So Far, So Good

It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the weather, the decorations, the music, the goodies and the anticipation! My co-workers all kept telling me that working retail during the holidays would cure me of my love for Christmas - I set out to prove them wrong. There is no way I'm letting the fact that we need a little extra income steal my love for the Christmas season. So far, so good. I'm not tired of the Christmas music, I'm not tired of seeing all of the Christmas decorations and toys come through my checkout lane, I'm not tired of how busy it can get (it makes the time go faster), and, quite frankly, I haven't even had that many mean customers (I think all the mean ones go up to the customer service desk). I'm still in love with the Christmas season.

We've been busy around here since the last post. I'll give some highlights of the last 4 weeks:

Kalin's First Dentist Appointment! It went about as well as I had expected - he screamed the whole time the dentist had her fingers in his mouth. Thankfully, the dentist didn't have high expectations for this first visit either. It was mainly a "Hi! Let's get to know you and if your child will cooperate we'll have a look inside his mouth and maybe do some x-rays and cleaning." Our child didn't cooperate so all we got done was the "looking inside his mouth" part. My main reason for taking him in was because he has an extra tooth that I was worried about. We at least got reassurance that it's nothing to worry about for now. It did puzzle the dentist a bit while she was trying to figure out what kind of a tooth it was (I'm sure Kalin screaming and moving around didn't help either). She said his teeth look healthy and fine and then tried to convince us that we need to floss his teeth for him. Really?!?! Are you kidding me? Some days we can barely get the toothbrush in his mouth. Kalin's favorite part of the visit was the train set in the waiting room (which he got upset about leaving when our name was called, to which the receptionist and dentist both said, "He can bring a car with him!!". They must encounter that problem alot.) and the orange balloon they gave him after his visit.

Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time at my parent's house this year with my dad's side of the family joining us for a wonderful turkey lunch! Unfortunately I had to work in the evening but we still had plenty of time to eat and visit.

Butterflies! My dad came up on one of his days off (while my mom was out of town) and we headed out to Natural Bridges to see the Monarch butterflies. It was a beautiful day to head down to Santa Cruz and Kalin had a blast walking around in the butterfly habitat.


Christmas Tree! We got our Christmas tree the first weekend of December. We went to the same farm as last year and Kalin had so much fun running around. He had a lot of fun last year too but since he had only been walking for just a little over a month he was still kind of wobbly and we had to watch him closely. This year we pretty much just let him run. It was soooo cold so we found our tree kind of fast and Kalin "helped" Kasey cut it down. On the ride home Kalin kept saying "tree? tree?" trying to figure out where we had put it. I kept reassuring him that it was just in the trunk and he would get to see it again when we got home. Once we put the lights on the tree it became the "happy tree". Whenever Kalin sees pretty lights or candles (or eats some of Sarah's pumpkin bread) he deems the item "happy". We hung some garland and lights around the door frames in our house and the first thing we have to do when Kalin wakes up is turn on the "happy lights" - and then we have to check the tree's water. This tree is lucky that Kalin is around - it certainly will not be going thirsty with Kalin reminding us to check the water level! He lays down flat on the ground and sticks his finger into the tree stand like he's seen us do then says "Wa-Wa". Christmas has always been a special and fun time for me but having Kalin around makes it even more special. I get to experience it all through his eyes and joy and enthusiasm.

Cookies! I decided that it would be fun to make Christmas cookies with Kalin. We decided to keep it simple and just make some sugar cookies that we would roll out and cut into Christmas cookie shapes. It became very clear at the beginning of this project that these cookies would be meant for only our family - you don't want to know how many times Kalin licked his fingers then stuck them in the dough. But we had so much fun. And, it only took two days, but we finally got around to decorating the cookies! There's nothing quite like trying to get an almost two-year old to help put frosting on cookies! We had fun, made a mess, and enjoyed spending time together.

And in between all of this fun stuff Kasey has still been going to work, I've been going to work, I've been doing the Christmas shopping after work (10 o'clock at night really is the best time to go shopping. I might have to do that every year.), I've been trying to stay on top of dinner plans for my boys (some days I just look at Kasey and say, "I don't know, just have cereal and eggs."), I've still been going to my Tuesday night Bible study (it's so tempting to skip and stay home with my boys), and I've been trying my best to keep up with the regular housework. Quite frankly, it's busier than I would like to be. I've never been one to make myself so busy that I'm constantly on the move so this has been a challenge. Anybody who is acquainted with my sisters know how much they're involved in and I used to say that I was the lazy one in the family - then one of them told me that I was probably the smart one! I resolved at the beginning of this new adventure that I wasn't going to sacrifice the seasonal things that we love and want to do - even if it meant leaving the house more often than usual :-) So far, so good.

Play Day!!

Kasey had Wednesday off for Veteran's Day and we were really looking forward to a day together as a family. It started out sleeping in until almost 9. We've actually come to realize that Kalin wakes up several times in the early morning hours (and by early I mean 6). If we get up to use the restroom we'll hear him talking to himself and making noise but he ends up putting himself back to sleep. So on these rare occasions that he sleeps in this late it always gets us wondering how many times he's woken up and made some noise but since we didn't come get him, he just went back to sleep. Of course, we're always a little bit concerned that he's cried and screamed for us but we've slept through it - that hasn't happened in many, many months though. The one time we know that happened was probably 8 months ago and he woke up with some throw-up in his bed and his nose was all stuffy from crying. We felt sooo bad and spent the next couple of weeks paranoid that it was going to happen again. But it appears that he is just so happy and comfortable in his crib these days that if we don't come get him while he's talking - he'll just go back to sleep. It does make me wonder what will happen when we put him in a toddler bed where he'll be able to get out by himself. I'm sure I'll have to get used to early mornings again.

