Binky Disaster

Reid and I went out for a date night on Saturday the 15th. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the babysitter when we returned and he had not been given anything to eat or drink for the entire 4 hours we were out. That night was a really rough night for Kai. He woke up crying several times and wouldn't settle down without me. We spent the majority of the night in the guest bed and Kai drank about 12 ounces of milk over the course of the night. In the morning, I was throwing his binky into the diaper bag and noticed what I believe was our problem the night before--a chewed through binky!

How he managed to chew through such a heavy-duty silicon binky is beyond me! But it happended to two binkys that night. His third and final binky suffered death by chewing this past Friday night. I can't tell you how scary it is that he can gnaw through these!

Our first idea was to break him of the binky habit cold turkey. It really is a huge choking hazard if he can do this to a binky. But, we were concerned about all of the holiday travels and trying to settle him down in strange places. So, we're going to continue to allow a binky through the holidays and then we'll revisit the issue. However, since we made our decision late on Friday night, Reid had to buy whatever they had at Wal-Mart. The only soothies that they carried were pink! So....Kai really isn't allowed a binky in public anymore, I can just imagine what people would say if they saw him with a pink binky. Lucky for us, Kai doesn't know the difference and if you ask him what color it is he says red.

Happy Day

Kai turned 18-months old on Friday and had his 18-month checkup. Of course we woke up to a significant snow storm and we had to travel into the Springs for an 8am appointment. The drive seemed to take forever and Kai was really restless. But it was worth it just to see the doctor's face when she saw his weight! Kai weighed in at 21 pounds 2.5 ounces--nearly a 2 and a half pound gain! He's back on the growth charts in the 3rd percentile. I was so excited. He is also 30.5 inches tall, which puts him in the 10th percentile. He's doing really well and the doctor was quite pleased with his progress. Of course, Kai's figured out the doctor thing and he started crying the minute she walked in the room. And good grief, he didn't want her to touch him. Top that off with the last 2 immunizations he had to get and a flu shot and he was a grouchy baby. Cute, but grouchy.

Later that day I took him out to play in the snow. Would you believe he was scared to touch it or stand in it. Even in his boots! Silly kid, I'm going to have to get him out in the snow more because this is Colorado and if you're scared of snow, well, you shouldn't be here!

Proud of Kai

I just have to post about how proud I am of Kai. About a week ago, he started doing something that I never dreamed would happen. He asked to go to bed! Okay, not quite like that but instead of me holding him and rocking him to sleep, he'll pop his head up and ask for his bed. He can now drink his milk and cuddle with mommy for about 5 minutes and then ask for his bed. We'll then say "Night Night" and "I love you" and I'll place him in his bed wide awake. No crying or anything, he lays down, grabs a binky and drifts off to dream world in about 20 minutes or so. It's so sweet! And I'm just so so proud of him!

This is Kai's preferred sleeping position. Of course,

he opened his eyes to the beep of the camera.

Outting

This week has seemed super-long. I think that's probably because I got most of the housework done early in the week and so I really haven't had much to do. So today I really felt the itch to get out. But where too? I had considered a few locations and finally just settled on the mall. I thought Kai would enjoy the pet store there, playing in the play area, and just walking around in general. However, on our way there we noticed that traffic was awful. So we took the back way, and it seemed to take forever. It was then that I realized we would need to get lunch at the mall as well. So, our outting turned into a mommy-son date! And it was oh, so fun.

We started at the pet store where Kai loved the bunnies, birds, puppies, and kitties. He meowed at the cats, woofed at the dogs, and made bunny faces with the bunnies. The only hiccup was that the store had two large parrots that were quiet loud and a bit scary. But we got past that. Then we hit the food court and got spaghetti and meatballs, fruit, a breadstick, and a drink from Sbarro's. Kai started by wanting to eat only the watermelon but after 20 minutes or so he moved on to a meatball and spaghetti. After lunch we went to Bath and Body works to use the last of my birthday gift card from Reid. I got a couple of things for myself and some bubble bath for Kai (who knew they had a kid's line?!). Kai insisted on carrying the purchases back to the car, and would you believe he almost made it.

We had a great morning! And now he's taking a nap. :P

Dance Party

With Reid on a campout this weekend, Kai and I had to entertain ourselves. So, we threw a dance party. Kai LOVED it and every chance he gets he requests "me" (aka music) and "das" (aka dance). Mostly his dancing consists of walking in circles, spinning, "shaking it", and "jumping". But it's still pretty cute. If there's some good music going he may even start to clap and get on beat. Amazing! This morning he again requested a dance party. Here's a video I took. The music was slow, I guess because it was morning time, but he still had a good time. At the end he realizes that I'm not dancing too and so that's what you'll see there. I guess it's helped me burn off a few of those Halloween candy calories, so I shouldn't complain!

Kai's First "Real" Hair Cut

Back in June, Kai's hair had gotten so long in the back that he appeared to have a mullet. So, we took a pair of scissors and did a little trim in the back. But, by earlier this week his hair was so long again that we knew we needed to step it up a bit. Therefore, last night we took him to a salon to get his first "real" hair cut.

When we first walked in he was fine, smiling, and happy. Once I tried to take his coat off, and he realized we were staying, he had a meltdown. It took about 10 minutes to calm him down, and really only the binky made him happy. The girl was very patient with him and did the best she could. He now doesn't have a mullet, and even has a bit of tapering going on in the back. He looks like a cute little boy. In the end, we found that giving him the hand held mirror so he could watch the process made a world of difference! I don't know when we'll have to do this again, but I hope I remember the mirror trick!

Before--They had me sit down with a drape, too, so I didn't get his hair all over me.

During

After--and after dinner, too.

The Lion Returns

We got Kai dressed again last night just to take a few more pictures. He loved being the lion again! And it helped remind us that it really was Halloween--a reminder we needed as we had NO trick-or-treaters come by! So, anyone want to share a CostCo-sized bag of candy?? We need some help!

Oh, and here is our lion sharing his roar while enjoying a yummy Halloween treat--M&M's.