Oma's visit, Halloween, Fall etc.

It has been a while since we have had the chance to post on Kai's blog. The past few months have been very busy and a lot has happened. First and foremost: Kai has grown so much!!! We know we write it all the time, but it never ceases to amaze us how quickly he changes. He is talking more and more each day. Still mostly in Dutch, but English is clearly his second language and we do still hear some French at times. We can actually have small conversations with Kai now. Sometimes they are fairly intelligent but other times it goes something like this:

- "Kai, are you done eating?"
- "NO!!!!"
- "Okay, would you like some more bread?"
- "NO!!!!"
- "What would you like then?"
- "NO!!!"

Yep, Kai has entered this famous fase of toddlerhood.....

His gross motor skills are developing very fast as well. He loves to dance, jump, climb and run and most days it seems like he doesn't do anything else. He is always on the move and prefers to move around together with us. If there is music, he likes to dance with us. If he climbs onto something he wants to jump and be caught by us. If he climbs around on our bed in the morning we have to make him a tent with the duvet. Oh, and as it turns out, we double quite well as a "horsey!!!!!" too.

Another thing that has happened this fall was Kai's oma Monika visit to us. Kai loves his oma very much and still misses her a lot. Every times he sees an airplane, he tells us oma is in it and when the phone rings he wants it to be oma. During oma's visit it happened to be Halloween and Kai went trick or treating, dressed up as a little gnome. We only planned to go to a few houses in our street, but Kai didn't want to stop. He loved collecting the candy and to say "eng, eng!!" (scary, scary) whenever he saw someone dressed up. The days after he played with his candy a lot, until it had all magically disappeared.....

There is a lot to write about the past few months, but we will leave it at this and just add some (well, a lot) of pictures.









A little gnome looking for candy.


The little gnome at daycare.


On our way to Mont-Tremblant.


A stop in Montebello.


Mont-Tremblant




At a waterfall in Mont-Tremblant.




The Biodome in Montreal, Kai loved the fish.


Very tired on our way home.


Some more fun with grandma before she left.

Toddlerhood

Over the past few months Kai has really entered toddlerhood and we have come to understand that this is a whole new world that is a lot of fun, but also full of new challenges. Kai is learning new words every day and since a week or so he has started to combine some of them. For example, he now says "Ernie nou?" (Where Ernie?, "Papa toe" ("To daddy" when he wants to go to daddy) and "Mama boek" if I have to read him a book. Speaking of reading books, Kai has now decided that the proper way to read a book is while sitting under a blanket on the sofa, so even if he wants to read a book by himself he sits down on the sofa and covers himself with a blanket. He loves books and reads his books several times a day. Another thing he has discovered is colouring. He carries his crayons around with him everywhere and (unfortunately) has already combined his two hobbies by making his books a bit more colorful. His play also seems to be evolving as he now likes to put his stuffed animals and Bert&Ernie doll to bed, while telling us to be quiet(shhht) and just like Kai, the dolls usually have to be nursed before the go to sleep. Here are some pictures of Kai with his book on the sofa:







Kai also loves to go outside. On a regular day, by 9 am he will decide that it's really time to go out, grab his shoes and walk to the door. Here are some pictures of walks we have taken with the little guy: Gatineau Park (Pink Lake trail)







In our street:





We have recently also made some video clips of Kai:

Click here to see Kai in Gatineau Park and click here to see Kai at Mooney's Bay

There Will Be No More Discussions.......

First Professional Haircut

Even though we already had to start cutting his hair when he was 6 months old, Kai didn't have his first professional haircut until this morning. His hair was getting pretty long, and cutting it was getting more difficult each time: Kai just doesn't like to sit still. Hoping to prevent a crying fit and a half-done haircut we went to the only haircutter in our area that is specialized in cutting children's hair: Coiffure Magique in Gatineau.

For the haircut Kai was allowed to sit in a little red car, while watching a special children's video about animals (he loves animals). To my big surpsise, he didn't even peep when the hairdresser started to cut his hair: He was truly fascinated by the car and the tv and didn't want to leave when he was done. Actually, the only time he cried was when he had to get out of the car so that we could go home. Here are some pictures:

Combing his hair:



Watching tv (with his blank tv-stare)



"Don't stand in front of the tv please..."



"Look at me!"



All done!



Kai even received a certificate:

Independence

Kai's seems to become more independent every day. He understands most things we say and is usually happy to help do something when we ask. He also has a mind of his own and loves to organize his toys (and our things too), or push them around in his toy-stroller. When he wants something he will try to get or do it himself first and only if this doesn't work out he will ask for our help. Well, ask..........sometimes he will get a little temper tantrum as is quite normal for his age, but those are usually solved quickly.

