Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Months of Updates

Let's see how much we can update in this little blog post. And I'm not going to start out by saying I will try to get back here and write more often. I want these little updates here so I can look back on this years from now, but for some reason I can't seem to find the motivation to write. Not to mention the fact that I LOVE details when I write and some times it just gets annoying and tedious. Anyway, the only major updates I have are Kaisen's 2nd birthday and potty training.

As mentioned in that last post, Kaisen started daycare at Little Jewels in January. He went in the one year old room (the Penguin room) while Rylan went into the two year old room (the Monkey room). It was rough for Kaisen for the first few weeks and after that there were only a couple days here and there when he would cry when he was left there. He always cried on the rare times that I dropped him off and it broke my heart! In July he spent more time in the Monkey room as they slowly transitioned him from one room to the other. Since moving to the Monkey room, he's been much happier during the day and rarely gets upset when dropped off. From what I'm hearing, Rylan is his little protector. I guess they tend to stick together during playtime and hold hands while walking in the hallway.

Kaisen has improved drastically with talking since starting daycare. His vocabulary is huge now! He can put little sentences together like "Where Grandpa go?" or "Mommy, what doing?", but nothing more than that yet. He can count to 6 on his own, although he some times forgets 4. We watch the animated "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" on YouTube at least once if not twice a day, and he will some times sing along to parts. He especially knows the part where it says "The whole alphabet up the - Oh no!". He usually says the "oh no!" part right along with the singer. He dances like crazy, can "raise the roof" and nod his head. He knows what cows, horses and dogs say. He knows that race cars go "vroom!" and trains go "choo choo!" He even called all trains "choo choo" for a while, but is now starting to call them "train" or "choo choo train".

His favorite TV show is Handy Manny. I have the show set to record on Tivo, that way we are able to watch it at any time of the day. He also loves Toy Story and Spongebob Squarepants. He got a Chuck the Truck movie for his birthday and asks to watch that a lot. I can see Santa bringing a couple more of those movies this year.

Kaisen and Rylan are both addicted to basically any kind of transportation. Cars, trucks (especially big trucks!), buses (city and school buses), trains, tractors, planes, Grandpa's "big truck" and Grandma's "blue car". They have loads of matchbox cars and trucks, lots of big trucks and tractors. Those are the only toys that get played with daily.

The actual day of Easter, Kaisen spent all day with his Dad. The following weekend we celebrated our Easter. The Easter bunny hid 4 baskets for Kaisen to find. He got some candy, fruit snacks, juice boxes and snacks. For toys he got matchbox cars, sand toys, small plastic wagon, Toy Story table and chairs, bike helmet, shoes, tool table, and more. He got so excited with every basket he found and I can't wait to do it again next year.

In June, Kaisen and I went to Florida with Mom and Dad while Emily had volleyball tournaments down there. Mom, Rylan and I drove while Dad and Kaisen flew. We stayed for just over a week in a 5 bedroom 1 story house. There was a pool in the backyard and we were out there at least twice a day swimming. We did a lot of sight seeing and driving through Orlando. We went to Celebration twice, once just to drive around and get ice cream, another to play in the underground sprinkler area. That was such a cool place and Kaisen had a great time running through the water. After Emily's tournament ended at the end of the week, we went to Magic Kingdom. The boys got to see and get pictures with Woody and Jesse, Buzz, Stitch, and Chip and Dale. They went on a lot of rides, took short naps and for the most part, behaved very well. It definitely wasn't a bad trip for having two 2 year old boys. They were both fast asleep before we left the park.

July was Kaisen's 2nd birthday. On his birthday we went to dinner at Grande Cafe. After we ate, the waitress brought him a small bowl of ice cream with a lit candle. As we were about to sing to Kaisen, he stuck his hand out quickly and pinched the flame. It happened so fast no one saw it coming. Luckily he didn't get hurt. He kind of whined a little afterwards, but there was no damage done! I was super excited about his party because it was going to be Handy Manny theme. I made a lot of the decorations myself. I made cupcakes with toppers, the banner for the front door, and little timeline photo sticks. I also made cookies in the shape of tools. The party was at friend's lake house in Hudson and the whole day was great. It was a very warm day, so luckily the guests had the option of sitting inside or out. For gifts Kaisen got, a Handy Manny outfit, books, quite a few Chuck the Truck items (fire truck play set, movie, and truck), remote control car, legos, Curious George movie, a couple big tractors and some little ones, a little James train (a part of Thomas and friends), bath toys, a wood train set, and a Toy Story toddler bed with the bed set.

