8 month update

Happy 2014! Today is Caden's 8 month birthday. That just sounds so old! It sounds more grown up and less like a baby.  We've been enjoying watching him learn how to work all his new toys from Christmas and practice crawling.  Our world is about to change again as soon as he's mobile. Mitch is coaching 1st/2nd grade boys through Upward Basketball at our church.  Caden and I have been going to the practices and games.  He loves watching the boys play and wants to join in. We're looking forward to what God has in store for us this year!

We didn't have any appointments with Dr Holly this month, so we did our own calculations at home.

8 month stats...

• weight- 19lbs, 13oz
• height- 28 inches
• diapers- size 3
• clothes- 6-9 mos and 9 mos
• new skills- he spends a lot of time on his hands and knees, rocking, lunging, scooting backwards and hopping forward.  Still no actual crawling, but he's very close.  He has been "singing" a lot this past week.  It's a sweet little song in a high voice.  I love it! His little personality is really starting to show.  He is very social, ornery, sweet, observant and active!   He's doing great at sitting up these days and loves to roll to get where he needs to go. 
• hobbies- he is still working on teeth, so absolutely everything goes in the mouth and gets chewed on!  At Christmas, he got lots of new toys and spends most of his day playing with them. 
• feeding- he has added peas, pears and bananas to the list of foods he's eating.  I made squash and zucchini this week, but he hasn't tried them yet.  
• sleeping- nights have been much better, but he's going through a nap fighting stage.  Who wants to take a nap when there are much more exciting things to do?!

Helping mommy shake the donuts in sugar

Cute little penguin

 New Years Eve snuggles with Ollie, the monkey we got him for Christmas. 

 We went by both grandparent's on New Years Eve, but didn't stay out until midnight.  Things change just a little bit when you have a baby :) 

 "My First New Year"

 The shirt says it all

Nap time for these 2

Snowy Sunday morning snuggles

Caden loves his car toy he got for Christmas. Daddy says if this is the way he's gonna drive when he's a teenager, he's paying for his own insurance!

Playing with Daddy

He loves my tablet and likes to look at himself on the screen, so I snapped a picture

He can even balance while those crazy arms are going

Up on his knees, preparing for takeoff

Another picture on the tablet

He LOVES knocking over the tower. It's a race to see if we can build it before it gets knocked down. He usually wins the race.

PEAS! It seems he shares his daddy's opinion

 The smile I got when the feeding of peas was over

8 month photo shoot

7 month update and Christmas

Caden turned 7 months old the Saturday before Christmas.  This was such a special season for us as we got to celebrate the birth of our Savior as a family of three. Mitch and I went out on a Christmas date last Saturday and had a great time reflecting on the blessings we received in 2013. What a year!  We are still in awe of all that took place and the miracles we were allowed to be a part of.

We didn't have any appointments with Dr Holly this month, so we did our own calculations at home.

7 month stats...

• weight-approximately 18 1/2 pounds
• height-around 27 1/2 inches
• diapers- size 3
• clothes- he can still wear a  few 6 month outfits depending on the brand, but is wearing mostly 6-9 mos and 9 mos
• new skills- he started rolling from his back to his belly a couple of days after he turned 6 months.  All month he's been rolling to his left and just recently learned to roll to his right side.  He rolls everywhere and scoots around to get where he wants to go.  He loves being on his belly and pushes his body up with his hands and has just started pulling his knees up.  I would say crawling is in his near future.  He has gotten better with sitting, but at any given moment will not think twice about taking a nose dive if he sees a toy he wants. He teaches us new things all the time.  He hit a button on my tablet and made it do something I didn't know it would do and just tonight showed us how to work one of his new toys.  He says something that sounds like "hey" all the time. 
• hobbies- he loves reading and eating his books:)  We got him a bouncer for Christmas and he could jump in there all day. The tags on his toys are a new favorite.  He likes to eat them, lick them and study them so closely it looks like he's reading them. 
• feeding- Caden got to start eating real food after he turned 6 months.  After doing some research we opted to skip the baby cereal and go straight to sweet potatoes, then avocado, then bananas.  The avocado was definitely the favorite.  I've been making his food in our Baby Bullet and Steamer. Pears, apples and peas are next on the list. 
• sleeping- On a good day he takes a morning nap for about 45-60 min, then around a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and a short power nap in the evening to hold him over until bedtime.  The schedule has been off with the events of Christmas and he has been fighting naps recently.  

Here are some pictures taken over the last month.

Thanksgiving lunch

 Playing ball with his cousin, Owen, on Thanksgiving

 Steaming sweet potatoes

 Eating the sweet potatoes! He was a fan of getting real food!

I just love this!

 Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and Plaza lights

 Reading the recordable book, "The Very First Christmas"

Caden wanted to sample some cookies at our annual cookie baking day

First visit to Santa and he was all smiles

Looking cute in his bear hat and overalls

 Helping mommy make fudge

He loved his Christmas socks! Loved to pull them off and eat them , not wear them!

 Did some Christmas shopping today

 Loving the avocado!

 7 month photo shoot

 Sitting up like a big boy!

 Look how long he is! 

 His 7 month birthday fell on our Cowley/Jarratt Christmas celebration. There were about 30 of us that got together at my parent's house.

I made Caden his own nut cup for his first Christmas. This is a tradition my grandma started many years ago.  I loved getting to continue this tradition for him. 

Caden opened these pajamas on Christmas Eve

 Cookies for Santa

 Christmas morning

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and attended the Christmas Eve service at our church. On Christmas morning we let Caden open his gifts from us. Pretty sure we were more excited than he was.  He was a big helper with ripping the paper off, and then eating it! Then we went to Mitch's parent's house. Caden was completely spoiled on both sides of the family, as you would expect :) We feel so very blessed! There were lots more pictures taken, but since I'm already behind on adding this post, I'll stop here for now,

Happy New Year from the Hancock's!