March Haps

I realize we lost an hour this week, but why does it feel as if I've lost about 20 instead? I have a million posts to make, but it feels as if I just don't have time to sit and write (Which incidentally is a bummer. I'm kind of digging it!), so instead I'm just going to mush the first 2 1/2 weeks of March into one big 'ol post. Maybe that will help me get back on track!

So far this month we have...

Been to the doctor ('member I told you our good news here?)

Celebrated Gram's 72nd Birthday

I must explain the candles. We didn't have any regular birthday candles (I'm not naming any names about who was supposed to bring them. I'm just saying, it wasn't me...), just a few random numbers, so we were resourceful. We had a 5, 3, 3, and 1. We decided 5+3-1=7 and 3-1= 2. That gave us 72! Clever, huh? This was a bitter sweet birthday celebration because Gramps' birthday is 3 days before Gram's and for 55 years they have always celebrated their birthdays together. This year Gram had to blow the candles out all by herself. She did an excellent job and Donna hosted a great party. Caden enjoyed himself as well...

He got to "share" Grandpa K's beer and...

...play with Nana's "treasures!"

Caden has also learned how fun cabinets can be. Here is what he did while I cooked dinner one night.

Do you see his onesie? It says, "I love Mommy..."

And how do I feel about that? Well...

We also got to play with my parents while they were here for two weeks.

We went to the mall and played at the play area

We went to dinner at the White Fence Farm. It was Caden's first trip to our favorite chicken place, and although it was too cold to play outside and pet the animals, he still loved it, and we had visions of the fun we would have in the future!

Caden also got a lot of play time with Grammy and Papa

Papa cheated. He totally had the faster truck!

Wow, and that was only the first half of March?!? Yikes, I can't imagine what the rest of the month will hold!

He's Got It!

As I have shared over and over again, Caden's pediatrician is concerned about his communication skills - not waving bye-bye, etc. I have been working diligently on bye-bye. We say bye-bye when anyone leaves the room, to our toys at bedtime, you get the idea. That's what good teachers do - identify a problem and then work to fix it, over and over again. By golly, I believe it worked!

Here is Caden (and Daddy!) waving bye-bye to me before I left for the weekend.

I was headed to our church's women's retreat while JZ and Caden stayed home alone for two nights. That's the longest the boys have ever been alone - 48 whole hours! They both did fantastic. Caden slept great for Daddy, they went on a walk, jammed on the guitar, and even went out to breakfast on Sat. morning. I do, however, think JZ was happy to see me yesterday afternoon :)

And me? I am home feeling energized, refreshed, but NOT rested! My one chance to sleep soundly for two whole nights and what do I choose to do? Stay up all night long with 6 of my favorite girls to gossip and solve all the problems of the world of course! It was a perfect weekend!

Here we are in our matching pjs!

The girls are from my small group. This weekend we realized that we have been meeting twice a month for the last 5 years. When we first started there were only 5 kids between the seven of us, now we have 13! They are amazing examples of super cool, insightful, Christian women. Yet another example of why I'm a lucky gal! If you have any problems you need solved, let us know, we're extremely good at problem solving!

Double Digit Baby

Aaaugh, my baby is now in the double digits - 10 months old!

Today I (along with my mom) took Caden back to the doctor for his growth check. No worries here, he looks great!

He is still 28.5 inches long (55%)

20 lbs (29% - although he only gained .7 lb in a month, we were all pleased he had gained any weight considering how sick he was for half of the month. He easily could have lost and then regained close to 2 lbs over the month)

His head was 17.5 inches. This is the reason that we had to go back - because his head had grown an inch in 3 months. For those not keeping track (ha!), his head was 17 in. at 6 months, 18 in. at 9 months, and 17.5 inches at 10 months. Hmmm, the doctor is pretty sure that heads don't shrink, so she's guessing that his head was mismeasured at 9 months. Whew!

She still wants me to take him to get his vision and hearing checked. I have been round and round with our insurance company about pediatric opthamology, but they finally found someone at Children's Hospital that I could take him to, so we're headed waaaaay down there on 3/22. I am also going to take him for a hearing screening the next day on 3/23. Seriously, how do people work and take their children to the doctor all the time?!?

She thinks that we can delay the developmental evaluation until after 12 months because he looks so good. We talked about his motor, communication, problem solving, and social skills. She witnessed his amazing motor skills (crawling all over the office, pulling up on the chair all the way up on his toesies!) and social skills (smiling and laughing at everyone that came in), and we talked a lot about the problem solving and communication skills. She is still a little concerned about his communication skills (words, waving bye-bye, etc.), which is why she wants to test his hearing; to make sure he is hearing the words we're saying. I'm fine with that. I really think his communication will come just like everything else he does - nothing and then all of a sudden he will be talking in complete sentences!

