This Week.

This week seemed like a big ball of craziness in our house for some reason.

Maybe it was because it was so nice out and we spent a ton of time outside.

Or because Jared got a double ear infection & was miserable half the week.

Or because Caden started saying things like "Yes,", "Up," and "Quack, Quack" this week.

Or because I'm so behind on laundry I can barely get to my washer and dryer right now.

Or because Caden got covered in dog poop while playing in the backyard Wednesday before his dumb mom realized it wasn't just mud.

Or because either Jared or I were gone every night this week.  It's like we have joint custody of CW and had to take turns with him.....I swear we weren't both together with him for more than 10 minutes this week somehow.

Or because Jared got called into work last night from 11 to 8 a.m. after being there all day.

Nah, nothing too out of the norm here......I guess it was just a crazy week just because :).

This will sound really cheesy, but every time life gets crazy, whether it be because of the good, the bad, or the ugly, I seriously think of these lyrics from good 'ol Darius Rutcker, because I know it is SO TRUE!! 

"You're gonna miss this.  You're gonna want this back.  You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.  These are the best ones.  So take a good look around, cuz you're gonna miss this."

I'll post some pics soon!!

All in a Day's Work

Saturday was a busy day for the work horse, Mr. CW.  Saturday morning he had to help Daddy measure and work on the current basement project.  'Current project' being replacing our inside door to our garage and all of the drywall around it that got ruined by moisture last winter.   A project indeed.

After Caden was done helping Jared, we left so that Jared could get more done without us around (Imagine that :)).  I went to brunch with my lovely one and only cousin Christina who was in town (yay!) and my sis.  While I was with them, Caden hung out with Grammy and Grandpa.  And, they went ahead and broke some child labor laws (ha!) and had him shoveling snow the whole time.  Dad has a little shovel in his car for emergencies.  I think it looks like a miniature shovel.  He gave it to Caden and threw snow on the driveway so he could shovel it off.  And Caden had a blast.  For over an hour.  And threw a fit when he had to stop and leave with me.

Then it was time for Caden to go down for what would be one of his longest naps (3.5 hours), complete with Jared and I sneaking off to the ER so he could get a few stitches in his finger he cut with a saw during Caden's nap :(. My mom snuck over to sit with CW while we went to the hospital....no, we didn't leave our son home alone. 

Caden got up from his nap and had to get back to work supervising Daddy and Grandad who were putting the door in (even with stitches you can't leave a huge opening from your house to garage with no door in winter :)), vaccum with Mommy, and entertain the dogs. 

After supper it was time for a bath and bed.  A fella who works that hard was beat and ready for some shut-eye.  And a Daddy who has to work on a big project all day and have a trip to the ER was ready for shut-eye, too :). 

I think this mommy should do the same :).

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day to this sweet little face and his wonderful Daddy!

I love you both more than you will ever know.

Eat & Explore Night

Friday night was "Eat & Explore Night" at Caden's daycare.  We invited our parents to all come too, and it was a lovely night filled with pizza, puppies, snakes, boxes to climb in, coloring, and more.

Funny story from the night....there were several big empty appliance boxes they had lined up kind of like a maze for the kids to crawl through.  They have brought boxes like that into Caden's room at daycare before and he loves playing in them.  Well Friday night he saw the boxes and went running over to them.  Rather than finding where he could get inside of them, he jumped on top of one and flattened it.......with a five-year-old boy inside of it........so that's when I pretended I didn't know who'd child he was, haha.

A little while later, he went back to the boxes and started crawling through them.  He'd been in there a while so I kneeled down to look inside and see what he was doing.  As I peeked inside the box, I saw such a cute little (maybe) 2 or 3-year-old girl with big blue eyes and blonde hair.  Adorable.  And she was laying down and crying.  But why was she crying??  OH, because my 15-month-old son was on top of her patting her face and giving her kisses.  Yep, my son.  While her parents stood outside the boxes waiting for their little cutie pie to come out of the box maze. 

