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!!