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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Summer Bucket List #3

As summer came to a close last weekend, we finished up our bucket list!  These are the last few things we did together to make our summer SPECIAL!


Watched a movie outside!
Caeden's pick?  Diego! 



Caeden built a race car with Daddy!
And it really races!



We went on a nature scavenger hunt
in our neighborhood!  Caeden found
lots of "goodies!"





Had some friends over to make s'mores... 
Darby, Ella & Caeden





Stargazing... :)


and then camped in the backyard with Daddy!




Played miniature golf!



Caeden realized he could remove the 
flag and decided it was fun to wave it
around at every. hole.

Callie, just watchin'!

After accidentally hitting his ball in the water,
and seeing daddy get it out with the net, 
this became Caeden's favorite part!
After this, we "lost" lots of balls in the water,
so Caeden could use the net to remove it!


Sno Cones after a hot game of golf!

Sweet girl!!

So here it is!  This was our bucket list that we had posted on our fridge all summer!
(You may notice the goal that says "go bowling" that has only one slash.  This is because we attempted to go bowling, but had to leave when Caeden refused to wear the shoes.  So, we felt like we at least tried....which deserves half of an "x" right?)


We were very intentional about spending quality time together as a family and making memories!  I am so so blessed to have my husband home for a few months each summer, and we definitely don't want to waste that time!  I'm sure we will have a year full of fun memories to come....but here's to a great summer!!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Callie: 10 months!

Our Little Miss turned 10 months old last week. She is so interactive right now, is really developing a personality, and is discovering something new every day. Reid and I often comment on how much we love this age! This blog post is on the past month, her 10th month....when she was 9 months old.


EATING
Callie still eats really well. She continues to eat 4 times a day and her feedings fall during normal mealtimes. (7:30- breakfast, 11:30- lunch, 3:30- snack, 5:30/6- dinner). She has both solids and a bottle at every meal. Callie started eating some table food this month, so that's fun! Her favorite foods are banana, Cheerios, potatoes, carrots, and avocado. The only thing she really doesn't like on a consistent basis are meats.  

SLEEPING
Callie is still a great sleeper for the most part. She goes to bed around 7:00 most nights and wakes up around 7am most mornings. She takes two naps....her morning nap is around 10ish and her afternoon nap is around 2ish. 

Now that she can sit up in bed and crawl, she has a harder time falling asleep. She lays in bed, rolls around, talks, crawls, and plays. She will usually fall asleep after playing for 5-10 minutes in her bed, but if she doesn't, I go in for a few minutes and can usually get her to sleep pretty quick. She still wakes up happy, which is so nice!

Caeden put this stocking cap on her...and she left it on for awhile!


PLAYING
Callie started doing lots more things at 9 months old. She can roll a ball back and forth, she rolls cars on the floor, pushes buttons on her toys using her pointer finger, waves, and started playing "sooo big!" Callie learned how to go from stomach to sitting right when she turned 9 months old (so that was like 5 weeks ago). And she also learned how to walk in her walker which is fun. Caeden and Ella love to run around the house and have Callie chase them in her walker. Callie enjoys this too, so our house is filled with giggles when we play this game. 


She found the fridge!

Callie began to dance to music this month. I just love baby dancing!! Every time she hears a tune, she starts bouncing and swaying. :) Another funny story....I downloaded the baby app "Giggle Gang" on our iPad this month and was showing it to Callie. As the little creatures were bouncing around on the screen giggling, she kept lifting up the iPad to look underneath it. I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Instead of playing with the screen, she just kept picking up the iPad. It was later that I figured out that she was trying to find the creatures!!! She didn't understand where they were, so she was looking under the iPad. She still does this every time I turn on this app. Too funny!


  


Callie also did her first craft this month. We had the kids finger paint a canvas for our play room, so this was Callie's first time to paint.




LANGUAGE
Callie said what we think was her first word at 9 months old. And it was.....MAMA!! We hear it often when she's fussing or crying. That's what makes us think she's referring to me when she says it. Other than that, she does lots of babbling, and can get quite loud at times.



