Happy Birthday Kai James!

OK OK. so that was like 3 months ago but... well you've heard it all before. busy, busy, busy... you can thank the jury services office for this particular update because i have been on hold with them for an hour. that plus a movie for the kids lets mommy multitask...kai's 1st birthday was celebrated at the oakland zoo on 9/11 (his birthday was 9/10). it was a beautiful day (if not a little warm) and what started out as a party that was to last a couple of hours turned into an all day affair and we closed down the zoo (woot woot! we're a real bunch of party animals! get it! yuk yuk). no one else booked our party spot after us so we could stay as long as we wanted (apparently no one likes to party on 9/11...). we had a blast! for those of you who have not been, the oakland zoo has rides for the kids. one of the benefits of having a birthday party at the zoo is that you can buy unlimited ride wrist bands (which you can't do any other time, even if you're a member) so the kids got to ride the rides for hours! they LOVED it! we did walk around and look at animals too. the above picture is riding the train. the picture below is one of the wallaroos you can see from the train. pretty cool...here's hana and charlotte riding the cars and below is kai's first real ride on the carosel (he rode one at disneyland, while i was wearing him, when he was 3 months old but i don't think it counts). it's was a lot more fun than the picture suggests. hard to get an action shot where everyone looks good... here, hana is complaining because the ride is coming to a close and she wants to ride the panda next but is trying to negotiate not exiting and entering the ride again (there's really no line). this led to one of many "them's the rules..." talks...kai's birthday cake was vanilla with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. the outer frosting, done up like a lion was vanilla butter cream. he also had his own "baby cake" which he (eventually tore into on his own... you'll see).unfortunatley, kai has so much fun frolicing around the zoo, he was totally conked out by the time we got to lunch and cake time. so we sang to him as he slept!but in true walker pettigrew fashion, the boy loves a good song and will wake up from a dead sleep for a good one. at the time, happy birthday and the alphabet song were his favorites. (now it's wheels on the bus and the itsy bitsy spider. when he's upset, hana sings twinkle twinkle little star to him, which he seems to like). so by the end of the happy birthday song, he popped an eye open. and then he got to eat his cake.
so on the date of his first birthday, kai was not yet walking. oh he was physically capable of walking, (he accidentally took steps at 10 months) he just didn't see the point because he was a lightening fast crawler. he took steps but not on purpose. it's as if he would look down and go, "i'm walking, wait... i don't walk" and then would slowly and carefully lower himself to the floor. that is until he was 14 months old. then he started walking across the room and hasn't really looked back.

he says several words now: bottle, mommy, daddy, cat, dog, ball, no, yeah, all done,"what's this/that?", nana (for ms. leona and for hana)... he signs help, more, all done and milk . he mimics sounds and there are other words that he has assigned to things but i don't understand them yet (although i think he calls bailey the cat "ba-ba" with a particular inflection). he seems to understand a lot and doesn't feel the need to express himself because we always seem to guess what he wants. for example, if he starts fussing, we'll say and sign, "you want more?" and he'll smile. which means "yes... don't hide it divide it!". but if he's all done then he'll continue to fuss until we say and sign "all done". the only other thing he usually wants is milk. and i'm not exaggerating when i say that he drinks a gallon of milk every 2 days. he doesn't care for juice, he doesn't drink water. just milk. of any kind (except soy - which gives him a wicked bad diaper rash). milk milk milk... the dentist remarked that he has "nice strong enamel!" no doubt. i have the bite marks to prove it. and about that... on his first birthday, he had 4 teeth... barely. and until a couple of days ago, he only had 4 teeth. 2 top teeth poked through about 2 days ago bringing the grand total to 6. despite the lack of teeth, he is much more of a biter than hana was (in fact, that's how he "weaned himself" when he was 9 months old whereas hana weaned because i got pregnant and the milk changed flavor...). the dr. says his teeth are big (which will be particularly uncomfortable for him), and when he's cutting teeth, he's particuarly mischeivious.

in general, kai likes banging things, throwing things, balls, trucks/cars and puzzles. he doesn't solve the puzzles so much as walk around with the animal pieces and say "what's this?" for his birthday, he got these trucks from grandma peggy and grandpa al that he loves. they play music, and rumble and issue commands like "take that dirt away". he also enjoys putting any and everything in his mouth, particularly if there is a razor sharp edge or an electrical current running through it. he, of course, also likes to do whatever his sister is doing. we did a month of swim lessons with him when the weather was warmer and he loves the water. his favorite book is "bears day out" and he has ripped it to shreds... and we have dutifully taped it back together. but he loves books and board books are among his favorite toys. he wears size 24months/2T and at his 1st year check up, he was 23lb (60%tile) and 31" long (90%tile).

hana is still doing her swim lessons by the way, for another few weeks. she is nervous about dunking her head in the water but if i had it to do over again, i would have dunked her sooner. live and learn....

little miss hana is becoming the charasmatic little girl. she is very tall (wears size 6 clothes... and has outgrown all of her hand-me down donors, which means we have to actually buy clothes for her.) and very bright. people often mistake her for being older which sometimes puts undo pressure on her since she is not yet 4, but she looks like she's 5 or 6. at preschool with ms. leona, she keeps pace with kids a year older than her and she is writing her letters now. she LOVES books, disney princesses, hello kitty and watching movies. she is also a TOTAL night owl. which means that even though she goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. every night, she is frequently up past 10:00. sigh. but she generally stays up talking or singing to herself or playing with stuffed animals, or "reading" books to herself.

so consider yourself updated. i will try to add more pictures as time allows... so i say that to say, see you in 2011! LOL!