Handmade Xmas Ornaments are Perfect Little Time Capsules!

If I had my way I would sit Kaiden down until he painted 100 ornaments and decorate our whole tree with them!!! I love seeing his artwork all over the house and Christmas is no exception!

But since I rarely get my way around here, he painted three and went on his merry way. =)

I love them! I caught myself lounging on the couch several times this weekend just staring at our tree. His ornaments stand out the most to me and I can't wait until our tree is full of his handmade ornaments!

And yes, he is in desperate need of a haircut, but I'm also kinda diggin' his "I just rolled out of bed" look that he sports all.day.long. Kev says the longer his hair gets, the younger he looks. So maybe that's it too. Either way, it's not on the top of my priority list. ha!

More to come on our weekend...stay tuned!

Faking it?

Let me start from the beginning....

I walk by Kaiden's room this morning after Kev woke him up. He sees me, runs and jumps into my arms. (Ahh...bliss!) All he wants to do is snuggle with me. He throws a little fit about getting dressed which is normal on school days. When it's time to put on his coat though, he runs, he screams, he balls! This is not so normal.

I just thought he was really really going to miss me today.

Ahem.

About 11:30 rolls around and I get a call from his school. They told me he threw up at the lunch table and hasn't been acting like himself all morning. 

Kevin goes to pick him up and he is crying when he gets there. 

I call Kevin to make sure he puts him on the B.R.A.T. diet so we don't have an incident like last time. He informs me that Kaiden is totally fine and is running around like normal. Hmmm. Did you ask him if he's ok? I thought Jessica said he wasn't acting like himself? Why was he crying? etc etc.

Kevin didn't have any answers except that he was fine now.

Is our child already faking that he's sick to get out of school??

 

(pic courtesy of Jo, happy as can be! Sorry for the quality)

You be the judge!! =)

Literally

This is what Kevin found when he picked Kaiden up from school last night.

He didn't have a fever, but he said his head hurt.
I asked him if he hit it on something and he said "yes" and I asked what and he said "a pillow".
I love how matter-of-fact he is.

I CAN!

This weekend when Kaiden was trying to climb up his daddy's legs onto his changing table, that is no longer used as a changing table but rather where his new Christmas tree resides, half way up he says:

"I can't do it!"

Try again honey.

"I can't!!!!"

It literally broke my heart. There are moments in motherhood where I feel that I miss important opportunities to teach Kaiden the great lessons in life. I later bask in my own grief as I think I should have said this or that and take a mental note to get that lesson in at the earliest opportunity. Sometimes it just doesn't get through as I envision it would have if I didn't miss that mark the first time around. Not this time, though. It came to me so clear - - I never ever ever want to hear my child say he can't!

Kaiden, try again. Say "I can!"

As he climbed back up his daddy's legs, he said "I can!" and CAN  he did! We all cheered and gave high-fives and it was a great teaching/learning moment. 

Later at the park he said "I can't!" again while he tried to climb up the slide. I said "say I CAN! and try again!" 

"I CAN!" he exclaimed as he climbed up the slide. =)

Sometimes he slid back down, but as we yelled "I CAN!" he tried and tried again. 

Teach your children they CAN do anything and they will.

No pics this post, I chose to enjoy and live in the moments this weekend instead of running for my camera. Sometimes you CAN rely on your brain for memories. ha!

Dear Santa,

I want Buzz Lightyear candy

and MM's candy.

I want Thomas

and a black phone.

A new black phone!

I want a potty.

A purple one.

Love,

Kaiden

(a conversation we had in the bath the other night)

Then he said...

I no like Santa! I like black Santa and black presents!!!

Ummm...ok.

(he likes everything black, don't get your panties in a bunch!) =)

The end.

Mama's Day Off

Last Thursday was a crafty mama's day off. 

We went to Walmart with the intention of getting a few craft supplies. Well, thank you Walmart for having your big, gorgeous Christmas tree up already. Kaiden loved it! So, we went down the Christmas isle and picked out some ornaments. We also ended up getting a small tree for his room. He was so excited that we put it up right when we got home. His exact words were "Lets have a Christmas party!!!" while running to his room with his backpack full of new ornaments. LOL.

 He decorated it himself. I helped a bit with the balls only b/c he got bored with it after awhile! He has Toy Story, Mickey and a Jayhawk ornament.

I think it's the cutest tree EVER!

Ok, so on to the crafts. We picked up a few supplies (less than $15 worth) and used what I already had in my craft cabinet. Can you guess what we made?

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Kaiden's Puppet Theater!! 

Kaiden painted the sun, put the eyes on the little creatures and helped me glue! After that I lost him and he just wanted to play with the googly eyes. LOL. I still want to add a curtain, but for now, it works. We played a little puppet theater that night, but he mostly wanted to wrestle it. haha! I think he'll appreciate it one day, maybe if I get him some real puppets.

What do you think?

This kid needs a cape!

It's a bird!

It's a plane!

It's Super Kaiden!!!

P.S. I'm raising a BOY!

Since I grew up with all girls, it is definitely an experience raising a boy. I know I'm always saying I love having a BOY and it's so true. I'm loving all the true BOY colors that shine through more and more as Kaiden grows.

Like being thrown around in a blanket. 

Here he is pretending to sleep..

he's even got the snoring down.

He likes to include the dogs on things, too. Don't worry, Kiki loved it!

Reading on the pot. Come on!..that's totally BOY!

The new thing before bath time around here is "fighting" with dada on the bed!

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not all fun and games raising a boy. Like when you get a punch in the face instead of a goodbye kiss or get your hair pulled, kicked in the boob or some other horrifying thing b/c your son must think you are as rough as his dada. ha! I wouldn't change it for the world, though!

