A little update!

"Einstein never used flashcards. It is natural, perfect actually to learn through play." (from the book Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How our Children really learn and why they need to play more and memorize less By:Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Ph.D)
(I love this quote and think it is soooo true, especially for a toddler. Play is how you learn best!! And you illustrate that to me everyday! We never drill letters yet you learn them, we never drill colors yet you learn them, we never drill shapes, yet you learn them....play is the best educator a child can have!)

Smarty pants you know all your colors (at least the main ones, Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple, White, Black)! I believe in natural learning and never drill things with you, show you flashcards or "work" on learning. I think learning naturally is better for you and more "natural":) Especially with how tiny you are. So I never really "know" the exact date when you master something b/c I don't do checks. But 2 nights ago we were reading our stories with daddy and in your "What makes a Rainbow" book you out of no where told us each color over and over. I had known you had a pretty good handle on them for awhile now, the past 4 or 5 months you've been doing really good with labeling things, like "yellow bus", "green grass". So I knew you were getting it from just the natural exposure I gave you but I was pretty surprised when you just rattled them off.

Finger Painting

The first time I introduced finger painting you wanted nothing to do with it. You didn't like the feeling of the wet paint on your hands. So I didn't push it, I just let you paint with paintbrushes. The other day when I suggested it you were fine with it and had fun getting messy with the paints!

Corn HUSKER!!

You LOVE LOVE LOVE corn on the cob!! It is by far your favorite food. And you love helping mommy shuck the corn. You are a little Corn Husker thru and thru! I guess we already know where you will be doing your college education:)

Another Chapter

Has ended little man. Breastfeeding was one of my favorite parts about being a mommy, I loved the closeness it gave us, our quiet cuddle time and the ease of feeding that it brought with it. My original goal had been to breastfeed you for a year b/c that is what all the "experts" recommend and then from there I didn't know what would happen. At a year you still seemed like such a baby in so many ways and you weren't ready to say goodbye to mommy's milk so we kept going and slowly this past year decreased your feedings, most recently you were only nursing at naptime and I was so clueless how to take this away in a peaceful way. But then we went on our week long trip to SLO and that session disapeared without any tears. We were so busy on our trip and having so much fun that you always feel asleep for naptime when we were driving from one activity to another. When we got home you did want to nurse for nap but I just told you it was all gone because you were a big boy and you were okay with it. Falling asleep for nap without nursing has been hard b/c for 2 years this is how you had always went to sleep. But it's slowly getting better.

I'm so proud of us for making it so long! You got so many great benefits from extended nursing and I learned to follow what I know is right and not what some people try to tell you or suggest, it helped me grow in my own strength as a person choosing to do what was right for my baby despite what popular media suggests. I love knowing you got 2 years of antibodies, nutrients, stem cells and the multitude of other benefits of nursing from me. I love that you have that great start in life! I will always cherish our nursing relationship and that time we had together of you being tiny, the image of you cuddled up in my arms as happy as can be will never leave me. Congrats big boy on letting go of something so constant in your life with such ease and independence! You are an amazing little person and so strong!

Life is Good!

I think that is why God had us invent vacations, to remind us that life is good. With all of the economy/recession stress, talk and news sometimes you forget what is so great about life. Especially with pregnancy hormones running through you and making everything seem so much more stressful. But while we were on our trip, I sat on my beach blanket, was feeling baby boy dancing in my belly and watching my hubby and little boy play in the sand and I realized that all is perfect in my world. I have my dream come true right in front of me and inside me....the rest doesn't really matter. It's not what is important. I'm so glad that we had this week together as a family of 3 and that it all went so perfectly.
Kayden, you were a trooper the whole drive to San Luis Obispo, you did great. You watched movies, read books, sang songs and napped and chatted with mommy and daddy. We ate at fun places, hung out on the beach, had lots of ice cream treats :), went on a boat ride and a kayak ride, laid in bed together at night and watched movies at night, went on walks in the fresh beach air, and went to a farm and fed animals and picked berries and peaches. It was a great week. I week filled with lots of love and special Kayden time, just what I wanted for you on our last trip as a family of three.

"High Maintenance"

Might be good words for mommy and daddy. We like traveling and staying at resorts, eating at nice places, showering at least once a day, having clean restrooms, and tile or carpet under our feet. To us, that is fun. Well Kayden loves going to Dick's sporting goods and going inside the tents and pretending to camp. SO we decided it was an experience he needed even if we aren't really "camping ppl". For our vacation in San Luis the Inn that we were staying at wasn't available until Sunday night and we wanted to leave on Saturday, we decided it would be the perfect chance to show Kayden what camping was all about. We looked for campsites at Big Bear lake and they were 100% sold out!! Who would have known that so many ppl liked to camp!?! Then we looked on the beach North of LA b/c that would be close to San Luis and we ended up finding ONE, yes, ONLY ONE open camp site. I guess alot of people like roughing it...I was totally amazed. So we packed the tent along w/ all of our stuff for the week in San Luis Obispo and headed to Gaviana Campsite. On the camp info it said that they sometimes experience high winds, up to 50 mile an hour gusts! Guess that is why they were the one campground on the beach w/ 1 availability. We decided to test our luck and do it anyway. We stopped at a Trader Joe's and bought charcoal in Santa Barbara and arrived shortly after at Gaviana.

I was a little shocked at what Californians call camping. To me it was a big dirt lot. In Nebraska a campground is usually by a lake, with lots of trees and pretty green grass. So putting a tent up in a dirt lot was not what I expected, but I put on a brave face and sucked it up, it was only 1 night, how bad could it be? On the plus side we were a short walk from the sandy beach and could hear the waves crash as we slept:)

We started putting up the tent and must have looked pretty silly doing it b/c our campsite neighbor came over to help:) Then Kyle attempted to blow up the air bed..........and realized he had brought the wrong pump for the air bed. At this point I was a little upset, being 25 weeks pregnant and sleeping on the hard ground was not what I had bargained for! Especially b/c when your pregnant you can't sleep on your back, so that meant hip digging into the ground for the entire night.
On to roasting hot dogs over the fire. Well....we haven't camped in 9 years. The last time we camped was at Country Stampede for a 3 day concert festival and drinking party. So we are not very experienced campers. I had all the food supplies we needed for hot dogs and smores and Kyle got charcoal. Well...charcoal does not make a fire. It makes smoke and burns hot. So not so good for roasting things. Our neighbor came to the rescue again and gave us some firewood that he had purchased from the campsite convenience shop before they closed at 7pm. As we were waiting for the fire to start Kayden and I read books in the tent and then came out to go potty....when he stepped out of the tent he looked up and said "Mama LOOK, SO many stars" and he stared up in amazement. At that moment all my frustration from our camping trip that was a bust melted away. Seeing his innocent little self look up into the sky and be utterly amazed at the beauty made the whole mess worth it, even if he didn't get to roast hotdogs and marshmellows (my main reason for wanting to camp!) BUT finally around 10:30 or 11pm the wood caught fire and he got to roast his hotdogs and marshmellows. He didn't love the roasted marshmellows so mommy at his share but he did love his hotdog:)
The night was long and I didn't get much sleep but Kayden loved sleeping in a tent and sitting by the campfire. He kept coming over and giving Kyle and I hugs and kisses b/c he was so happy.
SOOOOO I guess your 2 high maintenance parents might have to get dirty every once in awhile and take you camping so that you can see the stars and sleep inside a tent on the ground.
But we packed up camp early the next morning and headed to San Luis Obispo to find the comfort of modern convenience!:-)

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!