Cranky Caden

It's been a pretty cranky week for Caden. I think getting four teeth at once has been catching up to him and he's been a lot more whiny than usual. Going two days without Daddy didn't help either. It's become very obvious that Greg is the fun parent and Caden does not like being stuck with me nonstop without his favorite playmate! He has been a lot better today.

Last night Caden got this whopper of a bump above his eye tripping near the stairs and hitting his head on the base of the railing. It looked a lot worse last night!

Here is Caden telling me he's hungry and very angry that I'm taking a picture instead of immediately getting him some food.

This boy has no patience. (Notice the new blue shutters on the house!)

Still angry. I gave him some snacks to put in his pocket and now he can't get them out.

Okay, I've tortured him enough. Time to enjoy some fruit snacks while swinging his legs back and forth.

Back to the update... Caden has not yet tired of his little brother Lenny. Every day they have to do a number of activities together. While Greg was gone Caden seemed to be especially attached to Lenny. He shares his drinks and snacks with him, even trying to put beans in Lenny's hand. Then we strapped Lenny in the stroller and buckled him into the car to take him to the park with us. Caden was so excited to reach over and pat Lenny's leg the entire trip. Lenny had to join us for bedtime stories that night too. It was pretty cute!

Caden is finally interested in a lot more variety in books. He's even listening to the big books now! And sadly he's tired of Sandra Boynton. His current favorites are "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" He wants me to read them over and over again. In fact, after weeks of going to sleep at night without a hitch he now cries when I tell him we finally have to stop reading. Bedtime has definitely been a struggle this week.

Here's some exciting news - Caden now knows a lot of animal noises! He says moo, ah ah ah (monkey), baa, quack (sort of), neigh, and pants for a dog noise. We can't get him to say anything close to meow, but he always does the sign for cat instead. This morning it was raining and he very excitedly ran to the window and showed me the sign for rain and then ran to show Greg too. I just showed him that sign yesterday and he didn't seem too interested. I guess he was really paying attention! Anyway, I'm excited about the animal noises because I've heard that a real vocabulary should be soon to follow!

Caden helped Greg weed the garden for a few minutes today. He sure loves imitating absolutely everything we do. He spent about ten minutes putting on makeup this morning. In stores now I have to give him my library card or something so he can "pay" on the credit card machine. He swipes the card over and over across the screen and then grabs the pen and tries to scribble on it. Then he looks at me with a gigantic smile. It really is amazing watching a child learn so much on a daily basis.

Tonight we're going to the neighbors for another bonfire. In case I didn't mention it, we went last week and Caden had an absolute blast playing with the older kids. He's definitely made some friends! On Wednesday we spent three hours at Crea's house playing with everyone. In the afternoon she set up sprinklers and a water table to play in and everyone wore their swimsuits. Caden didn't pay any attention to the sprinkler, but he LOVED the water table. He refused to take his shirt and shoes off, though. So he ended up soaking everything. It was a fun time, though. Pretty soon I'm going to have to set up his swimming pool. There have been some hot days lately!

Well, that's it for now. It's time to start getting ready for our mini vacation coming up this week. We're all looking forward to staying in La Crosse at a hotel with a kids' waterpark indoors. I'm hoping it won't be busy and Caden can loosen up and enjoy the water a little. At any rate, we know Caden is going to have a fun sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday! :)

A Dreary Week

It's been another very long, cold, rainy week in Farmington. We haven't been able to spend any time outside and Caden and I are about to drive each other nuts! I'm hoping for a non-rainy day tomorrow so we can at least step out of the house. There's no rain in the forecast, but then again, it wasn't supposed to rain today either and it poured all day!

On Wednesday I decided to let Caden help me make chex mix. He wasn't too interested in pouring the cereal from the measuring cup, but he loved stirring! He was helping himself to plenty of cereal too. When I poured the sauce on and started stirring with my own spatula he got very mad at me! Always Mr. Independent.

I just discovered that Caden can do most of the song "Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." They do it on some of the Baby Einstein videos and now he's really excited to do it with me. We have to do it pretty slow, though, for him to catch up. And he never seems to get his shoulders, but at least he's trying!

Yesterday we went back to the Apple Valley open gym time for preschoolers. What a difference a few months makes! Caden had an absolute blast. From the minute we walked in the door he just took off running crazy. He mostly wanted to make baskets (I got quite a workout lifting him up so many times!), but he enjoyed playing on the mats too. He even went up to a few other boys with his hands out hoping they'd throw him a ball, but none of them wanted to share. It was a fun time. At least three days a week that's always an option when the weather is bad.

Wednesday afternoon I took out a coloring book and some crayons hoping that would keep him busy for awhile. It held his attention for all of thirty seconds. I think he made two scribbles on the page and then just wanted to put the crayons away. He was pretty angry that I wouldn't give up the crayon I was using. It's looking like I have a son that's never going to enjoy artsy things. :(

This morning Caden's mouth was bleeding and I realized he has another tooth coming through! It's on the bottom right in the only open space available. It looks like the one on the left isn't far behind.

