November...

Maybe I should make this a monthly blog...

November was busy. Caden turned three on November 5. It is amazing. I had about two weeks of telling people he was two before I remembered that he was actually three. His birthday fell on Monday, and we had to work of course, so we woke up that morning and sang him Happy Birthday. That night, we gave him his birthday present, the tee-ball set we had bought him. Then he was able to play it for a few minutes before the sun went down.

We also took Caden to Nemo on Ice on November 3rd for his birthday. He absolutely loved it. He watched the people skate around and loved it. He thought it was great. The seats were a little bit high, and I almost had an anxiety attack getting to them!!! Luckily, the arena was not sold out, so we were able to move down. We got out of there only spending $30 on useless toys that cost $5 to make and lasted about 2 days once we brought them home. Not bad, considering we only paid $15 for our tickets.

After Finding Nemo, we went to The Cheesecake Factory with my friend Cecilia. It was good, and Caden thoroughly enjoyed his bananas and ice cream sundae. We saw a man propose to a woman while we were there, and she accepted! It was funny, because all the waiters and people in the restaurant were watching them out the window (they were sitting on the terrace).

On November 10 we had Caden's birthday party. Rob's Mom came down for it, and Caden loved seeing his Grandma. We also bought Caden his Big Boy bed, which he loves. The party was great. We had a few people over, a lot of food and cake. The kids all ran around outside and played with chalk and play-doh. The weather was wonderful for November--in the 70s! Couldn't ask for a better day.

Caden, of course, missed his nap. After everyone left he opened all his presents and then quickly fell asleep on my lap. He didn't even realize that he was sleeping in a new bed until he woke up in the middle of the night!!!

Our biggest accomplish of the month has been POTTY TRAINING!!! As you can tell I am extremely excited about this!!! The week before Thanksgiving I put him in underwear and we never looked back. Even with a trip to the zoo and a birthday party that weekend we managed to pull it off with just a few accidents. By the next weekend he wasn't having any accidents! We are so excited!!!

Thanksgiving in Nashville was great too, and Rowan is growing like a weed. We missed Kelsey and Chris and their families, but it was wonderful to see Aunt Susan and Gigi and all my cousins and their families. Caden loved Megan who is nine, and followed her around and wanted her to pick him up all the time!!! He also played great with Corbin.

Now the month is wrapping up, and its almost time for Christmas...time to get started on the shopping!

Three Years of Caden...

Caden will be three on November 5...Monday. I cannot believe it. I was looking through my photo albums online, and I thought I'd post some pictures of him over the years.

It is hard to believe that he has been here for 3 years. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. I woke up at 5 AM that morning having contractions. I told Rob that he could go to work, because most likely it would be awhile. I called my Mom, who was upset, because her plane wasn't flying in until the next day. By 2:30 in the afternoon, Rob and I had a mostly bald 7 pound 11 oz little boy. Luckily, my Mom was able to get an earlier flight the next day, so she was able to see her new grandson before he was even 24 hours old.

The first year flew by. Between the sleepless nights, the constant diaper changes, the first smiles and giggles--before we knew it Caden was 1 year old. A lot happened that year. We moved so that I could stay home. Rob got a new job. Caden just grew in leaps and bounds. By six months he was crawling and right around his first birthday he started walking! He would say "All done," around 10 months because he just didn't like to eat. This picky-ness is still a part of his personality, and I attribute it to the fact that Rob is such a picky eater. We had a big birthday that year, with about 25 of our closet friends and relatives and their CHILDREN. It was wild, and Caden unfortunately was not in the best mood. We did realize on his first birthday though that Caden LOVED sugar. He had a cake which was his first taste of processed sugar, and since that time he hasn't turned back.

Caden's second year was full of changes too. We had a great time doing playgroups, story time and meeting lots of great people. We met some of our best friends during that year--some whom I thought Caden would grow up with. However, in September we decided that we would move back home. Plans were made, and I got a job, and we ended up moving in October. Caden loved being around Big Mommy. It took him awhile to adjust to daycare, but now he LOVEs it! His vocabulary expanded by leaps and bounds. He was saying a new word every day. He used to love this book, and every time we read it he would point out the "Jack in the Box" and say "Jack 'o Box." It was the cutest thing.

