And she is off . . .

Let's Have a Tea Party...

Kaiyah got a tea set from Zeke for Christmas and she really likes to play tea party with her baby, whose name, incidentally, is Baby. Today, she was playing and Dan turned on a kids' song called, "Let's Have a Tea Party." Kaiyah stood up and said, excitedly, "That my tea party song!" and then she asked it to be played over and over again. Fun stuff.

Sierra, continued...

Here's what Tami was talking about in the post below (read it if you haven't). Sierra loves the camera. She can be pitching a really big fit about something, and if we pick up the camera and take her picture, she immediately stops crying and starts smiling. Usually, we can't even get a picture of her when she's crying, but the picture below shows a progression of about 10 seconds. She's a mess.

Sierra is 6 months old!

Yesterday, Sierra was officially 6 months old. Where has the time gone? At six months, here's a little bit about Sierra:

* She can sit up for a few seconds, but isn't really stable yet.
* She is up on all fours and lunging around the living room. I have no doubt it will be a full blown crawl in no time.
* She loves to eat and is pretty good at feeding herself "fist foods."
* She does not like crowds . . . AT ALL. We discovered this Thanksgiving Day, and it was confirmed again last night at our Christmas party. Our typically laid back, happy baby becomes pretty hysterical in crowds, to the point of being a challenge to calm down. It's the strangest thing. She has also developed 'stranger anxiety', crying whenever someone she doesn't know well talks to her. Notable exceptions, there have been several 30-something single guys that she has been perfectly happy to spend the evening sitting in their laps.
* She is her daddy's girl, whenever she is crying, Dan gets out the camera to take a picture and she IMMEDIATELY starts smiling. She's a mess!

From the mouths of babes

Picture Tami in the kitchen washing dishes . . .

Zeke: Can you play with me?

Kaiyah: Can you hold me?

Tami: Do I look like I can play with Zeke or hold Kaiyah?

Zeke: God should have given you 100 hands so you can do everything your kids want.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Indian and Pilgrim planting corn"

"What I'm thankful for"

Smiley Sierra Nicole

This little girl melts my heart...

Our little monkey...

Fun in the Leaves!!

Last weekend we happened upon a bunch of trees with fall leaves! It's funny the little things in life that can bring such joy. Trees and leaves aren't the most common sight what with living in a big city. All the kids wanted to do was to make a pile of leaves and jump in it . . . so, that's what we did!

Zeke the Realist...

Zeke's our little realist...

From Tami:

Zeke was feeding his Bonko Bear. I said, “Aww, you’re a good daddy.” Zeke looked shocked and said, “I’m not a daddy. This is just a pretend bear. I’m just pretending to feed him.” I looked at Kaiyah feeding her baby. “Are you that baby’s mommy?” Kaiyah, “Uh-huh!” Zeke to Kaiyah, “That’s just a pretend baby!”

The other night we were eating dinner and Kaiyah called me Daddy. So I took it upon myself to call her Zeke and call Zeke Kaiyah. Kaiyah thought it was the funniest thing in the world. She laughed so hard she got hiccups. Zeke, in the meantime was on the other side of the table yelling, “NO! I’m Zeke, not Kaiyah!” He kept saying, “You’re just joking, aren’t you, Mommy.” I finally told him I was and he said, “Well, why did you joke like that for so long?”

From Dan:

A few weeks ago, we were on a boat and Kaiyah started to pick something up off the ground, or at least I thought she did. So, I held out my hand, and she dropped something, which appeared to be nothing, in my hand. I proceeded to pop the imaginary food in my mouth, chew it up, and swallow it. She giggled and bent down to get me something else. Shortly thereafter, she held out her hand and I did the same for her. This was the first time I had tried this game with Kaiyah, and she's the one who instigated it. I tried something similar with Zeke when he was about Kaiyah's age, and he said, "But there's nothing there." He has also always felt a need to clarify whether things are real or pretend, whereas Kaiyah, pretends that everything is real. It's really funny.

Ah, the differences in children…

Zeke's speaking Turkish!!!

