Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

On Friday 22nd, after several reroutes and airline changes, we finally got to South Carolina to spend the holidays with Jessica's family. Today 12/27, around 2am our luggage finally showed up. We recognize that far worse things happened to other people around holidays, but just wanted to thank those of you who prayed that our luggage would be found. Also thanks to Pawpaw for contributing to the Clean Underwear Fund.

We recently experienced one of our scariest moments with Kaiya thus far. I thought the bee sting at 13 months was bad, but that was nothing. Andrej, Kaiya and I were playing in the kitchen floor while our chicken casserole was in its last few minutes of baking before dinner. Kaiya was signing hungry over and over, so to keep her from starving I went ahead and gave her a sippy cup of milk.

She was running around the kitchen and diving in Andrej’s arms. On one of her rounds she accidentally tripped over my foot and fell abruptly into Andrej. She immediately started screaming the infamous toddler scream with a wide open mouth that is silent for a few seconds before the wail comes. Andrej and I looked at each other confused because she really hadn’t hit anything hard. She didn’t hit the tile floor, just Andrej’s leg. On her second open-mouth-silent-before-the-wail cry, I caught a glimpse of blood. I jumped up from the floor and told Andrej that I thought she had bitten her tongue because there was blood. (Read more …)

Last year, Kaiya turned 5 months old the day after Christmas and as excited as I was for her to experience such a special holiday, it was essentially like any other day. She was still taking frequent naps so we had to rush and fit meals and gift giving into her schedule. She did like the lights on the tree and this crazy piano playing-singing snowman that my mom had on display, but other than that she didn’t show much interest in the festivities.

(Read more …)