Above: Kiki taken this year.

Below: Audrey taken in 2002.

[Edit: Okay, rereading this post it sounds kind of sappy, almost like a girl wrote it. But my point still stands that he is a really good kid and I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't write down some of the cute things that the little guy does...]

Kiki is a good boy. Even though he’s barely 15 months, he’s already trying to do chores around the house. He may look like a bruiser (less so now, with his good boy haircut), but he is always very affectionate and sweet with family members. Always lots of kisses and “kinh kinh” which is where he gently bumps heads with you. If he’s been playing on his own for a few minutes, he’ll just put down what he’s doing and come over for a hug. But he is naturally a bit shy and always wary of strangers, and it takes a while to gain his trust.

He loves being outdoors. He’s always appreciated fresh air and just being outside in general. His favorite thing is going for walks, hikes and bike rides. His favorite food nowadays is probably refried beans from Someburros.

I’ve had this list going for a long time now of things he does that I need to keep track of or blog about, but never got around to posting it. Now I am kicking myself for not writing a detailed post for each one of these back when it was fresh in my mind. Anyway, here is the short bulleted list version.

• 10 months — Learned to walk.
• 11 months — Helped mop the floors… he saw mama with the mop so he picked up a towel that was sitting around and started mopping too. He does this pretty often.
• 11 months — When he answers the phone he says “hello”, like “huh-o?”.
• 11 months — He was playing with the TV remote control and I took it away, so he picked up a calculator and said “mo-co” (remote control) and used that as a remote control instead.
• 11 months — Words he says are: “che^’t cha” (a cute way to say “beat you to death” in Vietnamese), “remote control”, like “mo-co”, “uo^’ng nu’o”c” (drink water), “xuo^’ng” (down), “pha’” (mischief), “chi hai” (big sister).
• 11 months — Starts identifying things in books and pointing. For some reason Audrey learned to point to things a lot earlier. At 9-10 months she could point to anyone in the extended family by name in a photo… we think up until now Kiki just pointed at whatever caught his fancy.
• 11 months — He kisses stuffed animals on the nose. When he sees a picture of something cute in a book (cats are his favorite) he bends down and gives them a kiss or presses them to his cheek.
• 11.5 months — Picked up a pair of eyelash pressers and tried to curl his eyelashes.
• 12 months — Uses a lotion bottle as a cane when he walks (not that he needs one).
• 12 months — His favorite toys are clubs, swords and sticks.
• 12 months — Kiki loves books. We have a routine that whenever it’s dinner time, he gets a big stack of books and we read them while he eats. He squeals with delight and runs to his bookshelf whenever that time comes around.
• 13 months — He is running really fast. He barely walks anymore because he’d rather run.
• 14 months — He is climbing things. He always climbs up on Audrey’s bed which is about 2′ high (mattress and box spring, no frame).
• 14 months — He throws things in the garbage when you ask him too. The other day we finished changing his diaper and without being told, he picked up the dirty diaper, took it into the other room, and threw it in the trash.
• 14 months — Kiki is usually pretty tidy for a baby. When he’s done taking a drink from his sippy cup, he doesn’t just leave it on the floor, he takes it back to the table and sets it down. Let’s just say he’s very different from Audrey in this way.
• 14 months — Mama was vacuuming and she had to lug the vacuum over the fence we set up for Kiki between the family room and kitchen. Kiki (without being asked) went and grabbed the vacuum cord and lifted it over the fence, knowing she’d need it on the other side.
• 15 months — He climbed out of his crib (one of those portable ones) over at Phuong Anh’s house. We think he fell on his way out because he hasn’t tried it again since. Nobody saw him do it, he just showed up in the other room when he was supposed to have been sleeping. 

A family bike ride around the neighborhood and pictures in the park…

 

Christmas was pretty fun this year; we opened presents at home in the morning and then went over to Ong Ba Noi’s house for lunch and more presents.

It was a good time for the kids. Audrey was especially excited about Christmas this year — she wrote a letter to Santa and everything (which sadly he did not get around to answering). Kiki just enjoyed the commotion.

 

This one turned out nice.