So, our morning started off leisurely. Kasey had wanted to spend some time in a coffee shop reading so he did that for a couple of hours. We then took a marvelous family walk and played in the park on the way home. While Kalin took a nap, I caught up on my NCIS and Kasey read some more. Before I knew it, it was time for me to get ready for work. It had felt so much like a Saturday that I kept forgetting I had to go to work. It was lovely having Kasey home for an extra day and spending this time together. I'm so looking forward to Thanksgiving week when Kasey will be home for most of the week! I, of course, will still have to work in the evenings (hooray for retail).

Check out Kalin's sweet new ride - given to us by the Prior's.

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So Kalin has been learning new words everyday. He has even started combining words into two word phrases. Examples are: buh-bye Dada, Mama come, buh-bye car, blue ball. Sometimes when we walk Kasey outside as he is on his way to work Kalin will say "Buh-bye Dada. Work-y". I don't know why he says "work-y" and not just "work" but it's cute. He loves blowing kisses now and will blow them to both Kasey and I as we leave for work.

He's becoming more of a dare-devil as well - which has resulted in more tumbles off the stool.

He has definitely entered the stage of "I want to do it on my own". So we're learning to release just a little more control as we help and teach Kalin to do things on his own.

~

Now for some thoughts of my own. I'm trying to think through some issues regarding parenting and Kasey and I had a good discussion yesterday but I'm still in the process of formulating my position and thoughts on the matter. Here's my dilemma: Hearing what the professionals have to say about child development (emotional, behavioral, psychological) and making sure that I don't use their findings or opinions to influence me into raising children through methods that would go against God's Word. I've read many things from professionals regarding what "healthy" development looks like and many times it seems as though they want us to use that as an excuse to allow our kids to act certain ways. I sometimes get the impression that certain behaviors should be allowed because it's just our kids showing their individuality or developing their personality. Could those behaviors not also be looked at as that sin nature that's in all of us that rears it's ugly head when we don't get our own way or think we know what's best? I want to make sure that I'm not making excuses for Kalin but that I am teaching and disciplining in a Godly manner while still having the patience and grace necessary for where Kalin is developmentally and spiritually. I would enjoy hearing other people's thoughts/advice.

New Schedule

We've come to find some sort of routine for our family this past month. This change in our schedule and decrease in "family time" has been exhausting. This is what a typical week looks like: Sunday - church, Kalin naps, early dinner, Kasey heads to youth group making it home just in time to say goodnight to Kalin; Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - typical day schedule for Kalin and I while I attempt to clean house, do dishes, do laundry, make sure there's a dinner plan for my boys, run any errands that need running, take a daily walk and make sure Kalin and I have ample playtime together, I head out to work shortly after Kasey gets home; Tuesday - typical daytime schedule plus babysitting Luke Meyer for a couple hours in the afternoon, a rushed family dinner, then I'm off to Bible Study; Saturday - every once in awhile I work in the morning then the rest of the day is spent relaxing with family. Because I don't have evenings anymore to accomplish anything inside or outside the house I've had to start doing more during the day. Thankfully, Kalin has become really good at playing by himself which allows me this time to accomplish things. However, I've noticed that there are some days when I feel like I never actually spent time with Kalin - I fed him, changed him, got him down for naps, took him for a walk and read him a story before nap time - but the rest of the time he was playing by himself while I tried to keep things clean and running smoothly for the household. Those are the days that I have a really hard time leaving the house for work because I feel like I didn't actually have time for my kid.

Kasey and I have realized how good this time has been for Kalin and Kasey's relationship. They've grown closer together with me out of the picture for a few hours every night. Ideally we shouldn't have had to figure this out through such drastic measures - 5 nights a week is a little much in my opinion, I think maybe 1 or 2 would have been better, but it has helped us see that I can indeed have a life outside of the house. What a concept, huh? I still don't want to be working and I definitely don't want to be spending this much time away from my family but if I just need to get out of the house a couple evenings a week - whether it be for bible study, meeting with a friend, or just going out on my own - we now know that it is doable and beneficial. So after we feel comfortable enough in our financial situation where I can quit working, we will be taking steps towards me having an outside life.

Something else we've learned through this experience - Kasey and I need to communicate more regarding house rules and do's and don'ts. We've found ourselves in several situations where one parent is telling Kalin he can do something and the other one pipes in with "Oh, I don't let him do that" and vice-versa. In the past, I've pretty much been the one to make the rules and since I was always around to enforce them, Kasey learned what I normally allowed and didn't allow. Now rules and games are being made and played while I'm gone so I'm having to play catch-up the next day. For the most part it's small issues that we have to deal with - we're on the same page when it comes to major, common sense, safety rules.

So this whole new experience has been exhausting, educational, and yes even a little bit beneficial - but I can't wait for it to be over.

