The Ice Cream Man...or is he?

I had to be careful about what I titled this post because my sister-in-law was concerned that I might get myself into trouble if I labeled it the way I would like to. I mentioned to a few of you recently that I had an epiphany that our ice cream man really sells drugs. The reason for my speculation is this:

1. He is scary and creepy looking
2. His ice cream trunk is totally junky
3. His ice cream co. is from a city/town 2 towns away = why would you drive so far to sell ice cream for $1?
4. He comes at the same time each time, and comes frequently (and I swear he came in the winter time last year, as well as when it was raining. Who buys ice cream when it is cold and wet outside?)
5. We don't have many kids that live in our condo complex
6. He turns on his music until he gets to the back of our condo complex, turns it off for 5 or so minutes, and then goes around the other half of the complex without turning his music back on...why not turn it back on to possibly get more sales?
7. The only reason you would come all the way over here, only turn your music on for part of the time, and not care about what you look like is because you are here to make a much larger profit selling something other than ice cream, and I know we have a cocaine addict that lives in our complex

So I told Nathan my speculation a week or so ago, and he thought I was crazy, and stupid for wanting to meddle and spy to see who is buying the ice cream. I thought, "How suspicious is it to buy ice cream from an ice cream man?" I just wanted to see if it was the addict coming to buy "ice cream"...how much trouble could that be?

Well today I was in the kitchen while the boys were playing in our family room, and I hear "Pop Goes the Weasel" getting louder and louder--the ice cream man was here! I started scrambling all around trying to determine if I was going to be stupid and investigate. I asked Chase, "Chase, do you want to go and get ice cream?" He responds, "Yeah, I am excited!" which is not a word I have ever heard him use before. So at this point I have to go because now my son is excited. I grab his bank, because he has all this change that we could use to buy the cheapest ice cream, and then I grab him and we leave Kai to entertain himself for a few minutes, (in retrospect that was a stupid move because what if something bad happened to me in my investigative work and I was never able to come back to my baby?) Anyway, I go running up the hill towards the back of the complex with Chase in one arm laughing, and his bank in the other, totally looking like an idiot. I make it in time before the driver looks like he is going to pull away. I see a Hispanic man and his little boy walking away from the truck, his little boy holding an ice cream, I didn't catch to see if his dad was holding his own "treat" :), and I run up to the ice cream window. The scary Indian man glares down at me when I ask what the least expensive ice cream is, and I pick out an Orange Creamsicle for Chase, because of course he has clammed up when we are around a stranger. So I am handed the ice cream, and when I am about to turn away, there he is! The coke addict! He is coming to the ice cream truck and he says, "Hey Boss, I'll have the banana fudgesicle" or something like that. At this point I had said "Hey", to be a polite neighbor, but had to start walking away to look normal. I didn't see how much money he gave to the driver for his inexpensive ice cream, but I am willing to bet that a druggie, coming to buy ice cream in the middle of the day, by himself, who is a grown man, and who refers to the ice cream man as "boss" in a familiar way, is buying something more than ice cream. So now I know, my speculation is almost 100% correct, but I really don't know if there is any other way to prove it, nor if I should try. This addict is a scary guy with 2 pitbulls. They have never done anything to us, but I know they are capable of it, so I think I will mind my own business from now on. At least I know, and at least I can let all of you know to watch out for scary ice cream men.

"Kai" = Fire

You would never be able to tell from this picture that our little Kai can be quite the fireball. When we chose the name Kai, we liked its many meanings: ocean, beautiful, leader, enlightened one, and many more. However, in Irish, the name means fire, and we are coming to see that Kai has a fiery personality, and to add to the fieriness, he seems to be slowly growing red hair.

Since I mentioned in my last posting that we were going to let Kai cry it out last night, I should mention how that went. I was surprised at how well it went. He started crying two hours after being put down, but after 10 minutes was silent. I think he woke up two more times, and cried no longer than 20 minutes at his longest interval. I went in to feed him close to 5am, and then he slept until 7am. I am thinking that in the near future I will no longer go in to do that morning feed, but I don't want to cut him cold turkey. I am hoping that tonight will go even better.

Anyway, I am only doing the cry-it-out method during the night, and surprisingly Kai has been slowly extending his naptimes from 40 min. on the dot, to sometimes an hour, and sometimes even an hour and a half. Well this afternoon he woke up a little before 40 min., but he was in there talking having a great ol' time. This is unusual since he normally wakes up with a shrieking cry that makes anyone want to get him to make it stop. So since he was having a good time, I thought I wouldn't go in and interrupt. Well he eventually started his normal cry so Chase and I went in to get him up. This is what we walked in to see...

I cracked up when I saw him up there because when I put him to bed he was up against the rolled up blanket, swaddled, (in the blanket that is bunched up on the right,) with one arm out. He not only managed to get out of the swaddle and inch his way upwards, but he also took off the bumper, and was underneath it. I guess he is telling me that he is finally ready to be fully unswaddled :).

You can't quite tell by the picture, but he was quite mad that I hadn't picked him up right away, but rather ran to the other room to grab the camera to take pictures. And I normally don't have him only sleep in a diaper, although it is warm enough to, but he is soooo drooly that his outfit was completely soaked that I didn't want him to have to sleep in it.

