Subway Art

Subway art has taken over the web, especially on Pinterest. I've seen tons of cute baby Subway Art. I decided that since I have CS4 and all of its elements, surely I could design my own Subway Art for sweet Kaden. So I set out on a mission. I used different ideas I'd seen on Pinterest, and ran with it. This is what I came up with. I made a few adjustments to my initial design, but I think I like it. We're turning what was our office into  play room for Kaden, and I'm thinking this will make it on the wall. What do you think?

Walk me to sleep

(picture with iPhone, thus the not so great quality)

Kaden & I have been going on daily walks. It's good for us. I don't always want to do it, but I make myself. It's good for the pounds I still want to lose. It's a good change of scenery, and gets us out of the house. The more I make myself get out, the more I enjoy. Last week, Kaden still wasn't feeling 100%, so the length of our walk depended on his mood. However, this week, he's done much better, and we've been able to stay out 30-45min most days. I'm hoping to continue to add time and length to our daily walks. Apparently Monday we went out for a walk a little too close to nap time. As we were rounding the corner to home, I looked down to find him like this. Notice the propped up leg....that's my favorite part!! Usually he props one leg up on the cup holder part, but this time he got really comfortable. Also, notice Sophie (the giraffe). He always has either Sophie or a ball in his hands...one or the other. I make sure he has several toys to distract him while we walk, but most of the time he just holds on to one and enjoys the outside scenery. We're getting to where we love our walk every day!

Lunch time

Apparently Kaden has decided he's too big for baby food. I mean really...he's 8 months already!! But I haven't really had any luck getting him to eat baby food the past week or so. Every now and then, if I mix it with baby cereal to thicken it up, he'll eat it. But usually an open container just goes to waste. So I've had to explore other options. Enter frozen veggies. 

 Mr. Independent can grab these and feed them to himself, so he likes that. 

 He also tries to use a spoon, but as you can see in all the pictures, he has it in backwards. He's only successful if I help him...which he's not a fan of!!

 He has the funniest way of grabbing food and feeding it to himself. He picks whatever it is up with his fist, than wiggles his fingers until the food slides up between his thumb and pointer finger. 

 I don't know how he does it. I've tried it. But he can get anything he wants in his mouth. 

 We've also noticed that he uses both hands. I actually think he uses his left hand more sometimes. Micah & I are both right handed. So we shall see. 

 Look at how he focuses on the spoon. He really does want to be using it all on his own. 

 Yummy food-filled smile!!

 Very intently picking up a piece of food. 

 I think at this point he's trying to figure out why I'm still taking pictures of him eating. He's so darn cute to watch though!!

 Notice, even if I give him a bite of my food, with my fork, he has to help hold it & guide it to his mouth. He is a pro at this you know!! 

Future musician???

Now that Kaden can pull himself up, I've caught him climbing up to the piano to play. I've put him in my lap before to let him bang on the keys, but I can only handle so much of that. Anytime I sit down and play, he wants a turn. Luckily, if he's in the standing position, he can only hit a couple of keys at the same time. It's more bearable. The past few times, not only does he play, but he sings along. I've tried to get it on video, but he catches me every time. I will not give up!! It's so cute everyone should experience it!!

8 Months

So I haven't been off to a great start in 2012. But, in my defense, 2012 didn't start off so great. Kaden got sick (for real) for the first time. He's had a snotty nose, and an ear ache before. But this was his first fever-running, bad cough, double earache, had to go to the dr. to get meds sickness. Then, because my baby is so sweet, he shared his germs with me. So the past few days, I've been not feeling 100%. Oh, and to top it off, Kaden was cutting 4 top teeth all at the same time. So all that to say, sickly/grumpy baby & sickly/grumpy momma, don't make for good pictures. Which is why you're getting them a week late. But, all that aside, you still get a way cute, smiley baby! He's learned now what the camera is, and as soon as I pull it out, he starts smiling. 

Stats: 

At Kaden's 6 month check-up, he was 16lbs, 10oz and 25.75 in long (25th percentile for both). Last week we went in because he wasn't feeling good. He weighed 17lbs 13oz. So, he's growing. Which isn't surprising cause he loves to eat. 

Sleeping Habits:

 Oh the wonderful, and not so wonderful, world of sleep. It's an up and down battle for us. Every time we take a step forward, we take a couple backwards. We were doing good with the cryout method, until he learned to pull himself up. Then he'd get stuck in the standing position, and couldn't get back down. Or he'd fall and just get mad. So, we put that aside for a while. Then, when we thought we were doing better, he got sick. Apparently a cough and two ear infections will keep a kid up at night. Oh and so will cutting 4 teeth at once!! But, we're on the down side of all of those things, and I can tell just in the past 2 nights that he's 
sleeping better. So we shall see...

