January 9 - 26, 2019 – 4 years 7 months: Barra de Potosí, Mexico, Part 1

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Finishing up 2018: August 15 - December 31, 2018 (4 1/2 years old)

OK, I'm finally finishing up 2018…

Kadin and Baiba in Rehobeth on the kiddy rides - August 2018

Kadin visits his cousin Maddox - August 2018

We took the flag-stop train to a pretty camping spot along a river.  Nice fall camping trip (September).

Kadin's first school picture - Preschool

Yes, he is repetitively stabbing his pumpkin with knives.  No, I am not overly worried about this.  :-)

Kadin all dressed up for Suzy and Kassie's wedding in November.  This is one of the few photos when he wasn't wearing a mask due to all of the smoke from the Paradise Fires.

Feliz Navidad mi amor

June 16-30, 2018 - 3 years 11 months

The kids had the chance to disect a squid at Library Hour today.  Kadin LOVED it!!!

Yoga class at the library with Miss Geri.  Kadin did okay; some days he was really into it and others he just wanted to run around and do flips.  This was an "into it" day as he does the table pose (the cat and cow were next!).

Grayden, Dean, Kadito, and Ben climbing the fence together after T-Ball.

Funny face selfies on the computer.

Calvin, Kadito, and Jorie hanging out at Twister Creek.

He gets a bit of screen time at the library, at home, and occasionally with friends, but usually in the car, a book, toy, or conversation are plenty to keep him entertained. 

Pride Day.  He ran right up to these two guys to admire their bikes and they popped him on one for a photo op.

T-Ball.  OK, I know I got a bit too excited when he hit it.  ;-)

We made homemade pizza with pineapple and hotdog slices (didn't have his usually favorite, pepperoni).

January 22-23, 2018 - Playa del Carmen, Mexico (3 years 6 months) - THE TOWN

On the bus to Playa del Carmen, Kadin wanted to play with my hair ties and asked me to put them in his hair.  Too cute!!!  Unfortunately, he says, "Mi niña!" now, and I had to tell him that boys can wear ponytails too but if he wants to pretend he is a girl, that's ok too!  

We stayed in a really nasty hostel only one night, but it's advantage was that it was right next to this plaza (Parque Los Fundadores), where lots of exciting things were happening.  The beach was right here as well, but we didn't hang out on the beach that much in this town.

Our first night in Playa, we watched the Mayan Dancers.  They were super colorful and fun.  You could ask to have your picture taken with them but Kadito was a bit leary of some of the dancers who were dressed up as animals and a skeleton.

Kadito liked the dancers but he LOVED the Voladores de Papantla (Flyers from Papantla).   He heard the drums going indicating it was about to start and took off running to see them fly. 

It's a blurry photo, but this is how Kadin watched the flyers, riveted in his seat, fascinated.  I asked if he wanted to do it and he said, "Mi hombre, me do it." (When I'm a man, I'll do it)

And here they are… Los Voladores de Papantla… This video is from YouTube because none of mine turned out.

I finally convinced Kadin to leave the Flyers and go out for dinner.  Here he is with a mouth full of pizza, watching the musicians play in the restaurant.  "Too loud!", he said.  My little monkey.

Another blurry photo, but too adorable to leave out and I wanted to include a photo of him wearing his surfer-boy necklace made out of a cut shell embedded with crushed blue stones.

The next morning, we left the nasty hostel and walked for about an hour to our new place, a sweet little condo I found on Air B&B.  It was already pretty hot so we got some ice cream… and even with ice cream in his hand, the little punk wouldn't smile for the camera.   He was happy, I swear!

January 14-15, 2018 - Mahahual, Mexico (3 years 6 months)

Look Mama, you can't see my thumb!

Listening to the ocean waves…

Mahahual's beaches were mostly calm with lots of sea grasses and shells and other treasures for my budding naturalist.  

Showing me his treasure – a barnacle and sea grass covered shell of some sort.

Of course, if there is a puppy around, Kadin wants to be his best friend.  This cutie was about 9 months old and named Luna.

Yum! Octopus!  He loved it and mostly liked to eat off the suction cups.  Whenever we'd go to another restaurant, he'd say, "Me want eat pupu!"  Of course, pupu is pulpo, Spanish for octopus, but it made a few people turn their heads. ;-)

Same meal.  Kadin decides to paint his fingernails… with ketchup.  He was very proud of it and was happy to let me take his photo.

My little funny face, I love you so much.

Here's our campsite at Mahahual.  Definitely my favorite.  Right on the beach and not too crowded and there was even a bar and restaurant right there.

January 5-8, 2018 - Tulúm, Mexico CAMPING at KUKULCAN (3 years 6 months)

Last year, he wouldn't let me bury him.  Now he's buried up to his waist!

He only let's me take a picture of him these days if he is making funny faces or doing something he's excited about.  

This was our first campsite – at Hostal Kukulcan.
Small and friendly but a bit too far from the beach and a bit too much concrete for my taste.  Kadito had a love/hate relationship with the little puppy, depending on whether she was nipping his heels or not.

Yummy ice cream!  He was so thoroughly enjoying it that another customer asked me if she could take his picture as the epitome of ice cream enjoyment.

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.