Do you hear that?

Kai's favorite new thing is to point to his ear when he hears a noise-- a garbage truck, an airplane, the tractors at the cabin next to our cabin in Ely putting in a new septic system. We feel glad to know that Kai can hear-- I guess we don't need to worry about a hearing test.

Cabin

We were up at the cabin again-- this time with Nonny (the new one, my mom!) and Momo (Molly Cooney). We had such a great time-- Kai is madly in love with Nonny (nahnah) and Momo. In fact, for some reason, he kept pointing to his elbow and saying, "bo" when he wanted his momo. He also loved Molly's dog-- Tundra. Both Molly and my Mom took such great care of Kai- it was truly a vacation for me. It has been almost a week now since we've been home and Kai still says, "Momo" and "Nahnah" several times a day. I'm pretty sure if he could say more than 10 words, he would mention that he is getting bored with me....

Rabbits and Motorcycles

Kai has two favorite things: motorcycles and rabbits.

If you want to make this boy happy (and hear him squeal in delight), show him a motorcycle. If you want to become his most favorite person, chase down a motorcycle and help him touch the shiny parts. If you want to become his queen or king for the day, after looking at motorcycles, help him find a bunny rabbit to chase.

Yes, that's all he needs-- for pure happiness. It's a good reminder to me that life isn't always about the big things to make us happy.

Happy Family

CABIN!

Here we are up at the cabin in June-- at the waterfall...it was just breathtaking. This is about 10 minutes from our lake.
Nana and Pops made Kai a new sandbox-- it was an instant hit!

"Hey, do I look good up at the lake, or what?"

Words

Kai received a surprise the other day- a special package arrived with a rocking chair from his Grandma and Grandpa Zimsen in Washington. This rocking chair has seen a lot of love in the past and Kai is adding to it.

He also is adding these words (not signs, but actual words)to his vocabulary:

• Mama
• Dada
• Ca (for car)
• Tru (for truck or train)
• No (just started..)
• Yuck
• Hot
• Nahna (for both his Nonny and Nana)
• Pa (for Pops)
• Wawa (for water)
  

Wine Tasting

We started a new tradition with the Hanhan family--going to the Alexis Bailey Winery in Hastings, MN for wine tasting! We had a great time-- drinking some fantastic wine, eating yummy cheese, and hanging out with the kids and playing.Joe-- always goofing around with the little ones...
Sarah (Paar) and Molly with the boys....

All of the girls!
Ella and Kai checking out Kai's favorite-- a CAR!

Best Friends

It's July! Kai has been in the water almost every day. Every day we have the same routine:

Kai wakes up in the morning and signs that he wants to go outside (or sometimes he signs that he wants to say good morning to the cat), he then goes down the stairs, opens up the door, and heads straight to the backyard.

Finally, he shrieks in delight when he sees the hose and the fun begins...we spend a lot of time watering plants, getting wet, taking off clothes, running around naked (Kai, not me), changing into a swim suit, taking it off (being in clothes in the summer is not a lot of fun), swimming in our kiddy pool, playing in the sprinkler, going head first down our slide into our pool, playing in the wading pools and finally the best-- hanging out at the beach!

His favorite friends to do all this with is Mr. Soren and Ms. Helen. Our neighbors have been teasing us about Kai being naked all of the time. We are just fine with that-- we assure them he does have clothes but we will save them for the winter! Plus, check it out-- both Helen and Soren don't mind getting a little naked either!

Pool Party

Kai and Soren upset that our summer pool party was coming to an end!

Summer Fun Preview

(Ok, pretend there are no jackets and then it is really summer!)

Best Friend

Have you heard?

My mom was nominated for KS95 (our local radio station) teacher of the week!! So, to celebrate, Kai had this to say:


(Plus, here are photos of Kai at my mom's 2nd grade classroom)

Justin Roberts

We had a great Mother's Day Treat-- Ally and Kai treated us to tickets to Justin Robert's concert.

Justin Roberts is a children's musician that is great! You can sing along to the songs and not feel silly doing so and in fact you really get to love the songs. Ally, Ken, Joe, and I have memorized many and we don't even feel embarrassed to say so.

The concert was a hoot! The twins, Jack and Maddie, were there, along with Kai. I think they all loved it. It was Kai's first time at a real concert and you should see his moves! Truly, the boy was dancing. But, by the end of the 1 hour concert, he was sleeping! I think he was a little too stimulated for that much fun...

