Silly Boy

Caden is my joy! I love this child so much! I was reading him a book the other night watching his legs go ninety miles an hour and decided it was time I documented and shared some of the silly, quirky little things Caden does!

Caden's legs are the first thing I have to share! They are always going! When I'm giving him a bottle or nursing him, his legs are swinging and kicking... much like a child sitting on a chair when his feet don't touch the ground. He swings and kicks his legs! When his bottle runs out he kicks he legs out really hard in protest! His legs are also always moving during tummy time. He lies on his tummy and kicks one leg up and then the other, like he is swinging them still. It cracks me up every time!

Caden scratches everything. He likes to scratch material and especially the foam floor in the playroom. It sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me when he does it! He will just sit there and scratch the floor over and over and over.

When reading Caden a book, he tries to kick it. He will squirm until he gets his legs between himself and the book and then he kicks it over and over. It makes turning the pages very difficult! He really thinks his feet are a second set of hands....

Well, this isn't so much a quirk but it's still something new that gets me tickled! Caden has started having the "Happy Flappy Baby Arms" (as I call them). You know what I'm talking about. When baby gets so excited that he flaps his arms up and down and squeals! It's so cute! Often the legs go with the arms. How he does that without falling over I do not know!

I have been waiting for Caden to become a giggler since he was about 3 or 4 months old and all the other babies his age were doing it... and then I realized that Caden's laugh or giggle is unique in itself! He has more of a croaking sound when he's happy about something, and when he giggles he squeals! He CAN giggle the normal way too, but it takes some work to get it from him and it doesn't just come naturally the way his screams and squeals do!

He wants to bounce or jump all the time. I think that may be the reason behind the constant leg kicking. If you stand him up, more than likely he will try to jump.

He has a fascination with looking up! I don't know why this new discovery is so exciting to him! He looks at the ceiling just about everywhere we go! Unless of course he's on Daddy's hip. If he's on John's hip then he looks down at the ground. It is so awkward and funny! I must remember to get a picture of this next time we are out and about!

Caden hates to be on his tummy or his back. He wants to sit all day, every day! He reaches for anything and everything he can and occasionally topples over in the process... which makes him cry until I sit him upright again!

He prefers things like necklaces, cell phones, TV remote controls, and water bottles to the coolest and most expensive baby toys. Why do we think we need all the cool toys for our kids when trash is just as entertaining! Caden has also shown an interest in Charli's dog toys, reaching for them over his baby toys. It's almost like baby's prefer to have things they know aren't for them!!

Caden will not take his bottle or nurse if he is distracted, but if you offer him solid foods (such as carrots or applesauce) then he will eat them anytime, anywhere. The boy loves food... except sweet peas. He's been eating sweet peas for a month or more. He will eat them without protest, but you can tell he doesn't prefer them. A few nights ago he was eating peas at dinner and suddenly he started gagging and then ALL of the peas came back up... somehow, amazingly the squash he'd had before the peas stayed down! The gag reflex acted up again with the peas today (after 1/4 of the jar)! I would think he would prefer the taste of those peas because that is probably the green veggie I ate the most while pregnant! (Well, or zucchini during my intense cravings for Chocolate Zucchini Bread!!)

Caden talks to himself as he is waking up. Instead of crying when he wakes up, he lays there (all swaddled and wrapped up) and says, "brrrrrrrrr. brrr. brrr. brrrrrrrrr." Just lately he has started using other sounds. He's REALLY gotten the "mmmmmmm" sound lately with a little "ah" at the end! Of course he's not saying "mmmmmaaaahhhh, mmmmmaaaahhh" AT me yet, but it makes me get SO excited for the day when he calls for me by name!!!

You can't play pat-a-cake with Caden. If you take his arms and try to clap his hands or show him how to wave bye-bye, he gets tense and tries to stand up. He thinks that when we take his hands we are offering support to help him stand! I don't know how to get him to relax and let me show him how to clap!!

Caden is very observant. He looks around for and at everything! If a TV is on somewhere he will find it! You would think I let him watch TV all day the way he glues to a TV set in a store or at the food court.... but honestly he watches about 30 minutes of TV a day (either a Praise Baby DVD, Baby Einstein, or Signing Time). Lately he refuses to sit in his swing to watch the DVDs. I have always put him in his swing for TV time, but just in the last week he cries and wants to sit on the floor instead! Oh, they grow up too fast!!!

Caden has my feet!! LOL! I can pick things up with my toes and all kinds of other crazy stuff. If you put your finger under Caden's toes, he will curl them to try and grab your finger! That's my boy!!! He has my feet and eyelashes (which curl up naturally).

And the last little quirky thing for now is that Caden ONLY sleeps in his car seat and he's almost 7 months old!!! In my most recent album in Our Photos there is a series of pictures documenting how Caden sleeps each night!

