My, have you grown!

The photo above shows Kian on his 2nd birthday with the bear of comparison, and the photos below show Kian on his 1st birthday and at just 1 month old.

We can't put to words the joy that Kian has brought to our lives over the past two years. He has such a joyful and distinct personality, and we just love watching him learn and grow. We'd like to remember some of the things that Kian did prior to his 2nd birthday, since this blog is also our online baby book:

• first complete sentence: "It's sunny outside." (22 months old)
• example of a longer sentence: "Put it away in the refrigerator." (23 months)
• 9-word sentence: "The other kids are all done with the shovels." (23 1/2 months)

Over the past two months, his vocabulary has grown tremendously. He loves commenting on just about everything! Kian has good spatial sense and is familiar with his neighborhood: He'll notice when Ryan doesn't turn left off of California Ave. at the usual street on the way to school and understands that means that he is heading another block to Red Cup for the drive-thru coffee stand: "Dada coffee". He'll comment when we exit the West Seattle bridge a certain way (to the viaduct) that we'll go through a tunnel, even when it's still another couple miles until we reach it. He'll also add, "No school today...the weekend!" if we deviate from the school route to Columbian Way. He'll sometimes suggest a different route: "Go that way?" He'll often request a trip to the toy store "go toy store, play trains?", the playground, or to a "different park" after school.

Kian also loves to request certain songs by saying simplified titles in the car, and often insists on listening to some over and over again. If he wants us to skip a track, he'll say a quick, "no?" He enjoys singing along to the Caspar Babypants song, "I'm a nut!" and others.

Kian has improved his counting to ten and has wowed us with singing the ABC song, nearly correctly. He skips a few letters (F-G-H) and blurs a few, but he's pretty close!

He requests certain clips from Baby Einstein DVDs or from the TV show Super Why, recent favorites including, "see girl with the red shirt?" and the musical scene from a Super Why episode where the Super Readers fly around in their "Why Fliers"(he likes singing along when they sing the phrase, "working together").

He is pretty good about ending his play time downstairs when we give him a one minute warning and then let him know when it's time to go upstairs to go to sleep (or to transition someplace else). He says, "one minute all done," and he prefers to walk up the stairs (or wherever the intended destination is) by himself instead of being carried. Once upstairs however, Kian is a master of stall tactics at bedtime. He'll walk in every other room except his own bedroom...he'll want to pick out a book at the book shelf and take forever pulling some out and then changing his mind...he'll request additional lullaby songs...ask for a kiss....ask for a hug...until before we know it, it's 9 pm! He's been sleeping in until about 8, which is lovely, but it means that his napping at home is from about 2-4 (or later!), which doesn't coordinate with his school's naptime.

At school, his teachers report that he talks a lot. He even speaks a bit of Spanish: "Vamanos!" (let's go!), adios (good bye), hola (hello), como estas (how are you?), a dormir (go to sleep), manos (hands), in addition to his first Spanish word that we've written about before, "agua." He learned to sing "Happy Birthday to You" at school, but only in English so far. He comments about friends by name, including the ones who have moved up to the toddler room because of their earlier 2nd birthdays: "Jordan go to da udder room!" He also joyfully tells us about when he gets to play in the "other room" on days when we pick him up after 5 pm. The toddler room teacher loves him already, so we are excited for September when Kian moves up. He's been a nice friend to other kids who are new to the waddler room, where he is now one of the big kids. Last week he told us after school that he gave Julie a hug (because she was crying). He even recognizes the cars of his friends' parents on the road: "Vivi's daddy car!"

Kian is a very active, rough and tumble boy, but we love that he also gives snuggles, hugs, and kisses. We try to deal with the tantrums that come along with his age as best we can, but he is quite the insistent little guy and wants his way! Fortunately, Kian is typically cooperative, reasonable, loving, and happy! He will make a wonderful big brother in just under two months.

Kian Turns 2!!

