddy Sean. She also liked laying down and letting the waves hit her legs. Kian spent most of his time in the sun tent that Brandy lent us. Unfortuantely, he wasn't too psyched about it so we ended up heading back to the house we rented earlier than I had anticipated.

On the trip, Kerala also had her first ice cream cone. It was awesome because we were walking down the street and Kerala kept going up to random people telling them to look at her ice cream cone. She looked pretty adorable eating the cone that was about half her body size.

The only difficult part of the trip was sleeping. We were all in the same room, so trying to get both kids to sleep and not wake each other up was a bit of a challenge. Sleeping definitely got better as the weekend progressed - our first night Kerala kept slamming the bathroom door waking up Kian and then telling me she thought he might be crying. All in all it was a successful trip and we are hoping to go back next summer.

We are still making progress with potty training. Last night Kerala kept delaying going to bed by going to the potty. It's a difficult balance because we know it's a delay tactic but at the same time she will sit on the potty and go. It's pretty cute when she goes potty because if you are standing in the door way ready to help her she will tell you to "leave my alone" instead of "leave me alone."

 

A Case of Pink Eye

 

We have our first case of the pink eye at the Smerry household. Kerala's left eye started to ooze this morning (right in the middle of Spanish class). We talked to the doctor and now we are on antibiotic drops. Unfortunately for Kerala her eye has gotten worse as the day progressed and is now really swollen and puffy. Fortunately, it is suppose to clear up pretty soon with the drops. Pink eye is not pleasant and I hope we didn't pass it on to any of the kids in her Spanish class. So far Troy, Kian and I are all okay (knock on wood).

On a positive note, we are making great progress toward potty training. I was talking to a friend last week about how it seemed like potty training would be a long way off, but since then Kerala has been really psyched to wear underwear and she has gone in the potty at least once a day since last Thursday. All very exciting. She was pretty cute today after she pooped in the toilet she started to dance and sing her potty song which goes something like this...

Kerala goes poo poo in the potty
Kerala goes pee pee in the potty
And when she is done with her fun,
she wipes her bum, washes her hands, and does the potty dance, dooh dah dooh dooh.

I can't really do it justice, but it is pretty darn cute when Kerala and her daddy sing the potty song. The other positive note is that Kerala is doing great in the pool this summer. She consistently wants to go in the big girl pool and is doing really well kicking and moving her arms. She also loves to hang on the side of the pool and practice floating.

Kian is doing really well. We have been practicing sitting up with him and he seems to be getting stronger each day. He was doing a great job sitting up in the bath tub today and making a big mess splashing. He is still the happiest little guy and seems to really enjoy being outside every day. He has been doing a ton of tummy time at the park when we are having picnics with our friends. Also, this past week he had his first swing in the baby swing at the park. He seemed to love it, especially when Kerala was pushing him. He just lit up every time he got close to her. The only trouble was that Kerala wanted to push him a bit higher than I was comfortable with.

I don't know what we have in store for tomorrow. Usually, we head off to music class but Kerala will still be contagious until about 5:00pm tomorrow night so music class is out.

 

Kian's 4 Month Check Up

 

We had Kian's 4 month check up today and things went pretty well. He is still growing very well and Troy is very proud that he is 90% for height. His weight growth slowed a bit, but the doctor said that was normal and was very pleased with his weight. She was also very impressed with all of the milestones he has reached and kept commenting on his strength. The only downside to the appointment is that Kian is starting to get a bit of a flat spot on the right side of his head. The doctor said that she was not too concerned with it and there was definitely no need for a helmet, but she did suggest making sure he slept on his left side and to do some exercises. Overall though a very good appointment.

As for Kerala, she has actually been sick the last two days. She went down for a nap at 1:15 yesterday which was unusually early. When she woke up she was in really good spirits and asked if we could go to the park with Henry and Silas. So we met Henry and Silas at the park and had arranged for them to come over for dinner. On the way home from the park Kerala started to get really hot. When we got home she just wanted to be held and seemed to be pretty lethargic. I took her temperature and it was 100.3. As soon as we realized she had a fever, Tamra packed up the boys and at that point Kerala puked all over the place. Unfortunately, Kian started to make a beeline for the puke while I was comforting Kerala. He didn't get near it but of all times to show off his scooting ability. We had a low key day in the house - she was actually pretty psyched because she got to watch a ton of Curious George and drink Gatorade.

