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.

She is excited to be eating her spaghetti with her hands. I am just happy that she's eating it.

Kai is the complete opposite of Kira (so far), he eats anything that you put on his tray. He LOVED spaghetti and even ate the ground beef and onions.

Kira took this charming photo of me. It is one of the first times she's actually caught me, usually it's my torso in the picture. Naturally, I look amazing and beautiful. Heh.

 

Kai likes to eat, look how excited he is to feed himself.

Kira started "preschool" this week. We were able to register at the last moment in a half-day camp at the community centre near our house. She goes each morning from 9:00 - 12:00. We had never been to this community centre before, so it was unfamiliar to her as were the other kids and the teachers, so I was a little concerned that she may make strange and get a little clingy to me.

Wrong.

As soon as she walked in the door and saw all the toys she dropped her backpack and was gone. I said goodbye to her, but she was already long gone. Obviously I would be the only one of us that would be emotional leaving her behind, and that was perfectly fine with me. When I pick Kira up from preschool, she is sad to come home and will ask me when she can go back again.

This week we headed up to my friend Zoe's house to have a playdate. It has been almost a year since we were last up there, but Kira waltzed into the place like she owned it. Zoe's oldest daughter, Gemma, invited Kira to go play in her room and we didn't see Kira again for about 90 minutes. Gemma's room was loaded up with Dora toys and then Gemma took her to the trampoline outside; Kira was in heaven.

Kai just had his 8 month birthday, and to celebrate he cut his first tooth. I can no longer spoon feed him, he has decided that feeding himself is the only way to go. He will keep his mouth closed and whip his head around if you even attempt to spoon feed him. Another stubborn kid, yay. It is good though because now we can just feed him the same food that we are eating for dinner, so life is better for all of us.

A couple of weeks ago we headed back over to the Island for my family reunion. It was good to see everyone again and nice to see all the kids playing together. There are 9 little cousins now, they don't all get to see each other very often, so it was fun to see them interact. The reunion was cut short by mandatory naptimes, but next year we hope to go away for a camping weekend so that we can all have a better visit. Should be a lot of fun.

After the reunion, we headed down to my Dad's place. Kira had such a fun time last time we were there and she was very excited to go back again. She had a full weekend filled with bike rides, beach time, "swimming" in the ocean (she got wet trying to pick up shells in the water), jumping over waves, and swimming in Grandpa's pool. She also played a little bit of yatzee, and kicked everyone's butt. Without even letting her try to win, she managed to score one of the highest scores ever...maybe I should take her to Vegas or something. 

Next week is the first of 2 weeks that Kira's daycare will be closed, Jon is working a lot of overtime, so that means that I will be home alone with both kids for 2 weeks. I have signed Kira up for a 1/2 day camp for the 2nd week and plan on taking them out for lots of activities next week. By the end of the 2 weeks, we will all probably be exhausted. 

Later on this month, Kai will begin his gradual entry to daycare. Hard to believe that I'll be back at work again in just a few short weeks. It has been nice being off for the last while, but it will be good for Kai to go play with other kids and have other people taking care of him. Kira will be in the daycare with him, so it should be a smooth transition.

In the last few weeks, Kai has figured out how to clap his hands, wave hello/bye, and click his tongue. He is very impressed with himself and loves to show off whenever he meets someone new. He's a little charmer this one, I fear what the future holds.

Here are a few pictures of the kids

Kai climbing the bookcase

practicing clapping his hands

he really likes to clap his hands

ocean view from my dads living room

Kai wants to go play in the ocean

Kira swimming with Grandpa

She's trying to get the donkey's attention, but he's too busy eating

riding her bike over the little bridge

Trying to get a better look at what Grandma's doing

Blowing out the candles on Grandma and Grandpa's birthday cake

Jumping down the stairs with Grandpa

Playing hide and seek....she really needs to practice her hiding. 

