Enjoying the Outdoors

Jeremy had tossed a few chunks and pieces of the old metal pipe they removed from under the house when he replaced it all with that new PEX pipe.  Kaden found the stash and was trying to put pieces back together.

So proud of his accomplishment.  (Actually he just found a piece that was already put together.)

Which made a great hammer! 

 That old clothesline pole is blocking the view, but he is beating on that concrete block with his pipe hammer. 

Kindi in a box.

Kindi loving being in a box!

She thought it was great.  It was the perfect size, it helped her sit up and she could even kick her feet and flail her arms and not tip over!

The Random Adventures of Kaden Wells

This post is all about the fun quirky little things that make Kaden the lovable little boy that he is.

What?  You don't store all of your shoes on your coffee table?

I think that this comes from watching me clean the floors...  Our shoes are usually kept under a bench in the living room, but when I sweep and mop my floors I toss them on top of the bench seat because sweeping around shoes isn't very much fun.  :)

After he very carefully placed all of the shoes on top of the coffee table he proceeded to get out the vacuum and clean my rug...

Yeah right!!!  Okay so that was wishful thinking.  Instead he hopped up on the table and tossed them all onto the floor, which is where they came from.  Only now they are in the middle of my living room instead of tucked under the bench.  

After that... he did it again... and again!

Kaden is always trying to steal Daddy's coffee, so one day he grabbed a mug that I was working on (I had some scrapbook mugs for Jeremy of the kids for Father's Day.) and when he found it empty he knew just how to fix it.  His milk cup fit just right!

What a creative mind he has already!

Hey Mom (my mom, not Kaden talking to me), does this ring any bells?  :)

My mom has a picture of me playing in a diaper box (I think it was even a Huggies one?), although my box was much bigger than this one.  So when I saw him sitting in this one I just had to have a picture.  Now I may have to find and scan the one of me.

My Dad asked me the other day why we even bother buying toys for our kids.  I told him it was for the box they came in.  :)  Kaden and all 3 of Jeni's kids were playing in large packing boxes at the time and as you can see, Kaden spends lots of time in boxes.

He is helping me unpack boxes of random stuff that seem to have escaped the initial unpacking phase.  He unpacks from the inside out though.  Either that or he is a candle...

Oh how I love the hot days and sunshine of summer!  My water dog son agrees!  Jeremy found this on clearance at the end of the summer last year.  You hook it up to a hose and it is a little fountain play mat.

He was almost too fascinated by it to enjoy it!

I just like this picture!  :) 

 It would probably be a little bit better if he wasn't wearing all green and blending in though.  

Our New Backyard

We are so excited to have a fully fenced backyard! One of the gates needs a little bit of work and it could stand some reinforcement, but it is there and it is tall, and I am so excited to be able to let my children play outside without worry of them playing in the street!

Kaden stands at the threshold wondering if it is true? Does he REALLY get to play outside?

He loves to be outside he starts 'pleasing' and pointing outside from the moment he wakes up. He is always bringing me socks (anybodies socks will work) and both my shoes and his, hoping to convince me to take him outside to play or for a walk around the neighborhood. Our neighbors across the street love to watch us walk. They get a kick out of Kaden trying to make a break for it or walking backwards trying to get me to chase him. He also has discovered a love for mud puddles, I'm sure that is a shock to all of you mothers out there!

Look Mom! We're outside!

I often sit on the step right outside the door to watch Kaden play. So he has decided that is what big people do. Only when he sits there he has a tendency to bounce up and down... hard! My backside wouldn't appreciate that at all!

He has picked up several new bruises and scraps on his face with the nice weather we were enjoying. He thinks that he is big enough to walk down the stairs like I do. He knows how to safely maneuver the stairs backwards, but decided it is much cooler to go forward while standing instead of crawling. Unfortunately he is only successful about 1 in 20 times. The rest of the time he tumbles down, usually rolling without incident, but occasionally he takes a pretty nasty spill. If I am close enough he will reach to hold my hand while he walks down.

We have very little grass in our yard. I hope to change that some day soon, but the previous owners obviously didn't like to mow. There are a couple of different kinds of rocks and bark chips like you would find at a playground.

Luckily Kaden is getting pretty good at navigating the rocks although he still falls all the time.

Kaden explores our pile of flower pots.

Guess he didn't want that one... notice it is airborne.

Just playing mom.

He loves to stack things like cups or apparently flowerpots.

