pea's

Kaiden's first vegetable...  Pea's please!

Kaiden likes to grab his bib and shove that in his mouth and rub his  hands all over his face so he can really make a mess.  So, I have to use one hand to restrain his hands under the bib, while I feed him with the other.  He made a little bit of a face when he first tasted the pea's, but that was it. 

My adviser (and first clinical instructor) Laura Windersteen gave Kaiden this purple horse and chew blanket.  Her daughter-in-law has a business making baby stuff.

fishing with Ryan

My brother, John and Ryan went out on the boat fishing with Jason and Connor.  This was Ryan's first time fishing.  He caught about 5 fish and Connor caught 4.  Ryan had a blast and his fish stories got bigger and bigger as the day went on (I think he "said" he caught 8 fish and their size grew tremendously by the end of the day).  John had a blast fishing too and can't wait to go out again.  I'm so glad the men of my life had a good time bonding.  They all got to see a Tiger Muskie swim by the boat too.

My big guy holding his own bottle

My little tool man

oatmeal

Kaiden's first time experiencing oatmeal.  Yum! Yum!

fancy nails

Connor has been asking to paint his nails for a while now.  His cousin, Ryan used to get his finger nails painted by his older sisters and Connor thought they looked fancy.  I waited until swim lessons were over and then talked him into painting his toe nails instead of his finger nails... and since summer is almost over we'll just make sure he wears socks and tennis shoes all the time.  Connor thinks it's fun and amazingly Jason was fine with it, but other kids might not be so accepting.  I never paint my nails (finger or toe), but I got down all my polish and attempted to talk him into choosing blue, green or black polish.  He chose hot pink with sparkles.

Not a perfect paint job, but we removed the extra polish from the skin around the nails in the shower the next morning.

showing dad his "fancy nails"

Connor thought I needed to have matching hot pink nails too.

Dishman Hill's Hike

Nothing fills the belly like some rice cereal... Kaiden is getting more used to the taste and texture of cereal now.

 Jason and Kaiden

 Connor brought his camera to take pictures on our hike

 King of the mountain!

 me, Jason and Kaiden.

 my 3 boys

me and Connor

Rice Cereal

Kaiden's first experience with solid food... rice cereal

 He wasn't so sure about it at first...

swim lessons

Connor loved his swim lessons and his swim coach, Robert!

 Jason and Kaiden watching Connor swim

 The last day of swim lessons all the kids get to go down the big slide.  Connor didn't want to go alone though, so he went down with Robert.  Connor is still a little bit too short to be able to touch the bottom without dunking his head under water.  Most of the other kids were a little older and therefore, taller and able to stand up and touch the bottom.  Since Connor couldn't it made him nervous to let go of the wall without having Robert or someone right there to catch him.  I brought Connor 30+ minutes early every day to his swim lesson so he could practice in the shallow water.  I noticed he did better swimming in the shallow water by himself (where he could touch bottom) than he did during his lesson with Robert in the deeper water.  He had more confidence when he wasn't afraid of drowning.  He said he loved his lessons though and asked if he could take them again.  Hopefully this spring he'll be tall enough to touch and be more confident swimming in the deep water.

Connor loves to help with chores... lets hope that carries into his teen years!