Those are all the things I love most about Caden!!

New Videos

New Videos are up! Check out the link to the left or click here.



Here is a cute one I put up a few weeks ago, but forgot to post. I don't know what made him suddenly start blowing bubbles like this during dinner, but it sure was funny!!

Long Weekend

Where has the last week gone? Time flies, especially when John is home on a four day weekend! I LOVE four day weekends! Usually we pack the weekend with activities and outings, but this time around I was sick (with Caden's cold) so we just holed up in the house and it was wonderful! We both stayed in our pajamas for most of Sunday and Monday (John and Caden stayed home from church to keep me company). We played with Caden, and when he napped we watched TV and just relaxed! John also took over a lot of the "Caden duties" for me while I recuperated from my cold. He's such a great husband!

Caden has been having some sleep issues ever since he got his cold. Now that his cold is gone we are hoping they will correct themselves. It seems he has a good night, and then a bad one every other night. On Tuesday he was up ALL night. I got 4 hours of sleep. And then last night he slept from 6:30 to 6:15am. Crazy!

We are considering hiring an Ajumma to come clean the house and help with Caden every other week. It's a little bit more expensive than what we thought, but then again if you look at the amount of hours they put in it's not that much at all. Ajumma would come every other Monday from 7:30am until 4:00pm for only $55.00! That's not bad at all for 8.5 hours! She could babysit Caden, do laundry, clean the house, walk the dog, whatever I want her to do. It's nice. The only thing is that Monday is the worst day of the week for me. I'd prefer her to come on Tuesdays. We are just thinking about it still...

I ordered a new laptop this week. The laptop was supposed to be John's "Push Present" for me! My friend, Kelly, taught me that term! It's the name for the gift your husband buys you for having a baby! Funny, huh!?! I wanted to get a really good laptop for my photography hobby so after a lot of research I settled on a Dell XPS M1530. I got the higher end screen resolution and plenty of memory, etc for the new Adobe Photoshop CS3 I ordered as well! I can't wait to get my new toys!!!

That is the latest and greatest with our family for now! I have some new videos of Caden coming soon!

Oh, one last thing... A few friends told me about these things called "Sticky Dots" that are like the BumpyName bands but I think they are permanent. Still, a really cool product! And another friend told me that on the BumpyNames website she ordered these drink box holders that keep kids from being able to squeeze the drink boxes!! :)

BumpyNames

Ok... I know...two posts in one day (for all 3 of my blog readers) but I just have to much to say today! As I am sure many of you have noticed this is becoming a more regular thing for me and not just a "special occasion" blog! It's kind of fun to put my thoughts and my life out there and wonder about who might be reading it and what they must think about my crazy ramblings! :)



So, what was so important that I couldn't wait to share it?!? For all of you mom's out there this is the coolest thing I've seen! I just can't wait to share this link with all of you... but maybe I'm "behind the times" being a new mom and all and this is old news to you. So if it is, forgive me!



At church on Sunday a little girl in the nursery had a BumpyName label on her sippy cup. It is such a neat idea/invention! And they aren't that expensive either (roughly $12.00 for 4). Basically it is a rubber band (kind of like those Rubber Bracelets that were/are so popular... they started with the Lance Armstrong yellow ones...you know the kind). A rubber band with you child's name printed on it that fits virtually every bottle/cup/sippy out there!
AND they are dishwasher safe! If you have older kids they also fit water bottles and lots of sports bottles so they are great for lunch boxes and gym bags, too!

I read a review on them from a mom with multiple children using sippy cups and she said she trained each child to know which color band was his so he always used HIS cup and not his brother's! It also allowed them to keep up with the same cup all day. How cool! Anyway! I am about to order some for Caden! I'd never thought to label any of his stuff for the church nursery before... and then they had to dig through my diaper bag and find my wallet so they knew which bag went with my child! So... I am also in the market for diaper bag labels, too! Any suggestions!?!

Our First Visitor

My mom is coming to Korea!!!! I am SO excited!!! And also very proud of her for braving it up to make her FIRST international flight all by herself! It turns out that John will be out of the house for some training event or another during my mom's spring break (she's a teacher for those of you who don't know)... So she is coming to stay with me! Yay!! I will be counting down the days!

Well, Caden still has a cough and congestion, but continues to chug on along like he's not sick at all! The nights have been rough because his sneezes or coughs wake him up, but last night we finally got a solid night of sleep so that was wonderful! Maybe it had to do with the fact that I stayed home yesterday and let him get all of his naps in, which meant I had to give up going to MOPS so that made me sad...

Oops! I just heard his paci fly out of his mouth and hit the monitor! He's having a hard time going down for his nap today! Better go see what's going on in there!

