shortcake

Yep, it was 90* F IN MY HOUSE last night at 8 PM.  And yep, I decided that switching the oven to 450* would be a good idea.

I had a lot of strawberries to use up, after all.

Yes, it made my my house much, much hotter.  But with the cool whipped cream, and sweetened strawberries, I'd say it was worth it!

I probably ought to have a second helping right now. . .

changes

It is about 90* F in my (non-air conditioned) house right now, so there's really nothing better to do than sit under a fan and blog. Plus, I just wanted to jot this little story down so I always remember it - and the date.  Nothing big, just something that will make me smile.

I'm pretty sure that Kyalo's been switched with a look-a-like.  Because suddenly, this kid loves to sleep!  He slept an hour in the morning, and then two hours this afternoon.  Tonight, after his bath, I was nursing him and he finished.  When I offered more, he rigorously shook his head "NO!"  He may not be talking yet (and oh, how I wish he would!) but he's figuring other ways to communicate.  But the biggest, most remarkable change is that he walked down the hall blowing kisses (which is basically him smacking his hand and making a clicking sound) into his room.  So, I scooped him up, sang him a song, put him in his crib, kissing him, and his trusty giraffe Zero, goodnight, and walked out of the room.

Haven't heard a peep since.

And when I went to check on him (and open the door so that he'd get a little air on this blistering hot night) he had his arm wrapped around Zero. Be still my heart.

I guess Kyalo really does like to do things on his terms, and baby books and guidelines be damned!

Sleep, or no, we love him.  But I sure do like this new phase!

strawberry pickin'

Now that Dexter's crazy, non-stop, all-hours-of-the-day-and-even-weekends-too schedule is slowing down we can start exploring the area in which we live.  New Jersey is called "The Garden State" and grows a lot of produce.  We're coming into peak time for things like the Jersey tomato and Jersey Corn. I can. not. wait. for the corn.  Just a few more weeks.

I digress.

This weekend, Dexter's first non-school weekend in forever, we decided we needed a little break from Belleville, and went to a small farm in northern New Jersey for strawberry picking. I think we just made it, too, as the season is really winding down.  It was really great...I'd never been strawberry picking before, and didn't realize how delicate strawberries are.  Or how much work it is!  Kyalo enjoyed being on the farm, too, though to be honest I think he would have been quite happy in the pebble parking lot. 

First we visited with the Nubian goat.

mmmm. nyama choma!

Then we got to picking!

Kyalo didn't read the "no sampling" sign

 

I love this photo so much I even edited it a bit. . .

This was a nice outing for us, and a nice way to spend Father's Day.  I had read on the farm's website that they offer milkshakes and burgers on weekends, but the cook was off celebrating Father's Day himself.

So we celebrated with burgers and Dexter's VERY FIRST Dairy Queen Blizzard.

Do I know how to treat my man, or what?

And tonight, we'll have strawberry shortcake.

we made it!

OK, so it is a little premature to say "we made it" when, in some ways, school hasn't even started yet for Dexter, and technically, the three month "catch-up" program isn't over yet, either. Still, I say we made it because on Friday, Dexter had his last exam, and after a week of orientation this coming week will begin to see patients!  My hope is that this means he'll have a more manageable schedule and won't be so stressed.

It has been hard, adjusting to life in the US, to Dexter's crazy schedule, to the work load for him. We have hardly had a moment to mourn the loss of Kenya before jumping feet first into this new adventure.  Pray for us!

Still, it already feels like it is going fast, and that we're getting the hang of things, more or less.

To celebrate, I made a grown-up version of his favorite cookie, a zucchini cookie.  The original version is just zucchini and raisins, and has never been a favorite of mine. No chocolate. What?  This version seemed like a nice compromise with chocolate chips AND raisins and walnuts and coconut.  I'll refrain from mentioning just how many I ate.

Here's a fun story.  Last month, we received a card addressed to "The Mulandi Family" typed, and no return address. In the card was a gift certificate to Trader Joe's, but with nothing more than a smiley face for a signature!  And then this month we got another mystery card - this time for a local diner.  So on Saturday, we went out to breakfast!  Which was awesome, except that Kyalo does NOT SIT STILL and we had to take turns walking him around the diner.  Still, the coffee was unlimited, and the dishes and mopping of the floor were done by someone else, so I'm not complaining!  And if you are the one sending us a little bit o' love...THANK YOU.

So, it was a good start to a great weekend.

14 months

This has been a busy, busy month for us.  To recap a few things:  a visit to MA, a visit with Evelyn, a trip to NYC to see the Yezerskis, a visit from my Aunt Ellen as well as a visit from my parents, another visit to NYC {I love living here!}. . .  and more.  In the midst of all of this busyness there has been school, school, and more school for Dexter, with a lot of exams and stress and long hours.  We're coming to the end of this very intense time, for which we will all be grateful. 

