August 2008

Ah August, the last full month of Summer when we enjoy good weather, light traffic, a bit of leisure time, and Kyla's birthday.

Early in the month Becky's Aunt Laura and cousin Bryanna came to visit for a week and we all went to Jetty Island for a day, which is a park in Everett. Becky and Linda packed a nice lunch for us though the seagulls scavenged through it whenever we'd walk away from our set up. The kids loved playing in the wet sand and building a sand castle. We went for a walk to the edge of the shore and by the time we got there our feet would sink almost a foot into the mud with every step.

In the middle of the month we traveled to Chelan to hang out with my mother's family. The temperature climbed above 100 degrees every day we were there, but it made the lake feel far more tolerable than usual. Kyla swam in her life jacket and would jump off the dock to me. Blake stayed on the beach playing with the sand and throwing it all over the place. By the time we headed home we had all darkened a bit, I even had a section of my back that had burned (take my advice, get someone else to put your sunscreen on your back).

Thus far jealousy hasn't been a big issue between the kids, but Kyla has been asking Becky if she loves her more than Blake. Becky answers by explaining that she doesn't love either of them more than the other, but she loves them each differently. Kyla still seems to feel that there should be a quantity to love and she explained to me that she loves Mommy more than me, but she misses me a lot when I'm at work.

Apparently Blake does too because he's been getting very upset in the morning when he knows I'm about to leave. This is kind of a new thing for me, usually this has been Becky's problem. I've been working on trying to slip out, but he knows my routine and after he sees me get dressed he clings on.

Blake has made some advances with his vocabulary having learned about a dozen words (or close approximations), which is really nice for us because it is a little easier to figure out what he wants. His favorite toy is a stuffed dog my mother made for him that he refers to as "Gaga." This apparently means "furry thing" because this is also his word for dogs and cats.

I remember this phase with Kyla and every month for the next couple years I'll be tempted to generically state that I'm amazed by how fast Blake is picking up new words. The nice thing about going through this a second time is that I'm already good at watching my language.

Kyla's 4th Birthday Party

In the past Becky and I have enjoyed having a big function at our house for Kyla's birthday party but after attending a number of other birthdays at Little Gym, Build-a-Bear, and Pump It Up, I knew that our tradition was going to end this year.

Kyla picked Kidz Bounce in Preston as the venue. Because Asher's birthday is only two days after hers, we combined our party with the Neel's so we had the whole place to ourselves.

The kids had a great time bouncing, climbing, and sliding on the inflatable play toys, and so did several of the adults. We fed everyone pizza and when it was time for dessert there were candles spelling out "Happy Birthday" across both cakes. When they opened presents both Kyla and Asher had their own big blown up thrown to sit in, and they were joined by whomever's present they were unwrapping.

After we got everything packed up some of the guests came to our house for to help finish off the leftovers and watch Kyla's new movie (yes I'm still making those).

The nice thing about having a party at a venue like Kidz Bounce is that there is a lot less preparation and cleanup work, though we're still looking forward to having a couple more parties for Blake at home.