Fast Fact Friday, or something like that

1. Jim is doing another triathlon tomorrow- the bike portion of a relay team. I'm planning on going up, with Kaden, to cheer them on. But the race site won't tell me where parking is, and my best guess is that it's about 2 miles from the swim start/transition area. Why yes, I thought the perfect way to spend a Saturday 6am *would* be a mile long stroller walk with a toddler.

2. Store clerks, if I buy a reusable bag, USE IT to pack the rest of the stuff, ok? There's nothing that gets my goat more than you stuffing a perfectly fine fabric bag into one of those plastic ones. Seriously.

3. Kaden has his 2 yr checkup today. Perfectly healthy, as far as we can tell. Even the doc noticed that he talks. A lot. Oh, and for the first time he actually cried more than 15 sec when getting the vaccines.

4. Last night, we had 3 bikes on the porch. The only one Jim actually owns is his least favorite ride. He met a guy who might give him an oldie but goodie. Which means 4 bikes. This is why I'd like a garage. Or at least a proper shed.

5. A while back, our washing machine took out its frustration with us by flooding the porch. We had to throw away the fantastic carpet tiles that were made from recycled bottles. Maybe we didn't have to throw them away, but I actually got tired of fighting with the porch and trying to do it "green". This week, we just went into home depot, picked out something from a roll, came home (in the rain, natch) and set it up. In less than 4 hours, the job was done.

6. If someone asks Kade a question, and we whisper the answer in his ear as a "help", he turns around and whispers the answer too.

7. Yesterday, Jeopardy was ending and I asked Jim "What time is it?" Before he could respond, Kaden said "8 Oclock! Time for bathtub!" He was completely right, but I seriously doubt he knows any other time of day.

8. Oh look, it's 8 oclock, bathtime right now. Good night, all!

Happy Birthday JimDad!

Cards I could've bought for him today:

Don't worry about birthdays aging you.... it's being a father that does it!
***

Front: Picture of Superman flying and a guy in tshirt/jeans cleaning dishes
Inside: Not all heros wear tights.
***


Front: photo of couple under the covers, baby crying.
he says" i'll give you $100 to take this one". She says "make it $200 and a foot rub."
Inside: happy birthday to my partner in life, love, and never before seen levels of tiredness.


True story: Way back, when we had only know each other for about 60 days, and with less than 6 hours notice... Jim woke up at 3am to drive me to an airport an hour away, and he didn't even know why I was going.


True story: Today, around 7:30 am, I said to Jim: Good morning, happy birthday!
Kaden jumps up and says "I eat birthday cake now"

Happy Birthday to my favorite husband :)

May your day be peaceful, joyful, and full of love and laughter...

Titles of Blog Posts I don't have time to write

1) Potty training stories (most involve sounds effects) (like CHOO CHOO)

2) Funny things Kaden has been saying (as opposed to funny things his dad says)

3) Oh! Look who turned TWO in the recent past sometime

4) How to look for DayCare. How to decide if it's time for daycare. No, how to look for a good daycare. that's near our house. or maybe work. and doesn't cost too much. and is diverse. and...

5) Maybe I should just stay at home

6) How to handle foreclosure. Or bankrupcy. Or both.

7) why tropical storm warnings are still no big deal

8) BTW, she doesn't look 70, does she?

9) Oh, right, someone ELSE has a birthday in July too!

10) YouTube Channel Update: all 95 videos uploaded (they're not. yet.)

Vast Voyage

We're about 2 days out in the deep, deep ocean this week... sailing a High Sea Expedition to explore God's Word... that's right, it's summertime Vacation Bible School. That alone would be worth about 20 posts, one third rants and 2/3 great fun.

We're also about 3 days back from a great family vacation in the semi-wild, to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday (!), which WILL be worth at least one good post.

