Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Can you believe that Ryan gave me a Valentine's Day card? This is the first card I have EVER received from him. (I was giving him a hard time about a week ago). It was really sweet and fitting. He also bought me a pint of my favorite ice cream - Haagen-Diaz Waffle Cone. Mmmmmmmmm... I bought him a a gift card to Starbucks. We typically do not exchange anything on Valentine's Day, but thought this year we would do something small and thoughtful.

As promised I have a few videos of Caden to share, so enjoy!

"Gee, Gee"

When did my little boy grow up?

Doggy!

Caden has learned his second word, and it's not "da-da". Caden just LOVES his dog Mia. He is constantly pulling himself up on her and thinks it is the funniest thing in the world. Of course he forgets each time that Mia is going to walk away and he will fall down and go boom! Well, Ryan and I will carry Caden around "chasing" Mia. Basically we just walk behind Mia and Caden has a ball with it. We always say "Is that your doggy? Is that your doggy, Caden?" Now when we "chase" Mia with Caden he says "gee, gee, gee". Poor Daddy.. his son says mama and doggy before da-da. It is so cute! I am going to try and catch it on video this weekend for kicks.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned Little Einsteins before, but Caden loves that cartoon. His favorite is Annie. He always gets a big grin on his face when she is on the screen. He is already crushing on the girls. He was watching an episode the other night when I was getting dinner ready. There was a tune playing that sounded kind of sad. All the sudden Caden starts crying in the middle of the living room. I ran over to him and rubbed his back and he just leaned into me crying. Poor kiddo! Already emotional like his mama. Haha.

Here is a picture of him sitting in the living room watching his show. Doesn't he look uber tiny in our living room? (which mind you, is not that big at all).

Here he is being all independent playing with his toys

And by the way, all that white stuff outside has melted - FINALLY! I'm sure we'll get snow again before Spring though. It's still only February.

Winter Winter Go AWAY!

This winter is really starting to get to me lately. Maybe that is the reason for feeling so blah and so incredibly exhausted these days. I'm so excited for Spring and Summer when we can be outside. We have a park across the street that I am anxiously awaiting to take Caden to. All we have been doing is sitting at home and feeling couped up. It is such a chore to get Caden all bundled up to go somewhere. We switched Caden to his big boy car seat about 2 weeks ago and we all love it so much more. Caden seems comfy and Mommy's back doesn't hurt (as much). Since the car seat is always in the car, this means warming up the car a bit longer in the mornings too.

I've been trying to keep busy around the house and I'm still learning my new camera. I bought a Camera Powershot SX110 (whatever that last piece means). The quality should be better for such a nice camera, but I have no clue what settings to use. (still working through the manual here!)

Caden's been doing awesome. I've actually been able to get him from 5 bottles to 3 1/2 bottles a day. He seems to be adapting well. Before I know it I'll be writing about weaning him from the bottle. I still feel like he was just born yesterday and I'm in complete amazement when I see how much he has grown. He is all over the place crawling and getting into everything. He just recently learned how to open cupboards and the doors to our entertainment center. Ryan will be putting locks on those and the cupboard with all our cleaning supplies this weekend.

I don't believe that Caden has much interest in walking yet. He can walk if you are holding his hands, but most of the time he pulls down so he can crawl. It just feels safer to him. I am in no means rushing him to walk either. I hear it's even more work then.

Here are a few recent pictures of my big boy! (from the new camera too!)

Mr. Crabby and Mr. Turtle - Caden's favorite bathtime toys

LOVE this face!

Watching his favorite "Little Einsteins"

Caden's 9 Month Appointment & Vaccines

Caden had his 9 month appointment today. He is doing awesome! Caden weighs 20lbs even. He is 27 3/4 inches long and his head circumference was 18 inches. Caden loves hammin' it up for the doctor and showing off. He has been screaming, but in a cute way. I'll scream at him and he repeats it back. The doctor was really impressed that he was imitating me already.

