long overdue post....

Adi-Em, Adole, Baby, Baybole, Adi, Adi-Cakes, Adisyn - all the names we have for you sweetpea, although Caden came up with a few of them too. Our sweet lil peanut is blossoming into a such a sweet lovable girl. Her newest milestone - WALKING. At 13 months she just took off and she LOVES to walk. She will fall on her bum here and there and ends up crying. She cannot stand on her feet without holding onto something. Either we have to run over and help her back up or she'll crawl to the furniture or toy to pull herself up. That is all the crawling we've been seeing in the last week.



A few words she says or at least tries to say "Hi" (it's a drawn out hiiiiii), "Ha" for hot - and she whispers it. She says "dada" for daddy and doggy. She is trying to say fish, but can only get out the "fff" sound. I'm honestly not in any hurry for her to talk. Her brother does enough talking as it is.

Adisyn had her one year check up at 13 months old. She only weighs 16.8 lbs and isn't on the charts. She eats like food is going out of style, so there is no problem there. She is also FINALLY sleeping through the night. I do have to take her back at 15 months for a weight check. I'm concerned she may not gain much now that my four-legged mover is now a two-legged mover.

Teeny or not we love our lil girl and she melts are heart every day. She lights up our world and we are so grateful for her.

As for lil man, Caden..... he is as busy as ever. I think we are all getting cabin fever and just waiting for Spring. This boy loves to be outside and I can't wait to spend our summer days in the backyard (with a fence!) this year. Caden will be in his glory. My mom says he is a lot like I was as a child... he loves to hear himself talk. He is like the energizer bunny that never stops. I love hearing his stories - true or not - he is quite amuzing and truly amazing!

I believe it's been 3-4 weeks, but Caden is officially binkie free. Ryan took him to the store for some groceries one evening. They came home without Caden's lovey or binkie. Of course I asked Ryan to go back out to find Caden's lovey (which he did), but we jumped on the opportunity to tell Caden that was his last binkie and he lost it at the store. Surprisingly he didn't put up a fuss and he has been doing great. The only downside is that he has been fighting his naps ever since. It's sporadic when we can get him to nap. If he does nap, he is up the next morning around 5:30am... so I guess it could be coincidental. Maybe he truly doesn't need them anymore. (Even if Mommy and Daddy do need them.)

Caden and Adisyn still do not get along much. Caden mostly picks on Adi and she screams and hits back. I'm not sure what to do, but to be consistent about teaching them to play nice and not hit or push each other. There are rare moments when I do catch some sisterly-brotherly love, but when I do it just melts my heart.

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Until next time.....

2 1/2 year well visit

We finally made it to Caden's 2 1/2 year well visit that I have been dreading (since he needed vaccines). Let me first say that I am SO proud of Caden. I underestimated him once again. He was unbelievably good for the Dr. Eva and the nurse. He did shed one tear until Dr. Eva asked him to lay on his back, so she could check his tummy. Caden is very particular where he lays down at - he doesn't like laying on the carpet or couch or any hard service.

He weighs 28 1/2 lbs and and is 35 inches tall. I knew he was getting taller since his 2T pants are almost getting short on him. Dr. Eva said he is growing in the 25th percentile for height and weight, but he doesn't look tall. Probably because he has a "big head" is what she said. LOL

His ears look great, which is a bonus too! I was VERY nervous about how he would do getting vaccines since he hasn't had any in over a year. Every time he went to the doctor since his 2 year well visit he was either sick or had an ear infection. He received the HIB, Prevnair, Hep A and Flu shot. Yes, 4 different shots. He cried, but when it was done he was over it. Later in the day he kept holding his knees, rubbing them and kissing them. Silly boy.

He has come a long way at the doctors from previous visits and I'm so proud of him.

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Adisyn had an appointment for vaccines as well. It turns out every time I take her for well visits/vaccine visits she is always sick. That night she woke up every 45 minutes to an hour ALL night long. I knew something wasn't right. It turns out she had a very red throat AND an ear infection. Poor girl. Low and behold they are both sick with colds again. Good news is that Adi finally broke 15lbs. She is 15lbs and 8oz to be exact.

We go back in 2 weeks for a recheck on ears and hopes to get caught up on some vaccines.

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On the house front - we are moved in. Finally. It was supposed to be one of the happiest weeks as I was looking forward to so much. It turned out to be one of the hardest weeks of my life. I won't post the details because I never want to look back and feel what I felt last week again. Ever again. Thankfully things are looking up and I'm in a much better place today.

happy halloween!

