"studying"

One night I asked Chad to please sit on the porch and study while Caden played outside so I could get dinner made.
A few minutes later I saw this:


And upon further investigation this:





Daylight was burned by two boys who love to play together.

I guess the books can wait.

Buddies

Caden has taken to asking me a hundred times a day, "Mom? What are you doing?"

When I'm in the car and he asks this, I respond, "What do you think I'm doing?" And every time, he questions back hopefully, "Going to Colby's house?"




We love having Colby (and his brother Ethan) over to play.

Caden says

Sometimes Caden is sensitive. Once he was helping me in the kitchen and dropped two eggs on the floor. After they shattered, he cried for over an hour. I could not get him to stop screaming. Because of this we say around our house a lot, "Don't worry. It's not a big deal."
This backfired on me the other day when I asked him to take off his dirty shoes as he was climbing up to sit by me on the couch. "Don't worry, mom. It's no big deal," he says.

Driving in the car today Chad and I were teaching him "Who took the cookies from the cookie jar." After going through daddy, mommy, we said, "Caden took the cookies from the cookie jar." Instead of the prompted, "Who me?" He solemnly told us, "I made a bad choice." Apparently he didn't get that we were pretending.

The other day he told me his first ever made up story. It started when Caden and I were sitting on the couch and a spider crawled on the pillow. Chad took the pillow to the hardwood floor, Caden brought him a tissue and Chad killed the spider. Simple enough?
We have relived this story over and over. Caden always wants to talk about it, retell it, or act it out. One day we were going over it yet again when Caden added his own piece to the story, "The spider say, 'No! No mash me. I a nice spider!'" I loved his first ever piece of fiction.

Tonight while eating dinner I took a break to tell Chad a story. Caden felt it his job to warn me, "Mom, the bad guys are going to come eat your dinner." Where does he come up with this?

Tantrum.

Yep, he's two.

Schow Halloween

When Caden and I went to UT during October, the Schow family Halloween party was at the top of our to-do list. Norm and Cindy know how to throw a party.

They go out.




All out.


And while the decorations were spooky and the food fabulous, I think Caden and my favorite times were getting to spend time with family.










Their Halloween village is like nothing I've ever seen. The flying witches, dancing ghosts, full moon and vampires provide hours of entertainment.



I'm a troll. Or a Who. Or just scary...depending on who you ask.

The Essence of Cade

One rainy, thunderstorm day this summer the cousins were going crazy at Grandma Gourley's house during a family BBQ. The ever lenient grandma decided to let the kids out to play in the water.

And they were off...





...creating the memories that childhood summers are made of.


Running




Tackling (Thank you so much, Uncle Chris for teaching my son this. Myself, and his nursery friends' moms, will ever be grateful)





and laughing...





while everyone else watched from the deck.


There was chasing



some new tricks


and occasional short rests to catch one's breath.



The fiasco was ended with loves all around.




And somewhere in the midst of the fun, I snapped this photo of Caden--one of my very favorites I have of him. It captures the very essence of my son. A big smile, tousled sun-bleached hair, mischievous raised eyebrows (a trait he inherited from the Schow-Barker side), on the move, and just glancing, for one small second to make sure his mom is watching.

Tight Squeeze

Caden's new thing is to give me a "tight squeeze." He wraps his arms around my neck, laces his little fingers in my hair and squeezes.

I had no choice but to document it. After all, it's not going to last forever. Sigh.












Using a camera timer with a 2 year old. We race to push the button.



Lest you think my 2 year old is adorable all the time, this is the meltdown and mess that occurred 30 seconds later.

Busy day!

Today was Caden's first trip to the dentist! His mouth has been hurting so we went to check things out. The dentist asked if I needed to hold Caden in the chair, but I assured him Caden would be fine. Then I whipped out my camera as any proud first time to the dentist mom should.



The dentist informed me Caden's teeth look great, but his top molars are coming in. I thought they'd come in a few weeks ago with his bottoms. No wonder he's been waking up at night and telling me all day his mouth hurt.
Caden was so somber about it. The nurse and I kept encouraging him, "you're doing so good...what big alligator teeth...wow, what a great boy...you are so brave..." and he wouldn't say a thing. Finally in the car I kept repeating those same things, and he'd answer every time, "Yes."


You're such a good boy.

Yes.

Mom is so proud of you.

Yes.

After that we dropped by the park to see a few friends.



Alisa, Finley, and Caden


Alisa is a friend we only know through playing at the park, and today her nanny brought tupperwares of fresh fruit for the kids. Is it awful that I let Caden eat food from a stranger? What about if I tell you I ate it too...does that make it better? or worse?

The fun was far from over. We picked Chad up from school and headed straight to Disneyland. All week long we'd been talking about going back there and Caden was super excited. He kept asking me over and over all morning if it was time to go. As usual, the happiest place on earth did not disappoint.


The great thing about having a season pass is that our trips our so relaxed. Like today, we didn't get to ride Peter Pan, but no worries--we'll be back there Monday to take care of unfinished business.


Now Caden sleeps, Chad studies, and I sit on the couch and eat ice cream. To each his own.