Starting solids

In preparation for my impending return to work, we decided to start Sora on solids. She absolutely hates the bottle, so we're trying to see if we can at least get her to take some solid food so she won't be starving while I'm at work. Fortunately, I'm only working one day a week, so I hope it won't be a big deal and worst case scenario: Nik can drive Sora to the hospital and I can feed her during my lunch break (I hope it doesn't come to that!). Not really sure how she felt about her first solid food meal. She ate it at first, but by the end she was thrusting her tongue out and let the food dribble down her chin.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this..."

Kai continues to be duck obsessed and is talking up a storm. His pronunciation isn't always correct so we have a hard time understanding him, then Kai will then get super frustrated, and yell or cry. Fun times. :P Perhaps since we don't understand him all the time, he's taken up baby sign language again and signs for "more" occasionally.

Kai got sick this past week, but fortunately it came and went relatively quickly. Hopefully his immune system is more resilient these days. Since Kai had a fever on Sunday, we passed on going to church and decided to hit the Campbell farmer's market instead. Sora fell asleep in the stroller and Kai was a bit out of it, but we had a fun time munching on samples.

Feeling crummy here..

.. but now back to his usual hi-jinks.

Nik's mom is back from Portland and Sora's moved into our room again. In spite of a rough first night, yesterday went pretty smoothly. Fingers crossed that that will remain the case, otherwise, she's getting kicked out of our room to sleep with the chinchillas (No joke!).

"Wha-! Sleep with the chinchillas?!"

Family portrait

I've been wanting to take a family portrait for a while now, but finding the time and the logistics of getting both kids photo-ready is difficult. We finally got it done and here's the end result:

At least everyone's looking at the camera :P

Needless to say, Kai was not happy in front of the camera (oh toddlers). Sora was better, although we couldn't get a picture of her smiling unless she had her dress in her mouth. Oh well, at least we got it done.

We've been spending a lot of time with our church community lately and one of the awesome things about this community is that there are so many young families in our church and therefore a lot of kids for Kai to play with. We certainly believe in the mandate to "be fruitful and multiply." :) Nik took some pictures of the kids while he was on nursery duty on Easter Sunday, Kai was really enjoying the tunnel that day and collected a couple of Easter eggs to add to his collection.

Just in our church small group alone, we have a bunch of kids, here's a picture of the little TV zombies. :P

We went to visit my parents' house the other day and Kai specifically requested Uncle Matthew to play the guitar. Kai and Sora had a lot of fun listening to Uncle Matthew (Kai calls him Matt-Matt) play and played along with the maracas.

Sora is almost sitting up on her own and can sit up while propped up with the Boppy. However she needs to watch out for big brother, who likes to see what she's up to and join in on the fun.

Oh noes!

Good fortune

The other day we let Kai have his very first fortune cookie and his fortune was fit for a toddler. Ai ya, we're in trouble, aren't we?

We had some of our neighbors and Matthew over for burgers today. It feels like it's been ages since we've use our grill (probably because it has been ages). Probably something we should try to do more often, because it was a lot of fun to grill and eat outside with friends.

I'm worried that Sora might end up as a thumb sucker (you can take a pacifier away, but you can't take away the thumb)--today she was looking awfully happy with her hand.

The other day, Kai was hamming it up for the camera the way he use to before he started grabbing for the camera all the time. I miss those days!

Usually I have to take candid shots before he notices the camera a makes a grab for it.

Kai: "This is how you play with duckies, Sora."

Happy belated Easter!

Nik's mom went up to Portland to visit Joe and his family, so once again, we're scrambling for childcare. Yesterday was particularly rough. I sent my mom home after I put Sora to bed, but before I put Kai to bed (BIG MISTAKE). Sora woke up right after my mom left, so I ended up loading both kids in the car and driving them both to sleep. On the bright side, with Nik's mom temporarily away, we have a spare bedroom once again, so we moved Sora into the spare bedroom and are working on some sleep training. She seems to be getting better (fingers crossed!), but she's still nowhere near sleeping through the night.

After Easter and Hakiron's ducky-themed first birthday party, Kai is currently obsessed with plastic eggs and rubber duckies. Much to our amusement, the other day he placed the plastic eggs on Sora's head while exclaiming, "hat!" And yes, I got a picture.. thank goodness.

We had a lot of fun at Hakiron's first birthday party, Kai loved all the ducky-themed paraphernalia and the rubber ducky party favors. Now when we put him to bed at night, he specifically requests that his ducks are in the crib with him. Fortunately, he doesn't mind sharing!

Kai: "If I let Sora borrow my duckies.."

".. I'm sure she won't mind if I borrow her paci."

Sora continues to grow and is getting strong enough to hold herself up somewhat while standing.

We've had fun watching Sora make friends.. or rather, we've had fun posing Sora next to our friends' babies.

And one more picture for good measure.