This year Caden's growth and maturity has been amazing. He talks in full paragraphs all of the time. He has fears of monsters, specific likes and dislikes, and he even has "best friends" at school. It is amazing to watch how he transferred from a little baby into a child. He is getting bigger every day. Our biggest challenge this year has been discipline, but we are working on it, and Caden is starting to respond more and more. His favorite toys right now are Diego and CARS. He carries Lightening McQueen around everywhere we go (I can't even tell you how many times I've had to replace him!). He says the funniest things, and he loves to be the center of attention. We are having a party for him next weekend, complete with a CARS cake, and some friends of ours and their children. Grandma is even flying in for it! We know we will have a great time, and this will be the first of many more birthdays to come!

Caden's Third Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween. We had a great day. Caden has been asking when he could trick-or-treat for about a month now. The child LOVES Candy! We had decided he would be Tigger, mostly because we had a hand-me-down Halloween costume that fit him. He was all set to be Tigger and about a week before Halloween he wanted to be a lion. He was a lion last year, so Rob and I convinced him that Tigger was just as great, because Tigger was a tiger and could roar too. That seemed to be enough for him.

Halloween morning, we got up and Caden dressed in his costume. They had a parade and trick-or-treating in the hallway at his school. I attended, and it was very cute to see all the kids dressed up. Caden's little girlfriend, Hannah, was wearing a Dorothy costume. She kissed Caden about three times and told him she loved him. It was so cute!

After school, we headed up to Chris' house to trick-or-treat with Kiersten, Kyle and Kaileigh. Josh was off trick-or-treating with his friends. Rob finally made it there, after taking a detour to see the county prison (he kept going instead of turning left). Caden did a good job walking most of the time. At one point, Rob put him on his shoulders, but then Rob promptly walked Caden right into a branch of a tree. Now Caden has a few scratches on his nose. It was quite funny though.

He wracked up on the Halloween candy--so we will be chowing down on some yummy chocolate for quite awhile. Caden's favorites this year seem to be suckers and sweet tarts.

and baby makes 4!

So we are adding a new member to our family in May. We will no longer be a family of 3, instead we will be a family of 4. Caden is not so excited yet, but I know once the baby is here he will be fine. Plus, I am not showing at all so I know it is not entirely real to him yet. We are excited about the new addition to the family!

Today we had the ultrasound, and they moved up my due date to May 5. I am now 12 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Check out the picture, and let me know whether you think its a boy or girl! I'll tell you in a few months when we find out!

St. George Island

We went to the beach this week. I took a week off of work which was wonderful. My parents went up on Saturday to spend a few days alone before Caden, me, Jeff, Allison and Rowan came up.




We drove up on Tuesday. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there. My Mom still took Caden down and they walked on the beach for a bit. He loved running up and down the beach. We stayed in a three bedroom house. Caden and I stayed in the loft. We had to go up a spiral staircase to get there, and luckily Caden learned very quickly to be careful. There was a bathroom upstairs which was nice, because I couldn't imagine having to climb down those stairs blurry eyed in the middle of the night.





We had a great time. The first night Mom made shrimp which was delicious. Caden had lunch meat, because he would not eat the shrimp. He had a wonderful week of eating whatever he wanted, fruit snacks and candy mostly!





The next morning we woke up and made our way down to the beach early. Caden played in the sand a lot and ran up and down the surf. He was afraid of the water though, and he wouldn't even get in with me holding him. It was unusually rough for the whole time we were there, except for the last day.





Jeff's parents came up that day and we all went to lunch at The Blue Parrot. I had an oyster loaf which was great. Unfortunately, Caden was very tired from his day on the beach, and he threw a fit, complete with putting his Lightening McQueen car in the hole in the middle of the table. At the end of the lunch, we had to move all the plates out of the table and fish the car out. Caden was then happy, but promptly fell asleep in the car, much to our relief.





We also went to the bay one day for Caden to see the fiddler crabs. They are little crabs that crawl all over the place in the swampy area right next to the bay. We got there a little late, so there weren't many out there, but he was able to see some, plus we saw a huge blue crab in the water too, and we found many hermit crabs which Caden was clearly impressed by. He also found a cane fishing pole which he pretended to fish with! It was so cute.





One morning we woke up before the sun rose (7:20 AM), and we were all sitting on the front porch watching the sun rise. Caden was in a pull-up on the porch with us. Next thing we know, he's headed down to the beach. He started running on the beach as fast as he could. Both Mom and I ran after him, but he was too fast for us! Finally he stopped running and waited for us, but he must have gone at least a mile! I can't wait to get this kid into sports.



Baby Rowan has gotten so big as you can see from his picture! He is smiling and giggling now and is just so adorable! We had a great time with him too, holding him, rocking him and trying to make him smile all week long!


All in all it was a nice trip to the beach--just a little too short!

