Caden Talks about Baby Gracie

That's right, Gracie! We have a name, Grace Elizabeth.

So the story. My friend Jennifer had her sweet baby girl, Sydney, almost two weeks ago. Today, Caden got to see Sydney for the first time and I pointed out that Mrs. Jennifers belly is gone. The expression on Caden's face was so funny. I saw the lightbulb go off in his head. It was too cute. So on the way home from school, after seeing baby Sydney, we started talking about Baby Gracie. Some of our conversation:

Caden: Mommy, you have Baby Gracie in your tummy.
Me: That's right Caden, and she will come soon!
Caden: Baby Gracie wants to come out of your tummy?
Me: Yes, she sure does!
Caden: The doctor will help?
Me: Yes, the doctor will help Mommy have Baby Gracie.
Caden: You have a ball in your tummy?
Me: I have Baby Gracie in my tummy and it makes it look like a ball.
Caden: Where did your belly button go?

LOL, just when I thought he was finally starting to understand things he throws the whole "ball in your tummy" thing out there. :D

America

This is just a quick, funny story about a conversation we had with Caden yesterday. John ordered a copy of the Constitution to read (he's really gotten into politics lately) and John was showing Caden a picture of the Founding Fathers. He went on to try and explain America to Caden. In his explanation (we were outside playing) he pointed all around and told Caden that we live in America, that "this" (pointing) was America. Caden thought for a second and replied:

"No, this is NOT America... this is houses."

A Belly Picture, finally...

So, I found a little space on my hard drive to squeeze in just a few pictures from my completely full 1 GB memory card, lol. Neither of them are great, but here they are none the less. I took this picture during our Potty Training Weekend. I love the M&M smear on his lips and how he was sitting.... the pic is a bit dark, but it still captures his sweetness... he moved about 1 second after I took it so I'm glad I caught this sweet face, all covered in M&Ms and just as happy as can be watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....

Caden is just such a little boy now. He cracks us up all the time. I've started writing down funny things that he says and I want to start posting them (and just blogging in general again). Blogging was therapy for me at one time and I really miss it! Here are just a few cute sayings that come to mind:

Every night at dinner we pray... over the last year Caden went from eating through the prayer so waiting for us without eating, to shoving in a bite of food while he squinted his eyes and put his hands on his forehead, to eventually asking to pray. These prayers are often precious! The very first time he asked to pray was about a month ago (about 28 months old) and after examining his plate (I had made burritos), he said,

"Dear God, Thank you for Taco Bells.... Amen."

After that night Caden pretty much prays for our meals every time. One morning we got up and cooked a big breakfast together as a family and Caden prayed, thanking Jesus for every item of food on his plate (eggs, toast, jelly, grapes, etc).

Lately Caden's prayer sounds something like this...

"Dear Jesus, thank yous the food..... Thank you Caden's undies dry and go pee pee in the potty.... thank you blessings....... Amen."

Last night Caden was warned and then deliberately disobeyed while I was cooking dinner and so he was given a spanking. During his prayer he threw in something about obeying God and spankings.... I can't remember the exact wording but I remember John and I looking up at each other from across the table and holding back laughs.

Caden knows about things that I have no recollection of teaching him... for example, a month or so ago Caden looked at me and said, " Mom Mom (his new word for me), what happened my trucks? They need batteries." I have no clue how he knows about batteries and what they do...

One of our Monday Morning Outings lately is to go to the Barnes and Noble story time after my gym class. After the story they do a craft. Caden doesn't quite have the pronunciation of that word down yet and yells out often, "Mommy I go to story time and I do crack! I do crack Mommy!" Lovely....

This next story is a little on the "too much information" side of things.... I apologize before hand ........... As we neared time for potty training we started announcing every time we went to the restroom so Caden would come watch and learn.... At first he complimented me for going... "Mommy go pee pee in potty! I so proud of you!!" Then after a few weeks he decided to change up his compliment.... Sticking his head between my legs to look into the potty he said, "Mommy!!! It so beautiful!" What was really great was when he started making these loud announcements/compliments in public restrooms... lol.

Caden is very much into make believe play now. It's really fun to watch him have conversations with his little action figures and dolls and to really make his trucks do an activity (complete with sound effects). He loves to pretend to have meals at his table/kitchen he got for Christmas from Gdaddy and Nonnie, too. Last night he was making me eggs. Caden gave me a spatula to eat my eggs with and I asked him for a fork. He went searching for one and when he couldn't find one he said (and I quote)... "I have a GREAT idea! Here's a spoon!" What drama and where did he learn "i have a great idea?" lol.

In other news with Caden.... as this is turning out to be a "catch up" blog post... we potty trained him a few weeks ago! He did SO great! I'll try to blog more about it later but it was so much easier than I ever thought it would be! We even took a road trip to Nashville just for fun one week after we trained him! That is how well it went.... we had no worries about him holding his bladder at all and he stayed dry all day long.

