Grammie's 60th Birthday!

Today we celebrated my mom's birthday. When asked what she wanted to do, she answered without a moments hesitation, that she'd like to show off her grandson at their church. And how could we deny her such a simple thing? :)

Introducing the Shmu to a class they are involved in.

Kyle was very interested in what Grammie was doing here.

He danced along with the music.

Then, off to the toddler room.

Shmu did laps pushing this thing around.

Snack time!

Grandpa came to say hi!

After K's nap, guess where we went??

Surprise... Strawberry Farms!

Walking

Clapping for himself while walking!

Happy Birthday, Momma! We loved celebrating you today.

Shmu, K, Chile, Dinker, etc.

Kyle has many, many names by now. It just didn't seem right to title this blog by only one of them. And if you think just because I've been insanely busy this month, I haven't taken many pictures of our beloved subject ... think again! While I'll admit there aren't as many pictures, we still got quite a few that show what the little guy has been up to.

Playing chase/peek-a-boo with Daddy. He loves to do this behind doors.

GG came to visit twice in two weeks!!

We took a trip to the beach with Kyle's sand toys.

K's first taste of sand. Yum!

Learning how to surf in the pool.

Reading at Grammie's with some friends.

Hanging out while Dad and Mom move Grandma Hahn into her assisted living home.

One by one, he pulls out his special toys and books in Grammie's bag.

Kyle says, "This is a peanut operation they've got going on here!"

Thanks, Chile, for being a little trooper this month.

Happy 11 Months, Kyle!

Ok, the Kleenex have come out!! In one month my boy will be 1 year old!! Is there any way to make the time crawl by? Just had to ask.

This month, Chilequile has been at my parents' house a ton and so I thought it fitting to take his 11 month pictures there, while they were babysitting him today. Of all the amazing things to be curious about, his favorite thing is the gold lock on this trunk. He spends a lot of time listening to the noise it makes as he moves it up and down.

Round and round he goes playing chase with anyone who will hunker down and give him a smile.

He got his number again...

Walking to me, trying to get the ever fascinating camera.

Baby Kyle (just have to call him that while I still can) has been missing Mama and can't stop saying my name and reaching for me. He panics when he sees me leave the room and always wants to be in my arms or very close to me. It's been hard to be away from him so much. If I am around, I'm constantly on the phone handling the never-ending to-do list for my grandma. I try to give him the one on one attention he is missing and clearly wants from me, but it is hard when I'm trying to have an important conversation over the phone. It's been a tough month, in that respect. On the other hand, he's been slowly sleeping better now that we've had a break from teething. I really shouldn't comment on it though, because his next tooth is just a millimeter away from breaking through. So we'll see what the following week brings in that department.

During one of the doctor's visits a week or so ago, we saw that Kyle had lost a pound due to all his poo issues. For some reason "poo issues" sounds a lot better than the "D" word, but I think you know what I mean. We were really bummed because we had been trying SO hard to get him to eat. However, no matter what trick we tried, he would hardly eat solid food and only wanted to nurse. We finally figured out that he wasn't liking all of the butter and avocado we were stuffing him with. And since the whole idea of adding those items was to fatten him up, it seemed counter productive if he wasn't going to eat at all. Once we threw out the fats, he ate only a little bit better. It was completely frustrating!!! Just when I was about to rip my hair out, he decided he was done with purred baby food and ready to eat big people food. I had been giving him my food for a long while and he would just spit it out. But all of a sudden, he started swallowing and liking it! Hooray!! So currently, his favorites are: rotisserie chicken, wild rice and buttered broccoli. Who would have thought? Tomorrow he'll be having the same chicken with some lentils and rice. I'm so thrilled that he's able to chew the bits of chicken and rice. It opens up a lot of possibilities. Oh, and I taught him to bite down on certain types of food to break it up. It was so cute to watch him copy me. Hopefully we'll be able to add on some weight before his 1 year appointment and weight check. We so badly want him to be on the chart.

On a lighter note, we've had a lot of fun watching Kyle's attempts at walking. He's taken 3 or 4 steps alone on a daily basis for a while, but today Ru and I decided to see how far he could go between us by teasing him with a popsicle. We kept expanding our distance until K was crossing more than our hallway to get to the other person. It was really cute to watch! Another fun thing we enjoy is listening to him say a few words. He says: Mama and sometimes Mommy, Bapa (Papa), Pae Pae (airplane), baby, mimi (what is that?) and uck (book). Speaking of books... Kyle has spent the entire month pouring over his books. It's his favorite thing to do. Every car ride we go on (and lately they've been super long) he is as quiet as can be just flipping through his books. When he's done with his stash, I pass him another. And on and on this goes. When he's in his room or in the living room, he wants down when he sees them and says, "uck". Then, he'll sit turning the pages one by one until he's turned every page of every book and we've got books strewn all over the floor. When I put them all back, he starts the routine all over again. Oh, and he usually talks non-stop as he does this. I love to just sit and watch him.

