May 17-31, 2018 - 3 years 10 months

Birch's favorite time with Kadin is when the little rambunctious boy is sleeping!

Buenos Días Kadito!  He's always a bit grumpy in the morning and especially in front of the camera.

We finally hung the birdhouse Kadin made at the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.  We're a bit late in the season, but hopefully a chickadee will decide to make it a home.

Out on a hike in the forest around town and the river and Kadito climbed up on the hump at the base of this spruce and posed for a perfect portrait.  ¡Te quiro tanto Kadito, mi monito!

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 19-21, 2018 - Mahahual, Mexico (3 years 6 months)

The next day, it was sunny again, and we went on another boat/snorkel trip, this time with a couple from Homer, Kristen and Fernando.  I didn't get a good photo of Kadin on the boat, but the snorkelling was awesome with lots of sea turtles and rays (I think manta rays and/or eagle rays?)

View of our cozy home, after I had a chance to clean it up a bit while Kadito was napping.

Kadito finds more friends.  The boy in the white lightening shirt was sweet and he and Kadito got along great.  The other two he'd met before and they still have a bit more to learn about sharing toys.  Dito was asking me why they wouldn't share their truck when he was sharing his car.  Eventually, we had to leave and I let the boys know it was because we don't play with kids who don't share.

Ay, que rico! 

Our last night in Mahahual and Kadito breaks open his backpack to show off all of his toys.  I found the key is to try and have more than one of everything to make sharing a bit easier.  However, Kadito made it a bit difficult because he kept losing all of his MatchBox cars in the sand!

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!