As for me, this picture is about 1.5 weeks old now and I swear my belly is twice as big, at least it feels that way. I had no belly at all, just a teeny bit of pudge two weeks before this picture.... That one is far from edited (my 17 week picture) and this one (21 weeks) is only partially edited (hence the shadows on the white and splotchy areas)..... but I knew that the chances of me ever going back to FINISH editing this picture were slim to none.. I've pretty much forgotten how to use photoshop and it took me forever to re-learn how to do the few simple things I did do... so here it is... Baby Girl (possibly Kaycie Grace as that is the favorite name these days) at 21 Weeks:

Recent Silly Pictures of Caden

When it comes time for a diaper change, Caden always insists on holding onto whatever he was playing with, even if it's a huge, duct taped together shopping cart....

Caden drug that step stool half way across the children's department at Barnes and Noble so he'd have a place to sit at the train table. We love visiting B&N, but I really don't understand why they put all the "breakable books" (the ones with buttons that sing nd levers that move) by the train table. Caden spends very little time at the train these days and most of his time trying to take the wrapping off the puzzles and push all the buttons on the books that sing songs and make noises...

Here is my little man trying to be like Mommy and Daddy. He struggled to get this phone to stay propped up on his shoulder. He was so proud pretending to talk in my old cell phone.

I went in to get Caden from his crib after a nap a few weeks ago and he'd taken off his sock and put it on his hand/arm. And he refused to let me take it off. So, I had to get a picture of him and while I was seaching for the camera, Caden found his diaper bag and pulled out a "gigi" from it.

What kid doesn't love digging around in their diaper bag?

Caden loves to prop his feet up in the car when we're traveling. As you can tell from the picture he also loves to take off his shoes and lately he likes to pull the cover off of his car seat as well. :D

Determined

Do you see that line of cars..... Just in case you were wondering my son tried them all out. Yes, that's right every single one of them. He climbed in, closed the door, checked that the steering wheel worked, and then moved on to the next car...

Hello Daddy...

Caden "talks" on the phone to his Daddy:



Obviously he didn't want to get off the phone... before I pulled out the camera he talked to him for probably about 4 or 5 minutes while I cooked dinner. He loves to talk on the phone, and uses the same gibberish when we're out shopping and someone pays attention to him. He'll go on and on and on just jabbering away to a total stranger. He's definitely a very social baby, but that kind of goes without saying! Haha!

Boots

Caden has a new found love of shoes. I change his shoes several times a day, and he changes his own a couple of times as well. These boots are among his favorites. Here he is modeling them with his PJs.

And the camera was still in my hand when this happened.... This is NOT the first time this has happened, it's been going on for a week or so. I keep thinking how funny it would be to capture a picture of it but never thought I would be able to. Caden adores my mom and dad's dog, Lucy (or as he calls her SeeSee). They are best buddies and spend the day following each other around and playing. Lucy is a licker, she loves to give kisses and Caden thinks the tongue thing is funny. Last week John and I were sitting on the couch and looked over and Caden was licking Lucy back.... ON HER TONGUE! Ick! A little phase I hope will pass soon, but it makes me laugh every time I see it!

A Week in Review

A few pictures from the past week....

It's lawn cutting season for my brothers, which means that at least 3 days a week we get to see them as they meet up at our parent's house to load the equipment. Caden loves when his "uncles" arrive and has started calling them by name instead of just "uncle."



The bluebirds hatched a few weeks ago and left the nest this week. Here is "Gaddy" and Caden laying out some worms for the "buds" (singularly it is now Bud-uh).


I wanted to snap a picture of Caden doing this and I finally got around to it. He's been doing this for months and it cracks me up every time. Boys can't just sit on the couch, they have to make everything a challenge.

Ah, yes, the final picture. Caden has started to pretend and play like a dog. He will sit at the windows and doors (on all fours) and pretend to bark with them and he loves to get down at the water bowl and pretend to drink. In this picture he was actually drinking the water -in the next shot I didn't post he was sitting up by the bowl, red-eyed, choking on the water after it went up his nose. Needless to say that was all the lesson he needed, he now just pretends to drink the water. :)

"Cheese"

Why do we all do it? We ask our kids to say "cheese!"-

I hate it becaue you always get the silliest looking smiles, but out of habit I've found myself saying the dreaded word! And what exactly does it produce? Exactly what I ask for: a cheesy smile.

Oh, and about the outfit. This was one of the outfits my mom MADE my brother when we was little. We were trying it on one day (along with the 90's inspired baseball cap we also found in the bin of old clothes)...

Man Bag II

What does a little man do with his beloved purse (poosh)?

Use it to carry around his cars and trucks!

