Really, only one more month until Mr. Caden is a year old?! How did this year fly by so quickly? It wasn’t quite yesterday when he was born … but it sure doesn’t seem like an entire year already.
This has been a busy month for the boy.
- Labor Day weekend we went out to Linden to spend some time with Oma and Opa. Caden loved playing with Oma … and he loved swimming! He’s such a little water bug and he just can’t wait to get in the water again.
- One thing you can say about Mr. Caden is he is stubborn. The whole cause – effect relationship is somewhat lost on his little brain. We’ve had our hands full trying to figure out how to discourage him from doing certain things. It’s taking Caden a lot longer than Kamy to figure out what he isn’t allowed to do. There aren’t many rules for babies in our house, but we do have a few! The three main rules for playing are – don’t unroll the toilet paper, don’t climb on the bricks, and don’t go behind Daddy’s desk. All three happen on a daily basis and it’s rare that I don’t remove him from the bricks at least five times. Pinching is not working, nor holding his hands (he hates to be restrained). This coming month we’re going to try putting him in the pack n play by himself for a few minutes and see if that helps break his habits.
- We have managed to kick dropping food off his high chair. If he does it, that ends the meal. He’ll sometimes drop food over the side when he’s about done and thus doesn’t care that dinner is over, but at least we can see that coming and I’m getting better at heading that off. As long as he’s still actively eating I’ll keep giving him more food, but as soon as he starts playing or getting distracted we finish up. Caden is still a great eater — he’ll eat most things you put in front of him and overall he eats a very balanced meal. Now I just need to get better at putting more veggies on everyone’s plates in the first place!
- Mr. Caden loves ice cream. To be fair, everyone in this house loves to eat ice cream. Whenever Daddy sits on the couch with a little cup of Blue Bell, the kids all come hover (including Charley). Caden’s perfectly capable of expressing his desire to have his fair share of ice cream … just watch!
- Caden’s been honing his climbing skills this month and will climb up on just about anything in a heart beat. Fortunately, he’s also learning how to get down off things too … an important skill to have! He’ll climb up on Kamy’s stool at home or climb on and over you if you’re in his way. He also loves to climb up stairs! While we were in Arkansas a few weeks ago, we spent some time at the city play ground. Caden promptly climbed up the steps and into the big red tube but got stuck since he didn’t know how to get out. Once I showed him how, he literally spent the next fifteen minutes going in and out, in and out, in and out over and over again. He was so proud of himself! Now of course, he’s convinced he can climb anything with out a problem. I guess we should work on climbing down stairs next!
- Caden picked up another church bug this month. =( Kamy didn’t spend as much time in a church nursery at this age, so it’s hard to compare, but he’s certainly been sicker than Kamy has. It’s always so sad when my babies get sick, and Caden has a tendency to run a pretty high fever. This time we didn’t take him to the doctor, but we were closely watching his fever and talked with our pediatrician’s nurse before the long Labor Day weekend. After three days of a fever and a spike of 105.3*, it finally broke. Hooray! I was very glad to get him healthy again … a hot, sick baby is not very happy.
- Overall, Caden’s vocalizations are getting much more complex! He babbles so much more than Kamy did at this age and it’s fun to just listen to his little conversations. Daddy taught Caden a new phrase this month — uh oh! Caden loves to mimic, and he’ll happily copy your voice inflections over and over again. He’s starting to understand what it means too, particularly when he knocks his water off his tray. It is pretty cute!
- Caden’s been discovering that he can make new sounds with his voice and lips. On our drive home from Colorado he figured out how to play with his lips. He is also trying to buzz his lips. It does not work very well yet, but it is really cute to watch him try.
- Speaking of Daddy and Caden, here’s a video of Caden watching Daddy grill outside. Caden can carry on quite the conversation! By the end of it Caden’s a little frustrated that Daddy isn’t paying any attention to him and he’ll let you know about it. Rah rah!
- We are making good progress on learning how to walk! Caden still isn’t really interested in balancing and trying to walk on his own, but he will walk while you’re holding his hands. He also likes to pull up on my pant legs and follow me around in the kitchen while I’m cooking dinner. It means I have to do the shuffle with small steps, but he’ll actually walk with me now instead of just dragging him around. He’s also taking a step here and there between furniture but nothing really intentional yet. I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time before he’s toddling around everywhere!
- Lastly, Caden is such a Daddy’s boy! He loves to spend time with Keller and positively lights up when he sees his Daddy. It’s even better that Daddy can play with him and has found a tickle spot that just makes him laugh like crazy. They have so much fun together! Kamy’s currently a Momma’s girl, so I’m happy that Daddy gets to be a favorite too. =)
We love you Caden-boy! You have such a sweet, goofy personality and I love watching you explore the world around you. One month to go little boy!
