75 words or more

Not the number of words in this post... although you probably will only read that many, I know you all just want to see the adorable pictures! That's the number of words Kai can say (that we or at least I) can understand! So smart, I know.

So she's officially on her way to becoming a two-year old... 18 months old and counting. Where has the time gone? Here are her stats from her check-up:

Height: 30 3/4" - 23rd percentile

Weight: 23 lbs 4 oz - 34th percentile

Head: 46cm - 34th percentile

Doctor said she was perfect! I couldn't agree more... :-) I'll spare you the complete list of words, but here are some of her favorites (and what they actually sound like):

poo-poo.... sounds exactly like it's supposed to

teeth... tee... always accompained by moving her potty stool to the sink in an effort to brush her teeth (or at least eat the toddle toothpaste of the brush)

helicopter.... sounds like hell-caw-ter.... shawn taught her this one!

peek-a-boo.... sounds like pee-boo... also a synonym for yo gabba gabba... which sounds like o-bah-bah

cheese... still one of her favorite foods

water... sounds like agua... how do you like our little splanglish speaking baby?

elmo.... she can ennunciate this one perfectly, much to my shagrin

oh, i could go on, but why bore you with the erudite language of a toddler, when i can show you pictures?

The fourth of July finally rolled around and Kai got to finally wear this adorable outfit from aunt jenn... unfortunately the festivities were cut short because Kai got sick that night... ended up with croup... it was awful! She sounded like a bulldog when she was sleeping.


Here's our little fashionista sporting her shades


And shopping for some more...

We decided to get her a more sophisticated potty than the one we had bought at Ikea... this one supposedly plays a little tune after you do your business... not that we would know anything about that... she goes poop on the big potty if we can get her there in time... otherwise, she'll sometimes sit on it for a bit to catch up on the latest book.


We've had to get creative with things to do on the weekends... usually it's too hot, but that didn't stop us from checking out the railroad park in scottsdale a couple of weeks ago. We were the only ones on this little train (probably because everyone else was smart and stayed indoors)...


Kai also rode the carousel... i tried to get a good pic, but it was going really fast! She was so cute, she would smile and laugh everytime it came back around to where i was.


Since Shawn doesn't have a house to work on, he has to be a little more creative to stay busy. He built Kai this car a few days ago.


And last but not least, we ventured out to a nearby ghost town (about 20 minutes east of us)... the train there was advertised to take 20 minutes, so we thought it would be worth it... what they didn't say was that it only went about 2 mph and you had to listen to a bearded mountain man talk about the legends behind the superstition mountains.


All I could think about was how creepy this place was... can you blame me?


That's all folks! Shawn's birthday is Monday and we're heading to Texas by way of Okmulgee, OK in a couple of weeks! We should get lots of good photos. Until then...

Vegas, Baby, Vegas!

A little while ago, Shawn's hours got cut to four days a week. He arranged it with a friend to have a 4-day weekend every other weekend... so when my parents said they were going on a wild west RV tour, I mentioned that we could meet in Vegas... mostly so Shawn and I could go on a date! Turns out, he got his hours back, thank goodness! But we still went up to Vegas at the last minute. We should have probably just stayed home... things didn't work out to well for us... but we got some fun pics!

Westward ho! This wagon was in the parking lot of the McDonald's in Wickenburg, AZ.


Stopping at the Hoover Dam for some photo ops... notice the construction in the background... the dam is apparently not doing so well... they don't allow big trucks or buses to go over it anymore and they limit the speed and traffic of all the cars. They're building a huge bridge to by-pass it, but it's behind schedule apparently - the signs said it was to be completed in like the Fall of 07 or something...


They were just missing one piece of the arch while we were there... thanks to my super public school education, I know that the center piece of the arch is what makes it all work. :-)


This picture is from underneath the bridge... look how tall it is! And we of course were already pretty high up on top of the dam.


We had some time to kill while we waited for my parents to make it from Cali to Vegas, so we took the opportunity to pose in front of the vegas sign (I had never done it before!) and yes... Lucy is part of the family, even if Shawn thinks otherwise.


Kai got to hang out with Pop-pop (that's what she's calling him these days) and Gamma while Shawn and I had our date night. Apparently she didn't have too much fun here:


Can you blame her, I mean, there's a creepy clown in the car with her! And the last photo is a self-portrait of my man and I... strip style.


It was nice to get away from house-hunting for a while! Too bad we didn't win any money to help buy one! :-)

First Visit Back to Texas!

So Kai and I made the journey to Texas without Shawn back at the end of June. The flights went well, we had a whole row to ourselves on the way there and Kai slept the whole way back. That being said, I'm not sure I'll ever take a toddler on a 3 hour plane trip alone by myself again! You should have seen me at security... stroller, diaper bag, toddler, taking mine and Kai's shoes off! It was insane. Here are some photos of our journey!

Daddy and Kai waiting at the airport before our flight.

And here's our big girl all buckled up! Actually, she rode in my lap, but I took this before we took off. Look how excited she is! :-)

When we got to Texas, Kai stayed a couple of days with her grandparents and I went on a little road trip down to Port A with the girls.

Here we are walking down the super long boardwalk to the beach...

I'm not sure what they were looking for... I mean, it is the Gulf of Mexico.

After a fun-filled few days, we headed back to the big D for a couple of nights before returning to Phoenix. It was the longest I had been away from Kai and maybe even Shawn... and I'm happy to report that I missed them both, even Shawn. :-)

We were fortunate enough to meet up with my old teaching buddies at Northpark. Here is Kai enjoying a Tiggemantastic puppet show

Couldn't leave without a group shot. See how we've multiplied!

Our last night back home took us to the *NEW* Irving El Fenix (AKA old Don Pablo's) for some Tex-Mex.

Kai was excited to see uncle Matt and aunt Rita!

It was a great trip and we look forward to our next trip home in just a few weeks! Shawn's coming this time... and probably Lucy too. :-)