The bird

Found Caiden asleep like this the other day. My sweet Caiden, 2 months old and flipping the bird.

Officially old

No, I didn't have my 30th birthday. Yet. However, I am officially old as of Wednesday because I was diagnosed with shingles. Yes, shingles. They do have a vaccine for it, but you have to be 50 before they give it to you. Which means I have a disease of 50 year olds (not that that's old mom and dad, just older than me). When the doctor walked in she said, "Oh your eyes are so red have you not been sleeping?". I replied, "I have a newborn." All she said was, "Oh." Then she saw my rash and heard my symptoms and in a compassionate voice told me I had shingles. I told her that I thought shingles was for older people and she said it happens when someone's immune system is weak, which is usually in older people, but sometimes in those younger. Apparently taking care of a child weakens your immune system. Who would've thought? Ha!

Yesterday was awful. I told Bob it was worse than labor (which is an encouragement to my pregnant friends). I only got out of bed to go to the bathroom, to which I crawled. Luckily Bob took off work and stayed with Caiden but it has been hard on all of us. I am taking meds so I feel MUCH better today and have gotten some time with my babe. I know he missed all of my silly songs yesterday so I am having to catch up on them today. I am sure Bob appreciates that too :)

While we are on the old ailing body topic, I know you have been holding your breath about my mole. It is benign, so no worries there. Next time an update on my digestive system. Just kidding.

A visit from Grandma and Grauntie

 My mom and Aunt came in for a much needed visit about a week ago. The weather was perfect and we had a lot of fun and a lot of rest. They were able to stay with him on my first day of teaching so I didn't have to worry about a thing. Above is us having a picnic at our old apartment complex down by the river. Caiden and his Grauntie Shelly are both enjoying their picnics. Below is Grandma holding sleepy Caiden.

 Grauntie feeding Caiden a bottle after touring and oil and vinegar shop (free samples!)

 On a walk through the nearby woods.

 Halls family on the porch.

Above is a picture of the adorable blanket Grauntie Shelly made for Caiden.
Thanks for a great visit Grandma and Grauntie!

Cotton eyed Joe

A little while back Caiden started this stomping move with one of his legs so we started singing the cotton eyed Joe song (we have a song for everything). We showed my mom and aunt when they were here and it prompted recorded him doing song and dance. Viewer discretion advised: not sure if this is cute or cruel but it will be good blackmail someday! When Bob showed this to one of his friends he said, "Isn't that child abuse making him listen to that kind of music?" Enjoy...

2 months young

When we text my dad a picture of Caiden the other day, he replied to Bob's phone, "Someone's getting chubby..." and Bob responded, "I didn't think I was gaining that much weight." Of course it is our little one who is doing all the growing. His looks are changing so much and he is getting bigger by the second. At his two month checkup, pictured here with his papa, he weighed 12 lbs 14 oz and was almost 2 ft long (tall?--when does it change from long to tall, when they can stand?).
Some highlights:
*he smiles like crazy
*he likes all sorts of sounds and songs
*more awake time (which can sometimes be a lowlight when he is fussy or we are tired)
*sleeping longer at night
*loves to stand up and bounce around

It's strange that it has only been 2 months since we brought him home. It seems soo much longer. We can't believe how much we love him. It is a different kind of love than we have ever felt.

Lord, help me to laugh

Lord, help me to laugh (so I don't cry) was the prayer I uttered at 8 a.m. after 2 minutes of using the breast pump to which I had not attached a bottle, leaving a pile of milk on my lap and side. I can attest that mommy brain is real. Last week I cooked an elaborate breakfast for dear friends coming in from out of town only to realize when they were half an hour late, that I had been off by a week. I did the same sort of miscalculation with a conference Bob had, resulting in a friend having to watch Caiden last minute and me having to leave him with someone outside of family earlier than I had planned. Comic relief in these situations, or rather, finding the comedy in them is the only thing that helps me get by.

Caiden has been waking up only once at night, usually right around 4 a.m. and I have felt somewhat normal again. Last night he decided he wanted to get up at 3, 5, and 6:30 to which I may or may not have said to him in my whiniest voice, "Come ooooon, kid." It didn't help that he often doesn't realize that what he gets his milk from is attached to me and he tries to take it with him when he pulls back hard. BUT when he gives me that oh so genuine smile or makes a laughing noise right at the punchline of my joke (coincidence?--I think not), it melts my frustration and impatience. For the most part. I am glad someone (besides Bob) finds humor in my stupid silly songs that all seem to have the same chorus (Where is Thumpkin and Three Blind Mice) and the ridiculous faces and jokes that I make.

I think parenting is a good time for me to start taking the journey of laughing at myself. Lord knows there have been and will be MANY opportunities.

Here Grandparents

 I have been trying to capture more pictures lately of the everyday especially now that Caiden is making more faces and just changing so very much. I know at least his grandparents appreciate seeing all of this and I think I will look back and be glad I took these pictures too.

 It hasn't quite been as hot here lately but usually if we are just home Caiden doesn't wear clothes. He doesn't seem to mind and we thought we would train him early to be a minimalist. Minimalist, not nudist, please don't read that wrong.

