Christmas Wrap-Up

We hope you great holiday!

What a Merry Christmas it was in the Kai household.  We love holidays around here, especially when they are spent with the whole family.  We spent a few days at the grandparents house, along with the Brown-John’s.  It was a very hectic week leading up to Christmas, but once we got to Port Moody, we could just sit back, relax and let the kids entertain themselves.  Poor Owen though – he had a fever over Christmas, so he was hot and bothered all the time.  He’s not sick anymore, but he’s still not shaking off the ‘bothered’ bit and still needs to be held all the time (but we’ll save this story for another post).

Christmas was so much more fun this year now that Megan is old enough to understand what’s going on.  She really enjoyed singing Christmas carols all the time –  her songs were Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Coming to Town (she even changed the song to ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Port Moody’, where the Mama and Yeh Yeh live).  Man, I really should have started to talk to her about Santa a lot earlier – we were able to prevent a few tantrums from happening after mentioning his name!  That’s it – this year I am going to start to talk about Santa coming next Christmas NOW!

We had a lot of fun doing Christmassy things with the kids, like decorating a gingerbread house, and leaving milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.  The whole of Christmas morning was spent unwrapping gifts.  The kids were definitely spoilt this year!  You should have seen all the gifts overflowing under the Christmas tree – there was even a toy BMW convertible for the grandkids to match Yeh Yeh’s new car!  Apparently, when Megan woke up on Christmas morning, she barely even noticed the toy car, dollhouse, and gifts under the tree.  When asked what was different in the room, she pointed to a snowman on the tree and continued on eating her cereal.  Aahh… too funny.

We tried something new this year and had the three girls sleep together in Mama/Yeh Yeh’s room.  Hmm, does that mean the start of some sleepovers at the grandparents’ house in 2012?

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Happy Birthday Yeh Yeh!

Yeh Yeh’s birthday is officially today, but we got to celebrate it over the weekend.  There was lots of great bonding time with Yeh Yeh and the grandkids – at one point in time, he was taking care of all four kids while the rest of the adults were having a chat.  Happy Birthday to you!

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Countdown to Christmas

Ever since we got back from Mexico, it’s been a mad dash to get ready for Christmas.  It’s been a lot of fun this year because Megan is old enough to really get into Christmas.  As she says practically every morning, “I’m so excited for Christmas!”   Megan loves singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and has re-worded the lyrics to, “Santa Claus is Coming to Port Moody” since we will be there over Christmas.

It feels like santa’s workshop at Casa Kai and Megan is the little elf that helps out with the daily decorating of photo ornaments and crafts.  She really got into making cookies this year and had a blast decorating the family cookies.  She had so much patience to decorating the cookies, and when we were done, she kept on wanting to do more.

Here are some photos of our cookie making as well as christmas parties/playdates.  Four more sleeps to go!

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Family Vacation to Cabo, Mexico!

Sorry this post is so late, but as soon as we got back from our trip, our calendar started to fill up with shopping and Christmas festivities! At the end of November, we went on a fantastic family vacation with Mama, Yeh Yeh and the Brown-John’s.  The last time we went on a week long vacation with the whole family was to Maui, when Megan was 8 months old.  This time round, we were traveling with two kids and boy-oh-boy, did it keep us on our toes!  It was lots of work (ahem, let me re-phrase that to Owen was a lot of work), but it was so worth it.   It’s funny, on the flight back, one of the passengers commented that Owen was behaving a lot better than on the flight there.  I can’t imagine if we didn’t have the extra set of hands to help us out! It was so nice to escape the cold and rain and feel the warmth of the sun on our backs.  It’s amazing how the sun instantly perks you up and makes you so relaxed.  Plus, this was a time for forced relaxation for all.  No thinking about work for some, and a total excape from the daily routine for others (me).  We just spent the days lounging around by the pool and then moved on to the beach for some sand castle/cookie making action.  The girls practically played by themselves the whole time, it was so nice.  For more details on our trip, you can visit Sharon’s site (I’d normally write my own, but I want to get this post out as I need to focus on Christmas stuff!) WordPress has a neat new slideshow feature, so sit back and enjoy the photos!  Sigh… just looking at these photos makes me want to move somewhere tropical.

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Hallowe’en

We had lots of fun this hallowe’en, well at least I did.  We got two pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and this year Megan was old enough to help us carve the pumpkins.  Unfortunately, she thought the pumpkin guts (as Nora says) were too dirty to touch, so she let us do the whole thing.

