Kahlil, what will you do when you grow up?

For posterity, here are some of the conversations Kahlil has had on this topic over the last several months.

Driving in the car past the lot where the garbage trucks are parked...
Larkin: Look Kahlil, garbage trucks. Maybe you will work here some day.
Kahlil: Oh, I WILL work there!

Bedtime...
Kahlil: Mom, when will I be an adult?
Larkin: In fourteen years.
Kahlil: Nooo... That's TOO long to wait to drive a garbage truck.

Kahlil was at Trish's house to watch the tractors working...
Trish: Kahlil, watch closely. You might drive a tractor some day.
Kahlil: No. I'm going to drive a garbage truck.

Bedtime...
Kahlil: How many days to garbage day?
Larkin: Today is Tuesday and garbage day is Monday, so six days.
Kahlil: So tomorrow it will be five days, and then the next day it will be four days, and then the next day it will be three days, and then the next day it will be two days, and then the next day it will be one day!

Today while watching the tree guys taking down a couple of damaged trees (and the only chink in his armor to date)...
Kahlil: Maybe I'll drive a tree truck if I get tired of driving garbage trucks.


Here he is waiting patiently for the... you guessed it... garbage truck. On Monday mornings he springs out of bed and dashes outside to wait. We give him breakfast out there so he has a chance of seeing a garbage truck before leaving for daycare. Lucky for him, we are back home in the early afternoon on Mondays. The first thing he does when we return home is check all three bins - garbage, yard waste, and recycling - to see which trucks have already come and he puts the empty bins away. Then he takes up his place on the rock to wait...

2010 - The First Six Months via the iPhone

Good night

Another recent change in our house is the sleeping arrangements. Back around the start of the year, Kahlil started to give us trouble at bedtime. He didn't want us to turn the lights out, he would get up a lot asking for water or whatever, and he would try to get us to stay in the room with him. He was really afraid and it was starting to become a problem. BOO!

Then by chance there were a couple nights when only one parent was at home in the evening so while we were dealing with Langston's bedtime, Kahlil asked to come in Langston's room and quietly lay on the floor... and he promptly fell asleep. After this happened several times, I asked him if he wanted to move into Langston's room permanently. He was VERY jazzed about that idea and thought we should ALL sleep in Langston's room. I talked him out of that, but we did move his bed such that we now have a 'bedroom' where both kids sleep and a 'play room' with all the toys. YEA!

So the move happens and Kahlil is happy. But then Langston wants to sleep under Kahlil's loft bed. With a mattress on floor, it's pretty similar to a bunk bed so we go out and get the mattress and Langston is all set up with a big-boy bed. YEA!

Turns out Langston is a light sleeper, which we knew. But now he can roam around the house in the middle of the night since he is on a mattress on the floor rather then in a crib. YEA... um, maybe not.

It really hasn't been too bad, we just have to be prepared to have a little body show up at the side of our bed at 2 am saying "up, please". Other than that, it's great to have Kahlil going to bed with out the worry and fight. And the best part, I think they like being together. YEA!!!!

No Longer the Ugliest Yard on the Block

Another big change over the last couple months is the work we did in our front yard. They yard was basically a weed patch and Jay and I were a little embarrassed of it. So back in November we contacted David Sandrock of Sandrock Sustainable Landscapes and came up with a plan. We did some of the labor... Kahlil and I took out the cinder block walls and we all pitched in with the plantings.,. to help bring the cost down. It was a fun project and I highly recommend David for other Oregon residents looking for some yard designs. Here are some photos of the project.

The BEFORE shot - Well work had already started. Kahlil (who you can just see in this photo) and I have already put some time into taking down the two old walls. The old walls followed the slope of the street making it feel like the house was sliding away. We always knew the walls looked 'wrong' but it wasn't until David mentioned that that we understood why they seemed 'off'.

The new wall going in. This was the biggest part of this project. David spent quite a bit of time to make sure the wall would be level and not 'slide' down the hill like the old ones. To save money and reduce environmental impact, we re-used the old cinder bricks. But they were to harsh for the look we wanted. To solve this problem, David broke up the new wall with natural stone and put a natural stone cap along the entire wall. This also ties in with some large stones that were placed in the planting bed.


