Coming Soon

Poor little Kai has been exhibiting all the classic signs of teething for the last several weeks. In fact, the drooling, loose bowels, upset tummy, and constant chewing seem even worse than when he broke his first two teeth. And looking in his mouth I can see several teeth hanging out in the gums. Over the last two weeks especially his gums have appeared to get more swollen and he has been biting everything--my nose, my shoulder, my finger, any toy, etc. But it wasn't until last night that I truly understood how much pain he was in. While we were playing I saw some funny coloring in his mouth and upon closer inspection I saw a tooth-sized bruise on his upper gums. This bruise pretty much covers his whole gum (top to bottom) and is in the shape of one of the teeth that has been resting there in his gums. Of course, I gave him some Tylenol before bed last night because I have a feeling that a third tooth is coming soon.

Spring has Sprung

I think I need to knock on wood with this post, but I might actually declare that spring has arrived in Colorado. The last week has been beautiful with days in the 60's and 70's. We've even touched 80 degrees a couple of times! The forecast appears to be more of the same. So, maybe our snow/sleet/wintry mix on May 15 will be the last for a while. Crossing my fingers.

Midnight

A new movie theater opened yesterday--the closest one to our house yet. It's less than 15 minutes away! (Right across the street from Reid's office.) The theater, Hollywood Theater, is apparently one of the best, at least that's what my technologically-inclinded husband tells me. It has 14 all digital screens and stadium seating. In fact, Reid's office was so excited about the opening of the theater that a trip was arranged. So, Wednesday evening at 11:30 Reid met a couple of co-workers outside of the theater to take in the 12:05am showing of Indiana Jones (the 12:01 showing was already sold out.) Now we have a first-hand testimonial that the theater is great and I'm looking at getting my chance to check it out, too.

The Runaway Wagon

Here are the videos from Kai's first encounter with the wagon. It's now one of his favorite toys.

Walking

We shot some video on the second day of Kai's walking (May 10th) that I thought we would share. What's scary is that he's only gotten better!

It's Fun to be One!

I can't believe that Kai turned a year-old last week. He had such an exciting week--I'm afraid going back to "normal" might be a bit boring for him now. We were lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma Hickman and Uncle Joe with us to help us celebrate the big day. Kai was treated to pizza and rootbeer at Fargo's and then after his afternoon nap, Reid came home to get the party going. Kai enjoyed a chocolate cupcake, a mylar balloon, and lots and lots of presents. He was so wound up all week that sleep was hard to come by...but I haven't seen him so excited in a while so it was worth it.

The first order of business with the cupcake was to turn it upside-down.

Then with a little help from mom he really started getting into it.


What a cute mess!

And don't forget the balloon--that was fun too!


Finally--the presents. He got all a boy could dream of.

New Technology

Reid has been working so hard on building our computer and setting it up so that I can understand how to use it. And finally, here we are! It's a very nice computer, top of the line, at a very good price. I'm so excited to explore some more and get back to some of those things that I've been wanting to do. Thank you Reid!

Lucky Pennies

Friday morning Kai was playing with a blind cord safety device, when Reid got the clever idea to put two pennies in it. Of course Kai loved shaking the pennies and was delighted when he discovered that it would make some great noises as he walked with it. His balance seemed good, so when he wasn't paying attention (listening to the pennies instead) I let go. He took two steps and then stopped, bent forward and I thought we were done. Then all of sudden he regained his balance, stood up, and kept going. And he hasn't really stopped since!! He is a very good walker and is enjoying all of the places he can go. I'm just glad he's not tearing up his knees on the carpet anymore. He still hasn't figured out how to stand himself up yet, but if you put him on his feet, he'll just go. Those two pennies must have been lucky!

A Night Out

We have to send a great big THANK YOU to our friend, Nancy, who honestly volunteered to watch Kai on Friday night so Reid and I could go out. Seriously out of nowhere, about two weeks ago, Nancy approached me and said she had May 9th off of work and her husband was out of town so she wanted to know if she could watch Kai for us! Uh.....YES!! So Friday night we put Kai down, visited with Nancy for a bit and then we went out--by ourselves. In one year, it's been only our second date! We had some bison burgers (quite good) at Ted's Montana Grill and then picked up some ice cream at Maggie Moo's before returning home to find Kai still sleeping and Nancy enjoying a movie. What a great night! Thanks Nancy!