Precious Times

My time with Kalin has become more precious. A couple weeks ago Kasey and I decided that it would be wise for me to look into getting an evening job. We have, quite honestly, been blessed that it has taken this long for us to feel that a part-time job is necessary. I knew that whatever work I would find would probably be a retail position. All the jobs that would fall under my qualifications and college degree are day jobs and we are not willing to put Kalin in daycare for the sake of money (not to mention daycare would probably eat up most of the money I would make anyway). At this point in our lives, I have absolutely no desire to have a career that takes me away from my kid. I've always felt that my place is at home with our children. So with that in mind I applied at our local K-Mart, stating that my available hours are in the evenings and Saturday mornings. I figured I could handle 3 or 4 hours at night - I mean Kalin would be going to bed a couple hours after I left anyway so really I'd only be missing the last 2 hours of his day. In theory, it sounded like it wouldn't be that much of a sacrifice. However, I have found that in practice, it is very difficult. There is now the potential of missing out on family dinners, bath times, family story times, family play-time, and Kalin's bedtime for five nights every week. It's hard. It's hard walking out of the house just a few minutes after Kasey has walked in from work and tell them goodbye knowing how much I'm going to miss. It takes a lot of effort at work not to keep looking at the clock, wondering what my boys are up to at home. I keep asking myself, is this extra money worth the time away from home? No, it's not worth it - but for now, it's necessary. And it is definitely just a "for now" thing. We're hoping it won't have to go much past the holidays. So I have found that my days with Kalin hold a lot more meaning and our play time and story time are much more precious. I might even force him into a one-nap-a-day schedule just for the sake of spending more time with him. I know that there are many mothers who genuinely want to work and while it may be a little difficult to be away from their children for the day, they really love the work that they are doing. Then there are the mothers who have to work a full-time day job to make ends meet and to those mothers my heart goes out to. I don't know how you do it. Maybe it gets a little easier over time. Maybe I'm just having such a hard time with this because I've spent almost every single hour of every single day of this child's life with him (exceptions being: some date nights, grocery store trips, a few hours to myself, an anniversary trip and, most recently, our trip to Disneyland). There is no regularly scheduled time apart from him (well, maybe nap times). Let's face it - I'm addicted to this little boy. So, we're in a transition phase right now (and I hate transitions).

Moving on.

I love the age Kalin is at right now. He is so much fun and his verbal skills are increasing daily. We have a lot of fun with him. He somehow learned to say "ahhh, beep beep" which I think is from a song from the early 90's or something. I'm not entirely sure where I picked it up (must have been on a commercial) but it would get stuck in my head and just recently Kalin started singing it too. He also says "Whaaa?" which is something that Jon Stewart (the comedian) says. Don't worry, Kalin has never watched Jon Stewart. Kasey taught it to him. It's very cute and very funny to hear though.

Kalin loves the movie Cars. He would watch it 5 times a day if I would allow it. He also enjoys watching Winnie the Pooh. His new favorite thing is to sit, covered with a blanket, in the bean bag chair to watch his favorite shows. He lasts a good 30 minutes doing that. Cars was a huge help on our roadtrip to Hemet.

Kasey took some time off work this past week so we could spend some time visiting friends and family down south. Of course, the main reason we went down there was for my birthday!!! I've never celebrated my birthday with his family so we thought that it would be ideal to do that this year and take advantage of Disneyland's offer of free admission on your birthday! We had alot of fun.

I also saw my new niece, Hannah! She's a sweetheart and I had a great time holding a little tiny newborn again. I don't remember Kalin ever being that small.

I will now leave you with a humorous list of Toddler Property Laws (I'm sure some of you have seen these before). The truth of these statements become even more evident when you get a couple of toddlers together to play. Enjoy!

Property Law As Viewed By A Toddler

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like it's mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If I can see it, it's mine.
10. If I think it's mine, it's mine.
11. If I want it, it's mine.
12. If I "need" it, it's mine (yes, I know the difference between "want" and "need"!).
13. If I say it's mine, it's mine.
14. If you don't stop me from playing with it, it's mine.
15. If you tell me I can play with it, it's mine.
16. If it will upset me too much when you take it away from me, it's mine.
17. If I (think I) can play with it better than you can, it's mine.
18. If I play with it long enough, it's mine.
19. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it's mine.
20. If it's broken, it's yours (no wait, all the pieces are mine).

Grand Slam!

We took Kalin to his first baseball game this past Wednesday. It was a $2 ticket day for the Oakland A's and Kasey is allowed a day off for his birthday AND he had just finished his last Master's class so we decided that this would be the perfect way to celebrate!! I had kept my expectations kind of low because I knew that the only hope for a nap for Kalin would be in the car on the way to the game - and those don't always work out the way I need them to. Plus, I knew that he would have to sit some at the game and I didn't know how crowded it would be and how much room we would have to run around in. The day went far better than I could have imagined. He took a 30-40 minute nap in the car, ate some lunch in the parking lot, and after a screaming match over wanting to walk through the parking lot instead of ride in the stroller or be carried, we made it to the stadium and to our seats - which were in the hot, hot sun. Kalin spent the first inning or two sitting on my lap just looking around, saying "ba-ball", and clapping when others clapped. We finally decided that we weren't going to make it the whole game sitting in the sun so we found some empty seats up in the shade. Most people were doing the same thing. Kalin had a blast sitting in the empty seat next to me, walking around a little, playing with the spring-loaded seats, and taking a 20 minute break with me to go run around in the concession area. He was a wonderful boy and had a really good time!! We all had a really good time!! We even got to see a grand slam!! Our first baseball game outing was a huge success!

