Link to Kai's book

For my mom for Christmas I made her a scrapbook/storybook of Kai's first 18 months. I think it turned out really well, and my mom seemed to enjoy it. You can click here if you'd like to see the book.

Visiting Santa

Kai and I got dressed and ready to go bright and early this morning. We made it to the mall by 9:30 so that we could be one of the firsts in line to see Santa. After a quick trip to the pet store to visit the animals, and being stopped by one of those pesky salespeople, we made it to the Santa line. We had to wait about 20 minutes to see Santa. After telling the elves that we did not want to buy their pictures, but rather take our own, we were cleared to see Santa. You will notice that I don't have a picture of Kai with Santa. This is because he screamed and threw a large fit. Santa must have been a bit stressed even at this early hour because he wasn't helpful at all. So after a short try at trying to visit Santa, we left the Santa area. I decided to take a picture of Kai outside of the area just to show that we went. This is what I got.

Classic. He was crying even less in this picture than he was with Santa. Gotta love him!

Mad scientist

Kai found Reid's laser pointer this afternoon. Who knew that would entertain him for quite some time! Too cute! (Oh, and the orange mouth is the result of his Cheez-Its.)

Sick

What better way to fight a cold than wear ear muffs!

Almost immediately after returning from Thanksgiving, Kai got sick. He had had a runny nose, but it didn't seem bad. However, slowly but surely the nose got worse and turned into a cough as well. Granted it never got horribly bad. What concerned me the most, however, was the throwing up. It came randomly and for the life of us we couldn't figure out what was triggering it. Sometimes he would be coughing, sometimes not. We threw out a couple of gallons of milk thinking maybe that had spoiled. Still no luck. I finally took him to the doctor on Tuesday and she figures that the mucus draining into his tummy made him nauseous and that dairy products just made him feel worse (despite the fact that that was the first thing he wanted after he threw up). So we took him off of milk for a couple of days, and he took a teaspoon of Benadryl before bed for the last three days and the nose appears to have dried up. The coughing is disappearing, and he he hasn't thrown up in 2 and a half days. I'm optimistic that we might be on the upswing!

The face Kai makes when I say "smile!"

Kai's Christmas Letter

Tis the Season

Slowly but surely the Jones' home is being decorated for Christmas. We have a Christmas elf that seems to be holding up the process just a little bit, though. His name would be Kai! He absolutely loves all of the lights and ornaments and within seconds can un-do what took me quiet a bit of time to do the first time. I guess you can just say that it makes this year a bit more fun and interesting!

We had talked of upgrading our Christmas tree for several years, but had decided to postpone again this year since we are traveling for the holidays. However, when we saw this beauty on clearance we couldn't pass up the deal. So, we now introduce the Jones family Christmas tree. (Not Kai's Christmas tree as our elf would have you believe!)

Not five minutes after I took this picture, all the ornaments within reaching distance had been stripped off of the tree. It's funny to see a very clear line around the tree delineating the height of our little Christmas elf.

Lest we forget the true meaning of Christmas, Kai was given a Little People Nativity set that he absolutely loves! He enjoys the angel singing, the baby Jesus, and pointing out the Mama and Dada. This set has quickly become a favorite!
Finally, Kai has been working on his colors. With all of the colors of Christmas, what better time to practice! Here he is telling you about his favorite color.

Born a Cougar

Kristi gave Kai a new T-shirt while we were in Kansas. I think Kai looks fantastic in it and it has his favorite letters--B, Y, and U. See, I wear BYU shirts as my jammies and Kai has become quite curious with letters lately. Normally we talk about those letters every morning. Now he has one of his own. Too cute!

We're not in Kansas anymore

For Thanksgiving this year, we took a road trip to Reid's sister's house in Lawrence, Kansas. It was Kai's first big road trip and he did great! The drive is about 8 hours and we took a few little stops to make the trip 9 hours. Kai was certainly glad to get out of his carseat when we finally arrived. We enjoyed our trip very much, but I don't think anyone enjoyed it as much as Kai. I had been teaching him his cousins names in the weeks prior to the trip and he became good at saying "E" for Ethan, "Br" for Bryn, and "Owey" for Owen. He loved being with his cousins--especially Bryn!! And he loved having new toys to play with.

