Just a picture

He needs a 'just his size' chair, doesn't he?!?

Bumps, bruises, and boo boo's

On Sunday evening I asked my husband, "How long do you think it will be before we (meaning Caden) have our first set of stitches?"


When I posed that question it was because Caden had really become fearless and interested in climbing. What I didn't know at the time was that over the course of the next three days we would encounter THREE different 'boo boo's." Fortuantely none required stitches, but these are really Caden's first bumps and scrapes.


First, at the CDC (the on-base day care I use a few hours a week) he was walking with a toy in his mouth and fell. He busted his lip open pretty badly. It was swollen and tender for a day or so, but healed quickly. Two days later in nursery he was knocked over and fell into the table and chairs (at least that is the most I could understand from the Korean ladies that were watching him). He now sports a nice big scrape/sore under his nose that looks like he just has bloody buggers coming out of it and a nice black and blue bruise next to it.


And to top it all off, he has some smaller scrapes on the tip of his nose and upper lip because he decided to go down the slide on his belly, FACE first. It was not a baby slide, but a very tall (approx 8 feet) "big kid" slide that was very steep. So, off the end of that he flew and landed on his face. Lovely. He's had a rough week, but he's a tough little boy and none of these incidents have slowed him down. Fortunately I know how to do some retouch on photographs so you can't tell (at least I hope you can't tell) in his Halloween pictures.

Halloween Costume Pics

Today I had a friend come and help me snap a few pictures of Caden in his Halloween Costume (which is a Scottish Golfer costume... no reason for it other than I thought it was cute)!

Enjoy!

It's a phase he'll outgrow, I hope.

And this is what happens when you turn your back for a few seconds. Both of these were taken yesterday. Seriously, could he be anymore fearless?!?

And this morning I was drying my hair while Caden took his usual position at the baby gate 5 inches from my legs. He stands there watching me dry my hair most mornings. Well, I glance over today to find him teetering on the top of the baby gate. He had gotten his tonka truck (Grammy, this might not have been such a good gift after all... ha ha!)... the same one from this post, and had pushed it up to the baby gate, and was using it as a step stool to get over the baby gate. When I glanced over his belly was on the top ledge of the gate and he had one leg on each side of it... disaster waiting to happen. Sorry, no picture of that one.... the camera wasn't right by me like it was in the previous pictures. :)

Adventure

My high chair tray was dirty from dinner the night before. Big surprise. When Caden goes to bed, I'm ready to be done for the day. Any additional cleaning that didn't get done before bed is there waiting for me the next day. Essentially this means my house is never clean. The only time it's clean is in the afternoon, and then I cook dinner while Caden ransacks the place again, and then Dad comes home, etc, etc.... Anyway, thus is the life of a housewife.

So back to the story at hand. The hair chair tray was dirty and it was time for breakfast. I was on the phone with my mom and didn't want to clean the high chair so I did what I've done in the past... I put Caden in the high chair and slide the tray-less chair up to the kitchen table. The one thing I didn't do was to lower the chair ever so slightly so that it would actually slide up under the table. Hindsight is 20/20, right?!?

So, Caden's eating his breakfast, I am literally less than 2 feet away from him eating my breakfast, checking my email, and talking to my mom on the phone (that is another blog all in itself... the ability of mother's to multitask)! Imagine my surprise when (sitting TWO feet away) I look over and see Caden is no longer in his high chair, but is sitting ON the kitchen table! No, not just on the kitchen table, but sitting on the dirty high chair tray I opted not to use that is sitting on the kitchen table. Of course I quickly assessed the situation and saw that he was in no immenent danger so I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures.

A few things about my son...

I have a few updates to my recent post about all Caden's 15 month milestones and words. But in recent days I've come to notice one thing about my son that is worthy of documenting. I have a feeling this particular trait will play itself out in one way or another many, many times over the years.

I'm not quite sure what to call this trait, but it's a combination of several things. For example, Caden hates, but also loves the shape sorter. He starts crying and squealing as he's attempting to sort shapes because he can't get them lined up correctly but yet he knows they somehow are supposed to go in the hole. It drives him crazy. He doesn't give up, he just fusses and whines until I take the toy away because it's causing a problem.