Well, a little. We picked Zeke up at preschool the other day and his teacher said, quite excitedly, "Zeke said 'Hayır' today!" Then, today, when we went to get him, she said, "He's not just saying 'Hayır' anymore. Today he said 'Yapma'!" "Hayır" means "no" and "yapma" means "don't do that." Well, it's a start. (-:

All the happenings . . .

Zeke just completed his first week of preschool! Friday was a little tough, but in general he did incredible, far better then I ever expected. I'm so thankful! So far we have been very pleased with how the school manages everything. Zeke's favorite things about school thus far are getting to play computer games and getting fruit tea for breakfast!

Even with all this growing up he is still my little boy. Periodically he will come up to me and say, "Can you cuddle me mommy, since I haven't had much cuddle time today?" Such a sweetie.

I wasn't sure how Kaiyah would respond to Zeke being gone so much, but I think she is enjoying getting to rule the house a few hours every day! There is also a big park right by Zeke's school, so she has enjoyed getting to play there a few times this week.

I love listening to Kaiyah talk. It is sometimes hard to pass on the cute little things they say and do at this age. An example is this: "Kaiyah shewwee not, mommy." or "Want to play hide and seek not, want to play beach ball." When she answers a question affirmatively, she often says, "Uh huh. Oh yea!" And the other day we were playing brown bear, brown bear. At the end of the game Kaiyah told me to ask her "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?" She responded, "I see mommy's blue eyes looking at me!" Ha.

Sierra is 3 months old today! She can roll both directions, but more typical is for her to roll from back to front and then squeal until someone flips her over. Then she promptly rolls over again, and so the cycle continues. She is still a pretty easy, laid back baby. She goes to bed between 7 and 8 at night and wakes up between 7 and 8 the next morning. We'll take that! It is fun to watch as she starts to observe her brother and sister. She'll be in on the fun before we know it!

Rolling Over Now!!!

Alright, enough of the smiles. (See the video below.) Sierra's rolling over now! She learns something new every day!

Sierra in the morning...

This is a video from the last day of vacation. There will probably be more later. Sierra likes to give her Daddy smiles in the morning...

Amazing Memory

Today I was walking down the street with Zeke when we passed a hotel. Zeke asked, "What is that?" I said, "It's a hotel." Zeke said, "We lived in a hotel once. It had fish in the bottom." How in the world did he remember that? He was 13 months old!

Later this evening we were reading out of his Berenstain Bears' science book. It has probably been at least a month since we've read it. I was flipping through to see where we had left off. Zeke said, "Can we finish that part we didn't finish last time about energy?" I looked and that was exactly where we had left off. His memory really amazes me these days.

The blanket saga is over. . . maybe...

For those of you who have been keeping up with Zeke's blanket, it is gone now and the saga is over. Here's the video:


Yeah, he does have a replacement, though, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks, Holly for the new "blanket".

Hands...

This morning, Zeke and I were talking and I told him that his hands were getting big. He said, "Yeah, but they're not as big as yours yet." I said, "No, they're not. That would be silly." He said, "Why?" So I decided to show him.

He thought it was silly.

Sierra is 2 months old and other fun things. . .

Today, Sierra turned 2 months old! To celebrate, we headed to the doctor for 2 shots and some kind of oral vaccination! So far, we have a long, lean girl on our hands. She was a little over 12 lbs. and 62 cm. long. She is grinning and cooing, and becoming lots of fun!

On a different note, I decided halfheartedly to give potty training another try yesterday. I didn't expect it to be very successful, but Kaiyah has done GREAT! We've had a couple of busy days, so she has mostly just run around naked in the mornings, but both mornings she has gone several times on her little potty! We're so proud!

And for a Zeke story: today at lunch Zeke asked me, "Would you rather I die before you do or at the same time as you?" What in the world??? Dan asked him where he comes up with this stuff. Zeke replied, "Not from anywhere, I just make it up in my head."

Day at the water park...