But we're also a mere 4 days away from my babe turning 2. TWO! Did you blink? Did you miss those 730 days? Because, and this isn't the exhaustion talking, but wasn't I just pregnant? Should I not be wearing maternity bras anymore? What happened to this sweet soul:

Tonight seems like an awful time to write, since it's crammed between VBS, missed deadlines, work backlog from vacation, and birthday preparation thoughts (present? where can I get a natural, fair trade present that he will love... by Saturday? when can I even get out to look?).

But tonight is also the perfect time to write, as it seems that this is (more or less) what motherhood is. Snatching moments of reflection or perfection when they present themselves, no matter what my plan was.

Besides, isn't this where I want Kaden to grow up?

Right between family and nature, friends and God?

And working with the same group of families for the past 4 or 5 years has let me see some of those boys growing up. I am acutely aware, when I see males of any age, that my future will involve some version of "him", however sweet or maddening he is. Someone mentioned that Kaden would "graduate" to the pre-K group next summer, and I was shocked. Then I looked at the adorable little boys, ones I remember being babes, and their joy at learning the story or the song. I can see my son playing on the preK deck next year.

And in the elementary group, I see boys I knew as preschoolers not so long ago. I watch them help younger kids along and run wild down the hall. It's a bit harder to imagine, but it's conceivable that my boy will be one of them someday.

And the ones I met as boys? Who are now entering high school and show up groggy with tousled hair? The ones who have sweet smiles but don't readily show them? The ones who are all heart and muscle and think no one sees just how wonderful they are? the ones who stay in the background and the ones who goof off up front? It's truly impossible for me to imagine my babe becoming... a teen. Or, after that, a man.

I know he will. He is already on the path, just as surely as he finished off 4 servings of green beans tonight. As surely as he's learning the patterns of our favorite phrases, and growing into the next size of shoes. Everyone says to savor these innocent days...

and for once, I think everyone is right.

Happy Birthday to our favorite firstborn boy... may you have many more years of joy, may you grow in wisdom and strength, and may we always be connected by Love.

How many ???

So... one of the many fascinating things about the internet is the type of sites you stumble on while looking for something else. I had forgotten about the social security baby name database, which is a nifty little chart of the top 100 names for each gender by state. It is, of course, according to those who actually register for SS#s, which seems to be a mainstream thing now.

(Disclaimer: we are not announcing any new baby news- there is no new baby at this point! Just celebrating our almost 2 yr old!)

Most parents don't want a name in the top 10, unless they love-love-LOVE it or it's a family name. After that, it's all personal taste right? How common do you want your kid's name to be? When we chose the name Kaden, we hadn't heard it before, though we had heard of Aiden and Hayden.

The week he was born, another Cayden James was born in California (grandson of parishioners). Then we met up with a college buddy who lives in the same region as Jim's family, named Cayden. Our neighbor makes a friend at the playground- his name is Caden. Oh, and another parishioner has a baby girl, named... Cadence! All these kids are within a year of each other. So, wow, the name was popping up everywhere, with a variety of spellings.

Also, after he was born, I also vaguely remember reading on Swistle's baby name blog that popularity is getting harder to figure because of various spellings AND that right now the --EN name ending is popular. Names seem different but also familiar when they rhyme with that. Huh.

So where would his name be on the list? I checked it out.
#11 - Jayden. #16 Aiden. #59 Aidan. #76 Hayden. # 88 Jaden. #91 Ayden. #95 Caden #100 KADEN!

So... while there are a minimum of 9227 kids in the country named Caden/Kaden, there are over 55,000 with rhyming names from the list above. (This doesn't count the boys named: Ethan, Christian, Logan, Ryan, Dylan... )

Oooh, and then I realized I could search the top 500 names, so of course I did. (It's not like I should be doing laundry or freelance writing ...) And wa-la! We've got #152 Kayden, #173 Cayden, #190 Kaiden, #250 Caiden (#488 Zayden?), #665 Kaeden, #726 Kadin, #954 Kadyn! Ka-geez-bers! There's over 18500 kids named a variation of Kaden in the US... or at least 8% of kids his age. Huh.

What does this mean for real life? Uh... sorry, gotta go put the laundry away :)