First Cold

Well, it was inevitable. Caden has his first cold. John had one a few weeks ago and also several of the kids in the church nursery have had colds recently so who knows where he got it from. It breaks my heart to hear him cough, sneeze, and just try to breathe. I hate having to suction his nose (and he hates it too, believe me!) but it's really the only thing we can do for him. It started on Friday and I thought maybe he was teething, but it's gotten progressively worse. On Monday I called the pediatrician's office to ask a few questions (what to do for him and more importantly what to look for in croup and pneumonia which are both going around here). Well, wouldn't you know it that the week Caden gets sick the Air Base is having another "exercise week" and the clinic is closed. So to ask some simple questions I have to actually GO to the emergency room. Not a big deal or anything (and there was no one there other than me) but still kind of funny that the first time mom takes her baby to the ER for his first cold! The doctor didn't even see him, just came out to the front and answered my questions.

I will tell you all that Caden is the happiest sick baby I've ever seen! He seems to always be in a good mood these days. He's not lethargic at all either. He is still bouncing and moving all over the place. His night-time sleep has been a bit disrupted due to his coughing and sneezing but I know it will get back to normal when he is feeling better. I just hope this is over with soon. I hate not being able to do anything for him to make him feel better.... but he really doesn't seem to need me as much as I want him too! He's the same as any other day, except he sounds awful!

On another note... he weighed in at 15 lbs 10.5 ounces at his 6 month apt last Thursday! He's in about the 25th percentile now with his weight. I was so excited about that I forgot to ask about his height! He's still a little small, but not anything we are too concerned about anymore. Also, we iintroduced Cheerios (more as a toy than a food right now) to work on his fine motor skills. The doctor said that he can't choke on them and that it is good practice and developmentally appropriate for him now! We learned quickly that if we give them to him in the high chair, he starts to fuss because he knows that the high chair means "food!" So we give them to him in his walker. I tries so hard to get them in his mouth! It's soooo cute! He will get there eventually. Oh, and Charli is Caden's new best friend. She follows him EVERYWHERE in that walker hoping he will drop food for her. And Caden gets SO excited that Charli is standing there looking at him. It's only a matter of time before he starts to feed her. He's learning to get around in the walker, too.... He still doesn't know how to control it but he lunges forward to make it go forward. I bet in the next month he will learn how to make it really move around!

As for John and I... we both stay pretty busy! John's job is taking up most of his time and when he does have time for himself I usually have a "honey-do" list for him or he is helping me with Caden. He really never gets a break. I spend most of my time with Caden, but have gotten involved in PWOC here and MOPS through our church! Well, my sick baby is waking up! Gotta run!

Photography

Those of you who know me know that I love to take pictures. Over the past few years photography has become not only a hobby, but somewhat of a passion of mine. I haven't had near as many opportunities to practice this new passion and to grow as I would have liked, but having a baby of my own has opened up a whole new door for me! I take pictures of Caden all the time! I'm still using just my "plain Jane" kit lens on my wonderful Canon EOS 30D! I'm in the market for a new lens if ANYONE out there has any recommendations! (Is there anyone out there reading my blogs??).

On top of learning my new camera I've also become a photoshop junkie! I don't like to alter pictures too much. Instead I like using photoshop to clean up all of my many (many) imperfections! I smooth out the backgrounds sometimes and tweak the lighting if it needs it.

Everything I do in photography and photoshop is pretty much self-taught (or I learn it from my Sister-in-Law and photographer, Misty Rae). Well, lately I've been determined to learn how to work with layers and make a collage! I was so excited with how this turned out. It reminds me of the Lion King!

6 months old

I truly can't believe my baby is 6 months old now! Sometimes I look at him half expecting him to still be a tiny little newborn and then I'm blown away with how different he looks! He is going through such a cute phase right now. He is very social and flirts with everyone and if they aren't paying him attention he is talking up a storm trying to get them to look his way! Most of the time he is successful and gets the attention of everyone around him. He's a ham! He especially loves to see himself in a mirror. He always acts so shy when he does! He will smile at himself and then immediately look down and away! But, we have started to see more and more of him talking to himself in the mirror, too! He also loves other babies! He smiles behind his paci when he sees a baby on his "Praise Baby" DVD. We also recently put up a slide show of our nieces on the TV screen. Every time a close-up shot of Addie came up he would smile and make a quiet little squeal of delight! It was so cute!

He is a ball of energy. He is always on the move! He loves to stand up still... something that apparently runs in the family because the new niece and nephew both started standing at about 2 months of age just like Caden! Oh how I wish we could see the three of them together...

