4 years ago

4 years ago my whole family was in Washington for the 4th of July and we asked my Grandpa what he wanted to do while we were there. His request was to go to the beach and fly a kite. So we all piled into cars and drove the 2 hours to the beach. Grandpa could barely walk at this point and was blind but he sat in the car and flew his kite with a huge smile on his face. Many of my memories of him are from that beach, flying kites, picking seashells and playing in the sand and waves. It was a great last memory to have with him that day. That was the last time I was with him alive, 3 months later I had to fly from AZ to his funeral and it made me so happy that we had all honored his request and taken him to the beach to fly his kite. At the time when he told us what he wanted to do I was a little confused by his request, I mean he was an old man and wanted to fly a kite on the beach but last week I realized that the beach is one of those things that is easy to enjoy without seeing, you can take in the smells, feel the sand and hear the waves and know you are there.
Now 4 years later I was on the beach with my little guy flying a kite, he had a huge smile and loved the feeling of the string pulling on his hand. As I watched him fly his kite I told him about his Great Grandpa and how he liked to fly kites on the beach too and held back tears. I hope Kayden can always be a kid at heart just like his Great Grandpa Paplow was!

Happy 4th of July!

Tatum & Kayden watching the big fireworks on the truck

Daddy and Kayden....daddy couldn't see much with Kayden's grip:)

Family Shot

Tatu, Kayden and Audrey

Fun times

Dinner in the nude

Swimming nekki

Snap pops

Swimming during the day

We celebrated our 3rd 4th of July as a family of 3 this last weekend. We woke up and went on our normal Saturday morning walk to Starbucks....only now the heat has made it not very enjoyable, and mommy being preggo makes it even less fun. But you still love ordering your "muffin man" and starbucks water so it makes the unbearable heat worth it. We spent the rest of the day in the pool because that is the only place you can be outside during this time of year....and you demand to be outside. That night we went to Auntie Jac Jac's house for a bbq. Josh made some awesome green chile burgers with pepperjack cheese, he always makes the best food! You kiddies dined on hot dogs and homemade french fries. After dinner we went out and did snap pops, glo worms, and party poppers.....the 3 of you thought they were great! The fireworks show started at 9:30, but you all managed to hang somewhat until then and we drove to a spot where we could see the show. You really liked the big fireworks and told me the next day that they were your favorite part.

"The smallest hiker"

Daddy and Kayden posing

The treasures Kayden gave me

Smelling the flowers


RUNNING b/c he was so excited to go hiking!

On Friday daddy had the day off for the 4th of July weekend. We needed a break from the heat so we decided to take a day trip to Flagstaff and left by 7am. Once we got to Flag we headed up to the mountain to start hiking, as soon as you got out of the car and realized how nice it was outside (around 65 degrees!) you started running and "doing the Kayden". You pretty much ran our whole 2 hour hike! Everyone that passed us was amazed by your energy and several ppl said that you were "the smallest hiker" they'd seen. I have to say that I was very amazed at how long you lasted and how well you did, I actually still thought you were at the carrying stage still and that we'd need to get a Kelty carrier to go on hikes, and I'm sure we would if we wanted to go on super long ones. But the fact that your little legs could carry you for 2 hours straight was suprising for sure! You fell a few times b/c of the "tricky roots" as you called them but for the most part you did great. You loved finding logs that you could use as balance beams and investigating the bugs, moss, and plants was super exciting for you. You picked me several flowers and gave them to me, I love when you do that! On the way back when we had about 10 minutes left of hiking you asked daddy to hold you and fell asleep! I guess your 2 hour hike wore you out and you could fall asleep anywhere. We woke you up though to have our picnic lunch and then let you sleep in your carseat for about an hour. After our hike we went and looked at some buildings on NAU's campus that daddy had done for work, stopped at Art in the Park and walked around, walked over the train station and saw 2 trains go by (this was super fun for you! as they were going by you did your "choo choo" and pumped your arm over and over for the whole length of the train!) and then went to Barnes and Noble and let you play with the train table (b/c it started to rain so we needed an indoor spot for a bit that you could play before we drove back to PHX), had dinner and then headed back to Chandler. We timed it so you would sleep on the way home which was nice:)
You are a little hiker and I love taking you to discover the outdoors, you make mommy and daddy see things a different way...even the "big, black ants".

At 2 years...

Kayden you are an amazing little 2 year old and surprise me everyday with something new. I'm loving this age and stage with you, you are so excited about everything in life....but parts of this stage are also very difficult. You have taken to having tantrums when things don't go your way and you are very opinionated (not sure where you get that from:-).
At 2 you.....
*have been pretty much day time potty trained for 3 weeks already! We got home from our trip to NE and you asked to put your underwear on (before that you wouldn't let me put them on you!) and from that day forward you haven't worn a diaper during the day. You keep your diaper dry during naptime too!! I still haven't tried the night time potty training yet, but I'm very proud of you for being potty trained before you were 2!!!!!!! We do still have accidents now and then but for the most part you do awesome!
*Just started calling me MOMMY and dadda is now DADDY!!!! You hung on to mama and dadda for a long time and now that you say mommy and daddy I get a huge smile everytime I hear it!!
*love to be "ouside", wake up in the morning asking to go "ou-ide" and ask all day until we go out in the HEAT!!
*you love swimming in the pool, kicking and blowing bubbles and riding on mommy or daddy's back are tons of fun for you right now. Jumping in is alot of fun too!
*help me "read" your books now. You are so proud of yourself when I omit a word and ask you to fill it in for me, you love it when you can "read":-) A book that you love to do this with is The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. You do all the animal sounds and usually can tell me what the animals do "roll in the mud" and you roll your little arms around. And you tell me what the spider is doing by filling in the word "web" on every page.
*Sleep in your own bed all night several times a week!!! This is huge little man! It's taken 2 years but you have done it on your own and mommy is so proud of you! (I do still love to wake up with you snuggled up next to me though...now that your in your big bed you just walk over and climb in bed so I'll wake up to a surprise cuddle!)
*You are now sleeping in a full size bed! Such a big boy (and you love the extra comfy bed!)
*Talk up a storm, your sentence length is great for a 2 year old! Your sounds still are substituted but mommy can understand almost everything you say. Sometimes I try really hard though and I can't and then you get super frustrated b/c you know what you want and don't understand why I can't get it. You are starting to put more ends on your words which is helping the intelligibility of your phrases.
*You continue to get better at retelling the events of your day in little stories to daddy or mommy, and love answering questions about what you did that day.
*love to get phone calls from Grandma or your Uncles, you take our phone from us and will say "ello, Gma" or "ello Mar" and that means you want to talk to them:) You also love getting stuff in the mail from Grandma, cards with "Meme" are great or packages are super exciting!
*Love "Meme"=money. Grandma taught you about it in Kearney (mommy always uses her debit card), she'd let you pay for things and you'd get to keep the change. You thought this was super cool and ever since then love meme! You search my purse for it and love collecting it in your piggy bank. When I do randomly have some cash you love paying for whatever we are buying, or if you get to pick something out and buy it w/ your "meme" that you took from me that is even better!
*Love art projects. You have your own art box full of stickers, foam pieces, paint, glitter glue, glue sticks, markers, crayons, ribbon, etc and you love creating masterpieces! You get very proud of your work and can't wait for daddy to get home to show him your latest creation!

I love getting to know you more each day! Everyday you seem to teach me a little bit more about who you are and it's so fun discovering the little person I created. 2 has been great for you so far!