Growing too fast...

Kai continues to entertain us. Over the passed couple of months he has expanded his vocabulary to about 15 or so words. He can comprehend yes and no, and of course mine. lol He understands that I am momma and Eli is dadda. He even knows that he is Kai and the dog is Bruiser. We point and say "Who is that?" and he can answer which one of us it is. He continues to love reading his books, or should I say he points and we answer what it is. But now, we point and he can answer what it is to certain items like ball, plane, dog, banana, car, etc. He also loves music and dancing. Lately, he is really into Elmo and yes, he can say Elmo. lol One of his newest tricks he picked up from one of the Elmo videos is how to sneeze (see video below). It is truly so cute and makes me laugh each time.



Last weekend we took him to a pumpkin patch for the first time. He didn't quite know what to think of it but he did have fun and we were able to pick up a small pumpkin for him (which he sees every morning and calls "apple" lol) We'll see how he reacts to Halloween.

September 2010

September proved to be another busy month for us. Both Eli and I had to travel for work and then Kai and I traveled to visit bà ngoại. With the passing of our beloved Auntie Fina, all five of us girls made the trip home to be there for mom. Although it was an emotionally tough time for all of us, we did have a wonderful time being together. It was the first time in about 20 years that we had all been home to mom's at the same time. I decided to bring Kai with me because I knew he would put a smile on all our faces, and, of course, bà ngoại had to see him. It was great to see some of the old crew and meet some new faces. Kai did great on the trip and was probably quite happy to get home and be with daddy (a man) again after 4 days with just us women. lol

Trip to ATL

In August Kai took his first trip on an airplane. He did so well, we were very impressed. We went up to visit his godparents in Atlanta and see my godson and their new addition, Elenia. Kai had lots of fun at Isaiah's birthday party and playing with all his toys. We also got to meet up with Titi Wanda and have dinner.

First Birthday

We cannot believe it, but yes, our little man has turned 1. We decided to have his birthday party in true 4th of July fashion with a BBQ and pool party. We, of course, invited the family and our close friends and ended up with about 60 people. Kai is such a popular dude! lol It was a great party! Kai loved every bit of it and didn't cry even though he ate lunch late and didn't take a nap until after the party at 4:30. He was way too busy playing with all of his friends and family and playing in the water. He went from the baby play area to the big pool with daddy.


When it came to cake time, little man did not hold back. He was so excited about everyone singing that afterward he clapped for all of us. Then he began checking out his cake and before we knew it, he was covered in it.


We are so blessed to have such a wonderful son who is loved, not only by his parents, but by all of our family members and friends. It was truly a special day spent with his grandparents, great grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends and his friends. Thank you to all who came out to celebrate with us and who helped make it a memorable event.

He's Walking...

Early in June Kai began to take a couple of steps here and there. Then a few weeks ago, he just started walking (but only when he wanted to). Now it seems like he never stops. lol

Adventures....

Wow, June was a crazy month for us. So many things going on and lots of fun and adventure. We started out the month with doing the baby dedication for Kai at church. Then we had some visitors, Kai's cousins, Garrett and Maddy. They were here for a good portion of the month, so we got to do a lot of fun activities during their time here in Florida. We took a trip to Orlando and visited Islands of Adventure. Kai was great and enjoyed seeing the park and doing a few rides himself. We also celebrated Eli's first Father Day by going to the Rapids Water Park. Needless to say, both dad and son had a great time hanging out in the park.

May 2010

May was a hectic month for our little family. Kai continued swim classes (well what little we made it to). Then he got very sick and spent 4 days in the hospital with a respiratory virus. Who knew that my first ambulance ride would be for my 10 month old. So scary! Needless to say, he was the hit of the hospital and a few of the nurses even claimed him as their boyfriend. lol However, Kai is doing great now (except every time he gets sick, I know I will panic). He seems back to his old self, playing and getting in to everything. We also had to say our goodbyes to Welo. I know that everyone will miss him dearly. So we took a trip to Orlando to be with the family. It was great for the family to get to spend some time together.

