Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Thursday, May 6, 2010

How fast time flies!

Allan and I have now had Cayden with us for 1 week and 1 day longer than the time I spent being pregnant with him. What an awkward sentence....I cannot think of correct grammar/ wording! 39 weeks 1 day old! I keep saying this, but it is going too fast. He is changing so very quickly! His personality has stayed the same since birth, though, which I am very happy with. He is so friendly and outgoing and happy.

Cayden is still not crawing. He instead grabs onto the blanket he's on and pulls himself wherever he wants to go. Or he rolls. I somewhat blame myself for that because I don't like him on the floor. We just bought a floor steamer that is advertised as disinfecting the floor. And Allan regularly steamcleans the carpet. I still worry about all the dirt and dust Cayden inhales, though! Especially since he had those breathing problems early on. So he is always on a blanket, making it difficult to move on his knees without sliding, and whenever he approaches the end of the blanket I push him over. I've stopped worrying about the milestones. Finally! He will do everything he's supposed to eventually.

We will be attending his first birthday party for a friend (not a cousin) this month! Baby Evan will be 1 on the 19th. We are all really excited about that. And his school friends will also all be turning 1 very soon. Then Cayden's birthday party will be before we know it! I have less than 4 months to plan!!!!

Our computer still isn't fixed. BUT the oven is...and Allan fixed it all by himself! He took the back part off and looked at the wires and where they are all connected, and ordered a part off the Internet, and it worked! He's so smart. We were really worried that we'd have to spend $1000 or whatever a new oven costs these days on a whole new thing. Now we just need to take the computer somewhere. But I did put all the pictures from the camera on a CD (900 pictures for $3.98 at Walgreens! I'm finding all these great deals this month!). So via work computer I can upload pictures! They're all on Shutterfly now, but here are a few of my favorites (I'll add more when I have more time):

These two are pretty old ones. Look how bald he was! 



By the way, I'm on the search for a new blog site! I'm sure it's either user error or old/slow computer issues, but regardless of what it is, I'm so frustrated that I can never format my pictures how I want them! I can never put them where I want them or make them the size that I want them to be or put the text where I want it. Also, every minute it auto-saves, which freezes up the whole computer (again, most likely due to my work computer being old and slow....and I know, I know, I should be using it only for work!). So if you have any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong (really, though, I'm fairly good at figuring computer things out so I don't think it's ALL me), or what other sites are recommended, please let me know!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Photos are coming!

Well, we STILL haven't gotten the computer fixed. We haven't gotten the oven fixed either, for that matter. I called about the oven and was told it would be "very expensive" to fix. What does that mean? Is his version of expensive the same as mine? It can't be too too expensive; we only paid I think $800 for the whole thing when we bought it. The man wouldn't tell me what "expensive" means, which irritated the hell out of me! So we're using the stovetop and have two toaster ovens stored inside the oven. How rediculous. It is now officially Allan's turn to deal with it.

We just haven't gotten around to the computer. Yesterday, though, I took my camera to Walgreens to have the pictures put on a CD. Why didn't I think of that before? I have to go pick it up today and was told it will cost a whole $3.98 to put all 700 pictures on disks and it will come with a photo index. I'm so excited! I skimmed through the pictures yesterday before I went to Walgreens and there are so many cute pictures. Cayden has grown and changed so much since Christmas, which is when the earliest pictures on the memory card are from. Have we only taken 700 pictures since then? I did delete a bunch of them. I know some people cringe at the thought of deleting pictures. It just seems like clutter to have pictures that I would never print. So if all goes well today and I can finish my work before going to pick Cayden up I will be adding pictures at approximately 4:00PM. Hooray!!!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

6 Months!

Cayden turned six months old February 26th. I can't believe it! It has gone soooo fast. He had his six month well-baby visit Friday, March 5th. He weighs 18 pounds 4 ounces and is 27.5 inches long. Before we know it he will be measured in "height" rather than "length". His lungs are clear now so we don't have to use the nebulizer anymore. Yay! He met all the milestones: sitting with support (and without), raking his hands, passing toys from one hand to another, turning his head when he hears his name, laughing, babbling, and bearing weight on his legs. He was so happy at his appointment too. He loves that white paper on the bed in the doctor's office. He tries wrapping himself up in it and ripping it. Then it came time for the shots. It was awful. He began crying as soon as the nurse walked in with her little case. Then she gave him the first liquid vaccine and usually Cayden drinks it right up. This time it took several minutes. I think it was because he knew the quicker he drank it the quicker he'd get the shots. Then the nurse asked one of us to hold down Cayden's little arms. Allan always does this part so I can sit and cry. Usually Cayden lets out a scream and then is over it. This time tears build up in his eyes before the nurse even came close to him. Then he cried really really hard, much harder than the other times, but was luckily over it quickly. I was not. I felt the need to hold him through the rest of the visit and carry him back to the car. It seemed like he was not feeling well the rest of the day. My friend Devon said her daughter was like that too; the older she gets the longer it takes to get over the shots.

