Our big news of the week was Sierra's first birthday (we celebrated on 4/17/05 - the Sunday before her actual birthday - 4/20/05). We had a few friends and neighbors over for a cookout and cake/ice cream. Mom and Dad didn't plan too well. We had people come over around 2pm, not thinking about nap time being at 3pm. They did ok up until around 330 but then the crankies came on. We rushed to do cake and ice cream before it went totally down hill. We were too late. Sierra wanted no part of it. We forgot to take her clothes off so she already had pink and green icing on her dress. Jim picked her up to strip her down (which she wasn't happy with) and she got green and pink icing all over his white shirt. And needless to say, she wasn't into cake when he put her back in her highchair.

We gave up and put Kai and Sierra down for a nap. After everyone left and the babies got up from their nap, we tried the cake again. Sierra did better this time. She still wasn't overly interested but played in it a little bit and then we herded her off to the bath tub.

Thank goodness for stain remover and hot water - we were successful in cleaning all stained clothes (Note to self: no more fluorescent pink and green icing).

Other updates from the week:

• On Tuesday, Carla took the kids for their Chicken Pox vaccine. They've had so many immunizations lately that they scream when they see the nurse. It's not an easy one person job to console two hysterical one-year olds. Daddy may be invited to come next time.
• We introduced some rocking horses and a little slide to Kai and Sierra this week. They took to the rocking horses right away. They really rock hard on them. The slide is still a supervised activity but they have a blast on it.
• We go to the park a lot (near the house). They kids both love the swings. Kai now launches into "meltdown mode" when we take him off of it (even though he sits expressionless while swinging).
• Kai is taking a few steps in between Jim and Carla
• Sierra and Kai both can walk next to us holding only one hand.
• Much to Jim's dismay, they both love eating fish (Jim hates seafood - smell, taste etc.). Now he has to smell their fish breath after meals.
• Sierra has a new sound - sort of like a grunt/scream thing. She likes to do it in her crib to make Kai laugh. We haven't been encouraging her with this one, because it's really loud.

Here are some pics from the week: