In other news

Aside from the patch there have been a couple other recent developments that are worth sharing here. The first is that Kai and I started a new preschool yesterday. I say Kai and I, because we are doing a co-op preschool. Kai will go three days a week and I work in the classroom one of those days. Our first day was awesome.

Kai and I have been having a few challenges lately. He has been pushing his boundaries with me especially and it has been trying. There are days when I have tried everything I know and he still won't let up. Thank god he's so cute and awesome and that we have so a many fun times in between it all, because it has been a doozy some days. So, part of the reason I chose this preschool is because they require that you take parenting classes. I see this as a huge opportunity for me to gain more tools for my parenting tool belt and to make connections with other parents who are interested in doing the same thing. Mark and I both went to the first class last week and loved it then yesterday Kai and I had our first day in the classroom and it was so great. I can tell already that it is going to be a wonderful experience for us. The class is teacher lead and the teacher is so great with the kids and her ability to model effective communication with the kids. I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this program and am looking forward to what I will learn and how it will improve my relationship with Kai to make it even better.

The second thing I wanted to share was about a recent trip to the doctor. Kai's thumb was swollen and we thought it may have been injured somehow so we wanted to have it checked out. It ended up being a minor skin infection, very common and nothing to worry about. He has taken antibiotics and his thumb is fine.

During our visit with Dr. H (our pediatrician who we absolutely love), he was asking Kai a bunch of questions like what's his favorite color, what's his favorite animal, what's his favorite letter, Kai told Dr. H that he can count to 100 and ended up counting all the way to 30 while we were there. He talked to Dr. H about all kinds of stuff and after their little chat, Dr. H told me that Kai's ability with language, numbers and the way he is able to connect ideas is very rare for his age. He said he often doesn't see it even with kids going in to kindergarten (which is two years older then Kai) and that to put it in perspective he has 1,600 patients and he sees a kid like Kai maybe once a year.

Whoa, that was kind of crazy to hear. I mean we know Kai is smart but hearing the doctor say this really hit home. I realized he may be acting out with me because he's feeling a little bored. Dr. H brought it up because he said it's definitely something we want to be aware of as he goes into school so that we supplement his education if necessary.

So that's the latest around here. New school, patch and smartie pants. It's been a crazy couple weeks. We are so proud of Kai and even with the crazy days he is a truly amazing little boy. He is funny and silly and very sweet, a truly awesome kid.

The patch

Kai went to the eye doctor this week for his 6 month check up and we learned he will need to start wearing a patch for about 4 hours a day for three months. After three months we will go in for another check up to see if he will need to continue with the patch or not.

He has something called amblyopia which is where one of his eyes has become dominant and the other less dominant eye gets lazy. It's also called "lazy eye." This is why one of his eyes crosses when he has his glasses off.

The crazy thing is, it's about his eye, but even more about his brain. The reason for the patching is to build up the muscles in his eye and retrain his brain to start using that eye too. Seeing is a team effort after all :) I was laughing with Mark because Kai is super competitive and it just seems to make sense his eyes would be too - ha ha! Hey left eye - ease up and give that right one a chance!

As you can probably imagine getting an almost 4 year old to wear a patch isn't the easiest task, but he's doing great. With lots of encouragement, some help from the iPad and daddy's silly antics, he seems to understand this is just something he has to do. Knock on wood things continue this way... three months is a long time people and four hours a day is no joke.

Last night during his bath Mark took a couple pics so you could see the patch in action. And the other one is from this afternoon. This is his "say cheese" face - so silly.

Fun weekend around town!

This weekend we had NO PLANS!! So we decided to have fun around town and do a little exploring :)

 On Saturday morning we hit up a new breakfast/lunch spot right down the street from us for the 1st time called Sax's Joint. It was tasty, family run and had just the right amount of attitude to get our weekend started on the right foot :) (it is owned by a mother and her daughter's team and the mom was our server and would not take Kai's order until he said "please" Nice!) We will be back!

Next we drove about 20 minutes North to Santa Rosa to play around in both Howarth park & Spring Lake park. First stop was some peddle boating. Hey why not?!  Kai was not too happy about the life vest though.... until...

 He realized he was the captain! haha :)

 Kai even figured out how to help peddle while sitting on mama's lap!

 

 Right next to the lake was a train that Kai & I took a trip on before we played at the playground where Kai found the biggest kids he could find and followed them around like their shadow until we realized it was time to move on...

 

 We drove about 5 minutes to Spring Lake's swimming lagoon for a swim. This place is right out of 1960. In fact it was built as a flood control measure for the area in 1962. It is spring fed and the water quality is tested daily... FUN!

 A surprisingly nice "snack shack" was located next to the lake & lagoon!!!

 We will definitely be here more often next year! Kai was showing off his new swimming moves and swam all the way out to the float line all by himself! It was farther than he could touch at 4' so proud :)

 After all that swimming we thought Kai was down for the count until...

 SOFT SERVE! WHAT!?! It was a super fun day.

 Kai has been really into space and the planets and the moon lately. We have been talking a lot about it and watching videos about space flight, lunar landings, craters, lunar rovers, the space shuttle, mars, etc, etc, etc... I love this stuff too! Oh and this picture... Well Kai has had a fort set up for a while and I randomly decided to use part of it for my space alien outfit!

 Kai immediately got into the act creating his alien costume :)

 Life on Mars...

Swimming Part 2

Here is Part 2 of Kai's first round of swimming lessons. He did awesome and made amazing strides in his two weeks. So much so, that we signed him up for another round, which just ended last week. I took a bunch of videos from that session too, which I will compile and post. We went to the pool at our gym today anf he had a blast, some of the time with his floatie and some of the time without. He is definitely so much more courageous in the water now, which is good and at times a little scary. Thankfully mama is always close by.

Mark and I have decided recently that Kai's new nickname should be Kai "go time" Hales because he is pretty much always in motion and ready for the next thing. His teacher in his most recent round of swimming lessons was always commenting on how he was such a wiggle bug.



Swimming Part 2 from Jenna Hales on Vimeo.

What's up doc?

We pulled our biggest carrot this season from the garden today. Kai enjoyed it with his dinner.

Kai and the Giant Whale

Tutu came for a visit last week and we told her ahead of time we wanted to make a sea creature for Kai's bedroom...and with Tutu's help, we made a giant whale! It turned out awesome. Kai painted pretty much the entire thing and was so pleased with how it turned out. He actually had us move his bed so he is now sleeping underneath the whale.

My mom (Tutu) has a true talent for creative projects - especially things made out of paper, so I knew she would be the perfect person to help us. It was lots of fun.

A wink and a smile

Kai just learned how to wink! This is a pic and a short video from today ;)

Kai is in the local paper!

We went to the Petaluma Music Festival this weekend and Kai got his picture in the paper!

Here's a screen shot:

and a link to the article about the event:

http://www.petaluma360.com/home/2469804-181/petaluma-music-festival-hits-the#page=3

More photos to come, but had to share this fun tid bit!!