"Woooosh"

Kayden and I flew back to Nebraska on the 21st to see the family and so I could get a tooth implant. Yes, you might think this is silly, we live in a major metro where there are many oral surgeons. But then you have to realize that I'm me and I don't even go to the dentist in AZ. I arrange my dental visits when I am back in NE, I have went to the same dentist since I was 3. I hate the dentist, I hate the sounds, opening my mouth wide and biting on that hard thing, I just don't like it. So when they told me I needed a tooth implant for a genetically missing tooth I have (the baby tooth was no longer going to "cut it" so I had to have something done), I of course scheduled it with the same oral surgeon who did my wisdom teeth. I like him alot, trust him AND he was an MD before he decided to do teeth, so I figure he knows his stuff. Since I'm a speech therapist, having the chance of them hitting a nerve and paralyzing half of my face is a frightening thing, so I wanted someone good. So, I figured, 2 for 1, get the tooth done and see the fam. A few days before our trip I started telling Kayden we were going to fly on an airplane to go and see Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Mark, and Uncle Kurt and the rest of the clan. He def got it and was getting excited as the days got closer. The morning we were leaving I let him sleep until just before we had to leave. When I went to wake him up he wasn't happy at all that I was bugging him, but as soon as I said "we are going on an airplane this morning to see Grandma and Grandpa", his eyes got big and he started helping me get him ready, while he sailed his arm through the air making his "woooosh" airplane sound. When we got to the door and I told him daddy needed to hurry up, he bent down and yelled for Kyle as loud as he could, he was super excited to go and wasn't waiting for anyone. Daddy dropped us off at the airport 45 minutes before our flight......I was sure we were going to miss it. And then the airline wasn't going to let us on b/c they said Kayden looked too close to being 2 and I didn't have proof of age w/ me. I'd never had it before and didn't even think of it b/c he is so far away from 2 (at least that is what I tell myself;-). They finally let me on but told me I'd have to have daddy fax it to me for the trip home. We did make the flight though and Kayden was his usual awesome traveler and loved watching out the window while we flew into the sky.
The week was full of lots of attention from the grandparents, uncles, aunties, and cousins and mommy even mustered up the courage to get the titanium rod put into my mouth. I also got to go out for dinner and drinks with a couple friends which is usually hard to do when we are back for the holidays b/c we are so busy, so it was nice to have some downtime to catch up with a few people.
The highlight of the trip for Kayden was the SNOW! When we first got to Omaha he was looking out the window and saying "no, no, no", I asked him, "who are you saying no to??" and then I realized he had found a little patch of dirty snow that hadn't melted yet and he was telling us to look at the snow. When we got to Kearney that Wednesday it was 60 degrees, the next day it started snowing! As if NE knew my little AZ boy wanted some snow. He loved watching the snow fall, he would sit on the windowsill forever watching it fall and would ask us all to come sit by him. He also loved watching Grandpa use the snowblower and thought he was making it snow:-) Playing in the snow was also fun, but only for awhile b/c it was so cold. It snowed pretty much everyday we were back except for our 2 travel days.
Kayden also got to go to work with Grandpa one morning when I had a checkup, he thought he was so cool helping grandpa at work.
This was the longest Kayden had ever been away from daddy and he was super happy to see him when he picked us up from the airport, it was also the longest mommy has been away from him in 4 years!

19 months=Terrible Twos??

