January 30 - February 1, 2018 - Isla Mujeres, Mexico (3 years 6 months) – Last 3 days.

Kadito has already learned to never turn your back on the ocean!  Either that or he just really doesn't want to leave.

Kadito enjoys a strawberry liquado (smoothie) at the beach-side restaurant.

Laughter is such a beautiful thing.  As is that cute little "tickle button"!

He is pointing to some boats in the ocean, I think.  This was when we took the golf cart around the island to check out some other sites.  

At the turtle sanctuary, we saw turtles of all ages getting prepared to be released to the wild.  This is the second stage – outdoor pools.

We bought a little baggie of turtle pellets to feed them (and the gulls).  You can see one little pellet at the edge of the pool between Kadin's foot and the turtle.

This is the final stage for the turtles before they are released – an enclosed part of the ocean.  Lots of fish and gulls and there was even a catshark in there which you can get a quick glimpse of at the end of the video.

We went out for lobster for our last dinner in Mexico and Kadito was the Lobster Monster.  Grrrh!

And Abuela Baiba was the Lobster Eater!  Yum!

Our ferry ride back to Cancun to get to the airport and start the long journey home.  He's such an awesome travel buddy.

January 24-25, 2018 - Playa del Carmen, Mexico (3 years 6 months) - THE CENOTES

Kadin started to get a bit of a sand rash from his sandals so we switched to flip flops!  It took him a bit of practice to walk in them but he would NOT switch back and just kept on practicing.  They have Dora la Exploradora on them.

Speaking of flip flops, Kadito found this one at the cenote and it instantly became a boat… you can see his lips going Brrrroom like the motor.  He almost didn't let me throw it away afterwards - wanted to keep it as his toy boat!

Kadito was amazingly drawn to this girl.  He wanted to play with her and would follow her around the Cenote, asking me, "¡¿La niña, donde está la niña?!" (The girl, where's the girl?!)  Finally, they sat down and Dito could show her all of his toys.  Her name was Anuk.

I was supposed to pick just one of these four photos but just couldn't decide.  So now they are a collage of my little swimmer boy happy in the water.

Kadin is swimming like a champ!  All those Wednesdays at the pool in Wasilla are really paying off.  

There are these little fish in the cenotes that like to eat your dead skin.  Kinda gross but really, more than anything, kinda fun and TICKLISH!  It was hard to not laugh/giggle the whole time!

Our last night in Playa we went to a restaurant that was built within a cave (Restaurante Alux).  We didn't eat there but explored the cave and had a lot of fun.  This video is a bit dark, but Kadin was rockin' out to the music!

Ooops… forgot a photo… my version of a "volante" (a flyer!)… Jumping off the 20' cliff at the Cenote.  Kadito stayed on the pier with Anuk's mom and loved watching me jump.  The first shot is a close up of the second one.

January 17-18, 2018 - Mahahual, Mexico (3 years 6 months)

Kadito found two more friends!   They played for over an hour, running around with "Bebe" the chihuahua puppy, sharing toys, climbing things, pushing me in a hammock, etc. 

Yum!  After you drink the coconut water from a young coconut, you can eat the coconut on the insde.  It's softer and slimier than mature coconut and tastes great, especially with a bit of chile sprinkled on it.  Kadito doesn't like the coconut water but he actually liked the coconut with chile.  This is his first time starting to like a little bit of spice to his foods.

On a side note, with no picture to document it, Kadito found an open bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos on the beach with a few Cheetos still in it and he started to eat them before I could say anything (either about it being "trash" or it being spicy!).  So, I let him eat them, figuring they'd be way too spicy for him, and he LOVED them.  Must have been the MSG.  

Oh, and here's the ingredient list so you see why I don't normally give him these things:  

Enriched Corn Meal (Corn Meal, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, and Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Corn, Soybean or Sunflower Oil), flamin hot seasoning (Maltodextrin, salt, Sugar, Monosodium Glutamate, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Artificial Color (Including Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Yellow 6, Yellow 5), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Onion Powder, Whey Protein Concentrate, Corn Syrup Solids, Natural Flavor, Buttermilk, Garlic Powder, Disodium Phosphate, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Caseinate, Lactic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, nonfat milk, Sodium Citrate, Carrageenan) , salt.

This was hysterical.  We met a nice woman visiting from another part of Mexico who agreed to take our picture.  I have 6 pictures with various poses of me trying to get him to face the camera.  Ridiculous!  But at least it was silly and fun and he was laughing instead of actually pouting like he usually does.  The woman said she was watching me earlier and thought I looked like the epitome of a woman thoroughly enjoying motherhood. ❤️

Afterwards, we played chase around the letters with me trying to catch him in a photo.

That same afternoon, we took an afternoon stroll along the beach by our camp and encountered two kids by the pier.
One, the girl pictured, was a French Canadian girl who didn't speak English.
The other was a local boy.  He's the one who thought of the great idea to bring a broken beach chair into the water to play on.  Unfortunately, soon after, his father or grandfather showed up, furious that he had wandered down the beach all by himself!!

Our one fully rainy day.  We went on a bike ride, got completely soaked, and then played in all the puddles along the Malecón.  All of the benches were painted – this one had the characters from the Jungle Book.

February 28 - March 4, 2017 - 2 years 7 months - Chacala, Mexico, 4th week

Can we take him home?!

Digging his teeth into a yummy mango-on-a-stick!  My little "mono salvaje"!

Abuela Baiba took a photo of this and so, of course, Kadin had to grab my phone and take over 40 photos of it.  Baiba told him this was what we were having for dinner that night!  Yum!

Saying "adios" to Abuela Baiba.  :-(

Last day in Mexico, at our fancy place near the airport.

Last day in Mexico, at our fancy place near the airport.

October 16 - 26, 2016 - 2 years 3 months… Trip to Baltimore!

Kadin's first steamed crab!  He loved them so much, he ignored his kid's meal pizza slice. 

All dressed up and ready to PARTY!  

Aw, mama, why couldn't I keep the green glasses and spiky hair?
Actually, I would have been fine with it, but he broke the glasses and his hair just sort of fell into place.  He's adorable to me no matter what his style is!

Brennan entertains Chase and Kadin while the rest of us are dancing up a storm with mom, my 95 year old grandmom!

Nice little playground right in Herring Run Park.

Say aaaahhh!  Like a little birdie, Kadin opens wide, waiting for grandpa Butch to spoon in some yummy ice cream!   

More crabs!  Just after this photo, he had a bit of a shock as the Old Bay Seasoning from the outside of the shell hit his taste buds, but he wasn't really too bothered by it and kept on eating.

Mauww!  Mauww!
That's what Kadin calls the airplanes, like the sound they make as they are zooming overhead.  After seeing the luggage trains and the little towtruck that helps the plane get out to the runway, he went home and tried to attach his little cars to the nose of his planes!

The best part about this video is the running commentary… and Kadin's reaction when Baiba asks, "This doesn't record voices, does it?".

Too funny!

Here's the link, Mom:    https://youtu.be/Fk5DmmC9j1M