Ready for a bike ride with Daddy

Cheeeeeese!

Daddy's favourite outfit, thanks for the shirt Eliana!

This is Kira's new run bike that she got for her birthday from her grandparents. It's a bike without pedals, it is supposed to help kids learn to balance on a bike earlier and hopefully eliminate the need for training wheels. She seems to enjoy it so far, we'll keep trying to get her outside with it this summer.

Kira's birthday pics! (Finally)

Ok. so things have been super hectic around here, and when there is a free moment, I've been sleeping. Sorry. Kira's birthday party was held last week Sunday, on her actual birthday, March 28. We rented out the gymnastics place, invited a few friends and family and let the kids run wild. We had some cake and snacks as well, I think the kids had a good time. Here are a few pictures...

Oh boy, why do I get the feeling that I will be seeing this face a lot when she's a teenager...

Hanging out on the bar with Daddy spotting

A few of her buddies that came to the party

There were 11 kids + 4 babies at her party, everyone seemed to have a good time and left good and tired. Hurray!

Kira had her 2 year check up earlier this week, she passed with flying colours. She is 25lbs now, about 6 pounds heavier than when she turned 1, and is about 88cm in height. This puts her in the 25th - 50th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height. She continues to see the opthomologist every 3 months, her eyes seem to be getting a little bit worse - we'll see what the doctor says at her next appointment on April 12.

Hope everyone had a great Easter long weekend.

Gymnastics Pictures

Hanging on the rings

Jumping on the trampoline with her new boyfriend

Climbing the ladder into the ball pit

Hanging out in the ball pit

Heading down the slide

This has been a busy week for Kira. She attended her friends first birthday party last weekend, she had a lot of fun and played very well with the other kids -- even sharing with them (thank goodness). We had her gymnastics again this week, but I didn't take photos as she managed to lose her glasses at daycare (!) and was a little cranky during gymnastics, likely as a result of a headache from not being able to see properly. We ordered her a back-up pair of glasses and daycare managed to find her glasses the next day, thankfully.

Today, we went over to Victoria for Nicholas' 4th birthday party. Kira played on the ferry the whole way over, then played with ten 4-year old boys and 1 girl her age with no issues (she even attempted to play simon says with them, so cute), and then played for most of the ferry ride home. Poor kid is exhausted! It was a lot for her to do in 10 hours.

Here are a couple of pictures of Kira that were taken this week...

Playing with the car at her cousin Nicholas' 4th birthday party

Bath time with cousin Marcus

Her new way of checking out what we are cooking

Vegetables?? Boo!

Hiding under her umbrella from the bubbles

The Olympics are over (sigh) and now things are starting to get back to normal. Kira's gymnastics started up again on Wednesday evening, she has graduated to the 2 year old class now, so we have to take her a different time. Most of the kids in her class are 2.5+, but she didn't even seem to notice. She had a blast with all the "older" kids. I'm amazed at how much difference a few months in age can make, some of those kids are potty trained, talking in sentences, and able to do some pretty remarkable things. As for Kira, well she blew me away with her progress. I haven't taken her to gymnastics in about 3 months (Jon has been taking her Saturday mornings while I sleep in, heh), so I was shocked to see her walk up to the rings, grab them and then lift her legs up and start swinging. After that she walked up a ladder and jumped into the ball pit --- she couldn't figure the ladder out last time I was there and was terrified of the ball pit! She also stepped up to the balance beam and walked across it on her own! That was the first time she had done that, so the smile on her face was extra wide. I will try to take some videos next week when we are there. The best part about this new class is that the teacher is a friend of mine from soccer, she just started her job yesterday and was very excited to see Kira in her class; Kira took an instant liking to her.

This weekend begins the month of birthday parties. We have one every weekend, all month! This weekend it is our friends daughters 1st birthday party. Next weekend is Nicholas' 4th birthday party, then the weekend after is Marcus' 3rd birthday, and then the last weekend is Kira's 2nd birthday party. Phew! She is going to be partied out, but it should be a lot of fun for her. Maybe she'll even start eating cake.

Here are a couple of pictures of Kira with her umbrella that she got from Uncle Simon and Auntie May - she loves walking around the house with it but still won't use it outside for some reason...she's a strange kid sometimes.

Spring comes early!

Thanks to the beautiful, warm weather the last week or so, we have been able to get Kira out of the house and playing in the park and school yard across the street. This is great for her as she is able to play with much more of the playground equipment than she was last summer. She is also slowly starting to recognize letters and numbers, and loves to run around and find them on the concrete (in the school yard). Yesterday, Jon and I took Kira on a bike ride around our neighbourhood. We didn't go too far as neither of us were too keen on hoofing it up hill, but Kira throughly enjoyed herself. We stopped off at a park, and when we tried to take Kira out of her bike seat, she pushed the lock back down - indicating that she did NOT want to get out and play, thank you very much. So, we kept riding. She has a knack of always getting her way...

Here is a picture I grabbed of her in her bike seat on Jon's bike. We take her glasses off when we ride as she has taken them off for no reason before, and we don't really want that to happen while we are out riding. You can see how her eye turns in without her glasses.

Last week Kira had her eye check-up, we were told that despite her eye turning in without her glasses on, her vision is doing well. It hasn't gotten worse, but it hasn't gotten better. She will be seeing the specialist at Children's Hospital at the end of next month as they are now monitoring her lazy eye to see if an eye patch or (gulp) surgery are going to be required in the next couple of years. My brother and nephew both had/have to use the patch, and my brother and I both had multiple eye surgeries when we were kids; so I guess this shouldn't be surprising news for me...but it is a lot harder on this side of the fence. When I was a kid it was cool to have surgery cause you got ice cream!! But, being the Mom, well, let's just say it will take more than ice cream to console me if she needs to go for surgery.

On a lighter note, her 4th incisor tooth came in last week, hurray! So, all we have left is the 2 year molars, which, at her rate, I figure will come in when she is close to 3. Ha.

Here are a couple of recent pictures of Kira from the playground and our house. She says "cheese" now when the camera is on her, very cute. The words are slowly sneaking up on us, not much longer before we have a talkative little lady.

Just for you, Grandpa Charlie