Our Daily (Sometimes Hourly) Walk

I was sitting on the couch this morning checking my email when Jaden walked up to me holding his sandals with the most hopeful smile on his face.  That is his way of asking to go out on a walk!  He is just too darn cute so I couldn't resist, and off we went.

After we put on our shoes we open the door and are on our way!

 Of course he darts into the road without a thought in the world, so I have to make sure to scan the road quickly for cars before he's off.  Chances of a car are not great, but you never know.

 He loves to run along the curbing

 But he has to check to make sure I'm following him

We always stop to check if maybe this time the water will work if we try hard enough

It still doesn't work for Jaden so off we go

We get distracted by these big things that make a humming noise

And by another one of those water things.  Maybe this one will work...

While Jaden tries to get the water running, I stop to take this picture and I am reminded that I LOVE where I live!!!

No more distractions, because we are almost to our destination... oh maybe one more distraction as Jaden spots the big truck going over the bridge...

 Almost there...

 This is what Jaden lives for each day: going to see the boats!

But first we'll take a quick Mommy & Jaden swing

And then I'll let him walk around on the beach but I'll keep REALLY close by because of this lovely 5 foot drop:

Once we go on the dock/pier I pick Jaden up because I don't trust him walking by himself out there.  We see lots of birds

And see some fish and scare the minnows:

 (there is a fish in that photo but you can't really see it...)

And we walk up and down looking at boats.  It's really quite relaxing!  We also looked for Raymond, our resident Manta Ray, but he wasn't up yet so no pictures of him.  So you'll have to be satisfied with pictures of us!

Can I just say that self-portraits are really hard to take when you are on a dock with a squirmy toddler and if you drop your camera it will go in the water?  Anyway, we also saw some airplanes and Jaden has to point every single one out - we simply cannot go on with our walk if he can't find it in the air and point it out.  Oh, and you must acknowledge each and every one or he will continue to point until you do.

He then crushed an anthill (luckily the ants weren't out yet) but I'd rather have him crush it with his foot than with his hands, which is what he usually wants to do.

Jaden has this funny thing where he doesn't like his hands to touch the ground so when he falls, he usually sits there waiting for me to come along and help him up.  It's a texture thing I think.

Jaden then started on to our usual next activity, which is going to see Jack and Linda.  They live here:

and they simply LOVE Jaden!  They even bought him a chair to sit in while he's visiting them, and he visits them every day!  One nice thing about living in an RV park is that Jaden always has an abundance of substitute Grandma's and Grandpa's.
Unfortunately, Jack and Linda weren't up yet so I had to convince Jaden to go somewhere else.  We went over by the pool where he touched/didn't touch the plant (remember his texture issues)

And poked around in the holes in the pavement which absolutely fascinate him!

We got a bonus surprise today as we found that there was a puddle of water over by the laundry room!  Much splashing followed:

By then I was more than ready to go home so I uttered the magical word:  Mickey

"Want to go watch Mickey Mouse?" is the phrase I go to whenever I want to get Jaden to quit a current activity.  Works every time!  Once we got home Jaden put his shoes away

And I collapsed on the couch exhausted.

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention one very important detail:


THIS ALL HAPPENED AT 7:30AM!!!!!!!

Yup.  The day starts early at the Cuthbert house!

One walk down for the day, and I'm sure at least one more to come!

We Are So Domestic!

For dinner tonight Jake and I cooked together (which is a fairly rare occasion) and we made...

HOMEMADE CORN DOGS!!!!!

We found the recipe online at Yahoo and decided to try it.  First we started out by grilling the hot dogs and then once they were cooked, letting them cool down a little bit before you insert the sticks.  Once that is done, you roll them around in a little flour:

Then you dip them in the batter (the key is to put the batter in a tall glass to get a more even coating)

Then you drop it in your 350 degree oil (we used our deep fryer but you don't have to)

Let it cook for about 3 minutes

Take it out and set it on some paper towels

Then enjoy!  They were good!  They tasted different than I was expecting.  Not bad, just different.  Plus, the process was just as fun as the eating!  :)

Warning: because this was a two person job (you can do it by yourself, but who wants to?) the child that is left to their own devices might have a lack-of-attention meltdown.

You have been warned.