Kyalo had a couple of major developments while home.  The biggest is that he's now a walking man!  On the week of his 13th month, he started taking a few timid steps, and by the following week he was walking all around my parents' house. He now walks more than crawls and his energy level has only increased! {Mine has not}. 

He loves brushing all two of his teeth.  He's constantly pointing to his toothbrush to ask for it. Once I give it to him, he will happily march around the house "brushing" his teeth.

One day last week, when worn out from chasing him around all day, I was relaxing on the couch, and told him to go get his Peek-a-boo book. Nothing. Then I started saying lines from the book and he started laughing, and marched off to our bookshelf and came back with the right book!  I was so surprised and impressed. 

Obviously, he's a genius.

But the biggest, and most wonderful development, just from the past two weeks, is that he is suddenly sleeping better and more!  It is like he just decided that two naps a day sounded like a good idea. I think Bo might have a little heart-to-heart with him when we were together in NYC, as he is a champion sleeper.  You might remember that I had a bit of a rant about sleep back in January.  To be honest, things got better, then they got much, much worse. When home in May, my mom said she thought I should give up trying to get a morning nap in because it just didn't seem like it was going to happen.  I was in agreement with her, but when back in NJ, one day it just seemed like he was tired so I put him in his crib and he went to sleep -- without nursing, without crying.  And he did it again in the afternoon.  He's a changed man! I can get things done.  Now, when he sleeps less than 45 minutes, I'm sad.  My how things have changed - just two or three weeks ago, I would have been thrilled to get that.  He is still not sleeping through the night (!!!) but I guess he'll just decide to do that when he's ready. I just hope it is soon.

As usual, we took some pictures this morning. 

 love

 there are the teeth!

You will see in the above photos that Kyalo's hair is OUT OF CONTROL.  I said to Dexter, "I think we need to get it trimmed a bit." Which he did not like, and said we just need to condition and comb it. He decided to do it right then. He combed, and he washed, and conditioned, and combed some more. He even put in some of my Moroccan hair oil.  Here was the finished product:

 better, yes?

For the record, I still think it should be trimmed. . .

Also during the photo shoot this morning, he had these little stacking jars with him, and he was so focused on them, so I snapped away.  

I haven't found a pediatrician {that's a goal for June!} so I don't know any new stats for him. I do miss being able to walk down the road to Kiajbe Hospital and begging the nurses to find a measuring tape! 

I wanted to include some video here, but got an error message. I will see what I can figure out and try to get video up another day. 

Oh my, this is long. But since this serves as my journal/keepsake for Kyalo, I wanted to get all the big things in here.  Probably, I'll hit publish and think of other things I wanted to include; that would be typical.  He is sleeping now, so I'm going to get some ice cream and then go to bed!

catch up

I feel like I've let this little blog slide, and I know I'll regret not using it as much as possible.  I don't always have big things to talk about here, so it can be hard to stay motivated.  Today's post is going to be mostly photos of random things from the past month.  Tomorrow Kyalo turns 14 months, and so I'll take his pictures and give you a full rundown of his big changes.

In the meantime. . .

This is a walker that Grandma sent to him.  He has a love/hate relationship with it, because it can get stuck and can be frustrating for him. (That then produces high pitched screaming which puts me over the edge. I got a video of it, but am refraining from posting. Trust me, this is a good decision). This was a weekend morning a week or so ago, and as you can see he was having a good time.  He loves to zoom around in it. 

When my parents came last weekend, they brought a couple of things that didn't make it on the move down here, including a little bucket chair that we plopped in front of one of the bay windows. Kyalo loves it because he can climb it and then look out the window.  This can fill quite a bit of his time...looking and pointing and waving at. . . nothing? I'm sure he's seeing things I just can't see.

And then, my favorite photos {possibly to date}, that I snapped this morning.  Another gift from Grandma, this little Nike outfit is too cute not to capture.  Forgive the multiple photos - he has cute expressions in each  I couldn't decide.

June 2, 2012
I have no words.

 *thumbs up*

We love him.

Thanks, Grandma, for keeping Kyalo in clothes and toys.

pansies

When we moved into our apartment here in March, my mom brought some pansies to plant in the boxes on our side of the front porch.  They added a little spot of cheer to "our" property, especially since when we came it was still cool and rainy on occasion. I am not the world's greenest of thumbs, and I generally forget to water the plants {this might be why a vegetable garden is a bad idea.}  but I was trying with these guys. There was just one problem.

Kyalo.loves.dirt.

One day - back in April! - I was chatting with one of our neighbors while Kyalo was happily digging up the dirt.  Which also meant eating fistfuls of it.

But that wasn't quite close enough for him.  He needed to really get into it.

 

He is ever so pleased with himself.  Do you see the dirt ring around his mouth?  This is a regular occurrence. 

Here's what the pansies looked like after he visited.

Never fear! While we were gone Manny took care of them and they are looking quite fine these days.

I'm also having a hard time remembering needing to be as bundled up as Kyalo is in these pictures since it is 87* in our house at 9 PM tonight. Ugh. And it is just the beginning!