These past few months were all good to us. March was a little crazy, but overall it's been good. Busy with a newborn in the house, keeping up with both boys, adjusting to working from home and finding a good balance between our new family of four, immediate family, and friends. Time sure does fly by quick these days.
We got a beautiful snow fall in January. It was soft, fluffy and so pretty. It was cold, but not too cold while it fell, which allowed us to sneak outside for a quick observation before bundling up more and enjoying it. I love to see Cadens reaction towards new things and this was the first year we got to play in the snow together, more so during a February snow fall, and it was a blast. He's at such a fun age and has a great sense of humor, always ready to play and have fun!
He looks so tiny here. There are many moments I think, wow, Caden is getting so big, and then in different settings it shrinks him down again and my heart can take a quick breath of relief that my baby isn't a teenage boy right before my eyes...just yet at least. Never fear, need help shoveling? Our toddler is on the job! No matter what we may be doing, he is always wanting to try to do it and help us out. Luckily, God has given us a good insight on patience and we've, thus far, been good at letting him help to the extent that he can. It makes us stop, and slow down, not getting things done nearly as fast or accurately, but definitely so worth it.
After Reid was born I ventured out one night to get some groceries and some things to pass the time and entertain Caden at home. So, to start I got a bucket, beans, and measuring cups to play with; Washable paint, paintbrushes, plain paper and some extra large Mickey pictures to paint; and some yarn, beads and straws to make bracelets and necklaces. The first two are always a good go to and he loves...the last, not so much. The yarn was much too thick to string things on and it just didn't catch his interest. Oh well-can't win 'em all and two out of three is passing in my books. (Plus, I started a random wreath project now using the fail yarn so hopefully that at least puts it to good use...)
This was just a sad few days for us. Caden sounded like he was getting a little cold one morning/afternoon, and then after naps had a little cough and I thought for sure a cold at that point. Then, that evening between 4-6 he just rapidly got worse and worse. His breathing quickly became labored, he was raspy in his breaths and cough, he got extremely dreary looking, looked exhausted. I just couldn't shake it off that we needed to take him in despite the hesitation of not wanting to over react. I am so glad I just followed my gut and took Caden to the ER. He ended up having croup. He did two breathing treatments, and it wasn't until after the second that we really saw some improvement, enough to allow us to go home and not have over night monitoring. We were there about 7-11, then got home and I made camp in his room afraid of any digression that could happen. So slept on his floor, which we soon joined and took up all of the makeshift blanket bed, and thence started the going back and forth between night feedings with a newborn and floor sleeping next to my sick little guy.
It lingered about a week, and was a long few days with more breathing treatments throughout, but he was a champ through it all and we got through it without Reid catching anything which was a bonus!
Early January we had our good friends Josh and Jayne come to Wichita for a visit. Love getting to catch up and hang out with them, and we got a long overdue family game night in with it as well! We attempted to teach my oldest nephew how to play Settlers. I think he had a good time, but unfortunately for him it's a long game, we all hadn't hung out for a long time, we face timed my brother during it, and Jayne and I even started doing our nails at one point. so.much.going.on. It was chaos, but so fun. Also got to try a Moscow mule for the first time. Pretty dang yummy, and for some reason I just love the cool copper cup you drink them out of-pretty sure that's have the attraction.
Caden is straight up awesome. He can be a spit fire, for sure, but man he's fun and funny. He is a quick little guy when it come to learning-already singing the alphabet pretty well, counts from 1-10, and after watching shows a few times he is already repeating what they say as they say it. That's what he's doing in picture no. uno, I can't remember what he was saying but he was saying it along with the show and with just as much enthusiasm. Pic no. two was when I cleaned out our junk drawer and he wanted to help. It was basically a 'toss in the trash fest' and he loved it. I'd hand him something and say 'trash!', he'd repeat and throw away! Until we got to these awesome shades-then we had to have a little fun with the deal.
I randomly had the idea of taking Caden to Braums sometime. There is one close by and after driving by it a few times, and knowing his love for ice cream, or anything sweet, I randomly thought that would be fun taking him and Reid to get out and just get a little treat. Then, one evening we had some time to kill before bed and I mentioned it to Gary. He was on board, so off we went! Caden was super excited and got to try their birthday cake ice cream. He loved it! Made me remember when I used to get a birthday cake/cotton candy mix from Coldstone when I was a teenager-oh how I wish I had all that metabolism back!
This happened. It was bound to happen-once I get my hair good and long I soon cut it. It's inevitable. Looking at that those long pretty curls I think, oh dang...I wish I had those, how cute. But the long hair annoyed me. The positive was I could do 2nd, 3rd, 4th day hair with more ease. BUT the negatives: I got headaches from the ponytails/buns, it was more work to do styling, I am odd and if I had anything on with my shoulders exposed it would just annoy the heck out of me when it touched me, it erked me when I slept; always getting stuck under my head and annoying me. But those curls though...those are cute and fun. Not sure...maybe some day I'll grow it out, just to cut it again, but for now I've committed to the short locks and am loving it!
