Monday, May 23, 2011

Pull ups

Earlier in the week, Caiden was doing stuff like this:



Over the week he practiced more and more, and by Saturday he had perfected the ability to pull himself up using whatever is nearby (and sturdy enough). He is pretty wobbly once standing though.




Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The drop

On Monday night, Caiden was working on falling asleep when he started shrieking. That used to mean that he was stuck on his tummy (but now he likes sleeping on his tummy). This time, he was pulling himself up  and was stuck on his way to standing position. Another "I wish I had a camera" moment. Dan broke out the tools and dropped the crib down a level so that when Caiden inevitably gets himself all the way to standing he won't fall out of the crib.

Some other new things:

Caiden loves remote controls. We fished an old one out of the basement that he can chew on. It has been designated the "Caiden Clicker"


Caiden has an easier time with his solid food when he has some sips of water along with it. We thought we'd try a sippy cup. He doesn't quite get it yet, but he sure likes to play with the cup.


Caiden probably falls asleep on his tummy 75% of the time now. He gets some awesome bedhead when he does that.
 

Dan thought Caiden would enjoy a front row seat to the rain on Sunday. He was right!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Big bully

On Saturday we headed to Jeff and Rachel's for a BBQ celebrating the first birthday of their twin boys. The BBQ started at 3pm and we planned to get there early as we knew we wouldn't want to stay past 5. Caiden was ready for a nap at 1:30 which was perfect, his naps are 45 minutes long so we would have time to feed him and be out the door by 2:30. Wouldn't you know that Caiden took a rare 2 hour nap! So we were off to a very late start already. And then Caiden took his first BM in 3 days on the drive over. We pulled over to change him... and wow, gross. It exploded out of the diaper in every direction possible. Needless to say an outfit change was necessary and the new car has been christened with Caiden poop. We eventually made it to Natick but didn't get to stay very long.

As with all bottles filled with liquid, Caiden was obsessed with Dan's beer. Don't worry, we didn't let him try any.

Caiden loves other people's hair. We were able to deflect a few attempts to grab and eat Adam's hair:
But unfortunately we looked away for a second and Caiden grabbed on hard with 2 hands. Ouch. Sorry, Adam, I hope we didn't ruin your party!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

happy mother's day

Blogger had some issues last week and deleted some people's posts, including our Mother's Day post. I can't remember exactly what I said, except that we had a nice low-key weekend at home. Nanna Nan and Aunt Elizabeth came to visit for a while






Check out how cute these guys are in their matching Carhartts


Friday, May 13, 2011

7 months

Here's what Caiden has been up to!

Movement: Caiden is getting better and better at controlling his body. When he is sitting he rarely topples over any more (when he does it's because he is distracted). He can scoot backwards and when he is on his tummy or sitting he can move around in circles. He can roll with the best of them although he recently seems to have forgetten how to go from tummy to back. We have been finding him in his crib, screaming and crying, stuck in a push-up position.

Sleep: Every night is different. It's a little frustrating. But, after a few months of pretty consistent "bad nights", we now probably have half good nights (1 quick wakeup) and bad nights (multiple wakeups at random times, crying fits, long awake periods). I recently started tracking his nighly wakeups, and it's a little comical to see how all over the place they are. We had a "to bumper or not to bumper" decision to make this month. With all the moving that Caiden started doing in his crib, I was always finding him with a leg or arm sticking out of the sides:



This would sometimes wake him up- an involuntary twitch and he'd whack his arm, or a stuck leg would keep him from rolling onto his side (a favorite sleep position right now). So, the decision was made- bumper it is. An unexpected bonus of having the bumper- he can't fling his binkie out the crib anymore. No more groping around for it under the crib in the mornings.


Last night Caiden fell asleep on his tummy and slept that way all night. That was a first... and he actually slept ALL night. 7pm to 5:20am. He napped on and off for a little while longer after eating.

 
Teeth? Who really knows, but we're always wondering if he is teething. He has some grumpy days and some nights with crying fits. We started giving him chunks of frozen banana to chew on (in a mesh bag thing), which seems to help.



Activities: Caiden loves jumping in his ExerSaucer. As he gets stronger he is able to pull toys off of the saucer and throw them on the ground. What a boy! He loves watching things- people moving, cars driving by, scenery out the car window, etc. He recently started enjoying the hiking backpack- a previous dislike. He is starting to have fun in the bath, especially if bath toys are involved. He likes being verbal and making noise- he gets very chatty, it's funny. Shopping is fun, there is so much to look at and he likes cruising in shopping carts. A trip to the grocery store is a good idea if he is getting bored.




Food: He doesn't eat very much at a time, but we're consistently giving him 2 meals a day,  breakfast and lunch. If he's in a good mood in the evening I try a little something then too. So far his favorites are squash, oatmeal, prunes, pears, and bananas. He's also tried carrots, apples, peas, avocado, cantaloupe, and beef.

Other developments: He has started lifting his arms when he wants to be picked up, or if he is being held and someone else is near that he'd rather be held by, he will reach over to them. Love it! He has also started to show a glimpse of trantrum throwing. Don't love that! If he doesn't get his way and is cranky he will get very mad. Usually that happens when we are getting him dressed/undressed (and recently, on the changing table- very strange as he used to love getting his diaper changed). He will arch his back, scream and cry, and try to roll over. Makes it very difficult to change him!

One last little cute Caiden-ism: sometimes when I am with Caiden during my lunch break Dan will call. I put my cell phone on speaker phone so that Caiden can hear him. Caiden smiles and gets excited, and will just listen to us talk. He doesn't even try to eat my phone like he will do any other time he sees it.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Say cheese!

Last weekend we took Caiden to get some professional photos taken. The day didn't start well, Caiden was a little cranky and we had to rush all morning to get there on time. I thought there was no way the photo session would go well. Boy was I wrong! Caiden absolutely loved it. The photographer was fun and goofy and had no problems getting tons of smiles and giggles out of Caiden.










Friday, May 6, 2011

Daycare: 5, Caiden: 0

Illness du jour: conjunctivitis. On Tuesday when I picked Caiden up from daycare his eyes were gooping like crazy. Dan took him to the doctor the next day who diagnosed him with pink eye! Ick! We got some antibiotic ointment to put in his eyes. The instructions say to put 1/2 of an inch on each eye. I'm pretty sure whoever wrote those instructions has never tried administering this stuff to a baby. Screaming, head thrashing, and squeezing the eyes shut commence as soon as we come near Caiden with the tube. The best we can do is get it all over his eyelashes, which the doctor said is good enough.

We spent most of our lunch break today outside, he loved it! He especially loves watching cars drive by. I'm really loving this warm weather :)