3 Years Already?

Monday, March 28 will mark Kira's 3rd birthday. I can't believe how quickly these 3 years have gone by. This year we decided to keep things quiet and just having small family parties instead of a larger birthday party with her friends. Tonight we had an early birthday party with my side of the family. Kira was very excited to have her Aunties and Uncles over, as well as Grandma and Grandpa and her cousin, Sophia.

We dressed her up in her special birthday dress (a Dora dress, naturally) and she showed it off to everyone. We weren't too sure if she fully understood the whole concept of birthday quite yet, but we know now that she definitely does. When it was time to do the birthday cake, she sat at the table and waited for the "number 3 candle" to be lit; when it was lit she sat, smiled, and then counted "1, 2, 3!". We all kind of looked at each other wondering if she was expecting us to sing to her, because if there is one thing my family does not do, it's sing. Of course, that is exactly what Kira was expecting, and when no one started to sing she looked a little confused. So Jon told her to count again and we all sang happy birthday. Well, let me tell you, I have never, ever, seen her smile so big in all my life! She loved having us sing for her and then after she blew the candle out she giggled and clapped, still beaming. Jon and I now regret not throwing a bigger party for her because she obviously knows what her birthday is and loves every second of it.

"Cheese!"

Her HUGE smile while we were singing Happy Birthday to her

Blowing out the candle

It was a fun evening, Kira had a blast and crashed not long after everyone went home. Tomorrow she will get to re-live the experience as it will be her actual birthday and there will be a little party for her at daycare. Happy birthday Kira!

***The cake was actually made by me, it was supposed to be a lego "castle house" (one of her favourite things to build); but the "lego blocks" design was thrown out the window after a key part of the decoration failed. I didn't want to redo everything (that is, I didn't have time to redo everything), so I just went with 3 of Kira's favourite things as cake decorations - money, hersey kisses, and numbers. Note to all pseudo-bakers out there, you CANNOT frost the bottom of a cupcake!***

This week Kira and Kai went to their cousin Marcus' 4th birthday party. It was held out in a community centre in New Westminster. Kira was so excited to go to the birthday party that she didn't nap (she was awake in her bed for 2 hours singing and playing with her toys), so when we arrived at the party, she was sound asleep, naturally. We let her sleep for a bit and then attempted to wake her up...unsuccessfully. That girl is a sound sleeper, and when she's out, she's out. Fortunately, she did wake up just in time for birthday cake (which we ate for her since she STILL doesn't eat cake) and playing with the other kids. We went back to Jo and Yuet-chi's place after the party and Kira played with the kids until it was her bedtime. It was a good day for her, she was exhausted.

This week Jon found out that he got a promotion at work. He has been promoted from Associate Producer to Producer. We are very proud of his success at work, especially in such a volatile industry. Nice work, Husband!

My good friend Liz came to town this week and I was able to sneak out for a breakfast with her. It was nice to catch up with her, I sure miss having her around since she moved back to Ontario last summer. We are already planning our next Pearl Jam road trip, hopefully for later this summer/fall before I go back to work.

Yesterday, I found out that I am getting my braces off in 4 short weeks. I'm so excited to have my teeth back to normal again, braces the second time around are just as bad as they were the first time. Hopefully I'll be able to get my tooth implant before the summer starts, then I'll be able to get on with life and not have to worry about my fake tooth falling out when I eat apples.

Here are some pictures of the kids

Kira took this picture of Kai and Daddy

Kai's first time in his Jolly Jumper. He quite enjoyed it, but wasn't so sure about it to begin with.

Kai's first time in the exer-saucer. He's got it figured out now, so we don't need to put the blanket behind him to keep him from slamming around in the seat.

Tomorrow is Kai's 3 month "birthday"; so I weighed him today. He has put on 1 pound this month and grown 1.5 cm, he is now 13 pounds and 63.5cm.

Here are some pictures from the last few days...

Kai is holding his own bottle already!! (ok, sort of holding)

Kira's pretty headband, I wish she wore this more often

The tutu that Auntie Robynn got her

Kira took this picture of Kai, she loves to take pictures

The week that was...

Boy, what a week we just had - I'm so happy that it's finally Saturday and Jon has returned from his work trip. He doesn't have any more lined up (yet), so life should return to a somewhat normal state for a little while. The week started off with Kira's cold turning into a flu. She was running a little fever, so I tried slipping some tylenol into her drink, knowing that he hates to try/taste anything new, it was a long shot that it would work. Yeah, it was a fail of epic proportions. After a few vomits, I had to call my Mom and Charlie to come and help with Kai so that I could take care of Kira. Her fever spiked at close to 39 degrees before it finally fell down to 38.

On Wednesday we went to visit with Mom and Charlie for dinner. Upon returning home, we discovered that the power was out, and had been for some time. It was about 8:30 when we got home, and the power was not to come back on until about 12:30am. Goody. There was no heat in the house, so we all curled up in my bed. Thankfully Kira was still tired and crashed immediately. I guess the darkness made Kai sleepy too, he crashed around 9:00 and didn't wake up until the power came back on just after midnight.