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Kalin's verbal skills have really taken off this past month. I'm so proud of him and it is so much fun to hear all the new words he's learned and to have him mimicking and copying our speech. I have a bunch of video of him saying different words but it's going to take some editing to make it watchable and interesting so I'll be posting that sometime later. But for now I'll just leave you with fun things he's been doing and saying recently:

- About 2 1/2 weeks ago we passed by a house that had a cat sitting in it's front yard. Kalin saw it and started saying "Meow" over and over. Now, every time we pass that house he point and says "meow". We have yet to actually see that cat there again but he still remembers seeing it that one time and remembers which house it was at.

- He loves pointing out mailboxes and saying "ma-ma" (long a sound) and also garbage cans "ga-ga". So you can imagine how much fun it is for me walking through residential areas. It's a constant chorus of "ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma" with the occasional "ga-ga" thrown in on trash pick-up days. He also loves to point out the airplanes and birds that fly over us.

- He loves tractors (thanks to a book he got from his Aunt Bekah) and loves pointing those out as well. He has a word for them but I'm not real sure how to describe it.

- He has a thing for ice (sounds like "eye") right now and asks for it in every beverage.

- He likes to say "wow" after I've said it.

- He calls his Grampie "bee-bee" (which sometimes ends up sounding like either "baby" or "pee-pee") and calls his Grammie "mammie" (which is also what he calls his Aunt Kami). Just today as he was looking through one of his photo albums he came across a picture of his Grampie and pointed and said "bee-bee". Then the next picture was of his Grammie and he pointed and said "mammie!" I was so proud of him for recognizing them and remembering their names. Kalin has a special love for his Grampie (my dad). He gets very attached to him and sometimes prefers him even to me! Last time my parents were visiting our house we noticed that every time my dad left the room he would start saying "bee-bee". That's how we figured out that this was Kalin's name for Grampie.

- When I talk about Grandma Jody and Grandpa Ken he looks up at their picture that is hanging on our wall. So he recognizes that the names belong to the faces and people. We're working on other family member's names. He says "my" for Uncle Mike and "knee" for Aunt Nise, "ko-ko" for Aunt Koni and "lee" for Analiese. Most of the others are just garbled. Trying to get him to say Evangeline cracks me up because he spits out some garbled word that sounds nothing like it should but he says it with such conviction and confidence that I'm sure he thinks he's saying it correctly - or he just wants to make me stop asking him to say it - "Maybe if I pretend like I know what I'm saying she'll stop". It makes me laugh.

- A little boy ran by us while we were on our walk tonight and Kalin yelled after him, "Go, go go!!"

- Kalin loves using napkins which I just think is fabulous. He wipes his hands, his mouth, his belly and sometimes his tray.

- He loves to take things out to the recycle bin so if we clean out a container or have an empty cardboard box sitting around he'll grab it and head for the front door.

- Kasey and Kalin get up around the same time during the week so they hang out and eat some breakfast while I get to snooze a little longer. Around 7:30 I need to get up so Kasey can get in the shower so he'll send Kalin to the door and tell him to knock. Some mornings it's a gentle little knock, some mornings it's a pounding, and on Friday he attacked the door full force. One day he knocked then stood outside the door saying "Mama" over and over until I opened the door. If that's not just the best way start a day then I don't know what is.

Alright, I think I've exhausted my list of interesting facts about Kalin - or these are just the ones I can remember right now. I'll post some video of Kalin talking and also some from the baseball game soon.

Some New Words

Wuss

Tonight I found out that my son is a little bit of a wuss. This child, who takes balls to the face and runs into walls and then laughs about it or purposely falls backward hitting his head on the ground and then gets up to do it again thinking it's a great game, hates, absolutely HATES, having wet sand on his feet and in between his toes. We went to Phil's Fish Market tonight with my parents for Kasey's birthday and found a little trail next to the restaurant that lead to the ocean. I was excited because we haven't gotten Kalin down to sea level since last summer - which is really sad considering how close we live to the beach. He was about 7 months old when he last had some contact with the beach and ocean and the waves terrified him! But I could easily understand how those big, scary, loud waves could be frightening to a baby. So here I was, fully expecting my active, adventurous, and dare-devil toddler to be thrilled and excited about feeling the sand between his toes and experiencing the waves and water as they came up to wet his feet. He was ok while walking, in his shoes, across the sand. Once those shoes came off though it was a completely different story. He started getting upset the second his bare feet hit that wet, cold sand. Then Kasey gently dipped his feet into the water as a wave came up to meet us and that was Kalin's undoing. He would have none of it from that point on. Like grandmother, like grandson. I told him his Grammie Lyn would be very pleased to know how much he hated having sand between his toes. Oh well. Maybe next summer.