So, I "casually" got CW out of the box while saying cheesy comments like, "Oh, are you kids having so much fun??"....."Look at you silly boy, what are you doing??"....trying to play it cool, you know :).  Once I got CW out and he was running around, over to the cute little puppies once again, I reached in to the little girl and made sure she was okay :).  She was just scared of Caden and the fact that she couldn't get up.  Wow, yep, that was my son, folks, thanks!!

Caden had a blast.  He got so excited in the gym where all the "Exploring" activities were that he just kept hollaring and running around as fast as he could, from one station to another.  He kept running up to other volunteers and/or kiddos and jumping into the middle of whatever they were doing.  We could have all dissappeared out of the gym and he wouldn't have noticed. 

One of the Preschool teachers stopped me to tell me that my son was "A wonderful boy who was fearless.....he wasn't scared to try anything and wasn't afraid of anyone.....and she loves it."  All the teachers, be it a Preschool teacher or whatever (Caden is still in the infant room), seemed to know his name last night.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing :)??  Ha.

Such a Boy

One of the things that has amazed me most since having Caden is the 'boy thing.'  What do I mean??  He has been all boy since the day he was born.  Grunting and tootin' his first few weeks of life.  Flipping toys over to see the nuts and bolts since he was first able to do so.  Everything has become a hammer since the day he could pick stuff up.  All boy.  And I love it :).  I could have 6 of these boy boys running around my house and be as happy as can be :).

The boy thing was very new to me.  I am one of two girls in my family.  I am 1 of 7 granddaughters.  Girls, girls girls :).  That's what we knew. And now, I feel like all I know is the boy thing :).  How funny life works out.  I adore the 'boy thing' and can't imagine life any other way.  Cracks me right up.

Caden is all about the trucks, the tools, climbing, running, throwing, cars, hats,......the boy stuff.  He is also enamored with everything that Jared and I do, and wants to do the same.  If Jared fixes a door, Caden will proceed to 'fix' the door with his tools for the next week.  If he sees me making cooking (rare, haha), he has to get a pot out of the cupboard, waits for me to give him a mixing spoon, and proceeds to 'cook' on the floor while I get supper ready. 

He watches EVERYTHING we do.  Scary??  Ya, I thought so too, haha.

Well anyhoo, now that Caden can reach in the bathroom drawers, he tries to sneak in our bathroom and take out all my junk whenever he can.  So the other day, I didn't realize that our bedroom door was open, because I always try to keep it closed, and he indeed snuck in there.

At the risk of his father having a heart attack :), I took a picture.  This is what I found:

My "All Boy" boy wearing a necklace of mine and 'drying' his hair with the straightener.  He was making a "PSHHHH" noise, like he was drying his hair like he always sees me do (he just got the wrong appliance).  I cracked up.  This will be great bribery (spelling??) some day. 


It must have been the day to crack me up, because later he put one of my "hide my greasy ponytail because I didn't wash my hair today" headbands and put it on his head!  It looked like a sweatband, like he was going to be working out.  Hillarious. 

Man, I love him...........in case I hadn't mentioned that lately.

Caden Language

A B C

We have been working on sign language for several months with Caden, as I think I mentioned before.  We have just been doing one word at a time, and once he has that down we add a new one.  So far we've taught him "more", "please", "thank you", and "bye-bye." 

He has those all down pretty well, with his own twist on a couple of them.  "More" and "Thank you" he's got mastered.  "Please" is rubbing his tummy.  For a while it was rubbing his hands together, but now it is rubbing his tummy.  We're getting closer to the circular motion on his chest that it is supposed to be.  But, it's pretty adorable and we know what he means. 

He also has some of his own lingo, too, that only a Mommy could understand :).

When he claps his hands together when he's on my lap, he wants me to sing.

