Kai Logic

An example from last week....

Kai and Daddy are saying prayers.

Daddy: In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Kai: Who is Jesus Christ?
Daddy: He's our big brother.
Kai: I'm Jesus Christ??!!
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An example from yesterday....

Kai has convinced mommy to play race cars in the basement. Kai is explaining the rules.

Kai: And we'll race to the forest!!!
Mommy: Where's the forest?
Kai: At the end of the race.

Umm....do you know where to go?
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An example from today....

I'm preparing lunch for Finn and I hear some clicking noises coming from the direction of Kai and Finn's highchair.

Mommy: Kai, what are you doing?
Kai: I'm making his wheels not move. (He's locking the wheels on the high chair.)
Mommy: Why?
Kai: Because I'm a big boy!

So, is that his way of saying "because I can"?

9 Month Finn

Finn turned 9 months old on July 17th (last Saturday). We had a good day and even took Kai on his first trip to the bowling alley. Kai LOVED bowling! We used the bumpers and the ramp, which he enjoyed lining up to hit the pins. He followed instructions really well and stayed out of our way while we bowled and didn't stick his hand in the ball return (even though he wanted to real bad). He even got a strike!! The alley didn't have any shoes to fit him, so he bowled in his socks. Ugghhh--they were so gross when we got home that we just threw them away. Finn was wiggly and not really happy to be bowling, or we would have played another game. But at least now Kai has something to look forward to and hopefully we can take him again.

Finn trying to watch the action. The floor was
so dirty that these were probably the only
5 seconds or so that he was actually able to be put down.

Kai LOVES to bowl!

Finn's 9 moth check up was this Friday, the 23rd. He weighed in at 17 pounds 11 ounces and is 27 and 1/4 inches tall. He shocked the entire pediatric office with his walking skills. I can't help but think about how far we've come in 8 months since his diagnosis and I'm so proud. Both boys (and parents) have been battling a mild cold for the past several days and so the doctor wrote us a prescription for this weekend just in case we needed it. So far, I think we're okay. But we've decided to use our Sunday as a day of rest at home. No need to share this with the ward and no need to make the boys miserable. Besides, we love our family time and there just never seems to be quite enough of that!

Finn at 9 months old with his big brother, Kai.

Steps

Finn began taking unassisted steps on Friday afternoon. On Friday, he took 2 steps before falling over. This afternoon he managed to take 3 to get from a ball to the couch. Earlier this week I would have said that he wasn't that close to walking, even though he would take the occasional step. After playing with him this afternoon, I'm afraid he's much closer than I would have thought. WOW! Here's a short clip of him this afternoon....about 10 seconds in he takes 2 steps towards me, but it's hard to tell that he did it himself. Then at the end he takes 3 little steps. It's not his greatest attempt, but WOW!

Belleview Park

The summer just seems to be passing us by and there was so much I wanted to do. So I decided to make a list of all of the fun things that I could find and slowly but surely check off items. I don't want to completely lose the summer and the good weather. There's so little good weather out here that I know I would regret it. So, the "adventure list" began.

Last week I called a friend and shared my list of adventures and asked if she'd like to join us. We picked a trip to Belleview Park. I thought for sure it was the craziest of everything on the list because it was a bit of a trip for "just a park", but it turned out to be so worth it. The park is in Englewood, a suburb of Denver. It took just under an hour to get there. There was a playground, a mini-train, a petting zoo, and a little stream/river running right through the middle. The kids had so much fun. They really could have stayed all day. Unfortunately Finn needed a break, the sun was hot, and we didn't want to get stuck in traffic. In total we spent a little over 3 hours at the park. Add in the driving and then some wandering afterwards to find McDonald's milkshakes and we were out for most of the day. It really was a good time. We'll have to go back again!

Finn on the tarp under the shade. Pretty much how he spent most of the
day. I SO need one of these tarps!!

The playground. Kai was a bit possessive
of the airplane.

Kai and our friends Ethan and Maddie

Waiting for the train

So excited to finally be on the train!

Making friends with the bearded dragon.

All ready to play in the sand and water.
I was so proud of him for putting on his bathing
suit and water shoes without even a hint of
a tantrum. He was so excited to get in that sand!

A full bucket at the end of the day. Quite symbolic I think.

Pedaling!

I have been trying to upload several older videos, now that I've got them working again, but it seems that it's overwhelming blogger. (I think.) So, we'll have to settle with the one video that it has managed to upload. I'll try more later!