Today he was coloring and somehow managed to stand the orange crayon upright.... I don't know how he did it. But, he spent the remaining time I allowed the crayons to stay out fussing and fussing trying to figure out how to get ALL the crayons to stand up. He was unsuccessful and was very unhappy about it. In the picture below the orange crayon is standing up and he's trying to stand the blue one up (with the point down.... not gonna happen).


I'm not sure if the trait I'm trying to describe is determination, hardheadedness, or perfectionism... or maybe a combination of all three... but one thing is for sure, he does not like to give up but gets so darn mad trying sometimes. Sigh...

(This is a 're-enactment'... i stood the orange crayon back up once it got knocked over to get a better angle... in the above picture HE stood that crayon up)

Now, for the recent words. We've heard him not only sign, but also say the word "eat" (deet) to us. Also, doggie is no longer doggie, it is simply dog. Hi is no longer hiya, it's just hi. And ball (ba) is a new favorite word to say. He is also now officially kicking the ball... yes, intentionally kicking the soccer ball down the hallway... it's hilarious.

Well, right now I have one frustrated/determined/etc little boy trying to learn how to take the lid off of my bottled water. I'd best run before he figures it out.

(smile)

PWOC Women's Retreat

So, I mentioned earlier that I went to a women's retreat last weekend and left John and Caden home alone! The boys did great and had a blast together. And the ladies, we had a great time, too!

I was part of the 'set up' crew so we went up several hours earlier than the rest of the ladies and set it all up. No pictures of the actually setting up, but here is a picture of the fun dinner/starbucks run we had while we waited on the other ladies to arrive!

Pat, Me, Megan, Christie, and Joyce (our speaker)
It was a wonderful weekend full of spiritual refreshment as well as just time away to relax, play, and have fun with other ladies! We painted mugs, stayed up late playing games and talking, and during some free time I ventured out in to Seoul with two of my friends (Leah and Christie). Here are a few pictures.

Painting Mugs

In the Taxi on our way to Insadong

He's me and Leah with the streets of the Insadong Market behind us.

Insadong is an artists market in Seoul. It is beautiful!

There are antique stores, jewelry stores, stores with beautiful paintings, musican instruments, and even ornate handmade pillowcases, purses, and things of that nature.

Near the Market is Seoul's Largest Buddhist Temple.

It was a bit funny visting this temple when we were on a weekend away to worship and

grow closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus... and none of us felt right actually going in to this temple. You wouldn't either if you saw the scary demons that surround the giant buddas!

It was a very interesting sight to see. The three buddas were gold and were HUGE! I'm talking as tall as a two story building huge.

This lady prayed to this cartoon looking buddah for a while...

Then we found this amazing little Italian place for a late lunch and early dinner

The weekend and retreat was a huge success!

You can see Leah's entry about the weekend here.

Table Dancing

I went away for the weekend and come home to find my baby doing this:

And if you noticed and are curious as to why we have a lawn chair in our living room, well that's because Caden loves this chair! He can climb up in it (but can't the couch yet) so I sometimes bring it inside for him to sit in and watch his videos. :) Speaking of videos.... here is one of Caden climbing up on the table. Enjoy!

15 Months Update

I know I've been absent for a bit here lately, but we've just been really busy. I went away last weekend to a Women's Retreat and left John and Caden to fend for themselves. They both survived.

First off, let me apologize for the length of this for those of you who are casual browsers. This blog is first and foremost a way for me to journal our lives, and secondly a way to keep in touch with family and friends all over the world. So read on if interested, or if not, stop by another day! :)

So Caden is fast approaching 16 months and I've yet to write about all the wonderful and amazing things he is doing since last month. He's just now 15.5 so I'm not too far behind!

Eating

Caden eats anything and everything we do (minus lettuce and things of that nature that you really have to have molars to eat). His favorite food is still grilled cheese and his new favorite snack is raisins, however they don't fill him up so I usually give him a rice cake or something to go with them. He also loves ice cream and milk shakes. He recognizes the Baskin Robins counter at the BX and if I get ice cream and don't get any for him then, well... let's just say everyone in the store will know.