He still can't get himself in to a sitting position, but he can sit well enough now that we don't feel like we have to sit right by him anymore. Last night I was in the kitchen getting his bath ready and John was on the computer in the living room near Caden. Suddenly we both hear a pitiful, heartbreaking cry. You would have thought Caden had hurt himself so badly because it was one of those sob cries. John and I both jumped at the same time to get to him and all that had happened was that he fell forward from a sitting position on to his belly. He was just so tired he couldn't' take it and just started bawling. Broke our hearts. Pretty much the only time he cries these days is when he falls over and he wants to be sitting! (Well, and he is still crying at night but more on that later....)

I think I mentioned a few weeks back how Caden loves to squeal. Well, Christmas Eve was probably the last time I can remember him squealing like that. It's funny how babies discover something new and do it over and over and over....and then suddenly lose interest in it. It seems though that Caden will "re-discover" whatever it was after a few weeks and the fun will start all over again (like when he found his feet and played with them nonstop for a week, and then forgot they were there until a few weeks later). His latest discovery is the "brrrrrr" noise. He makes that noise and blows little raspberries. It's so cute! It is SUCH a guy noise, too!

Caden is a very happy baby and smiles all the time, but is not much of a giggler yet. I think his little "hiccup" sound he's done since he was very, very young is his way of laughing out loud. The only person who can get him to giggle is his daddy! Daddy comes home from work and Caden lights up to see him and smiles and puts on a big show! Then John lifts him in the air and says "boo" to him and Caden giggles. Personally, I don't think it's fair! (Ha, ha!) I can only get him to giggle on the rarest of occasions, usually during a diaper change when I blow on his belly!

Caden has also discovered how to put his paci back in his mouth! It is so amazing to us that he recognizes what it (the paci) is and what it is for and then he just brings it right to his mouth! The only funny thing about this is that the nipple end of the paci is much easier for him to pick up so usually he puts the wrong end in his mouth! Sometimes we hold the paci in our hands and let him grab it the correct way and every time he puts it right in! We will try to get some video of that up soon!

Caden is still loving his solid foods. If you watched the video of him eating it for the first time, then you've seen what he does every time we feed him! He perches like a little birdie on the edge of his high chair and with mouth wide open, begs for his food with little "uuuuuuhhhh" sounds! You would think he would outgrow it, but he is just a noisy eater. He likes everything we give him (with the exception of sweet peas which he will tolerate and even "beg" for while we feed him, but we know he doesn't like them because he won't finish the whole jar like he does everything else!). We even introduced a new food to him (prunes) while eating dinner out at Chili's and even in that very distracting environment gobbled up the whole jar of prunes! Caden eats a lot of solid foods for his age. I'll detail all of that below (for those of you who are really interested) in our daily schedule!

Well, after all the months of trial and error and all the craziness of our move... we have finally made it!!! We are on a consistent schedule! Yay!! Now, it still varies a little here and there, but for the most part our day looks something like this:

Wake up 7:00am

Breakfast: Milk/Formula, and fruit (the entire 2.5 ounce jar!)

Nap at 9:00

Wake up at 11:00

Lunch: Milk/Formula, and about 6 TBSP of prepared rice cereal

Nap at 1:00 (but my goal is to push this nap until 2pm eventually & drop the 3rd nap)

Wake up at 3:00

Snack (for lack of a better word): Milk/Formula, sometimes thickened with a little cereal

Nap: 4:30 0r 5:00 but this nap is optional and if it does happen it is brief (30-45 minutes)

Dinner: 5:30 (regardless of if he had a nap or not dinner is at 5:30)

Following dinner we do a bath, another serving of Milk/Formula, and then we read books and put him down for the night somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00pm. If he took the extra nap we put him down closer to 7:00 and stretch out his bedtime routine. But, if he didn't take the extra nap he is usually in bed by 6:00.

The hardest part of all of this is committing to having Caden home for his naps. It is very hard to run errands during his waketimes because 2 hours can go by so quickly! Also, the whole day can get messed up if Caden wakes from his naps earlier than anticipated.

Caden still fights going to sleep at night. He goes down between 6 and 7 and cries anywhere from 5 minutes up to 1 hour. There have been 3 nights in the past 3 weeks or so where he hasn't cried at all.... and for some reason on those exact nights he tends to have his crying spell somewhere in the middle of the night instead! So we almost prefer for him to cry himself to sleep because then he won't wake up crying in the middle of the night!!! Most nights he sleeps until about 3:00-5:30 am without a feeding. Depending on when he went to bed that is at least 8 hours and up to 11 hours without a feeding. I really can't complain. When he wakes up I offer him a feeding (Milk/Formula) and then he goes right back to sleep until about 7:00. Here lately he's been trying to wake up closer to 6:00 (usually 6:20). I try to keep him in his room and let him talk to himself until as close to 7 as possible, but I usually go in before he gets worked up and starts crying.

We see the doctor on Thursday for his 6 month "Well Baby" appointment and shots. I will let you all know what he is weighing in at and I will keep you posted on his new accomplishments!!