January 2007

After finishing our busy holiday schedule, we were looking forward to a relatively relaxing January. It didn't quite work out that way.

Seattle fell victim to another winter blast. This time, after a three hour commute home, I found myself unable to get up the steep hill of Highlands Drive, so I finally had to give up and seek shelter at Tom and Judy's. My father ended up there as well after a nearly successful attempt to come pick me up in his all-wheel drive car. The cold days that followed kept the snow around for a while, but on the plus side Kyla, Asher, and Ajay had a lot of fun playing in the snow and building a snowman.

After we got passed that episode it was time to work on the Blake Preparation List, and one of its biggest items was to get Kyla's new room ready. We let Kyla choose the new color and she decided on green. Becky started comparing various color cards (apparently there are many, many different shades of green) before she concluded that she wasn't going to come up with a better color than the green we painted Kyla's nursery back at the condo. We put up two coats and bought Kyla a new bed, mattress, dresser, and desk, all of which she found interesting but she still wanted to sleep in her old room. She got wise to us and asked if Blake was going to get her old blue room, so we fessed up and she wasn't thrilled with the idea of her room being invaded by her little brother. With three months to go we're already dealing with sibling rivalry. That can't be a good sign.

Becky explained to Kyla that she was also in Mommy's tummy once, and that Mommy was once in Grandma Linda's tummy and Daddy was once in Grandma Jan's tummy. Kyla found this fascinating and began asking others whose tummy they used to be in. I hope it's a long time before we have to address how Daddys come into the picture.

Next on our list was to change Kyla's bedtime habits because we'd realized that we won't be able to keep putting the same amount of effort into it once her competition arrives. Becky introduced a new routine where I help her brush her teeth, get her into pajamas, and read her two stories, then Becky reads her two more and then turns out the light and stays with her until she falls asleep. Kyla added a step to the routine by making me put a princess bandaid on a cut on my forehead every night, even after it had healed, until we finally ran out. Our ultimate goal is to alter the routine so that the last stage consists of her falling asleep in her room by herself.

When she wakes up, one of Kyla'a favorite places to visit, like a true Seattleite, is Starbucks. She really loves her "coffee" (steamed kids milk) and those breakfast sandwiches. In fact, if Becky tries to take her somewhere else to get "coffee" she quickly protests, "this isn't Starbucks Mommy." I thought you had to serve Happy Meals to get that kind of loyalty from two-year-olds.

Towards the end of the month Kyla caught a nasty cold that proved to be highly communicable. It infected Becky and I, most of Kyla's play group and their families (we're not sure who contracted it first), and our neighbors. We've had it for about a week and we are still fighting it off.

Looking forward I'm sure that February is going to be a very relaxing and healthy month. Now where is some wood I can knock on?