He rarely lets us feed him so we've handed over the spoon and bowl and amazingly he's doing quite well with feeding himself. Last night we gave him corn chowder with a spoon and tonight chili and he ate both really well and thoroughly cleaned his plate. I think in another month the mess that comes with self-feeding will begin to diminish, although I know it will be a long time before it disappears completely.





Sleeping

Caden is still sleeping through the night really well, but no longer from 7-7. Now he sleeps from about 7pm until about 6 or 6:30am. He has also figured out that if he cries we just give up and come get him so now he no longer wakes up sweetly babbling to himself, instead the first noise you hear is a cry/yell. He has us so figured out. So, needless to say we are going to have to fix this problem because every day he seems to wake earlier and earlier. 5:45 is NOT wake up time for a 15 months old! We have a few different options we are going to experiment around with until we get it figured out.

He is still on just one nap a day, and it still varies widely in it's length. He usually goes down between 11:30 and 12:30 (I haven't discovered his "window of opportunity" yet, but we're working on it). He will sleep anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 hours. Like I said, I haven't found the "window" that will lead to the longer naps every day.... but the good news is that even on less sleep Caden is a very easy going and happy baby.

Playing

Caden loves to play, although he still prefers non-toy play items. What is it about household items that babies love so much? His favorite toys right now are trucks. He loves to drive them around the floor, couches, tables, etc and make 'vroom' type noises. It's adorable. If it's a helicopter or airplane toy he makes it fly while making noises.

He is still obsessed with phones. We have on occasion put the phone up to his ear while one of his grandparents was on the other line and he tries to talk back. He will say "hi" or "hello" (see below for what those words really sound like coming from Caden) and then he will bark commands at them like he's talking about something serious... but not too many syllables... just the occasional "Baa" or "Naa."

He loves blocks...the kind he can stack and knock over and the kind he can piece together (mega blocks). Once I saw him make something (about four blocks put together) and then carry it around the house, holding it above his head making "shhhhh" noises. I'm thinking it was a helicopter or airplane, but I'm not certain. He also loves coloring. He is still learning not to eat the crayons.

He plays like a big kid at the playground, running around with the two and three year olds like he is one of them. He loves the playground so we go pretty much daily. It's good for him. He climbs up stairs (sometimes walking up other times crawling) and down stairs (walking or crawling) and goes down the slide sitting and on his belly (feet first). He's starting to think about hanging on bars and letting his feet dangle, although this skill has a ways to go. His favorite part of the playground though is the other Mom's strollers, the other kid's toys, and the other kid's sippy cups and snacks. He keeps me busy.

Signing

Words Caden Signs: milk, more, eat, water, all done, up, shoe, bird, fish, ball and he copies his signing videos a lot but these are the ones he will do on his own without our prompting or reminding him how to sign it.

Caden is using his signs really well and communicates to us with them instead of melting down. Although when I tell him no more snack (all done) he will sometimes cry but not out of frustration for lack of being able to communicate.

Talking

Caden still isn't talking a whole lot but just this last week he has surprised us with some new words! So, the words he is saying and their pronunciations or stories are:

Hi DaDa! (Sounds exactly like that hi dada) - says this every time he sees John come in from work, or when he sees another man in uniform.


Doggie (Doggie, just like it sounds but the "d" is not very strong) says this when he sees dogs

Hi (hiya) he pronounces this funny because I hold it out when I say it so it sounds like a two syllable word.

Hell0 (eh oh) says this in to the phone or anything he is pretending is a phone

UhOh (ah ohhh) he always holds out the "oh" part and says this when something is dropped

Ears (pronounces eyes). Yes, we know 100% without a doubt he is trying to say ears because we have not taught him the body part "eyes" yet. If you think about it, his pronunciation makes sense... "r" is a hard sound to make. We try and correct it and Caden really thinks he is saying 'ears' so our conversations sound like this: ears, eyes, ears, eyes, ears, eyes.... for now we will just have to accept 'eyes' as the word for ears! :)

N0 (Nnnnna) He says this like he is barking a command, it's very sharp, precise, and dramatic, and he usually says it after we've told him 'no' to something.