We've been experiencing some separation anxiety during nursery drop-offs on Sunday mornings. It seemed to correlate with a change in the drop-off procedure. Our church is doing some renovations so we have to enter the nursery through a different door. The first Sunday we had to do this was the first Sunday that we had a truly horrible time getting out of there. So last Sunday I had Kasey take Kalin to the nursery alone hoping that it would be easier with only one of us having to leave. But Kalin still wrapped his legs and arms around Kasey and started crying as soon as they stepped into the room. He knew what was coming and didn't seem too happy about that. The nursery workers are a little bit shocked seeing this behavior from Kalin because he's always the one that they can count on to be just the happiest, smiliest kid in there. They tell us that he always calms down after a couple minutes and then has a fabulous time.

New Words: The Baby Einstein dvd "Baby MacDonald" has really helped Kalin these last couple weeks to learn new words. The ones that he has picked up from there are: corn, hay, and wheat. He also tries to imitate: windmill, tractor, and barn. And it has helped him with his animal sounds. Some other words I hear frequently are: pool, more, and please. He was also trying to say peach today while I was feeding him a peach. Of course, most of these words may not sound quite right to most people but if you spend some time with him (or happen to know that he's repeating a word that was just said) then you can easily tell what he's saying. He still tends to say either the first part of the word or the last part. When he says open it's "pen", please is "plea", corn is "cor", wheat is "whea", etc. I got him to say his cousin's name, Hailee. Of course it was more like "Haiyee" but "L's" are very hard at this age. I couldn't say my name properly until I was, like, 3.

I love that he is starting to enjoy his different cars and trucks. He will actually grab a couple of them and start rolling them around making "vroom" sounds. One of his new games is to throw them all into his crib which of course means that I have to get them out and if I don't get them out then he tries to climb into his crib to get them. He's also been working on trying to climb out of his crib. I know that the day is coming when he will figure that one out but I'm hoping that it is still months away. I am so not ready for him to be in toddler bed where he can get in and out as he pleases.

Vacation

A couple weeks ago we had the immense privilege of joining Kasey's family for a little vacation. We took a little trip up to Angel's Camp. The drive for us wasn't too bad (less than 3 hours); the drive for the rest of Kasey's family was a bit longer (8 hours, 11 hours to get back home). I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to ride in the backseat with Kalin. You see, car rides are not always so fun anymore. He tends to be really needy and demands my attention either for entertainment purposes or to pick up the toys, shoes or sippy cups he has dropped. Knowing that he would probably need a nap during our drive (and that he has a hard time sleeping if somebody is in the backseat with him) I decided to sit up front and hope for the best. I managed to keep him entertained (while not making myself sick from turning around so much) for awhile until I decided it would just be easier to give him his pacifier - hoping for a nap. He soon fell asleep - for about 40 minutes. Then it was time to set up the portable DVD player with one of his Baby Einstein movies. This kept him entertained the rest of the way.

We had a wonderful week with Kasey's family. We went swimming, ate all our meals together, explored a little bit of what that area of California has to offer and relaxed. Contrary to popular belief, we weren't actually camping in Angel's Camp. We stayed at a lovely resort with kitchens, exercise equipment, and pools.

We stopped for a night at my parent's house on our way home since it had been a couple weeks since we had last seen them. There is something magical about their house that makes Kalin sleep great. Kalin slept until 8:50am when, on vacation, we couldn't get him to sleep past 7. And he never sleeps anywhere near that late here at home.

We went on a picnic with my parent's, sister and grandpa before heading home on that Saturday. It was at a park called Little Basin. I never knew this place existed. Of course I knew about Big Basin - we've had several family vacations there but I had never heard of Little Basin. Apparently it was (or technically still is?) owned by Hewlett Packard and the employees of HP have built cabins and such in the area. There are some picnic areas and also a campground. I guess it was recently opened to the public so my grandpa wanted to go check it out. We had a fun day and I think Kalin enjoyed himself. It sure was nice to get home though.

Kalin has gotten another tooth. He was extra drooly while on vacation so I was happy to see that it was for a good cause. This tooth is his lower right lateral incisor. It's the tooth I've been waiting exactly 3 months for. He had gotten the lower left one back in April which made him look lopsided with only 3 teeth on the bottom. However, while waiting for the matching pair to come in, we were blessed with 4 molars. So his top and bottom gums are now even again, 6 and 6. And it appears that the drool faucet has been turned back on this week so maybe we'll be getting some more teeth in the next couple weeks!

My sister, Jessi, came to stay with us for a couple of nights this past week before heading back to China. Kalin loves Jessi and I'm glad that they had some extra time together.

This last weekend Kalin and I were invited to join my parents, sister, cousin and her daughter, and my aunt and uncle for a free trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sadly, Kasey had too much homework to get done so he wasn't able to come along. I think Kalin enjoyed himself and he was a very good boy considering he only had a 15 minute nap in the car (while we were driving around trying to find parking) for the whole day. Afterwards we went to the famous restaurant Phil's Fish Market. Bobby Flay did a throwdown here against the owner, Phil. Apparently Phil makes the best cioppino. I wouldn't know. I don't like seafood. This made it extra sad that Kasey couldn't join us because he actually does like seafood. It's sad that we've never gone there together in the (almost) 2 years we've lived here. For the 3 months we lived with my parents we really weren't far from the restaurant at all. Maybe I'll take him there someday soon. His birthday is coming up soon, ya know.

