19 month update

Happy 19 months and Merry Christmas! We have been having so much fun preparing for Christmas with Caden.  Everything takes on a new excitement when you see it through the eyes of a child. He loves to look at the lights as we drive around and gets pretty animated when he finds Santa or some inflatables.  The first thing he likes to do when he wakes up in the morning is run to the living room and have us turn all the Christmas lights on.  We are enjoying starting new traditions and continuing some that we started last year.  He's been having fun playing with his Little People Nativity set that he got last year.

He seems to be adding new words to his vocabulary almost on a daily basis.  A few of his new words are: apple, not me, no, dominoes, mailman, tick-tock and PU! It's so fun to hear him say new things.  He's added the animal sounds of a monkey, cow, snake and owl.  "I do" is still one of his favorite things to say and if he's really excited he'll repeat it three times.  He also says, "I this" meaning I need/want this.  He loves food and some meals I'm convinced he eats more than I do. He says, "oooh" when he sees his favorite foods.  He still only has 8 teeth.  I keep thinking those molars are going to come through because they seem to bother him and he's always chewing on his fingers, but so far nothing new.  I haven't weighed or measured him this month.  I'm guessing he's taller because he can climb up onto the couch and open the refrigerator now!  His hair is getting longer and thicker.  I actually had to comb it last week!  He is still wearing 18/24 month clothes and size 6 1/2 shoes.  He has an opinion about most everything and likes to choose what he'll wear each day.  He has been sleeping great at night this last month and this is so wonderful!  Nap times aren't as long and he's been fighting going to sleep, but I'm trying to count my blessings since we're making progress.  His digestion seems to be doing better and that is helping him rest better.  We've even been working some wheat back in his diet and he seems to be tolerating that well.  He loves to get ready for the day with Daddy by pretending to put on deodorant, shave, put on cologne and use mouthwash.  It's pretty funny!

We are looking forward to this week as we celebrate Christmas and are so thankful that God chose to send His Son and for the hope that we have because of His life, death and resurrection!

We hope you enjoy the pictures :)

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day and spent time with both families.  We had lunch at Hancock's then went to dinner at Mary Lu's house with my family.  His shirt says it all, "Everyone is Thankful for ME!."  He loved the turkey on his shirt and pointed at it all day!

He and I made these turkey name cards for everyone.  I let him use the glue stick and he drew the eyes on with a Sharpie :)

Helping Daddy rake leaves one last time!

Goodness! So very handsome in his shirt and tie and I love the smile! 

No smile here!  He wasn't a fan of Santa this year.  It was quite a traumatic event apparently!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and he had fun helping me turn the door into a snowman.

We had a family Christmas date again this year.  One of the places we went was Union Station. It's so beautiful at Christmas!

We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor for a great view of the tree and clock.  They were hosting an event so they had one room blocked off and we weren't able to go see the trains.

Caden's favorite part of the day was the walk across The Link!  He loved it!

 

We also spent some time at Crown Center and he thought he fountains, lights and

tree were pretty cool!

We finished up our date at Potbelly Sandwich Shop on the Plaza.

 

We walked around and looked at the lights since it wasn't too cold.

 

Looks like he was enjoying our drive through Christmas Card Lane in Olathe :)

 

We were loving the warmer weather and Caden was filling Daddy's pocket with rocks.

 

Cookie baking at GiGi's house

 

These 2 had a blast playing with the new cookie baking set GiGi bought them.

 

"Holding" sweet Margot

 

Caden was watching me wrap presents and wanted to join me, so he wrapped his snowman up.

 

We celebrated Christmas with all 40 of our cousins, aunts and uncles on my mom's side of the family last Saturday and this was the picture of Caden's generation.

 

Christmas Sunday morning at Fellowship West.  Aunt Shannon bought him the adorable suspenders and bow tie.  He got lots of compliments at church!

 

Happy 19 months, Caden!!

 

Sunday evening we went back to church for Family Christmas at Fellowship West.  The kids all came in their pajamas and Pastor Matt read them a Christmas story and we sang carols.  Each kid got a goodie bag with a Christmas book and coloring sheets.  It was a fun evening to celebrate Jesus birth!

Merry Christmas!!