October Overview--So Far

This month has been eventful to say the least. We have been very busy, going on trips, seeing friends, and now getting ready to go to the beach. Rob and I have barely seen each other this month, as he has not been able to go out of town with me, and now he is out of town in Rhode Island and I haven't been able to go with him.

Caden is growing like a weed too. His 3 year appointment will be next month and we will get to see how much he weighs and how tall he was. He seems like he has been putting on a lot of weight lately which is good. His appetite has increased too which is a good thing, because he has never been a good eater.

At the beginning of the month we spent a weekend in Nashville visiting Rowan and Allison. Aunt Kelsey also flew down to see baby Rowan so that was a treat. Caden had a hard time with jealousy issues. He mostly ignored the baby, but he had a hard time listening to me when I told him no that weekend. I know he was jealous when I held the baby so that is going to be really hard when our next one comes along in May. Rowan is getting so big! I think when I see him at the beach this week he will be a chunky little guy.

This weekend some of my friends came into town for the Montgomery Academy reunion. We went to the football game on Friday night to see them. It was fun, but I did not get to socialize a lot because Caden was so busy running around and away from me especially. Lois, Stacy's Step-Mom, offered to watch him for a little while which was really nice. I was able to talk to Stacy, Andrea, Leslie, Courtney and Caroline for a little while. It was nice.

Today we went over to Stacy's to watch the football game and socialize a little bit more. Caden was great and he played in the backyard for a long time! He loved it. He also played with his cars, while we all chated. Baby Ethan was asleep so we didn't get to see him very much. But I was able to see Susan and Marshall and they looked great!

Funny things Caden has done/said these few weeks:

Rob was going to spend the night at my Mom's house on Wednesday night because he had to go to the airport in the morning. Rob and I hadn't told Caden he was going to the airport, because we knew Caden would be upset. My Mom said "Daddy's going to be riding on the airplane tomorrow!" Rob said "Shh don't tell him that!" and My Mom said "Why?" Then Caden said "Because I'll throw a fit!" We all thought it was the funniest thing!

Caden's Idea

I was out of town all of last week, at FACTs school for work. Financial, Analysis and Credit Training. It was hard to be away from Caden, but I think every parent needs to do it sometimes. It was nice to have a break from him, but I was certainly glad to see him when I got home.

Well, I came home on Friday, and went to my Mom's house to pick him up. He greeted me with a huge smile and hug and wouldn't let go of me for about three hours. Mom and I decided to go to Panera for lunch.

We were eating at Panera. (Caden just loves their Broccoli Cheese soup) and Caden said, "Mommy I have an idea!"

I said "What kind of idea Caden?"

and he said "Its a Purple Idea." End of story. He kept saying this all day. Of course, today he changed it to "Its a Brown Idea." I have no idea where he gets these things from.

He also has really learned his A, B, Cs and his 1,2,3s. He can count all the way to 20 with little prompting. He knows when he is holding 1, 2 or 3 toys. And today, we were watching Noggin. They were talking about the letter B and Zee (the little blue bird on the cartoon) said "Can you name some things with the "bah" sound, and Caden immediately said "Bah, Bah, Brown!" He was so proud of himself.

September 1, 2007

This post is not about Caden, but I don't have another blog so I'm writing about my life here too. You all will just have to suffer through it! ;-)

This weekend one of my friends, Susan, was married to her fiancee Marshall. We went to the wedding on Saturday night. The wedding was in an old church in Wetumpka with beautiful ceilings and amazing stained glass windows. The ceremony went well and they combined the Methodist religion and the Jewish traditions in the ceremony which was really neat.

The reception was at the Civic Center. The food was wonderful and the chocolate cake was to die for! I had dinner with Ashley's parents while I waited for my friends to come from taking pictures with Susan.

Rob had a great time having a few gin and tonics. He liked the food as well, although he felt the roast beef guy was a little stingy. I told him to just go back for seconds.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures of Susan and Marshall came out. I will just have to wait to get those from Stacy. Mine were all too dark, and when I tried to lighten them the quality deteriorated. But, Susan's dress was gorgeus, and you could just see how much she and Marshall loved each other as they said their vows and had their first dance together.

The best thing about the wedding was seeing my friends again. It was amazing to see that everyone had a significant other with them. Stacy and Amir were together, and they had left their 8 week old son Ethan with Stacy's Dad and Step-Mom. I met Ashley's new boyfriend Mark who was very nice. I also met Andrea's boyfriend Sam, who was upset that Auburn was losing (even though they pulled it out by then end of the night!) I caught up with Allie and John as well, as they had come up from Louisiana.

It is great to celebrate with people that you love and you've known forever. It is great to see everyone getting married, having children, and establishing themselves in their lives. I hope that we all keep in touch like this for many more years to come.

Leslie--we missed you, but I had a great time talking to your parents!

Caden's New Cousin

Caden's new cousin, Rowan, was born yesterday 8/28/07 at 9:34 PM. He weighed 5 lbs and 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. He is doing well.

We can't wait to go up and see him next week. Uncle Jeff called him Ro-ro in the video, so Caden asked if he could hold Baby Ro-Ro. He is adorable, and we love him already. Now we're just ready to meet him!

Allison is doing well and my Mom says that Jeff is really attached to the baby! His family and my parents are up there helping them out.

Soccer, Babies and Life in General

Rob and his soccer team played on Sunday against a team called "Racing." Apparently only five of their players showed up. They were pretty upset about half the team missing. Rob was goalie again, and he even came out to play the field a little bit because they were down some men. They scored 4 points this time. Final Score: 4-17. Poor Rob--but he seems to be taken in stride and like a good sportsman as well which is good.

Today is the 27th, and I worked all day. It was a non-eventful day at work. I called my Mom and my sister Alli. Alli had another ultrasound today, and they will induce tomorrow, the 28th, at 6 AM. Hopefully, I will have a new baby nephew by nightfall tomorrow night!

Kelsey started her first day of work too and seems to enjoy it. I spoke to her a while about how to control a 2 year old. I think I might be investing in some literature on various discipline methods that will work. Lately, I don't think anything works with Caden--but hopefully he will realize eventually that he won't sit in time out if he behaves. We shall see.

I spoke to my Dad tonight too, and he is getting ready to travel up to see Alli and the new little one. We will be dog and cat-sitting and we will probably sneak a few dips in the pool when we're over there too!

This weekend one of my friend's from middle & high school is getting married in Wetumpka. It will be nice to see all of my high school friends again. Plus, I get to meet Stacy's baby Ethan, and I am super excited about that! I can't wait to hold him!!!

My Little Artist

Caden absolutely loves to paint. We have all sorts of paints, all of them washable of course. The other day, we decided to paint and Caden used his paintbrush, but also his hands and his feet. He really had a wonderful time. I helped a little too.

I also had a small paint set with these little figurines to be painted, and Caden loved doing that as well. It is amazing to see what makes him happy and what he likes to do as he gets bigger and bigger every day.

Yesterday,

we also bought a pre-school workbook so that he could learn his numbers and alphabets. Caden already knows all of his colors.

The workbook is great, because he can use crayons, markers and paints to do the activities. His attention span is still a little short to do some of the numbers and letters, but he will grow into doing those. He finished 2 pages of it yesterday on the colors and did a great job!

High Heels, anyone?

Today, Caden and I drove up to Birmingham to see my friend Cecilia. I went to high school with her, and she recently moved to Birmingham after getting a job at Regions, our competitor! I wanted to see her place and also see my friend Marie from high school, who I hadn't seen since I ran into her on the highway our freshman year in college.

She lives in a beautiful apartment building in Birmingham. It is a spacious two bedroom with wood floors. They were still unpacking, and while Cecilia got ready we sat around and talked to Marie and played with their new puppy. Caden also proceeded to dump all the change out of a pink pig piggy bank that Cecilia had completely filled up. I asked him to fill it up, and this was actually a good deversion for him while we were waiting. By the time we left for lunch, he had painstakingly put all the coins back into the piggy bank.

We decided to go to Nabeel's for lunch, a Greek restaurant, in Homewood. After a wonderful lunch of gyros, grape leaves, hummos and chips, and one screaming child, we stopped back by their apartment for a quick diaper change, and then headed on to the Summit for shopping.

Cecilia was looking for a new brown pair of shoes for work, so we went to Parisians. They were having a huge shoe sale, but she didn't see what she wanted. She picked up some fancy red shoes, and here comes Caden saying "I want to try those on!" He loves high heels and he often gets into my closet and walks around our house with them (as you can tell from the picture above). So, he took off his crocs, and put on the bright red high heels. He started walking up and down the aisles of Parisians and everyone was staring and laughing at him. Several people remarked that it was so cute. One couple was amazed at how well he can walk in heels.

Restaurants and 2 Years Old

Sometimes I wonder what possesses Rob and me to go out to eat with Caden.

Tonight, after a long day of work Rob and I did not feel like cooking. We came home, and Caden was in just the best mood. He let me change his diaper, but did not try to go potty, and then we decided to go off to Kabuki, the local Japanese place.

