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.