Not A Very Merry Christmas

So I think my family got the shaft for Christmas. (Don't get me wrong - I know this is a heck of a way to post a blog update in nearly three months but let's just say I got lost and didn't feel like asking for directions. I promise perkier updates later.)

I was all pumped up for my 11 days off from work (mandatory) vacation. 6 of those days I would be able to spend with my husband - time which doesn't come very often. We spend some time visiting with my sister Amanda and her husband Kurtis who drove up from Oklahoma Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas morning with just Kaden, Ryan and myself opening gifts, then off to Ryan's dad's house followed by dinner with my parents.

Sounds awesome? Yes, except for the fact that I've had a "wonderful" stomach flu since Christmas Eve that prevents me from keeping anything in. I hate the bathroom right now. Going on three days straight of this crap, on top of the fact that Ryan seems to be catching the same stuff totally sucks. Where's the rule that at least one parent is supposed to stay healthy when there is a small child in the house? This is so not the way I wanted to spend my vacation.

2 Years Old!

My little man turned two years old on October 1st. We celebrated his birthday party with my family on his birthday and yesterday with Ryan's family. Kaden was showered with attention, presents (yay! lots of new clothes) and food.

He's starting to talk in whole sentences now: "I eat bar." (eating a cereal bar). "Sit down Papa." "Come here Dada." "Hold you!" (We're working on telling him that it's "hold me" when he wants to be picked up.

I never really fully understood what people meant when they said to me "You're growing up so fast!" As a matter of fact I remember rolling my eyes a couple of times. Oh but how true it is. Kaden is already showing signs of independence - not wanting to snuggle so much, wanting to eat by himself, trying things out on his own. He's such a big guy.

Did that just come out of my mouth?

I don't exercise. I should. I could make time for it. I just haven't. There are two medicine balls that live in my bedroom. They look pretty on the floor. One green ball and one blue - 6 and 8 pounds. Somewhere there's also two little red 2-pound balls. Not quite so sure if Kaden hid them some place and not quite concerned enough to go look for them.

My little man will be 2 years old next week. I am currently 45 pounds lighter than my heaviest pregnancy weight. Gaining 30 pounds during my pregnancy, I am also 15 pounds lighter than when I found out I was pregnant with Kaden. Yay me.

I have no clue what has possessed me this week but a devilish thought has poisoned my mind: I want to run a marathon. *Blink-blink* Did I really just think that? Yep. Did I really mean that? I think so. The big problem I see with this is that I'm scared I won't be able to follow through with it and that I hate running.

I'd really like to be able to do this and I think it may be achievable. I obviously need to build up some kind of endurance. We hang out a lot with my neighbors and their family. My neighbor's sister-in-law is a sweetheart of a girl and she runs marathons and has been doing it for a few years. She told me about the "Couch to 5 K" program that (in theory) coaches you in 8 or 9 weeks from a lot of walking and a little jogging to 30 minutes of jogging straight.

Another challenge I'm going to face is to find the time to workout. Four nights out of the week I only get to see Ryan for 2 1/2 hours. By the time he leaves for work, the daycare center at the gym is closed.

We'll see if this is a fleeting thought or if I can at least start doing some kind of long distance walking. I'll be attending the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 1 mile walk this Saturday with Kaden and my mother-in-law Terri. There's a two mile run scheduled the week before Thanksgiving to look forward to and a new running store that should be openning within the next few weeks. Here's to the start of my Bucket List.

I'm an Airbender!

We have recently started watching the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoons on Nick. It's a cute little series that only ran for 3 seasons. For a short explanation there are people who can control elements (air, water, earth and fire).

The reason I'm telling you about this cute cartoon is because earlier this week the knob that controls which direction the air flows in my car (head, feet, both, defrost etc) broke off. It's a good thing it wasn't winter and I needed to defrost my windshield. I called one of my favorite mechanics and they ordered a replacement for me and had it waiting for me within 4 hours (that's prompt service!). It wasn't until the next morning that I thought to myself "It's so wonderful to be able to control the air. ... Hey! I'm an Airbender!"

It's ok if you don't get it .... I like my stories. :)

Happy Birthday @ Cross Timbers

Sunday was Ryan's 31st birthday. We celebrated the weekend by going camping at Cross Timbers with my in-laws. We tent camped and they pulled the camper out.

Kaden was completely spoiled with a wonderful pool that Papa (grandpa) and Nana (grandma) brought for him. No swim diaper or swim suit? No problem. Naked baby swimming! (He actually had on a pair of shorts though.)

Brent and Terri watched Kaden while Ryan and I went on a hike on a nearby trail. They were doing some repair work on the dam, so the water level was lower than normal.

Here's what the same bridge looked like last September:

It's a good thing we each had our own camelback. I sucked down 3 liters of water on our 5 mile hike. The temperature was over 100 degrees that weekend.

Kaden loved sleeping in the tent. It sprinkled off and on during the whole night. Ryan was very attentive to the rain fly over our tent so we wouldn't get soaked.

A new playground had been build in the tent only camping area. We had fun chasing Kaden down all the slides and following him around.



