March 27, 2008 - July 27, 2009 22 Months Old

  • Tidbits: I've made this observation to several people now; we are past most of the big "WOW!" Milestones, but we now find that it is the littlest things that make us laugh and live in wonder watching Kai grow. It's the little moments where we get glimpses into the way his mind works. I am going to try to share a few here, if for no other reason I never, ever, want to forget these little moments.
CURRENT FAVORITES:
  • ELMO: Oh my goodness! What is it about this little red guy...I don't know but Kai is obsessed! We bought him a little Elmo doll, and he hugs and kisses it. When "Elmo's World" comes on, he must have it with him. Lately, Kai has decided that Elmo wants to give our cat kisses too, so he's been chasing her around the apartment with Elmo.
  • SWIMMING: He is thrilled to simply sit on the top steps and play so it's taken us a little while to get him comfortable in the deeper end. Normally he would cling to me like a monkey in a tree, but just the other day I was able to put him in his ring and he floated around without having to hold on to mommy. I was so proud.
  • COLORING: Still loves to color...in fact I think it has surpassed Legos on the "things-he-loves-to-do-the-most" list. Of course, now he is at the stage where he has realized he likes to color on other things besides his coloring pad, or chalkboards. Thank God Crayola makes out washable crayons.
  • Easter was a lot of fun this year! I had a small Egg Hunt for him in our front room which led him to his Easter Baskets. It was a great prep for the hunt we had at Grandpa Keith's house with his cousins Emilio and Samantha.
  • Ok, so maybe he's not talking yet, but boy can he express himself! One morning, I sat on the floor playing Legos with him, during which time I was still sniffling from a cold. He very deliberately stood straight up and said "Adaaa deha adaadaDA!" clearly stating something very important. He stalked off into the bedroom, and came walking right back into the living room, his arm outstretched to me....holding a bunch of kleenex!
  • I am amazed at his memory: We were walking around the apartment complex for some fresh air and exercise, and as we went around the pool area, he stopped pushing his Tonka truck and walked up to the orange lifesaver hanging on the fence. He turned to me, pointed to the lifesaver and did the sign for "baby". It took me a second, but I realized that 2...3 weeks earlier when I had him in the pool, we saw a mom put her baby in the lifesaver so he could float around in it. I told Kai, "ya...you remember that baby playing with that don't you?" He always seems so happy when he knows I understand something he's trying to communicate.
  • Mike watched him one evening. The cat was hungry and meowing for food. Kai went to the cupboard, took out a can of cat food, and placed the whole can in her bowl.
  • I decided to "test" his comprehension a couple of months ago: I pointed to the top of the fridge and said "Kai, mommy needs to get her Ice Tea Maker from up there." He looked to where I was pointing, got up, ran into the bathroom, grabbed our step stool, came back in and placed it at my feet. Another reason why I am not worried about his lack of speaking. He's a bright boy, I think. But then I'm biased :)
  • We all had a great time when my Dad came to visit us from St. Louis. He stayed with Grandpa Keith and Grandma Maddy which gave us all a lot of time to visit with each other. Kai became a hug monster that week, running between grandparents. We had quite a few outings, most notably to Ventura Harbor where Kai had his first encounter with the ocean! Great pics in the "New Photos Gallery" for that!
  • We noticed that Kai seemed to be getting more and more grumpy as the week wore on, which we all understood to be being over tired from all the site seeing etc. But by Saturday he had a full fledged fever that lasted through to Tuesday. It turned out to be caused by a fairly common and benign virus called Roseola...once the fever broke he had quite the impressive rash all over his torso, neck, shoulders and upper thighs.
  • Is he really going to be 2 years old in 2 short months????
 
December 27, 2008 - March 27, 2009 18 Months Old!
  • 18 Month Check Up: All around Kai is doing great! He is 34 1/2" tall (go ahead...go grab a yardstick...I'll wait...) and 26lbs 10oz. His percentile curve have been very consistant, his height has always been in the 90th+ percentile, and weight in the 60th+ percentile. The only thing that changed was his head circumference...from the nineties to the sixties. So I commented "What you're saying is that he's finally growing into his head?" She chuckled at that.

