Hitching a Ride

In addition to all of the hard work my men did putting in a new lawn, they had a lot of fun.

Kaden wishing he could ride the rototiller, but instead having to be satisfied with a little time exploring it. He did get to push it around backwards for a few minutes with Daddy's help.

This is our portable yard debris compactor!

He looks a touch worried but have no fear.  It's all an illusion.

Kaden had a blast riding around in the trash can whether it was full on the way to dump in the backyard or empty on the way back to the lawn.

The next day Jeremy switched to a wheelbarrow.  Once again bringing along his portable compactor which also doubles as a nice weight for holding your grass clippings in.  He rode on top and got a kick out of toppling out just like the dead grass.

One of Kaden's favorite times of the day is when Daddy gets home from work and they go outside to water.  Jeremy carries a couple of 5 gallon buckets around the front and sides of the house to water all of his plants and Kaden goes along either pulling an empty 5 gallon bucket or bringing his own little bucket to help.

Putting in a New Lawn

Jeremy has been hard at work whenever he has a few spare moments.  On the weekends, after work in the evenings, sometimes even before he leaves for work in the mornings!  He has been redoing our front and side lawns.  Most of the work he did all by his lonesome, but some of the time he was blessed with an extra pair of hands:

Jeremy did the rototilling without his helper, but Kaden was eager to jump in and help as soon as he was able.  First they raked the dead grass clumps out of the dirt...  

Then they shoveled the grass into a trash can to haul it back to the backyard for composting.

Sometimes Kaden got a little bit carried away and just started 'shoveling' down the sidewalk!

Then they raked again...

Now Kaden is feeling like a big boy.  He doesn't need Daddy to help him with the shovel anymore!

Well, maybe the shovel is too heavy to lift all by myself... 

 I'll just carry the dead grass...

and throw it in the can.

Sometimes he got a bit confused and threw the grass into the street instead.  Well, that isn't exactly true...  if you have spent any time with Kaden you realize that he just threw the grass into the street because he could.  He may not be allowed to go into the street, but he can throw the grass there!

And then it was break time!

He was scooting down the curb just like that.

Story Time

I love to read.  Jeremy hates reading.  We both love to see our children reading!

Just for Fun.

Daddy getting some special cuddle time with our two beautiful children.

Hmm... what shall I eat today?

I don't remember what post it was in, but we have a picture of Kaden in this towel too, he was a bit younger though.

Jeremy and I each took a picture of the same sunflower in his garden.  Which one do you like better?  :)

Baking with Mama

Remember that zucchini mess?  Well I guess I didn't learn my lesson!  Okay maybe I did, but I determined that including my son and teaching him how to be helpful, follow directions and obey was more important.  Man being a mom is tough sometimes!  And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I have a wonderful Kitchen Aide mixer that I would definitely recommend to anyone, but Kaden doesn't think that is nearly as much fun as a spoon.  So even though I did actually mix my chocolate zucchini bread with it Kaden got a spoon to help while we measured ingredients.  Did you catch that?  *Kaden* got a spoon.  He is so tall now that he can get into the top drawers to get his own 'schooon'.

Helping dump in the sugar!

So I probably shouldn't let people see these pictures, because I did give some of the bread away and Jeremy would be thoroughly disgusted... but it's been long enough.   Kaden was resting his mouth on the edge of the bowl while he stirred.  When I told him not to he put the end of his spoon in his mouth instead.

As I was putting eggs, oil and vanilla in the bowl Kaden kept saying, 'One more.' trying to coax me to put more into the bowl for him to stir and splash all over the counter.

Eventually we succeeded and had 4 loaves of bread in the oven.

Then came the shore of shredding all of the extra large zucchinnis to freeze for winter zuchinni bread fixes.

He concentrates so hard and really accomplishes nothing.

Checking to see if he has actually shredded any yet!

Then he let me do the shredding and he put it into a bucket to be measured and bagged.

Another day we did some baking more to Kaden's liking.  A major ingredient was crushed up graham crackers.  Give him a meat mallet and permission to smash things and he is a happy boy.

Tub Time

Kaden has recently started laying on his back in the tub.  He used to love to lay in the bath, but lately he preferred to be on his tummy.  The first time he did this was so funny to watch.  He slowly started to lower himself back into the tub, a grimace on his face that would make you think he was laying on nails.  Then when he rolled over to sit up again he got a face full of water and came up sputtering, shocked that the water had attacked him.  Did that slow him down?  Of course not!  He tackled that tub once again and when he came up this time he mastered it.

