Mr. Independent

We went ice skating as a family a few weeks back.  We took the umbrella stroller and Kaden was having a good time being pushed around… until we got about 5 minutes in. Then he just kept shouting, "Done! Done!"  Cue crying and arching and trying to get out on his own… Once he decides he's "done" doing anything, good luck trying to make him continue.  So we took him out and let him have a break from the stroller.  He climbed all over benches for a few minutes, then wanted to go back out on the ice.  We tried many times to put him back in his stroller, but it was useless because he was so angry and fighting us so hard.  So, poor Curtis ended up bent over and skating like this for the rest of our ice skating time.

 Kaden is truly 100% toddler right now and just wants so badly to do things by himself, that even though he was slipping and sliding everywhere, he was determined that's how he wanted to spend his time skating. Not in his stroller. Ha ha!

The Egg Hunt

Our ward hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at the church.  Kaden wasn't even crawling last year at Easter, so this is his first egg hunt.  They had the kids divided up by ages and had hidden eggs easier/harder according to age.  In theory this is great, but the problem was that the big kids were so excited to get the eggs that when the Primary president said "go" all the kids took off running, scooped up every last egg out of the little kid section before any of the little ones like Kaden could get any, then kept going onto bigger and better things.  It was so sad! He didn't get any eggs until I realized that there were a whole bunch hidden on the hill, in the bushes and in the trees behind the little kid section.  So we climbed the hill and I was lifting Kaden up into trees to get eggs…

 Kaden and Everett trying to find eggs as all the big kids take the easy ones...

Not exactly ideal but oh well.  He still got a few of them.  We're going to do another egg hunt for him on Sunday morning in our yard so that he can actually pick some of them up because that's his favorite part anyway.  

 He certainly had fun with "Ebbie" (Evie) even if he didn't get to pick up many eggs.  Miranda and I were saying if these two get married someday that these pictures could go in their wedding video montage.  He loves holding Evie's hand.  It's so sweet.  He just loves Evie.  All day long about the only words I hear out of him are, "Play? Ebbie?"  (Meaning he wants to play with Evie.) :)

Bunny Hunting

Here in Rochester they have a bunny hunt at Wickham Farms a week before Easter.  In my mind, I was envisioning a fenced in field of bunnies that were tame and the kids just got to chase them around to their heart's content.   It wasn't really even close to what I thought, but it was still fun. They had clues all over the farm that you had to follow to figure out where the bunnies were.  Along the way, they had different activities you could do.  The clue part was obviously way over Kaden's head, so we just went right to the activities and straight on to pet the bunnies afterwards.

First stop, Kaden made a bunny hat.  (This is the closest I could get to him holding still so I could take a picture of it, ha!)  

 We skipped the clues and went right to the rabbits to pet them.  Kaden kept saying "hop, hop" the whole time he was petting them.

Kaden saw the Easter Bunny (and was terrified!!!) One of our friends (Tianna Zundel) was there with her kids, so her son Liam offered to stand by Kaden and the bunny so he wouldn't be so scared. What a sweet kid! :)  This was the only picture where Kaden wasn't totally scowling… but he still looks terrified.

 After the bunny scare, Kaden got to ride the train with Curtis.  He loved it and kept saying "choo chop."  He was mad that we only had time for him to ride it once.

Because we all know how much Kaden likes getting pictures with me, I had the brilliant idea to request a picture with him right after we told him no for the train… (Ignore that these are a little blurry. In all fairness to Curtis, my new lens is rather tricky to get nice, clear pictures with unless you're really used to using it and know how to adjust it.)

 Look at that pouty face!!! Priceless.

Yeah…after trying several times we realized he was still mad about the train and he wasn't going to smile so this is me telling Curtis to just turn the camera off. He thought it was funny because we both look mad.

At the end he got to eat a "bunny sundae" (a Peep on a scoop of soft-serve ice cream with sprinkles).  He loved the Peep (eew!) but didn't like the ice cream much.  He kept stealing my sugar cookie, so I finally just switched him treats.  What a fun little idea! And to think it was only $5 for Kaden to do all of those activities.  Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Sunshine and Sunny Weather

We had a little patch of nice, warm weather (finally) this past week, and so we took advantage of it by going to the park every day, as many times as we could.  It was heavenly! It's amazing how much difference a year can make, in terms of what Kaden can do on the playground now vs. last year.  It was so fun for him, since he's big enough to climb up and do all the slides by himself.  I felt like this was a nice boost to his independent toddler ego. :)  (Please excuse the floody pants.  He just hit a growth spurt a few days ago and I utterly refuse to buy the boy more long pants since I'm hoping spring/summer are actually coming soon and we won't need pants again for awhile.)

