Father's Day

Daddy was in Omaha for some meetings and the College World Series for 5 days. He got back late Saturday night...and since it was Father's Day, we let him sleep in for a little while. So, he didn't see the Caden baby until he got up from his morning nap. He went to go get him out of his crib and then they came back and laid on the couch together...and just laid...

Scott just rubbed his back and Caden didn't move a muscle! He missed his daddy...

Most of you know, I lost my dad 10 years ago. I miss him so much around Father's day, but now that I have Caden and we can celebrate Scott, Father's day has a whole new meaning. Although, I will always miss my dad on days like Father's day, I'm happy that I get to celebrate my husband as a father. And I know that my dad is looking down on us all the time and is soooo proud of his grandson. We will definitely make sure to tell him "Pops stories" when he gets older so that he knows what a wonderful grandfather he had. Love you, Dad!

Now a few pics...Do you think we are teething at all?

The crib and our furniture now have these cute teethmarks in them...well, they are not really cute...

Then here's a picture of our fussy baby...furthering the belief that somebody has to be getting some teeth soon! He still just has four, so I'm thinking there should be some new ones any day now...

We were doing sooo good with him feeding himself table food, but since we had to go on the BRAT diet for a week, we've regressed...He gets very excited to see baby food jars and let me tell you that this boy can put down some food in one sitting! Nana is here visiting and she cannot believe how much this boy eats! He's got to have an enlarged stomach or something...He cries when he thinks you are not going to give him anymore food and he now knows that people will feed them off of their plate, so if he sees a plate, he goes and stands near you and opens his mouth...too cute! We figured out the other night how much he LOVES apple pie! Oh, and Riley comes along with him, so we now have two beggers in the family!

He's been so smiley lately (I think we are moving out of the fussy stage thank goodness!)...here's a picture of his new smile that he does so that he can show all of his teeth...

And here is our Tiny Percussionist putting his balls on top of the table so that he can bang them...he's so happy when he is able to bang on something...

He is also doing the cutest thing now...he loves books (I know my mom loves this...finally someone in her family that is showing some interest in reading!). He sits down with a book, opens it, and starts making all of these goo-goo, gaa-gaa noises and I figured it out one day that he thinks he is reading the book! I'm trying to get a video of it, but he stops everytime he sees the camera. And still working on the whole walking thing...taking about 10 steps before falling!

Lots to catch up on!

We've got lots of changes going on! We are eating almost exclusively table food...I only say almost because Caden has had a stomach virus so we had to revert to applesauce and bananas (the BRAT diet). He LOVES saltine crackers, but mommy does NOT love the mess that he makes with them...And he now will feed himself things like peas, sweet potatoes, meat sticks...however, he still will not touch a banana!

We are on soy milk and are trying to kick the bottle habit slowly but surely...that's the one change that I'm not forcing right now. He is now at his new daycare with all of his new friends - it's good because they are all around the same age. The new daycare is trying to figure out if he still needs two naps or one...this is what a baby looks like after only one nap...

He's WALKING anywhere from 5 to 10 steps on his own and then once he has fallen, realizes that he is much faster crawling...He has grown very attached to me and has been a little whiny since starting the new daycare...(I'm kidding...he has been A LOT whiny!). We think the change in temperament is from us rocking his world and changing daycares. (We would have stayed with Methel and Stacey forever, but alas they only keep babies until they turn one). Someone recently described the small world of a baby to me - it consists of his parents, his daycare, his toys, and food. So, we just switched up a fourth of his world.

Last weekend, we headed over to the Garbers to hang out in the pool and lots of other kids and families that were there...the Garbers is the new Tallahassee hangout...Here Caden is having fun in Cole's swing...

And now some pictures from our mini-vacation this weekend. We headed over to Pensacola Beach for a resort stay that we bought at a great price at a silent auction. The resort was beautiful and relaxing since it wasn't too crowded. It was a 2 bedroom condo, so Caden had his own room! Thank goodness. Here are some views of the resort (Portofino Island).