Kian celebrated his 2nd birthday over the period of several days, with a party including friends and family at The Children's Museum last Saturday, a ride in his new wagon from Nana on Sunday, a visit from Lilly and Chris, who came with the gift of an awesome monkey backpack on Monday, and on his real birthday today, we celebrated by skipping school and taking a trip to the Seattle Aquarium; enjoying a lollipop from the doctor's office; playing with his cool, new bead maze; opening thoughtful cards that arrived in the mail and birthday messages via email; and when Grandma and Grandpa visited, they brought a new kitchenette, complete with a frying pan that sizzles and pot that "boils" with a sensor on the stovetop.

Thanks, everyone, for making Kian's 2nd birthday so fantastic!

Here are some pictures from these great experiences:

Water Fun at Great Wolf Lodge

We just returned from an overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge, about 80 miles away from Seattle. The indoor waterpark offered a couple of good spaces for toddlers, but I think the really happy kid was Kian's dad, who enjoyed several runs on the big waterslides! At 30 weeks pregnant, I opted to hang out in the wave pool and little kids' areas. Kian enjoyed telling Ryan and I to get under the "waterfall" (the mushroom-shaped structure in the photo above) or under the bucket that dumps water on your head. He also repeatedly pointed out the two huge ceiling fans, as well as the one fan that was off, so I had to get one photo of those. When we retired for the evening, he was sure to say, "Night night, fans. Night night, agua." Another highlight of the trip for Kian was the elevator and finding our hotel room. He walked down the hallway, saying "Not our room...not our room..." until we showed him where our belongings were. Since returning home, he's mentioned the elevator and room several times. We had a great time and look forward to returning in a couple of years, when he can appreciate even more of the activities.

Train Fever!

While Kian still has a remarkable appreciation for buses, this fascination has taken a back seat to TRAINS! Now that he can communicate a lot more about his wants and needs, we've taken frequent trips to the local toy store called Curious Kidstuff and a nearby Barnes & Noble after school and on weekends in order to play with their train tables on display. "Go toy store, play trains?"

Kian got to open a birthday present a couple weeks early....a wooden train set! (Mostly to cut down on the number of trips we have to take to the toy or book store!) I captured his initial reaction to opening the gift from Gung Gung (Grandpa Andre) on another video with a large file size, but here is one for the blog that shows his enjoyment of his new toy just moments after I set it all up...

Marimba Concert in the Park

We stumbled upon an outdoor marimba concert in a park near Alki Beach one weekday evening and found out that Kian was really into this new type of music. He was also quite curious about a little girl's stuffed horse toy, and she was sweet enough to notice and share. Both videos tell the story....



Part One




Part Two

Dressing Up for the 4th of July

In these photos and a video taken today, Kian delights in putting on a few of dad's things -- shoes, hat, and sunglasses.

Kian Counts to Ten!

Prior to today, Kian has only counted to 2, even when there are more than two objects. He would say, "one-two" while bouncing his pointer finger and then just keep bouncing his finger to count more without verbalizing more numbers. Sometimes he'd repeat "one-two-two". Then, out of the blue today, he counted to ten on his own without prompting or echoing! When he counted the doors upstairs in his typical style "one-two...two doors!" I corrected him saying that there are actually four doors, "one-two-three-four". I coaxed him to count to three, but then he just kept going on his own, while I stared in wide-eyed amazement! He looked a bit surprised, quite delighted, and proud of himself, and then counted to ten again. I rushed him downstairs so that Ryan could hear him, and Kian counted to ten a 3rd time on our way downstairs! Unfortunately, when I turned on the video camera Kian became more interested in the camera, possibly getting a bit shy, too. He got out "one-two" and then stopped. So, he didn't count to ten for the camera or for dad at that moment. Here's the video anyway...




Later that evening, I was able to catch him counting to ten for Nana Joan on the phone, but the recording only started at "three". One of these days, we'll catch the whole series of numbers on one single video! Until then, here is part 2 of the counting to ten series...