I can’t believe that we are dedicating an entire post to Kai, but he has really become a central figure in Olivia’s life that I want to remember later on. Kai is a little boy in Olivia’s class at school. He has only been in her class a few months because he was at a different daycare before. And Olivia is obsessed with him…well, not really with him, but with his name. She L-O-V-E-S to say “Kai” and that is pretty much her standard answer to most questions. Any question that has the word “school” in it is definitely getting a Kai response:
Olivia, how was school today? “Kai”
Olivia, do you want to go to school? “Kai”
You get the idea. And most other questions also can be answered with Kai.
Olivia, do you know where we’re going today? “Kai”
Olivia, do you know who is coming to our house today? “Kai”
But he isn’t. And he hasn’t. My father gets an especially big kick out of this, especially on Christmas Eve when she kept telling everyone that Kai was coming to our house tonight to bring her presents.
Kai makes his way into other aspects of our life too. One of Olivia’s favorite books is Lila Leapfrog. It’s a sweet little story about a frog ballerina who works hard and learns to leap high. Olivia knows this book very well. She shakes her head on the page when Lila is sad and she “jumps” on the page when Lila finally learns to leap. Well, one day Matt or I pointed out that all Lila’s friends are in ballet class with her and we pointed to a blue mouse and said “look, its Kai.” As you can probably guess, this thrilled Olivia beyond belief. She now skips right to the pages with the friends and screams “Kai, Kai!” over and over again. Poor Lila is no longer the star of this book!
And finally, Kai saved the day on the day of Olivia’s 15 month well-visit. To fully appreciate this story, you need to know that Olivia is a creature of habit and routine - she becomes very upset when things don’t go as she expected. (Being the daughter of 2 first-born, type-A personalities, I can’t imagine where she got this from!). She especially likes routine at school.
So…back to the story…because she had her check-up in the morning, we got to school late – just as all the kids were waking up from their morning nap. Olivia happily got out of the car and I carried her to the classroom, as I always do, and put her down to walk just before the hallway to her class, as I always do. She ran to the door as usual, but stopped in her tracks because the lights were off. I nudged her along and she started to cry – clearly confused as to why the kids were sleeping instead of eating breakfast. So I picked her up and tried to console her, to no avail. Then 2 of the teachers came over and we all tried in vain to calm her down using a variety of food, drinks and general silliness. Meanwhile, one of the other teachers was going around the room waking all the kids up and suddenly we heard “Kai…its time to wake up.” Olivia immediately stopped crying and said “Kai?” Her teacher said “Yes, do you want to go help wake up Kai?” She jumped out of my arms, ran over to his mat and began to point at him and yell “Kai! Kai!” Somehow Kai managed to wake up happy, despite being yelled at, and sat up, smiled and pointed back at Olivia. And then she was fine. I gave her a kiss, she told me "bye bye" and I left. Thank goodness for that Kai!
So…back to the story…because she had her check-up in the morning, we got to school late – just as all the kids were waking up from their morning nap. Olivia happily got out of the car and I carried her to the classroom, as I always do, and put her down to walk just before the hallway to her class, as I always do. She ran to the door as usual, but stopped in her tracks because the lights were off. I nudged her along and she started to cry – clearly confused as to why the kids were sleeping instead of eating breakfast. So I picked her up and tried to console her, to no avail. Then 2 of the teachers came over and we all tried in vain to calm her down using a variety of food, drinks and general silliness. Meanwhile, one of the other teachers was going around the room waking all the kids up and suddenly we heard “Kai…its time to wake up.” Olivia immediately stopped crying and said “Kai?” Her teacher said “Yes, do you want to go help wake up Kai?” She jumped out of my arms, ran over to his mat and began to point at him and yell “Kai! Kai!” Somehow Kai managed to wake up happy, despite being yelled at, and sat up, smiled and pointed back at Olivia. And then she was fine. I gave her a kiss, she told me "bye bye" and I left. Thank goodness for that Kai!
Her 15-month checkup went great. She is healthy and growing well.
Height – 31” (61%)
Weight – 23 lb, 8 oz (57%)Head Circumference – 17.99” (41%)
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