He is a funny boy, and I just wonder what we are in for as this little fireball continues to grow up. I can just see him now, a tall, skinny, redhead, with a big head and bouncing off the walls, not to mention shrieking at the top of his lungs...oh no!

AHHHH I am SOOOOO Tired

I figured I would come on here briefly before jumping in the shower, (since I take them at nights due to my mornings often being too crazy), to share that I am trying something different with the whole getting Kai ready to share a room with Chase. So far I haven't had a lot of luck with Kai sleeping through the night. Last night, for whatever reason, he decided to wake up every, and I mean every, hour and a half. Needless to say I was ticked and am pretty exhausted today. I didn't feed him, except for once close to 4am, but figured that by me showing him he didn't get to eat, that he would eventually stop waking up. I have found that there is no easy way with him, he is going to have to cry it out, and cry it out for good. I will go in and reassure him initially in the night, but after that he is going to have to figure out how to soothe himself. This kid is a unique one, and sleeping has never been one of his gifts. I think I have spoiled him by always coming to his aid and giving him his pacifier, but I feel like I really am doing a disservice to him by not allowing him to figure out how to get a good nights sleep, as well as a disservice to me who never gets any rest, (which is why I think I have been having my ear/equilibrium/hearing problems lately). So, tonight I have decided to have Kai get used to sleeping in the crib at night, rather than just at naptimes, and get used to soothing himself. I have convinced Chase that sleeping in the Pak-n-play in the living room is a special treat for a few nights, and we will see how that goes. I figured with Kai crying in a room with a door, we might all be able to escape his piercing, shrieking cry a little bit better. Who knows, tonight is the first night and I am doubtful, but hopeful at the same time. I will have to come back on here and post an update after we give this a go for a few nights. I have to tell myself to be consistent, because it is so easy to give in. Wish us all luck! (Sorry for the long saga, you can tell this is something I think about a lot).

The Latest Pictures

Nathan and Kai enjoying some boy bonding time...watching the t.v.
Kai getting his first bites of rice cereal...not a hit.
Doesn't this face tell you exactly what he thinks?
Chase and Kai love sitting on our rocking chair together. It is nice to see them enjoy being together as well as entertain each other, even if it is only seconds at a time.
I can't believe I actually got them to both make decent faces at the same time. Not the best picture of either, but together it works!

Chase attempting to sing

Chase has been singing more lately, and can sing Pat-a-cake, Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle, part of Happy Birthday, and probably a few more. I catch him singing sometimes by himself, but as soon as he sees me it typically stops. Anyway, he was willing to sing for the camera today, but as soon as I bring it out he starts acting goofy and mumbling all of his words. So this isn't the best example of him singing, but I thought I would put it on here for my mom to hear him sing "Happy Birthday" to her since it is our birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Mom, even though you will probably never come on here to see this :). I love you so much, and thanks for giving birth to me on your birthday 26 years ago.

More SB Pictures

There were a few more pictures I wanted to post but they wouldn't fit on my last posting. Not that this is a great picture of me by any means, but I am always the photographer and people have complained that there are never any pictures of me. I had to have my hair up most of the trip, which is so not like me, but there was so much humidity that my hair was really frowy! Now Nathan has seen my ears better and realizes where Kai gets his from :).
Since Chase made so many sandcastles on our trip, I had to at least post one of the pictures capturing the master builder at work. I think we need to get a sandbox for our place!
Kai began his stranger anxiety stage while we were on our trip. He would smile at others as long as I was holding him. Too bad we couldn't get a picture of him at least being decent with "Nammy Bobbie". Thankfully Chase is good at saying "Cheese" and is smiling for us on cue when we need to take pictures.
Last but not least, we were able to dogsit while we housesat. This is Teagan, and she was a really good dog. She would even come into our room at night to let us know that Kai was crying in the other room. She put up with Chase screaming because he was scared of her, (and he never did warm up to her completely), she was laid back, and an overall great dog. Nathan and I still aren't dog people, even though we thought we were a few years ago, but we enjoyed spending time with her, and couldn't have watched a better dog.

Vacationing in Santa Barbara

We got so lucky this last week to be able to go and housesit for someone in Nathan's mom's ward. We were able to stay in their nice home, just our little family of 4, which was sooo nice since Kai was able to sleep in a bedroom rather than our family room at night :). The weather was in the 70s and 80s our whole stay, so we were able to escape the 100+ degrees back here at home.
The home we stayed at had a jacuzzi, lawn to play on, a hammock (as you can see we enjoyed that), a fire pit where we were able to toast marshmallows, and it was so airy and bright with windows all over the house.
We were able to go to the beach every other day, and despite Chase being scared of the water, he loved building sand castles and getting himself covered in sand.
Santa Barabara has a really nice zoo, and we were able to enjoy seeing all of the animals one of the days we were there. Chase liked seeing them, but I think he enjoyed just running and jumping around, and going on the train ride.
We were also able to visit Nathan's family, even though they gave us our space and allowed us to truly have a great vacation, and here are the boys with "Cuppy Steve" as Chase calls him. We were also able to spend time with "Nammy Sandy" and "Nammy Bobbie" who the boys love, and Chase always asks and talks about. It was a lot of fun and we were spoiled by each of them. We will miss them, but were grateful to see them.