I'm a little late posting Halloween pictures, but I guess it's better late then never. We had a great time on Halloween at "Auntie Cole and Uncle Matt's" house. Caden played outside in the garage for an hour before trick or treating playing with play-dough with Daddy. I swear Caden would live outside no matter how cold it is out there. I know that Daddy really enjoyed his time with him as he hasn't seen much of either kids, since he is has been working so hard on our house.

Thankfully I snapped some pictures of Adisyn in her Halloween outfit for the day since I majorly failed in getting a picture of her in pumpkin costume.

Cheesing it up for the camera as usual.

She does NOT like socks on. JUST like her brother.

and in the mouth they go like everything else....



Caden dressed up like a fire fighter. I had a very hard time getting that coat to velcro over his winter vest. He looked like the kid in the Christmas Story. In fact, he kept trying to lift his arms saying "Mama, I'm stuck". I was cracking up needless to say.

Caden and his cousins who had GREAT costumes. Caden happily followed them around the block skipping the whole way while he ate his tootie roll pop. He did go up to quite a few houses, but was more interested in running after Ethan and Christian <3

Daddy and Caden before going out.

Adisyn turned into a pink pumpkin :) She was a trooper and went all the way around the block too. Although, she was ready to pass out in my arms by the time we made half way around the block.

Happy Halloween!!!

happy 2 1/2 years old caden!

Is he really 2 1/2 already?! Crazy. Just Crazy. I still remember the day I gave birth to him like it was yesterday. That day was just the beginning of how our lives would change forever. Who knew that such a tiny (now young tot) could teach you what life is really about. You learn to appreciate the small things and life and I'm so grateful to this day that God chose me to be Caden's mom.

Our little man is really a little man now. He talks up a storm. In fact, he never stops talking - in full sentences now. He recently started reciting his ABC's and does an excellent job doing so. He can count to 10 no problem and does pretty well up to 20. He tends to miss a few digits in the teens, but it actually quite cute.

A few other tidbits.....

......he still loves his "wubbey"
......and binkie
..........he is particular about his pillow case cover (it must be soft tshirt material and grey)
......he LOVES lemonade
............he is still very picky with his foods
.......he loves Dora, Diego and Blues Clues
...............he is a cuddler, a lovebug, and still asks to be rocked sometimes
......he loves jellybeans and pumpkins
.........he misses his Mia Pia
......he still naps once a day (typically 2 1/2 - 3 hours) and sleeps through the night
........he kicks a ball with only his left foot
..............he LOVES to be outside
...........he is as cute as ever and his parents are forever proud of him



He also sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I was able to capture it on video, but he got a little distracted before he quit.

recovering....

We are finally emerging from the week of hell. Yes, the week of hell. Both of my little ones came down with the stomach flu last week and apparently it was inevitable that I would catch it too. Not. Fun.

Adisyn had diarrhea last Sunday and threw up once during the night. All seemed well on Monday minus Adisyn having more diarrhea. Later Monday night Adisyn threw up again and by 4am Tuesday morning Caden was throwing up. It appeared to be a 24 hour bug for both, and by Wednesday night it was all over for me and my mother-in-law. I was sick for 12 hours straight through the night. I think I got the worst of it and I'd rather have the worst of it than my children.

The downside of me getting so sick and dehydrated is that I lost most of my milk supply. I would not have stressed so much about it if my stubborn little girl would just take a bottle. I would have come to terms with it and our nursing days would have been over. I've been determined to get the supply back up and I'm currently taking a prescription called Regulin, in addition to taking TONS of Fenugreek to build up my supply. I'm hopeful. I have to be hopeful. I NEVER want to see my daughter screaming and crying at me because she is not getting enough milk. It literally broke my heart in two to see her struggle so badly. We need to pull through for 3 more months. We've made it this far and I'm hopeful we can make it just a bit longer.

I've spent so much time with my babies and worrying so much about Adisyn and my love for her has quadrupled. Who even knew that was possible?!

Her smile is so darn contagious. She is all smiles especially during bath time no matter how she is feeling. This girl LOVES her bath.

That is until it's time to be washed and bath time is over.... but I still love that face!

playing together....

Interaction between Caden and Adisyn usually consist of Caden yelling at Adi to "weeb my toys alone baby" or don't pull my shirt, blanket, lovey or what have you.

