The Hapa's

What?? How is my little monkey 1 and a half already?? All I know is that the time is going so fast and we are having so much fun!

Everyday it is something new, whether that is new words or new tricks. Kekoa is starting to "feed" Paulie. When he is eating his breakfast, lunch, or dinner, he'll call for Paulie "wa wa" and then give him a spoonful of whatever he is eating. It is super adorable. The other night, Kekoa zipped up his own pj's! Ok, not all the way from the bottom, but probably about from halfway! I was super impressed and he was super proud of himself.
He can't stand it when I put my hair up. If he sees me putting it in a ponytail, he starts to whine and fuss. When I take it out, he says "Oh mama"! It is the strangest thing to not like!
He seems to be growing like a weed...he's in size 5 diapers and size 6 shoes. His 18 month doctor checkup is on Monday, so we'll see how much he weighs then.
Kekoa is a super helper now. He loves to clean up his cars and his books before he goes to bed or before we leave to go out. He'll also put dirty clothes in the hamper. He waddles over, with his clothes in his pudgy little hands, and puts them into his blue basket. He makes sure they get in there too. If a sock or something falls out, he'll pick it up!

Talking...Kekoa is talking up a storm. He is stringing together two words, all kinds of two word combo's. Sometimes he combines a Chinese word with an English word! Some of the combo's are..., "wa wa car" when there is water on the car, "xie xie baba or mama", thank you baba, mama, and "star mama" when his night light shines stars on my arms. It is pretty amazing and every day he picks up new words. He really is like a sponge and you never know what he is going to say or what he is picking up on. We were at the park and he heard a little boy saying "all aboard" and then he started saying it! He loves to mimic what we are saying, always with a big smile on his face.

Sleeping...Kekoa's sleep is pretty much the same. He takes one nap a day, around noon, sleeps for about 2 hours average. Scott puts him to sleep for his nap with his lovey. Some days he is so ready that he takes Scott's hand and leads him into the bedroom for his nap! It is really cute. I put him down to sleep at night, after his bath, story, and nursing. He takes longer to fall asleep at night, sometimes up to an hour! He is usually asleep by 8:00. He sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning, with a night feeding or two.

Nursing...Kekoa is still nursing, but definitely not as much. He has cut out his morning feeding (on most days), but still loves to nurse at night. When I turn off the light to go to sleep, he yells, "nai nai", in excitement. It is amazing to me that I can still provide nourishment for my little monkey. I remember how hard it was to nurse in the beginning, I never thought I would be able to nurse for this long.

Obsessions...He still is obsessed with books and will snuggle on the couch for almost an hour, entranced in the books. Richard Scary books are his favorite right now. He also knows the orange cloth bag is the "library book bag" and gets super excited to pull out all the new books from the library. What is Kekoa most obsessed about? Cars, cars, and cars. He wakes up in the morning and the first thing he says is, "car car"...he is calling his car. Not just any car, but his wooden police car. He doesn't go anywhere with out it, and when I say anywhere, I mean he won't even leave to go into another room without it. I love hearing him call things now, whether it is "car car" or "wa wa" (Paulie). He'll call them, with the same intonation as when I am calling "Kekoa" and looking for him. So cute. He has also become more sophisticated in his playing. My favorite is when he poofs his bottom lip out to make the sound for a car. He'll "drive" his car up and down on my legs, which I think is so cute!
Paulie is still his favorite stuffed animal. He has others that he loves, but Paulie is the one he looks for and Paulie is the one he wants to feed food to. He's also become very attached to his lovey...we call it his "bao bao" (which translates roughly to lovey). He looks for it first thing in the morning when he wakes up and definitely needs it for his nap.

Kekoa is also obsessed with the moon. He still loves it and still loves to go and look for it after dinner. His nightlight has the moon, so now he asks for it when he wakes up in the morning and the room is still dark. We turn it on and he gets to see the moon in the room!

Kekoa is definitely obsessed with music and dancing. We still go to music class once a week and this is by far his favorite session. He sings the songs and actually requests them to be played. His favorite song right now though is "Jump the line". We have played it about 50 times. He'll run over to the laptop and say "shake shake" ( line in the song). He could listen to that song all day long. And of course, how can we resist his sweet little face and the way it lights up when we play it. Then of course he runs over, with his arms stretched up, so we can pick him up and boogie down! A great way to get a little cardio in the middle of the day!

Each new day is a new adventure with Kekoa. I was telling Scott that he is at his ultimate cuteness right now. He still has some "baby" but the toddler in him is so adorable. He is the sweetest, happiest, most mellow little boy, loves to share, and really loves to snuggle. He still loves to give head bump kisses and will now do it on his own if we are leaving somewhere. We really lucked out to have such a special little boy. We love him more and more each day, if that is possible!

After music class today, Kekoa joined his friends, Ty and Noah, in splashing and enjoying a little outside time. I'm so happy that Kekoa picked out his camo rain boots because boy was he having so much fun splashing in the puddles. Ty was teaching him how to really stomp and get the best splash! It was adorable to watch these little guys running around. A great way to burn off some extra energy before heading home for dinner.

Uh oh...we're busted! :)

Do it like this Kekoa!

Noah is so smiley all the time! :)

When we were eating dinner, I asked Kekoa what his favorite part of the day was. He kept saying, "ty ty, wa wa", over and over, with a big cheezy grin on his face! He really did have so much fun playing in the water.