The month of May was busy for us. Kai had outpatient surgery. MeMaw and PawPaw visited from Virginia to help out after Kai's surgery. Ligia (Kai and Sierra's babysitter) got sick so Carla's parents stayed an extra week to help out. The good news is that Kai and Ligia are both doing well and fully recovered so we're back to normal in June.

Kai and Sierra continue to thrive. It's so much fun to watch their little personalities developing. For example, Sierra likes to flail around when she doesn't get her way. After letting her have a little tantrum, she stops and looks at you then grins from ear to ear. She's a love most of the time but she's going to keep us on our toes. Kai has really turned into a ham. He flirts with waitresses and just bursts into laughter for no reason.

Both Kai and Sierra are pretty self-entertained and they play well together with a few exceptions (Sierra biting Kai when he sticks his finger in her mouth or Kai pulling the back of Sierra's hair - yes, she's starting to finally get some).

Other miscellaneous milestones/activities:

• Walking: Kai and Sierra are both getting braver when walking. They will launch off the furniture and start to walk on their own and they are falling better as well (fall into the sitting or crawling position). Sierra will actually get up from a squatting position and start to walk. They both do great, holding one finger and walking beside us.
• Talking: they both are extremely vocal. They have been saying Mama and Dada for a little while now. They will try to mimic some other words as well (Sierra tries to say "Baby" and Kai will sometimes repeat "thank you" but it sounds more like "DaKu"). We continue to work with them so hopefully we'll see more words soon. Kai has started pointing at everything and grunting (who knows - he's probably saying a word and we just don't know it).
• Teething: Both Kai and Sierra are teething. Sierra had a much worse time with it - she got her molars and has more on the way. Kai is getting his incisors but doesn't have near the "teething symptoms" that Sierra does.
• New Tricks: MeMaw and PawPaw taught Kai and Sierra various things when they were visiting: (a) to say "Mmmm, Mmmm, Good" when they're eating, (2) to put their index fingers in the air when you say "Who's number #1" [Kai is actually the only one that does this - Sierra will put her arms in the air to participate instead of just her fingers]
• Feeding: Kai and Sierra both still eat very well. Kai will even come around for 2nds when we eat (he loves food). Sierra has been feeding herself for some time but Kai was only interested in throwing what he picked up. That all changes this month. Once he found he could get the food in his mouth, this has become one of his favorite activities and he can't get it in fast enough.
• Swimming: They both love the pool. Now that we're in our summer months, we go swimming all the time. Little "cold-natured" Sierra prefers our friend, Kathy's pool because it's heated (she shivers after ten minutes in our 80 degree water). Kathy actually has a shallow area where Kai and Sierra can stand up and splash so it's big time fun to go over there. They will both jump off the side and they do awesome when dunked in the water (which is no surprise since they both love the bathtub and have never had a problem having water poured over their heads). They should be like fish by the end of the summer.

Ligia goes on vacation in June so while MeMaw and Pawpaw were visiting we "interviewed" him for our vacation relief. He passed with flying colors so we flew him down for the week to help us out. The kids had a blast with both of them and have enjoyed having Pawpaw back for the week (after they left the first time, Kai would go to the guest bedroom door and knock on it looking for them - it was sweet).

It's hard to believe we have been back in the States for almost 5 months. Kai and Sierra fill our hearts with more joy and love than we could have ever anticipated. We look forward to every new day with them and wonder what they'll do next. Below are some pics from our month - enjoy!