Happy Father's Day

 

Father's Day was a fun day to do little things to make Daddy feel special.  This morning, when we arrived at church, Karis had her handmade card in hand.  She ran from the car to the church patio waving it and calling for daddy.  She was so excited, as always, to see him.

When he came home from church, we gave him a couple of small gifts and a fresh fruit tart -- one of his favorites.

Makena was napping when Daddy came home or else she would also be pictured here helping herself to the fruit.  

Makena at 15 Months

How do I describe Makena at this stage in her life?  There are so many things that come to mind.  She is loud and determined.  She is sweet and giggly.  She is growing up fast both in size and learning new things.

She uses a handful of words to communicate to us.  You would think I love hearing her say, "Mama" the most, but when she says that word, she's usually yelling at me as I'm leaving her with strangers or when she's attacking me at the front door and I can barely make it through the threshold.  My favorite word that she says, by far, is "Amen."  When we pray, she puts her hands together and when we're done, she'll say her own little, "Amen."  I love it. 

This little girl knows what she wants.  She is loud to express it.  She doesn't take "no" for an answer.  She'll cry, stomp her feet and walk away.  Yes, you heard it here first.  My 15-month old is already throwing tantrums.  I don't know if it's because of her strong-willed personality or because Karis has just started throwing tantrums and Makena is a quick learner.   The other day, Karis was protesting a nap.  As we had our little power struggle, Karis was crying and yelling and crying.  Makena sat next to me and did her own loud crying/yelling.  At what?  I have no idea and it sure wasn't helping my situation with Karis. Perhaps Makena just wanted some attention too.

Makena tries to do everything Karis does from climbing the same thing on the playground to rubbing her hands together while she watches Karis use antibacterial gel.  She loves it when Karis plays with her, but Karis has to be the mood (which she often isn't).  If Derek and I take away something from Makena, she'll often protest.  But if she sees Karis coming, she'll quickly drop the toy or whatever item she's holding onto the ground.  She knows not to mess with her big sis!   I think it's interesting how she never tries to play with Fluffy.  If anything, she'll pick up Fluffy and bring it straight to Karis.  

I love how Makena can understand simple commands like, "put that back," "bring it here," and "put the diaper in the trash can." She is still really clingy to me and doesn't like meeting strangers.  She naps great during the day and has started to transition to only one nap.  All of her teeth are in or at least have started to come in.  She still takes one bottle in the morning and one at night.  She loves to climb onto furniture.  She's super ticklish.  

It's been fun watching her grow up and seeing her personality develop.  It's also been a learning experience to know how to appreciate and work with each child's uniqueness.  I would hope that with each child, parenting would get easier, but I have quickly learned that kids don't follow a text book.  What works for one doesn't always work for the other, and we can't expect our second child to do what our first child did.   

some things Derek has noticed about Karis

Karis has a pretty solid memory. She really likes frozen yogurt sticks (or "co yo" as she says it). She asks for it several times a day. Sometimes she even asks before breakfast. I do my best to stall her until after her lunch or afternoon nap. This past Wednesday I was watching both girls while Lena worked. I started replying to Karis' early morning inquiries for "co yo" by stating, "You can have cold yogurt after your nap." She took a pretty long nap. While she typically awakes quickly and is standing up in her crib jumping, this day she slowly tossed around within the crib. As I entered her room she didn't pop up but rather rubbed her eyes, put on a gentle smiled and whispered "co yo?"

She is stretching her independent muscles. Most of the time it is in defiance of her mother or me. But, also on Wednesday, she stretched that muscle to make my life easier. She shouted her regular "pee pee!" command so I started to follow her upstairs to her bathroom to be available to help with the post-pee cleanup. But as she is running down the hallways towards the bathroom door she points at me and yells "downstairs Daddy... sissy!" Bless her heart. She wanted me to stay downstairs with Makena so I could feed her sister. I'll take that independence regularly.

Karis has a sense of humor. She loves blowing bubbles... not only the bubbles in jar with the wand bubbles but also bubbles in her milk, juice or water glass. She was running low on milk and was blowing bubbles in it. She agreed that she wanted more milk. I told her she needed to stop blowing bubbles if she wanted more. She stopped and I took her cup for a refill. Upon my return, I changed my tune realizing that she's just a kid and blowing bubbles is fun (see, I'm learning). I say to her, "Karis, blow bubbles." She replies with furrowed brow and deeper voice, "Daddy NO bubbles!" Then she smiled big and said, "Bubbles!" And then she blew lots of big bubbles.

Zerberts

I don't think I knew what a zerbert (aka raspberry) was until Karis was born.  Aunt Nysha always asked us to give Karis a zerbert for her.

Karis has grown up getting them.  Makena now receives them too.  She especially loves them.  She's always lifting up her shirt for one.  Not only that, she likes to give them too!

Because of zerberts, there's a whole lot of nakedness going on in our house.  The girls love to run around with very little clothes.  For some reason, when their clothes come off their hearing goes as well.  "Come back here and put your shirt on!!"

Today's Pics

A sweet Sunday afternoon

Today's Pics

Today Karis flew a kite for the first time.

We have a Winnie the Pooh book that shows Christopher flying a kite.  For awhile now, we've been talking about getting a kite so Karis can fly one too.  The other day, we saw a family flying a kite at the park.  Karis was so excited to see it.  She ran out into the field directly under the kite and started jumping up and down in excitement.

So today I took the girls to Toys R Us and we bought a kite.  We then went to Derek's office to show Daddy the kite.  We asked him to come home early from work so that we could fly it.  He of course obliged.

 

Over the river and through the desert, to Grandmother's house we go!

We spent Mother's Day weekend at Grandma's house.  The kids loved spending time with their Nana and her dog Riley.

It was hot!  Karis played in the inflatable pool while Makena was entertained by drinking from a water bottle.

After dinner from the grill, the girls got special treats from Nana.

After church on Sunday, I found Karis, fully clothed, in the pool.  I asked her what happened and she said, "Nana got me wet!"  Busted!

Makena was either going through a growth spurt or the hot Arizona heat got to her.  She slept 13 to 15 hours at night (she typically sleeps 11 to 12 hours) and that was even with a 4-hour nap.

Grandma and Karis played golf in the backyard -- one of the many little toys Grandma bought for the girls.

Karis took a break from golf to play with Nana's phone.

Hungry Bird eating breakfast with Nana.

One of Karis' favorite things to do was to take Riley for a walk and give her treats.

Karis did great on the seven hour car ride to and from Surprise.  A couple of electronic toys, the iPod, snacks and an hour nap kept her content.  

Makena on the other hand was a different story.  She doesn't like "long" (more than 20 minutes) car rides, plus she's cutting in several new teeth.  She slept only 20 minutes on the way there (at the very end) and about 40 mins on the way back.  The rest of time, she whimpered and cried on and off.  

On the way back, Karis said she had to go pee-pee.  We were in the middle of the desert with no exit in sight, so we pulled over on the side of the highway and took out the portable potty.  Derek and I were frustrated because she didn't have to go, yet she insisted that she did.  We wanted to get her back in the car, not only because it was dangerous to be on the side of the freeway, but because we wanted to hurry up and get back home.  But, little Miss Karis was oblivious to it all and she took her time as she enjoyed the scenery.  Ahh, to be a kid again...

Our Little Princess

Karis went to her first princess party today.  She doesn't know what a princess is, as she has never seen one of the Disney princesses, but she sure loved wearing her pretty dress.  

At the party, she received a tiara and a wand. She made a necklace and played a party game.  She dined with her friends, sang "Happy Birthday," and enjoyed a pink cupcake.  

Praying before the meal

At one point, she was more interested in the basketball hoop than in the festivities.  

Me and my princess

Our Easter Weekend

To start our Easter weekend, Derek, Karis and I decorated a few eggs on Saturday morning.  When Makena woke up from her morning nap, the girls did their first Easter egg hunt (last Easter, Makena was just born and we didn't do anything for Easter).  

Makena didn't really get what was going on.  I helped her find two eggs and Karis rapidly swept up the rest.  She even snatched one out of Makena's basket.  Rude.  

A serious egg finder:

Discovering what was inside the eggs (either Capt'n Crunch cereal, jelly beans or M&Ms):

Karis popped open those eggs so fast we could only hold her back from eating three of them.  She's never been given so much sugar before!

The girls also found two singing Easter bunnies that Nana had brought with her on her last visit.  The girls loved watching them sing and move.

Dressed up and ready to go to church on Sunday morning:

For our church Easter celebration, we had egg hunts, cookie decorating, bounce houses, shaved ice, and photo booths.  Despite the rain at one point, we had a great time enjoying the day with our church family.

Makena in her Easter outfit:

Derek had the following Monday and Tuesday off.  It was great to have family time together since Derek was at church for most of the day on Sunday.  On Monday morning, Derek and Karis went on their first hike together.  They had a great time and I'm sure there will be more hikes in the future.

In the evening, we went to my sister's for our Easter dinner together (Derek was too pooped on Sunday night so we postponed it one day).  Julie always makes a great meal and Karis loves to play with her cousins.  I love how they look out for her and play with her.

On Tuesday, we took the kids to the petting zoo.  Makena loved feeding the animals.  She used to try to eat the lettuce and carrots, but this time she gave it to the animals and enjoyed watching them.

 

Karis giving a thumbs up to the little train ride:

Three-week old goats!

It was quiet at the zoo so Karis got a lot of attention from the goats.  Their aggressiveness was a little too much for her!

After dinner we went to Dairy Queen and Karis got her first ice cream cone.  She enjoyed every bit of it!  We walked around afterwards and enjoyed the warm evening.  Karis was a bit out of sorts from a poor nap and a massive sugar high.  She was so upset that we were going home (yet she wanted to go home to get Fluffy).  To avoid a major meltdown, I told her I would take her to Trader Joe's since I needed to pick up a couple things anyways.  I thought that would make her happy, but she was then upset that Daddy and sister weren't going. I guess she was really enjoying the family time!  We all made a trip to Trader Joe's and then it was time for bed!