A new Year!

Happy New Year everyone!! I'm not going to say a word about how sorry I am it's been so long since I last posted, or how I promise to be better about posting in 2011....it seems I put that on every post and seem to not be any better. But, at any rate, I will try to get you caught up on Caden Wesley :).
I can't get to my 'main' computer right now with all my pics, as my hubby is working on wiring of some sort, but I will give you an update with a pic I have on my little laptop, and promise (maybe??) to post soon.

December seemed to be a month of lot's of changes in the world of Caden Wesley. He seemed to become more grown up this month than I can even believe, and I have to remind myself he's not even 14 mos old sometimes. Here is a brief recap of it all :).

SCHOOL. Caden started daycare the week after his birthday (in November), and he is thriving there and loves it. He just goes Tuesday's and Thursday's from 9 to 3. We feel blessed to have such a wonderful place for him to go when we cannot be with him.
DANCING. Caden and his friends dance and 'sing' at daycare a lot, and he is now a dancing fool! Anything that has a jingle in any way, even if it's just a commercial, he's spinning around and clapping.
CLAPPING. He'd been kind of clapping for a long time, but now (thanks to daycare again, probably :)), he holds his little hands up high and does 'real claps.' He is our moral support sometimes, if something is going on, he'll stand up and smile and clap, and we all know it will be okay :). Haha. He's such a joy!
THROWING BALLS. He has a little gym they go play in at daycare, and he now loves throwing balls all the time....puts his hands high above his head and tosses the ball. When he sees a ball, he get so excited!
"YA", "NO". Although he doesn't know what they mean, and they don't always make sense when he says them, whenever you ask him something or say something to him, he always has something to say back, either "Ya" or "No." It's so funny!! Now he says "Mom," "Dad", "Ya," "No."
THE DOGS AND HIM. Caden has grown extremely fond of the dogs this month. While I can't say the feelings are always mutual, Barley (suprisingly enough) seems to be the one who tolerates him best. If we tell him to "be nice" or "give them love", he bends over and lays his head on Barley's back. It's pretty adorable. He loves the pups.
SIGNING. Since he was pretty small I knew I wanted to try baby sign language with him. I figured I'd start 1 word at a time. We started signing "more" to him a few months ago, and finally in December he started doing it. Now he's signing it all the time, always hungry it seems. It's so great that he can do that, it helps a lot with communication. Now we'll have to teach him more words :).
SMACKING. In addition to doing "more," if you ask him if he's hungry/wants to eat, he'll "click" his tongue in his mouth and make a smacking noise. It's pretty funny, I don't know where he learned that.
RUNNING....FAST. Since he started walking so early, he began running lately, pretty fast actually. Do to his un-ending energy and possible speed, I'm pretty sure he could out-run me at this point!
RESPONDING. Just in the last couple of weeks Jared and I have been freaked out to realize how much he is suddenly understanding what we're saying, haha. This last week Jared had off, and one morning I whispered to CW after he got up, "Let's go wake up daddy", and he ran to our bedroom door and hit on the door and got so excited! Pretty good since usually Jared isn't home when he gets up. Or, if we tell him to go get someone in particular, or one of the dogs, he'll go get the right person. It's crazy to me!!
FEEDING HIMSELF. At daycare they work with them a lot to feed themself. While it's usually a huge disaster, with not much getting to his mouth, Caden is doing better and better :). Of course he's been feeding himself finger foods forever, but I'm talking using a spoon and giving himself applesauce, yogurt, etc. It's so funny to me...he concentrates so hard and works so hard at it, although not much gets accomplished! He seems to be usuing his left hand a lot, so maybe he'll be a lefty, who knows!
GAVE UP BOTTLE. Although I was 'freaking' about it and pretty sure it would never be so, Caden gave up his bottle in December, too. He had his last bottle December 14th. He'd been using sippies for a long time, but when I tried to give him milk in one, he'd look at me, stand up, take my hand and lead me to the fridge to show me where I could maybe find a bottle. It was funny. I was pretty sure we'd have to go to bottle rehab to get rid of it, but he did it :)! Binkies might be another story...
HOLDING HANDS. He started coming and taking my hand (or whoever's) and leading me to what he wants. It is so darn cute, it usually works to get what he wants most of the time, haha.

Well, there you have it....the LONG December updates....remember when I said it was going to be brief?!?! Haha. Told you December brought lot's of changes for Mr. CW. Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday! Love to you all! Emily

This one's for you, Shelly :)

Per Shelly's request :), and since I frequently promise to update and don't, here we go :). Caden stood in the middle of the room on Monday without holding onto anything. The standing thing is nothing new, he's been doing that a few months, but not without holding anything :). Then, he turned and walked 3 steps over to the toy he wanted!! What?!?! He's only done it a couple times since, but this mama didn't realize how NOT ready I was for my little guy to be a toddler. Yep, this cheese ball got all choked up and couldn't believe my eyes! I'm of course all for Caden advancing, and don't want him to stay an infant forever, haha, but it's still seeming too early to have my little guy starting to walk! He's crazy, did I mention that?!?
He's in love with the little Gerber (or Target brand in this family) puff snacks. I mean he would eat a whole tube of those a day if I let him. He puts about 10 in his hand at once, and I think 2 or 3 actually get in his mouth each time. The dogs are loving this snack.....they get half of it, haha.
We had a great trip to Texas with Mom and Allie to see Leslie and her family. Caden did great on the long car ride, and we had lot's of fun seeing her and her beautiful babies!
Adios.