When he taps my leg while I'm holding him, he wants me to bend my leg and put my foot on my knee so he can lay on it.  Complicated, huh??  One night he was being a monkey and I told him, "This is how mommy held you when you were a tiny baby", and did the leg thingie.  He thought it was a hoot and now likes to do that before he goes to bed.

If he sticks his foot in the air he wants me to pretend to eat it.  He cracks up every time.

If he goes to the bathroom door and does "Please," he wants to brush his teeth.  Like, sit in the sink and brush his teeth.  For several minutes.  Don't mess it up :).

Oh, the little quirks we figure out with these kiddos!!  Is there anything better than having a kiddo??  And knowing that you know them so well and decide what's best for them??  Sometimes it seems like a heck of a lot of pressure, haha, but most of the time, it makes life grand :).

Nighty-night.

So Glad the "Sunny Day" were "sweepin' the clouds away" after this week.

So our week was pretty crummy.  It started with Caden waking up with 101 temp on Monday morning and the worse cough I could imagine.  Sounded like he had been smoking 3 packs a day.  And my energetic happy baby boy was lethargic and only wanted to be held and lay on me.  "Not himself" would be an understatement.  The crummy week reached its pinnacle when I was rear-ended on Thursday.

But, I really want this blog to be about Caden and his lovely little life, so I will refrain from complaining about how the 3-car collision I was a part of has become a big headache since the 2 other parties have different stories of what happened.  Some might call that lying :).  And, how my neck hurts and I fell down the steps Friday night to top it all off.  Oops, I think I am complaining now, so I shall stop, haha :).

The blessings......

Caden was able to get on antibiotics on Tuesday and woke up Wednesday a new man.  Much (closer) to back to himself.  I never knew I could be so worried for someone in my life, and so overjoyed when they were feeling better :).  Ah, Mommyhood :). 

He was not with me when I got hit, so I didn't have to worry about him through it all.  Didn't have to worry about him sitting in the car during the whole fiasco.  Didn't have to worry if he got hurt, or watch him be scared.  None of that.

My van is driveable.  Well, I'm driving it.  We'll put it that way.

So anyhoo, this crummy week ended in the most lovely of ways this morning when we got to go to Sesame Street life with the wonderful Reis family :).  I remember going as a child and how wonderfully fun and amazing it all seemed.  Caden was a champ and didn't get antsy until about the last 10 minutes.  He sat in amazement most of the time.  And he of course wanted to show affection/pester/harass Miss Harper Grace as usual :).  So glad they were able to go with us......special memories for the kiddos :).

 This was last weekend before he was sick. I went to the bathroom and came out to this. I must say I am pretty proud of my little (not quite) 15 month old. I'd say it takes some pretty sweet skills to make a tower like that to stand, with different-sized containers. Don't know that I could even do that, haha. Such a cutie patootie!!

And this is Monday night when little love bug was sick.  This was the first time I got him to smile/laugh all day, so I of course snapped some pics.  He hardly looks sick in these smiley ones.  I got the empty diaper box and put him in it, and you'd have thought I did a stand-up comedy act.  This sick baby thought I was the cat's meow :).






Seriously.  Such a sweetheart.  Love him.





And then, finally, it was Saturday, and time to meet Ben, Rebecca, and Harper for a wonderful time :).  "Sunny Days, Sweepin' the Clouds away!  On my way to where the air is sweet!  Can you tell me how to get, how to get to SESAME STREET?!?!?"







Harper's Initial Reaction:)



It was so much fun.  The kiddos did great and I think we all had fun.  Toward the end CW decided he need to sit in his own seat.  It was pretty cute :).  And hey, for the record, if you're looking for an inexpensive light-up Elmo toy, you can get one at the show for a mere $15 :).  Ha, what a steal, huh?  Yes, we got one for Caden.  And yes, it's already been used as a hammer more than anything!!  Thanks to the Reis's for coming with us.  It was a great day indeed!!