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.

2 years, 2 months, 2 days; 10 weeks, 5 days

 

Another rainy day - unfortunately, we were scheduled to have the kids photos taken at a park today by a friend of ours who is a professional photographer, but that had to be canceled due to the weather. Hopefully, we will be able to get the photos done next week.

The kids are doing well. Kerala has been practicing her ballet dancing at home and insisted on wearing her tutu over her jeans the other day. It was pretty funny. She was even trying to make Kian do some of the sitting moves. She was also hilarious dancing in her music class yesterday. She loves her little friend Ella and she kept holding onto Ella's hands and spinning her around in circles. Poor Ella though - she reminded me of myself dancing with Troy at weddings. Ella and Kerala were really sweet though. After music class we had a great time at the park with Ella and her nanny. Kerala kept wanting to do what Ella was doing. It is really neat to see their friendship. I especially love it when Kerala sees Ella and she screams "It's Ella!"

We have entered the "trying twos". I didn't want to write "terrible" because generally Kerala is great; however, we have had some major meltdowns. I think some of the meltdowns are attributable to her being tired since she has a hard time napping but also think a good portion is attributable to her age. She likes her autonomy so she has a hard time when you say no (i.e., "No Kerala, you cannot have chocolate chips for breakfast.").

Kian is doing really well. We had his 2 month appointment and he gained another 2 pounds and 2 inches. Troy is very proud that his son is 95% for height. We will see how long he keeps up his crazy growth. Kian also appears to be on the verge of laughing. Troy will get him going by tickling under his chin and he has the biggest smile on his face. You can just tell that he absolutely loves it. He is still a really happy guy. He loves to look at Kerala and has the biggest grin when she comes near him. Kerala generally is pretty gentle with him, although today she kept wanting to pull his toes.

We are looking forward to a visit from Kerala's old nanny, Ellen. She is due back in town tomorrow and we are scheduled to get together.