Kyle's favorites:

• BOOKS!
• outside
• being in Mommy's arms
• water
• keys
• electronics
• yogurt
• playing peek-a-boo

Kyle's latest since his 10 month update:

• figuring out how things work (things that can be taken a part or manipulated)
• taking steps alone
• talking/blabbing on and on
• repeating some words I say
• dancing and shaking his head to music

I'm going to leave this list short - there's only so much thinking I can do right now.

Happy 11 Months, Kyle!

Ru's 1st Father's Day!!

We started our day at the traditional "presents table." Later, we had a picnic lunch with my parents and then after K's nap, we went to The Aquarium of the Pacific and saw just about every type of animal that lives under water. After putting Kyle down to sleep, we ate a yummy dinner ordered in. It was a really good day.

Shmu was fascinated by a spinning top GG sent for the boys.

Shmu loved the water and spent most of the time trying to get in it.

Playing peek-a-boo with Grandpa and Grammie.

Then off to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Touching squishy animals in the tide pools.

Shmu got to touch a sting ray!

Ru loved touching these "tame" sharks.

8 different kinds of sharks to look at from above and down below.

Some of Ru's favorites:

Walking with Daddy.

Happy Father's Day, Ru!

Mamarazzi

This week, Momma only took 200 pictures! I think that's a record low. Here are some that tell the story of our week ...

Memorial Day

"Hey, wanna race?"

A visit from Uncle Maco!

Aw!!

Mr. Curious

Getting into mischief, while he thinks I'm not looking.

"Man, she caught me!"

"No guts, no glory. I'm still gonna make a run for it!"

The Misery of Eating

Oh, bother! When are they going to stop making me eat all these weird things.

"In -N-Out French fries are much more tasty! And I got a hat."

"And that's all folks!"

Our little, tender warrior

If you've read John Eldridge's book, Wild At Heart, you're familiar with the general term he uses to describe males. We've seen Kyle's warrior-like aggression for many, many months, but I can't tell you how happy we are with Kyle's latest bit of tenderness. Don't get me wrong, he was always a sweetie. He just couldn't sit still long enough to cuddle. And cuddling is definitely my thing!

In the past, Kyle would give what my mom and I call, "Kyle love." He would stop playing for a second to look at you, lean over and come in for a "kiss" or a little one-armed hug and then go right back to whatever he was doing. It was precious but if you blinked you'd miss it. Over the last month, however, Kyle has gotten more and more affectionate. He loves on us and his toys like you wouldn't believe!! Just about every time we hold him he pats our back with one hand while laying his head on our shoulders and wrapping his other arm around our neck and actually squeezing! And he stays there for quite some time. He even cuddled his uncle (my brother) while he was in town this last week. This is extremely rare because usually K is a bit shy around new people.

All of these moments are priceless to us, but one in particular makes my day. Since K was born, I've danced with him while singing along to "our" music. Because we do this on a daily basis, Shmu knows what we're going to do when I go to turn the music on and starts smiling and bouncing in my arms by kicking his legs back and forth while I hold him. Then, he's all smiles as we dance away. Lately though, he will cuddle my neck and lay his head on my shoulder for as long as we dance. It melts my heart. I guess it's great exercise for me, because I never want to stop!

He's also totally in love with quite a few of his things and lights up as soon as he sees them. Every night I strategically place his favorites around the house so that he can have his treasure hunt the next morning. It's so cute watching smile after smile as he finds his favorites. One thing in particular is a monkey lovey from my friend, Tiffany. In the morning or after naps, when I pull him out of his crib, he'll lean back over towards the crib and search for his beloved monkey. Once he finds it, he strains to get it. If it isn't in his crib for some reason, he looks back and forth and back and forth until I put him out of his misery by showing him where it is. Then he clutches on to it and cuddles it. So cute. Thanks, Tiff.

All in all, I guess it's just so fun to watch our son really (I mean really) enjoy us and love his things. He's definitely got his preferences and that adds so much to his little personality that we totally adore. What would his little life be like without his beloved highlighter, fish, letters, picture cards, shakers, dish rag, penguin, monkey and books??