April 2007

April was our last month without Blake (with the exception of the final five hours). Obviously the last day of the month was the most exciting (and the subject of its own post), but we didn't spend the rest of April just waiting around for him.

We started the month with an April Fool's Day trip to Tillicum Village, a Native American tourist attraction on (I'm not making this up) Blake Island in Puget Sound. We took the ferry there and had a delicious salmon lunch, watched a performance of Native Northwest dancing, and explored the State Park. This purpose of this trip was actually to celebrate my parents' (Dad's side) 25th Wedding Anniversary. Their real anniversary is May 23rd, but between Blake's arrival and Kirk's graduation we figured it would be too difficult to plan anything fun in May.

Leading up to Easter Weekend, Kyla died a number of eggs, and even ate a few. After eating halfway through one hard-boiled egg she pointed to the yellow part and asked, "is that a nipple?" On the day before Easter we went to the Highlands Easter Egg Hunt, which wasn't all that exciting due to a low egg to child ratio. For the zero to three age group the parents rushed out in front of the toddlers to get eggs for their children, so it wasn't very sporting for the little ones. On Easter Sunday we went to brunch with the Saulberrys at Linda's house where Kyla and Ruby had a more successful egg hunt. We also went to at Dot's place for dinner with the Pritchard Family.

Becky has been helping Kyla work on her sharing skills. She explained that if Kyla asks her buddies nicely if she can play with a toy, they are more likely to give it to her. So she went up to another child and said, "Can I play with that? If I ask then I get it." A little too direct, but it worked. Her new sharing skills haven't gone unnoticed, Becky has been told by other mother's that Kyla is very good at sharing recently.

She is also becoming more and more observant of her surroundings. If she seems tired, Becky and I will try to take the long way home (having her fall asleep in the car is a lot easier than the bedtime routine). This technique no longer works because she now protests if we turn off of the route home if we get within a few miles. Those are some impressive backseat driving skills.

Some of her new observations can be uncomfortable for us. She walked in on me while I was in the bathroom. Then she asked, "where is the pee coming from Daddy?" I told her and fortunately that was the end of the conversation. Then she was taking a bath with Becky and feeling around her pregnant belly. She became curious and asked, "where will Blake come out of your tummy, Mommy?" Becky told her and her response was "oh gross Mom." I'm not sure where a two and a half year old gets the idea that that is gross.

Becky was talking to Kyla about her future and Becky asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up, "a doctor, a teacher, a police officer?" Kyla responded by declaring that she didn't want to do anything when she grows up (all that money in her 529 account going to waste). When Becky asked how she would get money, Kyla responded, "Daddy."

It seems that Kyla wants to hang out with me more than usual lately. She's wanted me more involved with bedtime (our old tag team approach didn't last and for a while it was mainly just Becky), and I'm usually the choice to change her dirty diapers (much to Mommy's delight). I don't know if this is just a phase, or if she senses that Mommy is going to be far more occupied in the near future. Actually being pregnant keeps Mommy pretty occupied right now.