This month Kayden has definetely entered into that "terrible 2's" phase a little early. I had heard lots of mommies tell me that the terrible 2's actually starts around 18 months and I was hoping they were wrong. He of course is still my adorable, loving, happy, laughing boy MOST of the time. But now he has these "moments" that I have started calling his "toddler moments" and they don't last long and can easily switch but they are things I didn't have to deal with up until now. Some new things we have encountered this month (or at least I've noticed them alot more in the past month, daddy thinks it was about 3 or so months ago that most of this started:-) - throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way, he has started hitting or pushing people that he doesn't want to be too close to him or touch him or look at him (fun for mommy when it is a perfect stranger!), he has also taken to biting his friends a couple times for no reason at all. Mommy is working on it, reading some books and trying to figure out what works for him. So far, they say toddlers are like little "cave-kids" and all of this behavior is completely normal and typical......why yes, I realize that but it is super hard when it is your kid, so hopefully I get a chance to continue reading sometime soon and find out the techniques they say work. So this month one thing Kayden is helping mommy know a new meaning for is patience, I have found a new level of patience (I thought a room full of special ed preschoolers was all I'd ever need for teaching me about patience, but those kiddos went home at the end of the day with a note about their biting....now I'm the mommy having to deal with the biting, or hitting or whatever, much more difficult I have found out!).

Of course, with the good always comes a little challenge, and this month has had some goods that are so worth any challenges my little guy might give me.

This month Kayden:
*Finally has the smacking sound for kisses! He has been an open mouth kisser for so long, and he still does kiss us on the lips with his mouth open but if he kisses our hand or cheek or a toy it now has the kissy face and the smacking sound!
*Has a new little laugh that is really high pitched and makes daddy and I laugh everytime we hear it:-)
*Is in love with pizza, if we would let him he would eat it all day, every day. Lots of times if we offer him food he doesn't want he'll say "no, pizza please":-)
*Is getting very good with using his manners, please and thank you!!! Yay!!
*Is a little jabber mouth, he talks all the time and we have fun trying to figure out what he is trying to tell us. For example "no" = no, snow, and nose along with many more I'm sure. He uses 2 and 3 word phrases very well and even if he can't say the exact words he has perfect intonation that helps us figure out what he is saying in his phrases.
*Loves this alphabet video I got for him at Sprouts by small fry productions. I made the mistake of having him watch a video when we went out to his friend Mikayla's house b/c it was a long drive and now he thinks he always needs to watch it when we are in the Tahoe (Christa-you are smart to avoid this:-). It has the letter of the alphabet and then pictures of objects that start with that letter and he thinks it is so great....mommy doesn't get it but I guess if he likes it it must be the age:-)
*Loves the Wiggles "You make me feel like dancing" video. I figured I'd try it b/c he loves music and loves to dance and he LOVES it. He tries to imitate their movements and humms the beat of the songs and thinks it is the greatest. The Boat song is his favorite. (Daddy hates the wiggles and swears they are the biggest nerds ever, but he loves them). Other than the Wiggles and his alphabet video TV and movies are still not his thing yet.
*Loves reading books and having them read to him. He went through a phase for about 2 weeks where he wasn't very into reading which worried me b/c he has always loved reading but he is back to bringing me book after book to read together.
*Has decided cooking is fun. At first he didn't want anything to do with it, but now he loves to sit on the counter while I cook and even has to watch his waffles in the toaster in the morning. The oven light is the coolest thing ever for him, he loves watching bread or whatever bake in the oven.
*Still sleeps with us for part of the night. I thought the toddler bed might help us transition but so far, around 2am or so he still wakes and needs to be close to us for the rest of the night. I do love him snuggled up next to me so I'm just following his cues and hoping he gets to the point where he is comfortable being in his bed all night. He also still nurses about 3 times a day and won't drink cow's milk.
*Finds "owies" on himself that need to be kissed or have a bandaid, also finds owies on mommy and kisses them for me:-)
*Loves to be outside, could be outside allllll day
*Loves his bath, gets so excited and runs happily towards the bath for bathtime
*Runs away from me after bath laughing hysterically while I run to catch him to put his lotion, diaper and Pjs on
*Loves to crawl on the ground and pretend to be an animal while I try and guess what animal he is
*Loves playing in the mud, sand, rocks, water, snow, anything messy is super fun
right now

Venturing out

On the teeter totter with his friend Mikayla

Venturing out with Tula

Today at a park playdate Kayden decided to go play by the fence in the rocks. Tula was close behind him and as he got further away she stopped and thought about what to do and then ran happily toward him. They played over by the fence, throwing rocks through the fence, at the bush and just sitting and playing in them for awhile. It was fun watching them do their own thing away from the adults and then they just ventured back. They are tight little buddies and even with Tula being gone the whole month of December they still love each other lots and love discovering things together, guess they know they have been friends for 15 months, wow, has it really been that long!? Crazy!