    She is pushing us to encourage his talking more since he really hasn't picked up any new words. I am not concerned much because I know that his understanding of language is great! When we look at his books together he can point to so many things when I ask him to! He even picked up on the fact that I would use my finger to follow the words as I read to him, so not only does he point to objects, but he's starting to point to words so that I will tell him what they are. I truly believe he will talk up a storm when he's good and ready! But we decided that we will use less signing, and simply work on him talking.
  • CHORE TIME: After 2 weeks doing his one chore every night, Kai is just terrific when it comes to cleaning up his Legos! If I start putting away his books, he looks around and brings them to me. When I start putting his trains or puzzle together, he'll go and find all the pieces. Most of the time, he will grab the Lego basket off of the shelf and start picking all of those up too. It just amazes me and makes me so unbelievably proud!! After he looks around to make sure we have all the Legos cleaned up, he runs to me because he knows I want to give him a big hug for doing so great plus a high five! It's a wonderful routine we've fallen into.
  • PLAYTIME: On February 12 I finally decided to go ahead and enroll Kai into My Gym. I had delayed because of the price, but came to the conclusion that the "pros" out-weigh that one "con". He and I have really enjoyed the program so far! We have one "Free Play" period plus one class per week. He does great when it comes to walking the balance beam, climbing ladders, ramps and stairs. And he loves it when they set up an obstacle course. He hasn't quite got the idea when it comes to jumping on the mini trampoline, or hanging from the gymnastic rings for a second or two. But this is all so new to him! I have already seen a few new skills evolve as the weeks pass by. Another "plus" is that it gets him around other kids his age on a regular basis.
  • FUN FACT: Low, and Behold! We discovered that there was a children's brand of shoes labeled "See Kai Run". Of course, I immediately searched for their website and found that they sell T-Shirts with the logo on them! It was a must have for his wardrobe!
THESE ARE A FEW OF HIS FAVORITE THINGS:
  • Coloring: I bought these great toddler crayons, and dug up an big drawing pad of mine. He scribbles for a second, turns the page, scribbles for a second, turns the page and so on and so on! :) It's almost like he's on a mission to scribble on each and every page.
  • Parking his car in the "garage": For some odd reason, he will push the big car and trucks he has into our tiny bathroom, and close the bathroom door. We cannot for the life of us figure this one out.
  • Bubbles: Mommy realized she would probably pass out one night from blowing bubbles repeatedly, so we bought a cute battery operated doggie that can blow thousands of bubbles in mere seconds!
  • Books!: I found a second hand store that has a pretty good stock of baby books that are in remarkably good condition for real cheap! I've gone a bit hog-wild buying them, in addition to the occasional new ones that are reasonably priced. But to see his little face light up when he gets something new to pour through is a great incentive.
  • MILESTONE: No more frizzies!! Ok, so Kai doesn't have lots of hair, but 6 months of that helmet gave him a head full of split ends. We had been calling him "Baby Einstein" because of how wild his hair would get. There is a great hair salon near us geared towards kids called "The Yellow Balloon", so we got him in for his First Haircut! He was unfazed by the whole thing, and simply enjoyed sitting there with the Elmo Guitar while she snipped away. They give you a "1st Haircut" certificate, and a poloroid shot afterwards, as well as the leftover locks of his hair. I wasn't expecting much of a difference, but we really notice how much nicer his hair is now!
  • On side note: Kai has let me know how happy and proud he is of his daddy who stopped smoking! Yet ANOTHER reason that he is the best daddy ever!
 
 
November 27, 2008 - December 27, 2008
14-15 Months Old
  • Baby Signs, Baby Signs, Baby Signs! They have been a blessing, even when he gets a bit demanding with them (if he just sees us with food, he'll ask for "more"). In the beginning, I was trying to use only official "American Sign Language". But a few signs have evolved on their own; sometimes because I wanted to simplify an ASL sign for him, or it was a sign he started while observing something we were doing. I came to the conclusion that it was more important that WE know what he is saying than keeping to official ASL. I've decided to share a few occasions about Kai's use of signing, I hope you all enjoy! But first, here are the signs he knows how to do:

Baby
Bath
Brush
Tree (he loved the Christmas Tree!)
Headphones
Snack
More Please (his first 2 word combo!)
Milk
Music
Girl
Kitty
Fish
Diaper