Cayden is such a happy baby. I hope it lasts! He loves people and attention. Yesterday he was in my office and a co-worker walked in and smiled at him and he started laughing so hard. Another co-worker came in and he did the same thing. Sunday my parents came to visit and every time my dad waved at Cayden he laughed, kicked his legs, and did this crazy movement with his arms. When he gets excited his whole body gets into it. I love it. I'm adding a few pictures that Jen took last weekend....hopefully we'll be able to fix our computer this weekend so I can add more pictures...you'll see that in Jen's pictures Cayden was either serious or sucking on the pacifier. He was really tired and just not into posing for Aunty Jen. She blames his puppy for angering him, but it wasn't the puppy. The pictures still came out incredible, though! These are just the ones on my computer. All the ones she took are amazing. They always are.

In the last one you can see the red around his eyes and see how sleepy he was! We tried taking a break to let him take a nap, but he wasn't interested. He just wanted to be cranky (but cute!)

He is SO close to sitting up on his own! I know he can do it, but he just likes rolling backwards. He'll actually sit up for a few seconds, then start giggling and roll onto his back. Then pull his socks off and chew on them. He chews on everything! Allan calls him a magnet because anytime we pick him up or move him or even leave him alone for a few minutes and he's grabbed onto something and has either successfully brought it to his mouth or he is diligently working on moving it to his mouth. And lately he has begun crying a lot more, which I attribute to teething. We do our daily checks to see if a tooth has come through. I really feel confident that it will be soon.

Likes and dislikes:
Likes: Laughing, being tickled, chewing on everything, Gloworm, light up seahorse, puppy, penguin and mini penguin, playing in his crib with the mobile and mirror, peek-a-boo, all types of baby food (except peaches and rice cereal), screaming (especially in public), Kudos and Josie, bath time, being awake from 12-2am, pulling hair and earrings and beards, sucking on cheeks, rolling onto his back, standing, raspberries (blowing on the belly)

Dislikes: Getting shots, food being taken away, sitting in the movie room, being on his tummy, being woken up, having to wait for things that he wants

Indifference: Books, music, Jersey, pacifier

Friday, February 19, 2010

I love Montessori!

STILL waiting for the computer to get fixed! I think today we'll find out if our property damage claim was accepted. I'll be soooo angry if it's not! But really, I don't know how to actually prove that our things broke as a result of the power problems.....stressful! One day I will post pictures instead of writing so much boring stuff.

Today I'm thinking about how much I love Cayden's school. His teacher, Ms. Diana, is so very thorough. The other day she told me there was a little bit of dry skin between two of his toes. Crazy thorough! It's been almost two months and I still am sad every day when I pick him up because I didn't know what he did all day. I didn't get to see all his smiles. Or hold him when he cried. And I know he's learning new things that I don't even know about yet. After talking to Ms. Diana monday at our first parent-teacher confernence and a few other times this week, I feel so much better. Monday she went through this long long list of things that he is doing and things that she is working with him on. She also covered things that she'd like us to do at home with him. I like having that cohesion, like school can be an extension of home instead of home being an extension of school. I know how structured his school is. Yesterday Ms. Diana apologized to me because his eating schedule was off by 10 minutes. She was really serious about it and was very irritated at the teacher who fed him late!  I can tell by seeing other kids on the playground or in the windows of their classrooms that what his school is teaching actually works. Times when I've gotten there early to pick Cayden up and they didn't already have him ready for me I've been able to witness kids being disciplined as well as kids being praised. It is exactly how I would eventually like to treat Cayden myself. Plus, seeing schoolwork posted up of 3 year olds doing reading and comprehension amazes me every time. So I tell myself to back off because his teachers obviously know what they're doing. Most of the teachers have been teaching 20+ years and have been at that school since it opened. So I trust their techniques and judgments. But at the same time it kills me because I want to be involved. So I talked to Ms. Diana about this dilemma and now realize that I am taking their separation between home and school way too literally. I feel sooo much better. There is absolutely no other school or daycare that I would have put him in. And no other faculty that I would trust him more with.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Things I don't want to forget

Everyone says that as children get older we forget about little things they do that we loved. A few days after Cayden was born I bought a journal. I've never been one to keep up with a journal (although I make my clients write in one several times daily! I know it is useful, I just can't get in the habit). My plan, though, was to write at least a few sentences every day to document things Cayden did that I thought were cute that Allan and I can look back at in 30 years and remember. Hopefully I will still have this blog then, because I have written maybe 5 pages over the past 6 months.

