happy 1/2 birthday peanut!

Our little peanut is 6 months old today. Sheesh! Where did THAT time go?! I've actually been looking forward to her 6 month mark for quite some time. While I do miss the sleeping baby on my chest I love seeing my little girl smile in response to the people who love her and she is starting to interact so much more these days. Adisyn just LOVES getting into anything within her reach. She is so curious and loves her toys and watching her brother play so very much.

Adisyn has skipped the rolling over from back to belly and moved right to sitting up assisted and unassisted for a short period of time. I'm guessing within a month she'll be sitting up unassisted quite well ~ at least from what I remember with Caden.

6 months and she still refuses her solids. We have tried cereal, apples, pears, bananas, and green beans. Total fail on all. She does like to suck on watermelon through her mesh feeder. She doesn't have much interest in a sippy cup either. Adi will only take a bottle from her grandma char-char, but prefers to nurse over anything. I don't see myself weaning her from nursing anytime soon at this point. Adisyn is quite the opposite of Caden, but maybe this means she won't be a picky eater when she is 2 (like her brother). One can only hope, right?

Although she has been teething like crazy she still hasn't popped one just yet. You can see the top and bottom buldging like they are ready to come through.

Everyone just adores this little girl - just like her brother Caden. Her daddy is just smitten over her and she is already a daddy's girl. Her face lights up the minute she sees his face or hears his voice. Absolutely adorable to see.

Mommy and Daddy just adore you to pieces, Adi-Em. You are the BEST surprise we have yet to receive. You complete our heart and lives. Love you my little peanut with all my heart and more.

XOXO

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.

our life.... right now

Chaotic. That is the only word I can use to explain our life right now. We have officially moved out of our condo – closing is today. The kids and I are staying at Grandma Char Char’s (as Caden likes to call her). Ryan and Mia are staying in our new house that is currently under construction, and our cat, Belle, is staying with a friend of a friend who may or may not give her a furr-ever home.

It took 2 ½ days to pack and 2 days for Ryan and his brother to move everything to a storage unit. Thankfully Ryan can now focus only on his job and the remodel of the new home. I already miss him and we’ve only spent 3 nights away from him already. Yesterday I only saw him for less than 30 seconds when he came to his mom’s house to grab a key to the new house (he had left his at the condo and had a truck load of items to take to the new house – which is now scattered about and in the way of him working.)

Caden is favoring his grandma over me when I discipline him and looks at her to save him when it’s time for bed. He is throwing a screaming fit when we walk in the room and consequently wakes up his sleeping sister. Once I get him calmed down I have to nurse Adisyn back to sleep. I’ve been falling sleep before Caden as he would prefer to stare at the ceiling and rub his nose with his lovey. Adisyn does not seem to notice the change. She is her normal, happy, fussy, teething self. Of course she is too little to understand anyway. Adisyn has not met any new milestones recently with the exception of her extreme interest in toys. When she gets mobile I’m going to have even fuller hands. She is so close to rolling over, but hasn’t done it quite on her own yet.

This morning I stopped at the new house to let Mia out. Poor girl. She is so stressed. I could hear her whining when I pulled up. She destroyed the blanket in her crate and peed in there. She never does this. After 20 minutes of coaxing her I finally was able to get her to pee outside and drink some water. She has not eaten in almost 2 days. I know this is an adjustment for her too, and I feel so bad.

My poor husband has been working his butt off between work, the new house and moving everything out of the corner. He has lost a lot of weight through all this and barely gets any sleep. He has a lot of pressure on him right now to get our house livable, so our family can be together again. I’ve never seen him work so hard before with little complaint. He is doing an amazing job on the house and it’s going to look gorgeous when it is completed. Before and after pictures will come once the house is finished.

The new home has 3 bedrooms, so if we can get Caden to sleep in his own room – EVERYONE will be sleeping in their own room including Adisyn. It’s a ranch, so no more stairs! We have a fenced in backyard and I’ll save 4 hours in drive time a week! That is HUGE.

It will all come together. It will all come together. Everyone will adjust.

Adisyn – if you ever read you mama’s blog and wonder why I didn’t blog as much when you were young…. It’s not because I didn’t have anything to say, it’s that life was VERY busy when you were born. I try to spend my time WITH you and your brother and NOT on the computer. Having two children makes any “mama-time” very limited, but I don’t mind because I love you and your brother with all my heart.

happy five months adi!

