1, 2, 3, 4....3.

Grandma and Grandpa Illinois!

Bev and Harry came to visit the week of Easter! They were working in IA and made a detour to come visit us. As usually they came with tons of Amana goodies and for Easter, a huge basket of candy for Kai. We also did 3 different Easter egg hunts. Kai's new phrase of the weekend was "I got one!"
Bev brought Grandma's bag full of goodies and properly spoiled Kai while they were here!

Sliced Bread

Superbowl, Zoo, School

Jon and Kai went to Brian and Shelly's to watch the Bears play the Packers in the game that sent the Pack to the Superbowl. Sad day, but adorable picture.



We had a seasonably warm day in an otherwise unseasonably cold and snowy winter...and discovered winter at the Como Zoo with Mike, Patty and Addie!


We've had a busy couple of months! This week Kai started school three days a week at the MacDonald Montessori and two days a week in Nonnie's Garden play group (followed by afternoons with Nonnie). He totally digs the other kids at both- he was totally ready for this!

Kai has finally started to really take an interest in trying to talk! If you catch him at the right time he'll attempt about any word. He's been really good at following directions and comprehending the meaning of words for a while, but shy about trying himself. It's been a pretty awesome change. His annunciation is pretty comical on the words he is most confident with. "More" has a roll at the end like the pronunciation of "Flor" in the movie Spanglish (See 0:26 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXkSBXrdDxs) - while he simultaneously signs it; "bye" sounds more like "bouy"; "cookie" is simply "key" (This is particularly cute when one isn't enough and he says, "Keeeeeeeee! Keyee! Keeeee-ee-yeeeeeee!!"

18 Months ago!

Kai is 18 months!

Photos by Louisa Marion Photography

We had these photos taken in early October...sorry so late to post. Let me know if you want contact information for Louisa for a shoot or prints.



You can see them all-and Louisa's other amazing work here: http://louisapodlich.smugmug.com/Portraits/Apple-Orchard-Boy/14148187_nCH66#1043668219_HzbfH

Words!

Kai's been using about a dozen signs for several months, but it wasn't until a week or two that he started consistently using a few words. We taught him everything except boom-boom. He picked that up from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a book that Jon and I frequently read to him. Here's a sample of his vocabulary. And he can say "up", he's just stubborn.

Happy Kid

And, for comparison:

I'm not sure exactly what is going on here, but it's cute.

Fall!

We spent the weekend up at Sugarloaf with both Jon's folks and mine. We had a bunch of great food, some pub time, lots of reminiscing about the music of the 50s. The weather was fabulous and Bev and Harry joined us for the Oberg loop. We always remember it to be shorter than it is, but it was a perfect peak fall colors day and I don't think there were any regrets.