Believe it or not, when he gets out of the tub we wrap him up in his cute little towels and he loves them.  In fact he eagerly waits while we place them on his head (He has a duck and a shark.) then count to 4 as we wrap the towel and then his arms around the towel to hold it in place.  While I unplug the drain he takes two steps out the bathroom door, drops the towel and is off to enjoy his short stint in the nude.  And unless I want to clean up some sort of unsightly puddle, it is a VERY short stint!

Well Kori was the only one who would look at me, but after a long afternoon of playing in the sprinklers and the sandbox I tossed everyone in the bath. I'm sure you can imagine how filthy kids get when they play in a sandbox after running through the sprinklers!   And after seeing them all sitting in the tub it reminded me of a picture of me and my cousins so I just had to take this one.  I guess at least these guys are even.  My tub picture was me and my four boy cousins.

Time to Eat.

It's that time.  At her 4 month Well Baby appointment, Kindi's Dr. recommended starting her on cereal since we hadn't yet.  He said that sometimes the thicker substance helps with the reflux.  It makes it harder to spit up.  I hadn't thought about starting her on cereal yet, she was so much younger than Kaden was when I started him.  She was only four months and four days old!  Kaden was four months and TEN days old!  Hmm... Funny how that works!  

So I prepared her cereal nice and runny, she took the first bite and wrinkled her nose at me.  Took another bite or two then...

She dove in!  She had all four limbs flailing and was leaning towards the spoon straining to get more!  Too cute!  The funny part is that she did great the next day too, then she decided she didn't like it.  I continued to try to feed it to her over and over again, different temperatures and consistencies, but she would take one bite then scowl (and she knows how to scowl) and spit it out.  It wasn't even like she just couldn't figure out how to eat it.  I really believe she just didn't like it.  

Another example of how Kindi gets the short end of the stick?  When I started Kaden on solids I diligently fed him something every day!  I gave him something new every week.  Poor Kindi on the other hand.  I have good intentions of feeding her solids every day (Don't worry, I don't forget to nurse her!), but instead something came up, or I'll do it at the next feeding, or she's too cranky to try it right now, or oops, she's down for the night now.  So it took three weeks before I tried giving her something with a little more flavor to see if she would eat it better.  

The first taste sensation that we gave to Kaden was Carrots and that did not go over well at all!  So sticking with the same color (I read somewhere that you are supposed to start your baby with vegetables of course, but that you are suppose to introduce the orange foods first  followed by the green.  I don't know why this would make a difference, but it's easy to do so, whatever.) we started with Sweet Potatoes, which Kaden enjoyed his first time.

Did you notice that her bib is smeared, but her face is clean?  No I did not get my pictures in the wrong order.  I put her bib on and set her food on the counter with a spoon (that was my first mistake), then went to get a stool to sit on before I put her in the highchair (that was my second).  Well in that short amount of time, Kaden, who had apparently been watching me like a hawk, snagged her food (He is getting WAY too tall and always surprising me with what he can reach.) and proceeded to try to feed her.  He missed.  Thankfully!

Yeah, she is so not impressed!

Mom!  Why do you keep shoving weird things into my mouth?

Then I just have to go to all the work of spitting it back out!

Then I discovered that although she didn't enjoy eating a bite like a big person, she did enjoy sucking the sweet potatoes off of her spoon more like a bottle style.  Although I don't know that I would classify that face as pure enjoyment by any means!

Guess it's not too bad.

She did pretty good for her first taste of color.  She ate a third of the container which is much better than the 3 bites Kaden had his first time.  And I am proud to announce that since we have started colored food I am remembering to give her some to eat.  Every day even!  She ate another third of a container the next day and then I sent the last third with her to Mom's house while I went to the dentist on Wednesday.  Mom said she ate it all and was not satisfied!  I think she is going to be growing like a weed again here pretty soon!  Today she finished her second container of sweet potatoes like a pro and I think we will try something new tomorrow!  She probably would prefer not to, but I enjoy it so much!

Kaden being the ever helpful, ever vigilant big brother stands on the back of her highchair to supervise!