TEETHING
At 10 mos old, still no teeth for this little girl. Caeden was 10.5 months when he got his first 4 teeth. So we'll see when Callie's come in. There was a week this past month when we thought she was getting ready to cut a tooth because she was very needy, not sleeping as well, and drooling a ton! But that passed, and no tooth!

So we got out her big chunky puzzle this month.
The first thing she did was take out her paci, 
and put the puzzle handle into her mouth.
She still loves to do this!
And she will just play while it's in her mouth!  HA!



GROWTH STATS
While we noticed Callie's plump legs slimming down this past month, she is still much bigger than Caeden was at this age. But that's just how we like it!
Weight: ~22 lbs
Length: ??
Clothes size: 9 mos & 12 mos
Shoe size: 2
Diaper size: 4




MILESTONES
This past month was busy for Callie, as she learned to do lots of things! Here is a list of milestones that Callie met during her 10th month (when she was 9 MONTHS old):

  • Go from stomach to sitting
  • Waves "bye bye" and "night night"
  • Dances to music
  • Rolls a ball to another person
  • Uses her pointer finger to press buttons on her toys
  • Rolls a car back and forth on the floor
  • Plays "Soooo Big!"
  • Says "mama"
  • Imitates the "all done" sign (will not do it on her own first, but if I sign and ask "all done?" she will sign it back)
  • Stands alone for a few seconds (has done this for up to 10 seconds a few times)
  • Started crawling at the very end of this month (right at 10 mos old)

Callie,
We absolutely love just sitting to play with you, hold you, rock you - just being with you!!  You make us laugh a lot these days, with your silly personality!  You are just very happy, content, and laid back   We still never take a day for granted with you, and still thank God for saving your life 10 months ago!  We tell you we love you all the time, but just can't say it enough!!!  Happy 10 months sweet girl!

Friday, August 23, 2013

FIRST Day of PRESCHOOL!

Caeden had his first day of preschool yesterday.  He's going to Noah's Ark Learning Center, which is where he also attended Mother's Day Out once a week (from 8-2) for the past two years.  But this year, since he's in preschool, then he's going twice a week from 8-Noon.  I LOVE the new schedule change!  I don't have to pack lunches anymore, and he can come home to take a nap (where he sleeps better anyway!)

Here are the traditional first day of school pictures!  As usual, he was not happy about getting his pictures taken, so we have lots of sad faces in these pics!  But oh well - they captured the real moment I guess!





With his teacher...
Mrs. Brooke
The flower she has in her hand
is from Caeden. He picked it
and wanted to give it to her. 

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Callie's Singing Debut!

Callie discovered Caeden's piano and microphone a few weeks ago.  She actually loves to sit on the stool and press the keys with her fingers!  But her favorite part is making noises (a.k.a singing) into the microphone!!!!  I got this short clip yesterday of her making a singing debut!!

PS - Excuse what happens in the last two seconds of the video!!  Even though it looked painful, no tears were shed in the making of this video!





Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Caeden: 4 year old summary!


I know I say this every time but our kids are just growing up too fast! Caeden is now four years old! I'm so thankful he has an early August birthday because that means he won't start school (kindergarten) until he's 6....which means an extra year at home with my first baby! Since Caeden just turned four, I want to do a quick summary of all the things he's doing right now....just for our record. So here we go!!

EATING
Caeden eats a great breakfast and lunch each day, but we still struggle with dinner on a daily basis. I keep thinking this picky phase will pass and I just keep waiting.... He's not a big fan of meat in general (unless its chicken nuggets). The fruits he will eat right now are: apples, strawberries, bananas (if they have peanut butter on them), cantaloupe, and watermelon. The vegetables he will eat are: carrots, broccoli, and asparagus. This is not a great variety, but at least he's not refusing all produce I guess... His favorite foods are oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and yogurt. He does NOT like eggs, cheese, beef, and a whole host of other things!! 