Cayden is still changing so fast. I thought it would have slowed down by now! Every day he looks a little different and lately his growth is very noticeable! Some mornings he wakes up and his pajamas are a little tight; he is literally growing overnight! I still think he looks like a gloworm, though, with his big eyes, little mouth, and a perfectly pointy chin. But his eyes are no longer blue.

I am amazed by his hands! It seems like he thinks everything in his little world is there for him to grab and touch and bring to his mouth. Yesterday he grabbed a co-worker's really really long hair and quickly brought it to his mouth. He made a face suggesting that he didn't like the taste of the hair, but it was as though he just had to chew on it anyway. He has started making this really serious face. It is adorable. Looking at his body, it looks like he is having the greatest time of his life. Well, he probably is having the greatest time of his life. Whether it is shaking a rattle, kicking his legs when he's laying down, bouncing his legs when he's sitting or standing, splashing in the tub, or swatting at his carseat toy rack thing that I can't think of the name of, his face is completely serious. I've heard my mom say that a baby is, "doing it like it's his job". I feel that way about Cayden! Like he doesn't want to splash his arms and legs in the bathtub, but he just has to.

Cayden still gets demanding and impatient. Sometimes he is perfectly content sitting on someone's lap and out of nowhere he starts screaming. Nothing is wrong with him, he just wants to stand or be held differently or look at himself in a mirror. Once he's been given what he wants, he makes a face that says he was entitled to it all along and should have been given it sooner. There's no, "Thanks" or "Wow, I really like being held like this". Instead, it's "You're doing your job by serving me. You are priviledged in having my satisfaction". I think I mentioned before that after his first day at school his teachers said he was "fussy". They now say they learned to just figure out what he wants and give it to him quicker. We may be in trouble as he gets older...

2 of the 3 pets have grown to love Cayden. Jersey, my cute little cat, wants nothing to do with him. She doesn't want anything to do with much. Kudos, the dog, at first didn't seem to care either way. Now she's been breaking into his room at night. Sometimes I think she's not quite all there and doesn't have any reason for doing things. But now it seems as though she's looking for him. Last night I heard her outside of my bedroom door and on the baby monitor walking around the house, then finally pushing his door open, walking around a little more, and falling asleep on the floor next to his crib. So I, of course, had to get up and kick her dirty self out of his clean room. Josie, the wierd dog-cat, is completely obsessed with Cayden. She insists on being everywhere he is. If she can't be next to him she finds her way onto one of his blankets or in his hamper and preferably in his crib. Meaning lots of extra laundry and dusting for me! I always find black and white Josie hairs everywhere that Cayden has been. It's cute, but annoying!

Oh, back to Cayden's hands! In addition to grabbing, he has started petting or rubbing (whichever is the correct term). When I hold him he looks at me and rubs my face. Or he massages my arm instead of grasping so tightly like he did last month. He rubs one way with his fingers palm side down, then in the opposite direction with the back side of his fingers. Really slow and gently, but deliberately. Like he had to put a lot of effort into making his hand and fingers move in that way.

Cayden is finally figuring out how to suck his thumb. He had been doing it upside down or using his whole fist and fingers, but he's now getting the hang of the art of thumb sucking. And he holds onto a blanket while doing it. It is SO cute! Why do all babies seem to hold onto a blanket or something soft in the same hand that they are sucking the thumb of? It is just adorable.

He is extremely ticklish. But he has to be in the right mood, of course. When he is in that mood, any touch makes him smile and squirm and giggle. Even using the nasal aspirator makes him laugh. Then he stares at the tickler with a huge grin, which says, "If you want me to keep smiling you better not stop tickling!". When he laughs his mouth opens wide before any sound comes out, he looks up out of the corner of his eyes, squeals loudly, then giggles like crazy while kicking his legs and chewing on his hands or waving them around. It seems like he almost can't take it anymore, then the giggle starts and he can't get enough. He has gotten a lot of fun to play with. Even for someone like me who doesn't play, he is irresistable. He also laughs while playing peek-a-boo, when he gets eskimo kisses, when his clothes are being changed (because of the tickle), and at himself when he's sitting in his swing.