A couple of somewhat sad milestones with Kerala's language development. She no longer says "wa wa" for water or "balloonee" for balloon. Our little baby is growing up and while it is so exciting to see her progressing so well, it is also kind of sad because she is growing up so quickly. One funny note with her language development is that she is continuing to have little conversations with us. The one that stands out from tonight is while we were eating dinner Kerala informed me that our friend JT made the soup we were eating. I asked why she thought JT made it and she said because it was yummy. I don't know if I should be happy that she thinks my cooking tastes like JT's or sad that she thinks I can't cook and the only time we get yummy food is when JT makes it.

Finally, a lady at the park this past weekend told me that Troy should receive the father of the year award. She was sitting next to him while he was watching Kian and she was super impressed with how much he interacted with Kian. It was very sweet of her to comment on him. Troy is a great dad and I am very lucky to have him as a partner in raising our kids.

 

A Perfect Day

 

Today was such a wonderful day with the kids. It started with a trip to Brookfield Zoo with our friend Tabitha and her little ones. The zoo was great, although I think the kids enjoyed the park at the zoo more than the animals. After the zoo, Kian and I headed off to a mommy and baby yoga class (which was suprisingly intense) and Kerala headed home with our summer nanny, Molly. After yoga, we had a playdate/dinner with Chrissy and Sean. The kids had a fabulous time at a local park followed by a dinner of hot dogs and shrimp on our deck. All in all, it was an absolutely perfect day. The only tears from my little ones were from a couple of skinned knees at the zoo. Other than that Kian and Kerala were in the best of spirits the whole day. Finally, we have had some beautiful weather and we are definitely taking advantage of it. Tomorrow we have music class with Kerala's buddy Ella which we will follow up with lunch out with the kids at a local cafe. I am loving this maternity leave.

We had a great father's day and birthday for Troy this past weekend. We hosted a little picnic at a local park to celebrate Troy's b-day. Kerala had a ton of fun playing with her friends, Kian was pretty chill the entire time and loved being held by Chrissy.

The kids are doing really well. Kerala has been pretty funny lately before she goes to bed. She will ask that you lay in her bed with her and she just talks away. Every night she asks what do whales say and I will usually respond by saying "I don't know, what do you think whales say?" and she will say "I think they say hello." It's pretty funny. It's hard to believe that we are having little conversations with her since it seems like just yesterday we were in awe with the fact that she was putting two words together. Kian is still as mellow as ever. Today, he kept cracking up which was super cute. He definitley laughs a lot more than Kerala did at this age. With Kerala she would laugh at something but than it was hard to get her to laugh at the same thing twice while Kian will just sit there and laugh for no apparent reason.

Kian's 1st Trip to the Country...Kerala's 2nd Trip to ER...

 

The family headed down for Kian's first trip to visit Grandma Smith. We had a great time although sleeping was a bit of a challenge. We tried to put a pallet of blankets on the floor for Kerala, but she was all over the place (see photos). At about 2:00 am she wanted in bed with us - it was a bit crowded so we didn't get a ton of sleep at night. In fact, I kept getting kicked in the head by Kerala. Fortunately, Troy's mom watched both of the kids in the am so Troy and I got to sleep in until 10:00am. That's the latest we have slept in since Kerala was born and it was bliss. We were pretty tired when we got back home and were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. Troy and I had just put both kids to sleep and were sitting down on the sofa when we heard a huge crash from Kerala's room. We ran in and she was standing in her closet crying. When we turned on the light she couldn't open her eyes, so needless to say we were freaking out. We asked her what happened and apparently she was swinging on a hanger in her closet and fell. While she did calm down in about 10 minutes she still wouldn't open her eyes so we rushed her to the ER. They found two scratches on her pupil and gave us some antibotics to apply at home. Kerala seemed almost back to normal at the hospital and was enjoying her 9:30pm popsicle treat at the ER. While Children's Memorail did give us fabulous service, they prescribed an ointment that we were suppose to rub over Kerala's injured pupil. We tried to apply it once and it was horrible, so we headed to Kerala's pediatrician the next day and got some drops to use instead. Kerala seems to have made a full recovery. It was pretty scary and I was balling on the way to the hospital worried about my baby's eyes. Very sad.

On a happier note, we had a fabulous past weekend. We enjoyed having Grandma Perry, Uncle Ralph and Aunt Julie over Friday afternoon, friends over Friday night and two birthday parties. Kerala was pscyhed about all of the opportunities to eat cake. Kerala seemed to have a good time at the parties although she did get a little freaked out about the live music at her friend Jonah's party. It was sad because our friend had learned to play Kerala's favorite song on the guitar but Kerala wanted none of it. When Sean started to play the guitar for her she asked to go home. Thanks anyway Sean! Kian was great at all of the events. He did get a bit fussy when we went out for Indian food on Saturday night. Unforutnately, it seemed like everytime he would calm down the servers would clear plates next to our table and make a huge noise.

