Living the Khai Life

Here is Khai on his first day of school… orientation that is! We took him to check out the place he will be going for preschool one day a week starting this Wednesday. It is fabulous and he seemed pretty excited about the whole deal. However, I think I will carry his backpack for him as it was so big and heavy that shortly after this picture was taken he toppled backwards from the weight. Don’t worry he wasn’t injured!

Khai has a new favorite seat! He loves the new huge pillow that I bought him for his play room. We are remodeling the basement soon (as I mentioned before) and so the upstairs will be a play room for the boys! I am super excited about it and found the cool seating on sale online. I snatched up two of them, one for each of course! Khai loves it and it has provided some of my new favorite pictures of all time!

Memaw and Papa came to town and when they do we always find ways to have a great time! This time it was to go to the transportation museum. Khai got to ride the train, but, as you will see in the pictures Papa got to ride up front with the engineer! Khai thought that it was pretty cool and he even took the opportunity to sit like a big boy with Memaw while Papa navigated. It was a great time and I of course got some fun pictures:

As you can see, we have been pretty busy living the Khai life! But, as always, we are loving it!!

It was Gpa’s birthday last Thursday! He is 83 years young. Gpa and Gma moved down here to STL last fall and they have been the biggest blessing to Andrew and I! We might be a lot of years apart, but we have so much in common! We go out to dinner with them once a week and sometimes I forget they are our grandparents, because being with them is just like hanging out with friends our own age, except that Gpa and Gma have a lot more experiences to talk about than we do, or our friends! They both can crack me up like nobody’s business and, not to mention, the fact that they SO love Khai and he thinks they are AWESOME!

Happy Birthday Gpa! I pray that we all have a lot of years of laughter and fun ahead of us! Andrew, Khai and I are so glad you are here!

Here are some pictures (as always):

The Happy Couple

Gpa and Uncle Mark

Khai and his fan club

These are three little words that I hear from my son constantly. Often he is referring to the vehicle he is playing with, but more often than not he is letting me know he is bored and wants to go out and do something. Lucky for him, his mama is a goer too! Today was a rainy one in the STL so we needed an inside activity. We went to the Transportation Museum and instead of riding the train we visited Creation Station. Khai man had a blast! Here are the pictures:

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I have been very busy with the kitchen remodel, getting started on the basement, raising my son and standing up against “The Man.” The man I am referring to is in that of our property management company and trustee board. I am a trustee, but have been completely unable to get anything done on behalf of our neighborhood for some time now. I had finally had enough. I went in for a meeting where 4 people from property management, including COO and GM, tried to bully me into submission. They do not like to be questioned and for homeowners to do their homework, that is for sure. If you know me at all, you know their tactics did not work. I knew enough about Organizational Psych to know this was their angle so I brought a very strong, independent woman with me who just so happens to work in property management. It was very stressful, but I would say in the end the meeting went in our favor.

Due to some of the unprofessional conduct portrayed during this meeting I was able to take my concerns to the builder via a real estate agent. After dealing with these problems for several years, I am glad to say that the builder contacted our property manager the very same day that the agent spoke to him. He indicated that he was willing to do all of the things that need to be done around here and would even approve a playground as we had been previously promised. He also agreed to turn majority control of the board to the homeowners at the end of the quarter. This is all great news and about time! It feels great to know that the work that my fellow homeowner and I have been doing is not being wasted. The way we were being treated was unethical and unjust and now things seem to be turning around.

I love seeing things made right… Let’s just hope it all keeps moving in this positive direction, because this “crusader” is awfully tired!

Last night was insanity. Andrew and I both went to bed around nine due to total exhaustion brought on by the fact that Khai man has gone back to old sleep issues ever since we got home from Phoenix. We were awakened at 12:45 AM by a screeching alarm. We called to find out what it was and were told it was either our CO or Fire alarms. Either way we had to call the fire department out and wake Khai up. We waited outside for the fire department and when they did you would have thought it was Christmas at our house.

Santa has nothing on a fire truck as far as Khai is concerned!! I am ashamed to say that after sweeping the entire house for hot zones and CO the fire department discovered the problem. A battery was dead in one of our detectors. We never heard the incessant beeping equated with this, so we had no idea that this was the problem. The firemen were so nice and professional. They even put a brand new battery in the detector for us.

We were all back in bed and sound asleep an hour later at 1:45 AM. So, as surreal as the whole thing was, it did not take that long. The most unbelievable part of this story is that Khai then slept until 8:15 AM with no interruptions. What?! Apparently all we have to do to get a good night’s sleep around here is have a fire truck show up in the middle of the night- Umm, high maintenance much, Khai?

We have been extremely busy here at The Khai Life! We went on an awesome trip to Phoenix to visit our friends Ed, Laura and Mattix. We had a fabulous time and, as always here are some adorable pics:

Ed is an AMAZING photographer and he took some pictures too, so you can check their page here to see if they upload any!

In other news, I have been on an organizing rampage!! We used the old shelves in our pantry to organize our Laundry room and painted each room a cool color. Then we had Closet Tailors install an organizational system in our pantry! I haven’t figured out the best places for everything yet, but am pleased with the results anyway!

Here are some pics:

As a bonus, here are a few of Khai’s favorite things: He loves birds and watches these bird feeders I installed on a daily basis. Also, he loves his new YGG shirt and will insist on wearing it every time it is clean! Lastly, he loves to fake mow and if you have driven by our house recently you will know he is the only one mowing at the moment!

Lauren and Jim. They have been waiting an awfully long time to bring home their beautiful son, River, from Vietnam! We are so excited for them and are overjoyed to hear things are moving over at USCIS. Maybe our sweet friends at Five in the Hive are next!!! I sure hope so!!

you crash your minivan into your own car when backing out of the driveway! So not good! Luckily the accident just resulted in a scratch on the underside of the side mirror on the Camry and a dent on the Sienna. Fortunately, Andrew and I are not really that big on cars. Driving around with scratches and dents is not that big of a deal…certainly not big enough a deal to pay to have them removed!!

Here is a picture of Khai man modeling his newly minted Plex the Robot shirt:

And here he is in his shirt with the whole Gabba gang:

He loves them all! While he is wearing it he keeps pointing at it and exclaiming, “Oh, look!” Too precious…

Those of you who know me well are probably confused by this post title. I hate to iron and wear mostly stretchy mama clothes now that don’t wrinkle, because they are already messy enough!! The ironing I am referring to is of the iron-on transfer variety. While I was looking for Yo Gabba Gabba stuff for Khai’s upcoming B-day (not until October) I found some printable iron-on transfers. I have looked for YGG clothing for little man before, but was put off by the pricing. So, here was the answer right in front of me… make your own iron-on t-shirts! Sweet! I rushed out to Target and purchased the necessary paper and print cartridges. (Yes, I realize that these purchases probably made these shirts more expensive than the ones I could have bought on line, but I was feeling crafty so cut me a break!) Then Khai man and I found some perfect t-shirts for it at Wal-mart and we came home to iron away!

Here are the finished products:

I should mention that two of the t-shirts are emblazoned with the image of Domo-kun, Khai’s current, and only, stuffed friend. He loves to toss Domo around and yell his name. He also makes mommy cuddle Domo for him. Awww, so cute…