My friend and I decided to take our 5 kids, ages 5 and under, for a day at the water park. (Sierra stayed home with Dan.) There is a free service from the mall near our house out to the park so we showed up about 8:50 to head to the park! Now, we ended up having to wait awhile for the service bus to actually leave, and then there were a few adventures on the way, so by the time our non-air conditioned van pulled up to the water park we were READY to jump in that water! We had a blast. Zeke was all over the pool, went down the "big" slide, swam under the water . . . Kaiyah loved going down some of the smaller slides and jump, jump, jumped! We got to see a fun dolphin show, although the sea lion apparently wasn't feeling like preforming because they brought him out for a few minutes, tried to get him to cooperate, and then quickly took him back in and called the show done. We swam some more and then at 6 PM climbed back on another hot van for the ride home! Both kids were sound asleep as we were pulling out of the parking lot! I didn't take a lot of pictures since there were just two of us moms keeping up with five little kiddos, but here are a couple that I did take:

Click here to see a few more:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267179&id=505342570&l=3e00b4656b

Say Cheese

Here is Sierra's first smile captured with the camera . . .

Yay Sierra!

Sierra slept through the night for the first time last night! 5 weeks old. Yea Sierra!!! Have we mentioned how much we love this little girl??? Have we mentioned what a precious, easy baby she is??? Dan got up to make sure she was still breathing around 3:00 AM. She was. She ate around 7:30 PM and then went all the way until 5:45 AM. Kaiyah probably had something to do with her waking up then, since they now are sharing a room. Let's hope she keeps this up! She is smiling a lot now. Hopefully we'll catch that in picture form sometime soon!

Zeke Dances

Today after church Dan, Renee and Zeke went to Starbucks for a drink. Zeke started dancing to the music . . .

Recently overheard . . .

Kaiyah trying to take the basketball away from Zeke: "Mine!"

Zeke: "No mine!"

Kaiyah: "Mine!"

Zeke: "We share it, that's the rules of Jesus!"

promptly followed by . . . "Mine!"

Zeke and Kaiyah Watching TV...

Tami got this video the other day of Zeke and Kaiyah watching TV together. He loves his sister!

Beside lying in the floor, they also like to sit on the arm of the couch.

Zeke's Blanket....

Well, it's been over two years since we divided Dan's former blanket into two for him and Zeke. If you don't remember, you can read about that if you click here.

Since then, we lost Zeke's little one and Dan got his own king size knit blanket, so Zeke inherited Dan's portion of the big blanket. And two years later, Zeke is just as attached to it, but we don't usually take it out with us anymore. Zeke says he will get rid of his blanket at some point, but not yet. We don't think he'll have a choice before too much longer. The blanket is in a lot worse shape than it once was, and Zeke likes to pull on its strings, so that doesn't help either. Anyway, here's a picture of all the strings Dan cut off of it today. That's Zeke in the background, lying on his blanket and sucking his thumb.

Happy Birthday, Kaiyah!

Kaiyah's birthday was this past Saturday and we had a lot of fun celebrating. We had doughnuts in bed from Krispy Kreme, Tami made a beautiful Boots cake, and we had lots of friends come over and celebrate with us. Fun stuff! Here are a few pictures. For more, click here.

Yogurt Caper...

Well, we have been a week or so in our house without yogurt, so today, while at the grocery store, Kaiyah and Zeke each picked out some that they wanted. After dinner, Tami and I were in the living room playing with the kids and Kaiyah disappeared for a few minutes. She came back later with a spoon, a yogurt cup, and yogurt all over her. She couldn't wait until breakfast. She was trying to get into the cup she was holding and upon entering the kitchen, I found that she had already eaten three more. She had gotten all the yogurt we bought out of the fridge and had eaten three of the kind she picked out. After I took a few pictures, I put the yogurt safely in the butter tray in the upper part of the refrigerator, so all should be safe for now. (-:

Easter Morning...

Well, we have some interesting kids. Our 3 1/2 year old boy loves to dress up, but he doesn't like anyone to see him until he's ready. Our almost 2 year old girl HATES to dress up. She was okay once we got her in the dress, though. Enjoy this video. We'll get some pictures on the family blog a little later.