18 month update

Well, our little baby is a year and a half old! Two years ago this month, we found out we were pregnant...how time flies! We went ahead and decorated for Christmas last week.  I love the look of wonder and excitement as he studies the decorations.  He loves the snowmen I have all over the house and has several he likes to carry around.  He points them out to me many times a day.  When we're shopping and he sees Santa, he says, "Ho!" and he says "neigh" when he sees a reindeer.  I couldn't really come up with something else that a reindeer would say, so I go along with it.  :) When he reads his books about Noah, he thinks Noah is Santa and says, "Ho." They do look similar in his books.  He's very aware of temperatures and puts his hand out to feel if things are hot or cold.  When you open the refrigerator and or put him in the car, he says "brrr", and when he gets near the stove, he puts out his hand and says, "hot" and shakes his head "no".  My favorite thing that he says right now is, "I do".  He answers every question that way and sounds so agreeable! He loves to look for the donkeys, cows, dogs and horses that we pass on our way to the highway.  He can spot them and points them out, saying the sounds they make.

He was sick with a cold at the beginning of the month for about a week.  During that time he decided he despised his pacifier! He wouldn't take it and got mad if I tried it. He hasn't used it since.  So, I guess we won't have to worry about breaking that habit! We took him to see Dr Brooks to see if he had any other ideas for us to help with the digestion struggles we're still having.  He suggested digestive enzymes and a magnesium supplement on top of the chia, flax oil and probiotics we're already doing.  He said most preemies struggle with digestive enzymes and said we'd probably need to supplement until he's 2.  Right now we are giving him a gluten free diet which helps some.  At that appointment he was 33 inches tall and weighed 24 pounds and 10 ounces, dressed.

His favorite song to dance to right now is "Greater" by MercyMe. He's started humming along to some songs.  If you menion going on a car ride, he'll run to get his jacket and start repeating, "socks, shoes" until we put them on.  He loves to go places. He likes to walk backwards. He is a feisty little guy, but very sweet.  When I pick him up he either rubs or pats my back and loves to give me eskimo kisses.  So cute!

Here a some pictures from the last month...

We went to a park and bakery in Lawrence then had dinner at Mama Mia's in Leavenworth to celebrate our 9th anniversary.

 Having fun with his pumpkin!

 My parents invited their nine "grandchildren" over for a Halloween party the day before Halloween.  This party was complete with dinner, trick or treating, costumes and cookie baking.  It was fun chaos :)

 On Halloween we went to Mitch's parent's house for lunch and pumpkin carving. He wasn't so sure about the slimy seeds.

 Our little pumpkin! We handed out candy at our house that evening.  He mostly had fun dumping the candy out of the bowl all over the floor.

 Helping Grandma blow out her birthday candles

 We decorated for Christmas on the 11th.  Caden had fun unloading the boxes for us.  He was helping Daddy put the star on.  We decided it would make our lives easier to just skip the ornaments this year.

 He loves the snowmen! 

 He helped me pick out all kinds of fun things to put in our 

Operation Christmas Child box.

 He loves to stand on his head and say, "hi" to anyone who'll listen

Helping PaPa celebrate his 60th!

 We went to Judson's Thanksgiving Dinner.  He looks like he's having fun!

 Our whole family at Thanksgiving Dinner #1

 Hiding behind the rocker and jumping out to scare me.  Such a fun smile!

 Working hard on a Thanksgiving craft

 He loves to lie down under the Christmas tree and look up at the lights.   He is also in love with the snow boots the Fosters let us borrow.  I was surprised since he doesn't like shoes!

 Still loves bath time!

 Apparently it's just sinking in that he's getting old!

 Happy 18 months, Caden!!

Thoughts from a mommy's heart

I feel like God wants me to share some thoughts, because I'm guessing I'm not the only mommy out there who is a little too hard on herself.  This month Caden was sick for a little over a week and was not sleeping well at all.  Which means, I was sleeping even less! Sleeplessness combined with sickness makes for one tired mama.  During the day I was feeling less than patient and the nights were worse.  I was feeling like a failure because I couldn't make things better and couldn't get him to sleep and was responding to situations in a way that was less than loving.  I started praying about these feelings of failure and started thinking of Scriptures to remind myself of who I am to God and what  He thinks about me.  The more I thought about it, I realized how, more often than not, at the end of the day, I would say I failed in some way.  So, what would make the day a success instead of a failure? If Caden took a good nap, if I responded in love and patience in each situation, if the kitchen was clean, if the laundry was caught up, if I prepared 3 healthy meals for my family, if I remembered to make time for my husband, remembering I'm a wife and not only a mommy, if I contacted my friends and family to encourage them and if I had my quiet time?  No wonder I feel like a failure, if that's my list! It's almost humorous when you read it, right?  Why do I hold myself to such standards? Why am I so hard on myself?  Where there's nothing wrong with the things on that list, I don't think God intended for me to feel this way.  So, I'm being more intentional about asking God what it is He wants me to do with my day and asking Him to remind me of the things that are important. Thankfully, He doesn't see failure when He looks at me and made no mistake when he gave me the task of raising Caden. I just have to rely on Him for the strength and wisdom to do it! Hopefully this will encourage your heart.