SLEEPING
Caeden is still taking one nap a day (Thank you Jesus!) and it's about 1-1.5 hours a day. He can skip a nap if needed, but if he DOES, he's definitely ready for bed by 8:00! So besides the occasional skipped nap, he still naps every day. He sleeps 10-11 hours at night. He's usually in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9. We usually hear "Mommy!! I'm ready to get u-up!" sometime between 7-8am. He puts himself to sleep great and never gets out of bed once he's laid down.  

One thing he has started doing in the past 6 months is asking us to tell "me a story about when you were little." It's getting to the point that we're running out of stories....and mommy has an awful memory! He always likes daddy's stories the best...I think he was a little more ornery as a kid so his stories are more entertaining!

PLAYING
Caeden still loves to play outside more than anything else! He is still not a big fan of playing by himself. He would much rather play with mommy, daddy, or Ella. We often hear, "Will you play with me?" all throughout the day. 

His favorite toys right now are: his blue power wheels truck, Superman figure, LeapPad, and bike. He's really into listening to the Magic Tree House series right now....we started reading him the series at the end of June and are on book #12 only seven weeks later. His favorite things to watch on TV are "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," "Daniel Tiger," and the Superman cartoon. 

At the beginning of summer we re-implemented "room time." This is where he has to stay in his room for a set amount of time and play by himself. It helps teach him how to play independently and be more creative with his play. He's not a big fan, but once he gets started he's always fine. Right now, we do 20 minutes of room time every morning.




LOVES to catch bugs!!


LANGUAGE
Caeden is constantly adding words to his vocabulary. He usually says a few new words a week, that we've never heard him say. Of course this just makes him seem so much older and grown up!

He is into making up words lately. He will ask us, "Do you know what jic-a-naw-wa-cos is?" Of course we'll answer "no" and he will proceed to give us us a definition. It's quite interesting! One word he created was "TOOTS" and he will just say it randomly. He is not referring to an actual toot that comes from your rear end....he just likes to say the word TOOTS! Ha! We were recently at a party where he got the whole party room chanting "Toots! Toots! Toots!" I don't think the kids even knew what they were saying, but it was pretty humorous!

SUMMER ACTIVITIES
As usual, we stayed very busy this summer! No big vacations, but we did lots of things as a family (as noted in my Summer Bucket List posts).  His favorite activities were camping in the backyard with Daddy, going to our new Rogers Aquatic Center, and going to play miniature golf. He was NOT a fan of bowling! He absolutely despised the shoes and REFUSED to wear them. So after a fit and him repetitively kicking off his shoes, we left before we even got to play. :( Every time we bring up bowling now, he replies with "I don't want to go bowling!!!" He also did not like swimming lessons....hoping for better success next summer!

Did NOT like swimming lessons!



CHORES
Caeden now has certain responsibilities in our house. This was something else we started this summer....but we call them his "jobs." They are all very age-appropriate and do-able. We are using a system called Accountable Kids which I absolutely love!!! I would highly recommend it! It's simple, kids understand it, they get immediate rewards, and also long-term rewards. It's so great and Caeden is truly doing great with it!

No, this is not one of our chores we assign him! ;)
But he does love to help daddy in the back yard!


BIRTHDAY PARTY
Caeden had his birthday party at the Bentonville Fire Station this year!  This was at HIS request and he had a blast! More party details by clicking here

DISCIPLINE
We continue to use time out for Caeden, because that is what works best for him. We do spank occasionally for extremely defiant behavior, but we mostly use time out. His biggest challenges right now are controlling his anger, obeying the first time, and talking mean to mommy and daddy. Something we started this past week is "ugly water." It's a mixture of half vinegar and half water. When he yells at us, or tells us "NO!" we squirt a tiny bit in his mouth. This actually fixed the situation really quick, for the most part. So hopefully we won't have to use it much longer...

LEARNING
In the past 3-4 months, Caeden has improved tremendously in his writing skills. He can trace pretty much anything, can draw a person with lots of body parts, and can write his name (with me sitting next to him reminding him of various things).  He still does great at knowing his alphabet, knowing most letter sounds now. 

