Birthday Bash

A lot has been going on at the Smerry's since our last post (way back in December). We are still settling in to our new home in Oak Park. Kerala loves school and Kian loves all of his classes during the week (particularly, his gym class). Right now we have both kids enrolled in soccer on Saturdays and they love it. Kerala does a fabulous job listening to instructions in class and actually doing the soccer drills/games. Kian's favorite part of class is jumping into the goal (not a class sponsored activity...but fun for him nonetheless).

The kids are at a really good stage with each other. They are generally very sweet and respectful. Kerala loves to pretend like she is the grown up with Kian and will try to read to him, dry him off after bath and generally just being attentive. Tonight, they were running around pretending to be super heroes and then pretending to be on a camping trip. It is so cute to see them and how they have developed a friendship.

I was having some technical difficulties with the the post - I was trying to embed some photos of the kids' birthday bash in the link, but for some reason I couldn't so check out the April 2011 photo link. The kids had their party at My Gym and I must say that I was really impressed with the staff and facilities. It seemed like everyone had an absolute blast and we couldn't have been happier. We were also really fortunate to have Ellen, Kerala's former nanny, come in and stay with us. It's really interesting to see how Kerala still has a connection with Ellen, although we are not sure how much she remembers of Ellen since Ellen left when she was 2. It's clear though that she knows Ellen has a special place in her life, which is really neat to see.

Now that my busy season is over, I am going to try to post more often. Anyway, please check out the March and April photos to see what we have been up to.

Christmas 2010

 

The kids had a fabulous Christmas. This was the first year that Kerala seemed to really get the idea that on Christmas day she would wake up and there would be a roomful of presents.

We started Christmas Eve off with opening up all of the great gifts from Grandma Sue. I am really happy we did that because it took forever to open gifts on Christmas. The kids would get distracted and want to play with what they had received, so it was like pulling teeth to get them to continue opening presents. After opening some gifts on Christmas Eve with Grandma Sue, we had a nice dinner at home. The kids went off to bed and we finished up all of the final preparations for the big day.

 

I am not sure if I mentioned, but Kerala is not really a morning person. We had to wake her up Christmas morning and basically prod her to get out of bed. Kian, on the other hand, was super psyched to go downstairs (although I don't think he realized what was awaiting him). The kids started with their stockings and that took quite some time because they were obsessed with all of the candy (note to Santa, not so much candy next year). Troy had made a really wonderful breakfast for us to eat on while opening presents - homemade cinnamon rolls, a donut hole Xmas tree, and an egg casserole (actually that was my contribution). After presents, the kids played with their new toys while we started preparing for Xmas dinner. Although Grandma Sue and Jeff did not stick around for Xmas dinner, they helped us prepare for our annual Xmas dinner with friends - thanks Sue for putting on the ham and keeping up with all of the dishes and thanks Jeff for shoveling our sidewalks). Dinner was fabulous - it was great to have a houseful of friends and family for our first Christmas in our new home.

 

We are now off for our annual New Year's trip - can't wait for a relaxing week with friends.

Halloween Update

 

Okay, I know it's been a few weeks since Halloween, but I thought I might as well give a quick update of the holiday as well as the other happenings around here.

We started off the Halloween weekend with a Halloween party at our house. There were about 20 kids and 20 adults, it was the first big event we hosted since moving in and things generally went pretty well. I had a number of activities planned for the kids (bozo buckets w/ pumpkins, pumpkin decorating, mummy wrapping), but for the most part hte kids just wanted to run around and be kids. Kerala was really psyched to have her friends over and I hope we can make it a Halloween tradition.

On Halloween, Kerala and I handed out candy while Kian napped. Kerala really enjoyed handing out the candy and enforcing the no costume/one piece of candy rule - she was strict! She did seem to get a bit overwhelmed when there was a large crowd of trick or treaters that would build up while she tried to find the perfect piece of candy for each trick or treater. As far as costumes, Kerala wore her mouse costume for the first year. She wore the same costume at 9 months, 21 months and 3 1/2 years. Since it appears to now be capri length, I think this is definitely the last year she will wear it. She insisted though. Kian went as a ghost, the costume Kerala wore last year. I must say that he was a very cute ghost.

 

The kids are doing well. Kian has been doing really well with speaking. He is consistently uses two word sentences, which are pretty cute. Lately he has been saying "Shake your booty, Tamra" because our friend Tamra taught him that phrase. It's pretty adorable.

 

Kerala is doing well at school. I got to observe her classroom this past week and it was really neat to see her in action and the various activities that she does. It was also cute to see the interaction between her and her friends.