To you dear ones who look at this blog, I am so sorry I have been so delinquent :). Caden is keeping us busy, I guess :). He is walking along everything and stands so straight and tall....any day now he will take off I'm sure. He chatters constantly, says "Daddy Daddy Daddy" when Jared gets home (Pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen). In just another week he will be 9 months old. Mom, Allie and I are talking Caden and heading to Texas the end of this week to visit Allie's dear friends Leslie and her 3 little ones. It will be an adventure!! Here are some new pics. Hope you're having a great summer!!

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER.......and lot's of firsts :)

We have so enjoyed this weather, as you can see from the pics! Little Mr. Caden is SO BUSY these days, and he's not even really mobile yet - eeks!! He is doing a 'worm' like move in which he can get himself a few feet at a time.....look out!! Today, he proceded to scoot over to the remote, turn the TV off, and laugh histerically.....we're in trouble :). He can hold his bottle on his own, when he decides to do so.....for 2 bottles yesterday, which was the first time he held it himself the entire time. Tonight was the first time Caden saw lightning & heard thunder. So far he's slept through it, so I can still say I like thunderstorms for now....

He can almost sit up completely on his own now most of the time. He's a wild man! Opens cupboards when he's near them, throws everything he can get his hands on, tries to drink from my cup.....I'm telling ya, when he decides he can walk (hopefully not for a little while yet....), I may never sit down again. But, that's great! We're just LOVING him to pieces and can't believe he's already almost 6 mos old. Happy Spring!!

Emily

Once again, it's been another month.....

So it's been another month since the last post....eeks. We are doing great and just loving our little peanut more and more every day! He is SO much fun these days, cooing and chattering all the time!! He's a noisy little guy! He rolls over all the time now, and almost always ends up sleeping that way in his crib now. He LOVES rice cereal and anything else we give him - baby food carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, whatever, he'll take it! He now is showing his love for everyone by grabbing their face and putting his wide-open, drool-filled mouth up to them! It's pretty sweet, although painful & messy at times :). We went on a walk tonight and it was so nice to be able to be outside with him - we are looking forward to great days outside ahead.

He is a busy boy, so everyone tells us. He is always wanting to be playing with something, watching someone, or rolling around on the floor. He found his feet a few weeks back and is obsessed! Get those stupid socks of me and let me get my foot in my mouth, please! Haha, it's a hoot. He can (sort of) sit up, although he has a ways to go with that. He is such a happy little love, wakes up smiling (in the pic on here) every morning, he's such a joy!

Allrighty, better run, but I promise I'll get better at this....although I should probably stop saying that because I'm making myself look like a liar it seems :).

Love, Emily

It's Spring!!

We are SO glad that spring is here and good weather is maybe finally heading our way! We are looking forward to going on walks and being able to be outside more! Caden (basically) rolled over for the first time today. He's been really close, and today he got 90% of the way there, just got an arm stuck. So, I'm calling it rolled over! He can sit up now with support, although he quickly becomes the leaning tower so we have to be on the lookout! He is so much fun now, laughing all the time and just changing by the minute :)! We go for his 4 month well check a week from today, and I cannot wait! I'm hoping we can start on baby foods, or at least rice cereal soon! He is outgrowing his clothes way too quickly, so I've already accepted the fact that my son will probably be in 12 month clothes before the summer is over - oh well! He is getting more and more hair finally growing back, and it is pretty light. I keep saying he looks like a little hatched baby chick! So darn cute! Anyhow, we are doing great! So busy we don't know what to do with ourselves, not sure where the time goes....But, we're having a blast with our baby and soaking up every minute of it that we can. We love you, Caden!!

Remember when I was going to get better about posting?? Oops. Maybe in 2010. Wait, that sounds like a New Years resolution, and I'm not doing those...oh well. Really, I'll try to get better.

Caden is growing like crazy and changing every day! He's hold his head really well. He smiles. He laughs. He CHUGS his bottle. He sleeps 5-6 hours at a time at night sometimes. He puts himself back to sleep sometimes. He responds to people's voices. He has some MAJOR bad diapers. He is stubborn already :). He's decided he doesn't need to burp in the middle of bottles anymore. He is filling out 3 month clothing well and will soon outgrow it. He's in size 1 diapers. He weighs 12 lbs 12 oz. He is 23 3/4 inches long. He got his vaccinations last week. He looks like me as a baby, I'm told. He is getting blonde peach fuzz on his head. He is in love with his mobile. He opens his mouth for kisses when Milo comes near. (I think I missed a makeout session between the two of them that initiated this reaction from Caden every time he sees Milo....nice). He's adorable. He's 2 months old. He has a mommy and daddy a little too in love with him :). The end.