He is constantly doing something new or entertaining us. His newest thing lately, is that he likes to throw balls. He's pretty good at it too. He takes the ball with both hands and throws it, not necessarily in the direction you want him too, but it is still cute. He has some mad skills. lol He also has decided to only eat finger foods. He won't let me feed him, so dinner time has been a challenge. His favorites seem to be grilled cheese, a shepherd's pie type dish and a vegetable risotto. He is not walking yet, but getting close. He stands on his own, but seems to be too chicken to take any steps. He also has gotten 2 more teeth on the top, left side. During our time in the hospital, we realized how close he actually is to our little dog, Bruiser. He has a sing-a-long video and when BINGO comes on there is a Jack Russell that looks pretty close to Bruiser and every time he sees it, he says dog. It is so stinking cute!

Time is flying by....

Wow, Kai turned 10 months this week and I cannot believe it! It just seems like time has flown by way too fast. He is at a really fun stage right now. He continues to crawl all through the house and pulls himself up on anything he can to stand and scoot around that way. We are still not sure when he will try to walk, he seems a little skeptical of the hands free motion. Recently, he has learned to wave bye-bye, and to blow a goodbye kiss. It is so cute because he doesn't quite blow the kiss, but makes the muah sound. He is finally getting some more hair and doesn't look bald anymore! Yay!

Eating....well, that's a whole other story. He doesn't seem to really want to eat from a spoon anymore. He just wants to eat using his fingers. So we have been experimenting with pastas, different veggies and fruits, bread, cheese, waffles, etc. He had his first grilled cheese sandwhich and loved it. The puffs are his favorite, so we treat them like a dessert. lol We are using the sippy cup more, and boy has this been a little mission. At first he would chug from it and then end up spitting almost all of it out because it was too much to swallow. However, I must say that he has gotten quite good at using it now. The other day he must have been so thirsty because he was drinking from it like he was chugging down a bottle.

We found out that he LOVES music. When you put on his baby music videos, he goes into a trance watching while he dances (sways back and forth). He really is a good dancer. He also learned to turn his little mobile on and off in his crib. So his new morning routine is that when he wakes up, he tosses around and talks to himself until Eli or I go in to get him. Once he sees one of us, he then goes over to his mobile and turns it on. Then we spend about 5 minutes dancing and listening to the mobile. Is he not the cutest thing ever!

The Start of Swim Classes

Well, the summer heat has started to kick in here so Kai and I have started to adventure outside to the pool. Since our pool is still warming up, we are limited to swim classes at the YMCA on Saturday mornings. The first 2 classes were nice because the Y had the pool nice and warm (like a bathtub), but the last 2 classes have been quite cold. Kai really enjoys the water and splashes in it like he does in the tub. However, he really doesn't like to float on his back yet. Either way, mom and son are enjoying their Saturday mornings.

First Easter

We just celebrated Kai's first Easter. He also turned 9 months old. It was a touch and go weekend and we weren't sure if we would be able to do much for Easter as Kai got sick on Friday and didn't actually break his fever until late Saturday night. However, we had a great family day. We woke up and headed to church, then came back home for a little brunch and egg hunt in the living room. Funny story: When I first told Eli that I was going to do an egg hunt for Kai, he looked at me with this weird face and said, "He's not going to be able to find the eggs". Yes, my husband actually thought I was going to hide the eggs and then make Kai go find them. You all did know that our son is really advanced, right?!?! lol

Anyway, Kai loved the egg hunt! Well, sort of. When I release him into the living room, he crawled right to his first egg and then to his second egg. After that he just played with his 2 eggs, shaking them and hitting them together. He seriously could care less that there were 4 more eggs to go get. So I did what any mom would do and took the first 2 eggs and put them in his basket. Needless to say, he cried and was quite mad at me. But I held my ground and in a really cheerful voice pointed out another egg that was laying there. He decided to go for it and then for another. But once again, was content with his 2 eggs that he stopped his search. So "mean" mommy had to take those away and put them in his basket too. This time he was really mad at me, but somehow I got him to go after the last 2 eggs. Once he had them, I gave back the other 4 as well. So, I guess you can say he loved the egg hunt up to 2 eggs. lol

After the egg hunt, we headed to Boynton to have dinner with the family. When we returned home, we took Kai out back and let him pose for some Easter pictures. Apparently, he was too curious with what the green stuff was that he was sitting on. He kept kicking his feet around and making faces. It was pretty funny. It was a nice day!

SURPRISE...look who turned 40!

A couple of weekends ago, Teresa decided to throw Scott a surprise 70's themed birthday party. Everyone came out in full force dressed for the event. We saw tie dye, big hair, disco shirts, neon colored go go dresses, etc. The food was delicious (as always) and everyone had a blast groovin to the music. Happy 40th Scott!