Notice the irritated look on his face?

He made it this close to me and stopped in the position saying 'please, please, please'. When I went to investigate he had a stick from the cedar tree up his left pant leg. I started to pull it out and realized it was WAY up his pant leg. I brought him into the house and carefully pulled off his pants since the branch was fairly prickly and discovered that it went ALL the way up his pant leg and was folded over and stuck to his diaper in the crotch. How in the world did he manage that?

We love to get out and enjoy the sunshine! He will run and run and run (which includes falling and getting up and falling and getting up) until he can hardly stand up anymore.

I was moving some of my big flower pots with the hand truck the other day. Kaden watched with interest and when I was done he looked up at me and asked 'please'. I told him sure he could play with it. So he steps on the front grabs the bars and looks up at me with another 'please'. He wanted to go for a ride! So I pushed him around for a little bit and boy was that cool!

A Weekend at the (original) Wells'

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and we spent it in Milton Freewater (my in-laws).  Jeremy's cousin brought her little boy over to visit one of the days.  Landon (I don't have a clue if that is how they spell it or not.) is 3 months older than Kaden...  Bet you wouldn't have guessed that!

Hugs!

I love baby feet and hands!                    Tug O War

The girls had a 4 day old kitten that they are bottle feeding.  Kaden thought it was pretty interesting when they let him touch it.  

We spent quite a bit of time outside on Saturday.  Grandma brought out a blanket and we laid on the lawn.  Kaden can roll over now.  He rolls from his back to his belly, most of the time he needs a finger to help him over the last bit, but once in awhile he can get it all by himself.  One time he managed to roll from his belly to his back also, but he hasn't done that since.  Now that he knows how to roll over on his tummy I think he may crawl after all.  He sure wants to.  He seems to have his back end figured out, but isn't quite sure how to properly use his arms... so he ends up sliding around on his face occasionally.  

So I had my first 'bad mommy' experience.  (Oh, wait... make that my second... I accidentally bumped his head on a banister the last time we were in MF, when he was only a week old.)  We were outside in the shade of the trees all day so I didn't put sunscreen on my tender baby boy's skin.  He got his first sunburn.  Being my son,  I'm sure it won't be his last, but I felt really bad.  It was just a little bit pink, but I think it kept him up that night.  Which brings me to another aspect of our trip...

Kaden decided that since we weren't home, sleeping at night wasn't necessary...  So it was a long weekend.  I think it was a combination of sunburn, not being home, and too much attention.  He isn't used to being passed around and handled all the time.  It didn't seem to bother him at all during the day, he was a wonderful trooper, but the nights.... oh, the nights!

Kaden is adored by his Papa, Great Grandma, and Grandma.

My son has always really been intrigued by his feet.  Now he can bend over and try to put them in his mouth...  I think he learned that from his cousin Kori.  He still prefers to use his sharp little teeth on other people though.  Papa's are the best!

A Day in the Sun

The sun sure has been wonderful lately!  This past weekend Kaden got to spend most of the day outdoors.  We laid a blanket down in the shade, so he wouldn't burn his tender skin.  The poor boy is destined to have easily burnt skin thanks to both his Daddy and I.  My cat, Jade, wanted someone to pet him and since everyone else was ignoring him, and Kaden couldn't escape, he decided to use Kaden's feet to rub his head.  It didn't seem to bother Kaden at all until he got a tiny scratch on his foot.  It wasn't an intentional scratch, but Jade has a tendency to reach out with his claws when he is wanting to be petted.  Even at that it may not have bothered Kaden if I hadn't batted at the cat and sternly told him 'No claws!'.   I'm afraid I startled him more than anything.

Mom has a great swing that we hang from a big tree in her yard.  It has a seat belt and a deep seat that Kaden can sit in.  I lined it with a blanket since it is a little bit wide for him, and buckled him in.  He really wasn't too sure about it at first.  He just stared at us like, 'What are you doing to me?'.
After awhile though he decided it was kind of fun, and we even got a few smiles out of him.  Well, Morgan did anyways!  I think he has a crush on her!  :)  He always smiles when he sees her, and we have some pictures of her on the wall in his room, hanging where he can see them while I change him.  He is always looking up at those pictures and grinning and giggling at them.  Sorry Kaden, she's a little bit too old for you!
Mom said that she put Kaden in the swing again later, when Morgan and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things, and he almost fell asleep.  Then he realized he almost fell asleep and started fussing to get out!