This is a long one!

So much has been happening in the last few weeks, so apologies for not updating sooner. Here's a brief rundown of things (pictures + 2 videos at the end of the post)

Kira
Her daycare closed for 2 weeks, and since the prospect of having both kids home full-time for 2 weeks with limited help from Jon (their work schedule is ridiculous at the moment) terrified me, I signed Kira up for 1/2 day camps for each of the 2 weeks.
The first week she was at a preschool run out of the community centre near our home. She had zero issues being in a new place with people she'd never met, so long as there were toys, she was happy. She had so much fun there doing crafts, playing at the park, singing etc. There was a remarkable improvement in her speech after just 1 day there. At the end of the week she proudly brought home her crafts, which we hung on the walls in her bedroom. There were 2 items that she decided she'd like us to keep at work, so Daddy has 1 thing and I have a ladybug to take with me when I return to work.
The second week she was at her gymnastics. They broke the morning into some gym time, story time, and craft time. She had a great time there too, and was very excited that one of her favourite instructors was there.
Tuesday will mark her first day of pre-school, I will be there for the full session as they have a gradual entry system in place. I'm sure she'll be wondering why I'm not leaving...

Kai
Well, tomorrow is his first day of daycare. It will be a bittersweet day for me. I'm sure he will love having new toys to play with, plus having his sister around all day. There are a lot of older kids at the daycare right now as school hasn't started yet, so he is bound to get endless attention from them.
He cut his first tooth about 2 weeks ago, it was followed closely by tooth number 2 and 3, he's working on 4 right now. Whee. Surprisingly, this has not effected him too much. He still is a happy kid, but there are times when he gets very clingy and whiny. He cries out in his sleep occasionally, but for the most part, the teeth just come in and he continues as normal. Thank goodness.
He is developing quite an appetite too. You can put pretty much anything in front of him and he'll eat it, so long as he can feed himself. Current favourites include fried rice, pasta, and peas.
I gave him his first haircut yesterday, the tuft of hair is gone. He now looks like a little man, he's going to be a heartbreaker, he has the charming smile on cue and dimples to boot.

Last weekend we headed south to visit with Grandma Tracy in Birch Bay. Kira loved being so close to the beach and her hotel room. She was spoiled rotten with food and attention. Uncle Mike and Auntie V came down the 2nd day we were there and Auntie V became Kira's favourite person when she presented Kira with a brand new Dora doll. Whenever Auntie was not in sight Kira would be asking "Where Auntie TV and Uncle Mike?". Yes, she calls her Auntie TV. Priceless. No one wanted to correct her, it was just too damn cute.

There was a place not far from the hotel that offered miniature train rides, golf, and go-karts; so we took the kids there and let Kira discover the joy of go-karting. Auntie TV took Kira on her very first go-kart trip, here is a video of her. She's just soaking it all in.

She is riding shotgun with Auntie TV

The miniature train had a Thomas engine, Kira was super excited to be going on a train ride with Thomas. Naturally, we had to go back the next day to take her again.

Thomas (yes, the face looks nothing like Thomas, but she didn't seem to mind)

With Auntie TV on the train

Learning how to play mini-golf. This was the first hole, we made it 1 more before she just threw/kicked/walked the ball to the hole. 

At Bellis Fair mall, Kai was playing with some 8 year old kids, crawling, laughing and squealing

He is learning to climb, not long after this picture he climbed up and was trying to crawl up the "grapes"

Kira really likes trains, she suckered Grandma Tracy into going on the mall train with her

Cheese!!

Kira took this picture of Kai. He is surrounded by pages of a colouring book that he destroyed. He had so much fun ripping the pages out, I didn't have the heart to stop him. The green monkey is his buddy that he sleeps with in his crib

August 24th is Jon's birthday. We didn't do anything too grand for a celebration this year, but Kira insisted that we get a birthday cake so that she could sing to him and blow out his candles. The kids and I went up the grocery store so that Kira could choose a birthday cake for Daddy. She chose a roll cake (I think that's what it's called?) because it had a ribbon on it, she said it was a present and we should get it for her Daddy. Made sense to me. Here is the video of her singing to Jon. The music you hear is a little music box that plays happy birthday, one of her new fave toys.