 Eating Habits: 

Kaden has been exploring more foods. He's very independent. He likes to feed himself...which doesn't really work well with baby food. However, he's decided he's not really a fan of baby food  anymore. He'd prefer to eat off mommy & daddy's plate. And we try to let him as much as possible. We've also been putting more foods on his tray to let him feed himself. I started buying the baby puffs, and teething cookies. He loves those, and it make outings and going out to eat so much more pleasant!! Plus, he can do those himself. That makes him happy...and makes us very happy! I am still nursing, although we may be starting the weaning process soon. He has 6 teeth...enough said!!

(Look at that little belly hanging out! :)) 

New Tricks:

 Kaden has graduated from the army crawl to the real crawl. I was beginning to wonder if he'd just skip that step and go straight to walking. He still army crawls sometimes, but he definitely crawls now. He's up and down all day long. Now he's figured out how to get back down when he pulls himself up, so he's on the move all day. His newest trick is "singing." The other day Micah pulled out his guitar just to play around. Kaden crawled straight to him and stood there and "sang" while Micah played. For Christmas he got a table that he can stand at. It plays music, and often Kaden can be heard "singing" along. A couple times I've caught him climbing up to the piano to play & sing. It's soooo cute!! My favorite is when I can hear him singing in the backseat of the car. He also waves bye bye now. He's got the hand motion down, and he says something that sounds more like dada, but it's bye bye. He does say dada, although I'm not sure if he knows it's dada. He's quite the talker these days.  

 Dr. Visits: 

We've been to the Dr. twice since his 6 month check-up. Once to get the second half of his flu shot. (The first flu shot comes in 2 doses.) The second time was just recently when we discovered he had a cold and two ear infections. 

  General Observations: 

He has been so fun lately!! We loved spending the holidays with him. He's a mess. Other than still being very much a mamma's boy. (He likes to be able to see me). He's getting independent. He likes to feed himself, hold his own drink, and play with his toys by himself. I believe he thinks he's bigger than he really is. That's ok...he's a smart boy!! 

(Giving him a toy was the only way to distract him from grabbing the magnet board...but it was short lived!) 

Top 11 in 20011

Of all the thousands of pictures I took t his year, and I do mean thousands, I tried to pick my top 11 favorites from 2011. That was extremely hard...and probably why I saved this blog for last. But, I did my best. If I had to look again, I'd probably pick 11 new pictures, but we'll stick we these. And they're not in any order.

Totally not a good picture,  but I love the moment it captured!!

He was only a thumb sucker for a short while, but we loved it while it lasted!

I don't know what it is about this pic, but it's so Kaden!!

Gotta love cuddly boys!!

LOVE!!

Chubby thighs + feet in his mouth = perfect!

You can barely see the two bottom teeth. And his love for bath time!

Innocence!

Love that big, happy smile!

And his pouty face!!

How grown up he looks!!

Love them all and so much more!!!

2011 in Review

As I look back over 2011, it was probably our most special year ever!! The first few months I don't have many pictures. I was pregnant and miserable, and I definitely didn't want to be in any photos, but once May hit choosing which pictures to include proved difficult. Here's to 2011 and all of it's wonderful (and not so wonderful) moments...

In January we took the youth to Acquire the Fire. I managed to make it through that weekend without being too sick.

In March we had 2 baby showers. One by my family and one by our church. We also celebrated our 2 year anniversary. I have a picture the restaurant gave us, but it hasn't been put on the computer yet. ;(

 

 This was Easter Sunday and one of the few pics I have while I was big and pregnant. 

In April some of our youth threw us a shower and decorated baby onsies. 

May was by far our biggest month. We celebrated several family birthdays including: my sister, my mom, Micah's mom & Micah's. But the biggest birthday we celebrated was Kaden's. He surprised us on Mother's Day!!

In May we also celebrated my sister's graduation from high school.

In June Micah celebrated his first Father's Day. 

 At the end of June, we went to youth camp. Taking our 7 week old to camp was an experience, but we survived and even had fun at the same time!!

In July we celebrated 4th of July as a family of 3 and we had Kaden dedicated. We also made our first trip to Dallas for another family shower. 

We also introduced Kaden to the pool for the first time. And he loved it!!

In August Kaden had a couple firsts. He rolled over for the first time, and he saw the beach for the first time when he went with mommy to a women's retreat.

September was an eventful month as well. We received the "go ahead" from the dr to start solid foods. We took Kaden to his first high school and A&M football games. And we went to the county fair.

October's highlights: We cheered on Aunt Daisy as her volleyball team won district champs. We "chaperoned" two field trips with Grammie's class (Blue Bell Factory & Dewberry Farm). We cheered on the Rangers. We got our first two bottom teeth. We went to the Pumpkin Patch twice. And went to Dallas to meet Uncle Brandon for the first time.

November we went to the Renaissance Festival and Celebrated Kaden's first Thanksgiving. 

And we wrapped up our year in December meeting Santa, traveling to A&M for Santa's Wonderland, and celebrating Christmas.

 We had a great 2011 with so many things to be thankful for!! We look forward to all God has planned for us in 2012.