Exhausted after a long weekend away. Daddy's tired from his trip to San Diego

Things have been as crazy as usual around here. Last weekend we took a family trip up to Whistler as Jon had a volleyball tournament. The time in Whistler was nice, the drive there/back...not so much. Kira tends to get carsick, and that definitely happened multiple times both there and back. Otherwise, we had a great time up there. Kira loved playing in the outdoors and in the pool with Daddy. Kai enjoyed having so many other kids around, exploring the new digs, and all the attention he received from everyone else.

This weekend we had 3 birthday parties to attend, on top of the usual gymnastics and swimming. Needless to say, the kids are completely exhausted, I'm about 10 pounds heavier thanks to the birthday cake (willpower is not a word in my vocabulary), and I think that Jon is looking forward to his upcoming work vacation just so he can have a few moments of peace and quiet.

Kai turned 7 months old. He is weighing in at about 17 pounds now, not too big, but not too small. He continues to amaze me with his rapid progression. He figured out how to pull himself up to a standing position in the bathtub on Wednesday, by Thursday he was standing using his toy, Friday it was his crib, and yesterday it was our table. He is a climbing machine and just loves to stand.

Kira is learning how to read now. She is incredibly smart (in my non-biased opinion). Grandma Rose has taught her a few words, and she has soaked them right in. She can read about 5 - 6 words now. Her counting has improved as well, she can count up to 29, but she prefers to stop at 20. Hee. 

We are slowly introducing new foods into her diet, it's the "eat what's on your plate or don't eat at all" lesson. She struggles for the first bit, but for the most part has surprised me with her willingness to try new things. The other day I put a new food in front of her and she tore into it without any fuss at all. She even tried 2 different cupcakes this weekend (she HATES most sweet things, the complete opposite of me). I'm cautiously optimistic, hopefully this new daredevil eater will remain and soon the fussy eating days will be over. 

Here is Kai, huge smiles after he figured out how to climb up in his crib. He's now a climbing machine. Oh boy.

Checking out the camera

Kira getting ready to go swimming with her Daddy, check out the Dora swimsuit. 

She got this little floaty toy from a friends birthday party, and she insisted on wearing it like that to the pool. Note the boots to complete the outfit. Yes, she dressed herself, and no, she didn't want to wear pants over top of her suit while in the car, thank you very much.

Exhausted after an action-packed weekend.

Helping me with the laundry

He's got the "I'm so cute" face figured out already

Using the stool to pull himself up

Visiting with Ben; Josh + Ginny's 1 year old 

We've successfully added a few new foods to Kira's "likes", pizza is one of them. 

Kira loves to play with her little brother. Here is a great video of her making him giggle

Kai has started to "cruise" around the furniture. He hasn't figured out how to stand up on his own quite yet, but he is able to move along the couch to his toys. He also loves to try and steal food, here is a video of him making a move for Daddy's grapes.

Today I took Kira and Kai to get their eyes checked out. Kira has been going for these exams twice a year since she was 6 months old. I have terrible eyesight, so I have been careful to get the kids examined regularly.

Kira takes after me, she is far sighted and has a slight astigmatism. Today's check up went very well. Her prescription has remained the same for the last 18 months, which is a good thing as it means that she should have no problem getting laser-eye surgery when she is older (I am in that small percentage of the population that laser eye surgery is ineffective for, sigh). Her eyes have been doing so well that she now only has to go for annual examinations, hooray!

Kai has his first examination today. I was prepared for the news that he'd need glasses, just like his sister (Kira was 11 months when she got hers); but, it turns out that his vision is very good. The doctor feels that he will be near-sighted and likely won't need glasses. Even better, he doesn't need to come back for another year either! Hooray again!

All in all, I'm excited that, so far, my kids vision is pretty good. I am hopeful that when they are adults, they will be able to see properly when they wake up in the morning without having to put on their glasses, and won't have to fuss with contact lens etc.

I swear, this isn't a photoshop picture, they were actually playing together. 

Sitting up on his own and playing drums on the toy box

Sometimes the toy box is more fun than its contents