Last Day of School

Thursday, May 26th was Caden's last day of Dimensions for the year.  It also marked his last day in the Infant room.  Sounds kind of funny to say this 'grown up boy' is in the infant room!  Their infant room goes up to 18 months.  He was the oldest and only walking/running one in his room for the last few months, but it has been great for him.  He is so good with the babies (which is hard for Mommy to believe :)), and he also liked being the Big Cheese in class.  Somebody's gotta keep those babies orgnaized, haha.

This lame mommy was a mess on Caden's last day.  Not because he's 'graduating' to the Toddler Room A in the fall.....he is more than ready for that.  We pass the room every day and the teachers in there always say "Goodbye" to Caden and are sweet as pie.  I was doing fine when I went to pick him up, excited to give the teachers their presents from Caden, and give Caden his Last day of School present! 

Once I got in there, I saw that Caden was still asleep on his mat for nap.  I had never seen him sleeping on his mat before.  It was adorable.  After I woke him, Caden did his usual goodbyes to everyone.  I'm usually not the one to pick him up, Jared does, and he tells me CW says goodbye to everyone, but I've never gotten to see it.  Well, that day I did.  He went around and gave a hug and kiss to every single baby and teacher.  It was so sweet.  Miss Heather said he did that every day.  She got teary-eyed saying how precious it was.  I got teary-eyed.  He hugged Lilly, who just started standing on her own, and laid his head on her shoulder and stood there forever, it was adorable.  Knot in my throat.  Then, it was time to say Goodbye to the teachers.  I turned towards them to say how much I appreciate them and how wonderful they are, and I lost it.  Yep, the ugly, all-out belly cry started in.  Awesome.  Didn't want to do that. 

But the truth is, I am so appreciative of all they do.  It was so obvious they invested so much time in Caden's time there, and truely knew him and what was best for him.  Can't ask for much more than that as a Mom.  Of course, we'd all love to do it all for our kids as Mom's, but when that isn't always possible, how wonderful to have people like that to step up to the plate.  What a blessing.

 

Vegging a little before we head to Dimensions

Deccided he needed a granola bar quick before
we headed out.

Lunchbox ready....time to roll!

Jacket on, drinking sippie, ready to head to daycare

Big boy home from wonderful last day.  Ate well, slept well.
It was a great day.  And he got this awesome new firetruck for
his End of School present, along with Cars Kleenexes and a
Grover book.  It was delightful :).

So, my sweet little peanut who's getting taller and taller is done with his first school year at Dimensions.  He will be in a "big boy" room next year.  He is starting to repeat words we say.  He says, "Bye-Bye", "Truck," "Go," "Car," "Duck," "Quack," "Dog," "Go," "Grandpa," "Bubbles," "Tee (for Auntie)".....I think that's most of it.  He loves my singing and thinks I should have been on American Idol.  He waves his hand to let met know when to sing.  He is ticklish as can be.  He is getting really good about binks in bed and van ONLY (as long as WE are good about making him stick to that).  He is funny as can be.  He is stubborn as can be.  He has a mouth full of teeth.  He loves tools.  He loves trucks.  And we love him so!

Dance Party, with a "K," a "C," and an "A"

My cousin Danell and her girlies, Katina and Adrianna, came over last week for an evening of fun :).  We played outside, blew bubbles, ate mac n cheese, colored pictures, and had a dance party.  And, hey, Danell and I almost got to say 2 or 3 words to each other, too.  Haha.

The chaos in the living room.

Katina spinnin', Caden boogying.

Having fun.

More chaos :).

Taking a break after lots of dancing.  Katina is reading
Caden a Hardware Magazine in the hallway....too cute!

A good day!

CW had lots of fun Monday.  First we went to see Great-Grandpa Olson at his apartment.  Grandpa gave Caden a giant Elmo that was my grandma's (she LOVED Elmo), and he was in hog heaven about it.  Then we met liz in the park.  It was so good to see Liz!  We hadn't seen her forever!!  Caden had a blast in the park....and Liz and I did too :).

Great-Grandpa's cane folds up....it's pretty neat!

Bummed it's blurry....running down hall with 'new' Elmo!

Afraid of nothing.  No matter how big the slide, he's game.

Holmes Lake

We went to Holmes Lake last Sunday with my family, to celebrate my Grandpa D's 84th birthday (a bit late....his was in April, but he was sick at the time and we hadn't celebrated yet).  The weather was wonderful and we had a great time.  See?

Oh, and Jared and Caden wore the shirts that my parents got them for Christmas....."Big Guy Meyer" and "Little Guy Meyer"......pretty funny.

Cool Dude.

He's 84.  Can't believe it.

He spotted ducks.  He heard them 'quacking' flying in and couldn't get to them fast enough.

Momma "Guck" and baby "Gucks" say "Gak Gak...." ask Caden.

Love them.

New Routine.