Kalin has been learning the meaning of the word "obey". For the past couple of weeks I've been telling him over and over what "obey" means and what it looks like for him to "obey" Kasey and I. I'm seeing some fruit. If I ask him to do something and he turns away to do something else or pretends like he didn't hear me (toddler's pull off selective hearing so well) I'll either tell him to "obey Mama" or ask him if he is being obedient right now. He'll look at me and then usually do whatever it was that I had asked of him. He's learning that there are consequences to disobedience and that it makes mommy (and more importantly, God) happy when he chooses to obey. Now, how much of his reason for obeying lies in the fact that it makes mommy and God happy, I don't know. He might just be more concerned about the consequences of disobeying - but it's a start. He is by no means a model citizen (or toddler), and I really wouldn't expect that right now, but the seeds are being sown.

Mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Kalin has been practicing saying "mommy" along with "mama". Except he likes to drag the "y" out so it sounds like "mommyyyy". We think it's really funny. I love when he starts almost chanting "Mommyyyy, Mama, Mommyyy, Mama" over and over. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but he says "Dada" and "Mama" totally different. "Dada" is spoken loudly and with great emphasis and excitement while "Mama" is spoken in hushed, almost reverent tones. This makes it quite amusing when he starts going back and forth between "Dada" and "Mama" because his tone changes each time. We're not sure but we think he might call himself "na-na" (short a sound).

A BIG GIANT THANK YOU to Sara Sandoval for recommending Baby Einstein DVDs to get Kalin to sit still for more than 2 seconds. He will sit for 20 minutes in the chair and watch this particular DVD. I got him the Baby Da Vinci dvd from Netflix which goes through different body parts. We watch it probably 6 times a day. Well, it's on about 6 times a day - half the time he's just using it as background noise while he colors or plays with some toys. I enjoy the downtime to sit with him and watch it. I am, however, getting kind of tired of this same one and look forward to receiving a couple more dvds before the week is over. We usually watch it during breakfast or snack time. We'll sit together in the chair with some Ritz crackers (a new favorite for both Kalin and I), a banana and Cheerios if it's in the morning, and his sippy cup while we watch the show. We haven't gotten to the point though where I can walk away and do something while he watches because he is still very attached to having mommy nearby. But that's OK for now because I am finding it quite enjoyable to sit with my little boy and watch him enjoy the show.

We got Kalin his very own potty. He has become so interested in the big toilet and loves to say "pee pee" while *cough cough* grabbing himself (he's going to thank me later on for putting that out there on the internet!) that we decided we might as well introduce him to the concept of actually going in a toilet. And this really is just an introduction - I'm not entering super-potty-training mode yet but I also didn't want his fascination with all things potty to pass us by. The only time he actually sits on it (without clothes - because he loves to sit on it with his clothes on) is right before his bath. We even tried putting his feet in a bucket of warm water before his bath to see if he would pee before his bath rather than during it. It didn't work but he did think it was pretty funny. I got a picture but I think I'll spare him that embarrassment and keep it for my eyes only (and maybe a few select family members).

Since the last post Kalin has gotten two new teeth - both bottom molars, one on the left and one on the right. So that gives us a grand total of 11 teeth - 6 on top and 5 on the bottom.

He's been asking more often to color. I used to drag out our coloring board and crayons when we needed something to fill our time but he is actually asking to do it. However, there hasn't been a whole lot of actual coloring going on. It's mainly taking the crayons out of the plastic baggy then putting them back into the plastic baggy and also matching up the broken pieces by color then looking for my enthusiastic approval. When he does color though it's mainly lines. He doesn't do a whole lot of scribbling. He enjoys drawing lines. We've recently been experimenting with coloring with our toes. He thinks it's funny.

Several times a day I'll look at Kalin and be amazed at how old and big he has gotten. In my head he's still 6 months old. Of course, I'm almost 26 and still think I'm 20. I guess that's just the way life goes.

Tidbits

Kalin has recently become obsessed again with playing on his pony. He goes through phases with this toy. For a couple months he won't go near the thing and then all of a sudden it's all he wants to do!! I'm glad that he's enjoying it though. I love watching him bounce, make the sound that the animals are making and then go crazy when the music starts up.

His new favorite words are "uh-oh" and "buh-bye". He has 3 or 4 different variations of "uh-oh". We walk Kasey out every morning on his way to work and Kalin likes to tell him "buh-bye" and wave. He also likes to say "buh-bye" and wave to the cars that pass us on our walks or to any car that starts up in the parking lot.

This past weekend (Father's Day weekend) was a major milestone for Kasey, Kalin and I. While I had spent my first night away from him back in April during a friend's wedding festivities, this was the first time I had left him for an entire weekend. Kasey and I went up to San Francisco to celebrate our anniversary. This was the first anniversary that we have been able to do anything special for. Our first year we had been flown out to San Jose for a job interview for Kasey and I was in the middle of really bad morning sickness. So it was kind of a trip but not a fun, romantic one and I was throwing up the whole way home on the plane. Sidenote: Morning sickness and planes don't do well together. Our second year we had a 5 and half month old so we weren't ready to leave him alone for any great length of time. I think we did make it out for dinner that year. So this year we decided to do something extra special. We had a really good time and it was refreshing to not be on anybody else's schedule but our own for 48 hours. I relaxed - for more than just a few hours at a time. I did surprisingly well. I never felt the urge to call my parents to see how things were going and I didn't really miss him too much. At first I felt a little guilty about that but I knew that he was in excellent hands and that I really needed this break. Of course Kasey and I still talked about him some. It was hard to go even an hour without mentioning some cute or weird thing that he does. But we had a really good time together being a couple - not just a couple of parents. I think we need to make this an annual thing.

