Happy 2nd Birthday, Kale!

Kale's 2nd Birthday was grand, even in its simplicity.

Birthday Eve

A little boy lives at our house.  You may not see him, but you know he's been here.

 This little boy happens to turn two years old tomorrow.  This mama can't figure out where those days went.

 While he sleeps, the birthday banners are being put up, balloons will float silently into his room, and I find myself reflecting back on these last two years.

 Two years ago today, I was induced at 9AM.  Our little boy decided June 25 was not to be his birthday.  He waited until 12:05AM on June 26.

 Helpless and tiny two years ago; oh how he's grown.  Our little boy is counting to 10 successfully and counting to 20, leaving out a couple of numbers.  Papa has even taught him to count to 5 in German.  His great grandpa Max would be so proud.

 He can spell his name and put on a pair of sandals and proudly say "Great job, Kale!"  or "I did it!"

This little boy is quickly becoming not so little anymore.  I just want to freeze time for awhile and soak in all these special things about Kale at this age.  And yet, we will celebrate with him tomorrow and encourage him as he learns even more things in the year to come.  Thank you, God, for our sweet little blessing.  Thank you for entrusting him to our care.  We love you, Kale Max!

Kale's First Parade

We took Kale to his first parade on Saturday.  The parade lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes and our boy was a trooper!  He stayed strapped in his stroller the whole time!  Sweet to watch his toe tap as the bands went by and to hear his joyous sounds at the tractors and the plane passing overhead.  Great, great memories.

Kindermusik

Kale and Mama took part in Kindermusik at the University last week.  Kale loves music so we knew he'd love this.  The theme for the week was "Zoo Train" so we learned about lots of animals through song.  Kale was a little shy the first few days but by the end, he was singing and dancing with the rest of them!

 The polar bear has white paws, white paws, white paws...the polar bear has white paws just like this!

 Giddyup!

What kid doesn't love parachute fun???  I remember this from my PE days!

Little Miss....Softball

My Little Miss is not so little anymore. 

 In the fall, she'll be a 6th grader.

 I was fortunate to catch one of her softball games last week.  My sister says she reminds her of me.

 We have a lot of the same interests and I feel fortunate to be her aunt.

I'm excited to see her grow and excel and where her life will take her.  I love you, Little Miss!

Flag Day

If we haven't mentioned it, Kale LOVES flags.  I mean LOVES.  Whenever he spots a flag, he loudly announces, "FLAG."  We drove through town today on our way to the library and all the main streets of town had flags a blowin'.  Kale was in flag heaven. 

 When Justin was getting ready to plant the garden, he used flags to map out the rows.  Kale followed close behind to take them out of the ground and relocate them.

 Justin is now trying to decide where to build a sandbox in the backyard.  Several times he has put flags in the ground to give me a visual.  I best be getting out there as soon as they go in so I actually get the visual...before someone snatches the flags.

 On our walks with Cedar, there is a green flag near our property marking the line where tree sap is poured to dimish dust coming onto our yard.  Every time we walk by this flag, we must stop so Kale can touch it and say "hi, flag!"  And if we don't stop by the flag on the way back by, you can bet there are tears of discontent.

Every day while outside the flags get redistributed to another flower bed, the cornfield, or the lawn at least 3 times.  And if the pool is out, that is the perfect landing spot for his precious plastic wavers. We had a play date with friends this week.  I suggested the park we meet at and when we arrived, I just had to shake my head.  There were flags everywhere.  Apparently they were getting ready to put up fencing for a town event coming up.  Needless to say, little time was spent at the playground.  One little 3 foot fellow was more interested in...you guessed it...the flags.  So in honor of flag day, Kale will relocate his flags, again, and have a joyful time doing it.

Arboretum Story Hour

Kale and I visited the Arboretum yesterday for story hour. 

 Though this little boy was not interested in sitting for the actual story time, he did enjoy meandering his way around the children's garden and finding all sorts of things to do.

 We got to feed the fish, play with balls, water flowers, run in the flowers, play in the sandbox, see "Jake the Snake" (mom says "yuck!"), and watch the train.

 It is just fun for me to follow this little tyke around and see through his eyes what interests him, rather than me taking the lead and showing him what we should do. 

 Eventually we made our way out of the children's garden and onto the other Arboretum grounds.  In true Kale fashion, he wandered to his heart's content.

 Who needs beautiful Arboretum flowers when you can go ahead and pick the dandelions?  (Kale's current favorite flower).  Love our little wanderer.