Government Holidays

Viola & Kayden

Viola (Bec's little one), Allie (Amy's little one....not so little anymore, when we met she was in preschool and now she is in 2nd grade!) and Kayden

Are the best, I loved them when I worked in the schools, a 3 day weekend was such a nice treat. And now that I'm not working they are alot of fun because they are a great day to meetup with my old gang from Wildflower. On Monday we met my friends for lunch at the Cheesecake factory at the Biltmore for a fun lunch. Kayden got to sit next to his buddy Viola and mommy was able to have some great chat time with her girlfriends (and Uncle Brent;-). Mommy got a salad and Andrea was sitting across from Kayden and had french fries. Well, Andrea decided to share a fry w/ Kayden and from then on "fre fry, pease (french fry, please)" "ta tu (thank you)" was all I heard during lunch. I think Andrea wondered why she started it..... After lots of "Girl talk" Uncle Brent decided Kayden needed some "running time" so he took him outside and over to Borders and bought him some fun books while mommy got to chat some more. Uncle Brent is such a fun Uncle and Kayden loves spending time with him and when he tells him all about basketball! Since we had to drive all the way North for lunch we also made a trip to the zoo to see the animals, Kayden loves going to the zoo and seeing all the animals and I love the nice walk outside!

During lunch I also realized one of the many reasons teaching to "Share" can be so hard. Kayden kept wanting to share his sippy, his food and his fork with Viola. Mommy kept telling him not to share those things. So...imagine how confusing it is, share this at this time, but not this with this person, yes, share that, but no, don't share those.............no wonder kiddos can't figure out how to share until they are 3, it can be pretty confusing!

AZ Cardinals!

The party crowd-T helping Kayden with his shoes

Preston showing the kiddos his cool guitar, Kayden was very impressed that Audrey's daddy plays a guitar!

The fun ball pit!

Audrey has rediscovered her baby swing since Izzie has arrived and goes in there to relax, Kayden had to check her out and give her some love while she was "resting" with redtowel (her blankie or lovie)

Are going to the super bowl! On Sunday we went over to a friend's house for the game, ate lots of fun football food, watched some of the game (at least us girls only watched some of it, the boys were pretty glued to the tv!) and had some great girl talk (the best part about football game parties....at least from my Husker days experiences). Jaclyn was the football pro, she knows all the ins and outs of football and taught us all a lesson or two:-) J/k Jac, you know I love your football knowledge (or lack there of;-)! Kayden was also super happy that he got to have a playdate during the game with his buddies Tatum and Audrey and the newest member Izzie. Izzie is the cutest little peanut and Jaclyn and I fought over who got to snuggle her the whole time we were there. Sara's dad was also there and Kayden at first was scared of him b/c he has a beard...and as we all know, all bearded men are now Santa. But he soon got over it and would even let her dad look at him;-) I loved her dad b/c he loves to take pictures and had a really fancy cannon, he even let me take a couple photos for him. Someday Kayden will like him alot-he takes slides of old train engines and Kayden being the train fan he is I'm sure will want to see some of his train photos!

Is he my college boy again?

On Saturday Daddy helped our friends Christa and John with moving rock into their backyard. Daddy is NOT used to this type of hard work, and he moved alot of rock in wheelbarrels, while us girls sat inside and had a playdate....we did feel kind of bad that they were working so hard while we were sitting on the couch chatting. Daddy used to lay concrete when he was in college so he does know what hard work is all about, but since he graduated from college he has been an office boy. They worked from about 11am until 4 something but all the rock was moved and Christa's yard is looking so nice! We can't wait to go spend lots of time hanging out in their very kid friendly backyard! Daddy was soo dirty when he got in the Tahoe mommy had him sit on a blanket and that night he was asleep by 8pm!

"No No!"