It’s been a long time since we went over some developmental milestones for Kai. Mama didn’t have much time during their trip to even pay attention to the new things he could do (not to mention 4 new teeth). It wasn’t until she was home for a few days that she noticed a few things:

Kai is left-handed
It’s becoming clear that Kai has a dominate hand, his left. Mama and daddy both noticed that even though he still switches between the two, he is more accurate and seemingly more comfortable wit his left. Mama can’t help but be a little excited that there are now two lefties in our three person family.

There were social leaps
Kai is at this stage of testing the boundaries of acceptable social behaviors. On our trip, he tried to kiss everyone he said goodbye to. Everyone. Store clerks. Kids he met. Women. He likes to make us laugh, see if our answers change, and test his friends. Sharing has become a challenge for one big reason: Kai wants what he wants. You got a cool bike? He wants it (as Cullen learned). You freak out if he takes something from you? Let’s see it again, and again. Luckily, Kai has very forgiving friends who are wiling to help him learn.

Kai has been becoming interested in being around babies. He is surprisingly caring and gentle with them. Kai. even started wrapping his animals in his placemat, giving them to mama and saying, “Baby”. Mama finally went to the store to pick a baby for him to care for.

He’s got nothing but love for baby Alden.

The closet Kai will get to a baby sister.

There were cognitive leaps
Kai is starting to get a grasp on sequences and making choices. Mama can now tell him what he needs to do in order to get what he wants. We talk about what we are going to do for the day, if any friends are coming over, or what we need to do before we get into the car. Kai is learning how to get his snack dish from the cupboard, choose a snack, take it to his table, eat it, then wash his dishes. This is a pretty difficult task but mama and daddy are proud even if he does part of it.

He’s also talk, talk, talking all the time, especially at night. It takes an hour for him to go to bed but mama noticed it’s because he wont stop talking. During the day, he is bringing us an animal and making the sounds. Or he is saying, “beep, beep” while driving any of his locomotive toys. But he is also using language to communicate things he likes, dislikes, what he wants, and what he doesn’t want. He’s singing songs, using words to ask what he wants, and even answering questions.

We’ve also been working on counting. We listen to lots of counting songs and practice counting all sorts of things. Right now, our favorite number to say is “two”.

He wants to do it himself
Ok, this isn’t new. But lately, mama is having trouble getting clothes on him because he wants to do it himself. He is confident that his dressing skills are acceptable. We think he needs more practice.