Food wise, Cayden likes apples, sweet potatoes, banannas, and he recently ate part of a bananna/pineapple/coconut smoothie. He went crazy for squash the first time we gave it to him but last night he would have no part of it. We'll have to try again in a few days. The only things he has absolutely hated so far are peas and rice cereal.

I'm sure there are many more things I'm forgetting! Hopefully I'll have time to add them as I remember. Or maybe tonight I'll start journaling...unlikely...

By the way, it has now been exactly 4 weeks since our computer (and oven) stopped working! Once our electric situation gets worked out I'll add new pictures!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Rough Night...

     Warning: I'm not trying to be overly desrciptive or disgust anyone....if it happens, I'm sorry! Sunday night Allan and I were both horribly sick! I guess we both had the flu. We were eating dinner and Allan suddenly said he was done. He said he felt sick and had a headache and didn't want to look at food anymore. He took some Advil and spent the rest of the evening watching TV while I played with Cayden in another room. At 9pm it started. Allan's "sickness", as I'll call it, was violent and constant. I was feeding Cayden one last time before getting him ready for bed and noticed that I felt really really nauseous. I assumed that maybe I was kinda grossed out and ignored it. Cayden went to sleep with some difficulty, but finally fell asleep and I started getting myself ready for bed. I started feeling worse and was having flashbacks of morning sickness. Allan's sickness was still going strong, so I blamed that for my own ill feelings. At midnight it was on for me. Allan was STILL getting sick at that time and we were basically taking turns in the bathroom. We were sharing a bathroom to not wake Cayden up, so we were at times warning each other "I'm coming in!" as needed.
     Neither of us were really speaking other than giving those warnings, but I know we were both thinking, "If Cayden wakes up, we're screwed". We really would have been. I had a plan to call a friend to take care of Cayden if it were to happen, because I knew I wouldn't have been able to take care of him. It occurred to me that our closest friends live 30 minutes away and that it was the middle of the night, so my back up plan in case the call-a-friend plan didn't work out was to knock on a neighbor's door (which, I now realize wouldn't have worked out since they moved! We're obviously extremely unneighborly people!). Luckily, Cayden never woke up. He slept peacefully until 5:30am. By that time Allan was still not too good but was in better shape than I was, so he tended to Cayden and at 7:30 when Cayden woke up again I was somewhat able to take care of him.
     Allan and I stayed home Monday since we were both exhausted and having all sorts of body aches and chills and all that fun flu stuff, but we decided to take Cayden to school. He didn't need to be around us sick people and we wouldn't be able to play with him the way he wanted. So he went in to school and came home with a note saying he'd had a very happy day. He is SUCH a good baby!!! Not that he necessarily chose to sleep until 5:30am, but his doing so really saved all of us! AND the best part is that he never got sick himself! Someone said that we probably picked up daycare germs from him, but I am so very thankful that he never showed signs of illness. I love my little Cayden.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

First Food!



Lots of people have been asking when Allan and I plan to start giving Cayden solid foods.I am always amazed by how much controversy there is about everything with babies (and I'm sure with kids too!). Every book we read or person we talk to tells us something different about the "best" way to do things. For every little thing! About food, some places say to wait it out until his stomach is stronger, other places say to give him food earlier so he can get used to it. I'm learning more and more to just  figure it out on our own. It's much less confusing! We'd planned on waiting until 6 months. With his stomach being so sensitive, it made more sense to me to wait longer. But for the past few weeks, we noticed that if Cayden was sitting with one of us and we ate something he would stare and stare at the food. Then he started opening his mouth whenever we took a bite, then a few times he almost fell over while leaning in to look or grab at the food. So Allan decided it was time to try it out for real. So, of course, more conflicting advice...most people and books say to start with rice cereal because it is so bland. Some say to put it in a bottle to help him ease into it, some say that is really bad...the list of arguments over baby food goes on and on and on! So we did it our way. We gave him "Baby's 1st Apples".  I've read that starting with fruit means he won't ever like vegetables, but then again, I've also read that that is a myth. His first food was something interesting. I'm happy with our decision!
     He did such a great job! He opened his mouth and sucked in the apples and swallowed them, hardly making any mess at all! I only let Allan feed him a little bit since I was still nervous about his stomach. But he hasn't shown any sign of discomfort. Last night we fed him the rest of the jar and he loved it again! He happily kicked his little feet and looked like he was in awe of the yummy applesauce. He probably could have easily finished the entire jar at once if we'd let him. Next up to try is peas, sweet potatoes, and pears. Yum!