Check out these eyes...

Joe

Kai and Joe in a rainstorm. Kai loves to go outside every day, rain or shine!


As most of you know, Joe has a new job!! He is working at the Memorial Blood Center in a management position. He really loves his new position and is doing a great job.

Kai and I, however, are lonely for him during the day (but so proud too!). Joe and I have been so happy to be home together with Kai (minus the financial stress) but it's obviously time for one of us to make a little money!

So, it's a huge relief to have Joe working and happily too! Joe is up in Duluth for around 2 nights a week and it's been so sweet that Kai signs "dad" and points at the door before he goes to bed. We are all adjusting!

ECFE Class

We are still in ECFE class (Early Childhood and Family Education) with the Minneapolis Public Schools. We have been lucky to meet such great friends and receive fantastic support.

One of Kai's close buddies, Helen, is in class with us. Here are a couple of photos of Helen and Kai playing together. I noticed they both were so sweet with each other. It's fun to see Kai starting to play with others.

In the past couple of weeks, I notice he really is intrigued with older boys. Today, while shopping with Kit at our kid's consignment store, Kai just stood next to a couple of boys and you could tell he wanted to say hello and play, but just didn't know quite what to do....

Kai is signing like crazy now! He wakes up in the morning and makes the sign for bunny, since he loves going to our neighbor's house to feed her indoor bunny and see her 18+ cats and 5 dogs!

He also signs: more, food, all done, bunny, cat, dog, come, go, outside, and we are working on "help."

Art

We went to Kai's first first art gallery opening-- our dear friend, Andrea, had her art opening at the Minnesota Center for Photography. It was incredible!! For all of you in MN, stop by and check out her incredible work. Kai and Soren had a good time exploring the work. Kai got sick the next day with the croup, an ear infection, and a high fever. We are still recovering, but he is getting much better!

OPRAH

I had my first visit away from Kai at the end of April. I went with my mom and her two friends (and my friends too!), Gregg and Sheri, to Oprah!!

We had so much fun. We spent two nights touring around the windy city, eating great food, shopping, visiting with Christa and her family, and seeing our dear friend Oprah.

Oprah's show we saw taped was the Mary Tyler Moore reunion show. It was a hoot!

Here are some photos of all of us out on the town. Kai and Joe did great while I was gone. Kai is so in love with his dad-- they had fun at the zoo, visiting with friends, exploring at the park, and sleeping. Yes, Kai slept better with me away.

And, well-- me? I slept MARVELOUSLY!!!!

Spring Visitors

Kai is such a social little guy. Well, and so are we! So, we love having friends come over to visit.
This first photo is from when Jack and Maddie (Ken and Ally's twins) came to meet Kai for the first time. Jack and Maddie have been on "house arrest" since they were born very early without the best immune systems. But, now that winter is over, Kai got to meet his new best friends.
Then, we had a great brunch with Aunt Kiki, Paul, Dan and Katrin. It was one of the best Spring days yet! We just sat and ate good food and talked for hours and hours. Dan is entertaining Kai in this photo. Nothing like a big box to bring hours of fun!


Finally, here is our next-door neighbor, Jane. Many of you have met Jane. We are lucky to have one of the greatest neighbors ever. Who just happened to leave yesterday on a 5 month road trip up to the Yukon and down the west coast. Kai will miss Jane quite a bit (we will too!). Kai has decided Jane is his snuggle friend. Whenever he sees her, he just hugs and hugs her and snuggles. I've never seen him do this with anyone before. It's about the sweetest thing ever.

And, yes, Kai is naked in this photo!
Here he is in his full glory! Kai loves to be naked!! It works great too for teaching him "elimination communication." We have been working on having Kai in underwear and having him sit on the potty. But, when he is naked and in the outdoors, well, there is no need to do anything! He certainly knows what to do.

Tools

Kai discovered he loves tools!! So, the Easter bunny brought tools for Kai this year. I love th photo of Nonny in the background in one of the photos. The other photos are from when Kai helped Joe put back together our bed. It was on the ground, so when we co-slept, Kai wouldn't roll off of it. But, now, Kai spends most of the night in the crib and when he does come and join us, he knows how to roll off it without any problems.