big brother

we've been concerned about how kaimana would be as a big brother. our 2.5 year-old is quite rambunctious and energetic. favorite pastime? using everything in the house as a jungle-gym. he climbs over and jumps off the couch, runs up and down the hall leaping over obstacles he has purposely put in his way, etc, etc. our concern was that it would be difficult to reign him in once there was a baby around to be careful of. but, it actually hasn't been to bad. we definitely need to remind him often to be careful around the baby, and are setting rules like: no climbing and jumping on the couch when kanoa is on it. i've managed to be able to make it through a couple of kanoa feedings (which are close to an hour long at this point) by myself with kaimana... he sits next to me to read books, or watches thomas the train, or gets himself set-up with play-doh at the table. kaimana is starting to be a little more curious about kanoa as well. his questions are pretty fun. our second day home, he came out of his bedroom with his soccer ball and announced "i am going to play catch with my brother." earlier today he asked me "can my brother drink orange juice?" yes, i think that being the mommy of two little boys is going to be equally nerve-racking and wonderful :)

jinxed?

after bragging to several folks about how much easier everything has seemed this time around, including the fact that wednesday night after an 11 o'clock feeding, kanoa only woke up once to be fed in the middle of the night... last night he only allowed me to sleep a grand total of 4 hours. and though today i'm exhausted, i can't seem to settle down and nap :(

i have to remind myself that he's only a week old and that things should only become more and more routine as more weeks pass.

welcome kanoa jeffrey klaja

april 1, 2011, 3:31 pm, zach and i welcomed the newest member of our family into the world. weighing in at 9 lb 15 oz, and measuring 22 inches, let's just say i was glad i decided to induce labor and not wait for him to get any bigger :) we checked into northwest hospital at 7 am on the 1st, at 8:30 my doctor broke my bag of waters, around 12:30 contractions began, and at 3:31 baby cries filled the room. shortly after that, kaimana met his baby brother... he wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation in the room. he was more interested in looking out the window than looking at the baby... that is, until we allowed the other waiting visitors into the room. then he wanted to sit on the bed with kanoa an i and gave kanoa a few gentle pats. a little over 24 hours later, we headed home to get 'settled in' as a family of 4.

kanoa (hawaiian meaning 'the free one')

kaimana henry and kanoa jeffrey

the last two posts didn't have pictures so....

kaimana (27 months) posing with elizabeth (25 months) for a picture. too cute!

2011, part two.

2011 finds kaimana:

very "2". the past couple weeks, defiance has been growing. at this point, he's keeping it simple. "no" when i ask him to do various things (like, "kaimana, please come here so we can get dressed."). i'm trying to nip this in the bud before the calm "no" turns into anything resembling a fit.

it's fun and frustrating to see him developing his own likes and dislikes. a year ago he would pretty much eat anything at anytime. now he has requests. very often he requests m&m's. (which i'm starting to think could be useful when potty training comes around. zach's mom kept a dish of m&m's in the bathroom, and apparently it worked like a charm. like father like son?) he also is starting to turn food away that i know that he likes simply because he'd rather have something else. don't worry... this doesn't really work on me, hopefully he'll cue into that soon.

wow is he a little boy. pretty much constantly on the go.... running, jumping, climbing, you name it. he more often dumps out containers and toy boxes to use them for climbing than he plays with any of his toys.

on the other hand, he could sit and read books ALL DAY. i should say, he could sit and have books read to him. he's rarely interested in looking at books by himself, he wants to be read the story. i'm hoping he'll be an early reader. if only he'd look at his flash cards rather than playing 137-card pick-up.

he's knows all his letters, and their sounds, and is getting better at numbers. he counts to 12 just fine, then skips to 16, 19, whatever. actually, he's known his letters for a long time, and can now spell "stop" and "go". i didn't really teach him this on purpose, but i figure since he picked it up, we should start adding to the list.

not sure what kind of learner it means that he is, but with all his reading in spelling, he is NOT very interested in writing/coloring/drawing. again, he likes to sit and have me draw for him, but he doesn't really want to sit and do it himself.

and since i'm a dance teacher... he knows plie, passe, arabesque, shuffle. he figured out on his own how to walk around on his heels, and we love to do the hokey pokey together :)

2011

what a year.

and now 2011 finds us:

getting ready to return to apartment life... we moved out in july expecting to move into a boat when zach returned from alaska. but, unfortunately, the banks were not on our side. we visited several, and some wouldn't finance the particular boat we were interested in and others wouldn't finance us (though our credit's great and we have ample savings, we have no history with this type or size of loan). though we're disappointed that we feel like we're not moving forward, we're also excited to return to seattle and begin preparing for baby to arrive. which brings us to...

getting ready for baby to arrive. it's weird this time around for us, because being the parents of a two year-old definitely takes most of our attention. so i now find myself at almost 7 months wondering how i got here so soon. and i now only have 2 months left to get used to the idea of an infant... and to try to start pre-adjusting kaimana to the idea. like trying to really get him on a scheduled naptime. like attempting potty-training. like getting him to not wake up and come climb into bed with us in the middle of the night (which will be easier when he's in his own room again). to name a few.

still thinking about boats. though it's not our next move, it IS still on the radar. zach of course is always on the hunt, and in 6-9 months or so, who knows? what we are now trying to decide, based on our difficulties with banks, is do we compromise on the boat in order to be able to get into something at all (one bank has approved us, but has somewhat strict guidelines on what boats they will give financing for), or do we hold out? more on that to come i suppose.

haircut!

well, we tried letting kaimana's hair grow out, but finally decided to give it a trim. at least until he's old enough to know to brush his bangs out of his eyes... then we can try again for some longish surfer-boy hair :)