On our way home from Colorado we took both kids to Six Flags. They had a blast and Mr. Caden was super brave! After the carousel, we immediately went to the bobsled and he had fun! We gradually worked our way up, but he was such a trooper. He’s not tall enough for all the roller coasters yet, but pretty much anything he is tall enough for he’s game to ride. We did the rocking boat, the mini mine train and runaway mine train, the antique cars, Judge Roy Scream roller coaster (super rough!), and we even finished off with Shockwave! Shockwave was his favorite roller coaster of the day. I was so proud of him for trying the big roller coasters — I wasn’t sure how much he’d like them.
Caden also got to spend some time with Min this month to make his first quilt! We left Caden with Min after our day at Six Flags and then she brought him home a couple of days later. He was so excited to get to make a quilt! Min had asked him what kind of quilt he wanted and his answer was “one with the sun and the moon and lots of Earths.” So Min found a great fabric with all the plants and the Sun. She said he did awesome — he got to pick out all the coordinating fabrics, lay out and place each one, and sew all the rectangles together for the border. His lines were excellent — extremely straight. Min did laugh because Caden likes to sew standing up instead of sitting down, but whatever floats your boat I guess!
Caden is loving his gymnastics class. He’s been in the boys class with Coach Tom since the summer session, so now he has a new group of boys for the fall semester. Caden loves being in the big gym — though sometimes he struggles a little with all the distractions going on around him. I wouldn’t call him a serious gymnast yet, but he has a lot of fun, and that’s plenty for me.
Mr. Caden is officially wearing 5T clothes. He still has a hard time with pants unless they have very adjustable waist bands or wears suspenders, but such is the life of a boy with no hips. =P
Caden has shown some interest in practicing for a 5k race like Kamy did. I told him I’d be willing to work with him and run if that’s something he’d like to do. We made it about three weeks before his interest waned and he decided he didn’t want to do it any more. Oh well — we ran a bit anyway!
Once we got home from Colorado, Caden all of a sudden decided he wanted to ride his bike. His bicycle had been ignored for the last six months or so, and I’d thrown away the training wheels in a bid to get him to learn to ride without them. Well, Caden learned how to ride his bicycle in three days! Day 1 he learned how to balance. Day 2 he learned how to turn. And Day 3 he learned how to start by himself. Kamy was super encouraging to him and was a big help giving him the confidence he needed to keep trying. Now he’s got it figured out and they ride their bikes up and down the driveway and out to the chicken coop constantly!
The monkey in Caden is still around. He loves to climb trees and there are two in particular that he climbs — an oak with a lot of low branches that is easy to get into and a taller tree that requires wiggling up a smaller tree before he can reach the lower branches on the tall one. Once he’s up though, he’ll climb waaaay up there. Sometimes all I can see is the color of his shirt when I’m looking for him.
After returning from Colorado, we were all ready to settle into the routine. School was back in session and we clarified the “attendance policy.” If we are (1) home and (2) don’t have guests staying with us, we do school. That includes weekends. It really simplifies my mornings because the kids know what to expect and there’s never a battle about whether we’re going to do school. Despite being gone for 3 weeks, the kids both went right back into school-mode. I sure appreciate flexible children! Caden has been working on a new handwriting program and is about half way through his kindergarten level math curriculum. We were studying Asia and Caden loved reading about the antics of Little Pear.
I love that they enjoy climbing trees!