Nose (Nnnnna) Not to be confused with "no" because this one is not in a command tone and he does it while pointing to his nose (or sticking his finger up it). He also likes to touch our noses and say it.

Baby (beebee)- He says this when he sees either a picture of himself or himself in a mirror...

Beep, Beep, Beep (pronouced as it should be)- the wheels on the bus song (see below)


He has several different things he calls me including MaMa, MaMe (mommy), and MeMe. He doesn't call out for me much but when he gets fussy he'll reach for me or claw at my pants trying to get me to pick him up saying one variation of MaMa.

He is copy words we say like crazy the last few days. He's only 15 months so it's hardly discernible but none the less we can tell what he's saying. Words he's tried to copy (that I can remember) include cracker, eat, Caden, and belly (beebee).

Although the following don't count as talking, they are part of language development which falls under the talking category. There are several things that Caden understands. For example when we say "no" to something or tell him "Danger!" because he's about to get hurt he will stop. "Stop" is a word we are working on but he's not quite there yet! It's one we NEED to get down though b/c he's getting fast!

Pointing to his ears

When we ask him where his ears, nose, and head are he will point to them (or pat his head). He's learning his belly, but today pointed to his neck instead... oops! :) He's a little sponge right now just soaking everything up! If he sees a big kid do something at the playground, he will try it. This can be somewhat dangerous at times so I really have to watch him closely when he (for example) tries to jump off the 5 foot high ledge on the play equipment because he say an older kid do it. Fun times! He's still giving kisses, head butts, fives, and dancing when we ask him to.

I've also noticed that when I give simple commands like "go get the ball" or "press the button" Caden will respond appropriately. And he knows that shoes mean we go bye bye so he loves when he's told to "come put your shoes on!" And if we say we are going bye bye he will walk to the door and try and open it until we get there. Fortunately our doors are heavy but he has the concept of how to open it down. Another favorite part of his "bye bye" routine is he also loves to press the button at the elevator.

Discovering

This age is so amazing! Caden is really starting to recognize and remember items and their function/purpose. I don't even know how he knows but he will pick things up and use them or try and use them in the proper way. For example, if he gets my cell phone, he flips it open, puts it up to his ear and walks around saying hell0. If he gets my hair brush he bangs it on his head trying to brush his hair. If he finds a bowl and spoon he will pretend to eat. Everyday he does something that amazes me. Although none of it is all that amazing, I'm his Mama so it's all amazing to me! :) Today, for example, he found some ear plugs (the ones we tried to put in his ear for the air show a few weeks ago... that lasted less than 2 minutes)... well, he walked around holding them to his ears! It's something like that everyday. He doesn't have a little baby brain that doesn't remember things anymore....

One of his favorite things to do right now is to put lids on things and take them back off. He will spend LARGE amounts of time with this activity.

He's discovered he can use his Ride-On-Tonka-Truck to climb up on things like the coffee table. He's not climbing on the couch yet, but it's coming. We use the couch to hide things like the phone and remote control... that little secret will be coming to an end soon. Tonight he climbed up on the rocking ottoman in his nursery and sat there making it rock side to side for several minutes. I couldn't find the camera at the time or else I'd have video or pictures to share of that!

He has a new dance move... he doesn't just bounce up and down anymore, he will sway side to side and sometimes rock his head side to side (kind of like nodding).

He knows two of the sounds on the wheels on the bus song (thanks to his favorite video). He will go Beep, Beep, Beep and Waa, Waa, Waa with the horns and babies on the bus. The other day he was fussing and walking around saying "beep, beep." I wondered if he was wanting his video, so I put it on and he sang along with his favorite song!

His other favorite song is "If You're Happy and You Know It." He still claps his hands enthusiastically with the song, but he's also learned now to stomp his feet... not a real stomp, but he lifts his leg up and puts it back down. It's adorable!

