Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

Every night before singing Kaiya her final song and saying goodnight, I pray for her. I've done this pretty much every night since she was born. A few months ago, in an attempt to rush through our bedtime routine due to the late hour, I forgot to say the prayer. She looked up at me and said, "Mama, say payer." I was disappointed that of all the things she had to remind me of it was the prayer, but in the process realized that maybe she would like to start saying her own prayers. (Read more …)

(Warning: This post is EXTREMELY long. I wanted to document in detail (mainly for myself) the past week and a half as we transitioned our little Kaiya to her new bed.)

Many months ago, after finding out that baby number two would be arriving at the end of May, we decided that Kaiya would need to move out of her crib sometime in early April. We thought that would give her plenty of transition time to a new bed before the baby arrived and took over her beloved crib. It was a relatively easy decision at the time, and one that other parents who had been in a similar situation highly recommended. (Read more …)

Last weekend, Andrej and I were navigating our way through new parental territory. Kaiya had the stomach flu. Last Saturday morning I should have known that something was going on when Kaiya didn't eat very much breakfast. It was also a busy morning in the Ciho household because the next day our house, which we rent and is also for sale, was scheduled for an open house. After breakfast all three of us got to work cleaning and readying the house for potential buyers to walk through. About an hour into our cleaning frenzy, we were all in the living room where Andrej and I had just finished giving our living room rug the best cleaning it has ever received in the year we've owned it. Andrej and Kaiya were sitting on the couch and I was in the recliner and we all were admiring how clean and fuzz free our rug was when Kaiya out of the blue started whining and rubbing her eyes as if she was ready for a nap. Andrej tried comforting her and then put her down so she could come over to me. Just as he was about to release her, I commented the she sure looked sick when "it" happened.  (Read more …)

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 …)

(Imported from itsourfamily.blogspot.com)

What else could a story with such a title involve other than changing a diaper. Granted we are brand new parents - it takes us a minute or two to successfully take a diaper off, clean the baby, a put a new diaper on. This morning Kaiya decided to test our reflexes and during the short time when she didn't have a diaper, "certain matter" flew from where there usually is a diaper - across the room, first hitting the changing table, then hitting Jessica and finally hitting the floor. So thankful that we don't have carpet in that room!

Anyway, this afternoon when Kaiya tried to pull off the same trick again, we were ready. As soon as "certain matter" started coming out, I grabbed the first diaper available (yes, it was the dirty one) and blocked the explosion at its source.

Sorry, no pictures for this posting :)

(Imported from haveyouhadyourbabyyet.blogspot.com)

Hey,

We moved back home with all the bags, left-over food from our friends, flowers and balloons, and…of course a brand new person. I'll try to take some pictures and post them but first I need a nap. :) I used to say that I couldn't survive without at least 7 hours of sleep. I was wrong :) - I don't think we got that even during the last two nights combined. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - we are enjoying our new roles and each other very much. I thought we'd be lost and not know what to do but our instincts (didn't know I had any), advice from friends and family, and God's help make this great.

Speaking of friends… yesterday we had 20+ people visit us in the hospital. After they all left and it was only the three of us we realized how blessed we are. We didn't realize how many friends we had until we saw them together. (At one point there were 9 people plus the 3 of us in the room for like an hour.) Groups of friends that have never met each other only heard about each other until now met and had a lot of fun. It was one big party. You should have seen the nurse's face when she walked in. And we couldn't even count all those friends who weren't sure if it was ok to come but called and emailed. Thank you all for your support and prayers. You are wonderful.

Andrej