The Binky Fairy

We've been talking up the binky fairy for quite some time now. We even ordered a "Binky Fairy" book off of Amazon and have been reading it for the past week or so. My goal was to have the fairy visit by the end of the month, with tomorrow or Thursday being preferrable. However, Kai had some different ideas.

While out in the yard this afternoon playing, Kai turned to me and told me that he was too old to suck on binkys. I was surprised and made sure that I had heard him correctly and he confirmed that I had. So then I asked him if that meant he was going to give them to the binky fairy and again he said yes. So when we returned to the house, I got out a box. I just thought that I'd show him what giving them to the binky fairy really meant and then I figured he would change his mind. He didn't. He ran to his crib and gathered up all of his binkys. (He only had 4, as we have never been big on binkys all of the time. He just uses them at night.) He came back to the living room, put them all in the box, and said "bye bye". Then he told him he was going to write a note to the binky fairy. I got him some blank paper and crayons and he began to scribble, "Dear Binky Fairy". (At least, that's what he says it says. :P) Once he was done, we put the box and the note to the side and continued on our day.
As Reid had Scouts tonight, I was in charge of story time and Kai requested the Binky Fairy book. So we read our book and then a couple others and went about our normal routine. When it came to the time that we normally hand him his binkys he said, "I need binkys". I reminded him that he had sent them to the binky fairy and he said "I say bye bye to turtle." (He had one turtle binky.) When then went to his box, opened it and he said "bye bye" and allowed me to close it back up. From there we normally cuddle for about 5 minutes (with the binkys) and so I gave him his stuffed crocodile instead. He talked to me and the crocodile saying that the crocodile didn't use binkys either. And that was it! He didn't even actually want to sleep with the crocodile. He insisted that crocodile be tucked back into his normal corner and then he laid down on his pillow, I tucked him in and he's now sleeping just as normal. Somebody pinch me!! I thought it'd be so much harder. Granted, we still have to make it all night and I have feeling we'll have at least one break down. I'll have to let you know tomorrow! In the meantime, the fairy needs to run to the store to pick up one last present that we had in mind for our newly declared "binky-free" boy.The box that is outside his door ready for the binky fairy.

Let's go fly a kite!

Last Saturday we happened to see someone out in our back field flying a kite. Kai was very interested in the kite and wanted to go fly one, too. So, this morning Reid pulled out a dragon kite that we had bought years ago but never used. We assembled it fairly quickly and then we were out to try our hand at flying the kite.

At first, it was a daddy and Kai affair as I watched and took pictures. However, Kai did not prove to be quite as helpful as was needed and so I changed and headed out. We had a good time flying the kite and even got a couple of good flights out of it. It took some convincing but even Kai took a turn at flying the kite. Fun family times!

Christmas in July

Kai has been needing a table and chair set that is just his size. After a visit in Februrary, Grammy mentioned that she thought it'd be a nice Christmas gift for her precious boy (soon to be boys). A set that we had been looking at went on sale this month, and so we had Christmas in July! Kai just loves having his own table and chairs.

Kai could actually put the chairs together by himself.
He just needed a little instruction from Daddy and he
was off!

Here he is tightening the screws by himself!

All done!

The whole set

I love you so much, machine

On Monday I decided that I would do some very very basic sewing. Kai insists on sleeping with a blankie every night and since it's been so hot, we decided that giving him a sheet "blankie" would be a better option. So I took a queen sized sheet and cut it down to his size. All I needed to do was hem the edges. Doesn't sound hard, does it?? It resulted in one of the most frustrating hours ever! At first all was well, but then I ran into problems and had to take some things apart. Unfortunately, I apparently didn't know how to put everything back together. I got out my sewing maching manual and decided that the illustrations were completely worthless. Then I made a call to my mother-in-law who had some good suggestions. During this process, Kai was getting impatient with the machine. He wanted it to "go, go, go!" I told him the machine wasn't working. He looked at me and told me that the machine "was sad". He also said that he would "make it happy". While on the phone I stop to hear "I love you so much machine" and turn to see him giving the machine hugs. When I laughed I was told "Momma no laugh". From his face, you knew this was serious business! And then he would begin again, "I love you so much machine." Way too sweet! Kai didn't even want to eat his lunch or take his nap because he wanted to "work on the machine". If only love cured all.....oh wait, for my 2 year old, it does!!

*Note: The machine says Singer Simple. I beg to differ!!

Preparing for Baby Brother

It was probably about two months ago that I really started to get overwhelmed. When preparing for Kai's arrival, we got everything in a gender neutral color and so really we are ready for any baby that wants to come through our door. The problem is that Kai is still using it all!! To prepare for a baby, we have to get Kai to move up the ranks to a big boy. So, while I don't have a nursery to decorate or many clothes to buy, I do have an entire big boy room to plan and carry out. This includes painting walls, buying furniture, curtains, etc. And there are still a few baby items that I need to replace or buy for the first time for our little winter baby. I made a list and started to stress.