The wall is done and the yard is ready for plants. It's too bad this is such a dark photo because the wall and rocks are really cool.

Planting - I didn't count exactly how many holes we dug, but I think it was close to 100. We got through most of in in a weekend... Kahlil worked on the little 4" pots and Jay and I handled the big perennials. Langston turned over clumps of dirt. Good family time :-)



DONE!!! It will take a couple years for the plants to fill in completely, but we are already happy with how much better the front looks. We spend a lot of time sitting on the wall (as Jay is doing) and are enjoying watching the new growth. When the plants are mature, there should be very little maintenance needed... most weeds should get choked out as the planting is dense. We went with all drought tolerant plants so we should only have to water once or twice a summer during the hottest spells. A little pruning once or twice a year is all it should need.

Holidays 2009

Well, I guess the holidays sort of came and went before I could write any blog posts. There have been some big things going on lately so I thought I should do some catch up. I'll just focus on a holiday recap this time...

Thanksgiving: We went to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. It was a GREAT time with my family. Kahlil and Langston had fun spending time with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We spent the whole week there so it wasn't hectic traveling. There were over 20 people at Thanksgiving dinner so it was a little overwhelming!

One day during our visit, we went up the tram on Sandia mountain. It is a LONG tram with amazing views. At the top we had a drink at the bar and played in some snow. Langston had a great time but Kahlil...

Langston is enjoying the view on the tram up to Sandia...

Aunt Kataneh sharing Kahlil's sad face during timeout...

Uncle Dean with two of the cutest kiddos in the world!


Generation one of three...


Generation two of three...


Generation three of three...


Christmas: Grandma and Papa Friberg came here for Christmas. I had a great time decorating the tree with the boys. Kahlil really got into it but tended to focus the ornaments on the lower quarter of the tree. Leading up to Christmas, Langston wanted to take out the presents and open them, but we told him he had to put them back... then on Christmas eve when it was time to open presents, he kept taking them away from people and putting them back under the tree! Once we showed him he could open them, he abandoned the whole put away plan and had fun tearing into the wrapping.

Decorating the tree. The lower half had more than it's share of ornaments :-)
Kahlil and Grandma opening presents...
Langston and Papa hanging out...
Uncle Dean had Langston for Christmas and gave him Christmas hit of the year...

Us...

New Years: Grandpa Richard came to visit for a while. He and Kahlil really hit it off this trip. Richard took Kahlil to the movie, and they rode the bus home - who wouldn't love that! They also wrote a book together with Kahlil as the star :-) On New Years day, Kahlil and Jay joined the Polar Bears club by jumping in the outdoor pool here in town. I'll leave it to Jay to write more about that!

The boys with Grandpa Richard...

There was a person dressed as a polar bear at the entrance to the pool for the Polar Bear Plunge... Langston thought he was cool and a little scary...



The two crazies about to go in...

Training Wheels Are For Suckers

We learned of this bike that has pedals that are designed to come on and off easily with a single hex wrench. The idea is to have your kid learn to balance without the pedals and push with their feet, and when they can do that, you put the pedals on. The bike was too big for Kahlil initially (he couldn't reach the ground well enough with his feet), but once he was a smidge tall enough the process went fast. Maybe 2-3 days without pedals before he switched.

At the park today, where I filmed this, I pointed out to him that there was an older girl, I'd guess around 6 who still had training wheels on her bike. He immediately started riding over to her to inform her that he was only 4 and didn't need training wheels and what was her problem? You can see everything Kahlil is going to do on his face, so I stopped him before he could do it and gave him lecture #4,872 on interacting with people.

Later, as we were circling the park, I told him that maybe it wasn't that the girl was slow at learning to ride a bike, but that he was fast. And he thought a minute, whirring his pedals, and said, "Maybe it's because I'm gooder at riding a bike that I don't need training wheels? Yeah, I think that's right!"

jh