Track Meet

My sister, Daisy, and her best friend, Serena, run on a select track team. They have meets every Saturday. I hadn't been to a Sat. meet yet. This past weekend, my dad was at a Men's Retreat, and Micah had to work, so I told my mom K & I would go with her to the meet. It was a LONG day! We sat out there for 8.5 hours to watch a total of about 15 min of running.

LONG. DAY!

So, we had to find ways to kill time. And we did. 

We ate goldfish by the handful.

 We played with the beach ball.

 We took a nap. (Notice the pants have disappeared. My mother believes babies should roam around in a diaper. And it was 95 degrees!)

 We just looked cute!

 We stood at the fence and cheered on Daisy!

 We read books. 

 We looked out the fence at all the cars driving by!

 We played in the grass. He loves the grass! A lot of kids don't! He's 100% boy!

 We watched planes. (We were close to the airport, so landing planes flew right over us. Some were pretty low. Kaden would point to all the planes he saw pass)

 We played on Grammy's phone. 

 We played in the icy water from the ice chest.

 We watched Daisy run.

And again, yelled at all the cars passing by. (Also, this is the only time a little cottage cheese & rolls on your thighs are cute!)

 Look at that aggression!!

 And cheered on Serena!

We had a good time! It was a long day! But we enjoyed it. And since K loves being outside, he did so good!!!

Mother's Day...a little late!

This is me last Mother's Day. Rough...I know. But, I had been in labor all day, and didn't know it until I got to the hospital and was told my water had broke, and I was 7 cm dilated. We met Kaden about 30 min later.

Yes... it was close & fast. And nothing will ever top that Mother's Day. I had secretly prayed the night before that if God wanted me to meet K on Mother's Day, I'd be pretty cool with that, but I would have never imagined it going down like it did. I love telling his birth story, although I don't think I have here. It's a little TMI...not sure I'm quite ready for it to be out for all the world to see/read.

Anyway, this Mother's Day was much less stressful. After church, my dad & Micah let mom & I pick where we wanted to eat. We chose Willies. We love Willies. It was a beautiful day. They had all the doors & windows open. 

 Isn't my little family beautiful?? I have two handsome boys! They make this mommy very happy! 

 My mom makes me happy too! I'm so glad that God made her my mom.

 That night we went to my parents for dinner. My mom's birthday was the day after Mother's Day, so my brother fired up the grill for dinner. 

 K had so much fun swinging while Grammy shot bubbles at him. He was belly laughing as he tried to catch them.

 

I'm so grateful for a wonderful mom, mother-in-law, and mostly for being a mommy to this precious boy! I never realized how much I would love him, and it makes me so grateful for how much my mother loves me and all she sacrifices for me!

Waffe Time

Kaden's a fan of waffles in the morning. Mommy is too. They're easy to pop in the toaster. I buy the blueberry & strawberry flavored waffles, and he eats them dry.  

  I use to break little pieces off and put them on his tray. I'd leave the rest of the waffle sitting on the table until he let me know he needed a refill.

 A lot of times in the morning, I'll make use of his confinement in the highchair to unload the dishwasher, get dinner in the crock pot going, etc. One morning, I looked over, and apparently he had decided that he was too big for the little pieces.

 He had grabbed the big piece of waffle, and was enjoying it. I started laughing at him, and he gave me his sweet little "I know I'm cute" grin.

 It's true...he is cute!! And he's getting too big for his own britches! 

12 Months

 12 months. 1 year. Where has the time gone?

 Stats: 

We haven't seen the Dr. in a while. Which is a good thing. For a while, we were becoming too good of friends. We go for his 1 year check up on Monday, so I'll update the stats then. I'm gonna guess around 21 pounds, and 23 inches. 

  Sleeping Habits:

Kaden has come so far in his sleeping. However, if anything will mess up a kid's good sleeping habits, it's a 10 day trip half-way around the world. It didn't take us long to adjust when we got to Korea, but it's taken us a lot longer to adjust being back home. The worst is that he's all messed up with naps. He doesn't want to take them at all, and we just can't have that! It makes for a grumpy baby!!

