Oh October...

I always dread October. First reason: it starts to get cold. Second reason: Week Without Violence. The first needs no explanation, the second, needs a little explaining. All 300 YWCA's in the country dedicate the third full week of October to educating the public on the effects of violence in our homes, communities and families. I am the Education Director, and therefore I spend all year planning this week of activities, events, public speeches, media interviews and a children's carnival. I love the actual week, but I don't love the 358 days leading up to the week...it's a lot of work. The week finished on Friday night, and I came home to flowers and my favorite candy from my two favorite guys...it was the best ending to a really successfull week! Now on to planning for next year.

6 months later

What do you get when you combine a bumbo chair...

a box of rice cereal...

and a baby boy celebrating his 6 month birthday....

TADA!

That's right folks, Kai has joined the rest of the Patterson family in a life time love affair with food! And, he was practically an expert...barely spit any up!!! We are so proud. The best part is, he doesn't even know how much amazing food their is out their for him to sink his slobbery gums into...but he will soon enough (how could he not with Darin and I for parents...food is really our only hobby).

Congratulations Kai!

To Grandmother's house we go...

Last weekend we went to visit my Mom and Step Dad in Spokane Washington. Kai was in heaven with all of Grandma's kisses, toys, hugs, and candy (he doesn't eat solids...so his parents graciously comandeered it). It was so much fun to show Darin all of the houses I had lived in as a child, schools I went to, places I played at and visited, and most of all things I used to eat (we went to Tomatoe Street for delicious soup and bread pudding, great harvest for pastries, Zips for burgers and fries, and my Mom made her world famouse coffee cake the morning we left). It was GREAT!

Mom and I at Manito park...I used to come here when I was a little girl to play, and they have the most beautiful gardens.

Zips...just as good as I remembered.

Kai and Grandma liked zips too!

As soon as Kai got over his fear of Grandpa's mustache...he just couldn't get enough of it!

My mom discovered Hula Hooping as a great ab workout during commercials while she is watching football. I was amazed at how long she can keep it spinning. She left Darin and I in the dust!

This was Kai's reaction to the news that it was time to get back on the airplane and fly back home (away from Grandma).

We had a great time! Thanks grandma Judy and Grandpa Chuck!!

End of Summer Blues...

Darin and I have been trying to prolong summer for the past three weeks...picnics, walks, barbeques and parks. This week the weather is supposed to get down in the 60's, so we packed in as many last minute warm weather activities as we possibly could. Tonight we went to the park and swung on the swings for as long as Kai would let us, and then walked around the park until it got dark reminiscing about all the fun we had during Kai's first summer with us. Here's a little video momento:

Milestones

Kai is learning how to drink from a cup...he had so much fun practicing with his dad. A couple more weeks and it's on to food for him!
Darin and Kai like to read every night together...this night he was especially into reading, he kept trying to hold the book himself.

Back in May when we went to the East Coast on vacation, we bought Kai a little sweatshirt at Harvard, this week it was raining and cold, so we busted it out, and he and I dressed up like twins.
Darin and I decided we want to start teaching Kai sign language, so we have been watching the signing time videos and then practicing the signs with Kai...He had decided he doesn't need us...he can watch the videos all by himself. (HE LOVES TV...he has a 10 minute limit each day)
Like Father, Like Son!

Labor Day Fun

WHAT A DAY! We started out the holiday by meeting up with our friends Maggie, Sina and Leila so Darin and Sina could play tennis while Kai and Leila had fun on the swings (Kai's first time swinging), I'm pretty sure Kai loved it...well atleast sucking on his hand. :)

After Tennis, we met up with Darin's brother's family for some swimming at the Bountiful pool. Brianna and Garrett were so cute, they were like little fish swimming around. Kai loved watching all the other kids...his new favorite past time.

Kai was so wiped out by the time we went to dinner, he slept right through it...his BEST LABOR DAY EVER!

Kai goes to the zoo!

Kai and I went to the zoo on Thursday with our good friends Maggie and Leila. Kai has been really into looking at trees lately (he LOVES it!), so I figured he might be too young to enjoy checking out the animals, but the zoo has a lot of trees, so if he isn't into Lions, Tigers and Bears, atleast he will have some leaves and tree trunks to stare at. It turns out he likes animals too. He was really into the elephants and giraffes, and since Leila is a 1 year old prodigy baby that knows sign language and can sign every animal at the zoo, we were entertained by her intelligence and the amazing animals.