(or 19 1/2. oops)
This is what I wrote at the beginning of May:
Kaeden turned 18 months old this week. I was about to say that I don't know where the last 6 month went, but I do... they were spent putting the house on the market, selling the house, finishing the new house, moving into the new house, and continuing to move into the new house. But that's not to say that I haven't enjoyed my Kaeden plenty during these times. He makes himself hard to ignore!
This is what I wrote at the beginning of May:
Kaeden turned 18 months old this week. I was about to say that I don't know where the last 6 month went, but I do... they were spent putting the house on the market, selling the house, finishing the new house, moving into the new house, and continuing to move into the new house. But that's not to say that I haven't enjoyed my Kaeden plenty during these times. He makes himself hard to ignore!
As soon as Kaeden started to walk, his personality completely changed. As a baby, he was so timid and fearful, but once he could walk, he was ready to take on the world... and determined to do so. It has been fun (and also a bit challenging at times) to watch his personality bloom and grow over the past six months. He has strong opinions about the way things should be and is quick to throw a fit if they don't go his way. I am very relieved and thankful to say that in the past few weeks, he has become reasonable... at least some of the time. He still throws his share of fits, but I feel like we are starting to understand each other a little bit more.
And now I'll pick up with Kaeden as of mid-June :) I'm sure he's changed a good bit in the last 6 weeks, but it'll be close enough!
Kaeden is a passionate little child. He has been both a challenge and an incredible joy to parent. It is mostly a lot of fun to be around someone who is so expressive and lives life so wide open. But as a rule-follower with a rule-follower for a husband and a serious rule-follower for a first-born son, I also have no idea what to do with a child who takes so much delight in breaking the rules. There is nothing that Kaeden enjoys more than standing on a table or opening the drawers that he's not supposed to or running away when I ask him to come to me. At this point, he is still cute and "innocent" enough that it's hard for me to get upset or angry, but that will change soon enough and I already feel like I need a plan. In reality, I know that I just need to trust that God will guide me in the right way to parent this unique little child of mine :)
It's also been a lot of fun to watch Kaeden's relationship with Ryan develop. They do actually play together fairly often (mostly parallel but some cooperative) now, and they truly enjoy each other's company. There are also plenty of squabbles and plenty of times when Kaeden would prefer that Ryan just leave him alone, but they do have a sweet brotherly friendship. One of my favorite routines of the day is putting Kaeden down for his nap. We read a book and Ryan helps me sing "You are my Sunshine" to Kaeden and then Ryan kisses Kaeden goodnight (or goodnap, I suppose). Ryan starts to leave the room, and Kaeden puckers his lips and holds up a finger to say "one more"... Ryan says, "okay, Kaeden, one more" and comes back and kisses him again. They do this a few more times, depending on the day (and how eager I am to get Kaeden down!), and I just love it.
One of my biggest challenges with Kaeden is getting him to eat meals. He would be happy to eat fruit and crackers all day long, and some days, that's just about all he eats. I finally cut him off from pureed foods a couple of months ago and now give him what we have for dinner. Most nights, he eats his yogurt and that's it. But, he's still sleeping fine and his weight doesn't seem to be suffering, so I guess he's okay. I just hope he learns to eat meat and veggies sooner rather than later. He does like ham and bacon as well as scrambled eggs, he regularly eats peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and he'll suck down a green smoothie in a matter of minutes, so I have some ways of getting protein/spinach in him, but I'm sure he could stand to have a little more variety!
Kaeden's been in a daddy phase for quite a few months now. It helps that "Daddy" was one of the first words that he was able to say clearly. Mason's ankle injury unfortunately didn't allow him a lot of chances to play with Kaeden for a couple of weeks, and he did some serious attaching to Mommy during that time. Now, he yells "Nah-nah" (it's actually somewhere between Nana and Mama) probably a hundred times a day, just to make sure I'm nearby and paying attention. Don't worry, though, he still LOVES his Daddy!
Kaeden's newest favorite activity is building. Just in the last few weeks, he has taken an interest in building blocks of various types, and now he will sit for up to 30 minutes at a time with a pile of duplos (or other blocks) in front of him, putting them together and taking them apart. It's great.
Trucks (and pretty much anything that makes a "brrmm" noise, particularly vacuums and blenders) are another favorite of Kaeden's at the moment. Which brings me to...
Books! Kaeden will finally sit through a book. And his very favorite book right now is "Little Blue Truck" - we read it multiple times a day. A story about trucks and animals that rhymes? How can you go wrong? (don't answer that) Anyway, some other favorites are the Little Word Book (he just likes to point at everything and have me tell him what they are), The Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon (hearing Kaeden say "hush" at the appropriate times is a highlight of my day), Baby Beluga, and Brown Bear.
Talking has been a high priority for Kaeden lately as well. He has all kinds of words now, at varying levels of understandability by those other than myself :) Some particularly clear ones are "Daddy", "Cracker", "Cookie", "Truck", "Car". He cannot make a "B" sound, so "book" is "gook", "ball" is "dall", etc. He is very interested in learning new words and spends a lot of the day trying to repeat new words that I say. He is especially determined to figure out our family. For a long time, I was "daddy" also. Now that I have my own name, he frequently points to Mason and says, "Daddy", points to me and says, "Mama" (or whatever it is), points to Ryan and says "Ry Ry" and then points to himself and looks at me like "so, who am I?" He still does not even try to say "Kaeden", but I'm hopeful that he'll figure it all out soon.