You know you're a mama when...

you write, draw & blog about these things!!

The potty training has been going well. We are a little over 2 weeks now and he pretty much never has pee accidents and almost always has poo ones. LOL. The problem is he doesn't tell us when he has to poo. We just have to watch him and rush him to the pot like I did last night. I saw his face and pulled him into the bathroom (luckily he was standing right by it) and it was already half way out (I know, TMI) and just plopped him down (no pun intended) and he went in the potty! ha! He was excited to see his poo in the potty and I'm hoping that will encourage him to tell us more. 

The first weekend we were potty training, we went to have some family pics taken. He was running around in the grassy area and I saw the poo face. I was purely going on instinct when I ran over and pulled his pants down. Yup, he pooped in the grass like a dog and thought it was hysterical! As Kevin ran to the car to get the wipes, I tried to keep the poo from touching anything. Luckily, it wasn't that crowded except some little girls riding their bikes with their dog. Yeah, the dog came over to check things out and it scared Kaiden and when he jumped back, he stepped in his own poo. Poor kid. I wiped him up and found some plastic dog poo bags and picked up my son's poo in the middle of the River Market in KC. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to help Kev get the poo out of Kaiden's shoe. I walked away with a gag in my throat, poo remnants on my hand (Kev had some too, he didn't know he stepped in poo eekkk)  & my straight up (you weren't a real mama before, but you sure are one now) Mom Badge!

Oh, the things I do! =)

Weekend Wrap-Up

Saturday I was a bit out of commision because I wasn't feeling well, so Kaiden had a boys day with his dada!

They went to Science City!!

Today it was so beautiful outside, so we went on a family hike with Kado. Kaiden wasn't the biggest fan, so luckily we have a stroller that goes off-roadin'!

We saw a huge horse on our hike and that was cool. Luckily Kev has good directional skills b/c these paths were not marked great and there were a lot of forks. It all adds to the fun, though!

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Park Day

It's about that time where trips to the park will be far and few between. Yesterday we took advantage of a semi-warm, but very windy day and had some fun at the park. 

The first trip we swung, practiced our rock climbing & waiting our turn skills (he told me when to wait my turn..hahaha), played 'Kaiden's House' where he fed me cookies and a little game of "get ME mama!"

  No pictures mama!

It was a short trip b/c we had to pick up Jo and he only agreed to leave b/c I promised him we'd come back.

Well, after a lot of running around for Jo and feeding one HUNGRY munchkin it was already past his nap time. I don't want to be a mama that breaks promises though and I knew it would be way too cold to go after his nap, so we just went anyway. I'm glad we did!

On this trip, he ran around on the tennis court,

Played Up the Ramp,

Across the Ramp,

Down the Ramp.

He also practiced going down the slide backwards and well...

finding, hiding and finding again this dead worm!

I love having a BOY!

Talk the Talk

Kaiden speaks in mostly full sentences now and it's awesome. He thinks about what he is saying and it's too cute to hear what comes out of his mouth.

K: "What dada doing?"

Me: "Brushing his teeth."

K: "hahaha. He's a cow!"

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K: "I bring my booboo to school?"

(referring to the pain in his leg from his shots)

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Me: "Kaiden, are you hungry?"

K: "Yes."

Me: "Would you like waffles and banana for breakfast?"

K: "I no want breakfast!"

Me: "I thought you were hungry??"

K: "I want LUNCH!"

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K: "What you for Halloween?"

Me: "I'm going to be Batgirl."

K: "You not a girl. You a boy!"

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K: "What's dat?"

Me: "Pasta. You want some?"

K: "I no like pastouf!! I like FOOD!!"

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His new favorite phrase:

"Just a second!"

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 And my personal favorite:

K: pulling up his chair to turn off the light "Let's have a party!"

Me: "Partaaaayyyyy!! Whoop! Whoop!"

K: "No mama no say that! I turn on music!!" 

(he likes for the music to be on before we start the party)

gets down to turn on the music

K: "Mama no talkin!"

Me: "Ok, sorry." laughing

K: "Mama, shhhhhhhh!"

Dude! I could not stop laughing!! Love it!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was really fun. Kaiden spent the whole day trying to negotiate things for candy. It was too funny!! He's really good, too. He got me to give in more than I should have. ha!

He also painted his pumpkin that he picked out at the pumpkin patch.

I love the seriousness.

After his nap, we ate some dinner and I worked on my costume. I did it as cheap as possible. Got some foam board and face paint. Kaiden hasn't liked his mask from the day we got it, so I was going to paint his face, too. It was orignally a mask that went over your head and clasped under your chin. He was not a fan, so I motified it.

 Don't mind the green. It was the only color of foam board I had at the time. I was planning to sew around the eyes, too, but since he never got used to the mask I never got around to it.

 I love his little sad face!

Practicing trick-or-treating.

Anyway, he decided last minute that he didn't want his face painted, so he went with his pumpkin mask instead.

Allow me to introduce you to The Captain America Pumpkin!

Here we are showing our superhero muscles!

Then it was trick-or-treating time! Kaiden wasn't a fan of walking to the door, so he hitched a ride on his dada. He was very good at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" after receiving his goods. Everyone thought he was too cute and he filled up 2 buckets in less than an hour!

Family pic!

After he got his two buckets, we headed home and enjoyed some candy!!

 

I allowed him to have two pieces, but he kicked in his cute face and bomb negotiating skills and got a few more.

Mama, I have one more pleeeaassseee?!


Just one more? Two more! One. Two. Yeah, yeah.


I just HOLD candy?!?

haha

It was a great Halloween and he was a hyper little superhero for the rest of the night! LOL. I'll have to post a video this week. Hilarious!!