We had Hibachi, because Rob refuses to eat sushi despite the fact that I keep telling him how good it is. He refuses to eat much, and this is one thing that unfortunately Caden has inherited from Rob.

Well we go to the restaurant, and it was already packed at 6:00. They sat us immediately though, next to a couple with a 7 year old girl and a 13 year old girl. Caden sat between Rob and me in the highchair. Things started out well, because we had brought along poptarts to persuade Caden to be good and eat something. Well, he finished the poptarts in a few seconds flat, and then it was downhill from there.

About the time we ordered, another couple came and sat down next to Rob. Perhaps, I feel the worse for this couple, who had left their 2 year old at home so they could enjoy a nice, quiet dinner out on their anniversary.

Caden was extremely scared of the fire, and he kept hiding which was fine. Then, he got interested in the chopsticks. He played with mine and then threw them on the floor. Then he played with his Lightening McQueen and then threw that on the floor. This was all before we had finished our salad.

Things looked up when our hibachi chef came. Caden loved it when he clinked the utensils, and he told the chef that he wanted to try (of course Caden's request was not granted). Then the fire came, and we quickly covered Caden's face. When we took the cover off, the chef squirted water at him, which shocked him and made him scowl, which everyone at the table laughed at.

About this time things went way downhill. The "I want to go home and I want to go outsides," started streaming from Caden's mouth. We felt like we were silently urging the chef to cook faster, as he piled fried rice, veggies, and steaks on our plates; Rob and I were in a race to finish so we could avoid the all embarrassing meltdown.

But, alas, we could not avoid it. About four bites into my steak, Caden started saying he wanted to go outside. When Rob explained that Daddy and Mommy had to finish eating first, Caden began to scream, ear-piercingly on the top of his lungs, and I think the whole restaurant looked at us. Luckily, our table was child-friendly and they all smiled and nodded knowingly.

Rob quickly ducked outside with Caden, while I finished up and paid the bills. At this point, I thought the whole meltdown was done, silly me.

I paid and talked to the couples next to me, then went outside to find Caden doing laps on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and the nearby stores. I believe this child should start cross-country running right now! Anyone want to sign a 2 year old? Well, I was ready to go and I said "Caden, why don't we get ice cream now?" Well he said no, and continued to run. Both Rob and I said it was time to go, and he threw a major fit. Getting him into the car was fun. Ever heard of the "stiff as a board baby," because that was Caden tonight. Plus, he hit me, which made me even more upset than I already was. Then we told him he couldn't have ice cream because he didn't listen, and he cried all the way home. Poor kid.

So, maybe going out in the long run isn't easier than staying in. At least at home, Caden can color or watch TV, or run laps around the living room while we're cooking. The food is good when you go out, but if you can't enjoy it then why go?

Long Time No Post!

Well I haven't posted in a long time, and I felt like updating my blog. Almost everyone who reads this will know that we have moved to Alabama.

Caden is going to be 3 in November! Isn't that crazy? He is in daycare, and he's doing very well. This summer he has reached a lot of new milestones. He is swimming without floaties. He's starting to potty train too! It is great, because at this point I'm really tired of changing dirty diapers.

Caden has adjusted well to being in daycare. He has some great friends, and we've met some great people here too. One of Caden's favorite thing to do after school is to watch Rob play soccer. Rob is on an indoor soccer team with his job. They play on Sundays and sometimes on Wednesdays. Caden will stand right next to the window and say "Go Daddy Go!!!" It is the cutest thing.

Two year olds are full of energy! I don't think Caden stays still for more than 1 minute of a time. His favorite pastimes are running, playing in the pillows, jumping off our furniture, and painting all of his body parts when we go outside to paint! He thinks that all paints are meant for your hands and feet, but hey, you can only be a toddler once huh?

Things that happened this month:
Beginning of August: My Mom broke her foot, had a cast, and recently had the cast removed. My friend Katherine's son, Danny, was born.

August 16-20th: Grandma came to visit from Rhode Island. We had a great time hanging out, showing her how Caden could swim, looking at houses, and visiting Old Alabama Town.

Mid-August: My sister Allison was put on bed rest. She is due in September with her 1st, a little boy! She is now going to be induced next Tuesday August 28, so we are all looking forward to her new little bundle of joy.

August: My sister Kelsey got a job as a teacher aide. She starts at the end of the month!

Rob and his team, the Colonial Cosmos, ended up losing all 3 of their games. I think they are in the wrong soccer league. This last game they scored 2 points, I just won't mention that the other team scored 13! Yikes! (He'll probably be mad I wrote this!)