Cronquist’s Blog

I try and try to get him to write his name while practicing with crayons. . .give the kid and a stick and he starts workin’ it in the dirt!

– Sent from my Palm Pre

Tarah was responsible for bring flowers to a friend’s baby shower this weekend.  Turns out, Tarah has a

Kaden tries to keep up with his mom while arranging CA Grown flowers

pretty impressive natural talent to flower arranging.  Kaden jumped in to show us his stuff while mom put the flowers together.

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Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

. . .well maybe an environmentalist would take issue with the suggestion here, but global warming and politics aside, Kaden found this random watering hole both thirst quenching and entertaining.

First of all, he hadn’t enjoyed the pleasure of a “public” drinking fountain (granted, this fountain is inside Black Butte Ranch. . .so hardly “public,” but whatever, someone else, we don’t know, has also drank from this same fountain). Second, he could stand on the edge of the fountain and not have to have any help from Dad, which is preferable in basically all circumstances at this age (unless its to watch SuperWhy, he needs me to work the remotes still). And finally, for some strange reason, this fountain, when turned all the way on, would spit water fifteen feet into the air! Oh, this was now a toy, for all involved.
We probably spent thirty minutes playing in this water, getting totally soaked and never really getting further than a block from the house on our “walk.” It was just the same, he was going to either find this or a stick to hit the dirt with and the water was certainly cleaner.

The rouge water fountain at Black Butte Ranch

The next day, while we were golfing the course that this water fountain serves, Tarah told the story to Chad and Courtney who were with us. As we passed by the fountain, I stopped to show them this rouge fountain and confirm our experience with Kaden, but to our surprise, when I turned the handle, the water just trickled out. This simply furthers our conspiracy theory that you are never really alone at Black Butte Ranch, “they” are always watching. . .

Who is “they?” The environmentalists, of course! Next they are going to shut down the play water fountains at Glaze Meadow pool, just you watch.

Life’s a Beach

Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

This picture will warm your heart. For whatever terrible reason, we don’t do this enough; take the boys to the beach and dig. However, we recently purchased some pretty cool shovels and took the 4th of July weekend to inaugurate them. Kaden and Baker had a great time watching the waves lap up agains their upside down castle, maybe it was a fort, either way, they had a great time. We had a great time watching them. Thanks to Grandma and Papa for all the cool beach toys too!

Cheeeeese

Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

The first day of Summer!  And what a difference a year makes.  Kaden is basically sitting out on the patio with ol’ Dad talking about our day.

Pretty special.

– Sent from my Palm Pre

good morning g’ma!

Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

Each morning–when I am in town–I have the pleasure of taking Kaden to daycare. We have cereal together, he watches the beginning of Sesame Street, I pack his diaper bag and get him dressed, then we’re out the door. Recently, I’ve committed to sending my mom (g’ma) a "good morning" picture text each morning. Its helped to ease the tension for my lack of blogging recently ;). However, the new part of the routine has been fun for Kaden too. He gets his big grin and says "cheeeeeesse" and I quickly text it off to g’ma. He doesn’t really know what we are doing, but he’s fascinated with my phone and generally expects to see how the picture turned out. Everyone’s happy.

Now if I can just get him to keep his feet of the back of the seat. . .then "everyone" would be happy

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Grammy and poppy

Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

Tarah’s parents, Bob and Raylene, DROVE down for a fun weekend visit.  As soon as they were out of the car, Kaden had them walking down the road with his truck.  He was showing them his orange tree, his lady bug patch, where he likes to go fast down the hill in his truck.

Kaden does pretty well saying "poppy," but we are still working on "Grammy."  He certainly was spoiled with the toys and attention this weekend.  He even had his first Banana Cream Pie.  Spoiled.  

He’s going to be asking for them next weekend!

– Sent from my Palm Pre

We finally got Kaden his own scooter.  He has been scootering around at daycare since he was 15mos old and we wanted to see it for ourselves.  It’s a riot to see him kick, kick and cruise.  He loves it and it is fun to watch.

Enjoy!

– Sent from my Palm Pre

Breakfast Meeting

Originally uploaded by Mr_Cronquist.

Kaden is infatuated with computers, ipods, cell phones, anything electronic and over $200 . . . So for Christmas he received his very own laptop to help re-prioritize his attention to something that would be his to destroy with drool and sticky fingers.

It seems to be working. Minus the fact that he recognize that his computer does not have iTunes installed and therefore unable to play Lady Gaga at this every whim, he’s fairly satisfied. Tarah took this photo of us and our dueling laptops yesterday morning after breakfast. I was checking emails and he was checking the letter "J." As you’ve seen from previous posts, he’s big on dancing to the Sesame Street intro. That’s pretty much the length of his attention for the show, because once the characters start talking and getting into a learning subject, Kaden takes off. He likes music and if the conversation isn’t set to a rhythmic strings and wind melody or a rapid fire bass line. . .he’s not listening.

So, I know you are still thinking about the Lady Gaga reference and possibly concerned that Kaden is too young to be listening to that sort of suggestive devil music. . .well need I remind you that she has recently become a strong role model for young people everywhere (read in sarcasm). Her recent vow of celibacy publicly acknowledges what Kaden will clearly understand through the her conservative music videos. Those videos clearly depict a woman who strives to encourage others that, "it’s not really cool any more to have sex all the time. It’s cooler to be strong and independent" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/11/lady-gaga-explains-why-sh_n_533187.html).

So there you have it. . .Lady Gaga is a role model and a reminder that you can’t judge a book by its cover or an artist by her video, song lyrics or provocative dress.

What we are mostly concerned about is that he can clearly articulate "Gaga," when trying to get mom and dad to play a song, but we only have 4 days to get him to say "Grammie" with the same clarity It might be easier if Grammie were to just come out with a hit song with a rapid fire bass line. At that point we could guarantee he’ll be clearly chanting for "Grammie" every morning.

Maybe if we get him an ipod touch, there’s an app for that?

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