  • There are a few other signs he understands when we do them for him, but he hasn't done back yet like: Mommy, Daddy, Bottle, Eat, Book, Light, Ball, and Star.
  • One day I had given him some snacks and he started screeching for more. I told him "No, if you want more, you have to ask him for more." And showed him the sign for "more". He caught on in 1 day, and now he doesn't have to grab or scream whenever he wants more of something which really cuts down on the frustration for all of us :)
  • One of Kai's favorite things is bathtime! "Bath" was actually the first sign he ever did back to us. I give him a bath every other night, and one night (which was not a bath night) I was winding him down for the evening and took him to the changing table to change his diaper. As I was doing so, I noticed him looking up at me intently. He did the sign for "bath". I thought it was cute but said "No honey, tonight's not bath night. No bath tonight." And I continued to change him. He then let out a very loud "MOM!", so I looked down at him and said "What baby?" and he did the sign for "bath" again. Well, I just had to laugh at that and said "Ok, baby, if you want a bath, I'll give you a bath" And he got so excited he about lept off of the changing table!
  • This was the funniest thing, he was sleeping on our bed and I was lying down next to him watching him. He was on his side, with his eyes closed, his head tilted back, his little arms stretched out in front of him...and I kid you not, I saw him do the sign for "more". Must of been dreaming about food!
  • Not everything these past 2 months have revolved around Baby Signs: We've had a lot of fun watching him stacking his jumbo legos, beg for book after book to be given to him, learn how to climb onto the chair in our living room, and crawl up the stairs in our apartment building. And even though his natural baby curiosity gets him into trouble, over all he's been a really mellow, well behaved baby. He will put things back when we ask, put his socks (and ours) in the laundry basket, and we've never had a problem with taking him to resturants or stores. I've even decided to give him one "chore". I put away all his toys, but he must put his legos away every night. Most of the time it takes a lot of patience, he does get distracted, he does try to back out of it, but we will sit there and make him do it. Most of the time, he likes to hear the noise they make when they crash into each other in the basket.
  • He loved the Christmas Tree! He would beg for us to turn the lights on by doing the sign for "tree". One day, I had my back turned and I heard a "crunch" and I knew he had broken a glass ornament. To my horror, he had bitten the top off. I laid him down and forced his mouth open, which he did not like. He was fine, no glass, no cuts, all was well. Later on, I watched him grab an ornament and I said "Kai! Put that back!" He let go immediately...and then opened his mouth reealll wide, and stuck out his tongue! I about fell on the floor laughing! "See Mom, I didn't eat it!"
  • Christmas was more of an event this year, compared to last year when he was a mere 3 months old. He may not get the whole idea, but he had fun opening his presents. Of course, every single piece of paper he tore off, he would give to us...even if it was the size of a quarter.
  • Oh yes, his 15 month check up was Dec. 30, and his doctor is just amazed at his growth! She said he could be a 2 year old. Height is 33 1/2" and weight is 24 lbs, 12 oz. His height is still out-pacing his weight but he eats great so we're not worried.
  • And last but not least, another milestone: His first word besides dada and mama: Doggy! Which just floored us, because he's lived with a cat his entire life, I was expecting it to be "kitty". But after seeing doggies on tv, in his books, and out and about, doggy it was!
October 27, 2008
13 Months Old
  • First note: I've decided to "archive" the Journal Entries up to Kai's 1st Birthday so I can start a fresh page for documenting his second year :) The old journal entries can be found here...
  • October 13, was Kai's first year check up, and he weighs 23 lbs 7 oz. and is a lengthy 32 1/2 inches tall! Once again I wanted to make sure with the pediatrician that he wasn't too skinny, but she says he's doing great!
  • We picked up his portraits at JC Penny's and they turned out great (of course!) and this time we took advantage of the special discount photos they printed up for us. They all can be found in the New Photos Gallery. The main one we chose is the one where he is holding a little "1", and the photographer managed to capture the perfect second where Kai looks like he's singing and snapping his fingers.

    I have a good friend, Bill, who, being a creative-type managed to concoct a rather hilarious scenario based on this photo. His wild imaginings can be found HERE>>>
  • Now for the scary entry.

    Oct. 22, he seemed well enough all day. But at about 7pm, after his bath, he had 2 seizures prompting us to call 911. As terrifying as it was, one of the EMT's let me know that it is not uncommon for a baby to have seizures if their temperature spikes too high, too fast. He felt Kai's back and told me that he felt extremely hot. Once Kai came around to his senses a bit more, they let me carry him down to the ambulance to go to the hospital. Once there, his temp was 103.4 and the nurse told us it was a Fibral Seizure, just like the EMT described. They gave him some Motrin, and did a bunch of tests (none of which Kai liked very much!) to find out what caused the fever. All the while, Kai cried some, slept some and drank some apple juice that the nurse provided. (Great lady named Nancy!!! It is such a relief to get a competent nurse with good bed-side manner!). We called Aunt Sheryl and she came with her boyfriend for moral support and ended up getting Daddy and me some food while we waited for results. By 12:30 am, Kai's temp was normal and the released us with instructions to give him a rotation of Motrin/Tylenol and to follow up with his pediatrician the next day. He slept with us that night, so that any time I woke up I could reach over and make sure his body was cool. The fever never came back. This may be the first and last Febral seizures he ever has, but it could be a sign he may be prone to them and they could happen for the next 5 years. But we know now what to do, and I am really not too concerned about them at all. The pediatrician let us know it's not even necessary to take him to the hospital, because all we can do, and have to do, is treat the fever.

    It was a terrifying night, but we can still thank God we have a healthy child!
  • As I mentioned in Kai's Journal last month, he is done with the cranial helmet! I promised awhile back that I would post Before and After pictures to show how much a little foam helmet can re-shape a childs head in 6 months. The photos below are the results from the 1st helmet through Cranial Technologies. He had the most drastic results during that period because he was growing faster. I haven't recieved the scans from the second helmet yet, but this gives you and idea about where he began and how far he's come.
Before
After
Before
After