A.B. Kagledom

After an early-in-the-week day trip to Sacramento, we continued our week of travel by taking off to Seattle last Friday and returning Sunday night. In Sacramento we visited with my family. Devon, my nephew, was visiting from Okinawa so we threw him a party. The boys proved to be excellent car sleepers so the four hours there and back were not a problem. Also Adlai was near the end of his fussy week so he warmed up after about an hour at the party and even let us put him down to give us a break.

The Friday trip to Seattle had me near anxiety induced convolutions on Thursday evening. Work hasn't eased up (and it won't be easing up any time soon) so I had done absolutely no planning whatsoever or packing or thinking about planning or packing. Of course, it all turned out fine. Simon didn't sleep the night before we left so we didn't sleep the night before we left but both boys were amazing the entire weekend. Simon was, of course, thrilled to be with his Kagle cousins and Adlai was remarkably sweet and happy and serene - even in restaurants. Simon slept in the top bunk of Jeffrey's new bunk bed (a miracle and his first official sleeping away from an adult while away from home). He even slept in. Adlai cried during the nights in the porta-crib but he didn't keep anyone else up - especially not anyone that is difficult to get back to sleep (you know, Simon).

We are very thankful to the Seattle Kagles for being such gracious hosts. They took us Easter egg hunting at the neighborhood hunt (Simon stayed home but Adlai loved every minute of it). They arranged for babysitters so we adults could have a very nice dinner out at a new restaurant owned by Matthew's favorite chef. They drove us around - even on a trip to the snow for a rather short sledding experience (Simon thought snow and sledding was fun - for about 30 minutes - it was very hot out and very very bright).

When we returned to the airport for our flight back Adlai was so excited to see the planes that he couldn't stop talking. "OH WOW! OH WOW! OH WOWWWWWW!" When he saw the luggage cars attached to the truck he said "Choo choo!" When I told him it wasn't a train he tried the tractor approach singing "E I E I OHHHHHHH." A baby next to us was having his diaper changed pre-flight and he pointed and said "stinky!" And on and on went the chattering Adlai.

The flight back, Adlai was a little antsy (it was past the boys bedtimes) but there was no crying or fussing or screaming. And now that the screaming is over, we're feeling particularly lucky.

More Adlai-isms:

I forgot to mention perhaps Adlai's funniest moment so far! Driving home from SF a week ago, we stopped at a light. Three young attractive women had passed in front of our car and turned the corner - close to Adlai's side. They stopped to talk near Adlai's window. I turned around to look when "Ohhhhh wowwwwwww" came from the back seat. Adlai pointed at the girls and, again, whispered "Ohhhhh WOWwwwww" over and over until the light turned green and his first crush was over.

Last week Adlai started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using only the words "Mama mama mama ma."

Yesterday it was "family day" at Simon's preschool. We watched as the kids learned their new letter for the week "W." The teacher read a book with lots of "W" words and Adlai started to sing "A B C D E..." How he learned the alphabet song or why he connected it with learning the letter "W" is anyone's guess.

The words are coming fast these days. He has all his two-year-old words down including "Mine!" "ME!" and "NO!" Fortunately, he is also learning some useful words like "cheese" and "more milk."

Posted by kagledom at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adlai had a mild fever, extra naps, and diaper unpleasentness last week which all seems to have been tied to the one molar that has yet to move completely through the gum. So the weekend started off with a crying jag. And by crying jag, I mean crying/screaming/yelling that lasted for HOURS. The kind of crying that could not be helped: taking him outside, carrying him everywhere, loads and loads of pacifiers, Tylenol - nothing worked.

Saturday evening, the Feefadders and our friends Lenore and Carl came over for a Passover celebration. It turned out to be a wonderful evening. Simon asked the four questions and found the afikomen after we couldn't take the crying any more and sent Adlai to bed for a very late nap. When he awoke, screaming as loudly as ever, Simon was having a wonderful time playing with Lenore and Carl in the backyard. We knew Adlai had to be hungry (having thrown all food offered) but we couldn't get him to eat until we came up with an idea. Is there NOTHING that would make him happy? What if we force fed him ice cream? Bite one: he screamed. Bite two: he screamed. Bite three: screaming. Bite four: hmmm, maybe this stuff isn't THAT bad? A couple of small bites later, we switched to yogurt and then to lamb and chicken. (We also administered Tylenol with the ice cream.)

After he ate, Adlai was funny and sweet and charming again. Go figure that food would make a growing boy feel better. Both boys stayed up late to play and went to bed very tired and happy.

And then it was Sunday and the crying started again. Alas, we did get some good egg hunting in to celebrate Easter before driving the boys into San Francisco for an afternoon with the Feefadders while we took a break and saw Wicked. Adali was as happy as could be (as was Simon) until we returned and it was time for dinner at a restaurant. We've decided not to eat out unless absolutely necessary until this crisis is over.

On the positive side, Adlai has figured out how to take my hand and walk me over to what he wants and then point. On the negative side, he has become a climber and insists on climing the chairs and tables and anything else that would cause a very bad fall.

And here we end with a random shot of Simon pre-egg-decorating. Be sure to check out the rest of the photos on Flickr! You can get there via the link at the top of the page or by clicking on any of the photos.

Posted by kagledom at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so Adlai didn’t even attempt to spell his name in sticks. And, rumor has it, no one believed our April Fool’s Day joke this year anyway. Except for spelling his name in sticks, the rest of the post is true. Simon was leading the children in an exercise to connect the sticks via Bluetooth. Odd.

Adlai has come up with some new talents recently. He has also come up with a molar giving him nine teeth with a second molar on the way. Woo hoo! Who doesn’t love pain induced crankiness? New talents include puckering up and kissing on the lips, and singing “E I E I OHHHHHHHHHH” at every opportunity. It’s also really cute when he says “Banana” which comes out more like “ANANA.” You’ll just have to trust that it is super cute. He doesn’t even like bananas. Maybe this will be the week when we come up with another video featuring his new skills. No promises...

Posted by kagledom at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So we were at the park yesterday. Simon made some friends and Adlai and another toddler tagged along to see what the big kids were up to. We're coming to an age when we can almost see the day when we won't have to be involved in the minute by minute activities of our children. This was one of those times. We had brought along a picnic blanket and Matthew and I sat on the sidelines and watched while our boys played.

Simon had gathered some sticks and said he needed to "make a connection" between the sticks using "Bluetooth." I laughed. How does Simon know about Bluetooth? Another parent stood by and remarked, "Only in Silicon Valley."

Simon led the kids in making some sort of structure "for connectivity." Adlai and another 15-month-old tried their best to integrate themselves into the group without getting into trouble.

Eventually, once the connectivity thing was about as exciting as a bunch of sticks can be, the older kids grew bored and moved on to other sandbox adventures. We remained on the blanket near the sticks and Adlai stayed nearby, putting sand in a bucket and moving the sticks here and there. After a while we noticed that he was doing the oddest thing.

Can you believe it? He spelled it INCORRECTLY. Poor Adlai, saddled with a name that no one, not even he, can spell.

Posted by kagledom at 01:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)