He loves sporting shades wherever we go.

We went to Powder Mills Park with Janelle Olson (a friend from high school that's in our Rochester ward) and Christa Sagebin.  Janelle's son, Hudson (exactly one year older than Kaden) and Christa's son, Asher (just turned two) are both darling little boys and they all play really well together. This is a cool park because it has a fish hatchery, where you can buy fish food, and they jump out of the water to grab the food. It's really cool since you're so close.  They splash a lot, which Kaden loved.

I've got to say Kaden is very influential.  The other boys didn't dare lean down and put their hands in the water until Kaden showed them how to. What a little rebel! Ha ha.  

(From left to right, Asher, Kaden, Hudson)

Best Seat in the House

Sometimes when I am busy for a minute and then turn around and can't find Kaden, he's often sitting on his favorite seat.  Anyone that knows Kaden, knows that he loves chairs ("chay-uhs") of any kind. Big, small, couches, or hard chairs.  He doesn't care. He loves them all.  But he especially likes a certain white, porcelain chair.

 Try as I might, I can't keep him off of it most days.  It's such a part of his life right now that I figured I'd let him get a few pictures on it, then go wash his hands and lock the bathroom so he can't sit there anymore.  (We have to keep a penny above our doors to allow us to unlock the bathroom most days.)

Someday Kaden may find this gross, that he loved the white throne so much as a boy, but for now, it is truly the best seat in the house!

The Little Parrot

Kaden is in such a funny stage.  He watches what we do and copies what we do and say. You know how all parents check their kid's diapers by lifting up their shirt and looking to see if they are clean or dirty? Well yesterday Kaden was a little stinky, so I checked his diaper really quickly.  I accidentally let a little toot slip a few minutes later, and looking all concerned, he came over, lifted my shirt, pulled out my pants and said, "Mama, poopoo?" I almost died laughing.

Here are some of my favorite random moments of Kaden trying to be like Mama and Dada:
He likes to try and copy our expressions.

 He loves to wear our shoes. Especially my pink gym shoes lately.

 We often feed him stuff so he likes to try and share with others too- in this case, his Tigger from Aunt Missy (thanks again Miss!) is getting some blueberries. Yum!

Just a random side note. Kaden has been wearing these rabbit ears for weeks now and every time I say, "Kaden what do you look like?" He says, "hop hop." He has worn them to the gym, the grocery store, to playdates.  He gets very upset when I try to take them off, so I've decided to choose my battles with him.  The rabbit ears are not a battle I choose to fight with him.  If it were up to him, he'd also wear his sleepers for the entire day. He gets extremely mad each day when I try to get him dressed, so a lot of days if we don't have anywhere to be, I just let him stay in his jammies until he's ready to wear clothes.

Fun in the Tub Tub

Kaden loves the bathtub, or "tub tub" as it's affectionately known at our house.  Nana sent him some little plastic dog finger puppets, and they are his new favorite tub toy.  Whenever we say, "Kaden it's time to get in the tub" he starts to bark and make dog sounds, because he knows that's where his dog's are.  He loves to put the dogs on his toes and fingers during his bath, and he also loves to suction the dogs to his chest and tummy and wait until they fall off.  (You can see the dogs in the left of the picture below.)

 Look at those eyelashes! They are so lovely and long and curly. Why do boys always get the best eyelashes? It seems so wrong.

He likes to get bubbles on his hands so as soon as we start washing him off, he'll start pointing to his head because he knows the majority of the bath time bubbles come from his shampoo.  Kaden also has a favorite song at bath time.  If we try to sing anything else, he'll get upset and say, "no Mama, Ba Ba." He means that he wants us to sing the Beach Boy's song "Barbara Ann." Don't ask me how this became his favorite. It's so weird and random.  I don't even remember why I ever started singing it to him, but alas, it's his favorite.  If we forget to pause after the initial, "Ba ba ba, Ba Barbara Ann," part and let him go "ba ba," then we also get in trouble.  Such a particular young man. :)

 Kaden really, really likes to brush his teeth. Maybe he'll be a dentist some day.  Towards the end of every bath he'll start to do this toothbrush motion with his hands.  He is letting us know that he's ready to brush and that we need to start preparing his toothbrush.  I love this age that he's at! He is so fun, but so silly and particular sometimes. It cracks me up on a daily basis.