Our First Casualty

Yesterday we had our first casualty, a plant by the front door. This poor plant has been around forever and I have (unintentionally) tried to kill it by lack of watering many, many, times. It never bit the dust; however, it was no match for our little monkey. I caught him swinging from the limbs and before I could get there...

...down it went. Dirt everywhere. I did make sure to take a picture or two before I cleaned it all up.

Now, can we please have a moment of silence for our dear, departed plant

Thank You Tooth Fairy!

Poor Caden has been a toothless wonder for a long time. He has struggled getting his little toofers to come through, but FINALLY, they have! They popped through about a week ago and have slowly been growing ever since. Here are the best pics I could get of his two new teeth.

Big Boy Car Seat

Today was a big day for our little man. We decided to move him over to his big boy car seat. We have had both seats since January, and since he's so squishy in his infant seat and we were going to have him ride backwards anyway, we decided to go ahead and change him.

Here is his last ride in the infant seat

And just for fun, here was his first ride in the infant seat

Seriously, I'm wiping tears from my eyes now!

We made an appointment at the fire station for their tech to show us how to correctly install his seats into both of our cars. We debated on whether or not this was overkill - it's just a car seat right? Wrong! Have you seen these things? They're like spaceships! In the end, even JZ said he was glad to have someone trained in installing these puppies showing us how to do it correctly. The tech told us that fire fighters have to take a 40 hour course to become certified in car seat installation ( I'm sure that certificate is hanging on his wall!). I'm not sure why that is so shocking to me - that is pretty precious cargo!

Here is our GFD friend, Robert, helping JZ put the first seat into my car

While we were waiting, the nice GFD guys opened the bay for Caden and me and let us play on the fire trucks. The last time Caden got his picture taken on a fire truck was at Buffalo Bill Days. Little squidget was only 2 months old!

Caden was such a good boy that they said we could come back anytime. Maybe next time they'll let us slide down the pole!

In the end, our trip to the fire station was very successful

The jury is still out on whether or not he loves the new car seat. He has to face backwards until he is at least one, but we may be back there in two and a half weeks to turn him forwards. He didn't yell all the way home, but it's tough to say if that is because he was diggin' his new ride or because I let him have his pacifier. Either way, it was a lovely trip.

Yeah, I Know

I know it has been almost two weeks since I have posted. I'm sure you're probably missing Team Zahrte, although honestly, no one has even mentioned my lack of postings. Weird.

Anyway, I have a good excuse. See, the weather here has been so beautiful. And we got a cool new stroller. So, instead of posting on the blog, we have been walking and playing outside. A good choice, I believe. Today, on the other hand, is a little Seattle-ish. So here I am, updating the blog instead of doing laundry. Another good choice I believe!

So....what have we been up to? So glad you asked!

You already know that Caden is good at pulling everything out of the cabinets and cooking for us. Now he's now decided that recipes are necessary.

He's also been learning to play baseball

And doing gymnastics

My favorite part of this video is when he tries to figure out how to take a drink out of the sippy cup while still dragging the chair!

He's also started pushing things as walkers. Now, does he use the two walkers that we own? Nope he prefers the kitchen trash can and his dump truck. Unfortunately, the dump truck often dumps while he's holding on to it. Ouch. He also loves making the truck dump. One evening he put plastic Easter eggs into the truck and then dumped it. Over and over and over again.

Thanks Auntie Megan! Best. Gift. Ever.

JZ and I even got to go out one night. We went to the WOW! Children's Museum annual fundraising dinner. Last year it was a western theme, but since the event was 6 days before I delivered Caden, only JZ dressed up. This year we were all in for the pirate theme - Aaaaargh!

What is it that has Caden (and Daddy!) glued to the TV?

Handy Manny? Thomas? Elmo? Nope...

it was a Paul Simon concert DVD. He sat and watched for about 10 min, and he NEVER sits still for that long. That is Daddy's boy for sure!

I'm still not sure why I ever buy this boy toys. Here he is laughing while Daddy kicks around an empty diaper bag. He was laughing way more before I turned on the camera, but it's still cute anyway

It's hard to believe that he will be one in just two and a half weeks!

So Big!

Now that Caden is 11 months old...

...he can crawl up the stairs...

...and fall down them. He didn't make it all the way to the tile, just to one of the landings, but he did get his first bloody nose. We're working on turning around backwards to go down, but he's not getting that quite as quickly! (Pay no attention to the super soggy diaper. That's why we were heading upstairs!)

He loves "people" food. He now turns up his nose at pureed food and only wants what we're eating. Two nights ago he ate pot roast with us. I'm glad someone likes my cooking!

He can now show us "how big" he is (sometimes)

He can pull every cookbook, piece of tuperware, and bowl out of our cabinets/shelves

He has a few words - some we understand (Mama, Dada, Nana) and some we don't (Ba ga ga!)

He has also started having a little separation anxiety. He now cries when we leave him in the nursery at church or the gym and everytime Daddy goes into his office and closes the door - he is a TOTAL Daddy's boy!

It's hard to believe that one month from today is his 1st birthday - I only have one more sticker for him to wear! Happy 11th month Birthday Caden P - you're so big!

Happy He is Risen Day!

I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but what a difference a year makes!

Easter '09 - 35 weeks prego

Easter '10

Today has been an eventful, but fun day. We started off by going to church where we worshiped, had brunch, and Caden's first Easter Egg Hunt. He had no idea what was going on, but he thought the plastic eggs were great!

After a nap (for both of us!) we went to Gram's house for a late lunch/early dinner - one might call that linner?

(This is his personalized "My First Easter" onesie that my friend, Courtney, made him. I realize I cut off his head, but my subject is very wiggily. This was the best I could do!)

Don't worry, but Easter Bunny didn't forget our little munchkin. We were hoping he'd bring him some teeth, but no such luck - only books, toys, and snacks in his basket(s)

Wow! All of that made somebunny very tired!

(Caden says, "Thank you for my bunny Team Pouliot - it makes a great snuggle friend!"