update

Well, the kids were so cute tonight. Kai built a wall of toyboxes with a tunnel through it so the kids could chase each other. They were giggling so much. It was sooooo cute. Then tonight before bed Levi got in on giving goodnight kisses to me and Kai. I think I got 20 goodnight kisses! Levi is learning new things by leaps and bounds. When Barney comes on the tv he is thrilled and marches along to the song. i think I let the kids watch too much tv sometimes. I asked if they wanted to watch "Wordworld" and levi went over, picked up the remote and brought it over to me while saying "wordworld, wordworld". I took the kids to the playground today and they had a fun time. Levi is fearless. Kai makes instant friends and is a natural leader. He was using sidewalk chalk to write his letters and was really doing well.

Moving

Well, we are finally all moved and settled in the Dallas, Texas area. Kai has taken on talking like a cowboy. He saw two guys with cowboy hats on one of the first days we were here and said, "I SEE COWBOYS! But where are their horses?" Kai also saw a cowboy in the bathroom and had a lot of questions for him buy fortunately daddy helped Kai remember not to ask people questions in the bathroom!

We finally have a fenced yard with no pool. We had a fenced yard with a pool, then an unfenced yard with no pool and we really needed a fenced yard no pool. There is a retaining wall at the back of the yard and Kai climbs it and looks over the side fence to talk to the neighbor kids. There is lots of room to chase Daisy and kick the ball. Fortunately for us Kai really enjoys "collecting rocks." Since the house is new construction there are tons of rocks in the yard that need to be picked up.

We haven't been to church yet in this area but are anxious to find one soon as Kai enjoys Sunday School so much.

Kai has really grown a lot. He has outgrown some of the more troublesome behavior of 3 year olds. He says lots of interesting things in really interesting ways. I would love to spend less time on housework and errands and more time just talking to my kids. But soon enough we will be all unpacked and back to normal life.

Kai is doing a great job of picking up his toys at night before bed. He plays so well with his little brother. They really love each other and I love to see them play together so well. It is fun to see when Kai is making Levi laugh or Levi is tackling Kai. The boys are both at such cute ages. I think it is time to get some family photos done.

Kai swordfighting at the park.

The new place. Hopefully we will move soon.

The first picture is a picture of Kai with his MOPS class singing Christmas songs in church. They sang, "Go tell it on the Mountain." Today, Kai sat at the piano and was playing on it and singing, "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." He makes up his own songs all the time. I think he will really enjoy being in Kids choir one day. I am hoping that after the move we can get him started in Suzuki Piano. He will also be ready for pre-school when he turns 4. I think he will really enjoy it. He is growing so fast. He has outgrown all his 3T clothes and is getting so tall. He is reading a lot of words now. He loves to play "school."

Kai enjoyed Christmas. He says his favorite present was the Playdough Kitchen set. He also got a lot of Wall-E stuff which he really likes.

Kai is very very social. Everybody at church knows him, even if they don't know us! They all know Kai. Kai is so friendly with other kids on the playground. I think he will always have a lot friends.

We really miss our little cousins. Wish we could see them soon.

Christmas!

Well, it has been difficult to focus on the holidays due to a couple of things going on. But, we have been having fun. Kai is super-excited about Christmas and Santa, as any kid would be. Today we will make cookies together to leave out for Santa. We went to the playground and Kai was sword-fighting with 3 other boys for about an hour. Kai was the youngest one, but defintely the most skilled swordsman. :) Levi wanted to get in on the fun too, but we stuck to letting him slide down the slide a bunch which he enjoyed. Kai is getting good at keeping up on the tricycle when we go for walks which is nice.

We are looking forward to moving next month. We sold our house and rented for about 6 months and we have never really completely unpacked. I am ready to live in my own place and unpack everything and hang pictures. The fenced yard at the new place will be really nice to have. There is plenty of room to grow in the house so we hope we can stay put for a little while. We are also looking forward to be closer to our family. I hope we can plan some yearly family reunions on both sides.

Merry Christmas everyone!

in need of prayer

Well I am thinking a lot of some loved ones who need a lot of prayer. If you read this, can you say a prayer? God knows what its about.

Thanksgiving and Soccer Trophy Day

Early Thanksgiving.

Today we officially celebrated Thanksgiving. I wanted to mark the holiday in a significant way but we won't be able to celebrate on the actual day, so we decided to celebrate early. While I was cooking the boys helped daddy build a teepee which was fun for them. The boys also broke out the rocking horse and used it to hunt for Buffalo. This was all in the context of introducing the story of the first thanksgiving. We also all painted pictures of the things we were thankful for. Kai included a Rocket Ship on his picture. ( We were able to see the last shuttle launch from our house, so maybe that is why that was on his mind). We rounded out the Thanksgiving fun with a "Character Builders' cartoon about Thankfulness. Kai has been singing the song to that all day.