Here's a picture of Caden wearing the new shirt that Sarah bought him in Spain. Pretty cute!

Our Second Mother's Day Together

Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone had a great day! Ours was very nice and relaxing.

My day started with Greg and Caden bringing me breakfast in bed. I had chocolate donuts and strawberries. Caden was pretty excited about the donuts and made a gigantic crumb mess. It was definitely worth it, though. :)

We had a nice lunch at home of grilled hot dogs and avocados. Nothing fancy, but I always appreciate not having to make a meal!

After lunch we made an impulsive decision to check out a park in Lakeville I've always been curious about. It was actually really cool. They had a large beach area with crystal clear water, a playground right on the shore, and plenty of trees and picnic areas. We'll definitely be going back again. Today it was fun to have a little photo shoot and then walk along the water. Caden seemed to be fascinated by the lake. I guess it's been a long time since he's seen one!

After the park we came home and all took naps. Then Greg and Caden took a walk while I read in the house. Then we all played outside for awhile. For dinner we ordered pizza and wings - a very special treat! Then more playing with Caden by chasing him with Lenny around the house, which he found hilarious. And then I put him to sleep! Overall it was a very sweet day. I love being a mommy!

Keeping Busy

Sorry I haven't written in awhile - time for an update!

Last week we found this piece of furniture on the curb so we picked it up and I made it into a toy storage shelf. I wanted to convert our whole downstairs into more of a play area for Caden. I think it was a good decision because he loves it! He was having enough fun just taking the bins in and out of the shelves that I haven't even put toys in most of them yet. Caden has been enjoying the huge open space on the floor too. He's really been into playing with cars and trucks lately and they travel much more smoothly on the wooden floor than on the carpet upstairs. Last night Greg moved the basketball hoop downstairs too so this is their new nighttime play area.

On Tuesday night Greg went to the Twins game so I gave Caden his bath - something that almost never happens. I was surprised to see him "swimming" from side to side. He was having a great time doing it! I hope this means he's getting more used to water. I can have a little hope that we might be able to do some swimming/splashing activities outside this summer.

Greg has been teaching Caden all his body parts and he's getting really good at it. For some reason his nipples seem to be the most interesting to him.

Sign language has been going well, though we've been improvising motions more than looking up the correct terms for things. Caden has been acting out a lot of things without me even teaching them to him. For example, when he notices that it's windy outside he rubs his hand through his hair. Or when he wants to wear my watch he makes one hand into a circle and drags it up his other arm. In the car today he even got my attention and made the correct sign for ball when he noticed there was a basketball on the floor. He's still not saying anything, though he now tries to say "moo." He does it with closed lips, though it still sounds like a moo most of the time. At least that's a small step in the right direction!

Caden loves sitting on his potty. Yesterday morning he thought he was pretty hot stuff sitting on it while brushing his teeth while wearing sunglasses. He is just too cool. :)

Our latest weekly activity is going to garage sales on Thursdays and Fridays. Caden actually seems to really enjoy it. He likes looking at all the toys that are usually in the driveways while I dig through clothes and household things. Today we hit the jackpot and found this lovely pink doll stroller. Caden immediately ran to it and was pushing it everywhere while I looked through books. Then he came over and handed me the price tag and turned around and ran with the stroller to the car. I had no choice but to buy it! He loves it, though - he's been pushing Lenny (Greg's name for the doll...) in it ALL afternoon.

We also found Caden a booster chair for the kitchen and a tricycle to use outside. He's always wanting to go to Crea's whether they're outside or not, so hopefully if he has his own trike he might be a little happier staying at home some days.

Bedtime has been going better than I ever thought possible in the last week or so. One day Caden decided he wanted a blanket in his crib. So I found a small one and now every night we read, then I lay him down with his glow worm right next to him, his tiny blanket square in one hand, a plastic ball in the other, and a blanket pulled up to his armpits. And every night he falls asleep without a peep. It's just so hard to believe that after 19 months of having so many bedtime/sleeping problems it's finally working out so well! Most nights he sleeps through too. Now our only problem is naptime! We're up to maybe four days a week of naps. And on the other days he gets an hour in his crib and he's almost always content to just look at books and play with his stuffed animals. It sure would be nice if he'd nap consistently, though!

We went to the zoo the other day and Caden was still scared of the goats. He loved watching the piglets, though! He definitely has a fascination with dogs too. Though he's pretty hesitant to actually go near them. He just likes to watch them. It's probably good that he seems to have a bit of fear of them right now. He's so mean to the cats, I'd hate to see him act that way with random dogs he sees.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. We're looking forward to the weekend - Crea is going to babysit him on Saturday and then Sunday is Mother's Day! I'm looking forward to it. :)

Weaning Complete

It's been a rough couple days for us, but Caden is officially weaned! We are a month behind my original ending date, but I'm glad we took the extra time to really ease into it. The first night was the worst and each has gotten a lot better. Tonight he was actually settled down enough to listen to books and I don't think the thought of nursing even crossed his mind. I'm sad that this aspect of our relationship has come to an end, but I'm trying not to dwell on it and focus on how proud I am of him instead. He's really a big boy now!

