Skip to main content

One Decade!

Chelan and I have officially been parents for one decade!  Caiden turned 10 this past Tuesday, and we can hardly believe that ten years have passed.  During the day, we watched some movies from when Caiden was a baby.  Boy, did we take videos of him -- lllloooonnnnggg segments of him just lying on his back, for example!  Caiden lost interest quickly, but the girls could have watched all day.  I heard them say several times, "Caiden, you were a funny baby!"

Ten years ago, Chelan and I brought Caiden home from the hospital and wondered what we had done!  The first 7 weeks were a difficult adjustment for us, to say the least.  Ten years later, we're still learning:

We're learning to spend time with him when he needs us to and to leave him alone when he needs us to.  We're playing more basketball and football than ever, but we're also showing him ways to practice on his own.  We're learning patience when bad choices are made, but rejoicing when he consciously chooses the right thing.  At times, we feel so protective of him, but then we see glimpses of him growing up:  he mows our whole yard, drives the bush hog to and from fields, and we know we can depend on him to do a job well done when he is asked to help with a project (even when he doesn't want to finish - believe me, there are plenty of those times).  We are looking forward to seeing how these qualities help him grow into a young man over the next few years.

Happy birthday, Caiden - we love you!






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pre-Christmas Surprise

 On Dec. 22, I woke up to Caiden not feeling well. In fact, he said he hadn't ever felt the kind of pain he was experiencing that morning. Reluctantly, I made an appointment. Long story, short - it was good he complained because he ended up having his appendix out that afternoon! It must have been at the very beginning stages and thankfully hadn't burst. So, we were in and out of the hospital by midnight that night. Maybe the worst part about the whole thing is that his wisdom teeth surgery had to be postponed since it was supposed to be the very next week. He'll go back to school minus an appendix, but still having his wisdom teeth until February 16! Pre-op Post-op

Surprise!

Well, I sure don't get surprised very often, but Saturday night was a huge surprise to me! I thought I was heading to Hesston for an AGCO Christmas Dinner with Chelan. He told me we needed to drop something off at Ben and Tina's house (my cousin), first. Okay, no big deal! While we were there, Ben said they were about ready to go out for dinner, did we want to come along? Surprisingly, Chelan thought about it and wanted to do it (clue #1 that something was up). I kept saying that we couldn't skip out on his dinner, but Chelan insisted that going to Wichita for dinner would be much more fun. I even said, "This seems like something you had planned!" However, I'm always up for dinner in Wichita, so I agreed, reluctantly!! We enjoyed a meal at Hangar 1 Steakhouse and I thought that was the end of it. But, on the way home, Chelan asked if we could go by the new arena since the inaugural concert was there that night -- Brad Paisley! I thought it would be f...

Spring Art

While Mrs. Schmidt was away on maternity leave during the spring, Mr. Novak (from Hesston) filled in for her. Since Cambry has her first 3 class periods in the art room, she got to know him very well and he mentioned several times how he appreciated Cambry's artistic style and way of thinking. He even let her paint a little bit on his own pieces! Cambry took several pieces to the WSL art festival in April. She came home with a first place finish in the graphic design category and an honorable mention in the computer design category. We are so thankful for the instruction she has received over the last 4 years in Goessel. Now, on to Hesston College with Professor Cross!