 He is so expressive and we are staring to be able to read him better. He is very fun but makes everything take twice as long as it normally would. Without fail, whatever time we decide to eat dinner; he decides it's time for him to eat too. Babies have a knack for knowing when timing is not good and then they want to be held or fed, etc. They sure do teach you good lessons in selflessness. And they learn how to train you as parents. Two nights ago, we swaddled Caiden up good in hopes that he would sleep longer in the night. He sure did--almost 6 hours straight. But I didn't. I was worried that he wasn't waking up. Bob reminded me that was the hope, but I still couldn't go back to sleep. I pulled out books to see if it was normal for a 2 month old to sleep that long. Then I loosened his swaddle so he might wake up. And he did. And ate. Then woke up again later and I wished I had just let him sleep because I was still tired in the morning! And of course, the next night when I gave myself the pep talk over how great it would be to have that many hours in a row of straight sleep, he went back to his old pattern. Oh, that trickster. However, today, Caiden missed his opportunity for poor timing when he slept through us playing tennis with another couple. We just put him in his stroller with a blanket over him and got to play for a while. I joined a team that starts in September so I had to work on getting my groove back.

 Caiden is starting to like baths. And naked time. Maybe he is becoming a nudist--but I won't post pictures of that. We love seeing him wrapped up in his towel. Doesn't get much cuter than this.
Grandma Nadine sent these adorable socks a while back, and while he hasn't needed much clothing, his feet were so cold the other day so I put these on and had to take a picture because they are so cute.

 Later in the day we did put clothes on him when we went out to eat (we do know SOME boundaries) and people mentioned how cute his socks were. Thanks Grandma!

 Since Caiden was a breech baby, he had an ultrasound yesterday to determine if he has hip displacia (spelling?). We will find out the results soon. It was strange to have him being ultrasound-ed instead of me with him in my belly!

 We took a few mug shots of him today hoping to catch a smile, but no such luck. The boy does not perform. Guess we don't have an actor on our hands, which is fine by me.

 Below is midway through a sneeze. Now photographing that takes talent, or luck. Maybe I am getting a little better?

 My blue eyed boy. Counting down the days until they can't change anymore.

 This is what he has to say to so many pictures!

On a side note, I am turning 30 in November and used to dread it but not so much anymore now that I have Caiden. I did feel old a couple of times this week though. Once I was walking through Target in the baby boy section which turns to toddler then teenager then man clothing and I found myself getting choked up thinking of all the stages Caiden will go through. And hoping that skinny jeans for boys will be totally out by the time he is an adolescent. The second time is when I went to the dermatologist for them to check out a mole. Really, can't believe I am in that stage. Pretty soon I will have a pill box and be drinking prune juice daily. Anyway, the dermatologist had to remove the mole because it wasn't looking too great, and this demoralizing conversation ensued:
Dr: I am just going to remove the mole to be safe and send it off to the lab
Me: But I have had it since childbirth (thinking too, which luckily I didn't say out loud, that I wouldn't get to see it one last time or say goodbye. I truthfully wanted to take a picture, but again, I do have SOME boundaries, or social graces so to speak--although maybe not so much since I am admitting it here anyway)
Dr.: Well, it's kind of nasty. It's not exactly a beauty mark
Me: Ouch (to which I promptly stayed quiet after that)

Well, a few more months and on to my 30s, which I hear are really great even if they are full of mole removals and all.

Much needed vacation

 Our friends invited us last weekend up to a cabin in the North Georgia mountains. It was the retreat and vacation we had been longing for and we were so thankful.

 I should've taken pictures of the inside because it was absolutely gorgeous--3 stories with plenty of room to relax, hang out, and have fun.

 We took walks, ate good food, watched the Olympics and had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company and the beauty around us.

 Bob and his son.

 My sweet Bob took Caiden one morning so I could sleep in and when I woke up I found them hanging outside on the hammock.

 We took Caiden on his first hike of many more to come. He was a trooper. He slept the whole time so he didn't quite get to enjoy it as much as we did. There were two beautiful waterfalls on the hike--my favorite.

 Here we are with the Bellos and their wonderful family. It is fun to have other people with kids because we are just getting the hang of it (not really) and it is neat to watch others parent and play with their kids. They are wonderful parents to their little ones and I am excited because Jess will watch Caiden for a couple of hours on Wednesdays when Bob and I are at work. They also speak Spanish so we got to practice our skills. Jess said she would speak in Spanish to Caiden when he is over there. A bilingual child. Maybe his first word will be madre instead of mama :)

 The second waterfall.

View from the porch outside our room. It is amazing what God's nature can do for your soul.

Around the house

I am not very good at picture taking--meaning, I don't take them frequently. I always have good intentions but when you are just doing normal things it does not cross your mind to take a picture of them. Enter grandma. My mom, being so far away, can only stand it for about a week without an updated picture of Caiden. And while I realize somewhat that he has grown, I don't see how much until I take new pictures. He is starting to allow us to set him down more and has more playful time and smiles. Let the fun (and more work since he is sleeping less) begin!