Kieran Says Fall 2016 Edition

Kieran continues to struggle with "r" sounds especially "ark" and "ore" words and often sounds like he has a Boston accident (think "pawk" instead of park, "bawk" instead of bark, "doi" instead of door, and "foi" instead of four). He also loves the show Peppa Pig which is set in England and he will use British words sometimes like saying we need to go to the "petrol station" or calling bandaids "plasters." I always laugh out loud when he comes up with a new one and I think he knows I find it hilarious. Another funny thing Kieran does is sleep with very unlikely bed companions. Most nights I sneak in to see what he's settled on for the night and often find it so funny I have to take a picture. Like any three year old, K comes up with some pretty funny things almost daily, here are a few of my recent favorites.

We were at Starbucks and Kieran said, very loudly, "hey Mom look at that guy" pointing to a guy with a really long grey beard,  "he looks like an elephant!!!"

Out of nowhere K stuck his hand down my shirt and announced "Mom I'm trying to reach your lollipop."

The boys were arguing about something and the Bug got super mad at Reed and reeled back to hit him. I yelled "Kieran do not push or hit your brother." Kieran then turns to me and nonchalantly asks  "how about kick?"

Kier isn't exactly known as being a tidy eater and his face was covered in mess after his snack. I jokingly asked "did you get any granola bar in your belly or is it all on your face?" to which he replied,  "no, some is in my butt!"

One night Reed was having a complete meltdown over not liking what I had prepared for dinner. K calmly turned to him and said "just go with the flow Reed."

I was hurrying to get out the door one morning and threw my bag on across my body as I rushed through the house. Kieran looked at me completely perplexed when I walked into his room and asked "where's your other boob?" Confused, I looked down to find the body part in question was a bit smashed down by the bag's strap.

For one of our Halloween celebrations Kieran wore a traditional (I believe Cambodian) outfit Nonna and Pepe had brought back from their travels. We told him he was dressed as a Cambodian Man but for some reason the only thing that stuck was the Man part. Then at the party he spilled juice onto the costume's top and immediately started yelling "I spilled juice on my manhood!!!"

When the Bug goes along with me on my runs I usually let him watch a show for about 20 minutes of the jog. For some reason on this particular day he didn't want his usual Peppa Pig or Super Why and started asking me to play the videos Grandma and Nonna show him. When I explained I wasn't sure which videos they show him, he exasperatedly told me "you just type in YouTube Mom!"

The other morning at breakfast Reed declared that he has 10 fingers. Kier looked down at his hands and slowly began counting his fingers. When he got to the last one he said "10, Reed we match!!!"

Holiday Performances

This week the boys each had a holiday performance. Reed was one of the three Wise Men for his school Christmas program and did a great job singing all of the songs and doing all of the hand gestures. The performance was in the middle of the day, but Jon, Kieran, Nonna, Grandma, and I were all able to attend. Reed's class performed with the other classes at school that day, which meant Clara was on stage at the same time, which Kieran absolutely loved! After the program we were invited back to the classroom to receive a special Christmas gift the kids had made for us.

Clara with her class

On Friday Kieran's Toddler Tunes music class got to perform at a local retirement home. Since the kids are so young a parent is asked to accompany them on stage and since the class is filled with all of our local friends it was once again a stage full of my friends and their kids, which is absolutely hilarious for the Grandparents and Dads to see! All the Grandparents were able to attend the performance and were super impressed with all the Kiddos. They sang three songs, two music class songs, and Jingle Bells and Kieran totally rocked it - singing loudly and clearly almost all of the words and playing his instruments as well. After the performance the kids had a great time checking out all of the cool gingerbread houses the residents had made and we even managed to get a couple of family pictures in.

These two together is just about the cutest thing!

Dad mimicking the boys' staged smiles

Kieran decided he wanted to be part of Lyla's family

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I've been unexpectedly busy with work the last couple of months but despite that I've been trying to fit in fun activities with the kids and family time for the four of us. There are so many things to do this time of year and so I've tried to embrace the Holidays without adding to much additional stress or chaos to the household. So far I think we've had a pretty successful Christmas season!

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Kingsburg has a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. You meet in the memorial park, then walk down the main street singing Christmas Carols, the big tree in the middle of town is lit, Santa makes an appearance, and everyone dances around while singing Swedish songs. Kieran had a blast dancing and singing and was in love with Santa. Jon and Reed weren't quite as enthusiastic and unfortunatley the only picture I managed to take was a family pic of the Suemotos (the Parkinsons and Siegels were also there).

Since we didn't have any family in town this year for Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas the weekend after. The boys loved decorating the mini-trees they get to put in their rooms and had a great time helping decorate our family tree as well. There is something magical about a Christmas tree and almost every morning they end up with their toys right by the tree playing, which is adorable!

Pretty much every fall/winter Jon and some of his friends do some kind of fitness challenge. This year there were a bunch of different exercises that had to be performed by each teammate so they gathered at our house one night to have the competition. We invited all of the wives and kids over too and had a fun little pizza party while the guys sweated it out in the front yard. Most of the guys were growing mustaches for "Movember" so I forced them to take a group picture before the competition began.

Team Movember

As is our tradition every year, we went to the Electrical Farm Equipment Parade in Reedley this year. Grandma was out of town but Grandpa joined us to watch the parade. Almost all of our Kingsburg friends made it too. The floats and equipment were pretty impressive this year and the weather was really nice so we had a great evening of Holiday Festivities.

 

 

Reed has been obsessed with doing crafts lately and came up with the idea of making Christmas Lights. He wasn't too sure about Kieran's take on it, but we had fun, and he was so proud of the end result!

I've been trying to work through my Christmas to-do list when I feel like it and can enjoy doing the stuff and not worrying about the unimportant things I don't get to. So far this has worked out really well for my sanity. Over the weekend Reed helped me wrap gifts and he was so excited to wrap the gift that he picked out for Kieran and pretty proud when he wrote both his and Kieran's names on the gift tag all by himself.

We have a few more Holiday outings planned which I know the boys are going to love and I promise to share. To say they are excited for Christmas this year is an understatement!!!