Monday, January 4, 2010

The holidays

Phew! We've had an exciting few weeks! December 18th was my parent's 36th wedding anniversary AND my mom graduated from UF making her officially a Gator! We went up to Gainesville to meet my dad, Eddie, Crystal, and Ella to see mom graduate and then we went out to dinner to celebrate.


The following day Cayden and I went with my parents to cut down their Christmas tree. It has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Also a tradition is for someone to bring up the time Eddie and I dragged the tree through dog poo....


This year, sadly, Eddie and his family could not join us. But I was happy when Allan showed up and surprised me with Hunter and Trent! This was the first year that I did not participate at all in the actual cutting of the tree. Allan and the boys did it all. Then the boys dragged the tree out all by themselves (actually Trent did most of it alone!). I can't believe how fast they've grown up! The next day we celebrated their birthdays: Hunter turned 5 on December 16th and Trent turned 4 on December 27th.

Allan and I have always celebrated Christmas together on December 23rd. Since it was a Wednesday Allan had to work, so by the time we were able to eat our "Christmas" dinner and open presents and watch Christmas movies Cayden was already sleeping. Here is us in front of our tree, with Kudos making an appearance behind us.
On Christmas Eve, again, Allan had to work. I spent the day trying to fit all of the Christmas gifts into Allan's truck. Then Cayden and I went to mass (his 1st time!), went to pick Allan up from work, and headed to Ocala to his mom's house where we ate dinner and opened Christmas presents. It has always worked out really great for us to be able to spend the evening there. And as a bonus, my parents joined us.

Cayden with Nonni, Grandma Bear, and Oma. Notice his outfit!! A rockin' Xmas!


       Cayden's Christmas jammies and Jen sporting a ribon headband                                    
                                                                                                  
Then we were off to Guy and Jen's house where we waited for Santa to drop off his incredible amount of toys! Hunter and Trent must have been really good this year! Here they are showing off some of their new things. Below are Allan and me with Cayden and then below and to the left (I can't figure out how to put pics where I want them) is Cayden being entertained by crazy Uncle Guy!

 Once the boys opened their gifts we left for my parents' house for more presents and food! Here is my dad playing with Cayden. Notice Cayden's knee. Cute!
December 26th we went to Gainesville to spend the day with Eddie, Crystal, and Ella! Unfortunately we didn't get to spend nearly as much time as we'd have liked. And also we didn't bring a camera! I am awaiting pictures to be emailed from that day and I'll add them then. We saw Ella's awesome new pink bike! What a big girl she is! She is so smart and pretty and funny! I really love that she is starting to recognize everyone. We don't get to see her that often so it is really fun that it takes her less time to warm up to us than it used to. And she loves Cayden! I can't wait until Eli is born! Cayden will finally have a playmate. These get togethers will be super fun then!
                   
Before heading back home we stopped by Jen's house one more time so she could take Cayden's 4 month pictures! As usual, she did a beautiful job! Here are some of my favorites.
                            

Then it was back to work for a few more days before it was time to celebrate the New Year! Chenel, Richard, and Baby Richard came over but left before midnight. Here are the two of us as it turned in to 2010 (and as the stupid camera died!). It was quite a year!                            

So far 2010 has already been exciting! January 1st Eddie, Crystal, and Ella came. We spend the day playing together and watching football. Both our teams won! My parents joined us and brought the traditional black-eyed peas and turnip greens dinner. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone and having them stay so long! My parents stayed until almost the end of the Gator game and Eddie and Crystal decided to spend the night! Cayden gladly gave up his room for them and his crib for Ella, although she didn't appreciate it as much as he wanted her to. Again it was a great time with them. We played this game, Apples to Apples. It didn't sound fun and I was hesitant to play, but it was great fun! I recommend it highly! We also got to witness as Ella is being potty trained. Everything she does, even sitting on the potty, is adorable! I LOVE her! Her little voice is so sweet. She is always saying, "Mommy I miss you! Daddy I miss you!". SO cute.  This weekend we'll be going to Ocala again to celebrate Allan's grandma's birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to go to Gainesville and see her again. We're so lucky to have such loving and supportive family who live so close. I hope to see everyone as often as possible this year!