Hand up saying "Stop it baby!"



and leaving her all upset wondering why her brother is always yelling at her.



I was so excited to this weekend to capture some playful interaction between the two of them... or so I thought.......

Now that Adisyn is on the move she made her way over to Caden.

"Hey there big brother - whatcha up to?"

"Dora fruit snacks! See baby"

"I'm outta here. You can't have my Dora fruit snacks baby."



"Alright, I'll taunt you with them. How's this baby?"

and recovering she's outta there....

So in reality he was just teasing her, but it was still cute nonetheless.

getting over the sickies....

We had a house full of sick babies last week and I'll have to thank my darling husband for that one. It is very possible Caden picked it up somewhere else, but Ryan was the only sick person they had been around. Thankfully Caden is a trooper when it comes to a common head cold. He handles it very well and goes on about his day as normal. Not even two days after Caden started to show symptoms my little peanut came down sick too. As a little baby she didn't handle it too well and was up most of the night for 3 nights in a row. I finally gave in and gave her some benadryl to dry her up and help her sleep better. I did miss two days of work to stay home with Adisyn. In the picture above she wasn't feeling well, but you wouldn't know. She covers it up pretty well with her all her cuteness.

Daddy came to visit the first night Adisyn was sick and she enjoyed some cuddle time with him. This picture just melts my heart.



Finally both are on the mend and my mother-in-law and me seem to have escaped this cold, which I am so thankful for.

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As of this weekend we officially have an (army) crawler! I cannot believe my little girl is on the move. I do have to say she made her way around just fine with rolling, but now she is really on the move. Grandma snapped this video of her crawling. You can see how she tries so hard to get on all fours and then settles for the army crawl.

playing ketchup again....

My lil man. Oh, my sweet lil man. He gives me a run for my money some days. He is just the busiest boy I know. Even when he is doing a relaxing activity such as making Mama color pictures he is still squirming, bouncing and talking up a storm. He sure does keep me going with his busy self.

His newest skill is learning colors in Spanish. He currently knows: azuel, rojo, verde, blanco, and amarillo. (Blue, red, green, white, and yellow) He is so proud to show how well he knows his colors in Spanish. I often wonder how long he'll keep this with him. I guess as long as we keep teaching and being repetitive he'll remember, right?

It's hard to believe he is almost 2 1/2 years old. Where does the time go? I still remember the day I gave birth to him like it was yesterday. Some nights while laying in bed (next to him as we are currently sharing a room at Grandma's house) I replay being pregnant with him and the day of his birth. One of the happiest days of my life.

I haven't been able to capture a good smiling picture of lil man in a while. I can only get a cheesy grin with his eyes closed..

or with a mouth full of food..........

or crying...........

I'm sure Adisyn will look back at these pictures wondering what the heck is wrong with her big brother. Well, sweetie - I think he is just jealous since you are the baby and he doesn't like you touching his "stuff". He does love you though. In his own way and I know once he is older he'll be very protective of you.

"Whatcha cryin' like that for, brother? Mama just wants a picture of us together."

"Oh my. Are you for real? Just smile for once silly brother"

Adisyn clearly has no problem with Caden. She LOVES her big brother. She is always watching him and wanting to play and interact with him. It's simply adorable. My favorite is in the morning when I pull her out of the play yard and she looks right at the bed looking for Caden. When she finds him a huge smile spreads across her face. It melts my heart every time.

Adisyn is still doing well on table foods. Her all time favorite is avacados, cheese, bananas and graham crackers. Two of her favorites does not help her constipation issues, so we don't do them very often. Since her transition to table foods I've had to give her some suppositories and now a daily does of Miralax. We continue to try the sippy cup and it is getting better even if I'm the one holding it. She is starting to swallow her juice/water rather than spitting it out or attempting to "chew" it.

I have a feeling within the next two months she'll be crawling. She is trying so hard to get up on those hands and knees and she can lift her upper body off the floor like it is nobody's business. For now rolling around gets her anywhere she is determined to go for the moment.

I simply adore this girl.

and so does everyone else.

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We bought our new house Memorial weekend and it's now mid September. The kids and I are comfortably living at Grandma and Papa's house. We are anxiously awaiting the move in day, which is not too far away. Maybe one more month or less. Ryan started a new job that we hoped would have given more time to work on the house (and more family time once the house is done), but it's actually done quite the opposite. Some changes have taken place at his job, so hopefully in the next few weeks his hours won't be as long. Fingers crossed.

continued success!