Our place...

Caden had a little stomach bug once we got there...but that didn't ruin our fun! He just drank a ton of pedialyte!...He loves it...drinks it faster than anything I've ever seen him get his hands on...

We went over to the beach (yes, for those of you who know me and know that I'm not a big fan of the beach and the sand and the sticky saltwater, I knew that I could not deprive my child of this experience. For those who don't know me, yes, I grew up on the coast, but that doesn't mean I have to like the beach...)

Caden really did think that the sand tasted good...we thought it might help him kick the stomach virus :)...so we let him have at it...

He was all about crawling all over the sand and watching all of the people on the beach. He is a very observant child and gets entranced by all of the people and things around him...he's got to make sure that he's not missing anything.
Caden and Daddy at the beach!

Then we headed to our favorite place...the pool! Yay, no sand!

I've bought him all of these fancy floats and this is his favorite one...the $3.99 impulse purchase from Publix because we left the other ones at home. He loves it because he gets to lean towards the front and can reach the water easily. He loves to splash these days. He also got his first dunk under water and his first taste of pool water. Not a big fan of the dunking...but a big fan of the pool water, he opened his mouth and leaned in for more...

Back at the condo...he was loving that none of these cabinets had the cabinet locks on them...mommy is so mean at home to put those on the cabinets :).

He loved the view of the water...

Mommy tried to get a little creative with her photography on this one...

And here's a picture from mommy's girls weekend with Gabrielle and Terri in Orlando...We had fun! Grammie came over to help Daddy with Caden. My friend Bethany stayed Friday and went out with us...but we were all bad photographers that night and have no pictures of all of us...I perfected my skills with the self-timer on this one...

MIA

Sorry that I have been MIA, but on top of being busy at work, Caden has switched personalities lately and is no longer my sweet boy, but a very fussy baby. So, needless to say, blogging has had to take a back burner for a few weeks. But an update on what's going on with Caden (besides the fussiness)...He is taking a few steps by himself, but is still unsure of walking, so he prefers crawling. He has (unfortunately) developed a SEVERE attachment to his bottle now at over a year old, when he should be transitioning to sippy cups...I have tried just about every sippy cup and of course the only one that he will even tolerate is the $11 one! I should have never introduced him to that one...oh well...

In between his periods of fussiness (which we are partially blaming on the change in daycares and then maybe partially on some teething...), he laughs out loud at things, loves to crawl very fast after his bath so that mommy or daddy have to chase him to get him jammies on. Still loves Riley and knows which toys are Riley's toys, so when he wants to play with Riley, he goes and gets one of the dog toys. He's eating lots of table food now!...however, he doesn't like to touch any of it. I think he has touch/texture issues...He will pick up puffs, yogurt melts, and the gerber crunchies all day long, but anything else, we eventually end up hand feeding to him. We are not on formula anymore...I repeat, we are not on the $27 a can formula now. We transitioned him to whole milk, but that seemed to upset his tummy, so now he is on plain soy milk. He LOVES the soy milk...it's the best thing in the world to him.

He is growing like a weed. We were over at our friends' house this weekend, the Garbers, and there were some babies there who were 6 months to a year older than Caden and he is already as big as they are. I keep having to search high and low for shoes that fit him. We have now determined that he is wearing a size 5 1/2! Wow. Our little boy is growing so fast...sometimes I miss the little snuggly baby and then I quickly come to my senses and realize that I don't miss that newborn cry or the sleepless nights. 1 is a good age.

Well, that's all for now...we are going on a little mini-vacation this weekend, so I'll take pictures and I promise to do a real update (one with pictures) this weekend...

In other mommy news...Mommy was chosen as 1 out of 25 CPAs chosen nationwide to attend the AICPA leadership academy. Most of you have no idea what I'm talking about, but just know that I am really excited about it!