Kai's second birthday / 4th of July

We woke up to a cool overcast day after so much hot. Kai's second birthday!!!! My baby's growing up.

Two years ago today I was brought to my knees with labor pains after 64 days of bed rest. Will and I went to the hospital in Denver and he was born after 12 hours of labor as a successful VBAC. Poppa took Lorna to the zoo and then to watch fireworks at the top of 19th at Norwood. She still remembers that day and night and how well taken care of she was by Poppa. I believe she had 2 ice cream cones in a tutu at the zoo.

Kai has such sweet energy. He is content to play with his trucks, and loves kisses and cuddles. Kai is subjectively adorable and his blond curls, green eyes and fair skin made him a rock star in China. He is starting to act like a 2 year-old and it's still sweet: "No!" as he takes a cookie from my hand.

Kai has been teaching me to trust his process. He didn't nurse for the first month, didn't crawl until 12 months, walked at 17, now he's running and sliding like others his age. He wasn't speaking according to the milestone charts so he started speech therapy. The specialists were using terms like "apraxia" and told me that his development would be my full-time job. He now says all his sounds, is putting two words together and has always been able to communicate his needs. He's no longer in the "red flag" arena. There have been times when I was very scared. Others when the mama bear in me needs to seek out the help he may need, but he has his own timeline and I need to learn to trust him. He's a mellow guy and he's just fine. He is an observer who likes to wait until he can do things perfectly. The prospect of Lucy's adoption and not knowing what her needs would be, made me nervous for my ability to nurture Kai. In fact, she has caused his language to blossom. He's even picking up her Cantonese! They really are at a similar level although as Lucy says "pizza" perfectly, Kai says something more like "piffla". But she's bumping him up a notch. New words today: bug, rain, wind, "Kai guy's diaper" and "open eyes".

Kai's favorite activities: driving by construction sites, parking trucks on the couch, juice in bed to which he repeatedly says "oh juice!", bubbles at bath time, exploring the perimeter of parks, reading books about dump trucks and fire engines, watching youtube videos of the same, watching Daddy's car pull up at the end of the day and eating fruit - any kind of fruit.

What a blessing you have been, Mr. Kai.