Where's Bubba, Of Course

A couple fun verbal developments lately...

Kahlil as started to say "Yes, of course I can" whenever you ask him to do something... and he is in a good mood (that's a big 'and'). It's really funny to hear such a mature response... and I can already hear the grandma-eyes rolling... from the kiddo.

Langston seems to have one word: Bubba. As in Bubba the cat. If you ask where Bubba is, he will look all around to try and find the feline. He will also 'call' for Bubba which only occasionally sounds like 'Bubba':

Peak-A-Leak

Last Friday Kahlil and the rest of his daycare friends did a gymnastics demonstration at Peak Elite (or Peak-a-Leak as Kahlil likes to call it), a local gymnasium. Melissa takes them to Peak Elite every week to see Miss Maria where they learn to do all kinds of cool stuff like forward tuck and rolls and how to walk on balance beams. Peak Elite puts on a show every year so parents can see what their kids have been working on. It was very exciting and, of course, made me very proud to see Kahlil up there doing his thing!

Miss Maria put together a little story for Kahlil, Sean, Leo, and Cruz to wow the crowd with their gymnastic skills. The gist of the story was this... four friends are walking in the woods on a narrow path (hence the balance beam) when they hear a monster! They look high (everybody jumps up), low (everybody crouches down), and all around (everybody turns around) for the monster. When they see the monster they stick out their tails (everybody puts one foot in the air behind the other leg) and rise their arms (self explanatory) to scare the monster away. When that doesn't work they jump in the air and say "boo" (big dismount off the balance beam).

It was fantastic. The only person who didn't seem to enjoy it was Langston... during the whole show he was fighting to be out there on the beam with the rest of the boys!

What's the deal?

So about an hour after the post I did on Saturday, I was running to the bathroom to puke. I can't remember when I had a stomach flu before living in this house. In the year and a half since moving here I've had three.

The funny thing about this flu is that it's proportional to age. I got the fully blown yuck... fluids and gas coming from places they shouldn't, body aches, bad stomach, and low energy for 36 hours. Jay got all that but managed to keep all his fluids. Kahlil has been complaining of a bad stomach, but seems to be fine otherwise. Langston has been a little cranky, but that could be the two new teeth that just came in.

I hope we are done with stomach flues. I think I meet my quota for a while.

Spider-Man Hands

Since I've again missed a month of updates, I'm going to hit highlights and get into current events.

We had a fun Easter; colored eggs at a friends house and the Easter bunny hid them a long with a few cool toys (including Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls) and then a very nice Easter dinner at Kris a Paul's house where I was able to get Kahlil out of the monkey suite for a few minutes, just enough time for a couple photos. (Notice how much happier he is in the monkey photo.) It was a really nice weekend.

Langston has had the most changes lately. He is now ONE!!! Grandma Ettie came up for his birthday - we went to the zoo and spent the night at the coast with a visit to the beach and a stop at the Aquarium. We also had a big party with the Watts, Salcidos, Delos Reyes, and Weisels. It was a fantastic birthday week.

Other big changes in Langston's life includes walking! He's been able to walk for a while, but just hadn't made up his mind it was a good thing. Then a couple weeks ago, he just made the mental shift and took off. His first real day, he walked circles around the living room laughing. It was pretty cute. He is also weened. It was a little sad, but he was giving pretty strong signals he was done with nursing so it is over.

Now for current events... we had a FREAK storm here this week. I have NEVER seen rain come down like that before. We had had a couple days of mild lightning activity and a little rain but nothing unusual. Then one day there seemed to be something special brewing... the sky was very dark, it was humid and the wind really started to kick up. Then the sky let loose and the rain came down in a torrent. I was at work and stepped out on the back porch to watch the show. I thought, you know, I should close the windows at the front of the shop. While walking up to the front, I heard water running... then I saw the gusher IN THE SHOP! The whole front half of the building was leaking like a sieve. It looked like somebody had opened up the roof and turned on fire hoses. We dumped every trash can and started to bail. The cans were filling up faster than we could dump them but we got a lot of the water out. Once the craziness stopped falling from the sky we started to vacuum and mop up all the water. It looks like we wont lose anything due to water damage partly due to the timing of the storm. We are in the process of expanding the shop and we had just cleaned out part of the shop that flooded... and we hadn't moved the new stuff in there yet. A couple days earlier or a couple days later and it would have been a different story.

And finally the reason for the title on this post. Kahlil and Jay have been watching old Spider-Man cartoons on YouTube. As you can imagine, Spider-Man and all his powers are now a big topic of conversation with Kahlil. He is pretty excited that he got to bring home "webs" (little nylon stockings for trying on shoes) from work. He has been putting them on his hands and feet and wearing them to bed. Earlier today he was playing with glitter glue and something clicked... "Mom, I can use the glue to stick to walls." Me, "No, not really. The glue takes a pretty long time to dry." But the wheels were in motion. Few minutes later he was walking out of the living room when I stopped him. I noticed there were little glitter hand prints on the wall... he had been trying out his theory. I was trying really hard maintain a stern voice as I clean off the glitter, but it was just too funny not to laugh.

A couple more special photos.

So much has happened

Yet again, it has been quite a while since the last post. We have been busy so I'll hit the highlights and share a few photos.