Terri and I sat on the swings (at Kaden's request) and watched while Papa Brent pushed Kaden and gave underdogs.

Like I mentioned before, we really were roughing it.

Yes. Kaden is watching Coraline. For the millionth time.

Our last evening there, one of our neighbors came over with a copper pipe contraption that you put in the fire and get blue, green and pink flames. It was too cool. I must find out (first if this is toxic) how to recreate this for later.

Your child's digital history

Not surprisingly I've fallen about 2 years behind on scrap booking and Kaden's baby book is sadly neglected. I've been looking at pictures that we've taken of him, one being his first time on the potty or him in the bathtub. I know that most if not all of you who read my blog were born before the Internet ever existed. We've also heard a story or two on the news about pictures that people took ages ago coming back to bite them on the behinds.

Here's my philosophical question: How much consideration to your child's future do you give before you post a picture of them on a blog, twitter, facebook, etc.?

Gotta go pee-pee!

While we were on vacation in July in Bull Shoals, Arkansas, my mother-in-law Terri helped Kaden go #2 on the toilet for the very first time. We haven't started pushing Kaden to potty training and hadn't really discussed when we should. At a recent trip to Wally World we picked up a training potty just to be prepared.

I pulled the thing out of the box and quickly assembled it with Kaden watching intently. As soon as I had it put together, Kaden lifted up his shirt and said "Pee-pee." I asked if he needed to go potty and wouldn't you know, he knodded his little head. We rushed him into the bathroom where he pottied on his training potty for the very first time! My little guy is growing up so fast!

No more Ba-Bas!

We have officially crossed the line into the world of no bottles! Kaden bit a hole through one of his bottle nipples last Friday. We came home from daycare, opened the trashcan, tossed in the bottle and said "Goodbye, Ba-Ba!" He has adjusted very well and is requesting his "sippy" instead of a ba-ba.

To celebrate the event, we purchased Kaden some Spongebob sippy cups. He loves them!

A little dusty

It's been a little while, okay a few months since I last updated my blog.

In May Ryan, Kaden and I went to Oklahoma City for Memorial Day for the weekend. We went to the zoo, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, as well as a few other sights around town. Ryan and I took turns holding Kaden while we walked through the Museum. It was a very sobering experience that made both our emotions very raw. Kaden, bless his little heart, picked up on the fact that Mommy and Daddy weren't in happy moods. We both had our turns of Kaden grabbing our head, pulling us closer to him and receiving multiple kisses to cheer us up. What an intelligent little man!

May also saw the arrival of my third nephew, Westley James. They had him at a hospital right down the street from where I work so I was able to stop in for a visit before the new family went home.

In June, Ryan and I headed down to go on a float trip with my sister Amanda and her husband Kurtis. Unfortunately, I came down with a 103 degree fever (which only lasted that high for around 30 minutes or so). We spent the night to see if the fever would break. The next morning it was around 100 or 101 so we made the 2 hour trip back to Wichita to go to Minor Emergency. It wasn't strep throat, but I got antibiotics that got rid of the "feels like swallowing broken glass" feeling.

July seems like it's going by way too fast. Ryan was able to give Kaden a haircut for the first time. Kaden started out in the high chair, but ended up in the sink. Ryan said it was just easier to get all the angles. He did a fabulous job.

In early July, my family had a reunion down in Bull Shoals, Arkansas. My aunt and uncle own several resort properties there and ended up having 30+ of my family. Kaden has been to visit my aunt and uncle three times now (this year, last year and when he was 1 month old)! This year we extended the invitation to my in-laws. Although they were only able to stay 2 nights/3 days (we stayed 6 nights/7 days) they fell in love with the place and are already thinking about a return trip.

Kaden is still going to day care 3 days a week and is loving it. Ryan and I both got Mother's and Father's Day Presents. He's starting to talk more and more each day. The past couple of days he's even started asking to talk to Aunt M (my sister Amanda) and Uncle Kurtis. He's also started taking us by the hand to lead us to some other location to show us something. I'm so amazed by the new things he starts doing and can't wait for him to start talking in full sentences.

I think that's a sufficient update for now. I'll tried to post some pictures soon and promise to update sooner than two months.

I L You

When the weather is good, Kaden and I walk outside to wave goodbye to Ryan as he heads out to work. Ryan will give us both hugs and kisses and then hop in the Blazer and back out of the driveway. He'll roll down the window and wave goodbye to us and give us the "I love you" sign in sign language.

Today when we were waving goodbye to Ryan I held up the "I love you" sign and said "Do this Kaden!" to him and he did an almost complete sign. He was able to hold up his hand in the shape of the letter L. (The "I love you" sign needs to have the pinky finger lifted.) Seeing as how he doesn't say a lot of understandable words, we're so proud that he's picking up this sign. Ryan had a big smile on his face as he backed out of the driveway.

Obession

Kaden is obessed with a movie called Coraline. He will sit glued to the TV and watch this movie every time it is on HBO. He watched it so much we bought the movie for him at Target. It's really creepy, especially for a 1.5 year old. It's made by the guy who made Nightmare Before Christmas. Here's the trailer for it - the plot line is just too creepy to type out.