I was so relieved to hear all of the good news! I have definitely learned a good lesson through all of this - make sure you fill out all questionnaires very carefully and don't be too hard on your kiddo! Must be the teacher in me! :)

Florida Part Deux

Just before Valentine's Day we headed to Florida for a little fun in the sun. Well, we thought we were headed to fun in the sun. What we ended up with was a little different.

Here is Caden helping us pack

Unfortunately, it was SUPER cold in FL while we were there. Trust me. I am well versed in cold weather, and this was COLD! No swimming pool or beach for us this time!

Caden also got very sick while we were there. He got some sort of stomach virus that took over 10 days to run its course. I won't share the details, but if you just imagine The Exorcist you'll get the idea. Poor baby never did run a fever, but he did stop eating for awhile. There were two nights that we said, "If he doesn't eat in the morning we'll have to take him to the ER." Luckily, each morning he woke up hungry. I did call the pediatrician twice and they told me just to watch for dehydration, but that it would probably take 10-14 days for it to pass. Yikes. We were in FL for 13 days and he was sick, sick, sick, for 11 of them. That put a damper on our vacation!

Nevertheless, we were able to have some fun. We arrived two days before Valentine's Day.

Caden loved listening to Papa and his quartet practice their singing Valentines.

I also enjoyed listening to my Valentine song. They're singing Daddy's Little Girl to me

Caden did learn two new tricks while we were there...

How to cook

And play the piano

And before we knew it, we were landing in Denver again.

I won't lie. Traveling with an active, mobile, 9 month old is hard. However, getting to see him play with his Great-grandma Brazil makes it worth it (I think!)

Ketchup

A little game of "ketchup" today....
(if you were in 1st grade, you would think that was FUNNY!)

What have we been up to?

We'll call this one "helping"

Having playdates - these are Caden's friends Sophia and Ayden Sidwell. They just turned a year in Jan. Everyone is still in their jammies because we had a breakfast playdate.

Exploring the world and getting into everything. I don't have pictures of that because he's too fast these days.

And just for fun - here is what happens when Daddy is in charge...

I think they're both supposed to be napping, but it looks like only Daddy is catching some ZZZ's. Daddy's arms sure are comfortable though!

We've also been doing some traveling, more on that to come...

How Do You Spell Cute?

C...

...A...

...D...

...E...

...N!

What's that spell?

Caden, Caden, Caden!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Yesterday, Caden turned 9 months old - on the same day that I turned 32 (years, that is)! I tried to find a sticker for me to wear, but they don't go up that high. So instead you'll just have to settle for Caden by himself.

Today I took him for his 9 month check up. Here are the results of our visit - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

Caden is growing! He is now:

19.9 pounds (30% - seriously?!?)

28.5 inches (55%)

Head circumference - 18 in (60%)

She also noticed that that his bottom gums are very swollen and she expects a tooth to pop through the bottom anytime now. She thinks the top ones are still a ways out, but the bottoms one(s) should be here anytime.

The Bad

While is Caden is growing like a weed, and his motor skills are doing well, the doctor is a little concerned about some of his other development. She seems a little worried about some of the things he's not doing in the areas of communication, problem solving, and something else I can't think of right now - things like knowing I'm "mama", waving bye-bye, handing me a toy when I ask for it, and trying to get a Cheerio that's inside of a bottle. She thinks he's fine, but just to be on the safe side, she's referring him to Early Intervention Colorado. Eventually, if necessary, we may take him in for a more in-depth evaluation. They'll check his hearing, eyesight, and determine whether he really has some developmental delays or whether he just didn't like performing the tasks I was asking him to do or if we were too hard on him when we were filling out the evaluation. Maybe I marked "sometimes" when I should have marked "yes?" Maybe his problem-solving abilities are fine, he just doesn't try to get the Cheerio out of the bottle because he is distracted by trying to eat the bottle?

She also recommended that we take him to an eye doctor to check out his eyes. He has a rather large bridge (that's from me!) and it's hard to tell if both of his eyes are tracking the same because his bridge gets in the way!

We also have to go back in in a month for a growth check. The size of Caden's head has grown significantly since 6 months (it increased by 30%) and she wants to make sure that it doesn't continue to grow that rapidly. So...the plan is that in a month we'll go back in, check his head size, discuss his development, and then (hopefully!) laugh that we even thought he was delayed!

The Ugly

Well, that's what I looked like on my way home. I was doing, as Oprah calls it, the "ugly cry."

I know he's going to be fine. Even the doctor said she's sure he's fine. He's happy, smiley, and social. She said that the kiddo described on the questionnaire I filled out and the one she saw crawling around her office were not the same. In my heart, I know he's perfect, but still...no one wants to hear that their baby isn't perfect.

One day he'll be graduating from Harvard and I'll be laughing about this!