My little buddy who wants to 'rock' in the living room and watch a show every morning when he wakes up?  Well, that buddy got introduced to the fun of sitting on Mom & Dad's bed while mommy gets ready last weekend, and our lives are forever changed.  Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but guess what he wants to do every morning when he wakes up?  Eat breakfast and watch some of Toy Story 3 on our bed.  Not rock.  Handy because I can get ready while he is in a near comatose state while the movie is on.  But, I love me some cuddle time with little Nugget, too!  Don't worry, we still cuddle & rock before he goes to bed.  Look at this big kid watching his new favorite movie.  Can you believe it??

I should also mention Donkey sitting with him.  Caden hasn't cared much about stuffed animals.  I bought this Donkey on clearance at Target long before CW was around.  He discovered it the other day, and they're pals now, too.  He brought him to bed the last 2 nights.  That's the first time he's tried to bring anything (other than blankie and a dozen binks) to bed.

This week.

This week was much better for Caden.  The amoxocillin and allergy medicine seem to really be helping, especially with his sleeping/coughing at night.  He's been sleeping like a champ!  12, 13 hours at night some nights.  Way to go, baby!!

We had such a busy week.  I'm not sure how it's almost the end of May, but you probably get sick of me saying how fast time is going!  It's the truth, though!  Caden had a fun & wild week.  For mom & dad, we were a bit stressed buying a van, selling a van, getting Jared's clutch in car replaced.  All within a week.  But, we were blessed how it all turned out, and thankful for our new set of wheels to haul CW around in!

Here's some pics.  Have a good rest of the weekend!!

These few are from a couple weeks ago when we had those two 100 degree
days.  This mom's not good at heat, so all I know is to involve water those
days, haha.  So I got out the sprinkler.  And he loved it.

Okay, now this week....we went and visited Auntie at school and
had lunch with her.  We've wanted to all year, and finally did it
with 5 days left of school, phew!!  Caden sat at her table and thought
he was pretty special :).

We were going to bring Auntie lunch.  Then she said we should eat
hot lunch, because it was Chicken Poppers day, and we'd love
them!  So, we got there, only to find out the poppers were gone.
The (very crabby) lunch lady offered us breaded meat sticks instead.
"Oh, no thanks," Allie said, "Caden won't eat those."  Haha.  Neither would we! 

He decided not to nap that day.  Just play in his crib for 1 1/2 hours
instead.  Strangely worked out okay, because we needed to pick
up Jared, as his car was in the shop. 

I think it's onl the 3rd time in his life I haven't gotten him to nap.
Silly me was convinced he'd fall asleep in the van on the way to get
Jared, if I gave him his binkie and blanket.  Haha.  He read.

He put book on head. 

He laughed.  Sleep?  Nope, didn't do that :).

Sporting his rain boots and "Huskers" on butt pants in the rain.

One of my all time favorites

Yes, Caden's idea.  Yes, he loved it.  Grandad lowered the stool
so it was just his size, and he couldn't get enough of it!!

We went to Cars, Trucks, & Trains day at the Children's
Museum.  Gotta admit, it was a little dissappointing as
far as the "Cars, Trucks, & Trains" that were there, but
Caden loved it all nonetheless and had a blast.

There were chickens in the lot....in a tiny pin on the cement.
I guess because there was also a big tractor outside?
Not sure, but again, CW loved it.

Adorable Farmer Meyer

We parked in Grammy's work garage & were walking back.
We forgot Caden's shades, so he asked to borrow Grammy's
on the way to and from the garage, because the sun was so
bright.  No joke.  He's cool like that.

Oh, heavens to bootsies....there was a construction site on the
way back to the car.  Caden peeked through the signs to see
all the trucks, tools, etc.  He was on cloud nine.  Coulda probably
made THAT our field trip and skipped the museum, haha, just kidding.

Z-O-O

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!  You can come too, too, too!  We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

We made our first trip to the zoo a couple weekends ago with my Mom.  She bought Caden a zoo pass again this year, so it seemed only fitting that she join us :)!!  We had lots of fun.  Caden is going to love the zoo even more this summer!!

Grammy's excited....Caden is clueless :)

Got out of stroller to see Spider Monkies....and didn't stop smiling!!

Camels.

I'm pretty sure I'm in love with these penguins.  Seriously adorable. 

Feeding the baby goats, and loving it.

Cracking himself up....and making sure he's cracking others up, too!

Watching trains (it was train day) in new train hat Grammy bought him.

Very first train ride.  Very serious about it.  And holding onto his ticket.

De-li-cious.

Tried to get a pic of all 3 of us...Caden almost made it.

 So, that evening, Auntie and Uncle B called to see if we'd go to the park.  So we went.  Why not really wear a kid out, right??  It was fun.  Caden was fearless.  No one was suprised by that.  Oh, and he hit every little kid he came near.  Neat.  Social skills on the list of things to improve on.  Ah, 18 mos old!!

Playing with Auntie.

Town the tornado slide.

And again......and again........and again.....and again.............

Wanted to show off his sweet muscles to Uncle B.

Using lots of muscles here, haha.

Time to go home.

See you later!