Outside paint, aka water, cornstarch and food coloring. He loves it and obviously we got a little cabin fever because we busted it out one day even when there was still some snow on the ground.
After I got the new do I was spending some time with it the next day figuring out my new style and how I wanted to wear it, yada yada...all the while Caden took it upon himself to play with the dogs food. I could hear him being up to no good and told him a few times from afar to leave their food alone, but let's be honest-I had to figure out my new fro. So, because I put my hair before my monitoring duties there was dog food everywhere an I found him giggling as he scooted around in it. Oh man. The life of a toddler.
Our sweet neighbors let Caden borrow their wooden train track and he was on cloud nine. Shortly after my sister gave Caden their train table and wooden tracks that her kids grew up playing with as well so we are usually track happy around here. It's faded a little since it's gotten to be nice out and the kid would probably choose to live outside if we let him, but I'm pretty sure tracks will never get old for this one. One of his big love languages is obvious-quality time. He just wants you to play and spend time doing things together. You give him your full attention building and playing with tracks and he's bound to be a happy kid.
Well, shoot, this one got out of order-but one day I hung out over at my sisters to do color her hair and had a little hair/photo session with my niece. Erin offered me a glass of wine while her color processed and I sure did take her up on that yummy treat, then Bethany and I played a long overdue Game of Life (but this was on her smart tablet, and I swear her points tripled each time and later noticed she had a little x12 next to her name so I'm suspicious...), then after complaining about my long locks and telling her I was going to cut them salon Bethany came to the rescue and gave me some little braids all throughout my hair. Love that girl.
Caden has beautiful hazel eyes that seem to show off a few different shades. One day they were a gorgeous green while he wore a deep green shirt. I was trying to show him his pretty eyes, but all he would do was make faces at the camera so I just captured that instead. Little goofball.
One of the many random picture we try to send to daddy during the day sharing our love with him while he's at work.
My sister had these bear prints she used with her kids and they would do little bear hunts. She would hide something and lead the prints to it and they would follow and find. I need to try them again, but at the time he just didn't get the idea and instead put all his little Jake the Neverland Pirate toys on them.
Caden is now always wanting to get into the dryer. I remember doing this as a kid and getting it to turn and spin around when I was in it. My parents said it's too dangerous and didn't even believe me when I told them I did it-sure, it can be dangerous if he shut himself in there and we didn't know, but we are very vocal with him about not being allowed in there unless we say and we are always around and know when he is in it. I mean, we're vocal about a lot of things and he doesn't listen, so I'm not saying we're in the clear-but at least something we're trying to be safe about and just choosing to let him have fun with this one.
After only a few months of winter, as soon as it's above freezing out, you'll find us outside whenever possible. Caden got this cool Thomas train from my sister at his second birthday. It was a large set of circle tracks it can go on, but can also go off on it's own. Not so much on the grass, but cruises along just fine around the house or pavement. Caden still has yet to learn how to steer it well, but even older kids seems to love taking it for a spin!
We ventured out to a trampoline park for the first time this winter. It was a blast. I had my in-laws watch Reid so I wouldn't have to hold myself back-which I should have somewhat because I got a killer headache afterwards! The first time we went downtown and with Caitlin and Caysen. They are some of our besties. The boys are less than a week a part and play great together. So, we try to get them together to do different things when we can. Caitlin is a nurse and works part time, and now with my days having more flexibility and being home hopefully we'll be able to get in more time together for our sake and theirs!
The day my sister dropped off the train table we skipped naps and hit up the park with her and her kiddos. Caden loves all his cousins and is always so excited when he gets to see them. These kids crack me up-they were screaming all the way down the slide and making the funniest faces on their way down. Love their simple ability to enjoy the little things in life-kind of like having childlike faith-sometimes jealous of that as well...
We had awesome neighbors just across the way. They have always been kind and helpful-I remember when Caden was born we still didn't know them very well and she came over shortly after dropping off gift for him. Sadly, it wasn't even until after Reid when she did the same thing that we really connected and got Caden and Chris together to play. They have seven kids, ranging from four years old, Chris, to high school. They are always willing to help by taking Caden to play for a while so when Jen picked up some extra work for a few weeks I offered to watch Chris once a week for a morning, since his dad works third and giving him some time to catch up on sleep.
SO the boys got to get together to play, play, and play some more. They always have a good time together-Caden loves hanging out with them. Chris has a few younger siblings that have been good at playing with Caden as well and we have had them over/they have had Caden over-it's a fun set up and great to have neighbor friends. Very fun and also very helpful at the same time!
Last but not least, just a little funny. Caden loves to help us cook, the only downside is trying to constantly keep him from also taking bites as we cook. Making enchiladas, he always bites into the tortillas; pasta, he'll even start eating the uncooked pasta; cutting up fruit is guaranteed to have pieces missing along the way. So it wasn't a surprise when he took a bite out of a frozen egg roll either...then, turn your back for a second and he adds a 'little' salt to it as well. Gross. My sister is an over-salter and I am definitely not, so I had to send her this picture when it happened. Sometimes his help isn't always so helpful, but at least he's interested in trying, right?!
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