Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya, Tobi, Eli and Jakob

When I finished Tobi’s 8 month post, I thought that there wouldn’t be a need for a nine month post. How much could change in one month that would be blog worthy? Well, I had forgotten that these months leading up to the first birthday are jam packed with developmental leaps.  (Read more …)

I’m not sure what I find funnier in this video:

1. Kaiya’s self-styled ’80s Olympic runner hair style
2. The fact that she calls her Mr. Potato Head, “Tomato Head”. (This is even funnier due to the fact that her father also frequently calls potatoes tomatoes and tomatoes potatoes)
3. Her placement of Tomato Head’s body parts.

All three had both Andrej and I in tears from laughing so hard at our silly girl. She does have a cold so you’ll have to ignore her stuffy runny nose, but we couldn’t let those things stop us from sharing the video. Turn the volume up and enjoy!

We recently received a package from Babka that included a box of Hello Kitty Valentine cards and stickers for Kaiya to decorate. A few days ago we got to work making valentines for family and friends. Kaiya colored on the cards with crayons, added stickers and then told me who the card was for so I could write the recipient’s name. Unfortunately, I forgot to mail them. This is partially her fault as she wanted to play with the valentines after we were finished by stuffing them into her purse and carrying them all over the house. Anyway, to make up for not having the actual card in your mailbox on this Valentine’s Day, I’m including some pictures of Kaiya, hard at work making cards for those she loves. Happy Valentine’s Day! (Read more …)

As the title says, there are only two places/settings where Tobi’s peaceful (and not moving around, getting into things and speaking his mind:)

• Asleep in his crib
• Playing guitar

My mom called yesterday to brag tell us all about the wonderful warm weather they are currently experiencing down in South Carolina. She said they were enjoying a beautiful sunny day with temps in the mid to upper 70s. I looked out our front window to see this: (Read more …)

Desperately needing a fun way to get Kaiya’s energy out during these long, cold winter months, we decided to sign her up for a parent/child pre-ballet dance class. We go once a week, along with Kaiya’s best friend Lucy and her mama, to learn how to dance “like real ballerinas.” One of Kaiya’s first words was tutu and she truly believes you must be wearing one to dance, so this class has been perfect for her. Even the daddies are getting into it, and last week Andrej took Kaiya and Lucy and met up with Lucy’s daddy, so they could see what their daughters have been learning. However, clever Andrej was able to get out of participating in many of the dances because he was hiding behind the camera taking pictures. Somehow I figured he would manage to avoid dancing around the room like a butterfly. (Read more …)

The other day Kaiya was spinning in circles around the kitchen. After quite a few rounds she stumbled over to me and started frantically crying. I bent down to see what was wrong and in between cries she said, “Mama, get me! Get me! The house is falling over.” I was laughing so hard I could barely explain to her that the house wasn’t falling over, she was just dizzy. At 2 1/2, our sweet Kaiya definitely keeps us laughing and makes us so proud to be her parents. (Read more …)