There may have been some bribery to get this photo taken with the bunny ears on...

Steve's Tigger masterpiece and my owl

We went trick-or-treating in Yaletown and saw tons of trick-or-treaters.  Are there really that many kids who live downtown?!  Megan wasn’t quite into the trick-or-treating this year, nor did she want to wear her bunny ears to complete her bunny costume.  Luckily, both Owen and Nora helped get Megan some treats in her trick-or-treat bag.

This year, Megan willingly asked for a piece of chocolate and even had her first taste of rice krispie squares!  Monica laughed when I was so excited for her to eat a rice krispie square since most parents don’t want to encourage their kids to eat sweets.  But those of you who know Megan know that she’s not into sweets and has never wanted to try it.  The fact that she was actually trying something she normally wouldn’t eat is HUGE.  It doesn’t matter if it was sweets!  Maybe there will come a time when she’ll try eating a piece of fruit again .

Trick or treating (Steve's holding up the bunny ears)

Apparently I don't hold the bunny ears in place correctly

Fall 2011

It’s been a fun and busy fall for us this year, with music class on saturdays and swim lessons (for Megan) on Sundays, plus getting together with friends and family for lunches and dinners.  It’s amazing how scheduling two activities during the day can make you feel so pooped by the end of the day!

Here are some photos of us enjoying the fall leaves and the pumpkin patch…

Daddy's little girl

Getting some air time

Megan loves being chased around by Owen

At the Pumpkin Patch with the Brown-John’s:

Having a blast with Nora

The only picture where 3 of the 4 kids were looking up. Owen was too consumed with the roots and dirt that surrounded him.

Owen’s 6 months!

Ever since Owen hit the 6 month mark, he’s decided that it was time to grow up – quickly.  It’s been a month of milestones for him:

He can sit on his own.

It actually happened shortly after 5 months, but now he can sit up solidly to play.  He still topples over and lands flat on his face in a “freeze” position (breakdancing position), but he’s developing a much stronger core day by day.

He’s eating solids.

It’s been hit and miss, but we’ve introduced rice cereal, apples, butternut squash and carrots.  He wasn’t a fan of the rice cereal and it took him a little while to get used to the action of eating.  A few weeks of practice and he’s now liking solids, in particular his butternut squash.

He’s babbling lots.

Lots of different sounds coming from Owen these days.  What usually comes out of his mouth is “ba ba ba” and “wa wa wa.”   What!  After the rough first 4 months, where is the gratitude, Owen!  ”Ma ma” should’ve be your first word .

He’s mobile.

When Owen puts his mind to getting something out of reach, he will do whatever it takes to make it there.  We see lots of rolling and reaching and the start of a military crawl.  Boy is he ever active!  I just want to hold and cuddle with him and all he wants to do is push me away so he can see the world.  I thoroughly enjoy the moments after a dream feed when I can hold him close for a nice little cuddle and kiss his cheeks without him squirming too much.

He loves his big sister.

Day by day we see more and more interation between Megan and Owen.  Last night at the dinner table, they were both making each other laugh and having a giggle fest.  It was so cute.  We’re so excited for the time when they both can play on their own and entertain each other.

Happy 6 months Owen!

September Update

Anyone who’s spoken to us during the first few months of Owen’s life has probably heard us “jokingly” tell them not to have two kids.  It was pretty rough, particularly because Owen was SO high maintenance.  Now, when people do ask about life with two kids, we no longer try to deter people from having two.  In fact, life with two has become much more fun and manageable.  Still hectic at times, but definitely more manageable.

 

I love his stunned look after seeing himself in the mirror

Owen is now 5 months old.  He’s super curious about the world around him and doesn’t want to miss out on anything.  Like his mommy, he definitely doesn’t like to be left alone when everyone else is doing something much more interesting, like watching us eat dinner.  He’s definitely interested in eating and often tries to trick us by dropping a toy on the ground and reaching to grab some rice off our plate.  Luckily we have a few years on him and our reflexes are *barely* quicker than his.

He’s getting pretty good at rolling around and recently learned a hard lesson about gravity after rolling off the bed (whoops, my mistake).  He loves standing and sitting upright, and is generally a very fidgity boy who doesn’t want to be in one position for long (again, just like his mommy).

