A couple of Sundays ago, I was volunteering in the nursery and Nik was resting at home, so we both missed Kai's first Pebbles Body Life performance. I was so disappointed when I found out that I had missed it, but fortunately, we have friends who took pictures or recorded the performance, so we didn't miss out completely.
Our church has a lot of kids.. nice belly, Kai!
Kai's baby turtle balloon from the church Fourth of July picnic deflated until it was completely unrecognizable and Nik discreetly threw baby turtle and Elmo in the trash.
Kai loved baby turtle until the bitter end
We met Marco for the very first time at Taco Tuesday. We were amazed when both Kai and Sora ate relatively well for dining out. Kai, Sora, and Kayla enjoyed playing together and everyone did Ring Around the Rosie.. Sora loves this and requests it by name, saying, "rosie, rosie." Afterwards the kids shared a frozen yogurt.
The look of focus
Two adorable, petite girls
We went to Alex's first birthday party this past weekend. It was Lilo and Stitch themed and every single detail was so well-thought out.. it truly put most parents to shame. The kids had a great time and Sora loved the pile of leis at the entryway so much that she just kept piling them on herself until they were falling over her knees.
"They won't notice if I take a few more of these..."
"What?"
Kai will soon transition from Bright Star to preschool within the next couple of weeks and I'm sure he'll miss his daycare buddies. The kids love playing with each other and Kai screams with excitement whenever he sees his friend Leo. Today, we managed to get the kids to sit still long enough to take a group photo.
Kai is such a sweet boy with such an active imagination. The other day, he charmed Nik by saying, "I going to dream about you tonight, 'cause I miss you so much." Mealtime with Kai has become relatively better lately and Nik and I are hopeful that we're nearing the end of the "struggle over mealtime" tunnel. Kai still has his moments and we're trying to be more patient or teach him to be more independent and less whiny.
Pretending that the water hose is a phone
Teaching Totoro how to play "A, B, C" on the xylophone
Sora has always been Little Miss Independent, but lately this has devolved into toddler tantrums on the floor. She also will defiantly refuse to cry when we punish her, pouting and whimpering, but holding back tears. It's hard to resist her, since she's still so tiny and cute, but Nik and I are worried about the toddler she will become if we don't discipline her. Sora barely eats a few bites of her meals these days and once Kai gets up from the table, she'll say, "all done," push the plate away, and try to get down as well.
While Kai and Sora love each other and can play well together, fighting is a daily occurrence and they always seems to want to play with the same toy at the same time. And perhaps because Nik and I are always yelling, Sora will sometimes say "no" to Kai as if she's reprimanding him and then Kai will react saying, "I don't want Sora say no!" and then a fight will ensue. It's a good reminder for us parents to not yell so much since the kids are constantly watching us and modeling our behavior.
This past weekend was spent roughing it in the great outdoors. We went tent camping at Sunset Beach State Park with huge group of our church friends. Nik and I haven't gone camping a tent since B.K. (Before Kids) and prior to the trip, we were a little leery of how the weekend would go. But our fears proved to be unfounded and all in all, we a great time. Putting up the tent took a while and we were jealous of our friends who put up their tent in less than five minutes.. Nik and I may need to invest in an instant tent if we decide to go camping more often.
Nik and his assistant
Tent + inflatable mattresses makes a great impromptu bounce house.. especially while the adults set up camp.
As the name implies, Sunset Beach is right by the beach, and we spent
hours with playing in the surf and sand (I have the sunburn to prove
it). We spent five hours (!) at the beach on our first full day camping and predictably, we all passed out in the evening.
Passed out after a long day at the beach
The next day, we went strawberry picking. Kai was discerning and only picked out the reddest of berries. However, our little boy also decided that jumping in the big, muddy puddle in the middle of the strawberry patch was a good idea, and required an outfit change midway through. Strawberry picking was then followed by another long afternoon at the beach.
"Hm, this requires a taste test."
"
"Sprawled out on the sand in my clothes and I don't care."
Everyone wanted to be buried in the sand..
.. and eventually, Kai wanted to join in on the fun!
Camp food with LSCC was awesome and we could tell we were in the company of
veteran campers. Kai and Sora loved the unlimited supply of marshmallows
(although they were not fans of roasted variant).
Breakfast at the kids' table
Sora's first s'more!
The kids got so dirty
playing and running around and this was the first trip that I did not
overpack since we were constantly changing their clothes.
The big tree in the middle of the campsite was a popular hang out site for the big kids..
.. and of course, Sora wanted to get in on the action!
We never
really managed to stay for the evening campfires since it was too cold in the evenings, the kids slept
early, and we were too exhausted to leave our tent once the kids were
asleep.
The kids loved playing and sleeping in a tent and slept better
than we had hoped.
Kai slept in the peapod, wearing a snow bib..
.. and Sora was bundled up in the snowsuit, while she slept in her pack 'n play.
So happy while playing together in the tent
Sibling ♥
We missed the first group photo since our kids take forever to get ready, but fortunately, we took another one at the strawberry patch. 15 families (with 37 kids!) participated in this year's camping trip, but it was a surprisingly smooth operation. Kai's already looking forward to going camping again. :)
Nik and I have caved into the the recent Pokemon Go craze.. though we're not really into it (after all, we do have responsibilities and two young children), I have to admit that it's a fun diversion to see Pokemon in the augmented reality world.
A wild Zubat in Popeye's
Nowadays when we go to my parents' house, Kai likes to take Brownie out for a walk and he's surprisingly good at it. Walking around the neighborhood with the kids is a two person job, because Kai covers a lot more distance than Sora. Sora walked past a record setting 12 houses this past Sunday, though she's constantly getting distracted by leaves, flowers, dirt, cars, etc.
We continue to try to give Kai more responsibilities. We're beginning to let him brush his own teeth, although we always brush his teeth afterwards. I volunteered to let him brush my teeth the other day and he really enjoyed having the tables turned. We also let the kids "clean up" after dinner today.. although I had to follow up with a more thorough cleaning afterwards.
Starting them young
I worked last weekend, so Nik took the kids out to back-to-back birthday parties on his own. Although it was tiring for Nik, the kids had fun. Sora was really interested in playing with the big kids at David's birthday party, but got eliminated first while playing hot potato and both kids really enjoyed the ice cream from Noe's birthday party.
"The toppings are the best part!"
Kai and some of his daycare friends will be starting preschool in August and we're sad that this little group of friends will soon be disbanded. When I picked up the kids from daycare this evening, Kai ran to the schoolyard asking, "Where are my friends?" until we finally found them playing in the school auditorium, hiding from the summer heat. Hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch in the future.
All the same, we've been hearing from Miss Sun that Kai and Sora fight a lot during the day so perhaps it's best that they part ways for a bit.