 Eating Habits: 

His eating is still fluctuating. Sometimes he eats a lot, and sometimes not so much. He's still a fan of feeding himself. He doesn't like eating from a spoon or fork. He likes to hold it himself. So this still limits what he can or will eat, but food in general he is a fan of! We're in the process of weaning him from nursing, and that has not been fun. But, all good things must come to an end! ;)

 New Tricks:

We're so close to walking we can see it. The most he's taken at a time is 4 steps. He loves to stand without holding on to anything. He's always standing...to play, watch tv, eat. He loves to stand. He likes it when we sing to him. Songs with hand motions are his favorite. He's a climber. He likes to climb up, down, in & out. 

 Dr. Visits: 

No Dr. visits! We go Monday for his 1 year check-up.

 General Observations: 

Kaden loves the outdoors. And the warmer weather means we've been spending more time outdoors. He loves to swing, ride with me on the bike, and play in his pool. We're anxiously awaiting our neighborhood pool to open!!  He's developed a little attitude. Don't let that sweet smile fool you! It's amazing how early kids learn to throw tantrums, arch that back, or hit when they're not happy. However, we're working hard to end those bad habits quickly! 

 We love that we just celebrated our little man's birthday, but can't get over how quickly the time has passed. I'm afraid if I blink, he'll be graduating before I know it! So our goal in life is to enjoy every day with him! Cherish every memory--every good, not-so-good, funny, etc. thing he does! We love this kid!

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to my favorite boy in the world! This little guy makes our days brighter, our smiles bigger, and our hearts overflow with love! We didn't know how much better life could get, until he entered the world a year ago! I think I took my parent's love for granted my whole life, until I became a parent. I didn't realize you could love someone so much! The  9 10 months it took him to get here were miserable, but I'd do it a hundred times again cause he is so worth it! 

This is his new smile...showing no teeth. It's a "I'm being serious, trying not to smile" smile.

 I look at his sweet face and I want to laugh and cry all at the same time. I wish everyone in the world could know him like I do. I wish everyone was privileged enough to get to love like this, and be a mommy!

 Our prayer is that this little guys grows up to fall in love with Jesus, and do great things! We already know he has so much potential. We've seen it already in his short time with us! His little personality already shines through.

 We love this kid so much, and thank God for every day we get to share with him. For choosing us to be his mommy & daddy! It's the greatest privilege in the world!

(This is not my official 12 month post, just wanted to wish him a happy birthday! The post with stats, etc., will be up soon!)

Kaden's 1st Birthday Party

If you're wondering why I haven't blogged since our trip, it's because we haven't done anything. Seriously...nothing! Besides laundry, sleep, lounge, order in food. It took us all a while to recover from that 10 day adventure around the world. But, for the most part, we have recovered. We had to. Because Saturaday was Kaden's big day. Well, not technically, it's today, but we celebrated on Saturday. Nothing too fancy. My goal was to have everything planned and ready before we left town, but that didn't happen. However, Micah was off the whole week we got back, so he helped me go into party planning mode when we were back and caught up on sleep. Anyway, we just did a little dessert party with a few friends and family. Little party, big fun! I figure a 1st birthday party is totally for the parents. Other than pictures, Kaden won't remember it. But we will, and we're glad we did it!

Kaden's Kandy Shop. (Yes, I realize it's spelled wrong. K for Kaden) The kids especially loved going home with a bag of candy.

 The birthday boy's seat!

 Kids, and adults, had fun coloring! Who knew a couple of coloring books, crayons & markers would be such a hit!

 Some of the sweets we had. Cupcakes, chocolate covered Oreos, ice cream sundaes, fruit pizzas, fruit kabobs, etc.

 Kaden was fascinated with the candles. He kept reaching for them. 

 He was not, however, as big of a fan of the icing. Apparently my little boy has a clean side to him. He just wanted it off!

 The clean cookie he could feed to himself was a hit though!

 And presents were lots of fun!! The tissue paper was really fun, but once he figured out there was even more in the bag, that was fun too!

 If only you all could enjoy the expression and sound he had when he got a glimpse of this bag of balls!

 If this boy likes anything, it's balls!

 He also loved this way cool toy his daddy picked out!

 And he was right in the middle of the ball fight that happened. He can throw a ball with the rest of the big boys!

 Once the party was over, he relaxed and had a little fun in the sun. 

 With some of his new toys. Every kid needs a bucket & shovel for the pool!

 I'm not sure who had more fun with the toys, Kaden or daddy. 

 We had such a fun day celebrating our little guy! I can't believe how grown up he is already!

 After the pool, he went right back to all of his new toys. There's so many new things to explore!

Thanks to all who came to celebrate, and those who celebrated in spirit!!!