Owen loves being around his big sister and always tries to reach over and tickle her whenever she is near him.  It’s so cute to see them interact.  She has an ability to calm him down with her singing, and an ability to get him worked up when she’s tantruming.

On to Megan now… I don’t even know how many months she is without counting on my fingers every time.  She’s past her 2 1/2 year mark and is wise beyond her years.  We can’t keep up with all the new vocabulary she is learning every day and we are constantly amazed at all the observations she makes.  We can even carry on some pretty complex conversations with her.  Sometimes we expect that we can reason with her all the time, but the tantrums still happen.  She is still two years old, after all.

She’s done a lot of growing up over the past few months.  There have been a lot of transitions in our house, from her Poh Poh staying on and off with us, to graduating over to the 3-5 daycare program in the beginning of September.  Even with all the change happening around her, she is almost fully potty trained and has transitioned to underwear this past week (yay!).  We haven’t transitioned her to her big girl bed as we planned to earlier on, but it has worked out for the better ever since we got a crib for Owen and put it in her big girl room.  We’re no longer in a hurry to transfer her to a big bed as it’s nice to have her stay put in her crib and not be able to get out in the middle of the night like some kids do.  Plus, we tried one night and she didn’t want to stay in her big girl bed.

I’ve mentioned before that Megan has a baby boy doll that she’s been feeding and changing, just like I do with Owen.  Her son, Joshua (which she named after Owen’s middle name), has become a big part of our lives.  She makes sure that Joshua is well taken care of during the day, including feeding, changing, bathing and ensures that he gets enough time on the playmat.  There’s even competition between Owen and Joshua sometimes.  When we put Owen in the jumperoo, Megan will blurt out that Joshua wants to be in there.  Such a funny girl.

Overall, it’s gotten a lot easier managing the two kids.  There are the times when it’s a complete juggling act, like in the early mornings when Owen starts to cry, we do everything it takes to calm him down so that he doesn’t wake Megan up.  In the grand scheme of things though, life is pretty great with the two of them and I can see it getting better each and every day.

We love you, Megan and Owen

Mommy = 1, Owen = 147

I love the sweet smell of victory. What a glorious day . I was FINALLY able to put Owen down for a nap in the stroller this morning!

This is a HUGE deal for me as a) he never liked to be in the stroller longer than 20 minutes at a time, and b) he has never permitted us to nap him in the stroller. Finally, my persistence paid off!

The morning started off a little rocky, with both kids’ schedules conflicting. Hmm, what to do – do I ergo Owen for a nap while I run around and get Megan ready for daycare? Or do I let Owen have a nap in his crib while I get Megan ready and then we’ll only make it to daycare just in time for lunch? Ahh, the decisions I face on a day-to-day basis now. Definitely life changing decisions (haha). Anyway, neither of those options were ideal, so I decided that it was time for Owen to learn to sleep in the stroller so he can nap while I take Megan to daycare. I set up the stroller to mimic what we do for naps and bedtime – I put the sunshade on to keep it dark inside, turned on the white noise on our portable speakers, and gave him his binky. Meanwhile, Megan was fussing as she wanted to be in the stroller and she wanted the speakers, but even with all the racket right beside him, Owen managed to get himself to sleep after 15 minutes!

It was short nap, but it’s a good step in the right direction! He even managed to sleep through the elevator noise and the loud doors. Yay to me! Let’s just hope this can be replicated…

Momma’s Boy

A picture says a thousand words and this particular one summarizes Owen’s reaction to others when they try to hold him (yes, even to Daddy sometimes).  At 4 months, Owen’s become such a momma’s boy and doesn’t want anyone else to hold him, especially in the evenings.  He’s been known to howl uncontrollably when he can’t see me around.  It’s nice to feel loved, but it is a little on the excessive side.  I would love to have others hold, cuddle and enjoy him, but Owen insists that only Mommy can cuddle with him.

There’s been significant progress made on the independence front.  At three months, Owen still wanted to be held a lot.  Now that he’s reached four months, he is able to entertain himself with toys on the playmat for quite a long duration without crying.  He still has to know that I’m around and in the same room as him; otherwise, he starts getting annoyed pretty quickly.  But yay to progress!  Even Yeh Yeh got to hold and play with a smiley Owen this weekend .

Ever since he was very young, he always preferred standing.  Owen absolutely loves being in the jumperoo and the rainforest gym.  I think we have an early mover in our hands.  Maybe he’ll bypass the crawling and go straight to walking… Yikes!