17 month update

Well, the Royals are in the World Series and Caden turned 17 months old! Both things are hard to believe, but exciting!  No doctor appointments this month and he is so busy I haven't even attempted to measure or weigh him!  He learned how to click his tongue and loves to do it. One of his favorite books to read is Animal Sounds and he has recently started saying several of the sounds.  He can say the sounds for dog, cat, sheep, horse and donkey, some clearer than others :)  His favorite word is "uh-oh" and says it about 50 times a day usually after he has "dropped" something. He seems to be loving fall as much as me.  He's a huge fan of pumpkin muffins, apples crisp, falling leaves and smelling fall candles.  At least once a day he asks us to pick him up and hand him the pumpkins and candles off the mantel so he can smell them :)  We spend as much time outside as we can.  He loves to push his bubble mower around and play in the leaves.  He is wearing 18/24 month clothes and is finally keeping some shoes on his feet.  With cooler weather coming and the need for shoes so he can play outside, I decided to go to Stride Rite and have him measured and see if we could find some shoes he'd wear.  His most recent sandals were size 5.  They measured him at a 6 1/2 wide.  No wonder he wasn't loving those shoes! So, we got him 2 new pairs of shoes and he tolerates them.  He knows he has to wear them if he wants to run around, but as soon as he gets in the car or back in the house, the velcro straps are undone and shoes off in record time! He literally runs from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep! He can identify quite a few body parts and thinks he can raise his eyebrows.  I raised mine and he studied my face for a while trying to figure out how to do it.  Then he started blinking really funny and he continues to do it daily.  He'll look at you and blink fast and want you to raise your eyebrows.  It's hilarious!

We took a quick weekend trip to Des Moines to meet up with Aunt Lesley at the end of September. It was fun to get to see her and she loved to spend time with Caden!  A couple weekends ago we spent some time in Weston while my family was camping.  We went to the Red Barn Farm and hung out at the Weston Bend State Park Campgrounds.  It was a beautiful day and we got some fun pumpkin pictures. Caden's favorite part was getting to sample the cider doughnuts.  It's hard to believe that it's coming up on the end of October and soon the holidays will be here.

Here are some of the cute pictures we took over the last month...

Watching the Basehor Homecoming Parade

Birthday dinner with friends at Stix.  He did not like the fire during the Hibachi cooking!

Reading books with Aunt Lesley. His favorite thing was to ride the hotel

elevator up and down with her.

He loved the cars at Toys R Us when we shopping for his Halloween costume.  He had to test drive several of them.

Celebrating birthdays for me and GiGi. Isn't Margot so sweet!

The look of excitement his first time to ride in his new forward facing car seat! He loves that he can see out and points at everything that interests him, mostly trucks.

Red Barn Farm in Weston, MO

Sitting with the pumpkins

Playing with his Ballapalooza from the consignment sale. Not only is it fun to run the balls down the

track, but it has flashing lights and dance party music.  So, it's a big hit! 

Fall fun at Deanna Rose Farmstead

Sitting on the little bench by the waterfall at Deanna Rose

He wasn't sure about the large blowup candy corn, so Daddy sat with him.

Playing at the park with Owen before GiGi's birthday lunch.

He loved that there was a monkey on his shirt and pointed to him and laughed all throughout the day.

Playing in the leaves  He's given up on picking them all up like he was doing last week. 

We need to get him a rake!

Holding the pumpkins he loves to carry around and smell.  I was attempting to take some 17 month pictures, but he wasn't wanting to sit still.  Big surprise!!

He would hold the sign, but only wanted to peel the letters and numbers off, hence the ornery grin!

Happy 17 months!!