In other news, I think Caden is really on the brink of learning to talk. He's started repeating a lot of sounds after us, including "da da da da," "mom," and "di di" (diaper). Today I started asking him if he could say ball and you could tell his mouth was forming the word and then he'd get a huge smile and not actually say anything. But he's so close! One of the funniest things now is when we read the book "Yummy Yucky." After every yummy thing we both go "mmmm" and after every yucky think we say "blech." He gets really into the yuckys!

Caden made another friend at Crea's house today. Her name is Evelyn and she's a month or two older than him (but much smaller). This afternoon when we went over Evelyn was sitting on one of the bikes and Caden started pushing her down the sidewalk. He had a gigantic grin while he did it. Then she got off and he followed right along side her and pointed out another bike for her. She got on it and he pushed her again! It was adorable. Then when it was time for her and her sister Ayla (previously called Ava by me by mistake) to leave, Ayla came over and hugged Caden and then he waved at them until they were out of sight. Even Crea pointed out how much more comfortable he seems to feel lately around the other kids.

It's taken forever, but Caden now waves every time we tell him to. Greg said that on their walk last night Caden waved to everyone he saw. When I've been in stores with him he waves at all the cashiers. He's getting good at repeating almost any motion we do. When we were outside earlier I was rubbing my arms and said "ooh, I have shivers." He immediately started doing it too. I guess I better crack open that sign language book and take advantage of his eagerness to learn these days!

Along with the fun stuff, Caden's also been forming some bad habits. Now when he gets angry his first response is always to bite the nearest person or object. I have a huge bruise on my arm from when he bit me at Cub yesterday because I wouldn't give him my wallet while I was paying. Then when he didn't know I was in the room I saw him start wrestling with his cabbage patch doll because it wasn't sitting right on the chair and then he started biting his cheek. He's also started fake crying whenever he thinks it'll serve his purposes. Usually in a store. It has not been fun!

We've had a lot of fun outside the last few days taking advantage of the beautiful weather. It's supposed to rain the next few, however, so I'm looking forward to trying out some indoor activities I've been reading about. I'll let you know how they go!

Nineteen Months Old

Our boy is another month old today! It's amazing how quickly he is growing up.

One of Caden's favorite activities as of late is organizing things. He loves to line up all the shoes by the door and gets very upset if there are more shoes than fit in a line on the rug. This became quite a problem last weekend with most of the grandparents visiting and a lot of extra shoes! He also LOVES taking things out of cupboards and lining them up on the kitchen window ledge and around the table. He's mostly been doing this with my candle cupboard, though occasionally he gets into the baking cupboard and lines up that as well. It's cute how hard he concentrates on getting everything just perfect. But watch out if you think you're going to put something away while he's watching! That immediately starts a full on tantrum!

As the weather has still been nice we're trying to get outside as much as possible. The other day it was a little cooler, but we had a picnic lunch at one of the larger parks in the area. I didn't have much to pack from home so we stopped at Target for our lunch food. Caden ate almost an entire snack container of pickles for his lunch. After eating we tried to play on the playground, but Caden was extremely disturbed by the sand creeping into his sandals. He refused to walk on the ground. But he didn't want to leave either. He was happiest sitting on the giant baseball pictured above.

We haven't had much time to learn many more signs, but a few days ago I did teach him "airplane," "train," and "hear." I'm not really sure if any of the signs are technically correct, they just seemed logical to me. He's been very proud of himself practicing the sign for airplane. He's always on the lookout for them when we're outside.

Around other kids Caden has been getting a lot more possessive. He doesn't seem to be scared of anyone the same size or smaller than him anymore. Parker, the four year old next door, still worries him a little, but he's been holding his ground the last few days. I'm not sure that's a good thing, though. A few days ago I had to grab him before he physically attacked one of the daycare kids for walking near the slide. Yesterday he got right in the face of every kid when they went by the bikes he wanted to ride. This morning he ran at a kid in the park for trying to go on the swing. I'm not really sure how to teach him that not everything belongs to him. We'll just have to keep practicing the art of sharing, I guess.

Every morning when I shower Caden watches a Baby Einstein video. Yesterday I got out of the bathroom without him hearing me and I caught him dancing in front of the tv doing all the actions as the kids in the video to "If You're Happy and You Know it..." It was so adorable! I'm going to start doing more action type songs with him because it seems he's finally old enough to copy the moves.

Well, it's time to get ready to leave for our weekend trip to Beaver Dam. See most of you later!

New Helmet

Caden got a new helmet and he loves it! I ended up ordering a true infant/toddler sized one on amazon that was guaranteed to fit his head size of 19". It's pretty cool because there's a little dial in the back that you just turn to adjust the straps. It's about as easy as can be! Maybe it's because he's seen us wearing helmets a few times now, but he was really excited to wear his. He kept bringing it to me to put on all afternoon! Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to go on a ride and see how the helmet works in action.