The doctor thinks Caden is getting too much formula for eating 3 meals a day. Every day is different, but it could average between 24-31 oz. She said he should only be getting 3 bottles a day. One in the morning, noon and night. That's fine if Caden could handle that, but the feeding schedule I have him on is working. I can definitely try, but I'm just not sure how he will handle only 3 bottles a day.

Let me preface that I am 100% for vaccinations. I believe that if we do not vaccinate these diseases will come back. I just don't agree with the amount of vaccines they want to give at once, which is why we chose a delayed schedule. I talked with the pediatrician about our concerns with the MMR. Ryan and I have been researching this vaccine along with all the others. I know the media plays a big part in the controversy with Autism, but putting that aside it still scares the heck out of us. Have you ever read the ingredients in the MMR? I explained to her that we will not be giving him this vaccine when he turns one and that we want to delay it until he is 2 or possibly 3 years old. He is not in day-care, so his risk of catching the measles, mumps or rubella is very slim. She was on board with our decision 100%, which made me very happy.

My camera is currently out of commission. I'm off to get a new one tomorrow, so I'll update later with pictures.

Caden's Nursery

Have I mentioned that my favorite time of the day is feeding Caden his last bottle for the night? I look forward to this moment each and every day. After his bath I get his bottle ready and turn on his night light in his room. His air purifier is turned on along with his favorite lullaby CD. The room is mostly dark and so peaceful with the humming sound from the air purifier and the soft music in the background. He lays on the boppy pillow pulled tightly against me and I feed him his bottle while rocking in the glider. Most of the time he stare right at me while I'm feeding him with those sleepy eyes, but sometimes the shadows of his stuffed animals get his attention too.

After this bottle I pull him on my chest and he is curled in the fetal position with his head resting on my chest. We rock back and forth with my cheek against his forehead and I sing to him. Sometimes he'll fall asleep, but mostly he'll just cuddle with me. It's our moment. I feel at such peace that it actually brings tears to my eyes at times. I think of how blessed I am to have this little angel in my arms. I am so grateful for my lil man. I love him with all my heart.

As I was feeding Caden his bottle last night I was reflecting back on what his room used to look like before he was born and all of the work we put into his nursery. His room used to be our computer room. It only consisted of the computer desk, chair, futon and a light. His closet was full of Ryan's clothes and random junk. We still had the original paint from when we moved in and the carpet was all worn down. We slowly transitioned this computer room to Caden's nursery. What a difference. I remembered each step we took turning his room around. I remember moving all of Ryan's clothes upstairs to our bedroom in *my* closet. That meant I had to clean out *my* closet to make room - what a pain. I remembered when Ryan was sleeping one day after work I decided to paint Caden's closet. That took over 2 hours. I was so careful and I think I did a pretty good job. Really, though - how could you mess up a closet? The molding came next, then the ceiling and finally the walls. We painted the walls Labor Day weekend. I remember when I was doing the trim around the windows looking outside at the stray mama cat and her two kittens laying out in the parking lot enjoying the sunshine. We finally bought new carpet a month and half before Caden arrived. This mean we could finally put up his furniture. Ryan and I put together his crib (with Mia's help of course). Ryan managed to put his dresser together. His room slowly came together after the baby shower and it was perfect. I still remember moving into our condo 4 1/2 years ago... I told Ryan that this will be the room that our first child will sleep in and never knew how attached I would get to Caden's nursery. When we do eventually move out of our condo I will be so incredibly sad to leave his room behind...................

I did not start uploading pictures to my PC until just before Caden was born, so I do not have any before pictures. Although, I do have the after pictures to share.


Here is Mia helping her daddy build her brother's crib..



His mobile broke, so that is gone. It would be down by now anyway since he is standing up in his crib.





We have brown curtains up over the windows now - the sun sets on this side and it was always a pain trying to put Caden to bed at night with all that light!