Friday, Kira returned home from Grandma Rose's house still not feeling 100%, but showing signs of improvement. A short while after Grandma and Grandpa left, Kira's face started breaking out into hives or something like that. Grandma and Grandpa returned quickly, and then we were off to the hospital to get her checked out. After a brief wait (she got priority treatment due to her rash getting much worse while we were in the waiting room), she was diagnosed with a post-viral rash, nothing serious or contagious. They brought in some liquid benedryl to give to Kira. I laughed and asked if they had it ina shot, apparently that was neither funny nor available (awkward moment!). After the nurse put a little bit into Kira's mouth, Kira forced it back out again - just like the tylenol. So, I had to hold Kira's arms down while she screamed "no!!!!" and the nurse forced the stuff into her throat, it was horrible and hilarious at the same time. She got about half the dose in before Kira forced it out again. We left without trying again as Kira was hysterical by then.

Today, she woke up without the rash and seemed much happier and back to normal. The rash returned after her nap, but she was happy and eating again a couple of hours later. I think that we are on the road to recovery, finally. Phew.

Kai is doing well. He seems to have avoided getting Kira's cold (thank goodness). This past week he has learned how to roll onto his side and halfway over onto his belly; he just has to figure out to move his arms and then he'll be in business. The naps are continuing to improve, although still a work in progress. At night, he still wake about every 3 - 4 hours...no change there. Only a few more weeks and then we'll do the sleep training. I really hope that it works!

Here are some pictures of the kids, hope that everyone is doing well.

Daddy and Kai naptime

Kira loves to play with Kai

Cheese!

Kira teaching Kai how to make the music start

The snowman that Kira and Daddy built, it fell down about an hour later and was melted away by the end of the day

Kai loves his musical sun and will smile and chat with it, very cute.

"Hi Daddy!"

Tummy time! Love the old man wrinkles in his forehead.

This week was pretty uneventful, just the usual work, sleep, repeat routine. I ended up cancelling Kira's specialist appointment as she hasn't had a nosebleed in a couple of months. She is also finally cutting her final two molars, so nice to have one kid done with the teething process.

Kira has developed a love of doing puzzles. She does these for most of the day when she's at daycare, so we picked her up some puzzles for home, and now she does them at home for most of the evenings. She is quite good at them too, today she finished a new puzzle all by herself - 48 pieces! She was very proud of herself, I was very proud of her.

Kai continues to do well, he's growing, eating, sleeping, and pooping like a champ (heh). For the last week or so he has been quite cranky and clingy in the evenings, we aren't sure why this is happening, but hopefully it won't last for too long. He has not yet had a successful nap in his crib, but we've had success getting him to nap on the couch, so that is better than nothing. I'll worry about getting him to nap in the crib once he learns how to roll over.

Here are a couple of photos from this week....

Kira took a picture of her new Thomas the Train puzzle that Jon brought home from Phoenix (it's huge)

Ta-da! She did the Pocoyo puzzle all by herself

Kai in his bumbo chair. He has discovered how to suck on his fists and has them in his mouth pretty much all the time now. He gets very angry when he can't get them in there and even angrier when you take them out of his mouth.

Kira practicing "sticky feet" - a move that she learned at her gymnastics class.

She likes to do this move a lot...

Phew, we managed to survive the first of Jon's trips away this month - I have a deeper respect for stay-at-home mums now for sure, it is not easy with 2 little ones. Thankfully, my mother-in-law came to stay with us for 2 days which was a giant help.

Kai had his 2 month shots last week, other than the usual tears from the jabs, he seemed to do ok. The side effects were fatigue (wooohoo!) and then he got really cranky in the evenings, right when Kira came home from daycare. I had to carry him constantly or else he'd start crying, this made things a little more difficult and stressful, but he's recovered now. He is slowly starting to fall into a routine now and has adjusted his bed time from 1am to 830/930pm. He is 12 pounds now and 62cm long, so his growth is coming along nicely.

Today we are starting naps in his crib. Kai is a light sleeper (like his mum) and has a nasty habit of waking up every time I put him in his crib during the day, hopefully after a couple of days he will be more comfortable sleeping in there as opposed to being held. I will miss the constant cuddles, but he's almost 3 months old now, so I guess it's time to learn to sleep on his own.

Kira is still doing amazing with being a big sister. She helps with diaper changes, feedings, and sings to Kai when he gets upset. She kisses him goodbye in the morning and when she goes to bed at night. She even shares some toys occasionally with him. Hopefully this will continue as Kai gets older.

More pics to come once there is some time, Kai's just woken up from a 15 minute crib nap...it will be a tough task getting him to sleep in there during the day. Sigh.

Ok, thanks for letting me know your true feelings about Facebook (ha). Here are some new pictures of the kids. Next week I will be taking Kai for his 2 month shots, so we'll get him weighed (he's about 12lbs right now) and measured. Kira also has a specialist appointment coming up for her nose-bleeds, poor little thing. She is finally cutting her last 2 teeth right now, she's dealing remarkably well despite the pain she must be in. She gets Jon to rub her gums before she goes to bed at night.

Speaking of Jon, he's off to Phoenix next week for his birthday trip. He'll be going with his brother to golf, relax, and watch the Suns play. It will be interesting to have the 2 kids here, but I'm sure we'll manage :) Jon is in dire need of some relaxing time, he's been working so much overtime lately and doesn't get much of a break when he gets home.