the things this kid says

After church this weekend, we were telling Kaden he wasn't really behaving well the entire service, and he had to work on that.  He said "I don't want to be quiet or still"  So Nana says, should we call up Fr Stan so you could talk to him about it?  And Kaden says, "Well, if you take me back to Florida, I'll behave at church!"   

***
Another time at church, he waved at a cross from a distance, during the processional at the end of mass.  Stop waving, I said.  
"I'm really praying, " he said, "because inside the cross is heaven, and Uncle Steve is in heaven, so I'm saying hi to Uncle Steve and it's praying."

***
One day, Kaden and Nana were talking, and Kaden said something about Nana living with him when he was a lot older.  Nana said, well I might not be here.  Kaden:  You mean because you'll be dead?
Nana: Well, yes.  Hopefully not soon, but someday, and we don't know when.  Kaden:  Well, that's okay too, because then you'll be in heaven, and so you'll live in our hearts with us.


***
Kaden, one morning:  Hey Dad, you better comb your hair better.  Today you're getting married!
Jimdad:  really?  to who?
Kaden:  Mom.  So you better look nice.

***
me:  why are you opening the truck window?
Kaden:  Well, you never heard a lightening bug before, right?  So you're going to hear one tonight.  Pay attention, though, they're fast.

***
One time, we were "practicing" accents and I tried out a wee burr.  Kaden yells out, "OH MY! Now we're talking SCOTTAMISH"

***
Me:  Kaden, will you come out here when you're done crying please?
Kaden:  I'll NEVER be done crying!

***
We were wondering aloud how a family down in FL was- and the teen girl was Kaden's babysitter.  He says, "Oh yeah, her and Ken."  No, her brother is Wills.  "I know Wills, but I'm not talking about her brother.  I'm talking about her friend."  Her boyfriend? His name isn't Ken.  "I know that, but he looks like a Ken doll, so I call him Ken."

***
Kade:  When can I go to Disney again?
Me:  Maybe when you're 16.
Kade:  I don't want to WORK there, I want to go PLAY there!!

He's quotable, even when he doesn't mean to be!

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's 1,000 Superheros!

This past weekend, we had one of our most fun days ever.  Well, the boys did!  I would certainly prefer a later wake up time, but that's race life I suppose.

There was a Superhero 5K and Kids Fun Run, about 40 minutes away.  Kaden was all in.

We didn't pre-register (I have a lot of ideas but rarely commit in advance!).  So we showed up by 7:30 am- and then had two hours between registering and race start.  Thankfully, there was a good bit to do!

Kaden had fun trying his spidey-strength out.  And of course, we were checking out everyone's outfits. There was no official count, but we saw ONE adult Robin (guy), two adult "Robin Girls", and one wee Robin.  Yes, we were counting.

 Every single Robin came with a Batman.  The life of a sidekick, I suppose.  In the photo above, check out their socks- with capes!

Our guy started running around as soon as he got his number- and cape.  That's right, part of the kid racer's goodie bag was an actual cape.  Genius.

Above, you can see a bit of the outfits.  Most involved t shirts.  Some involved masks.  Some were full blown costumes (The Incredibles with muscles, for instance).

There was also this huge inflatable obstacle course.  Kaden was begging to go on, even though I wasn't sure he was big/old enough.  I finally let him, though- and WHAM- he flew through it.  I'm not sure, in the pic above, if he can even see through his mask.  But below, look at Spidey climb!

Usually, he was racing against a bigger kid, who would finish and run off before he came down the slide.  But since he didn't see it, he claimed victory every time.

Below, he's getting warmed up.  By posing, not stretching.  Apparently, that's how superheroes roll.

Have you seen anything cuter than this?  The youngest boy division lining up for their race.  It was 40 yards, I think.  Notice - Kaden is standing next to Robin.

Unfortunately, when they took off, I failed to get a good photo.  Between all that red and blue, and actually cheering, I only have photos of the sky or other people's kids!  He did really well- and earned another race ribbon.

On the way home, we passed an Amish buggy.  I still get a kick out of seeing them.  (But visiting Chocolate World is wearing thin!)

We headed home and took a much deserved nap- then headed up to 'the cousins' for a pig roast. Never mind that his grandparents and aunts and uncles live up there too- it's always referred to as 'the cousins'. Kaden had a blast.  Swimming in Uncle Dave's pool...

Roasting marshmallows on the fire...

He didn't actually eat though, until we started to leave around 8:30 pm.  Then he claimed he was hungry, so we grabbed some fruit and a quick pork sandwich.  Made him happy enough to fall asleep on the way home, but not before seeing the moon rise over the river.