During dinner Kai said he wanted 10 sisters or at least one for each of us. I told him that would mean a lot more people he would have to share toys with, but he seemed fine with that.

After dinner he referred to Baby brother Levi as "A poopy pilgrim". He came up with that completely on his own. It was pretty funny.

I have an update about Kai's reaction to the info he learned from the "Why do we eat?" book. Tonight we went for a long walk and stopped at the store and let Kai pick out a lollipop. He was eating it and held it out to me and said. "Is this great food?" I replied, "Well, it is actually junk food. Remember the book said junk food is food that just has sugar in it and doesn't have vitamins or nutrients." He then handed me the lollipop and said he didn't want it because it "didn't do anything to build up my muscles." So that book really had a big impact on him.

Yesterday was a big day for Kai. he played his last soccer game of the season and received a trophy. He was thrilled about that. We were proud of him for playing a great game and sticking with it every week. I think he learned a lot from the experience. We had fun watching him figure it all out.

I will add photos of getting the Soccer trophy and Thanksgiving soon.

soccer, halloween and Gotcha day

My big kid

Kai is really growing up. He has become my little helper all around the house. He was cleaning up his toys in the playroom today and Levi started crying. Kai went over and picked up his baby brother's bottle and brought it to him and put it in his mouth. It was completely adorable.

Today we went to Mops. Kai always has a good time playing with the other kids.. They do a lesson, songs and an art project and get some playground time as well. I asked him about the story today and he said, "The teacher told me to be quiet." I said, "Were you quiet?" and he answered, "A little bit." He was so matter of fact about it.

Kai has been playing Soccer with a bunch of other 3 year olds through the YMCA. He seems half-way interested. I think snack time is his favorite part of the game! :) He will be ready next year.

We read a book at quiet time today called "Why do we eat?". It is a book about the whole process of eating with all kinds of funny illustrations. He was fascinated by it, especially the pages about germs. So for the rest of today he was asking me if there were germs on the food before he ate it.

Kai's favorite things right now are cars. I had a desk page-a-day calendar that was a Car and Driver calendar. So it has a different picture of some fancy or rare care for each day. He has ripped them all out and lays him out on the floor when he plays. He wants to tape them to his walls.

For Kai's Gotcha Day celebration we went to Chuck E Cheese which is Kai's favorite place these days. He played games with daddy for about an hour or so. Then we ate dessert. I found a neat book about Racecars. You can pull out and fold together these different cardboard racecars and fit them on a car that comes with the book. That was a big hit with Kai. We also gave him a birthday cake playdough set.

Kai watched some cartoon where someone "tipped their hat" as a way of saying thank you or something. So now whenever we are out he tips his imaginary hat to waiters and waitresses. It is so cute.

I will never get over how smart and interesting Kai is. His mind is always working.

Grandma likes to tease Kai and tell him she wants him to grow up to be a Dentist. He says, " NO! First I am going to be a rockstar with a guitar, then a racecar driver."

One more funny thing:
I am reading Kai books about the First Thanksgiving. In one they have an illustration of a cooked Turkey and Kai is convinced it is a Camel Hump. He always says, "Are they going to eat that Camel?" when we read the book. So one time I said, "No, they will probably eat that deer." He was totally horrified. Camel humps are ok, but Deer are off-limits for Thanksgiving dinner.

We are moving to an area that has a Chinese Pre-school. I am thinking about starting him there part-time so he can learn some Mandarin.

Little Levi

Levi turned one on Halloween. We had a costume party/birthday playgroup party with a bunch of babies in cute costumes. it was fun. He is as adorable as ever. He is not walking yet but has started to wave and he says, "noooooooo" and "oh no" along with mama dada and bubba. I am enjoying watching him grow and learn. He does tend to terrorize Kai, if you can believe it. :) He likes to wrestle on the floor with his big bubba. He is indecisive right now, he wants up - no, he wants down - no he wants up, etc. On Sunday, I overheard Kai pointing out his Baby brother to another preschool in his Sunday School class. Kai had great pride in his voice about his baby brother. That really warmed my heart. I hope those two will have great fun growing up together.

Gotcha!

November 6, 2005 was the date I first held my little son in my arms. He was 8 months old. He was so quiet and curious about these new people in his life. After a few hours he became this bright, happy, giggling baby. I had no clue about babies or parenthood but little Kai endured my ineptness. :) Kai was instantaneously the center of our lives and attention. We already loved him before we met him, but once he was in our arms we had the joy of getting to know him. Like all parents with their first child, we were amazed every day by the way he was growing and learning.

