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!!

16 month update

Caden is 16 months old now!  He looks more like a little boy and less like a baby all the time!  He went to see Dr Holly on August 28th for his 15 month check and got a great report and a few more shots.  He weighed in at 23lbs, 1.5oz (54%), 32.5 inches tall (89%) and head circumference was 18.75 inches (73%). We're thankful he is healthy and growing!  He seems to comprehend everything we say now, which is scary and exciting at the same time! It's fun to ask if he's ready for bed and watch him run to his room, or ask if he wants to go outside and see him run to the door.  He knows that he needs to run to the window when either of us leave the house so he can wave to us as we drive off.  He still spends a lot of time standing at the windows keeping an eye on the neighborhood.  He loves to go outside and I'm already dreading the winter where we're stuck inside!  Caden has always loved books, but he recently has taken an even bigger interest in them.  He has his favorites and will bring them to you, sit down in your lap and ask you to read them, over and over :)  We hope his love of reading continues!  He is tall enough to climb up and sit down in the kitchen chairs now.  After the third time of doing that, he went ahead and climbed up onto the table from the chair!  He makes me nervous and has no fear.  Welcome to the world of boys, right?!  He learned to kick a ball earlier this month and his 8th tooth has arrived.  Dr. Holly thought it looked like the molars would be coming in soon. He is a big helper with laundry. He picks up any clothes that are left on the ground and puts them in the hamper.  If there's nothing on the floor he starts pulling clothes off the hangers and throwing them in.  This week I also found a measuring spoon and a night light in there.  He keeps things interesting :)

This is my absolute favorite time of the year!  I love all things "fall."  I put all our autumn decorations out earlier this month.  I tried teaching Caden how to smell the candles, so now he goes around sniffing.  I've been having fun celebrating my birthday and am spreading it out to celebrate as long as possible.  Here are some pictures from the last month.

He has his ducks in a row :)

 Helping mommy snap green beans from our garden

 Labor Day Weekend at Uncle Steve & Aunt Debi's Lakehouse

 Cute Matching Cousins!

 KoJo Family Fun Run! We made it!

 Happy Grandparent's Day!

 Showing off his climbing skills

 Overland Park Farmer's Market and treats at Great Day Cafe

 Mommy's birthday dinner with PaPa & Grandma at LaBodega

 Cider Hill Orchard on Mommy's birthday

 He picked several himself this year.  Last year he fell asleep while we were picking!

 Birthday lunch at IHOP with GiGi, Aunt Shannon, Aunt Megan, Owen and Margot

 Checking out his balloon monkey at the NICU Reunion at Overland Park Regional

 Happy 16 months!!