Good days, my friends.  Tiring, but good.

Everyday Fun

Two things I need to get used to now that we live in Pennsylvania.  

ONE- I used to be surprised it was so hot in May.  Now I'm surprised it's still cool in June.

TWO- When people say "beach" or "sand", they are probably talking about a lake of some sort.  That's not a 'beach' to me- what I think of as the beach, ppl around here think of as 'the shore', which sounds a little overpopulated and scary to me. Caveat- if they mention "vacation", they mean a real beach, but that's 6+ hours away.

Kaden's helping me with the rest of this post:

Hulk picks up Robin and says "HEY! I'm picking you up and then I'm going to throw you down because I am your villian"  Phewch (fighting noise)!  Ow! 

"I got you because you were a good guy and then you turned in a villian, but now we're going to turn you back into a good guy! Yay!  We win again!" 

I got a new toy, and I'm going to play with these Star Wars guys after my mom opens them!  

Thank you Gary! 

I am not very fast, this guy in front of me is faster than everybody.

me: did you try your best?  him:  yes.

me: did you have fun?  him:  yes, I used all my energy.

Thank you for taking me to that race, mom. 

Me:  this is the bike Uncle Steve bought him, but he outgrew it in just a year. 

This is Kaden, he starts with K.  That's what you say about that one and that's IT. 

This is L and N and K.  They are superheros saving the day.

It's easier to love States when they behave

Is it Spring or Summer where you are?  Or winter?   I'm not sure what to call this here.  It's been warm, even HOT, for 3 whole days.  But the "hot" is... sneaky.  It LOOKS beautiful, and it FEELS really nice... and then after an hour in the sun, I'm all tired out.  Wha?  I'm used to knowing/feeling it's hot all day, and not being sapped out by it.  So that's new.

But-- I'm also not used to it getting very nice, very quickly  AS THE SUN GOES DOWN.  That's genius right there.

We have begun exploring parks a bit more, though quickly Kaden has favored two of them.  One (see above) is a HUUUUGE wooden castle outdoor playset.  Sure, there's swings and other stuff, but the main attraction is all this linked up wooden goodness.  Most of it is big enough for an adult to chase a kid-- except when a kid scampers across a wooden bridge and then just hangs out grinning at you.  Ahem.

We also made the best of one rainy day (sorry for a sideways pic) and I let the boy romp in the rain and resulting mud.  As a bonus I was able to get half of the patio garden set up (the other half needs to be completed SOON as the seeds are now sprouting! yay!).  Anyway, the rain was quite delightful- a long, gentle soaking with no thunder or lightning to scare us inside... and, surprisingly, hardly any humidity!  The humid days come, of course, but are nothing like what we're used to, so we're enjoying it.  I forgot how much I liked PA mud!

We were also able to take a road trip... and had some goofy fun with friends.  See above and below for photo proof.  This particular friend family also moved north, but to a neighboring state so it's a 6 hour drive.  All their relatives kept saying things like "whoo- six hours! that's a long drive, eh?" And we would look at them a little bit puzzled.  "Not really" we'd reply, "it's a lot closer than the 2 day drive to Florida".

hmmmm.

We ventured out to police museum... which was equally cool and disappointing.  I was glad Kade doesn't read yet, so I could skip all the displays about the 'bad guys'.  He was enamored with the motorcycle, of course, and more excited about the hands on 'crime lab' than the gun display.  Whew!  We had fun taking our fingerprints and using magnifying glasses, and yelling out "ALFRED!  GET OUR SUITS READY!"  Not much happens in our life that can't be related to Robin and Batman...

And, we visited a nice little farmers market.  The boy got a tattoo, a smoothie sample, a chance to plant *another* pumpkin seed... and a yoga class.  We watched from a distance- and I'm assuming the teacher must have mentioned warrior pose, because all of a sudden Kaden started doing his "ninja karate moves".   The teacher was patient, though, and rounded up the cats, er, boys and got them to try other poses too.  Win-win.  

Moral of the story?  PA is easier to love when it's warm out.  You all knew that, and I'm sure we did on some level too, but it's nice to be experiencing it (finally)!  Though I did push the envelope and try to go swimming today.  The pool is OPEN!  It's JUNE!  I'm sure it'll be fine!  Five minutes later, with blue lips and uncontrollable teeth chattering, we scrapped that plan.  In his best attempt to cheer me up, Jim said he was sure it would be warm... next month.  But the garden is growing and sprouting and the farmers markets are open, so I can wait for a swim :)