babies and new milestones met...

This little man is almost two years old. Two. Years. Old. Can I freeze time? Please? I just LOVE his age right now and I never want it to end. Watching him learn just amazes me and now especially that he can vocalize what he is learning. He knows many animal sounds - may favorite is "baa" for sheep. He can identify and say circle, square, and triangle. He also knows all of the basic colors and will say "blue circle". He is now starting to identify and say a few numbers and letters from the alphabet. He associates the letters of the alphabet with the pictures from his his alphabet puzzle.

Today at the grocery store he was pointing and saying "tie, tie, tie, egg, egg". It took me a few minutes to realize he was pointing at the Exit sign. T for tie and E for egg. Yesterday he held up the letter Q from a magnet toy and actually said "Q".

Caden is now starting to string words together. Where did it go? What happened? Where did the baby go? Thank you and your welcome to name a few. I'm just amazed. I know this is normal - kids learn. It just happens so fast. Where did my baby go?

Maybe that is why couples have more babies and we are set in that department!



Isn't she the sweetest?! I love seeing her little personality starting to peek through. She is generally a happy little girl unless she is hungry, soiled or tired. She does amazingly well lifting her head during tummy time and just looks adorable doing so.

We did a little photoshoot the other day including the picture above and another favorite below.



We are so blessed. Thank you, God, for choosing Ryan and I to be his parents.

week one down...

I made it through my first week back to work. I'm not quite sure how I did it. I'm not going to sugar coat it. Going back to work sucked. Really bad. It was stressful, exhausting, and emotionally draining. I cried for two hours the first night I got home. I haven't cried since, but I want to every day. I miss my children and I miss being there for them. I miss putting Caden down for his naps, snuggling and nursing Adisyn, playing with Caden and seeing their smiles throughout the day.

By the time I get home from work I only have maybe 3 hours with them before it's bed time. I feel like I'm letting them down by not being with them longer. It sucks. Really bad.

I'm not sure how I feel about my job anymore. I'm thankful I have a job to support us and provide us with medical insurance, but it still sucks. Working on my career profile was tough. "Where do you see yourself in the next 18 months, 3-5 years, 10 years?" I wanted to answer "all I want is to be a SAHM". Clearly I couldn't respond with that, but I still had NO idea. I have no career goals right now. I have no intentions of moving into another department right now. I have a great boss who is flexible and I don't want to loose that flexibility while my children are still young. *sigh* So my answer "N/A". I'm meeting with my boss next week and I'm just going to be completely honest about how I feel. What else can I do?

As for Caden and Adisyn adjusting? I think they did fairly well. I did not get any complaints from my mother-in-law or Tammy, so that's a good sign right? Not that they ever complain anyway!

Caden has his two top incisors coming in and now he has come down with a cold. Here's to hoping he gets better before week two.

happy two months old, adisyn emily

I just LOVE this little girl of mine.

Once again time is flying by. Our little girl is already 2 months old. From one to two months old has really made a difference in her. She is overall a great, happy little girl. She has started to smile a huge, beautiful grin socially. Her smile just melts my heart. She also started to coo between 6-7 weeks old. My mom and Ryan heard it first before I did, and now every night before bed we "talk" and smile with each other before cuddle time.

Her sleep habits are great. She'll sleep a 6 hour stretch before she wakes to eat and poop, and then she is back down for another 2-3 hours. This is a HUGE difference than Caden who was up every 2 hours on the dot.

She is growing like a weed! My little peanut has doubled in size in such a short time. She is still in newborn clothes, but can now fit in some 0-3 month sizes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her clothes will not be out of season.

I took this first picture of her foot just a few days after coming home from the hospital. You can see how much her wee wittle foot has grown - a whole toes length!



At the end of 1 month old ~

can smile responsively - Yes
follows objects with eyes - Yes
make noises other than crying, such as gurgling and cooing - Yes
can lift head to 45 degrees - Yes
have begun to unfurl hands and relax muscles - Yes
can briefly hold objects - Yes
enjoy visual stimulation - Yes
start to associate crying with need-fulfillment - Yes

puzzles

It's crazy to think our lil man will be turning 2 next month. It feels like we just had his first birthday not too long ago. I want to freeze time to keep him at this age. Since I've been on maternity leave he has learned SO much and his speech has taken off. I love listening to him talk. Whenever I'm talking to him he'll always repeat the last word I say. A new favorite saying of mine that he is says is "da-gone" for all gone. He does the sign for all gone when he says this too.

Caden is really into his puzzles and I love working on them with him. I bought him an alphabet puzzle just before my mom came in and they worked on it a lot while she was here. We were working on it yesterday and I was so impressed how quickly her learned where the 26 pieces went on the board.

He would say the picture of where the letter would go before even looking at the board. I was shocked when he picked up the letter "Q" and said "Quail".

We have a numbers puzzle too, but we are still working on learning it. He will say a number, but it's not always the right one. He will say (letter) O for the number zero and always gets that one right.

We are so proud of Caden. He is turning into such a big boy.

Our next goals coming up in the near future is getting rid of the binkie and potty training. I think I'm more nervous of eliminating the binkie than attempting potty training. Ugh.

visit with grandma

My mom's visit came and went way to fast a usual. I wish she was able to stay longer or lived closer to us for that matter. I really do not like seeing her go one bit.

We did enjoy her visit more than anything and I know she loved it too.

Grandma meeting her first and only granddaughter for the first time.

We were lucky to have some nice weather for the beginning of March too! We took Adisyn for her first walk of her life and Caden's first walk of the year! Caden LOVES to be outside. I had to bribe him with a popsicle to get him to come inside.

My mom caught this special moment on camera the last night she was here. Our evening was filled of the usual - Caden not eating dinner, babies crying, laughter, and love. After Caden was done rough housing with Daddy I asked him if he wanted some juice. I couldn't find his sippy right away, so I offered him my water bottle, in which he replied "NOT DUICE, DATS WAWER!" His first "sentence"! Shortly after Ryan asked Caden for some cuddles and Caden came running over to me to cuddle. Ryan "Who am I supposed to cuddle with now?" Caden points to the dog. Apparently Daddy is for play and Mama is for cuddles.

This is when my mom caught a cute moment of the family. You can see the dog on her red blanket on the couch trying to ignore all the noise. Poor girl.

It's the closest family we have!