Happy Birthday Kado!

On January 12, Kaden Kenneth Slichta turned 3 years old. I can hardly believe it. (I haven't even lost the weight from him yet.) He wanted to spend his birthday at Chuck E Cheese and eat Pizza. We invited our Washington family, the Debenhams with us which was fun.

With his sign that Adyson made.

Kaden didn't look at the camera the whole night. He's never been a real good picture taker kid or maybe my camera just isn't fast enough. He loves balls, cars and he loves Diego. He spent the longest time deciding which plates he wanted to have for his birthday. Finally we were out of time and I just threw the Diego plates in the cart... he was mad that I didn't let him choose, but he had his chance. He got a remote control car, a Diego boat thing, some more match box cars (like he needed anymore), and some coloring books.

Not looking at the camera.
Not looking at the camera.

Not looking at the camera.

Christopher Debenham(15 yrs old) and Kaden have always been best buddies. Maybe it's because they are the only boys. But Christopher helped Kaden win a couple of hundred Chuck E Cheese tickets.

Not looking at the camera.

Not looking at the camera.

Kaden is such an awesome little kid. He is such a fun, happy part of our family. He's very affectionate and touchy, either playing with hair or rubbing your cheek, or ramming into you for a good wrestle and roll on the floor. He gives lots of big hugs all the time and is very generous with his kisses. He grabs our face and plants a l o n g kiss right on your lips. We have to pull him off to breath but he protests saying, "I'm not done yet!" When Jeff and I kiss in front of him he tells Jeff not to kiss me, and only HE can kiss me. Then Jeff says, "Don't kiss my girlfriend." and Kado will come back with, "Dad, I'm kissing your girlfriend." I have to end the game by leaving the room or breaking the 2 apart. The Nursery leader has told us stories of Kaden kissing the girls in Nursery...on the lips! Yikes! We'll have to keep an eye on him.

Maryn, Adyson and Emmy love Kaden and take care of him. The funny thing is, he listens to them. They love to be his mothers and for the most part he goes along with it. Like I said he loves cars. He always has an armful or pocketful of matchbox cars. He also could watch Dora and Diego all day long if I let him. And he loves Balls. He kicks soccer balls around the house, shoots baskets into anything he can find and throws baseballs with whoever will play. He has a pretty serious throw too. Even in the nursery at church they've commented on his strong arm and good aim. Today I wondered if he'd be in the major league someday... I heard this loud banging upstairs in the playroom and went up there to see Kaden with his plastic bat taking some swings at everything in the playroom. It was a mess. Even when I came into the room he didn't lose focus and knocked Emmy's kitchen right over then took on the bookcase. Needless to say he has a strong and straight swing.

His latest thing that either cracks us up or makes us want to scream is his use of the words "what" and "why." We'll say something like, "Kado hurry and eat your lunch." He'll say, "what lunch?" "Kado you have something in your hand." "What hand?" "Let's get in the car?" "what car?" OR the why thing... "we need to go pick up the kids from school." "but why?" "so they can come home?" "But why do they come home?" Because they're part of our family and we want them home." "but why are they part of our family?" "Because Heavenly Father sent them to us?" "But why?" AHHHHHHH! We go on and on like this all day long. It really soaks up a lot of energy from my brain and isn't much for stimulating conversation for my day.

He's very much into gum and graham crackers. He could eat--meaning chew and swallow a whole pack of gum in one sitting and come back asking for more. He also could care less about being potty trained and frankly so could I. It takes a lot of effort to potty train a kid especially when I'm home so sporadically throughout the day. I'll just wait until he's good and ready... hopefully that will be soon because diapers are getting so expensive and 3 year old poopie is nasty. He also is in a crib still. It's funny how differently you raise your 4th child compared to your first. He doesn't mind the crib and neither do I. He can't get out. He's never tried to get out and he's a really good napper so why mess up a good thing? I'll just wait until he's good and ready to get out of there. Maybe when he's 6 he'll realize that his friends sleep in big boy beds and he'll ask to get out of his crib finally. Is that child abuse? Not if we're all happy about the arrangements.

He has been such a good boy up til now but recently he's had to go in time-out a few times. He either peels the wallpaper off the wall in the bathroom, unrolls the entire toilet paper roll or takes everything out from under the sink and then he comes out saying, "why are you being so mean at me?" He also recently likes to throw ALL of his clothes out of his drawers and closet. He is becoming quit destructive I suppose only to balance out his very gentle, loving nature.

I asked Emmy why she likes Kaden and she said while gritting her teeth, "because he is so super cute." Our thoughts are that it's great to have a boy in the house to balance out the girl drama. He's a whole different breed and we like that. He's ALL boy. He's so darn cute with his big eyes and crazy hair and happy smile. We sure love him... Our Kado Tado! Happy Birthday!