Happy / Surprised / Scrunched up

We’ve been eating up all the smiles and coos and trumpety noises by Mara. Kai is weirdly talented in making realistic sound effects and can almost flawlessly mimic Mara, so they’d converse and have a grand time. It’s a secret language.

And in other news, Kai has taught himself to do forward tumbles in the air. It freaks me out yet awes me at the same time!

Some Instagram pics from the past few weeks or so. I’m always forgetting to bring my real camera, so my phone has been handy. Seriously, what would I do without my phone? I’d get lost around town, couldn’t call anyone (even my own husband!), be without any novels…the dependence on my phone is intense.

Ryan’s parents and brother are flying in from California next week and we’re really looking forward to that. It has crossed my mind to ask them to bring some In-N-Out, but then the thought crossed right back out for obvious reasons.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! If you’re like me, you will be gift wrapping, sending out packages, and prepping the house for visitors. And lastly, enter the giveaway for a JetPens certificate if you’d like to shop for some Japanese pens and stationery!

My mom made fun of me because I kept taking pictures of the trees in her backyard, which is huge. Being out in the country is such a new and novel thing to us.

And some Instagram images taken when we were downtown Durham. Cool city that place is.

Have a happy weekend!

And just like that, my son accomplished his first week of kindergarten! I am so proud of him. There was nervousness and maybe a some tears on the first day, but Kai has adjusted to his new routine well. Though waking up at 6:30 is still something I have to get used to. Ick. And that pic above was Kai’s first-day, after-school treat. He wanted a chicken sandwich.

It’s been so sweet having the one-on-one time with Dax. And quiet! No fighting or crying (although the crying part will change when the baby comes). And I can do errands almost twice as fast. At times, I catch myself thinking, Really, this is my life? It got kind of easy all of a sudden.

I’m excited for the long weekend and our mini-roadtrip. Now that the threat of a hurricane has passed, we’re headed east to visit my mom in Durham and look for artsy stuff and food trucks.

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P.S. Would you be interested in promoting your shop or blog? I’m now accepting a couple sponsors that would be a good fit for this blog. Shoot me an email jenniferkirk{at}gmail{dot}com for rates, site stats, and all that info.

And thank you all for your kind words regarding my dear grandmother. It was very comforting to hear your condolences. She was a beautiful and kind-hearted woman indeed. With the best sound bytes, to boot. You would have liked her. : )

A couple of weeks ago, Raya took the most incredible family photos of us. I want to keep the rest of the set under wraps until we gift them to grandparents, but I can’t help posting this outtake. Because it makes me smile.

Dax is dramatically telling us he wants more gumdrops (bribery food) and Ryan is trying to get Kai to stop shooting pretend missiles out of his hand. What tickles me is that we were supposed to be playing with the kids, and trying to make them laugh for the camera.

Unlike last year’s fête, we decided to celebrate the boys’ birthdays by hanging out with friends at the park, and having a mini party, just the four of us, back at our home. The party theme this year (because no matter how small the party, there must be a theme!) was rockets and robots.

Following this very hard-to-understand tutorial, Ryan built a rocket launcher out of PVC pipe, and we constructed rockets out of rolled-up newspaper ads. The entire project cost just a few bucks and the results are pretty awesome.

Back at home, we celebrated Dax’s birthday (three days after big brother Kai!) with a robot-themed setup in our backyard. I strung up lights to emulate a starry galaxy, set up a little activity table, and attempted to make tin foil robot hats, masks, and antennas with the kids. But they were much more into clearing the table and playing with the wind-up robots sitting out. These boys of mine! At least Kai enjoyed the new, and adorably illustrated Wall-E book we got him, Lots of Bots. And since I’m plugging a robot book, I might as well plug my robot invites. End plug.

We finished off the evening by singing to Dax and watching him devour his dairy-free, egg-free, sugar and corn-syrup laden Rice Krispie Treat cake. Happy birthday Dax-Man, also known as Dax-asaurus, or Dax-traction, or Dax-tronic, or Dax-atacdyl! Yes, we call him all of these names.

It was a happy, happy Saturday spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie Lindy & Uncle Jay. To celebrate Kai’s birthday, Grandma and Grandpa got us all tickets to ride on a vintage train that took us to a pumpkin patch in Santa Paula. Firsts for Kai that day included a pony ride, a carousel ride (he finally got over some fears from years past!), and getting shot in the face with a fog blower. Nice!

I was quietly, though visibly, suffering the effects of sleep-deprivation from the night before, and the night before that, but there were lots of laughs, giggles, and smiles. It was a beautiful day and I can’t tell you happy it makes me to see how much the boys adore their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Happy birthday to our Kai bug!

That evening, Ryan and I took full advantage of Lindy and Jay staying with us and went on a date to see Where the Wild Things Are. I seriously could not get through a single day without reading someone’s update on Facebook on how awful the movie was, so I was dying to see what everyone’s critique was all about.

We actually ended up loving it. Full of metaphors and symbolism, it was beautifully done. Parts had me tearing up, other parts laughing. There is a definitive, tangible sadness to the movie, but an equal amount of sweetness and rough play that a mother of two boys can totally understand. And the ending is happy of course! So see it. But leave the kids at home.