He still is loving balls. Still throwing them exceptionally well. He's been tossing balls around since he was just sitting up and throwing them overhand since maybe 9 or 10 months?? Daddy's been working with him on catching balls and he's actually manged to catch a few. One day he caught three in a row so Daddy was very excited that we might have a future athlete on our hands!

And one last note, this month has brought a few new teeth! All that's left are eye teeth and molars, which I hear are all the hardest ones! Fun!

Well, that was insanely long, but also long over due! I can't wait to see all the exciting things that the next month will bring!

Caden and Sparky 15 months

We went to the Osan Air Show this weekend. More to come of that later... for now I couldn't wait to show these hilarious pictures and video! Caden has always giggled and laughed like crazy at any kind of "Mascot/Stuffed Human/Etc"- what do you call those things anyway? Well, at the air show he met Sparky the Fire Dog. He ran up to him, grabbed his leg, and leaned over as if to lay his head in Sparky's lap and literally didn't move at ALL! He just smiled and smiled at everyone around him like he was in the happiest place his little 15 month old mind could fathom! He hugged that dog for a good 5 minutes. When we started to take him away he protested and ran back to the dog and grabbed it's legs much like he does when I drop him off at the CDC on the days when he's feeling particularly clingy. The video is melt your heart adorable! I hope you all enjoy!

Nighty, Night!

Since I wrote about the morning routine I thought I'd also mention just how easy this little guy is to put to sleep! Our nighttime routine is to change his diaper, read him a few books, then we turn out the light, go to his crib and sit him in it. He reaches for the spare paci in his crib and then crawls to the corner and to get comfy! We then put the blanket on him and he doesn't make another peep until morning! Isn't he precious!!

He has a babysitter at least one night a week and he goes down just as easily with another person as he does us! Now, if only other things came this easily... (sigh)!

Morning Routine

This is just one of those little 'everyday' things that so often get overlooked when trying to journal/chronicle your child's life. This is our morning routine. Caden's not supposed to get up until 7:00am each morning, but he often wakes up between 6:30 and 6:45. As long as he's happy in his crib, he stay there. Once he gets unsettled he goes to his playpen for a morning video while he drinks his sippy cup. He just sits in his playpen, sipping on milk and watching his video. It's so sweet! We keep him in the playpen because this child must be contained if you want him to stay in one place! He won't just sit and watch it if left out of the playpen.

One of the funniest things happens each morning as Caden's finishes his first 8 ounce sippy cup of milk. He starts screaming, like he just got hurt. When you walk up to him and ask him if he wants more milk, he hands you his sippy cut and patiently waits for you to bring him his refill. It makes me laugh every morning because he cries like he has his feelings very badly hurt when he runs out of milk! :)

Here are some pictures of his morning video time!

Walking Up Stairs 15 mo

Caden shows off his stair walking abilities...

Doodles 14.5 months

Here is Caden's very first coloring experience without mom showing him what to do! Usually when we attempt to color I show him what the crayon does and he then tries to do it, too...but usually ends up eating the crayons and we don't get very far.

This is his first masterpiece...100% his! I'm so proud! That Magna-Doodle really helped to fine tune this skill quickly!

Pretty scribbles.

Notice how he's holding the crayon. It makes me chuckle!

And here we go. . .

at least we got a few doodles in this time before he decided to eat the crayon. After several attempts at telling him not to eat the crayon (and many more attempts on his part to prove to me that he CAN indeed eat crayons) I took the yellow crayon away...

Obviously that didn't go over to well.

The Finished Product!

New Dance Moves

Caden's Dancing is getting more intense! You can't really tell in this video but he was stomping on the floor in his enthusiasm! :) Such a sweetie!

So Determined...

Hmmm.... I want this phone.

I know I'm not supposed to have it... but I really want it!

Triumph!

Mom took it away, but she's standing there with the camera. Maybe I'll just sit here looking cute for a minute and try it again. Maybe this time I can actually make a phone call before she takes the phone away.

Oh man! Even closer this time!

Got it again! Now, do you think Mom let me keep it after this picture was taken?

Bib Boy

Caden found his bib in the kitchen cabinet (he wasn't supposed to be in) and put it on himself! He walked around smiling proudly and when it came off he was quick to put it on again!