At the beginning of the summer, we started having a 15-20 minute learning time each day. During this time we do calendar, and go over our learning poster. Our learning poster has a weekly theme, vocabulary word, nursery rhyme, shape or color, letter, and number we go over. I wasn't sure how he would react to this since he would have to stop playing to learn.  But he actually loves it and looks forward to it! I am planning to continue this during the school year....we both love it!

Something else we've been working on learning are bible verses. Just in the last few months, he has memorized 3 verses. We make sure to pick out verses that he can apply to his life daily...so we refer to them often. On the last day of swimming lessons (when he still didn't want to be there)  he started quoting Psalm 56:3 to his swim teacher..."When I am afraid, I will trust in You." I don't think she is a believer so it was neat to see him sharing this with her!

This was a card he made for Asher,
at the end of July.  This was his tracing of the letters!
6 months ago, he would not have done this!!


DOCTOR & GROWTH STATS
At Caeden's four-year check up, everything looked great! He was able to do all of the milestones she asked about and she wasn't too concerned about his picky eating. She suggested we start giving him a daily vitamin to help provide the nutrients he's not getting in food. He had to get three shots and was actually not nervous at all. I think he knew he had to get them because Ella kept telling him, :) but he didn't seem to ask about them or see concerned. I think he just didn't know what to expect. (The last time he had shots he was 2 years old so he doesn't remember). Well of course he cried, and pretty hard too. It just broke my heart....it wasn't a scream....just a really hard cry...and I had to hold down his arms.... :/ But once they were over he only cried for about 60 seconds, so he really did pretty good!! It made me sad though because the rest of the day he kept telling people he wasn't brave because he cried... :( He was pretty sore and had a fever for the next 24 hours, but then he was back to his normal active self!  His growth stats are below:

WEIGHT: 32 lbs (15th percentile)
HEIGHT: 39 inches (20th percentile)

These are actually higher percentiles than what they used to be, so yay!

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Caeden plays great with other kids when they are kids he knows and is comfortable with. He will still say his best friend is Ella, but some of his other great friends are Darby (our neighbor) and his friend Kyle (who he has known since he was 3 mos old). For the most part he will share willingly and take turns with his friends. He may not initiate the idea of taking turns on his own, but he will if its suggested. :) He is often thoughtful of others, being concerned about other people's feelings. 

One thing he does not like at all is being in the spotlight. This means he does not like having his picture taken, being in a video, and even participating in large group activities. When we try to play games with a large group he is very hesitant and does not want to play. I guess because he knows people will be watching him...  We have tried introducing him to team sports and he hates it! This is frustrating to Reid and I because we want him to be involved....but we also realize that he is just different than us in this area. So we aren't pushing the extracurricular activities yet....we're hoping this is a phase that will eventually pass!!

Caeden and Darby

  
OUR DAYS
We stay home a lot because its just hard to get out with 3 kids (including Ella). But Caeden is totally fine with that. We have a pretty set routine every day. In the morning he does his morning jobs, room time, learning time and playtime with mommy. In the afternoon we always take a nap after lunch and then usually play outside the rest of the afternoon and evening. 

This week he is starting preschool. He will be going twice a week from 8-noon. Mommy is super excited about this new schedule! His new teacher is Mrs. Brooke. Sometimes he seems excited and sometimes not so much. So we'll see how this year goes!

SIBLINGS
Caeden and Callie still have a unique relationship that I'm so thankful for! They still both love each other so much! Caeden loves to see Callie as soon as she or he wakes up. He loves to kiss on her and hug on her. Sometimes she gets fussy and upset when he is constantly kissing on her and he's in her face a lot, but she lets him know!! Now that Callie is crawling, she often follows Caeden to whatever room he is in. Right now he doesn't mind and loves it! We'll see how long that lasts! While I know that sibling bickering is bound to happen, I'm praying this bond continues forever!




Caeden, 
You are growing up and are just becoming a big boy! We love all the time we get to play with you and we love that you still like us to hold you and cuddle with you! We are so thankful that mommy gets to stay home with you every day and spend so much time with you!  Our biggest prayer is that you will continue to love the Bible, that you will grow into a man of prayer, and that you will have an intimate relationship with Jesus very soon! We love you so much little man!!