Kian is doing great. He now consistently rolls from back to belly - in fact, he really won't stay on his back anymore. He is really enjoying his mommy and baby class. He gets a huge kick out of it and it completely wears him out. It's really cute to see him just light up when we do the various songs and dances. I just can't say it enough - he is just the sweetest little guy.

A Fabulous Vacation

 

Our first trip together was a great success. The plane ride going to Arizona was a bit rough. Kian slept (as usual) and Troy and I felt like we were playing defense the entire time with Kerala. She generally did okay, but there were a few points where she got pretty fussy and we did get a couple of not so nice stares from the couple in front of us. While we were in AZ we decided to invest in a portable dvd player and that seemed to help on the way back. The biggest snafu on the way back was that we missed our flight coming home. Unfortunately, I got the flight information screwed up and thought our flight left at 9:20 when it actually left at 7:00am. Fortunately, US Airways was very accommodating and we got on a 8:49am flight. I did feel like a scene from Home Alone with us running through the airport to get to the gate in time.

We started our trip in AZ with a visit to "Pump It Up." It's this crazy play place with huge inflatable slides and jumping places. Kerala really loved it - especially when Troy felt well enough to participate (he threw his back out the night before we left). When we got to Kim's house we had a quick lunch and then Kerala was off to nap. After lunch, Kim had a very fun activity of finger and feet painting. It was a ton of fun and Kerala really enjoyed herself. We even had Kian do a couple of foot prints.

 

On Friday, we headed over to Uncle Kyle's mom's house for a fun day in her pool. Kerala loved playing with her cousin Macline and has actually been asking about him since we have returned home. Again, Kian basically slept.

On our last day, we enjoyed a great day at the AZ Science Center, which included a visit to the planetarium. Kian actually really enjoyed the planetarium. He was awake the entire time and loved looking up at the stars. The only funny thing was that it was a toddler story hour and the presenter did not know his audience. He kept telling jokes that were a bit over the kids' heads and his stand up routine went on way too long. It was just funny because you could see all of these kids squirming in their seats.

While we were visiting Kim and Kyle's we were treated with gourmet meals every night. Kyle is a chef and Kim and Kyle let us pick the menu about a week before. Kerala had her first experience with scallops and loooovvvveed them. She ate about 1 1/2 scallops which is just amazing. Overall, it was a fabulous trip and we can't wait to go back.

Since we have been back we have had a break through with potty training. Tonight, Kerala asked to go potty three times and went all three times (although she was straining pretty hard the last time). It's crazy how fast the kids are growing up - I can't believe we are on the verge of potty training Kerala. Kian has rolled a few times from back to belly, which we are very excited about. He also will laugh a ton if you pretend like you are eating his belly.

First Vacation Together

 

Tomorrow, we head off to Arizona to visit my sister Kim and her husband Kyle. I am kind of dreading the flight with the two kids. Last time we flew with Kerala she was still using pacifiers and I think that helped a lot in getting her to sleep on the flight. We have packed a ton of toys for the trip (in Kerala's new Strawberry Shortcake backpack which she picked out) and hopefully we can distract her for the three hours it takes to get there. We are only going for a few days, but it will be jammed pack with activities.

We have been doing well. This past holiday weekend we had a bbq to attend every day, went to the park several times with friends and the zoo on Sunday with Grandma Perry. The kids are doing very well. Kian is starting to be up for longer stretches which is fabulous. He is still a happy guy and smiles a ton. He has also started to consistently laugh. Today he was cracking up at Target for no apparent reason - it was pretty cute. Kerala is really sweet with Kian - she has been practicing her ballet moves with him and loves to hold his hand. You can tell that Kian adores Kerala because he saves the biggest smiles for her. It's really sweet to see.

Kerala is doing great. The past three days she has napped which is terrific. In fact, both kids have synchronized their naps the last two days (yeah!). Troy did have some trouble with Kerala napping on Sunday. Basically, she took off her clothes and pooped right in front of the door. When Troy walked in to check on her he smeared the poop all over the floor. Before Troy got to the room, Kerala decided that she would clean up the poop which resulted in poop all over her hands. Thank goodness I was out of the house for that little adventure. The nice thing about the story is that we think she may be on the verge of potty training.