My Boy... and ME!

Happy Friday y'all! And what a beautiful day it is! After seeing the weather forecast last night, I was determined that I had to soak in ALL of the sunshine that God graced us with today, because next week... brrrrrr, icky wet and brrrrr again! Not so much a fan, but I know that bad weather too shall pass and the glorious return of Spring will follow soon after!

I don't know if it is because the sun came back out this week or what, but I decided that Chade and I had had enough of the house... we had to get out, even though we have had a particularly good time playing with all of his new Christmas/birthday toys lately! So on Wednesday we went to story time at the library... we hadn't been since this summer?! Or I guess that would be last summer now wouldn't it?! YIKES! In fact, we hadn't been to story time since Caden aged up to the TODDLER class... for the older, wiser, snot-nosed types! :) We had a GREAT time at the library... story time was great as always, but I must say... toddlertime is MUCH different than the babytime class we used to attend. There are NO toys in toddlertime, no free play, just lots of books and singing and finger plays... like I said... this is a group of older, wiser snot-nosed types! Caden did really well and seemed to really enjoy being back at the library!

Now, when I say back at the library I don't mean that we hadn't been to the library since this summer... heck no... I go regularly but lately I have been going on days when Caden is at school and then I surprise him with new books and videos when I pick him up, BUT on Wednesday I decided that since we were there we needed to do a little research...

Research you say?! Yes, yes... my little man has taken a recent interest in Shamu! He LOVED Shamu when we visited him at Sea World over Christmas, BUT a few weeks ago when he was sick and I was desperate for some additional indoor entertainment I downloaded a few videos of Shamu performances on YouTube and that little memory-jog has put Caden into full-on obsession mode! "Poo-moo," is ALL we talk about!! So we took the opportunity to do a little research on our favorite oceanic mammal! :)

While we were sitting on the "rocket rug" reading our books about "Poo-moo" the sweet librarian from story time came over to check out what had Caden SOOOO focused! She thought it was hysterical how much Caden loved whales and all of their blubbery friends and found us another book about a man named Jean Laffite and his adventures of chasing a whale down the Mississippi... and if you didn't think that whales lived in the Mississippi then you are dead WRONG, because Jean Laffite found one!! :)

Yesterday, I am ashamed to say that I sent Caden to school in flood pants... not because I happen to like the fashion of flood pants on little boys in the winter months, but because he has grown another 8 feet and all of his pants are getting short! SO I decided that it was probably time to go spend some of Caden's Christmas cash and buy him a few new things to make it through the winter!! If nothing else, I figure wearing short pants to school will only help him have more self-confidence in the long run! :)

When he got home from school I showed him all his new clothes and he immediately grabbed this new knit one-piece outfit I found on sale at Gymboree with what else but a fancy, rock-n-roll guitar on it!! SO... we tried it on and did a little fashion photo shoot... what do you think??!!

Too cute... he was SO excited to show Daddy when he got home! He loves his gui-gars!!

This morning, I woke up with a HANKERING for a bagel and schmear... there is really nothing like it, so I threw on some clothes, grabbed Caden out of bed and threw some clothes on him and off we went... Einstein's Bagels... YES, PLEASE!!

After our early morning bagel date, Caden and I headed to the gas station to feed Tilly and get her bath... she was DIRTY!! Caden loves the car wash and gets TICKED OFF if we get gas and don't get a car wash... so today was his lucky day!!

Looking ahead...
After Tilly was all spic and span we headed home for a quick potty break and off to enjoy the beautiful sunshine we went... we walked to the park near our house and played for a bit, but Caden wasn't much into playing at the park this morning... he was ready for an adventure!
So we walked back to the greenbelt behind our house, collected some rocks and then THREW THEM WITH ALL OF OUR MIGHT into the boulder-filled gully! Gotta love that about boys... they'll stand and throw rocks for 45 minutes straight... and Mommy gets to sit on the nice, cushy grass and soak up some sunshine and chat with her little man!
One of my favorite conversations we have is about all of the wonderful things God has made and TODAY we focused on praising God for making rocks! When I asked Caden, "Who made rocks, Caden?" He screamed, "JESUS!" Sweet, sweet moment... and then of course we go on from there to talk about what else God has made... Caden, Mickey Mouse, Doggies, Daddy, Ava, Minnie... God is a busy guy, isn't He?!
On our way back home Caden stopped at some trees and started playing peek-a-boo with me...
And then he said, "MOMMY, DANCE!" And broke out into his own little jig right there in the mulch... such a happy boy! :) He is a vitamin D junkie JUST like his Mommy and his attitude reflects it!! :)
After a BUSY morning outside we are both a bit pink and POOPED! BUT being a bit tired is always worth a little fun in the sun!

I cherish these moments in my days with Caden... I've said it before and I'll say it ten million more times, I have the BEST job in the entire world!!