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!