The 17 Month Old Maniac

Kaden is such a funny boy. He constantly keeps me on my toes and keeps me wondering what crazy new thing he'll come up with next. Speaking of toes, he sure likes to walk on his tip toes lately.  It's so funny because he sticks his belly out really far and usually ends up falling down pretty soon after since it's a doozy of a pose to keep your balance in.  He also really likes to spin around in circles and make himself dizzy. I have no idea why but he LOVES it! If our internet were ever fast enough to get the dizzy video to upload in less than 12 hours, I'd post it, but alas, our internet is like unto a tortoise running a marathon. (It will never happen.)

Kaden has learned to feed himself with a spoon and is insistent that we not feed him unless it's absolutely necessary.  Meals take quite a long time and they are quite messy but he is so proud of himself with each successful bite.  It's quite the triumph for him.  He smiles and claps after each bite. :)

Since winter has been so rough this year here, poor Mr. Kaden always has rosy red cheeks because they are just dry and cracked from the cold air. Boo! He is finally sitting down in the bathtub though.  That may sound weird but anyone that knows Kaden, knows that he is typically the kid who spends his whole bath standing up. Who knows why? It's got to be the coldest way possible to bathe.  

 He also really loves to drink the bathwater lately. Sick. That is precisely what he's doing here...

 Kaden loves to point to show you what he wants, where he wants to go, what he wants you to get him.    He wanted us to get the turtle out of the pond here for him to hold. We didn't do that obviously so...

 …his other way of getting your attention and telling you what he needs is by using the "more" sign in sign language.  To him that sign means, "I want that, I need that" or "help." This is the frustrated face that he gets when you don't get him what he wants or needs and he's signing "more" to you.   When Kaden is mad that you're not doing what he wants he'll look right at you, throw both hands up and scream.  He has quite the little temper when he gets frustrated.  We try really hard not to laugh but it's quite funny.

This stage of life has been a bit frustrating for Kaden in general.  His comprehension is really good and he understands a lot and knows a lot of words that we say, but he's still not talking a whole lot.   He's gotten better at baby signs but still struggles to communicate to us a lot what it is that he wants.  I feel bad for him because he gets really upset and frustrated that he feels like we don't know what he wants.  I can totally relate to this frustration because I felt like this for the first 3 months of my mission in Hungary when I could understand people but couldn't really communicate back. Poor kid! It'll come with time.  Most of the time he's still a really happy boy.

Kaden loves to dance and has been dancing a lot lately in random location. Like here at the Arboretum in Highland Park.  He gets really into it and goes a little bit crazy.  

 He always loves to show off his bellybutton. I think he wants the ladies to see his stunning abs.

 This makes the teacher inside of me very proud and happy! This monkey absolutely LOVES stories. Loves them. He likes it the most when we read to him, but lately he's okay to sit and look at a book all by himself for a few minutes at a time when I'm making dinner or something.

He watches us read the newspaper in the morning at breakfast so if we don't let him look at it when he's done eating then he gets upset.  He seriously looks at the newspaper at least 5 minutes a day.  Pretty decent attention span if I say so myself.

 Kaden LOVES his "Dada" and is constantly looking for him all day when he is gone and is so excited to see him when he comes home each day.  

Kaden loves his Mama too (but I still think Daddy is the favorite to play with)

Some of Kaden's favorite things right now are wearing my necklaces, wearing anything he can fit on his wrist as a bracelet (the rings from his stacking rings toy, empty yogurt containers, etc…) and carrying around his snack cup like he's Captain Hook- a semi-permanent attachment on his hand.  That would be fine if he just carried it around that way, but the problem comes when he removes his hand and half of the contents of the cup spill on the floor at church, our house, his carseat, the library, etc...

 Kaden loves to wear big people hats and gloves. Enough said.

 He is also lately into making silly faces and then we have to do them back at him.

 He loves gadgets. He knows how to swipe my screen on my phone so it unlocks and likes to try to find games to play on there. He also knows how to turn the iPad on and can almost figure out how to watch his Elmo movies we've got on there, but still needs a little bit of help.

Kaden and his best buddy Evelyn MacLean. She is a little mother to him sometimes- feeding him :) These two play together so well and Evie is about the only child Kaden loves to share toys with and take turns with.  It's a blessing to have great friends that live so close so that we can do playdates a lot.

This little man is getting so big.  He amuses us daily with his silly personality and crazy antics.

New Year's with the Fairbourn's

We headed up to Logan on Dec. 26 to spend a week with the Fairbourns. Logan still feels like home to us since that is where we lived for the first 3 years of our marriage.  I get a little bit homesick every time we drive back into Cache Valley just because it holds so many memories for us of college, dating, and our newlywed days.  

Kaden loves to play with his cousins, Jackson and Jace, and they certainly make up for lost time whenever we get together. They had so much fun playing together in Nana and Papa's playroom.  Unfortunately, we were all having so much fun playing together that I never actually stopped to take any pictures of that…oh well.

