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.

A memorable day!

Today was a memorable day for many reasons. The first reason is that today Kai not only came to a stand all by himself, but he also took his first steps!! Jitse was the first one to witness Kai's new skill, but later today he happily repeated it for Silvia to see. So far four steps is the most he has taken, but we are very proud of him and can't wait to see him do it again.

Another fun thing we did today was install the bicycle seat we brought from Holland. Silvia and Kai took a test drive and Kai really seemed to like this new means of transportation:




After our bicycle adventure we took off to the playground, another thing Kai has started to enjoy lately. When he sees the swings and slides he always tries to climb out of the stroller, I guess we are not going fast enough for him! He loves to be on the swing and stare at the other children and he goes down the slides by himself without any problem. Today he also discovered that sand is a lot of fun.

A visit to the sugar bush

Last weekend we took a little trip to a sugar bush just outside of Ottawa. It was still pretty cold, but at least it was not freezing and snowing anymore. This was our first visit to a sugar bush and all three of us really liked it. Here are some pictures of our day:

Kai loved the animals in the barn.



It is obvious who had the best view.



The shed where the maple syrup was cooked.



We went for a ride in this horse drawn cart and within a few minutes Kai was nicknamed "The Cowboy" by our driver: our little guy was squealing with delight upon seeing the horses.



The collection of the sap from the maple tree.



The preparation of taffy on the snow:





Jitse enjoying his taffy.

Surfer Kai's word count.

Apart from the continuous babbling in baby-language Kai has lately started saying real words in the right context. To our surprise he is both using Dutch and English words. Here's his word count so far:

mama (mommy)
papa (daddy)
dag dag (bye bye)
bye/bye bye
boem (boom)
doei (bye)
baby
hachoo
ja (yes)
Kai
broem broem (vroom vroom)

He also really likes to imitate things we say, even though it doesn't sound like the actual word yet. Words he is trying to imitate are:

tot zo (see you later)
ei ei (this is from a Dutch nursery rhyme)

Kai's relation to food

Lately Kai has started to enjoy table foods. Whenever we are eating something that is suitable for Kai too, we let him eat off our plates. Here are some pictures of him enjoying some new foods:


A bagel with melted cheese for breakfast.


Eating pancakes for the first time.


His first food order at a restaurant: cheese curds.

Kai in action: some videos

Click here to see a video of Kai walking behind his cart or here to see a video of him drumming.