Visit with Grandma

This past weekend we took a trip to Grandma's house!  As soon as we got there, Kira began exploring, taking advantage of her newly-expanded mobility.  Bodhi became a pool shark and we could hardly tear him away from the table all weekend.

We spent Friday night there and, the next day, we went to a Bugseum located in a small town about 20 minutes away.  The directions to get there said "Take Lerdo Highway to Shafter.  Turn south on Beech Avenue and look for the gigantic insects!"

They had displays of lots of bugs: butterflies, ladybugs, scorpions (okay, technically an arthropod), Madagascar hissing cockroaches, ants and beetles.  Kira seemed most interested in the giant ant farm (the farm was big, but so were the ants!) and Bodhi seemed to like the ladybugs.

The main business of the place is selling live insects for kids for butterfly hatching kits, ladybug lifecycle kits, etc.  As such, there was a prominent retail store in the center of the bugseum.  It was cool, though, to see where they raise the insects and the many different kinds of insects at various life-stages.

My sister came down that afternoon and we all had dinner together at the local ice cream parlor.  Afterward we went back to grandma's to play and chat until it was time to drive back home.  Bye, grandma, see you soon!

A quick update

Wow!  It's been far too long since we've updated things here.  The kids are growing quickly and that probably has a bit to do with the tardiness of this post.  Bodhi and Kira are getting along very well.  They love each other and it really shows.  Kira will always greet Bodhi first thing in the morning with a "hi" (yes, she says Hi all the time now, along with Mama and Dada) and Bodhi will always greet her with a hug.

Bodhi is living up to his nickname, "Player 2", by gaining a serious interest in Mario.  A few weeks ago I refurbished and set up my old Nintendo system.  While I had it connected it was super-cute to see him sitting in front of the TV with a controller in had, playing Super Mario Bros.  It's not something I want him doing all day long, but it was nostaligic for me.  I eventually installed it on our computer as well and he plays it there along with finding Mario videos on YouTube.  He also likes to bring things to the physical world and we spend a lot of time playing "real" Mario Bros, as he calls it, which consists of running around and pretending to jump on each others heads.  He also likes to present me with Legos asking me to build Mario, Luigi and Bowser.  I think he overestimates my abilities.

The real news, however, is that Kira is walking!  She took her first steps last weekend and has been gaining more and more confidence walking between items and people.  I typically put her down a few steps away and she will walk right over.  She even walks to Bodhi when he's nearby and he cheers for her and gives her a hug.  I'll get a video of that up as soon as possible, because it's adorable.  Congratulations, Kira!  You're officially a toddler!