There hasn't been too much going on with us lately, more of the same. This past week Kira enjoyed visits from her friend, Kieren, and her cousins Marcus and Isabel. We took her off to gymnastics and the park, but that's about it. This coming weekend will be her last gymnastics class until after the olympics; the new road closures and parking restrictions will be in place by Saturday, so it should be fun for us to try to get downtown. Saturday night is our friends wedding reception, so Kira will be staying at Grandma Tracy's and Grandpa Charlie's house, I'm sure she will have a great time. Perhaps Grandpa will take her to McDonalds for a delicious, nutritious breakfast - and then let her run her energy out in the play area.

Here is a picture of Kira enjoying pudding. As she is still not drinking milk (sigh) we are doing what we can to ensure she gets calcium from other sources, she recently took to the pudding...in her own special way.

Teeth!

Kira has got more teeth! In the last 2 weeks she got 3 of her 4 eye teeth (or fang teeth as I like to call them). This has made her cranky at times, but overall, she is still a happy kid. Her vocabulary continues to expand, and she is starting to string two or more words together. She has also learned to identify parts on her face, if you ask her "Kira, where is your nose/mouth/eyes/ears/teeth" she will point and laugh. She still is very aware of where her belly is and continues to flash it to anyone that asks.

Her gymnastics class will wrap up on Feb 6 as the streets around the building will be closed off for the Olympics, we aren't sure yet what we will do for the month without gymnastics, but we may have found a couple of fun indoor play areas for her to burn off her energy. I'll try to get some video or pictures of her at gymnastics before the olympic break.

Yesterday, we took Kira on her first shopping excursion in the US. I was very worried about her sitting calmly while we were in the border line ups, but fortunately, she was so tired both times, she slept right through. Hurray! We went down there to find Jon a new pair of shoes, I guess they are cheaper there? I also managed to find a new pair of jeans and some new cookie monster shoes for Kira. Hee. To get her sleepy for the ride home, we let her run around in the mall play area for 45 minutes and then we headed home. All and all, much more successful than I originally thought it would be.

Here are some new photos of Kira

She got these boots as a Christmas gift from my friend Wendy; as they didn't fit, we put them in her cupboard until her feet grew a bit. Kira decided that it didn't matter if they were too large, she pulled them out of the cupboard and ensures that they are always on her feet when she is at home. Too funny. I guess they are her first pair of slippers...? (she had just finished her bath, so her hair is wet and she's in her jammies)

Kira getting into the Olympic spirit - Go Canada!!

Happy New Year

Happy 2010 everyone! Hope that your holidays were nice and relaxing. 2010 promises to be a busy one for us with 13 friends and coworkers having babies in the first 6 months of this year (7 in June alone!) and 3 weddings. One has already happened, our good friends Brian and Sandra got married in the Caribbean on January 7; congratulations you two! Wish we could have been there.

Kira has been enjoying all of her new toys from Christmas as well as working on her vocabulary. She is trying very hard to say new words and has recently started to tell us "peepee"; although she has yet to actually pee on the potty, this is definitely a good start. Hopefully we will have her potty trained soon. With her vocabulary skills comes the tantrums which happen when she can't get what she really wants (usually because we have no idea what she is really saying), so far they haven't too bad, but they are occurring more than I would like. All you other Mom's reading this are probably laughing at me, but we have known that this day would come and we know that it will last for a while - Kira is a very stubborn child, should be good times for the next couple of years.

Here are a couple of photos and a video of Kira.

A friend of ours lent us "Beatles Rock Band" so Kira has been hard at work practicing her drum skills in an effort to be the next Ringo Starr. This is a nice way to play the drums as it's not nearly as loud or expensive as the real thing.

Grandma Tracy and Grandpa Charlie came over for a dinner a few weeks ago; while they were here Kira decided that she wanted to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider - a lot. By the time we got the camera out, Kira had decided that she would just get Daddy to sing while Grandma and Grandpa did the motions for the song and she'd sit and clap. As you can see, this brought her much enjoyment. Not sure if it was the singing or that she was able to get everyone to do what she wanted.

The tradition continues...

Here is Kira enjoying The Price Is Right. There is a tear of pride in my eye, and I think that Auntie Christina would be impressed too.

This is Kira practicing her "no" when Daddy tries to steal her food. Ha.

And she seems to enjoy using her belly to open and close drawers and doors lately. Just after we turned the video off, she closed the drawer so hard, she fell backwards on her bum.

Photos

Kira found this balloon in her room; it was given to her the day we brought her home from the hospital and is still inflated! She loves it because it's attached to a stick, she is waving it all over the house. Thanks Dusit + Kim!

She really loves playing with Daddy's toques. They are a source of endless entertainment for her.

Looking adorable in her Christmas dress, accessorized with Mommy's purse.

Looks like we may get a Christmas at home this year! It's been a full year since I "tried to burn the house down" (as Jon says). Here is our place decked out for the holidays...

Our new tree, all the gifts underneath are for Kira, she is spoiled rotten by friends and family. We didn't buy her anything...

That is an ornament that Kira made at the Radical kid's party this year, they are stickers that she stuck on. You can still see the backing of the sticker just under the gingerbread man.

Long time, no post

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been very lazy lately and thought that maybe Jon may step up and write something...guess not. Heh.

Kira updates; she is adding more words and phrases every day, I think that we may be close to her communicating (couple more months-ish). She says Oh boy, oh yeah, and is very good with "no". I have a great video, will try to post later this week. We recently hid her bottles from her in an effort to get her to drink milk from a sippy cup or cup; but my darling child is incredibly stubborn, and has instead stopped drinking milk altogether. She can drink from cups, bottles (water, juice etc) and sippy cups, but she chooses not to drink milk from these. She only wants it from her bottle. It's been almost a month now and we don't seem any closer to a solution. We have been supplementing with lots of yogurt, cheese and other dairy rich items. We had a mini-breakthrough yesterday when she requested cereal in her milk; she typically likes her cereal dry. We'll see how things progress. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Kira went for her quarterly check up this week, and her prescription was amended to something slightly stronger. Her eye is starting to turn in more so the doctor is trying to strengthen the muscles. She is now at +5.00 and +5.25. Jon and I have noticed her eye turning in when she is not wearing her glasses, hopefully the new prescription will help. Poor kid.

Otherwise, things here have been the same old. We have a few videos to post of Kira and I'll try to get those up tomorrow or later this week.