Thanksgiving day was nice and Kristi prepared an excellent dinner. While we were there, we also took a fun driving tour of Lawrence and were introduced to the Yellow Sub. Ymmmmm!!! Kristi also took some family pictures for us. We were way over due on pictures and she does a fantastic job. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back! Thank you Kristi, Erik, Ethan, Bryn, and "Owey"! We love you!

Kai in his carseat ready to roll!

Thanksgiving dinner

R&R--reading and relaxing--after dinner

Our "little turkey"

Playing basketball

Going to take family pictures

Playing with Bryn

The things Kai says

Kai's vocabulary grows by the day. His most recent learned phrase is "I love you". Too cute!



We also taught him to say "I am" in response to "Who's the cutest boy in the world?" and "Who's Daddy's buddy?" Yes, we're biased!

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.

Happy Halloween!

Last night our ward had the annual Halloween Party. Kai was an adorable lion! And we discovered that he likes to party. There was a live band while we were eating dinner (hot dogs, corn dogs, and/or chili) that had Kai dancing the entire time. He would stomp his feet if he was standing, or bob up and down if we were holding him. He had a great time! After dinner, there were games all around the building. Most of them were for older children, but Kai did go fishing. His prize--a lion!! We left before the trunk or treat, but I have a feeling that next year we're going to be partying for quite some time!

"Didr"

Yesterday Kai told me that his favorite character from My Friends Tigger and Pooh is "didr" (translation-Tigger). In fact, he spent the afternoon carrying around a Tigger figure from his Winnie the Pooh "mano" (translation-piano). This morning he had me in stitches as he carried Tigger from room to room and finally to his highchair for breakfast. I served Kai toast and jelly (one of his favorites--and nice and fattening) and then I got this genius idea. Maybe I could make Kai eat more if I told him that Tigger ate it. So, I said to Kai "Tigger likes toast and jelly, too." Wouldn't you know the kid would out smart me! He took his bite right out of his mouth and shoved it into Tigger's mouth!! And then he wouldn't eat another thing. So much for the brilliant mom idea!

Fall Weekend

Can you really call it a fall weekend after it's already snowed??? I'm not sure, but nonetheless, I wanted to capitalize on the season and so we had some fall-type family fun this weekend. Saturday was pumpkin carving. Kai seemed to be more afraid of the pumpkin than willing to make a mess. I even told him he had permission to make a mess and he looked at me funny and said "mess?". Reid ended up carving the pumpkin by himself. Oh well, we tried. And we got some cute pictures.

On Sunday I made a fall-type dinner--ham, sweet potatoe casserole, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and pumkin pie. Yummy! Once again, Kai wouldn't touch it. He opted for the Chef Boyardee. Silly kid!

What we woke up to this morning

Enough said!

The Pants Story

I mentioned in my previous post that I find myself saying Kai's hilarious quite frequently these days. This story is one of those that I find hilarious.

After church on Sunday Kai is normally so exhausted that it's straight home and to bed. Normally we take his pants off before laying him down because I figure it'd be uncomfortable to be sleeping in khakis and a belt. This Sunday was no exception. He slept in a shirt and diaper with a blankie. When he woke up later one of the first things he wanted to talk about was his shirt. He'd point to his shirt and say shirt and I would say "Yes, Kai has a shirt." Then I asked, "Does Kai have pants?" At this point, Kai looked down at his bare legs, looked surprised, and then started to cry. He was so sad that there were no pants! I withheld the laughter and offered him a pair of pants, to which he responded with jumping and waving of the arms. Poor kid doesn't like to be without his pants I guess!

Shoes and "The Hat"

For the first 17 months of Kai's life, getting him to wear a hat was akin to torture. I don't know what's changed, but I find it hilarious (actually I'm starting to say that about Kai a lot lately--he is hilarious!). Yesterday I took Kai to the outlets again to look at some shoes. It was a bit windy and downright chilly and so I grabbed the hat on the way out the door and mentioned to Kai that I had brought it "just in case". Well, once he knew I had it, he wouldn't go without it. And of course, since the hat has matching mittens, he just had to the have the mittens, too. The drive to the outlets was comical as I would look in the rearview mirror and see this kid in his bear hat and mittens!