This past weekend we took the first step to preparing Kai to move on up. We cleaned out his toy room and moved all toys to the basement for a new and improved BIG toy room. Kai helped move the toys down the stairs but when it came time to play in the basement, he was a bit upset. Over the last few days, I think he's gotten used to the new location, although we still need to transport some toys back up the stairs for play when I'm doing chores. For those who are curious, here's what our basement looks like now.



The next step is to start decorating the now empty bedroom on our main level. And by the end of the month, we are anticipating a visit from the binky fairy. I'm crossing my fingers that doesn't result in too many tantrums. We shall see.....wish us luck!

The Heat of Summer

With the arrival of July, we finally saw the arrival of the heat here in Colorado. Poor Kai has to live in a house without air conditioning and a pregnant momma. It's made for a lot of indoor play days, and not much to post about.

Generally we try to get to the park about once a week, which is a nice outlet for us. We went as a family on Saturday and, while Reid was pushing Kai in the swing, Kai said "I'm having a good day at the park!" He thought it was fantastic! And it made me feel a bit guilty. We try to get outside every morning and play in our yard or on the driveway, but we don't get to the park as much as we could I guess. The best solution to that would be to put up a swingset in the yard--but I'm afraid that's a few years off.

On the positive side, everything has finally come together on the prairie dog extermintaion and we're hoping to see the start of that in the next couple of weeks. Which means that we'll once again be doing some long days of yard work, but it should be worth it.

While the days are hot, we generally have a bit of rain or a thunderstorm every afternoon. Kai actually gets excited for them and knows that he should count the number of "super sleuths" (aka seconds) between the "flashes" and the the thunder. It's really cute! Unfortunately, by the time we all go to bed the temperature in the house manages to sneak up to 80 or 85 degrees. Ugghh! It's made for some long nights, both for us and Kai. If we put him down in just a diaper and shorts, I'm up in the early hours to cover him up as the temperature drops. And so far, he's always caught me--dang it! That means I have to spend a few minutes comforting him before laying him back down. It definitely cuts into my sleep time, which is becoming more and more precious as I become more uncomfortable at night.

But I love summer! I love that we can play outside and I love that I'm enjoying this time with our "precious" boy. It's been a good month, despite the lack of anything exciting. I may even say, that's the best kind of month.

A rainbow leading to our house. This was actually part
of a triple rainbow that we saw after a thunderstorm!

4th of July Home Improvement

This weekend was filled with home improvement projects. Or to be more accurate, I should say that we worked on two very large projects. The first was replacing the kitchen sink. The second was weeding and mowing the back yard.

Reid spent all day on Friday and part of Saturday removing our old white enamel kitchen sink and replacing it with a new stainless steel one. He also put in a new faucet and a brand-new garbage disposal. I love my new sink and am so very grateful for the hard work he put into it.

I forgot to take a picture of the old sink before he started, but here it is out by our trash this morning waiting for the trash man.

Here's a picture of our new sink!! So pretty!!

As for the backyard, Kai and I spent about two hours pulling weeds on Saturday morning. Reid spent about an hour pulling weeds and then another two or so mowing. Our yard is so weed filled that we are actually worried about pulling all of them and opening ourselves up to erosion problems. So we had to just mow some down. Reid still plans on going out there with some fertilizer and weed control to see what we can do. We've been told that prairie dog extermination is to begin sometime this week and so hopefully with some work this summer and then next spring, we may be able to get some semblance of a yard. We'll see!

Farmer Kai

Recently, Little Einsteins aired an episode entitled "Farmer Annie". Ever since then, Kai has been running around the house with a bucket and shovel and pretending to plant his seeds. He will also repeat the four things a seed needs to grow: planting, rain, sunshine, and love. So, today we went to Home Depot to get Kai the essentials for his very first garden.


Most of you know that I don't do dirt. In fact, I have a black thumb with plants. So, we decided to do something basic. We got a smaller planter, some marigolds, and some soil that we decided could go next to our front door. Here are some fun shots of us starting Kai's garden.

Step 1: Put rocks in the bottom of the planter. (The man at Home Depot told me to do this since we didn't have holes in the bottom. Hopefully this will help collect some of the water.)

Step 2: Pour in the dirt--aka. play in dirt!

Step 3: Put in the flowers

Step 4: Water


Step 5: Give the flowers LOVE! (In the episode, the three little piggies teach the Little Einsteins how to grow the seeds. So, Kai insisted on having his piggy while giving love to his flowers. So cute! It's clutched in his little fist and hard to see, but it's there.)


Kai talking about his garden. I don't know what he says at the end, but when we watched the video together, he apparently did. It has something to do with love according to him.




Kai's love dance for the flowers. And just in case you were wondering, I have no idea what he says at the end!