I thought it was really funny how different this Father's Day present was compared to last years. Last year I made a digital book of pictures from Kalin's first 5 months for Kasey to keep at work. It was a nice, sentimental type of gift. This year I bought him 3 different kinds of hot wing sauce from our favorite wing place, Buffalo Wild Wings. I couldn't come up with anything sentimental or creative so I decided to just give him something I knew he would be excited about. We loved this restaurant when we lived in Ohio and Kentucky and there just aren't very many out here so we never get to go. He really was excited about the sauces. I was really excited about them too and had a hard time keeping quiet about them for the 3 weeks they were hiding in the house. I did have Kalin make Kasey's Father's Day card. It's a bunch of scribbles on a sheet of printer paper that I then folded in half and wrote "Happy Father's Day" on the front of. I made sure Kalin knew that this was for Dada while he was coloring. Since Kalin was with my parents on Sunday morning he went to their church nursery. They had the kids make a special thing for their fathers. It's a poem for the dads and then they had the children put their foot prints on the paper. I thought it was a neat idea. I was surprised at how big Kalin's feet look. I need to compare them with his newborn feet.

For those who care - it appears that Kalin has weaned himself. It's been 8 days now since he last nursed. For the two weeks before his last nursing he had only been nursing once every 3 days. So I was prepared for it. "That's kind of sad" was Kasey's response when I told him last night. And I immediately said, "Not really!" I was ready. Kalin was ready. It was time. It worked out well this way. It wasn't traumatic for either one of us. We just let it happen naturally.

I am happy to announce that Kalin has gained his appetite back. For 5 or 6 days he barely ate anything. He was drinking his milk and juice and water just fine but would only take 2 or 3 bites at each meal. It was making me nervous except for the fact that he was acting completely normal and just fine. He wasn't acting sick or starving. Then all of a sudden he was back to eating normally again! I guess these are just the ups and downs of toddler-hood.

I was so proud of him today!! We were sitting on the kitchen floor coloring and I noticed that pretty much all of our crayons are broken. So I would hold up one part of a crayon and ask him to find me the correctly colored missing piece. 3 out of 4 times he picked up the correct colored piece!! He had lost interest in the little game by the fourth time. It showed me that he can follow direction well and that he can match colors together (and also that he isn't colorblind).

He appears to have gotten a new tooth. I don't know when. I have it marked on my calendar as last Wednesday because that is when I found it but I'm pretty sure it had already been there for a couple of days. He doesn't let my finger in his mouth to explore very often anymore. So that makes 6 on top and 3 on the bottom. He's a little lopsided.

So there a few tidbits of news from the last couple of weeks.

Ok?

I know. It's so bad. It's one of the things that you're not supposed to say to toddlers and young children. But I have found myself, in spite of my knowledge and resolve not to, ending sentences, requests and commands with "ok?". Lest you think me an inadequate parent, this habit is not so bad that I throw it on the ends of sentences or commands which are meant to keep Kalin out of harm's way or about rules which are set in stone. You won't hear me saying, "Kalin! That's hot! Don't touch, ok?" or "Do not throw food on the floor, ok?". It's more the small, seemingly insignificant things that the "ok?" gets tacked onto. "We're not going outside now. We'll go outside later, ok?" "Eat one more bite of veggies before you have another piece of bread, ok?" Thankfully, he has yet to catch on that my words are implying that he has a say in the matter. I realize that sometimes the "ok?" could be used to make sure the words are being understood by the listener, but I have a feeling that, the majority of the time, this won't be the way it gets interpreted by a young child. Sometimes, even as I'm saying the sentence I'm telling myself, "Don't do it, Lindsey. Don't let that word slip out.", and then I hear myself saying "ok?". It's frustrating :-) Don't worry, I'm not really beating myself up about this. I realize that it's just one of those habits that most people have and Kalin is just going to have to learn that even if it sounds like I'm asking for his "ok" about a situation, I'm probably not.

It seems like Kalin has been picking up more words in his vocabulary in just the past week. I may not be able to remember them all as I sit here. He definitely LOVES to say "mama" now. Although, I'm afraid that with all the hugs and kisses he gets awarded with for saying "mama" so much, he might back off for fear of getting smothered :-). He tweets when he sees a bird and says his version of "bird". I think I mentioned in the last post how so many objects in his world start with "b" so lots of things sound the same coming out of his mouth. He points to the window and says "tee" which means "see" as in "I would like to see what is out the window, please.". He's becoming better at saying "up" and "down" and is starting to imitate us more. I even get him to say "poo poo" and "pee pee". I'm not sure if he connects the meaning of the words yet but we're working on it. I figured now would be a good time to get him used to those words in preparation for potty training. He likes to pull the handle that makes the recliner on the love seat pop up and when he does it I yell "pop!!" and he copies me. He has found that having the recliner part up helps him get onto the couch all by himself. I am much more confident in his abilities now to get down from the couch or chair properly that I will actually walk away to get something from the kitchen or to check my e-mail while he hangs out on the furniture. When he wants your nose to make a funny noise (a fun game of ours) he'll now reach out his hand to push your nose and say "beep!". Just yesterday, while we were hanging out in Kasey's office waiting for him to get off work, a car alarm started going off in the parking lot and Kalin imitated the beeping.