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last month has been quite busy for us. Kai is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on anything he can get a hold of. We have been trying to enjoy the great South Florida weather as much as we can by taking walks or sitting outside in the back yard. Kai loves the outdoors!


At the end of March, we took a trip to Orlando for Irene's baby shower and to visit friends and family. Kai got to spend some quality time with GG as they played on the floor together, and then continued his festivies with the Rivera clan. Unfortunately since I was the host of the shower, I didn't get any pictures. Thank goodness for the Alana and Velana who took tons of pictures of all of us in our pink! We can't wait to meet the new little princess in June. On our way home from Orlando we took a detour to visit the Espejo's and their new addition, Jayden. Kai didn't know what to think of his new friend, but he definitely looked like a giant sitting next to him. :o)

My Gym

Kai has enjoyed his time with his friends, Trey and Zane, at My Gym. They do different activities than what he did at Nova. His favorites are the swings and hanging from the bar. It's like we have a little monkey on our hands. He also loves to play the little keyboard/piano during circle time. He is the only one that really hits the keys as if he knows what he is doing. lol

Newest Trick...

This past week, Kai learned how to clap on his own. It is so cute. He will crawl a couple of steps, stop, sit-up and clap for himself. He thinks it is the coolest thing.

Can You Say Active!?!?

No more rest for us! This kid is constantly busy with more energy than can imagine! Check out his morning workout routine in his jumper.

Finally....

This morning I was finally able to snap a picture of Kai smiling and showing off his teeth. This has been quite a task that Eli and I have been working on since they came in. Isn't he so adorable?!?!

8 months old

Wow, 8 months have flown by, our little man is getting so big. In the past 3 weeks we have had a lot of exciting changes. First Kai started crawling...yes crawling! He is now all over the house, well as far as Eli and I will let him go. He loves to crawl over to the tile and bang his toys on the tile. He is trying to stand up now, but his little jello legs don't quite let him. He is now jumping like a wild man in his jumper and when we hold him on us. Last week his two front, bottom teeth came in. He did quite well. He was a little grouchy, but not too bad. He would just chew the heck out of any toy he could find that had ridges and rough surfaces. We believe they are still bothering him some because he continues this behavior. Then this week, they moved him to the next class at daycare. He is still in the infant class but it is now the "movers" room.

We did finish up our Baby Rocks and Rolls class at NOVA and are now looking at trying My Gym. We are trying to keep him with his 2 friends, Zane and Trey. The boys have been together since the first class at NOVA and I feel like they are actually starting to recognize one another. On the last day of Baby Rocks and Rolls the kids had a water adventure day and Kai was in heaven. He is going to be a handful this summer with the pool. We'd better get the baby gate put up. Yikes.

He also continues to explore different foods. Over the last month he has started meats. We started with chicken and have now tried tilapia and turkey. He eats everything. So far (knock on wood) he has not refused anything. He definitely still likes fruit best. As a little treat we got some banana flavored puffs, but he is not sure what to think of them. He is getting better with his sippy cup. I can say that now I think he is actually drinking some and not just wearing it. lol

Last week I was out of town for a couple of days and left the boys home alone. They did survive and I think they spent some good time bonding. I could tell that Kai missed me though, because when he woke up in the middle of the night with a dream or something, I went in to check on him and picked him up ( I know I shouldn't have, but I had missed him) and rocked him. He opened his eyes, saw me and grabbed on to my shirt. He held it with a death grip as he fell back asleep. It made my heart melt.

Anyway, we continue to enjoy every moment with Kai and try to take it all in. He is such a happy baby and constantly is laughing and talking. So much is changing that we are afraid we will miss something. Soon we'll be planning his 1st birthday. Woah!

Visit from Bawai

This past week Kai had a visit from his Bawai and his Auntie Maddy. He also had the week off of school for this fun week where he got to spend plenty of Mommy and Daddy time. his past week he also turned 7 months and any day now he will be crawling all over the place.



Kai is starting to show a little more expression and he is laughing a lot more these days. he loves to scoot backwards and he moves in circles sideways, but there is no forward crawling yet. In his crib he is all over the place but seems to be sleeping well through the evening.



It was great to see bawai and her girls together again and the egg rolls were awesome!



It seems like yesterday when Kai came into this world and before we know it he will be destroying everything in my house. We have so much work to do in order to child proof the place.



Until then I will enjoy every minute and take him to any and every child development class so we can get and document as much as I can!