December 16 - 31, 2017 - 3 years 5 months

Making cookies with an active and enthusiastic 3 year old is challenging… I mixed half of the chocolate chip recipe with half of the molasses cookie recipe and came out with something in between… Still yummy and fun in then end and with enough sugar, butter, flour, and chocolate chips, anything takes good, right?

El Capitán Kadito Finn  ¡Arrgh!  My Mom's yearly Christmas tree ornament gift for Kadito, in line with his latest fascination with pirates and boats.

Christmas Day

He was so cute with the Santa hat on but would NOT let me take his picture… this was all I could get.

Video:  Kadin with his Rocket Shooter on Christmas Day.  I have to admit, it might be a one-day-wonder, but I still want to try it at night and see if they really glow in the dark… it just has to get above 0ºF at some point.

December 1 - 15, 2017 - 3 years 5 months

Kadin pulls another kid with his awesome balance bike on skis during the Wilderness Woman's Contest in Downtown Talkeetna. 

An early gift of my original MatchBox Cars Carrying Case with about 20 of my cars that I've kept for all of these years.  I'm glad he was as excited to receive it as I was to give it to him.

This year we did a "composite" tree with two little sprucelings zip tied together to make one Alaskan Christmas Tree.  

Biking in the gravel pit at sunset – that means at 3:30pm.  Arrrgh!

After all that biking, Kadin didn't even want his hot cocoa and even with a cookie in his hand, he still was about to say, "Me no like fotos, Mama!"  Arrrgh!

November 16 - 30, 2017 - 3 years 4 months

Kadito writes his name!!!! Who knew the letter "K" looks so much like a horse…

Foster kitties: Mama Trinity and Tony and Prima Gatito (Kadin named the two kittens) 

Hocky stick or weapon?  Need to keep the stick out of his reach except on the hockey rink or it's not a pretty site… 

No skates but on the ice with a hockey stick and puck = FUN! 

No skates but on the ice with a hockey stick and puck = FALLING! 

 

No hockey gear, no ice but in his ice skates with packed snow = FUN! 

 

Looks like I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving… it was a mellow dinner at Heather Krompacky's place with lots of yummy food and Kadin liked hanging with the boys as well as visiting Miss Nugget, the happily recovered kitty.

November 1 - 15, 2017 - 3 years 4 months

That's one happy kid!

Yum, ice!  With his bare hands no less!  Brrrrr.

The gravel pit, with it's snow-covered "mountains" makes a great place to explore and play and run along the mountaintops.

Near the gravel pit, Kadin led me into an alder and willow grove, that I called the fairy forest.  It was a perfect Kadin-sized forest too.

Kadin snuggles with Tony while Mama Trinity sits close.  We fostered a mom and her two kitties for a while.  In the end, I decided not to keep any of them.  The kittens were a bit shy/nervous/feral and needed a quieter home.

Eating snow again… Captain Snowbeard!

Kadin was working really hard to push up this hill.  It's a bit steeper than it looks in the photo.

After all that biking, Kadin crashed in the sled and I pulled him the last bit down the road to the car.

Kadin working hard again, this time my little "alpinista" is summiting the mountain.  Half way up he says, "This hard Mom," and towards the top his asking me to wait where I am while he goes the rest of the way up.

Kadin bike-skis down a hill, with Denali and the beautiful Alaska range in the background.  In the beginning of it, I wasn't sure what he was saying, maybe "run"?  Then he says, "Mama mas cerca arboles," which means, "Mama, closer to the trees."  Ie back up!  

October 28 - 31, 2017 - 3 years 3 months - HALLOWEEN!

October 16 - 27, 2017 - 3 years 3 months

October 1 - 15, 2017 - 3 years 3 months

We went out for sushi and Kadin did a great job with his chopsticks!

ARGGH.  He LOVED the calamari.  He actually ate everything but wasn't too excited about the raw salmon.

As a surprise reward for being so good in the restaurant and in Value Village, I let Kadin pick out a toy and he is super excited about his new pirate ship!

It even has little mini wheels so it can smoothly sail the concrete seas.

Soleil's Birthday Party!!! Soleil is the girl to the far left.  

Mr. Monkey Acrobat in the bath.

In aerial yoga, this would be the orangutan pose.

Throwing rocks and sticks and leaves and watching them sink or float down the coast like a pirate ship.  (Everything is a pirate ship these days!)

It took Kadin over an hour to finally work up the courage to approach Sparky, the fire dog.  Sparky was quiet and patient and eventually Kadin wanted to show him all of his toys and art.  He even started to "read" the fire activity book to him!

We visited Wendy for a lovely tea and biscuits and a fun romp with her dogs.  Kadin found a feather on her window sill and he let me put it in his hair.  I love his facial expression in this picture for some reason.  

Yes, he's still running around naked.  But the awesome thing is that he had watched me mop the floor a few minutes prior to this and then immediately picked up the mop, mopped the floor, and used the squeegie thing to get the water out.  Kids' amazing ability to watch and imitate never ceases to surprise me.