Caden started swim lessons this month! He is doing great and is very comfortable in the water. He has a good back float, happily puts his face in the water to glide, and is almost capable of swimming on his own already! He especially likes to bob and go under water. The water has been chilly for him — the cold weather and nippy wind have been a bit of a challenge. After his lesson is over, he likes to stand under the hand dryers in the bathroom to warm up while Kamy swims. Caden’s already a little fish!
Caden and Daddy are continuing their back and forth teasing. They do the following every night before bedtime:
Daddy: “Guess what?”
Caden: “I love you.”
Daddy: “No, guess again.”
Caden: “I love you.”
Daddy: “No.”
Caden: “Just TELL ME!”
Daddy: “I love you!” Then they crack up laughing.
Poor Caden came down sick with a bad cough. It wasn’t too bad during the day but at night it was rough — sounded like croup and coughing was waking him up at night. It took almost two weeks to work through his system.
This month we took down the wallpaper in the hall bathroom. Caden had been “helping” by gradually, and stealthily, removing sections at a time, so I finally turned them loose. Fortunately the paper came down pretty easily and the kids really liked getting to pull it down. They also helped paint — a white base coat and a blue gray top coat. They love making crafts and painting, so it was right up their alley — especially since it was “real painting” with a roller instead of a little paint brush.
Daddy and Caden did their own one on one trip in January too! They started at the Dallas Zoo. Caden got to feed a giraffe! He thought that was pretty cool. They took the light rail up to the West End and had lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse before going back to the Zoo. Caden brought his camera and wanted to take a picture of every animal they saw. Quality and framing and focus were irrelevant, but he took a lot of photos that day!
When they were done with the animals, they grabbed dinner at HopDaddy’s burgers and watched the pouring rain.
They stayed in a condo in downtown Dallas overnight. Sunday morning they rode the McKinney Avenue trolley before driving to DFW airport for a picnic lunch watching the planes take off.
Next they went up to Plano for the Dallas Area Train Show. Several model train clubs set up their trains for everyone to enjoy. Caden really liked watching all the model trains go around and he even got to “drive” one of them!
In school, we finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both kids loved the book — especially the oompa loompas. We let the kids watch the old movie, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Since then, the kids have been chanting:
“Oompa loompa doopety do, if I were a man I’d be inspired by you. Oompa lompa doopety do, I have another little puzzle for you.”
That’s sort of how it goes …
Caden finished his kindergarten math curriculum! He is doing so good with math and this program has been a great fit for him. We immediately moved on to the first grade workbooks. So far it’s all been review, so Caden thinks first grade is really easy. =) He also completed the handwriting lessons and is starting to work on lower case printing as well.