Ok, the trailer is creepy too. But what do you do when your kid loves the creepy movie?

A little bit of heaven

Kaden was sitting on my lap helping me check Facebook. He's 18 months right now (19 on Saturday) and you don't really realize how smart children are until they do something totally out of the blue. I gave Kaden a hug and told him "Do you know how much I love you?" He decided to stand up on my lap and wrapped his right arm around my next. No big deal - he likes to be king of the mountain. He made my heart melt when he leaned over and kissed the top of my head three times. How adorable!

For Aunt M

I'm getting complaints from people about not updating my blog. I've been enjoying time away from the blog for a while and here's what's happened since then. (I'll try to post a new entry for each, but this is a start.)

• Kaden now has 12 teeth - four front uppers, four front bottoms and first molars on each side
• My younger sister and I hosted a baby shower for our older sister at my house.
• Ryan and I took a trip to Winter Park, Colorado to go ski for a few days.
• We came back from vacation to find a very sick cat. Amy is the one on the left in the picture of the two cats in the right column. We had to put her to sleep. :(
• I had to replace the catalytic converter in my car.
• Kaden got his second haircut.
• I got my very first pair of 4", peep toe sling back shoes. **squeal**

Nine, Ten, Eleven

I was changing Kaden's diaper last week and noticed that he had sprouted another tooth. Not two days later we notice another one. Today we were eating dinner and Kaden opens his mouth just right - you guessed it - a third (eleventh) tooth is poking out. I'm amazed at how quickly these little teeth appear out of nowhere!

I think we have also kicked Kaden's binky habbit. No more pacifiers at daycare! Kaden's teachers have commented that he seems more social and interative without it. Now let's see if we can manage to hide all the ones at home so he doesn't find them.

Letter to my neighbor

Dear Neighbor,

It's February 28th. Christmas was two months ago. Three if you count tomorrow as a new month. I think it's probably safe to take down the Christmas lights and the lights in your yard. While you're at it, feel free to tell the other guy in our neighborhood that he can take the green garland off his back porch and the ornaments off the tree by his front door. I really hope that you didn't give up taking down decorations that are well past their time for Lent.

Signed,

Annoyed Neighbor

What a horrible mother!

It finally happened today. Kaden went to daycare as usual. I picked him up as usual. We came home and ate dinner with Ryan. Kaden decided that he'd had a long day and started hitting.

He got his hand smacked a few times. That didn't stop him. More hits and he got his bottom swatted. That still didn't stop him. More hits and he got a time out on the steps. Out comes the lower lip, quivering in his signature pout. After his time out, I squatted down and asked for a hug.

What do I get? You guessed it. One more hit. Kaden got a warning that if he hit one more time that he would go to bed early. This all happened before Ryan left for work and 40 minutes before bedtime.

If you hadn't already guessed it, Kaden tried to hit one more time. So horrible mommy let Kaden say goodnight to daddy, brought him upstairs, changed his diaper and put him to bed. Poor little guy passed out within 2 minutes. I have a bad feeling that I'll be up super early tomorrow.

Perfect Day

• Cooked chocolate chip pancakes for family for breakfast
• Worked out at the Y
• Went shopping with my Mom
• Completely finished all laundry before Ryan woke up
• Had dinner with Ryan and Kaden
• Started a fire in the fireplace
• Gave Kaden a bath and he went to bed shortly after Ryan went to work

All in all, I'd say that today was pretty close to perfect.

Another reason why I love my husband

Neither Ryan or I are big sports fans. I'm thankful that we both don't care about watching basketball or football games on tv. Case in point: Superbowl Sunday. Don't care who won or lost or even who played. Just another Sunday.

20 bucks and a pack of gum

In addition to my regular dentist appointment this week, I got to visit an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist. Since Kaden was born, there have been a couple of times that my salivary glands swell up so bad when I try to eat that the pain made eating unbearable. It comes and goes so it wasn't anything that is cause for alarm, but it was time to have someone look at it.

My appointment was Friday afternoon and I didn't get called into the doctor's office until almost 25 minutes past my scheduled time. He looked in my ears, up my nose, down my throat. He poked around in my mouth to see if he felt any stones in my salivary glands. Finally he sat back down and gave me his diagnosis. Chew gum between meals and drink water. For a 5 minute appointment, 25 minute wait and a $20 copay ... chew gum? Seriously?!?!

Kaden likes to share

I haven't had the motivation to update my blog recently and it's been quite a while. Kaden had a doctor's appointment last Thursday for his second H1N1 shot and to see if his double ear infections had cleared up. (They did.)

Just a few days later daycare called to inform us that they thought he had pink eye. We took him in to the doctor on Monday and indeed he did. In both eyes. And another infected ear. So as the daycare rules go, I stayed home with my little monkey. With minimal fussing, he was a good patient.

Apparently we taught him to share well because this morning I woke up with - you guessed it - pink eye. Luckily I was able to call into my doctor's office and they called in a prescription. So poor monkey and I will be getting eye drops for the next week. It will be painful to go without my beloved contacts for a week, but what can you do?