He is not a baby anymore and technically isn't even a toddler anymore. One day he will hate hearing this, but to me he will always be my baby.

the franz

Kid's spray park in our neighborhood




























































Kai's homemade playdough.































This is our neighborhood pool. It has a pretty cool waterslide.

Remembering September 11th

My maternal grandfather recently passed away. In reflecting on what I knew of him and his life, I felt that his survival of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 seemed to define his life. I recall him telling the story of the sinking of his ship the USS West Virgina and of swimming to shore and even of helping friends who were not strong swimmers to shore. I remember him saying that he brought bodies of friends who perished to shore. Initially after the attack, his mother was told that he had died. His hometown paper even printed his obituary but his mother refused to believe that he was dead. Her gut feeling was right. My grandfather survived. My mother tells me that her father would wake her and her siblings early every December 7th and remind them of Pearl Harbor and tell them never to forget the attack on Pearl Harbor. He went on to lead the Texas Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors and to preserve the memories of that day and to remember those that died.

On 9-11 I was on my way to my first class of the day at SLU law when I heard that a plane had "clipped" a building in New York. By the time I was back in my car after class on my way to work I was hearing that both towers had collapsed. I remember when I heard in real time that a plane had struck the Pentagon. I remember thinking, "This can't be real. How is this happening?" I was in such shock I wanted to pull over and cry. That was the moment where I felt the most fear. I believe that in my own life, 9/11 forever changed my whole perspective and sense of safety and security.

As a child I thought my grandfather's old war stories were told to entertain or for my grandfather to relive some adventure of his youth. After, 9-11 I understood much more deeply the feelings of Americans on Dec 7th 1941 when America was under attack on our own soil. I understood their drive to do all that was necessary so the events of that day would never happen again and their drive to never let that day be forgotten. I thought today, while watching the 9-11 remembrance ceremonies: I hope my children never experience the emotions we experienced as individuals and as a country on that day. This is all the more reason why we should never let that day be forgotten.

I hope my grandfather and those that died on 9-11 rest in peace.

Levi

p.s. Levi clapped his hands today a whole lot. Also, he is a perfect Halloween baby as he has teeth coming in on top with a space between them. So I think he will have to be a pumpkin this year.

bedtime prayers

Tonight Kai prayed:

"Dear God:

Thank you for giving me a wonderful day and blessing me and protecting me from Giants, and Scarecrows and Pumpkins. And thank you for the Zoo and the spray park. Amen."

First given all the time outs today I am glad he still feels it was a wonderful day. Second, I want in on the protection from Giants, Scarecrows and Pumpkins!

More funny stuff

ok, yesterday I went to a craft store ( totally foreign territory) to find Halloween stuff for Levi's upcoming Halloween/birthday bash. I spotted these paintable wooden masks that looked like a neat activity for any older siblings that might be there so I picked up a few and some paint from the seasonal aisle located at the front of the store. At the checkout line I realized I had forgotten to get paint brushes and there weren't any with the masks. The clerk and I were both unsure of exactly where else in the store they could be.

As we were discussing how we could go about finding the right brushes Kai said, "Just use your instincts mom, just use your instincts!"

Sadly, mommy has no crafting instincts!

Our new neighborhood has lots of paths through the woods so we take nice long walks with the kids a lot.

































This picture was taken on the 4th day or so of the cruise to Mexico and I remember this being the first time on the trip that we truly felt relaxed.


































Cruise to Mexico when Levi was 4 months! The first time he was at the beach was in Mexico.

funny stuff

Well, last week was Kai's first VBS ever and he had a blast of course. The VBS day would start out with a little play around the theme of a treasure hunt as a metaphor for seeking God's word. Well the first night after VBS when we were saying prayers Kai said, "Don't forgot about God's Treasure!". I said, "where's God's Treasure?". Kai replied, "In the flowerpot!". So, at least on Day one, the treasure hunt metaphor did not quite accomplish its goal. But by the end of the week I think Kai figured it all out. Since I had Levi with me during the Day, I helped out the VBS by helping in the snack room. Some of the groups had a little more time than they needed for snack and their group leaders would have a little trouble keeping them in their seats. Well one morning on the way to VBS Kai said to me, " I am going to eat my snack . . . and then I am going to run around like a maniac!" It was funny to see him *planning* out his disobedience for the day.

Kai has an imaginary sister which is new. I am feeling a little pressure. :)