The Caterpillar

Okay, I am the ultimate "talk tough" parent. I say that my kid(s) aren't going to be like the typical spoiled American child. Nope, my kid(s) are going to know the meaning of a dollar! My kid(s) are definitely not going to know what it is like to have everything they want. My kid(s) will walk 5 miles to school every day just like their mom and dad did (oh, and it's uphill both ways without shoes [and they'll like it]). I held tight to that belief for a whole 101 days of actually being a parent...ugh! At this time, I would like to introduce to you; THE CATERPILLAR:

Behold, Kai's first material request. On Saturday (4/26), we went to Babies R Us to purchase some new bottles for Kai. As we were walking around the store, I would show various toys to Kai to see his reaction (bad idea). I probably showed him about 20 different toys while we were walking around and he was not interested in any of them. I was very proud of myself and the way that I am raising my son, since it is my great parenting skills that has prevented my son from being materialistic. My pride came crashing to the ground like a ton of bricks when we walked past the hanging toy section. I picked up the above caterpillar and showed it to Kai. His face lit up like the 4th of July. He smiled and cooed at the toy. I was putty in Kai's hands and the caterpillar went in to the cart and it is now in our home. Moral of the story? Dad is both a hypocrite and a sucker!!

We had a very eventful Saturday in addition to our eventful trip to Babies R Us. On Saturday we also cleaned the garage (we can now fit all 3 of our cars in to our 3-car garage!), cooked and froze a lot of food (2 pans of lasagna, 39 pizza burgers, 29 chimichangas, 2 meatloaves), and Kai laughed for daddy. On Sunday, we made it to church, cooked more food (seriously, our chest freezer is almost completely full), went for a walk around the neighborhood, and still found a little time to relax (maybe 10 whole minutes).Last night we had a bit of a scare with Kai. He fell asleep while mom was holding him instead of in his crib last night. After a while, it was my turn and Kai slept on my chest (as pictured above). While he was sleeping on my chest he started screaming like he was in a lot of pain. We took off his clothes and found that his feet and lower legs were bright red, swollen, and really hot to the touch. It was both of his legs so it probably wasn't a bug bite. We called the doctor and stumped him. We were able to get the swelling to go down a bit by keeping his legs elevated above his heart. Once the swelling went down, he fell asleep.

This morning, his feet were still a bit red but other than that he was pretty much back to normal. Stephanie chose to work from home to stay close by. She decided to take him to the doctor for a visit. The doctor checked Kai out but didn't see anything that he was concerned about. At the visit though, they weighed Kai and he is now tipping the scales at a whopping 14.5 pounds.

because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1:78-79