Kisses for Kiana

A couple of cute happenings from this week:

One day after Aidan was having a time out (for throwing cars), and Mommy was cuddling and talking with him to help him calm down, I asked him:
"Aidan, is there anything you can do when you are mad that would make you feel better? (other than throw cars?)" (Yelling? Honking? - since he does that when he is upset - Taking deep breaths?).
Aidan replied: "Yes! going on a train!"
"Anything else? NOT a trip?"
Aidan got quiet and looked up tenatively: "Kiana."
"What?" (I didn't understand.)
"I want to give Kiana a kiss."
"You want to give Kiana a kiss to make you feel better?"
"Yeah."
"Ok. You can do that, buddy. Let's go."

Another day, while I was nursing, Aidan came up next to me and Kiana and said, "Uh-oh!" "What?" I replied. "Uh-oh!" he said again, "A little girl needs a kiss!!" and kissed her on her head and toes.

(So sweet!)


In other news, Kiana is showing glimpses of smiles! She loves being entertained now, which means that time with Aidan totally enchants her! She has great eye contact, laughs in her sleep, and gets more beautiful every day. :)


Aidan is totally wonderful with her: he has been having a particularly wonderful time playing peek-a-boo with her! They both lie down on his bed, and Mama or Daddy put a sheet or blanket over both of them, and they both (mostly Aidan, but Kiana helps too) kick or punch off the blanket. In between each time, Aidan leans over and hugs and kisses Kiana on the head. Kiana seems to love it almost as much as Aidan!


This week, we had a fun playdate with Cira and Mary on Friday, went to Fairway on Saturday, and then Daddy cooked all afternoon Saturday and Mommy cooked on Sunday to replentish our frozen food stores (Daddy went all out on Saturday and made Laurenza meat and pepper sauce and basil cream pesto, Mama made terriaki chicken on Sunday afternoon). Our freezer is stocked again! Saturday morning, we also went to Olivia's third birthday party at Bennett park. Fortunately, the weather was great for the party, and a downpour held off until the afternoon to come through! Then, Kiana napped and Aidan and Daddy put together Aidan's new (birthday present) puzzles. We had a nice weekend.

Party

We had a short week this week: we came back from the Catskills on Tuesday afternoon, and then just had three days of work and playschool! It was nice. On Friday, Mommy and Aidan went to the Natural History Museum with Uncle Matt, Aunt Devon, and cousins Rae and Elsey, who drove down to the city from the Catskills later in the week. And on Sunday, they came up to our neighborhood to see our apartment and try out the playgrounds with Grandma and Grandpa Ruane before they left back to California. Aidan showed off his new balance bike from Grandma and Grandpa (he had tried it for the first time Saturday, and had enough confidence by Sunday to show off his new skills!), which was a lot of fun.



Sunday afternoon we had a friends birthday party for Aidan, and it turned out great! Mommy and Daddy ordered pizza to be delivered to Javits park (we love this perk of living in Manhattan!), and had pizza, watermellon, cupcakes and snacks with a bunch of Aidan's friends. The kids (Olivia, Cira, Hazel, Kira, Angus, Oscar, Jack, & Niko) loved playing with Aidan's bubble gun and lots of water balloons that we brought, and the adults had fun catching up together.


It turned out great! Mommy and Daddy are proud of ourselves for pulling off a birthday party with such a new addition to our family! Kiana contributed to the party too: she wore a beautiful party dress that Nana sent her; and when Aidan was passing out on the couch right before we needed to go to the party, telling him that Kiana was wearing a party dress for his party was the only thing that got him to forget about trying to take a late nap (!) and actually go to his own party! (We offered ice cream sandwiches, chocolate covered ice cream bars, Daddy ladders, or anything else he wanted to wake up, and it was only Kiana's dress that did it!)

Happy Third Birthday, Aidan!

Aidan turned three years old this past Wednesday! We sent chocolate cupcakes to playschool with him to celebrate, and had presents at home (he refused his chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream birthday breakfast because he was mad about turning off Sesame Street!). We'll have his friends party later (this coming Sunday).


At playschool this week, Aidan showed off his protective big brother side. Each day, his teacher, Miss Nana would ask to hold Kiana when Mama picked up Aidan in the afternoon. And each day after she held her for a few minutes, Aidan looked at Miss Nana very seriously and said, "I'm going home now, so you have to give my baby back!" He's such a good big brother!!!


The weekend of Aidan's birthday, we took Kiana's first big adventure in the car all together up to Grandma and Grandpa Ruane's mountain house to go to Tim (Daddy's cousin) and Ulrike's wedding. There, Kiana met most of Daddy's extended family, and Aidan played with his cousins Rae and Elsey, and all three of them ate LOTS of mac & cheese and hot dogs (their compensation for meeting tons of strange-to-them people, sleeping in the middle of the partying, and dealing with cameras everywhere). Aidan told Peg (who was thrilled to take Kiana multiple times) the same thing he had told Miss Nana earlier: "you have to give my baby back, now!" - we're glad he's looking out for his little sister, even though we know he had nothing to worry about!

After the wedding chaos subsided, we all had a great time hanging out with Uncle Matt, Aunt Devon, and cousins Rae and Elsey, as well as Nadir's grandkids Shane and Skylar, Grandma and Grandpa, and (on Monday and Tuesday) Chris, Jim & Hunter (who is just 1 month older than Kiana!). Rae and Elsey loved holding Kiana, everyone had fun sunbathing and splashing at Pine Hill lakeside beach, and visiting newborn chicks at Marguerite & Nadir's house. Jim even did a photo shoot of Kiana (we can't wait to see the pictures!) The cousins all played wiffle ball, and at one point, Aidan (who just turned 3 Wednesday) solidly hit a ball that cousin Elsey (who is 3 1/2) pitched to him! That was really fun.


All in all, we are really proud of ourselves for pulling off an adventurous weekend! Kiana and Aidan were angels on the car rides up and back, and even though things were a bit crazy with everything going on, we all had fun. :)

Happy 4th of July!

This week was our last week of visitors since Kiana was born: Grandma Ruane stayed all week, cuddling with Kiana, helping around the house, and hanging out at the playground with everyone. It was great! It's wonderful to have had a chance to visit with our friends and family, and have some backup during our transition time. Thanks, everyone!


This weekend, Kiana had a bunch of adventures. On Saturday, she went on the trains for the first time! Our whole little family took the A, D & E trains downtown to have burgers and fries at Five Guys (Aidan decided he'd rather go home and take a nap than go to the Zoo afterward). Aidan was thrilled to introduce Kiana to his beloved trains, and Kiana was incredibly good during the trip!


On Sunday, we took a trip to Target (Kiana's third car trip in her life so far: first hospital, second Bronx Zoo). Sunday was July 4th, and we celebrated by visiting the park, and eating Daddy's Red White and Blue Sundaes (strawberry, blueberry and whipped cream with vanilla ice cream) - yum!