Holidays and the NY

Holidays are fast approaching and will soon be gone. We will be spending Thanksgiving with Ryan's family and our tickets are bought to fly out to see my parents for Christmas. I'll be leaving first and Ryan will follow a few days later. Thankfully I only have one flight with Caden alone. He was pretty good last time, so I'm not too concerned.

I'm pretty excited about the new year. My best friend Nina is due March 2nd. I keep telling her to enjoy all the sleep she can get right now. Ha! She has NO idea. You can never be prepared no matter what anyone tells you. That is what I learned. Caden will be one in April. It feels like April is right around the corner, but we still have 6 months of winter left in Michigan so that part makes it feel a little longer. Ryan's cousin is getting married next October and if all is going well Ryan and I will be trying for our second baby after her wedding. There is NO way I am standing up in another wedding pregnant. I was so exhausted at Nina's wedding. We ended up leaving early and I feel like I missed a lot.

Caden is doing GREAT! He is still getting up on all fours and rocking more and more. He is still waking up once a night though. I want to let him CIO, but with me working it's just easier to nurse him and put him back to sleep. We've been working all week on getting him to fall asleep without being rocked and I think we're on to something. In fact, he kicks and jerks his legs if I try to rock him now. I'll rock him at night while we say our prayers as he is struggling and then lay him down with his lovey. I'll pat his butt for a minute and walk out of the room and he falls asleep all on his OWN! Yay!

Yesterday I took down his swing. We couldn't turn it on anymore because he would sit straight up and hold on to the tray like he was on a roller coaster. I didn't want him falling forward out of it. I didn't want to pin him down with the harness straps either. I know he would have hated that. It was bittersweet. I actually had tears in my eyes because he is growing just too fast. He cannot use his bumbo seat anymore either - crawls right out of it!

Mia and Caden are becoming friends. He smiles every time Mia gives him any attention. Last weekend I made Mia sit by Caden for a photo shoot. She prefers to love Caden on her own terms, but I caught this on camera. It makes my heart melt every time I see Caden's smile when Mia is near him.

Happy 7 months!!

Happy 7 months Caden!

I can't believe you are 7 months already. It seems like I just gave birth to you yesterday. I look back at your newborn pictures in amazement of how much you have grown. You are sitting up all on your own, army crawling (and boy can you move!), getting up on all fours and rocking - I'm sure you'll be crawling in no time and keeping us busy.

Mommy and Daddy are SO incredibly in love with you. You amaze us each and every day and we thank God for the miracle that you are. Mommy and Daddy had no idea how much you would change our perspective on life and how truly amazing it really is. Thank for that.

Love you bunches!

Mommy and Daddy

XOXO

My First!

It's not as perfect as I would like it, but hey not bad for my first one.


Edit: I made one more :)

Crawling! We are almost there!

Caden just started getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. Crawling is just around the corner!

Here is a video of his attempt to crawl. I couldn't get a video of him on all fours, but he does the army crawl pretty good!

Thursday Nights

Thursday nights seem to be Caden's night to sleep. Last night he slept for 10 straight hours! Whoo hoo!! Last Thursday he did the same and two Thursdays before that he slept 8 straight hours. I actually slept last night too! I was exhausted.. the week just caught up with me so I went to bed as soon as Caden was asleep.

I wish he would keep this up.... He has only slept through the night 5 times in his little life so far.

Yay for sleep!