Kai has learned how to pedal--finally! He's just too short still to make any big turns, but he'll get there.

New Things of Note

First off, Kai has a new hat. Daddy made it just for him. Kai has been slowly learning how to use scissors and he wanted to cut up his hat yesterday, but I made him save it.


Finn's second tooth broke through on Thursday the 8th. He now has 2 bottom teeth.

Finally, Finn learned how to clap. He started doing it on Sunday and he just lights up when you sing "Patty Cake" while he claps. Yay for new tricks!

Sweat

The diagnostic test for Cystic Fibrosis is a sweat test. The test consists of a sweat stimulant being placed on electrodes which are then applied to the patient's legs for 5 minutes. After the electrodes are removed, sweat collection devices are placed over the area and then the patient is wrapped in warm blankets, coats, etc for 30 minutes while the sweat is collected. Easy peasy.

Unfortunately, it was not that easy for Finn. We repeated the test twice that day, with two electrodes for each test. After 4 sweat collection devices, we were able to collect ONE drop of sweat. I'm not exaggerating. It was only one drop!

Fast forward one month to Kai's sweat test. When the devices were removed the nurse was speechless. Kai had filled the sweat collection devices to the max. She said that she had never seen that before. I'd put money on the fact that Kai had even more sweat but there wasn't enough room to collect it all. Kai is and always has been our sweaty baby.

With the heat of this summer, I often find Kai with a wet, sweaty head. He can work up a sweat anytime. Some favorite times are while playing the Wii or red light, green light, or chase. Here's a picture from the weekend. It was in the low 80s outside. Kai had been out in jeans and a short-sleeve shirt for less than 15 minutes on his tricycle. Most of that time was spent just sitting on it. No pedaling, no physical activity. He was wearing his helmet. This is what he looked like when we took off the helmet.

I just laugh and think about how he needs a bath. I think this little guy is going to have to learn about deodorant much sooner than the rest of his friends.

Difficult Phase for Momma

Finn's mobility has made my life very difficult lately. I don't know if he's clumsy, or if it's because he's not getting my undivided attention, or if it has something to do with having a very rough 3 year old brother, but poor kid gets multiple bumps on the noggin a week. I have a feeling all 3 factors are working against him and I feel horribly guilty about it. I really would like to give him a helmet, at least until he learns to walk. I hate seeing the red bumps, bruises, and welts on his head. And I'm concerned about possible long term damage. I can't wait to see the pediatrician next week. I'm hoping she'll be able to reassure me that the knocks to the head won't permanently damage him, or she'll help me figure out how to keep him for bonking it to begin with. Seriously, the kid thinks he can do anything. I saw a shirt at Gymboree that said "I do my own stunts". They didn't have his size or if I would have definitely bought it.

Here he is trying on Kai's helmet. Too bad it didn't fit. And turns out that he couldn't even sit up in it at all. Everytime I put it on him he fell right over. I guess it makes him a bit top heavy!

4th of July Weekend

Is it me or did the fact that the 4th of July fell on a Sunday throw us all off? It was as if no one was quite sure when to celebrate. And really, trying to celebrate the 4th for 3 days is overkill. It seemed that all of the parades and activites were on Saturday, except the fireworks. And then on Sunday every had their fireworks. And Monday was the day that a lot of the offices were closed and employees had vacation for the 4th. Yep....overkill!!

Anyway, the confusion was definitely reflected in our celebrating this year. But we did have a good weekend.On Saturday Reid picked up a slip 'n slide for Kai. We knew it was sort of pointless, but we tried anyway. Kai cried and cried when Daddy got his slide wet. Then he decided that he could use the spraying water to "wash his hands" and that was all he was going to do. Reid picked him up and tried to put him down on the wet slip 'n slide once and he completely melted. I think we're going to need to borrow some other kids and see if we can get him to succomb to peer pressure.

On Sunday we went to a ward member's house for a BBQ. I made some yummy red, white, and blue cupcakes to share. Kai enjoyed licking the bowl (as always) and I thought the cupcakes turned out quite well. We used red velvet cake, cream chesse frosting, and strawberries and blueberries on top. Yumm!Finally, Monday. We spent the day cleanig. Exciting I know, but it needed to be done.

New Side Pics

Since Blogger.com will not let us put the full pictures behind the thumbnails on the left. We will put them in as a normal post then link to them. Sneaky! Sneaky! (Well actually Finn's links to his CF updates so we will give him a bigger pic here :) )