Little Miss Adisyn is 5 months old today although she still looks like she is 3-4 months old. We celebrated today in the sun at Grandma's pool.



All of us have been enjoying our time at the pool, playground, and the beach over the last few days. All the fun in the sun wore Adisyn out a couple nights ago and she slept through the night - from 8:30pm to 7:00am! I checked on her twice when I woke up to make sure she was still breathing. She has not slept more than a 3 hour stretch in over 3 weeks now. It's going to be a little rough going back to work next week if she continues the every 3 hour wake ups as her sleeping through the night did not continue.

Adisyn is now officially in size 2 diapers and she is fitting in 3 month clothes perfectly. She can wear some 3-6 months, but only in Old Navy brand. She is still working on rolling over from back to belly. She does a great job getting on her side and tries so hard to pull herself to her tummy. We've recently graduated from swaddling at night to sleeping in a sleep sack. I do occassionally swaddler her for naps, but mostly if she is just fighting her naps. Adisyn mostly handle 2 1/2 hour wake times, but does fairly well up to 4 hours for the last stretch of the day. If she doesn't take a nap by 4:30pm she passes the window of opportunity and I have to keep her up in order to get her to bed at a decent hour.

Isn't she just the cutest?




Caden is just loving his time at the pool. He calls it the "water park". Our first day at the pool he wanted NOTHING to do with the frog arm floaties. The next day he played with a boy who had them on and they were jumping off the first step (in the kiddie pool). I told Caden he needed his arm floaties, so he would not go under water. Naturally he did not listen and he did go under. My brave boy did not cry, but he did put on his arm floaties. He learned he could float with them and was brave enough to go in the big pool with mama and grandma. He did not want either of us holding him and enjoyed floating/swimming around. It was too cute!



Can I just say this boy LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the ocean. He was just in awe of all the water and white waves. He wanted to keep on walking out and had no fear. We didn't stay too long since Adisyn needed to get home to eat. (She refuses to nurse when we are out and about.)

I'm looking forward to our summer visit next year more than ever when Adisyn is older to walk around and enjoy the ocean and pool a little more with her big brother.

overdue updates....

I'm long overdue for some updates, but between working, taking care of the kids, house, packing and preparing for a vacation I have not had much time in between. I've even tried to make an effort for 4 Fridays in a row to have some "me" time, but every Friday that came around I had to cancel for one reason or another.

We closed on our new house one week ago today. I'm so excited to get out of this condo and have more room where we are not all on top of each other. Both kids will have their own bedroom too! Now if we could only get Caden to STAY in his bedroom. I ruined it last weekend by letting him come up to bed with me at night because I was too exhausted to stay downstairs with him until he fell asleep. Ever since he has been fighting it and I've been giving in for the sake of getting some shut eye. In fact, he is even fighting his nap time as I type this post. I'm actually sitting in his room waiting (impatiently) for him to fall asleep.

This picture is from about two weeks ago. He was doing well for naps and stayed in his bed. We even had to go in and wake him after 2 1/2 hours.

A new favorite thing Caden discovered after reading "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"

My mother-in-law has been great about watching Adisyn a few times on the weekend, so I can spend some quality time at the park with Caden. He absolutely LOVES the playground and frequently asks to go. He even made a friend, Brett, last time we went. Brett was following Caden around and both seem to enjoy eachother's company.

We've had some great summer weather in May and took advantage of playing outside in the kiddie pool. Although, Caden would much prefer to fill his Easter eggs with water and throw balls in it than use it for what it's for. As long as he is having fun, right?

It is very rare that for me to capture the front of Caden's face on camera let alone a smile. Instead of telling Caden to remove his feet from the table I grabbed a camera and captured some great smiles. He thought he was the funniest kid on the planet.

As for my princess ~ she is doing great. She is still waking 2 times a night to nurse, but falls back asleep quickly. She can usually only handle up to 3 hours of awake time during the day, but will stretch it to 4 hours in the evening. She has a cut off on late afternoon naps, and if she misses that window she has to stay up. Otherwise, she will fight bedtime.

Her smile literally takes my breath away. I love her to itty bitty pieces.

Both babies go back to the doctor today. Caden for his ear recheck and possible vaccines and Adisyn needs one vaccine. We leave next week for South Carolina to visit my parents while Ryan stays behind to work on the new house. He will fly in a few days before we are suppose to head home. Lord knows I'll need an extra set of hands on the plane.