summer break

ok, it's been awhile-no excuses. Let's see, we spent time at Mugga's house. The kids had a great time. We spent lots of time playing Star Wars. This consists of swinging a light saber (a stick) at poor defenseless trees-then later apologizing to them. The kids were great in NY at my cousin's wedding. After being home for 5 days, we went to Kiawah with the entire family. Landon spent most of his time chasing his cousin, Jack around the 3 story house. They were all into playing Wii. Kai had so much time at the beach. She had a blast in the water. She would point to it, try to jump (her feet never actually leave the ground) and say "bump!" (jump)  When you took her to the water, she kept trying to get deeper in the water. If you weren't paying close attention she would get a little too deep. She would also run after any bird she saw, pointing and yelling "doggie" It is hard to convince her that not everything on 4 legs is a dog. She is getting a good vocabulary. She has now spread out into dog, duck and bear, fish (in reference to goldfish, the snack, not the animal) 

Landon was a wild man in the water. He would play with the waves forever, unless of course he got saltwater in his eyes. He would then scream until he got his eyes wiped-usually on my swim suit. 

Landon starts school next week. He is so excited! He got to get new shoes, new clothes, everything-he has to wear a uniform. He loves it when I tell him not to grow up-that he is becoming too big and that he needs to stay my little baby forever. He giggles uncontrollably and argues with me about how he has to grow up big and strong. We have started to play a new game-we chase Kai around the house, occasionally stopping her and kissing her. Kai's little bottom wriggles side-to-side, and Landon imitates her, it cracks me up up-him too.

Soon to come, Landon's 4th birthday!

The Princess

Kai is becoming a princess before our eyes. She will find her shoes and hat, bring them to me and demand I put them on her. If I try to put the "wrong" shoes on her, she has a fit. She will even find a new pair of shoes to put on if she has been wearing the same ones all day. She also likes to have a bow in her hair. Her favorite toy is my cell phone. She was playing with the buttons while lounging back on a pillow. It looked like she was texting her friends. She typically will hold it to her ear and babble. It is very cute. She also loves to brush her hair and have it brushed for her. That almost always calms her down if she is upset-not that she ever is. Landon on the other hand, hates to have his shoes on, but has started to as for his hat when outside. He is old enough to realize that it blocks the sun and he can see much better. He wears one of Chad's hats so it is too big, but he loves it.

we got back from Belize a few days ago. It was the 1st time I had left Kai and it was for 10 days. It seems both kids did fine, but were a little out of sorts after the 1st few days. I got in too late to see them, so the next morning I got Kai out of her crib when she woke up. The look on her face said she couldn't believe it was me. She kept looking at me every few minutes with a huge smile on her face. She has been clinging since then, but is getting better. Landon tells me he was worried about me when I was gone, but is very happy we are back. He finally decided he wanted to go swimming, but that since he was just walking in the water, he didn't need to wear trunks, because those are for swimming. The first few times he went at my parent's house, he was au natural, It wasn't until the last couple of days that he wore undies. I have explained to him that he needs to wear his trunks and he did put them on yesterday to go. Anyway, we all are back at the house-for a few weeks anyway.

Landon's first boat ride (Kai's too)

Friends of ours invited us out on their pontoon boat this past Sunday. It was the 1st time for both of the kids. Landon wasn't too sure about it before we left, but we talked about the life jackets and the sun screen and he was ok. He hasn't been wanting to put the sunscreen on lately, but it was 86 today soo.... We get on the boat, Landon runs to his seat and says"ok mom, where is the sunscreen and my life jacket? Let's go!" He is all smiles. Kai on the other hand, hates the life jacket, which is understandable since the jacket is as big as she is-very cute, but huge. We dock on a little beach and he wants nothing to do with the water, but after seeing all the kids having fun, he gets braver. We went with 2 of Chad's soccer girls and he was in hog heaven. They played with him on the edge of the water. He even put on his swim trunks. Chad offered to throw him in and have one of the girls catch him-that didn't go over too well, he did it,but I doubt he will do it again. He got to sit on the edge of the boat with the girls and eat his lunch-he thought he was hot stuff. The girls just love him and he got to eat with the big kids. Kai got to wiggle around all over the boat and be loved on by everyone. we tried to get her to sleep in the pack-in-play-didn't happen. She usually sleeps for 3 hours starting around 12 or so. At 3:30 she was still up and running. We started back home at that point. She was out 5 minutes after we left. All in all, it was a great day. Landon wants to go back and we know Kai can have a good time too.