 

Settling In

 

We finally feel like we are settling in our new home in Oak Park. This past week we had our bedroom and family room furniture delivered. Up until this point, we had been sleeping in our guest bedroom. While we still need to buy a ton for the home, we are beginning to really enjoy our home and the surroundings. Kerala really loves her preschool and Kian loves his morning classes (music, spanish, gym and art). We also got a cat this past weekend and plan to add to the household with a dog this spring. The kids are doing really well with the cat - although I did have an "Olivia" moment when I turned around and saw Kerala carrying the cat up the stairs and then attempt to plop him down in a kid's chair. He is a kitten - but he is really long, so the two of them looked pretty funny. I have also heard Kerala tell Max, the cat, that she is going to give him a bath. Kian is very excited about the cat as well. This evening he kept putting a ball in front of Max and telling him to "eat it." Kian also is constantly showing Max where is food and litter pan are located. It's very sweet to see how quickly the kids have become attached to this cat.

As far as preschool, Kerala really loves it although she does not tell us a ton. It seems like the most infomration that we get is right before she goes to sleep. Tonight she was telling me about how someone was not being respectful today during line up time and he had a time out. Troy and I are just really happy that she is excited to go to school every day and appears to even be disappointed when it is the weekend.


 

As for Kian, he is doing spectacular. His language is really developing - the other day we were cuddling in bed and when I told him I had to get up he responded with "stay here." It was so sweet - needless to say, I got in a bit later to work than I was planning to that day. Kian is also really active - it seems like he went from crawling to running. He is constantly running around the house - typically chasing either Kerala or me.

All in all, we are doing really well and look forward to the fall. This weekend we are going pumpkin picking, which should be a blast.

 

First Day of School

 

This past Wednesday was Kerala's first day of preschool. From what we could tell, it went really well. We did not have any separation issues (well, at least not on Kerala's part) - Kerala basically kissed us goodbye and then walked into the classroom. She hasn't talked a ton about school, but every so often she will say something which gives you a little bit of insight into her new world. For instance, she has talked about a favorite seat next to some bookshelves as well as playing with a little boy named William. She hasn't told us a ton about her activities, but she did say she painted last week. She also said that when the teacher wants them to be quiet she turns off the music and that they also have to get in a line for carpool time (the time we pick them up). Overall, it seems to be going well.

 

Kian is doing great. He is definitely a bit more adventerous than Kerala. He can now climb up the slide in our backyard whcih is no small feat. He also loves to get on top of the kids' play table and look at you with a very devlish grin. It's cute because he knows when he is being mischevious.

 

First Day of School Tomorrow

 

Tomorrow is Kerala's first day of preschool. We are really excited for her - she is going to love it. This past weekend I had orientation at her school and was able to see the classroom set up for the students and it was wonderful. It was really neat to see the various stations that I know Kerala will absolutely love. Her teacher visted us yesterday and said there are a lot of really sweet girls in the class this year, so I think Kerala will make a ton of friends. Kerala's teacher seems to be really sweet and has a very calm presence, which you probably need in a room full of 3-5 year olds. It was also really nice for me to meet the other parents at orientation and I exchanged e-mail addresses with another mom who has a son Kian's age and a daughter Kerala's age - sounds perfect. We will post tomorrow with updates on how the first day went.

We are still unpacking and hope to be completely unpacked and situated sometime next month (after the painters finish painting up a couple of rooms). This has been a long process - I can really see why people never move. We are enjoying our home more and more and have really loved our backyard lately. The kids just love to run around. I bought a play golf set for the kids. So far they love the golf clubs - they like to take them and hit them against one of our trees to knock down leaves. Kerala also likes to use the club to crush cicadia shells, which she refers to as "taking care of the scadas."

Kian is doing great. I am not sure how he will adjust to Kerala being at school in the mornings. He loves his sister so I think he is going to miss her. This morning he kept climbing into her bed trying to wake her up by laying on top of her and saying her name. Kerala wasn't a huge fan of that method of waking up at first, but in a minute or two both kids were laughing. It is really sweet to see the bond they are developing.

Back from Vacation

 

We had a fabulous time in Michigan last week. We went to Michigan with four other couples that we have known since college. Each couple has children now, so it was a great family vacation. All of the kids played very well together, although we did have some sharing issues. Kian and Kerala were particularly fond of their buddy Emmett and every time Kian would here Emmett cry he would scream out "Emmett!" It was really sweet. The weather was great most of the trip and we spent almost every morning at the beach. Both kids loved playing in the sand and Kian loved the water. He was actually a bit dangerous because he would attempt to walk straight into Lake Michigan and keep going. He also did not seem to mind it when big waves would splash him in the face and he even asked for "more waves" a couple of times. We definitely need to enroll him in swim classes since he likes the water so much. Kerala got to experience her first campfire and seemed to really enjoy the vacation once her buddies Val and Rollie arrived. Kerala has been asking about doing a sleep over with Val ever since. The girls were really adorable together - holding hands and just playing.

We are still in the process of getting settled into our home. They did some work while we were away, but work seems to always be ongoing. Right now we have quite a large hole in our living room ceiling so that our plumber can fix some horrible pipework that was causing some issues with one of our bathrooms. The plumbing work should be done tomorrow and then the hole will hopefully be patched up on Saturday. The nice thing about this whole process is that we found a really great handyman, so if anyone needs a recommendation please let us know.