A weekend on our own

(The pictures: yesterdays' rainy day fingerpainting project soon turned into a body painting project for Kai. He cannot help himself.)
Well, we survived three days and nights without Nate. Kai really missed having his dad around to play games with. Nina kept pointing out pictures of Nate on books or on the wall and saying "Dad!" I'm mom, Nate's dad for Nina. No mommy or daddy. I enjoyed managing the two on my own, it was about time I figured out the bedtime process by myself, and it went smoothly. We went to the zoo two days in a row, once with Mili and Arjun, once with Zane and his mom, Shaun. Kai and Zane are still in love. They just ran, ran, ran for the two hours we were there; Nina did her best to keep up. Kai is still completely uninterested in the animals. Nina loves them.
Kai keeps saying, "I want to marry a boy." He's obsessed with it. I tell him he can, but he has 25 years to make his decision. I wonder what they read or discussed in school to bring that up.
Nina cannot stop herself from biting (broke the skin on my shoulder the other day), pulling Kai's hair, and pinching Kai. Not sure what that's all about, but Kai is so gentle with her, doesn't retaliate at all. Yesterday I swiped Nina up for a timeout in her crib after I saw her get a handful of Kai's hair. He said, "That didn't hurt mommy. It's OK, Nina. I'm not hurt. Look, mom, she just did this!" He felt really bad for Nina.
Shaun was concerned that Zane's love for Kai wasn't reciprical. Apparently Zane is as obsessed with Kai as Kai is with Zane, and one day recently at bedtime he said, "I love Kai. I'm going to dream about him tonight."
Kai continues to love Shel Silverstein. (Teacher says he's reading at the 5th-6th grade level). He continues to love school, Zane, riding his bike, playing on the computer (ugh), Cars, card games with Nate, whenever music is on he still begs me to "Pick me up. Spin around!" This is getting harder and harder but I'll gladly throw out my back for a chance to do this. Pooping on the potty is going GREAT, he wears underwear to bed, has never been wet in the past week, no more pullups (although when I congratulated him on this yesterday he thought for a minute then said, "I'm going to wear pullups in February.") The other day we listened to a funny song and after he said, "Tibo's going to like this one!"
Nina...has 14 teeth, a mouthful of big ones. She hilariously mimics any picture of a kid in a book, the expression on their face, the way they hold their hands. Is starting to demand music in the car ("Nooooooooo!" when it's a song or news she doesn't like.) Is at the precious age where she'll repeat anything and everything. Likes TV. Looooooooves to go out on the lanai. Loves to play in the car. Loves to run away from me.

Kai's fourth, Nina's first trip to Naples

Nina couldn't stop lovin' up on Cole and Spencer; Nina loved the beach; Kai said he's never going to the beach in Florida ever again (brrrrrrr); the older cousins were so sweet and patient with the younger ones; Kai wants to emulate Cole and Cole taught Kai how to draw stick figures. Tonight Kai said, "I wonder if Cole is working on those chords...like the D7?" (Nate taught Cole some new chords for the guitar in Florida...who knew Kai noticed.)
Happy New Year!

Lately, I've dropped Kai off late, and the kids are outside. Kai is shy...bites his coat sleeve...hides behind my leg...but it doesn't take much time until he ventures out from behind me, cautiously joins a group, tries to join in the play, tries to start up a conversation. I went inside the building today and observed for awhile, but I couldn't take the suspense. I was so afraid of rejection.
Had his first playdate with Zane today. Zane's younger sister, Lilly, is 14 mo. Zane and Kai are IN LOVE. Zane is the coolest little kid. As we were leaving today, he peeked his head into the kitchen and said, "Bye Raquel, thank you for serving such a delicious lunch!" This kid is Kai's age + 4 days! He's a sensitive one. As soon as we got to his house he dressed up in his peter pan costume. Kai was way more interested in the baby toys (a bit weird - I think it's because he likes toys that make noise and have lights) than Zane's Star Wars collection.
Nina today didn't want to get into her car seat so she grabbed my bangs and yanked them as hard as she could. This little one has an attitude.

this year and last

Holiday spirit

Pictures: family in front of the Capitol's Christmas Tree; Nina in my favorite outfit; Kai typing up the Gingerbread Cookie recipe from Jan Brett's book to email to Nana; Kai being his preschool-silly self; and yesterday's Nina-nap-Kai-and-mommy-art projects.

We're back

New camera to replace the one I broke.
Highlights of the past few weeks: Kai has a best buddy at school, a really sweet kid named Zane. The other day Zane's dad told me that Zane cried and cried when he and Kai couldn't play outside after school because his dad picked him up late and we had already left. Zane is the kid that cries every afternoon waiting for his dad to come. He's sweet, fragile, yet rambunctious like Kai.
Nina's a stinker. Runs away from me every time I try to get her diapered or dressed, unless Kai sings abc's to her. She gets MAD. We're on night four of nightweaning her and it's getting easier but she'll scream for a few hours. She has lots of words - one of her first was bike. Bath, nurse, dog, banana, apple, cheese were also among the first. Still doesn't have Kai down, isn't calling him "ba" anymore either. Doesn't have the "k" sound mastered.
I realized recently that I'm no longer worried about Kai's physical actions toward Nina. We went through that rough patch in WI in November when he seemed to be trying to hurt her. No longer. He's very sweet. She, however, bites when she's mad and has broken his skin twice.
The long dark nights suck. We have a routine now though, Kai goes out on his bike and Nina in stroller or wagon (thanks, Fud!) nightly before dusk. Kai wears a little reflector vest and just tears up the pavement on those training wheels. If we stop and Kai hops off, Nina runs to his bike and puts on his helmet. And this city is beautiful. We take frequent drives to see xmas lights; when Nina sees any lights she says "Woooooooooooow!"
Just a quick clip of the kids in the tub. You can hear at the end the whiny voice Kai has picked up from preschool friends. You can see how Nina watches everything Kai does, and tries to take everything he has!

Can't stop thinking about this

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/fashion/06genb.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=lonely%20on%20the%20street&st=cse

Makes my heart hurt.

(If link doesn't work, go to nytimes.com and search "lonely on the street where we live"