We have continued success with soft table foods for Miss Adi-Em! She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES table foods. Forget the purees! I can't get over how well she does either. She does amazingly well gumming the food before swallowing and it's awesome to see her eating so well.

Yesterday at the sitter's house she ate almost a whole banana, rice cakes, frozen puree cubes with BM mixed in, and a little bit of her watermelon. In the evening I gave her some cheerios and she was gobbling them up! She can't use her pincer grasp, so we have to hold the cheerio up to her mouth and she (very eagerly) grabs your hand to pull close to her mouth to get that cheerio in her mouth.

Grandma Lori's dog, Charlie, was hoping to get some cheerios too!

I found a great website that gives some great ideas on soft table foods to try for BLW (baby-led weaning). BLW just means that you are skipping purees and going straight to soft table foods. I've also heard that babies who choose the route of BLW are often less pickier as a toddler. Only time will tell if that applies to Adi-Em. I'm so excited about all this and just want to try everything, but she can only try one new food every 3-4 days.

Wholesomefoods

Here's to hoping Adisyn will sleep better once she is in a routine of eating more solids.

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As for my other light of my life, Caden ~ he's doing just awesome (not in the food category) - just in general. He continues to talk more every day and somedays he just blows my mind when he rambles off a sentence with words I didn't even know he knew. He is starting to use connector words as well.

My recent favorite is when I ask him a question.. "What do you want to do today?" and he replies with "Ummmmm" and then proceeds to tell me what he wants to do. I can ask him what he did during the day while I was at work and he'll repeat a few things like what he ate or what toys he played with. We can actually have a conversation with each other. I love it.

Caden is a little dare-devil. He fits the description of an Aries to the T. He loves playing "super-Caden", which is when his Daddy holds him out in a flying position so to speak, and zips him through the house as fast as he can go. He also likes to jump off the couch with someone catching him. He jumps off the couch with not an ounce of fear and total trust that you'll catch him. I have a feeling he is going to make my heart drop a million times throughout his life.

A few weeks ago he was off playing quietly in the kitchen. It was too quiet. I knew something was going on. It was THAT quiet. I walked into the kitchen to find he had shaken his milk box ALL over the place. The floor, rug, wall, blinds and himself were covered in milk. Stinker.Of course I stopped to take a picture before cleaning up.

They both have there good days and bad days. The bad days are either due to typical 2 year old tantrums, teething or fussiness after vaccinations. Overall, they are both great children and I'm so blessed to be able to wake up with them every day and I will continue to count each day as a blessing no matter what their mood they might be in that day or how much sleep they allow me to get. They are my heart. My world. My life.

tidbits.....

Adisyn....

...is rolling around like crazy
...still needs support when sitting
...is not consist with eating solids
...still fights the bottle
...wakes up 3-5 times per night
...has a smile that lights up the room
...loves her big brother
...is a daddy's girl
...melts our heart every day with her cuteness

Caden....

...is talking in full sentences
...can tell you a few things he did during the day if asked
...had tubes put in his ears last Wednesday
...continues to throw 2 year old temper tantrums
...is still a picky eater
...still uses his binkie
...is polite (when he really wants something)
...loves his baby sister
...amazes his family with how smart he is

6 month well visit and ear recheck....

Adisyn had her 6 (and a half) month well visit yesterday. She has gained about 2lbs and grew 3 inches since 4 months. She is now a whopping 13lbs 12oz and 25 1/2 inches long. She is such a little squirt. Surprisingly she is a half inch longer than Caden was at 6 months only he was 3lbs heavier.

She received her dTap vaccine and barely cried. We'll return at 7 and 8 months for a few more. I've never agreed with giving too many vaccines at once, but with Adisyn I'm spacing them out a bit more than I would have with Caden. Her legs always get red and she is oh-so-ever crabby for almost a week after receiving vaccines. I will say that she has been great so far after yesterday's vaccine.

We talked about Adisyn and her stubborness when it comes to taking the bottle and eating solids. She will take the bottle just great for her grandma, but puts up a huge struggle for anyone else. As for solids - forget it. She wants NOTHING to do with them. The peditrician's advice on the bottle struggle was for me to stop nursing all together and only give her the bottle. Although I don't necessarily agree with her especially because she stated she is not concerned with Adisyn's growth (which she is finally on the charts in the 25th percentile!) I may start to wean her over the next couple of months. I am going to give her a few more weeks to see if she starts taking the bottle a bit more. If not, then I may start the process. I'm very proud to have EBF her for 6 months. I do have approximately 200 ounces of frozen milk too.