Today Reid went to work early and subsequently came home early. Somehow while we were chatting and playing in the living room, the hat appeared and Kai insisted that we put it on his head. And when he saw that I was showing Reid his new shoes, he had to have those, too. He wore the hat around the house for about an hour and a half and the shoes for even longer. I just had to get a picture it was too cute!

As if that wasn't enough, after I would take his picture he would say "again". And so, I now how more pictures than I need of Kai in his hat!

Heritage Makers

I'm not creative. Never really have been. But I've wanted to make Kai a scrapbook. I feel it's important to keep something nice for him to look back on. I have a friend that's been wanting me to try this company out for a while, but I'll admit, making Kai a scrapbook in a limited amout of time (because you have to pay for it) seemed overwhelming. So, one day I got the idea to start with a "small" project. My grandma loves to play cards and I thought a personalized deck of cards would be a great Christmas present. The cards were EASY! And I didn't have to be creative. I'm hooked. I've already started working on an album for Kai. It was so much fun. If you'd like to see what I made for my grandma you can Click here.

Kai's New Trick

Going down the stairs

Big Boy

I don't know what happened, but all of sudden I think I realized that my little boy is growing up. I've dressed him like a big boy for such a long time that I had come to think that's all there was for him (T-shirt and jeans). The other day we were at Kohl's and I was staring longingly at the little boy clothes wishing that there was something Kai's size, and wouldn't you know it--there was! Okay, so this outift isn't pastel and exactly baby-babyish, but it does make him look more like a toddler in my opinion. So in celebration of his 17 month mark (!) he wore his "little boy" outfit. I think I want to go buy a few more!

"DD"

"DD" is Kai's new addiction. We know it as TV. I was so excited several months ago that I had a boy that didn't like TV at all, and in the last month or so that's all changed. I have to admit that I'm not thrilled about Kai's new found love. For now, I limit him to one show a day. I TIVO one episode of My Friends Tigger and Pooh and Little Einsteins every week and I'll let him watch one of those a day. He seems to like the animated shows more than others (such as the Wiggles), and that's okay with me. (I personally like Pooh Bear.) The one thing that I find cute about his TV viewing is that he likes to have someone sitting with him as he watches--even though he doesn't flinch. Silly kid! (Here he's watching his first episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Thought we'd give it a shot. Looks like he liked it.)

Pampering

While Kai and Reid enjoyed father-son bonding on Saturday morning, I got to indulge in some good old fashioned pampering. The morning started with a pedicure with my friend Nancy. From there I got a manicure and then a facial. It was so nice to get out of the house by myself, put my feet up, and relax! I was out of the house for about three and a half hours and returned home to find Kai sleeping. I think both Reid and Kai had a good time and I know I certainly enjoyed the treat!

Jones Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I saw this on someone's blog and thought I'd give it a try. Interesting results, huh?!

Kai's Seat

About a month and a half ago we finally got around to buying a second back-resty thing. Reid had one from before our marriage and I often "borrowed" it for myself. So, we bought a second one for me. I really haven't had the chance to use it much--but that doesn't matter to Kai. The other morning, Reid told Kai that it was "his" (as in Kai's) seat. Kai loved lounging in his seat! It's come in handy since then when I've needed him to sit still for a moment. I just ask him where his seat is.

Papa's visit continued

So, I believe I left off on Friday, September 26th. We had gone to the pumpkin patch and eaten at Arby's. There was one other noteworthy event that day....homemade ice cream! We made mint chocolate chip that turned out pretty good. Kai seemed to enjoy his ice cream....except for the chips. Note the pile of chocloate chips on his tray!

Saturday--Sept 27th--What visit to Colorado Springs would be complete without seeing the Garden of the Gods. Kai loves this park as it has lots and lots of rocks. We all got a good workout and a good view of the rocks. After our expedition we hit Fargo's for some good fun and pizza.


Sunday--Sept 28th--A nice quiet Sunday. Reid and Papa took Kai home after sacrament, so I got to enjoy the rest of the meetings by myself. It was very nice not to have to worry about Kai during Relief Society.

Monday--Sept 29th--Papa's last day! We met Reid for lunch at Carl's Jr and then took a quick trip to Wal-Mart. Other than that, Kai enjoyed the day with his Papa at home...getting in all of the stories and play that he could. Oh, and I had visiting teaching in the morning and once again Kai got to stay home with Papa. I think they both throughly enjoyed their day and I know Kai loved having his Papa here!