In the past week Kai has started daycare.So far he has been there for one morning and two full days and it is going really well. We did expect that he would like it eventually, but we never would have thought that he would LOVE it from the start. Granted, he still doesn't like it when I leave and will cling to me and cry, but according to his teachers that only lasts a minute or two and at pick-up time he is always happy and relaxed. He does seem to be a bit worried that I will leave again, but he wants to show me all the toys and isn't too eager to leave the daycare center. We can't blame him: there are a lot of nice toys, lots of kids his age and his teachers are very sweet. It is amazing how much he has already learned in this first week. Appearantly he has said his first French word (bouche), and spending so much time alone in an English-speaking environment doesn't seem to be a problem for him. To improve communication his teachers do have a list of the Dutch words Kai uses a lot, but when they use those words he stops what he is doing and looks very surprised. We'll see if he will start using more English at home now. For now it's still just "hi" and "bye bye". Another very cute thing that he has learned at daycare is to blow a kiss. Today while saying goodbye to his teachers he was smiling, waving and blowing kisses non-stop!

When it comes to food Kai is becoming more and more independent too. He will ask for certain foods, or food in general, when he is hungry or just feels like snack. And when he asks for it we have to move quickly, or he will very loudly let us know that he wants it NOW!! He prefers to use his own spoon and fork when he eats and we let him do this whenever possible. Things can get messy, but hey, what can you do?

Here are some pictures of Kai eating his paste with tomato-sauce (his favourite!)

How the world becomes more fun every day.

In the past few weeks Kai has discovered even more fun things he can do. On of them is putting on clothes and shoes. Since he can't really manage with his own clothes yet (he tries though!!) he has taken to putting on our things. The moment we leave our shoes standing in the hall, Kai is trying to walk around in them. A lot of other things are tempting for him too. Here he is trying to wear the sling:

 

 

A few days ago he had been digging in one of the wardrobes and found himself a new "hat" (which actually is meant for cooking rice the Iranian way, Elisa and Hermien, you might recognize it since you gave it to me)

 

Apart from putting on our clothes he tries copy all the other things we do. When we have to open a door with a key, Kai insists on doing it and is amazingly good at it too: All we have to do is hand him the right key! He also likes to help me put laundry in the hamper, something he does a bit too efficiently sometimes. This morning I found my cell phone buried in the dirty laundry, together with one of his own loveys I had been missing for days already.

All in all, Kai seems to like order. Which leaves us wondering: where did he get that from!?!?!

The defenition of a toddler.....

On an interesting website about healthy toddler foods I found this very accurate definition of a toddler. It describes Kai to a T!!

A Child who is between the age of 12 months and 48 months old (1 year and 4 years old)

One who loves to eat food one day and then dislikes that very same food the next day

One who requires a lot of clean laundry, tidying-up after, and lots of attention, and constant amusement and stimulation

One who is methodical and mechanical engineer-like in his or her attempts (and oftentimes great successes) at launching a spoonful of mashed potatoes as easily as a robotic arm assembles a car!

One who's innocence and wonder inspires us to do better

One who possesses an abundance of love; who is unconditional in the giving and delightful in the receiving of that love along with showering hugs, kisses and smiles to those around him or her; a true joy and a true blessing to treasure

Hola Cuba!!

A week after Kai's first birthday we went to Cuba for a relaxing holiday. Since Jitse would be leaving for Holland soon after, we figured it would be a nice opportunity to enjoy some time together.

The trip was huge succes!! Except from standing in line for check-in at the airport in Montreal, Kai loved every minute of it. In order to be in time to catch the plane we had to leave Ottawa at 1 am, Jitse and I were tired, but Kai did not seem to mind the early rising one bit and was happily babbling in his carseat. He caught up on some sleep during the flight and the bus ride from the airport in Camaguey to our hotel in Santa Lucia.

During our entire stay Kai was in the best of moods, saying "hi!!" and "bye bye!" to everyone we encountered, and dancing to the Cuban music. Here are two little movie clips of Kai's reaction to the music, the second one is the best, although it is a bit dark:

Kai in the bus to Santa Lucia

Kai at the dance show

Other than the people and the music he also loved the beach and the ocean. The first time Kai saw the ocean he ran towards it and would have taken a swim hadn't we stopped him:



When we let him play with some sand toys he decided he never wanted to leave the beach again. From then on, every time we left the beach he was crying while saying "bye bye" and waving to his dear beach.





And here are some random pictures of the rest of our stay.

Photo montage

We have made a photo montage of Kai's first year of life, click on the thumbnail if you would like to watch it.


Kai

Kai is 1!!!!!!

Yesterday was Kai's big day: He turned 1!!! His birthday was a lot of fun for all of us, here's a report of the day:


Good morning birthday boy!



Kai loved the decorations we had put up the night before.



The balloons also were a lot of fun, he kept trying to say "Ballon, ballon". (Balloon in Dutch)



The weather was great and we were able to have the party in our garden




Everyone was playing, Kai was busy with his new lawn mower.



He dug in to his birthday cake the moment he saw it.



Hmmmmm, his first taste of chocolate cake.



After most guests had left Kai was having some fun with the toys and party leftovers. By that time he was covered in chocolate cake and mud from the garden.





Kai's first birthday was a wonderful day and we are incredibly proud that our son now officially is a toddler.