Morgan and Kataneh visited for one night at the end of March. It was great to see them and I'm SO bummed they don't live closer. I think Kahlil and Langston would like to see them more often too. Maybe Google will open an office in Portland :-)

We went to California for a week. We were at Disneyland for a day and it was quite the adventure for Kahlil. He was tall enough to go on just about everything. The two rides that really seem to have stuck with him are the "crazy train" (Thunder Mountain) and the "rocket ship" (a little spinning rocket ride). We stayed for the fireworks and that was also a hit. It is really a spectacular display and I enjoyed it. Kahlil likes to say it was "my first fireworks ever!".

For most of the trip we stayed in San Diego with the Ducharmes and had a GREAT time. Luke and Kahlil acted like they have know each other forever and they took off and started playing right away. It was mostly good, but a little space was needed every once in a while. Charlie spent most of his time right behind Kahlil and Luke. He is a total cutie. Langston crawled, or drove, after the other kids. Here are a few photos from the trip:

This has become one of my FAVORITE photos of Langston. The look on his face just cracks me up. I'm not quite sure what it is saying, maybe... he's a middle aged salesman living in Florida trapped in an average life, but he's happy with what he has... Not sure but I find it very endearing.

One day we went to Balboa Park. This is Luke and Kahlil racing around the fountain there. (note the monkey suit Kahlil is sporting... keep reading for more on this)

This is cutie pie Charlie giving a wink and showing off his stickers.

Here is Luke, Charlie, and Kahlil checking out the model of a birds nest at the Wild Animal Park. We had a fun time there seeing all the animals and riding on the tram.

We've been home a week and I've had to explain several times that it will be a long time before we go back to San Diego and Disneyland. Kahlil keeps telling me we can go to Disneyland because it's close to Luke's house... he seems to forget that WE are not close to Luke's house.

A couple things here at home... Langston has started freestanding from time to time. And he is getting good at standing and pushing stuff around. In just the last couple days his balance has really improved. Kahlil started waking right before his first birthday. I don't know if Langston will beat his birthday, but he will be close.

THE MONKEY SUIT!!! About a month ago Kahlil started wearing his Halloween costume around the house... then to bed... then out of the house... then ALL THE TIME. I have to negotiate with him to get if off to be washed. Today at Melissa's he chose change out of his monkey suit and into normal clothes when they went to play in the mud because the suit wouldn't be washed in time for him to wear the rest of the day. It's turning out to be one of the best purchase I've ever made for him.

They grow up so fast

I've finally come to realize that potty training (for some) is a process, not an event. It happens in small steps over a period of time, not all at once. Kahlil is well on the road to being potty trained, but he isn't quite there yet. He is much better about knowing when he has to go and doing something about it. The most recent exception was last week when he chose to wet himself while watching cartoons rather than taking care of business. The worst part was that we were at the Peak Elite (a local gymnastics club) viewing room and I didn't have anything for him to change into so he had to walk to the car bare naked from the waist down. (I hope HHS doesn't come after me!) But these lapses are becoming fewer - thank god! So now we are facing the latest potty training challenge for a boy... peeing while standing AND getting it all in the toilet. As a girl this is a problem I have never had to face. Kahlil wants to get it right - Mom, I'm sorry I got some pee on the floor - and I'm very supportive and encouraging - good job getting most of the pee in the toilet! - but it is hard to keep a happy face when mopping up the latest miss fire. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a process and we will eventually be out of this phase.

Langston is also moving on to new things. He LOVES to crawl up stairs. So now I have to make double sure the gate at the top of the Soft Star stairs is closed... they are like magnets to him... and he remembers if the gate is open. It's enough to put me on edge. His other big achievement: today he pushed a cart around the shop. He was pretty proud of the fact that he was standing/walking while doing it. I think he has big plans for walking in the near future.

Rafferty Rocks

It's been a while since the last post... we had sickness go through the house making blogging an impossibility. We also had a BAD January with loss of several friends. Luckily things are looking up... the last week or so we are all healthy and happy (which is a 180 from where we were a couple weeks ago) and Uncle Lloyd is recovering well from heart surgery. Thanks goodness!

A few Langston developments... 1) he now has TWO teeth! The two front bottom. 2) He has become pretty picky about eating. The list of preferred food is fairly small - Goldfish crackers, banana pieces, graham crackers, cookies, string cheese, and ice cream. Pretty much everything else he use to eat - avocado, yogurt, baby food, etc - is now off the menu. He really likes to feed himself so I think that explains much of the shift. 3) The other BIG development is the addition of the 'more' sign... yeah!!! It looks a little like he is clapping his hands, and he mostly does it when you do if first, but he has the idea. It shouldn't be too long before he is demanding more of everything. 4) The annoying development is an irrational hate of diaper changes. I basically have to pull some WWF moves to get him changed and if a social worker heard the screams while I was doing it, I'm sure they would take him away.

Kahlil is doing good. I think we through the worst of the "I WANT IT NOW" phase which is good because nobody was enjoying that. But we still have a ways to go before he and Langston are best friends... for Valentine's Day I bought Kahlil some sparkle pens to decorate his cards. It really made Kahlil's day when Jay told Langston he could not play with the pens. Kahlil was so happy he beamed when he told the story to Melissa. Any time we intervene and tell Langston 'no' is a good day in Kahlil's book. I guess brotherly love will have to wait.

Enjoy the Gerry Rafferty video. This song was added to Kahlil's playlist today :-)