Happy Birthday, Daddy & Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

We had a lot to celebrate this week. Daddy's birthday was on Friday, and then Saturday was Mother's day!


Friday, we let Daddy sleep in as much as we could. Mama made hash brown potatoes with Canadian bacon for breakfast. Then, for dinner, Aidan, Kiana and I all took the train downtown, picked up Daddy from work, and went out to Five Guys for dinner! (Our babysitter was out of town, so we stuck with a simple celebration.)


Sunday, we had a delicious breakfast: fruit salad and Mama's kale-egg scramble. In the afternoon, we drove to the Botanic Gardens in Brooklyn. Aidan loved climbing around the rocks. Kiana loved walking barefoot through the grass (a first for her!). And Mommy and Daddy especially loved seeing the peonies. We got a membership so we could go back again, and are looking forward to it! When we got home, we ordered Thai food for dinner - YUM. :)

Here are some highlights from the rest of the week:

AIDAN:
- It is amazing how thoughtful Aidan can be sometimes. Thursday was a really rough day for us, because Kiana was up with gas 1am-5am the night before and only napped for 25 minutes in the Ergo in the morning, so I had no break and little ability to cope. Aidan and I had a rough time that afternoon, which we eventually moved past when I asked him if I was acting like one of the dragons from his Dragon Slayer Academy books. He told me yes, and that Seetha was the name of a mommy dragon in his books. I asked him what destroyed her, and he said a bath. (That would have probably helped me as well!) Thinking about me as a dragon helped both of us move forward productively. We talked about how everyone needs to have alone time - time by themselves, time with just Mommy, time with just Daddy, etc. I explained that I missed that too. Aidan then said, but Mama, you can have alone time when you go to the potty! I told him that actually, I frequently had Kiana with me even then, or had one or both kids visit me while I was there, so even that didn't always work. He then said (*very* thoughtfully!!), Mama, I can make sure Kiana is okay so you can go potty by yourself! (SO sweet! This won't get me all the "alone" time I need, but I do really appreciate his effort!)



KIANA:
- Daddy weighed her on Saturday, and Kiana is officially 20 lbs!
- She is still working on increasing her confidence in walking. On Wednesday when Daddy dropped off Aidan at playschool with her, she walked across the room to Aidan! Then Thursday at playgroup, she walked to her friend Maxie (he is only a few months older than her and is not so sturdy himself, so he was rather surprised about this!).
- Kiana continues to LOVE baths. On Saturday evening when we were both in the living room, I told her: "Kiana, it's bathtime!" and did the "bath" sign. She sat up, did the "bath" sign, and then proceeded to crawl at lightning speed across the living room, up the stairs, down the hallway, and into the bathroom, where she pulled herself up on the bathtub and danced in anticipation!
- In other language updates, Kiana also now does the "book" sign: she is starting to love reading, and even has favorites (Where is Baby's Belly Button?, next up: That's Not My Monster). She is also practicing new words and sounds. Her favorite one right now is "ate" (as in "ate! ate! ate!") - she uses it both when she wants to feed us and in general.
- Kiana made her first drawing for Daddy for his birthday! She was fascinated by drawing with markers for a full few minutes, and liked picking out different colors.