Goodnight Elmo

One of my favorite photos from our trip to the beach... and it doesn't even include anything beach related! We went to eat dinner at Mellow Mushroom and we gave Caden Elmo to keep him entertained. At one point Caden started screaming for his GiGi (paci) and we never give it to him out of his crib, but today was an exception to that rule because he was exhausted, had been in the water all day, up past his bedtime, etc... so we gave in. To our surprise Caden didn't want his GiGi for himself, he wanted it for Elmo. He put the GiGi in Elmo's mouth, laid him down, and then grabbed a napkin to cover him up and said, "Sleep" and "ByeBye Elmo" (Caden's way of saying Night Night). We laughed and lauged. We never saw this coming when he started screaming for his GiGi!

A Man Bag 20 mo

My mom cleaned our her closet during spring break and made piles of things to throw/give away. Caden found this little purse in one of those piles. He see's me with one, he see's Nonnie with a purse, so he wanted one too. He was so thrilled with his new discovery that when we left to take Nonnie out to Outback for her birthday Caden would NOT let go of his purse. Daddy, as you can see, was none to thrilled about his little boy out in public with a "man bag." :)

A story I don't want to forget...

I keep thinking I'll get caught up, but I think I've finally come to the realization that I won't. So, my best bet is to just pick back up where we are at now... and with that comes a story that happened less than 5 minutes ago that I am still laughing about.

Caden and his love of water.... I walked into the kitchen to find Caden standing over the dog bowl with a sopping wet dish towel sucking the water out of it. My guess... he grabbed the dish towel off the oven door handle (why do we all hang towels there?), dipped the WHOLE thing in the water bowl, and proceeded to drink the water from it. Yuck! Of course I had to use my stern Mommy "no" voice, but as soon as my back was to him I laughed silently.

Eating Antics...

Caden took each and every Cheerio out of his bowl of cereal one morning so that he could drink the milk.... He is obsessed with drinking out of cups without lids these days.

Little Climber

How he pulled this off I have no idea. Somehow, he manged to climb up the flimsy, unstable little piano in order to reach the CD player. He was having independent playtime in his bedroom, which I thought I had successfully Caden-proofed, when I suddenly heard the Cd stop playing. I grabbed my camera and headed for the room (I just knew I would find something interested). He was so proud.

You will be happy to know that the piano is now no where near anything interesting (light switches had to be taken in to consideration as this is also a new fascination...he will stand under them and say "off, off!" because he wants to turn it on and off)...

Fun with the Doggies

Well, maybe "fun" isn't the best word, but it sure is funny! These videos are from Jan, when we first got back. Caden was 18 months old...

Oops!

This morning there was a little miscommunication between John and I. I hollered at John to heat up Caden's breakfast as I was scrambling to get ready for the gym. John did as he was asked. I grabbed Caden, and we flew out the door. At the gym's Child Watch program they told me that Caden could bring snacks next time because he was asking for them as he saw all the other kids eating snacks. I shrugged it off.

About 30 minutes later the light bulb went off! Our poor child didn't get breakfast! I thought John fed him, he thought I fed him. And did Caden complain at all? Nope. Not one bit. Wasn't fussy, wasn't whiny, could have cared less. As I made this discovery it was already 10:45 (15 minutes before lunch). He was happily playing away in his room. One thing is certain, Caden is an easy baby! He loves his food, but can happily adjust without it.

Surprisingly, he didn't eat much at lunch at all.

Wordless Wednesday: Stuck?

Telephone Funnies

Caden is obsessed with telephones. I mean REALLY obsessed with them! The whole time we lived in Korea we would let him "talk" to his grandparents on the phone... then we gave him toy cell phones, and eventually pulled out our old real cell phones that no longer had service and charged the up for him... It seems there is never a day that goes by, or even a few hours, where he doesn't have a phone of some kind up to his ear.

When we arrived in Huntsville my mom, knowing about his obsession, gave him an old black portable phone that no longer worked. He likes it, but because it doesn't work the buttons don't make noise, so it's not as much fun as the real thing! He is constantly trying to get the real telephone (the white one).

This morning John and I were in the kitchen and we suddenly hear beeping. We go to the living room to find a hysterical scenario! Caden thought he would try and pull one over on us. He put the black telephone in the base and traded it for the real, working white telephone.... Of course the base started beeping because the wrong phone was in it... And there stood Caden, confused at how his plan backfired... The beeping gave him away! I ran to get my camera to take pictures... at which time Caden realized he wasn't going to be disciplined for his actions and started trying to talk in to the phone...

Another funny phone story... the phone rang yesterday and my dad grabbed the portable and handed it to me to answer... I did. In the meantime Caden made a BEELINE for the chair in the kitchen, pulled it out, crawled up onto the counter and answered the phone on the wall... Fortunately it was just my mom calling for a ride (we're using her car)... Caden talked his little baby gibberish the whole time I was chatting with my mom, and when I said goodbye to her, right on cue he hung up the phone and said "bye, bye." I wish I had gotten it on video!

Put your feet up.

Caden always props his feet up in the car.... one foot on each chair is how he likes it! He gets mad if one of the seats is too far away for his reach. The only reason he can reach them is because we have his car seat on forward facing recline. He won't be very happy with us when we sit him upright, which we plan to do when we return home.