Riley - 14 weeks old, Kayla - 3 years and 11 months old

Riley has been growing leaps and bounds. He is starting to grow out of his 3 month old clothes and has made the leap to size 2 diapers. He is smiling up a storm and gave us his first giggle Monday August 3rd. We're convinced his first tooth is trying to break through because he's pretty fussy and chewing on his hands and our fingers like there is no tomorrow. He sleeps through the night, most nights, and if he doesn't will only wake up once for a diaper change and a bottle. He's a laid back little boy who is perfectly content sitting in his bjorn watching people walk by.

Kayla is turing into a little girl. She has a mind of her own and is enjoying life. Two years ago we took her to Sea World and she was afraid and uninterested. We took her to Sea World on Monday and she was excited to see everything. She fed the sea lions, touched the starfish, and walked through every aquarium. She absolutely loved it! And, Sea World has a new thing where you buy a wristband for $30 and an adult can eat for free all day. It was definitely worth it.

She's starting to get pretty sassy too. You have to watch everything you say around her. Her favorite sayings are:

"That's nasty!"
"I want that for my birthday!"
"You only have two hands, right mommy!"
"Can I watch my show?"
"I want hot chocolate milk. HOT!"

Its great to see the contrast of the two. I can't wait to see what kind of personality Riley has when he is Kayla's age.

Sleeping Through the Night

Well, I think it is safe to say that Riley is sleeping through the night. I put him down around 9pm and he doesn't wake up till 5am. I am so thankful although part of this miracle is due to Riley finding his hand. I walk into his room in the morning to him sucking on his hand. Not quite his thumb, but his hand. Well, it was inevitable. Mike and I both sucked our thumbs and Kayla does. I just hope he only sucks on his hand when he is sleepy. I'm still trying to figure out when to work on Kayla's thumb-sucking. I guess its better than a pacifier.

4th of July

After the busy weekends we have been having, we thought a nice quiet 4th of July weekend was in order. So, Mike marinated his steaks and we ate steaks with broccoli for dinner. The past couple years, Kayla wanted nothing to do with fireworks so we decided we would try next year. But, Mike took Kayla outside and watched all the illegal fireworks. She loved it and asked why we weren't doing fireworks ourselves. So, next year fireworks.

You be the judge

We always ask people, "Who do you think she/he looks like?"

We get a variety of responses.

"She looks just like Mike."
"He looks like Mike."
"I'm not sure who he looks like."
"I think he looks like both of you."

Mike and I both have the same opinion that Kayla and Riley don't really look like either one of us. But, we both do agree that Kayla and Riley look exactly like each other. Above is a picture of both Riley and Kayla at about the same age. They could be the same child. We sent these pictures to Mike's parents and they thought we were emailing two pictures of Riley.

Mike: "I guess the two of us equal this..."

What do you think?

You only have two hands right

Kayla has a way to crack me up when she says the funniest things. Yesterday, Riley started crying while I was making a bottle.

I responded with "Ok, ok, baby Riley I'll be right there."

Kayla responded, "You only have two hands, right mommy."

I asked, "Who says that?"

Kayla replied, "All my teachers at school."

She's a smart one.

She is definitely Japanese.

Since Kayla was 1.5 years old Mike and I have tried to get her to eat sushi. 2 years later and she absolutely loves it. Every time we go to a Japanese restaurant, we have to order about 8 orders (16 pieces) of Salmon sushi to cover both Mike and Kayla. She takes off the fish and eats the fish first and then the rice.

One day we saw this little girl, who was 2 years old, using training chopsticks. We asked the mother how old the little girl was and where did she get those chopsticks. She told us the girl was 2 and she got the chopsticks at Marukai. So off we were to Marukai to get these training chopsticks. For about a year, we carry these chopsticks around and break them out anytime we go for asian food.

The other day, we went to go for happy hour sushi at Kabuki (great deals during happy hour). Kayla shocked us both by using the chopsticks without any help. Not only that, but she's picking up edamame. She's definitely Japanese!

Butterflies

As a teacher I want my kids to be inquisitive about how the world works. I want them to see, learn, and experience everything. So, I was excited when my cousins gave her a butterfly nesting discovery thing. We ordered the caterpillars and watched as they grew. We discovered their cocoons and then transferred them to the netting. After a week or so, butterflies emerged and Kayla was excited to feed them fresh oranges. According to the literature, the butterflies life span is only 2-4 weeks so we knew we had to explain to Kayla that we needed to set them free. So, as a family we went out to our garden and let all the butterflies out. At first, only one flew away and the others remained in the netting. So Mike took each one out and set them on the plants in the garden. He even put one on Kayla's finger. She was afraid at first, but eventually warmed up to it. We left them there and eventually they all flew away.

Two days ago, Mike was cleaning the backyard and he and Kayla discovered one of the butterflies had returned to the garden. Unfortunately, that butterfly was "sleeping" or that's what we told Kayla. We'll talk about life and death another time.