A Rough Month for the K Man

 

Kian has had quite a month or so. At the end of last month/beginning of this month, he came down with a terrible stomach bug. He finally got over that bug and then got hit with the flu, an ear infection, and three new teeth all in the same week. We defintely had a pretty rough patch here. Kian is generally the happiest little guy and he was just so miserable the past week. He did not want to have anything to do with food which resulted in him losing quite a bit of weight. Fortunatley, he seems to have recovered and has his appetite back, so hopefully he will regain everything he lost before his one year appointment. We will definitely try to stuff him with some birthday cake to beef him up.

As far as positive news, Kian is babbling away and today he was saying "no no" and consistently will say "Da" for Troy. I am also convinced that he said "Kerala" but no one (other than Kerala) beleives me. He will also shake his head sideways for "no" and move his body back and forth for saying "yes." He is getting really fast at climbing stairs and stood up in our bed all on his own the other morning. For awhile now, he has been catching a ball if you throw it to him pretty slowly. I am still amazed that he has figured out that he has to close his hands to catch the ball.

Kerala is doing great - she is getting really excited for her birthday party. The other day she asked me if her best friends, Griffina and Ella, will be there. She does not quite get the fact that Kian has begun to get birthday presents and that she can't open them. Also, everything that Kian gets she tells us that it really belongs to her because "Kian actually has enough." I am shocked at the things Kerala says. For instance, the other day Troy asked her if she would like a little bit of cookie for dessert. Her response was "No Daddy, I would like a lot of cookie."

I hope to have another post on Sunday with pictures from the kids' birthday party down at Grandma Sue's.

An Update...Finally

 

Yes, I know it has been a while and I do apologize for not blogging more frequently. With the holidays and it being my busy season at work, blogging has not been a priority.

The family is doing really well. We had a great Christmas and New Year's, although it will be known as the year of the pink eye. Kerala developed pink eye right in the middle of Christmas dinner and it made it's way through the whole family the following week while we were on vacation with about 20 other people in the same house. Fortunately, we were able to quarantine the infected family members and no one else got sick. It was not a pleasant experience however. The kids did really well on Christmas and Kerala got the gift she asked for from Santa - a big thing of chocolate. I think she was more excited about hte chocolate than any of the other gifts she received.

We have had ton of excitment here since the holidays. My friend Tania and her husband Charu were visiting from Ethiopia. Kerala fell in love with Tania and keeps talking about her and whether Tania and Charu will go to the park with us. When I explain that Tania lives in Ethiopia, Kerala says that she would like to go there. Kerala has also insisted that Tania is her friend and not mine. Kerala also went to her first musical - Curious George Live. I think she was a little freaked out about it at first, especially after Troy set her down in the stadium chair and it folded up on her because she is such a peanut.

 

Kian is doing great. He has been saying Mama and Dada indiscriminately for awhile and this past week or so he seems to be making the connection that we are mommy and daddy. He was also waving bye bye to Troy yesterday and about 2 minutes after Troy left the house he said "Bye Bye." He hasn't repeated it since, but we will count it as a word. He is still crusing like crazy and has finally started to get interested in books. He will now sit through a couple of stories which is good since I was a bit worried about his language development since he didn't seem interested in books.

Other than that, we are doing great. I will post more often this month especially since the K-man is turning the big one this month! I can't believe it.





 

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.