May 10-16, 2018 - 3 years 10 months - Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival

To break up the drive, we stopped for a few hours at the Soldotna playground… where we discovered that Bucky enjoyed going down the slide as much as Kadin! 

A nature walk along the docks, exploring all of the sea creatures there.  Kadin loved it!  This one is an ochre sea star.

An "Otters and Eiders" boat tour where Kadito and a kid he met on board get to sit in the captain's seat.  (The Captain is pictured to the left).  Lots of otters, lots of running laps around the deck.  No eiders (a cool sea duck). 

Kadin slept through it, but I awoke to the crunch of underbrush and chomping of leaves right outside of the tent.

Awww!  Love this shot of Kadito and Bucky… best of friends whenever Kadin has either food or a ball in his hand!

February 2-15, 2018 – 3 years 7 months – Fun in the SNOW!

We're back!  Lots of snow and Kadin jumps right in and wants to help clear the car off.  

Yay! Snow!  Let's throw it up in the air!  And have it fall on our head… Yay!  

Snow angel.

The snow was so powdery and soft we could run and jump and land it it and then just lay there like we were in a cozy bed. The warm sunshine was nice too.

Mostly, Kadito doesn't walk too far in the vast snowy world, but sometimes he runs off, turns around, and looks at me… You coming, Mama?

January 16, 2018 - Mahahual, Mexico (3 years 6 months)

Morning walk along the beach.  He would comment on every boat, especially if it had two outboard motors instead of just one.
He would run out to a pier by himself sometimes, so I made him wear his life jacket!

Kadin is really into learning his letters right now – especially O, K, J, and S – and was practicing in the sand.  I love that sometimes he calls me "Jota", which is the letter J in Spanish.

Kadin met two twins, Sebastian and Tristan, at our campsite beach and LOVED playing with them for hours.  We even hopped on their golf cart for a final ride before they got back onto their cruise ship and left.  As they left, he cried and every time he saw a cruise ship he mentioned them.  I realized it's kind of hard on him to meet kids for just a quick playday and then never see them again and it renewed my quest to find a more permanent community to go to every year.

More cool discoveries… I think he's asking me what made all the holes in the sand.  I believe it's little clams in there.

Later on, we met up with a few more kids and they all started collecting these teensy clams.  Kadin was proud to show the girl how many he'd found.

Video:  Kadin playing in the water.  "Mi mano bote" = my hand is a boat!  "Big bote bajo aqua" = it's a big boat going under water!

March 5 - 15, 2017 - 2 years 8 months

Back in Alaska!  

It was a beautiful day with a biting wind...

Kadin always seems to get these red lower eyelid lesions… always on the right side.  He gets a water balloon compress on it and if he lets me do it easily enought, he gets to play with the balloon afterwards. 

October 27 - 29, 2016 - 2 years 3 months… (very short) Trip to Oakland, CA!

The morning we arrived at Emily and Jen's place, we chilled in their backyard, recovering from the flight.

But that same afternoon, we headed out on a lovely hike with Suzy, Bug, Mya (pictured here), and Emily/Jen's dog Juneau in the Oakland Hills.  It rained intermittently, and Kadin was definitely a bit "fragile", but he loved watched the dogs and the birds and the raindrops.

The next morning, Kadin was eager to explore Emily's garage/workshop and quickly went to work with a screwdriver.  Cole would have been jealous, but he was already off to daycare.

Pre-wedding-ceremony fun, hanging out with the band and meeting new friends.

After the ceremony, there was an awesome puppet show by Miss Butterfly and Kadin skeddaddled his way up front and was enthralled.  More than once he needed some gentle encouragement to just watch and not try to participate by grabbing the puppets himself!
[also note that there are no photos of the ceremony… we lasted about 5 minutes and then had to find someplace else to go and fidget/run around.  Miss Butterfly helped us out then as well, escorting us to the play room where he could run around.]

Kadin was enthralled with a few of the older kids who could blow bubbles for him.

Suddenly alone in the spotlight, he wasn't quite sure what to do and looked right at me in all his adorableness.

Yay, the other kids are back and… with more ba-was!!!!

Oh what a night… 

Didn't even budge as I took off his shoes and jeans….

The next day, I left Kadin with Emily and Cole and went to a post-wedding brunch.  Here is the lovely bride Ama with her daughter Maya.  

Meanwhile, Kadin and Cole had a blast, playing (and fighting) with all of Cole's toys.
[BTW Cole, THANK YOU for sharing all your toys with Kadin – it was definitely a highlight of his trip!]

Emily, Cole, and Kadin spent the morning at the playground.  I haven't gotten any of the playground photos yet, but from this shot, I suspect they had a good time!  

September 16 - 19, 2016 - 2 years 2 months

Every evening when I pick him up from daycare, Kadin begs for a snack and then falls asleep in the car,  snack in hand (and usually all over the carseat too).

My friend Heather couldn't use her cabin reservation at Byer's Lake and asked if Kadin and I would like to go instead… I certainly was in the mood to escape life for a bit so I took her up on the offer…
 Yay!  A few phone calls later, appointments were re-arranged, and I threw a bunch of gear into the car and off we went.  Kadin is ready to go!

Here's our rig - a packraft set up with my backpack strapped down in front, the sleeping pad in the back, and the two of us squished in the middle.  Kadin enjoys it for the most part, but starts to get antsy after a bit.  Then we stop, look for feathers and leaves floating on the water, or have a snack, and all is good again.

Exploring and hiking around the cabin in the evening.  Kadin took a sudden liking to the ferns along the trail and I showed him how to put them behind his ear… like a cute little forest elf.

Kadin found a loon's feather down by the lake.  So pretty!  And we could see the loons on the lake, doing their crazy calls.  

Short trip, just one night, and back into the raft and on the lake 

It was a misty, drizzly day, giving the lake a completely different mood than yesterday.

The rain didn't stop Kadin from having a good time! 

September 1 - 15, 2016 - 2 years 2 months

Kadin wanted to play with a hairband and loved trying to see himself in the mirror with a ponytail. 

We went berrying picking and there weren't any left because someone had arrived before us!  I actually got to see the black bear briefly as he/she was sneaking by, trying to avoid us.

Kadin slept through most of the berry picking and bear sighting!

As we made our way home, Kadin had a big tantrum about something… can't even remember what.  

Best cure for the tantrum blues…. SNACKTIME!

Kadito, el cocinero.  Kadin loves anything to do with cooking!

Kadin and Farah running around naked together… what cute little tooshies!

My mini garden - chives and sorrel!  

Kadin helps in the office at daycare.

More blueberry picking!  This time, we were up on the tundra.  It was still late in the season and we didn't get enough to keep us happy for the whole winter, but it certainly was fun!  Kadin has learned that instead of picking them and eating them, he can just confiscate our jar and eat and eat and eat!!!

It's autumm and all the plants are turning.  This is Kadin's favorite… high bush cranberry.

Kadin "wearing" his undies!   

Gorgeous double rainbow made my day when everything else happening was rotten. Can't have rainbows without rain, right?!

Kadin enjoying the rainbow.

Short attention span! Been there, done that, time to go home now Mama...

Best buds, snuggling at bedtime.

The video is of Kadin chasing a laser pointer… and figuring out it's just a speck of light. 

Here's the link for the video if you can't watch it on the blog: https://youtu.be/GTHtbHjiDkY