Since Kalin received his little car from my parents for Christmas, it has stayed inside since we don't have a real yard to go play in. But this weekend we decided to take it down to the parking lot and see how it would do out on the road. Kalin had a blast! It's a much bigger area to ride in than inside the house and, since he can push himself on it now, had so much fun rolling around. For those who have been to our parking lot, you know that it's on a bit of a slope, so we decided that it would be fun to let Kalin go downhill with somebody just a few yards away to catch him. He had so much fun!! It went a lot faster than either Kasey or I had expected and we both realized that if we ever do that again, Kalin needs a helmet. One little bump in the road and he would have taken a rough tumble onto the asphalt. We have video but Kasey doesn't want me to post it online for fear that somebody will come across it and call CPS on us because of Kalin's lack of a helmet :-)

Kalin has started pretending like he's cooking. We gave him a spatula to play with and he'll grab one of my pots and start stirring. Then he'll take a lid and put it on the pot, then take the lid off and stir some more. It keeps him entertained for quite awhile.

He's been waking up earlier than usual for the last week. We thought we had the problem fixed but that lasted for only a day. He'll wake up around 6 now which is too early for us. I'm wondering if maybe we do need to try a one-nap-a-day schedule. Maybe he's getting too much sleep during the day so his nights end up shorter. I don't know. We'll see how this week goes. We try putting him down again after he wakes up and sometimes it works - for about 20 minutes. A couple mornings ago Kasey got up with Kalin at 5:56 and put him back down with his pacifiers and came back to bed. I had slept through this and didn't know that Kalin had already been awake, so when I heard him at 6:25 I went in and did the same thing. I'm surprised now that he didn't cry since this had already happened to him once before that morning. He managed to stay quiet (I don't know if he slept) until 6:45 when Kasey's alarm was about to go off. It's so reminiscent of Kalin's first 10 months of life when it seemed like this is what we did all night long. Then even after he finally started sleeping through the night, he would wake up at 5am and we would be trying to get him down again for another couple of hours. So either we need to cut out a daytime nap or I need to learn how to become a morning person. I'm not really sure which option sounds better to me right now.

Random Videos

This first video is of Kalin sitting in his high chair watching my dad work on the computer. We had him show us different body parts. It's kind of just a video of Kalin being Kalin.





This second video is to give you an idea of what I hear all day long. We don't understand 99.9% of what comes out of his mouth but it's usually pretty entertaining.

Aunt Jessi is here!!!

Today we went to the San Francisco airport to pick up my sister, Jessi, who has flown in from China for the summer. It was Kalin's 3rd trip to an airport and his second time to make the trip to greet his Aunt Jessi. The timing was such that Kalin's only morning nap was 5 minutes in the car before we arrived in the parking garage at the airport. I had hoped that he would sleep most of the way to the airport. I had even given him his pacifier and blanket but he wasn't able to calm down enough until we were almost at our destination. I guess I still expect him to sleep the way he did when he was in his rear-facing seat and was reclined. We haven't taken very many long trips with him forward-facing yet but he definitely does not sleep as well. He did surprisingly well today on only his 5-minute nap and we made it home in time to get him down for a good 2-hour afternoon nap. He did end up being really cranky this evening so we put him to bed much earlier than normal - I hope he doesn't wake up before 6:30 tomorrow morning.








Kalin had fun in the airport playing with my dad and running around. He wasn't quite sure what to think of his Aunt Jessi at first but he warmed up to her. He liked to look at her a lot.




He is still very "talkative" but we don't know what he is saying most of the time. He says "ding" when the toaster oven dings, says "ra ra" to imitate a dog barking, says "ah ah" to imitate a monkey and, aside from the other words that I've mentioned in previous posts, says "ba" for just about everything else. I've realized though that there are quite a few things in his world that start with either "ba" or even just a "b". Tonight he was singing my praises as he just kept repeating "mama" over and over again. That makes me so happy :-)





As with most infants and toddlers, Kalin is fascinated by other people's shoes. He loves to put them on and try walking in them.














He still amazes me every day with the things he understands. Kasey asked him this morning if his feet were cold and if he would like some socks - he signed pleased then went to his room and grabbed his socks off the floor. I was looking all over the house for his milk cup and finally asked him if he knew where it was - he walked right into his room, opened the cupboard on his dresser, and pulled out his sippy cup. I keep having to remind Kasey and myself that we need to be really careful now what we say around Kalin because he is understanding a lot more than we realize.


He is still a funny funny boy who can also be really really frustrating. I'm doing my best, with only the help God can provide, to make sure that I spend more of my days in laughter than in frustration. Some days I don't do too well but more and more I'm finding a patience within me and wisdom I didn't know I had to approach each situation in the most productive and loving manner. I love the moments when I'm successful in remembering to look at Kalin and see that precious little baby I fell in love with and the active toddler who is so full of life and eager for experiences instead of the sometimes willful, tantrum-throwing, rebellious little boy he can be. This is all part of growing up, right? This is the stage we're at right now and I know with some patience and wisdom we'll come through this just fine. We truly are loving this stage of Kalin's life (I think I say that about every stage) and look forward to whatever lies ahead.