A Grand Old Time

All is going well, Kiva napping. She was quite intimidated by all the ladies, so I wound up carrying her on my hip like when she was a baby to keep her close. When Chris arrived they disappeared with the dogs upstairs and then outside. What a sweetie that guy is, he and Kiva had a grand old time with all my buttons, rubber stamps, toys etc. [Joan]

Where did this tomato come from?

Scene: Kiva and I having dinner, she is fully enjoying her chicken as she is asking me lots of questions:

Kiva: Where did this tomato come from?

Mom: A farmer grew it and delivered it to the store, I picked it up from store.

Kiva: How about this mushroom?

Mom: Same as tomato.

Kiva: Where did the chicken come from?

Mom: Well….some people eat animals…interruption from Kiva..

Kiva: WHO EATS ANIMALS????

Mom: Sigh…well our family eats chicken and chicken’s an animal

Some families eat animals, some families choose not to eat animals and that is fine too.

Kiva: Well I LIKE animals, they taste GREAT!! [Vanessa]

Oh, I Love Tofu

We went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I put some of the tofu from the miso soup on Kiva's plate and she said "oh, I love tofu" and ate it right up, using her chopsticks! The waiter had rubber banded them together at one end for her. She wouldn't try the miso soup until I told her it tasted like tofu, then she drank the whole bowl. She was a little sweetie again yesterday, and the grumpy grampa was heard to say last night after she left that she was an "enchanting" child. Kiva ate well, slept well, and we had a long laughing soak in the hot tub in the rain. She has learned many of her letters and I told her that when she knows them all we will do something special, maybe a train ride. Also, I have some lovely Madame Alexander dolls, the characters from Little Women, and I told her when she can read the book the dolls are hers to take home. Kiva really is a very very intelligent little girl even if I am a biased grammie. When we read stories, she will stop me at any word she doesn't know and wait for a definition.
Hope Jack is feeling better and I get to see him today. I really noticed how much he pays attention to his big sister last Wednesday. He is learning a lot by watching and trying to do everything she does. His language is really moving along. When he was finished with his snack on the way home I heard a loud "all gone" from the back seat. [Joan]

The Bad Lotion

Your girl tooooooo funny this afternoon after nap. Kiva played out in the yard while I weeded, Ken worked on his wood stuff, Chris working on his art, dogs romping around. Kiva making the rounds of all of us, visiting, chatting, helping, then moving on.
Later when it was getting late, we were playing on my bed with a bunch of stuffed animals, when she said "I'm going to put some bad lotion on". I was mystified, and said, "I don't think the lotion is bad honey, it looks ok". Kiva answered, "no grammie, it's the kind of lotion that when I put it on I'm bad". So she proceeded to put some lotion on, jump up on the bed and growl, pinch and bite all her animals. Absolutely hilarious. Then she looked at me and said, "I'll put some good lotion on later grammie, then I'll be Kiva again". And later she put some more lotion on and was the good girl again. Where do these little growing brains think of this stuff? When we left the weavers meeting this morning, she said "I didn't know people had white hair grammie, it is very beautiful".[Joan]

Noodle Soup with Mice

Kiva REALLY enjoyed the home made treats (pumpkin delight and chocolate chip cookies) at the meeting, sat quietly with me for about 15 minutes, then colored, then watched her strawberry shortcake dvd. It took her a while to get brave enough to look and move around, but she was just fine. When we went to the bath room, she whispered to me "this is such a nice house grammie". It's a typical 60ish years old widow's house. Lot's of pretty things, flowers, birdhouses, absolutely nothing out of place (not like here) etc. After a while she sat on the bed (right off the living room) and watched her video and played with the dog. Came home, ate our lunch out in the yard, into the hot tub and now she is sleeping.
They are so surprising; Kiva and I were playing with her stuffed toys this morning. She has some stuffed birds and said they were sick. I asked her what I could do for them and she said...make them some soup. I asked her what kind and she said chicken, then no wait grammie, make noodle soup and boil some mice in it for one of them, and boil pine cones for the other one. Hilarious. [Joan]

EAT!!

Yesterday I asked Jack if he was hungry.."do you want to eat?" He immediately went to the kitchen, found the spoon he had thrown on the floor, and stood in front of the microwave, waving the spoon and yelling "EAT!" [Joan]

Staring at the Ceiling

Jack presently out in the yard with Granpa while I take a quick email break. Jack is very affectionate, but he is so energetic that all you get are these brief hugs or snuggles and off he goes. One of the reasons I love giving him his bottle, it's one of the few times he stays in one place; although today he was absolutely determined to stick his finger up my nose! :-) He drank his whole bottle with me staring at the ceiling to keep my nose out of range. [Joan]

Silly Goose

what a character Kiva is! silly goose indeed :-) how she makes us laugh! also how she makes us get all teary eyes with love and appreciation. Kiva did a lot more independent play today, our girl is growing up. She painted deep in solitary thought for a while, and spent quite a bit of time playing her "kitchen' with her dollies and pretend food. Such a treat to listen to her sing or talk to her toys. We are so lucky to have been able to appreciate so many of her baby/toddler days. [Joan]

Email from Kiva

kiva wants to add a note

irfn r f v v v v b hbghbhghhhhfffffffffffffffffffffffffffc bbbbhhhvbvb nvb bv bnvb vb bnvb vbvvffvgifvf i `iiiiiiiiiv`````iiiiiiiiii``````c``````````````fffffffffffffffffffffffrwzw vx vvuyc cftrs

dear mom: I love you momma. We are playing with my jewelry box. And we play with mom's jewelry box. I had a second breakfast. That’s all
Kiva

Hot?

what a treat Jack is today. He has been so energetic!!! but also comes over to grammie pretty often for looooong hugs that are too sweet. When Ken came down this morning, Jack immediately went to his chair and tried to climb up, I helped him into Ken's lap and Jack just laid his little head on Ken's tummy, wrapped his arms around him and just laid there for a long time smiling. Ken had this huge (Who's the special grandparent here?) smile on his face. Jack is also definitely talking. He does ask "hot?", says granpa (papa) and yaks his little head off telling me about his views on things. I had a cup of hot tea and he asked me "hot?", so of course I said yes, and he asked me again and I said yes again. He peeped into the cup and got that devil look again and just had to stick his fingers in it to check. Fortunately I'd put milk in it to cool it down so it wasn't that hot. But this boy is going to test the limits I can tell. We went to Costco with him too and when he got bored with sitting in the cart he walked all over charming everyone as he walked by saying "hi" with that sweetie smile. [Joan]