Kaiyah Has a Cold...

Kaiyah learned how to blow her nose when she got a cold this year. It was pretty cute.

Quote from Zeke...

Dan: "Hello, Zeke."

Zeke: "Daddy..."

Dan: "Yes?"

Zeke: "Um, you call me buddy."

Zeke and Kaiyah Singing...

Zeke and Kaiyah are really playing together a lot these days and it's really really fun. Here is a video of them singing together. Enjoy.

There's an Artist Among Us...

Well, last blog today. There are two others below this one, so don't miss those!

Zeke produced his first people drawing yesterday. He went from random shapes and squiggles to piecing something together that looked somewhat human. Tami and I were very impressed. Here it is:

In the picture, we have Daddy, Mommy, Zeke, Kaiyah, and Sierra. Cool stuff.

Not Quite All Girl...

So, Kaiyah doesn't appreciate dresses AT ALL. We thought when she was crawling that it was because they got in her way, but she's been walking for a long time now, and her opinion of them still hasn't changed. Looks like we might have a little tom boy on our hands. Tami promised her that soon she'll have a little sister to wear dresses with her. (-:

I just wanted to throw this picture in, too, because it was cute. She loves Chapstick.Look below for a short blog about Zeke...

All Boy...

So, I came home the other day and Tami and the kids had been outside to play. I came in the kitchen and saw this on the counter:

I asked Zeke if he found some rocks outside. He said, "Yes. I got them from outside and put them on the kitchen cabinet for decoration to look pretty 'cause I thought you guys would like them. That's why I got them." He's funny.

"Zeke and Mommy time"

In our 4 day attempt at potty training Kaiyah (a whole other story in and of itself), Zeke was starting to feel a little neglected. Yesterday I promised him that we would have some special Zeke and Mommy time today. This morning, Zeke requested a trip to "Starboks" to eat lemon cheesecake for his special date! The kid has good taste, what can I say! So, I told him to run get dressed and handsome. He came back a few minutes later wondering what kind of clothes I usually wear when I go on a date with Dan. Too precious. He ran and quickly picked out a pair of khaki pants and a shirt that he proclaimed would be handsome for our date! He was so excited! Several times on our way to Starbucks and while we were there he told me how much he like having Zeke and Mommy time. I'm thinking we will have to be sure and do it more often.Getting ready to leave. Kaiyah wasn't so crazy about the plan, but ended up having a great time with Daddy!Yummy cheesecake and Carmel hot chocolate!
After we ate we headed over to do our work stuff. Zeke started complaining that his belly hurt. Who's wouldn't after eating cheesecake at 9:00 AM. This is him relaxing, trying to help his belly. Unfortunately it continued to hurt all through the day and I put him to bed an hour early running a temperature. Hopefully this won't be characteristic of all "Zeke and Mommy" times!

Valentine's Day is Coming!

The kids worked hard today to get their valentine cards made!

Fun with Daddy

Today is a gorgeous day that is apparently going to be sandwiched in the middle of some not-so-nice days. The past few days have been rainy and tomorrow it is supposed to turn cold again. So, while I was off at a friend's home, Dan and the kids took advantage of the weather and headed outside for their favorite activities: feeding the birds, play in the park, and buying a special snack (no wonder kids love their dads). These first couple of pictures are of Zeke talking to the birds, "Don't run away birds!" He's a funny one!

And here is one of Kaiyah just because she's cute!

Fun kids

Today I realized that Kaiyah is the age that Zeke was when Kaiyah was born. Wow! I think I'm grateful that we still have another 5 months or so before little girl #2 gets here. That said, I LOVE having my kids close in age. I know a lot of people think we are crazy, especially over here where it is a very uncommon thing to do, but it's just so fun to see that best-friend friendship develop between our kids. They are close enough in age that they find the same things funny, they like to play with the same toys, they love dancing together and singing together. It's just been a fun thing the last several months to watch as they have really started interacting with and enjoying one another! Here are a few pictures from the last month:

We've been playing a lot of legos lately . . .

and a lot of baby dolls . . .