As of today, Kaeden has 20 teeth! He got his last canine tooth in today, and boy, did it make him cranky! He's also done with his first round of molars, so I'm hopeful that we'll get a little break from teething for a while. While he's not miserable when he gets new teeth, it does seem to bother him more than it ever did Ryan.
And now I'll pick up with Kaeden as of mid-June :) I'm sure he's changed a good bit in the last 6 weeks, but it'll be close enough!
Kaeden is a passionate little child. He has been both a challenge and an incredible joy to parent. It is mostly a lot of fun to be around someone who is so expressive and lives life so wide open. But as a rule-follower with a rule-follower for a husband and a serious rule-follower for a first-born son, I also have no idea what to do with a child who takes so much delight in breaking the rules. There is nothing that Kaeden enjoys more than standing on a table or opening the drawers that he's not supposed to or running away when I ask him to come to me. At this point, he is still cute and "innocent" enough that it's hard for me to get upset or angry, but that will change soon enough and I already feel like I need a plan. In reality, I know that I just need to trust that God will guide me in the right way to parent this unique little child of mine :)
It's also been a lot of fun to watch Kaeden's relationship with Ryan develop. They do actually play together fairly often (mostly parallel but some cooperative) now, and they truly enjoy each other's company. There are also plenty of squabbles and plenty of times when Kaeden would prefer that Ryan just leave him alone, but they do have a sweet brotherly friendship. One of my favorite routines of the day is putting Kaeden down for his nap. We read a book and Ryan helps me sing "You are my Sunshine" to Kaeden and then Ryan kisses Kaeden goodnight (or goodnap, I suppose). Ryan starts to leave the room, and Kaeden puckers his lips and holds up a finger to say "one more"... Ryan says, "okay, Kaeden, one more" and comes back and kisses him again. They do this a few more times, depending on the day (and how eager I am to get Kaeden down!), and I just love it.
One of my biggest challenges with Kaeden is getting him to eat meals. He would be happy to eat fruit and crackers all day long, and some days, that's just about all he eats. I finally cut him off from pureed foods a couple of months ago and now give him what we have for dinner. Most nights, he eats his yogurt and that's it. But, he's still sleeping fine and his weight doesn't seem to be suffering, so I guess he's okay. I just hope he learns to eat meat and veggies sooner rather than later. He does like ham and bacon as well as scrambled eggs, he regularly eats peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and he'll suck down a green smoothie in a matter of minutes, so I have some ways of getting protein/spinach in him, but I'm sure he could stand to have a little more variety!
Kaeden's been in a daddy phase for quite a few months now. It helps that "Daddy" was one of the first words that he was able to say clearly. Mason's ankle injury unfortunately didn't allow him a lot of chances to play with Kaeden for a couple of weeks, and he did some serious attaching to Mommy during that time. Now, he yells "Nah-nah" (it's actually somewhere between Nana and Mama) probably a hundred times a day, just to make sure I'm nearby and paying attention. Don't worry, though, he still LOVES his Daddy!
Kaeden's newest favorite activity is building. Just in the last few weeks, he has taken an interest in building blocks of various types, and now he will sit for up to 30 minutes at a time with a pile of duplos (or other blocks) in front of him, putting them together and taking them apart. It's great.
Trucks (and pretty much anything that makes a "brrmm" noise, particularly vacuums and blenders) are another favorite of Kaeden's at the moment. Which brings me to...
Books! Kaeden will finally sit through a book. And his very favorite book right now is "Little Blue Truck" - we read it multiple times a day. A story about trucks and animals that rhymes? How can you go wrong? (don't answer that) Anyway, some other favorites are the Little Word Book (he just likes to point at everything and have me tell him what they are), The Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon (hearing Kaeden say "hush" at the appropriate times is a highlight of my day), Baby Beluga, and Brown Bear.
Talking has been a high priority for Kaeden lately as well. He has all kinds of words now, at varying levels of understandability by those other than myself :) Some particularly clear ones are "Daddy", "Cracker", "Cookie", "Truck", "Car". He cannot make a "B" sound, so "book" is "gook", "ball" is "dall", etc. He is very interested in learning new words and spends a lot of the day trying to repeat new words that I say. He is especially determined to figure out our family. For a long time, I was "daddy" also. Now that I have my own name, he frequently points to Mason and says, "Daddy", points to me and says, "Mama" (or whatever it is), points to Ryan and says "Ry Ry" and then points to himself and looks at me like "so, who am I?" He still does not even try to say "Kaeden", but I'm hopeful that he'll figure it all out soon.
As of today, Kaeden has 20 teeth! He got his last canine tooth in today, and boy, did it make him cranky! He's also done with his first round of molars, so I'm hopeful that we'll get a little break from teething for a while. While he's not miserable when he gets new teeth, it does seem to bother him more than it ever did Ryan.
So, that's pretty much the Kaeden summary for the moment. I'll leave you with some more pictures from the past few months. I love all of his expressions!
Back in May, I took both boys to Duke Gardens for Ryan's 4 year photos (post with those hopefully coming soon!) as well as Kaeden's 18 month photos. Here are some more of Kaeden's...
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| "Cheese!" |
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| Cool dude :) |
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| Taking after his brother, developing an interest in trains |
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| Apparently feeling very powerful |
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| Just wandering in the yard - he does a lot of this. He's his own little person. |
Back in May, I took both boys to Duke Gardens for Ryan's 4 year photos (post with those hopefully coming soon!) as well as Kaeden's 18 month photos. Here are some more of Kaeden's...
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| Look at that mischievous face |
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