And now on to potty training. He got a little potty from Santa last year and that has been sitting in my bathroom ever since. He would randomly sit on it, but it never lasted long and he didn't ever actually pee in it. May 29th, as I was getting him ready for bed, Kaisen told me he wanted to go potty. Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was postpone his bedtime so he could sit on the potty and not go. But I didn't want to discourage him so I let him. Well, surprisingly, he actually went! The next night, right before bed, he did it again. I was hoping that was the start to things, but that was it for a couple of months. Mid-August he started showing interest in the potty again. So we did a naked day where he ran around naked all day except for his nap. He peed a total of 17 or 18 times (I was offering a small treat, so he squeezed out everything possible for a treat. Needless to say, that ended quickly.) and pooped once. Since then we did naked evenings when he got home from daycare. I got him some underwear shortly after and he started wearing that instead of going naked. Now, just a month after his first complete naked day, he is wearing underwear all day at daycare and at home. We have even ventured out of the house a few times with him in underwear and have been successful. He does have accidents, sometimes (but rarely) he'll pee in his pants, and he poops in his pants a lot. We're definitely having trouble with getting him to poop in the potty. But for the most part, this potty training is going well! Night training, though, might be a bit more difficult.

I think that's all the updates I have for now. I am happy to be able to get on here and update at all, even if it is months in between each post.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Kind of sucks...

Well I was really hoping to keep this blog updated with Kaisen as he grew. I've missed quite a bit of updates since June so I will try to share as much as I can remember.
Kaisen started walking the end of June (11 months). Once he found out he could take steps, all he wanted to do was be on his feet, so it was a pretty quick process.
Kaisen's first 4th of July was spent with our family at a friend's house in Peoria. He had a great time playing outside until it got dark and time for the fireworks. He seemed really interested at first and then eventually fell asleep on Grandma's lap. And here was I worried he'd be scared of them!

Kaisen turned 1 on July 13th. We had his party the previous Sunday (the 11th). We had a good turn out of family and friends. It was at Fairview park at one of the pavilions. We had a 'Mod Monkey' theme with the colors yellow and blue. It was windy so some of the decorations didn't last long, but other than that it went great!
Kaisen got his first haircut on July 22nd. He needed it! We went to Denise Baker in Mackinaw. He did great for his first time! He sat on my lap the whole time and made faces when Denise used the razor.
before
after

In August we went to Florida. We drove down there in Grandpa's Lexus. He has DVD players and TVs built into the seats so Kaisen got to watch movies all the way down and back. In order to hear the movies he had to wear headphones which he didn't do much, but luckily was content with just watching. Unlike Kaisen's first trip to Florida (where he was colicky and constantly in a bad mood), he did great the whole week. We went shopping, driving around, went to the beach and played in the pool in the backyard. We also went to a little carnival they were having where he rode 3 different rides. He can't wait to go back!
Let's talk about: FOOD, the stuff Kaisen can't stop eating! He loves it, all kinds of it! When I stayed home when him, he ate 3 full meals plus constant snacks! There are a few (very few) foods that he doesn't care for, but for the most part he will eat anything! He loves ice cream (but really, who doesn't?) and fruit snacks. He also loves water, would rather have that than anything else most days. He drinks soy milk instead of whole milk and can't have regular yogurt because he gets butt rashes.
WORDS! For the longest time this kid refused to talk. At about 7 or 8 months old he said his first word: "uh oh", which was more like "ooh ooo". Shortly after he started saying "mama" and "dada". Then after that it was just "mom" and "mama", which basically meant everything. If he wanted up, it was "mama", if he wanted a snack or drink, "mama", if he was upset, "mama". I would try everyday to get him to say things: up, drink, cup, banana, puppy, bye, hi, etc. Nothing, he refused! It all started on Black Friday. We were out shopping and at Kohls he saw a picture of a dog and out of nowhere pointed to the dog and said "dah", which we soon learned was "dog". Now he says everything (or he at least tries!)! It's such a change. It's nice because it's cute to hear him say things and awesome that he's learning. He knows who people are (Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Rye Rye, Kaisen, Aunt Emily, Miley, etc).
Mid December I got a job at Curves, so Kaisen went to Uncle Daniel's house for a few hours. Right before Christmas, some unfortunate circumstances left Kaisen without a babysitter, so we were forced to put him in daycare. We looked up the daycare in Mackinaw, but it wasn't convenient enough for us, so I enrolled him at Little Jewels. He started there 2nd week of January. The first week went okay, he didn't mind being left behind surprisingly. But the 2nd and 3rd week were rough, he cried every time Grandpa dropped him off in the morning. By now though, he's used to it and does great again with the rare bad morning.
I think that's all of the updates for now. So I will share some random pics since last July:

Lots of pics, couldn't choose just a couple.