A Whole Lot

I have to apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I have a really good excuse. Our one remaining computer, the MacMini, went down last week. Reid has tried everything he can, but the computer won't even turn on. So, we are left with a laptop that's working at about 10%! Ugghhh! Thankfully, Reid ordered the parts to build a new computer last night, so hopefully in a few weeks we'll be back and running full steam ahead.

In the meantime, so much has happened that I don't want to forget about. So, if you will all indulge me.....no one's forcing you to read this. :P

1. The Runaway Wagon -- Some of you may know that we bought Kai a Radio Flyer Walker Wagon about a month ago. The first morning he took it on two runs across the rec room before having a melt down. And then we couldn't even talk him into touching the wagon for 2 days. Looking back at the video (that one day we hope to post) it appears he might have been out of control and couldn't stop. It probably scared him to death! Well, after several weeks of slowly and gently reintroducing the wagon, it has become his favorite toy. He loves his wagon! On Tuesday we went to the park with a friend and her two boys and I took the wagon along. After a brief time on the toddler swing (which he enjoyed) he spent the rest of his time pushing the wagon up and down the park. He thought it was so great that he could walk away from Mommy and look back and smile. He was so proud of himself. Since our day at the park, we have taken the wagon around our yard--but it seems a bit more rough terrain and harder for him to push. But it works real well on the driveway and now he can retrieve the mail for me and bring it back in his wagon! (Okay, not really, but it's nice to put things in the wagon to push around.)

2. As a result of the new found love of the wagon, I think Kai's confidence in walking has improved significantly. So much so that on Sunday I was sitting on the floor with a magazine and looked up just as Kai let go of the couch and took his first two wobbly steps towards me! He didn't quite make it, but he tried. I was so excited I tried to get him to do it again, and have been mildly successful. I can get him to let go about once a day and take some steps. His maximum so far has been three steps and then he'll sit down and crawl the rest of the way. He could take more as he's not falling over, he just prefers to sit down and crawl it out. Silly kid!

3. Another new favorite game has been riding on mommy's and daddy's backs to play "horsey". He accomplishes this by coming up behind us and grabbing onto our shoulders. This is our cue to stand up and trot around--and silly us, we do!

4. Although it's not yet Kai's birthday, we "play" with his new tadoodles every day. See, there's a little girl on the packaging of the box that makes Kai giggle and blush. In fact, for the first day or two, he wouldn't even touch the box. He just stared at her and cuddled up to me with a smile on his face. It seems Kai has a girlfriend!

5. I have found a new distraction technique that enables me to get a few more chores done--music. Kai loves the CD player/Radio we set up and several times a day he'll reach out to it, indicating that he wants me to turn it on. All I have to do is oblige and he'll stand in front of it transfixed for quite a while. The other day he stood there through his whole CD--about 30 minutes. It was great to get the dishes done and dinner ready!

6. As most parents know, 3 hours of church can be quite tedious. And the 3rd hour for us is normally a beast! In Relief Society this Sunday, I had about 10 glorious minutes where Kai was laying on the floor under my chair just playing with his car. I was enjoying it so much, until I started thinking "This is too good to be true." And it was...Kai was quiet and still because he was in the process of loading his diaper. In fact, he didn't even want to come out from under the chair. After some coercion we finally got out of the room--and I learned an important lesson, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

7. I have been working real hard to introduce new foods to Kai and to vary our dinner menus. In fact, we haven't had a repeat dinner in 4 weeks now! This has helped with leftovers for Kai to try and also just makes me feel better about the fact that he'll be eating everything we do soon. So, in recent days Kai has come to enjoy macaroni and cheese, graham crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetable soup, chicken patties, and black beans (from the inside of my burrito yesterday!). Hopefully we'll be able to continue to encourage him to try new things.

Well, that's about it. Except that yesterday was the first of May and it snowed! Just thought I had to put that in there. It was 76 degrees on Wednesday and then on Thursday it snowed. This place is crazy!