Landon has been helping with my garden. He helps me dig the holes and water the plants. He likes to look for the baby fruits and veggies that are growing. Hopefully he will like to eat them just as much. Kai has helped too. She pulls out everything I just put it and brings it to me. She is so proud of it too.

In the last week Kai has outgrown her shoes and gotten 5 new teeth.She is growing fast!

Muffins with Mom

Landon's preschool class had "Muffins with Mom" this morning. The kids had made cute little crafts for us and we ate muffins and had juice together. I was just about out the door after having said goodbye to Landon. He was off playing with his friends when he saw me getting ready to leave. He yelled "Mommy, wait! I have to give a hug and a kiss!" It was so sweet and the best Mom's day present I could ask for.

Landon is sick

Landon has this weird illness. He will stop for a second and look like he may have burped up something into his throat, then he screams for a few minutes about it hurting. He then says his tummy, throat and head hurt all at once and wants to lay down. After about an hour, he just gets up and is fine. He did this today and at my brother's house when he was with his cousins and grandparents-in other words, when he was having tons of fun and wouldn't want to take a break. He id it again today, this time while we were at the playground, getting ready to play hide-and-seek, again, when he wouldn't want to take a break. I don't know, we hope it won't happen again.

He spent the weekend with his 4 cousins and had a blast. He got a new bike and wants to ride it all the time-too bad he can't use the breaks yet!

Kai is up and walking. She can take around 6 or 7 steps before she falls. She is getting the hang of it and I'm sure she will be up and running soon. Landon helped me plant my veggie garden last week. It is doing great-too bad it is supposed to get into the low 30's tonight-late April in North Carolina and I may have to cover my plants! Hope they make it, I don't want to start over. My lettuce is growing well. I had my 1st salad from the garden last week and it was so tender an sweet. Landon tried it from the plants and was not impressed. He loves to tell people about the veggies he planted. It will me great when we can just go outside an pick a snack from the vines.

Getting lost.

I was at the YMCA last week to teach a kids yoga class that Landon is in with me. I left him in the room with a counselor to go get my stuff. When I returned 10 minutes later, Landon was no where to be found and the counselor had no idea he was missing-that sent out an alert among the staff-we all know what to do-drop everything and find the kid. It took a few minutes and quite a few staff, but finally a member heard a little child screaming for his mommy in the bathroom. Landon had run to the bathroom without telling anyone-couldn't reach the light switch and couldn't open the door himself-it is very heavy. I have no idea who the member was that found him, but want to send a great big GOD BLESS YOU! I was very calm when it happened, but later that night I about had a meltdown. Until (not unless) it happens to your child, you have no idea how it feels, but every parent will experience it at some point. Luckily, we were at a safe place where everyone knows him. It happened to my brother when we were at Disney World, I was worried, but now I can't imagine how bad it was for my sister-in-law. My niece was only gone for a minute, but it seemed like forever. The night it happened, Landon came to me and said "Mommy, I was yelling for you. You should have been there." How heart-breaking is that! It did lead to a good conversation about what to do if he gets lost and can't find me. He started to learn our phone number but then decided he needed to have his own and made up a number. Not sure what country code he was using, but I bet it would cost a fortune to place that call!

Pictures finally!!!!!

I finally got around to downloading pics-thanks for the dig Judy. The 1st is of Kai in Landon's favorite (and Dad's) soccer jersye. The 2nd is Landon in our only snow of the year and the 3rd is Kai sorting socks-see, I told you my kids are cute:)