She really did not offer much advice on the struggle with solids. When we go back around 7 months I am going to request a different doctor that we have seen before to get another opinion of both our issues with the bottle and solid foods. Until then we will just continue to try and offer and it's Adisyn's job to eat.

As for my little man.... he had his ears recheck and they are still cloudy, but now with fluid. His ENT appointment is scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday. I'm actually looking forward to this appointment for 1.) a second opinion by a specialist and 2.) to discuss next steps. If it turns out that he will need tubes, than that is what we'll do. I just feel so bad to put him through anything that might scare him. As any mother I would rather go through it for him.

my loves.....

My first born.....

My second born....

My heart.

ketchup....

I feel like there is so much catching up to do. So many things I want to record about Caden, Adisyn and life in general. It's finding the time that is hard these days. Both of them wake up anywhere between 6-7:30am and each morning is pretty much unpredictable. This morning Adisyn woke up at 5:30am and Caden slept until near 8am. For both, this is a very unusual morning. Adisyn generally naps within 2-3 hours after waking for about an hour. I take that time to get caught up on laundry, cleaning, eating, and spending some time with the little man. That one hour goes by incredibily fast.

Caden will spend most of his mornings playing with toys and watching his current favorite, Kai-Lan. Lunch time starts around 11:30-noon and both babes are sleeping by 12:30pm. I will have to say I've been very lucky at getting both of them to nap at the same time and very close to the same length of their naps. It gives me time to do chores and/or rest. I guess I could use that time to blog, but I really have not felt up to it lately. This schedule goes for only the days I'm off work. I've been off work quite a bit lately between our vacation back in June and the week before and after the 4th. I'm starting to feel like a SAHM, and I'm really enjoying it. I wish so badly that this could be permanant. Maybe in time.

In my attempts to catch up on the last month I will do so with some great photos!

The day before we left Myrtle Beach was of course the day Caden really opened up to his Grandma B. The last day we were the pool was closed as well due to someone having an accident. We were all really bummed. Caden said the whole walk back to the house "water park broken, water park broken" in his pitiful sad voice.



We fixed the water park problem by turning on the sprinklers in the backyard and Caden was in his glory.




Adisyn took a few days to open up to Grandma B, but when she did she was all smiles for her from that point forward.



Our first day at the pool Caden wanted NOTHING to do with his green arm floaties. That was until he took a jump off the step in the kiddie pool and went under. My brave boy did not shed one tear when he came up. I think he was too stunned. After I explained to him again that if he wore his floaties he wouldn't fall under water and he could in fact float. He never took them off again and had a blast floating in the big pool with mama.



We came back to reality and packed up and moved within the week of getting home. The fourth of July came and went so quickly.



We had some good laughs watching five grown men put two slip-n-slides together and acted 10 years old again. Good times!



Our little shining sparkler with her two uncles and Daddy.

Can I just take a moment to say how much I love this guy? He is so amazing. He has blessed me with the two most beautiful children. He is working so hard to make our new home perfect for his family. He is a natural with his children. Both Caden and Adisyn just adore him just as much I as do, and I'm so lucky to be his wife.

I love photo shoots with my little ones. Adisyn has more of them these days then Caden since she is not mobile. She is just so beautiful and takes my breath away every day. I see a lot of Caden in her, but I think she resembles her Daddy most of all. She is already a Daddy's girl and she has him wrapped around her sweet long fingers already.

I was pretty lucky yesterday when Caden actually let me take some "cheesy" pictures of him while he snacked on his lunch.

He cracks me up!

I could just eat this face right up. Caden is just amazing. He is too smart for his own good. He communicates so well and is talking in 4-5 word sentences. While we were driving to the new house this morning to let out Mia he said "Mama, stop the car - need help". How on earth did he know I needed to stop the car to help him? Amazing.



While he still isn't over the moon about his sister he does show some brotherly love at least once a day. (I won't mentioned that he is actually telling me the color of buttons on her shirt)

Caden had a recheck again yesterday. He has had a stubborn ear infection since May. After three rounds of antibiotics it is mostly cleared up. The doctor said it's still cloudy and wants to take another peak in three weeks when I take Adisyn for her 6 month check up. She said if it looks the same (cloudy) then she is referring him to an ENT. Good news ~ Caden gained a pound in just over a month. He is now 27lbs.