Keeping up with Kaiden

Since it has been so long since I have actually updated this blog, I thought I would give a little overview of what the kiddos have been up to, starting with Kaiden.

Oh where do I start? Kaiden is a fireball. He is hilarious. He is way too smart for his own good. Right now he is 4 years old, and is in his last year of preschool. While he is learning quite a bit, what he seems to get more out of preschool is girl drama. Last year a little girl proposed to him, and then tried to kiss him. This year, that same girl and 2 others have daily battles over who gets to sit next to him and play with him ( at least according to the way he tells the story!) This was also the year that he had his very first crush. Which is way freakin cute by the way! The way his face lights up in a combination of shy and obvious adoration has me both laughing and melts my heart! It also has me a little worried, but what do you do? They have to grow up.

Aside from the girl drama, Kaiden has learned so much. He does very well on his homework, and is excited to do it. He is able to write his name without using a reference, and while he still gets some letters backwards, is able to write all the letters in the alphabet and numbers. He also has mastered coloring in the lines (hey I know people who still can't do that!)

He still loves cars. One of his favorite past times still and has been since was 18 months is to name all of the car brands in a parking lot or as it drives by. Yes, he can tell makes of cars. He also loves to pretend I am racing when I am driving, and gets annoyed frequently when I don't pass up cars or when I stay too long in a lane. He tells me often to just go in another lane, or "Mommy, can you please just pass them already?" One of my favorite moments was when I over heard him giving our car a pep talk. I look back in the rear view mirror to see him stroking the side of the car where he sits and whispering…" Okay Herby (what he has nicknamed our car) …You can do this. You can pass them."

Kaiden is also a master at puzzles. He loves puzzles. He can finish rather complex puzzles for a four year old in a short amount of time. His newest passion is also GeoTrax. A brand of trains. Him and Dylan build "cities" with their tracks with hills and tunnels, twists and bends…etc. It's a new one every day.

This was also the year that Kaiden learned to snowboard. While he is no Shaun White, he is pretty good. I might have fibbed a bit and got him in snowboarding school for a day in February before he turned 4 (the minimum age) but I knew he could handle it, and he had been asking to try it ever since he came across an x games on tv. He absolutley loved it, and went down the entire training slope without falling on the first time. The smallest and youngest of his group, and was the only one to do that. His only problem was stopping. And it wasn't that he couldn't do it- he didn't WANT to. He would get mad when someone at the bottom would stop him before the training slope merged into another advanced slope. He kept saying how he wanted to go fast. There were more than a couple of times where a kind passer by would chase him down and swoop him up to stop him. He can't wait to get up there this season, and I am hoping that we can get him to learn to turn so that we don't have to worry about him crashing into things!

Speaking of fast, Kaiden has also taught himself to drift. On his big wheel. He gets going as fast as he can (sometimes coming down a steep hill) and just when you think he is going to crash head on into something, he will pull a fast drift and stop within inches. It's pretty amazing and terrifying to watch all at the same time!

He continued to play and enjoy soccer. He does pretty well, and gets very excited when he scores. The funniest game was when it was on his 4 birthday. Everyone came to the game after the birthday party and he was so excited and distracted at the same time of everyone cheering for him that half the time he didn't even know where the ball was! There was even a time when he was dribbling the ball close to where everyone was sitting on the sidelines and lost the ball because he was smiling and waving to everyone has he ran past. He didn't score once that game, which is unusual, but if you ask me that was the best game ever! Hilarious!

I continue to be amazed by him daily. And while I could go on forever about all the crazy/amazing/hilarious/frustrating/ smart/adorable/loving things Kaiden does on a daily basis, I will have to save those for another time. All in all, he is an amazing kid. A wonderful son, and even better brother. While he is usually the source of Dylan's screams, he is also Dylan's biggest cheerleader. He is his protector and comforter. He is also his helper and I just know that they are going to be and are best friends. He also is such a big help for me with both Dylan and Brielle, and I know I will never have to worry about Brielle when she gets older with him around! He absolutley loves her and is so proud of her. Can't wait to see what else this year holds with him, and looking forward to next year and when he turns 5!