Kaden went sledding for the first time in Logan. Even though we get tons of snow in NY, the wind chill this winter has made it feel like it's between -20 and -5 most days so we don't go out and play in the snow at all.  Even though all the boys look quite somber in this photo, they actually all enjoyed sledding a lot!

Jackson, Jace and Kaden listening to a story from Nana

 Dana has a bell set and she figured out how to play a bunch of Christmas songs on them so we had lots of fun singing and playing bells. The kids absolutely loved it! They didn't exactly play a necessary part so at times it sounded a bit off key while they happily rang their bells, but it added to the fun.

For New Year's Eve Dana got all the stuff to do a black light dance party in their basement.  They had all the lightbulbs switched over to black lights and then everyone got a shirt and glow in the dark tape to create their shirt how they wanted it to look.  She also got glow-in-the-dark make up for the girls to wear or for anyone to paint their face with.

Curtis made this awesome skeleton shirt for Kaden! He spent a long time on it and it was so fun that we still have the skeleton tape on the shirt weeks after the actual party.  We can't bear to wash it or pull it off since it's so cool looking.

 The whole group in their dance party attire.

Crazy shirts + crazy makeup+ glow sticks +black lights + great dance music + fun people + happy kids=awesome New Year's Eve party. Everyone had a blast! Once the kids had had enough, then it was off to bed for them and we hung out and played games into the wee morning hours and drank our sparkling cider like champions.

 Kaden liked dancing… but he liked the glow sticks more.  He kept busy by stealing everyone's glow sticks all night and putting them around his wrists.  By the end of the night he had somehow amassed 12 bracelets and 3 necklaces.  Pretty sure he started out with 2-3 total. Ha ha!

 Nothing says Happy New Year like a glow in the dark fu-man-chu mustache...

 Jace, getting his groove on

One of our favorite things we did in Logan was go to the Jump Zone.  It's a giant building that has trampolines everywhere with squishy mats in between, ropes to swing into foam pits, you can play dodgeball and basketball jumping from trampoline to trampoline, etc… It's not just for kids.  We had just as much, if not more fun, than the kiddos while we were there. Wow I was sweaty when we were all done! Sadly we didn't take any pictures since we were too busy having fun, but I figure if I write about it then I can at least remember we did it, right?  

Our visits to Utah are always so bittersweet since we love getting to be with family but know our time there is limited.  We had yet another fun Christmas/New Years.  Someday maybe we'll live close again, but until then we cherish the limited time we get with family.

Christmas with the Seawrights

We were lucky enough to get to spend Christmas with family again, which is super nice when we don't see them at other holidays since we live two plane rides away.  We spent Dec. 18-Dec. 25 with my family (Seawright's) and then Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 with Curtis' family (Fairbourn's).  I took a million pictures as always so I'll just have to do two different blog posts.

There was LOTS of snow in South Jordan so Kaden got lots of snow playtime with Aunt Missy and Grandpa Mike.  He wasn't sure of the sled at first.  He seemed to warm up to the idea as he did it a few times on different days though.

The many faces of Kaden on the sled. Unsure. Perplexed/Hating. Gleeful.

 Every year my Dad plays Santa for a lot of the neighbor families.  We tried to get Kaden to sit by Grandpa Claus but he wasn't super thrilled with the idea until I sat with him.

 I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus...

I went with my Dad and played Holly the Elf while he went to the Crookston's to play Santa. I don't think one of their granddaughters liked me very much since I didn't give her the toy she wanted out of the bag. She asked me for another one and I told her I didn't have another one. So she went and asked Santa for one and he told her she could have it.  Then she came back to me and told me to give it to her. I told her the toy she wanted wasn't in the bag and she started to cry. Aah! I think I'm the worst elf ever. Good thing it's normally Missy's job, not mine.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights.  Kaden was not very excited about sitting in his stroller.

Kaden lost one of his gloves not long after we got out of the car.  We didn't want his hands to freeze so we had him wear Curtis' gloves so if you notice the giant hands, don't be alarmed. :)

Apparently he didn't like Curtis' gloves any more than his own since he's not wearing them in several pictures.  Oops!

Kaden had lots of fun with Grandpa Mike building a snowman.

 One of the highlights of our time in Utah was going to the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU.  We really enjoyed it a lot.  I've got to admit that I never really thought any of his paintings were that stunning, seeing them at church in the halls, but after learning some of the stories behind them I really enjoyed them a lot more.

 Christmas Day we had lots of fun opening presents.  Santa gave Kaden a basketball hoop that is just his size, some blocks (which he LOVES), lift the flap books, and some foam magnets.  He also got some fun things from Grandma and Grandpa and his aunts and uncles.

 Kaden got a new Elmo from Grandma Richelle. He loves "Meh-mo" and carries him around all the time.  He especially loves to watch Meh-mo sing songs on the iPad.

We had a lovely Christmas with my family and enjoyed being able to spend it in Utah with everyone.  More to come about Christmas Vacation Part 2 with the Fairbourns...