One year ago...

Hi everyone,

Here is the monkey pretty close to one year ago. I love going back to old photos and comparing how much Caydin has changed over time. I especially love that I have Photoshop now so when I get bored of editing recent pictures, I go way back to the pictures I took long before I even knew Photoshop existed. I know, I was that bad.

These pictures were taken at the park near our old apartment complex. Boy, I miss those days where you would just throw down a blanket on the ground and he would sit and sit and sit some more. The interesting part about these photos was that I really didn't like them when I took them. I saved them to the computer and never did anything with them (probably didn't even print them for our 3 billion Caydin photo albums.) I remember Caydin not wanting to smile that day and when I did get a smile, the silly toy was in front of his face.

But now, I love the photos. I love those little overalls and sock-less feet. I also love the long baby hair and the blanket that if I remember correctly was a gift from one of my student's.

Ok, enough with the oldie pictures.

I'll be posting Valentine pictures soon :)

Caydin is/was supposed to get his 18 pictures taken tomorrow but I think I will have to reschedule. He came down with a cold last night. We think it may be due to his always popping up teeth, who know. I love my snot filled t-shirt but for some reason, don't think it will look good in a professional photo. Imagine that!!!

On a totally different note, I attended sweet baby Carson's memorial today and then a bridal shower. Totally exhausted and sad (for Carson's family) and happy (for Marisa).

(P.S. Marisa - I know you read this - be on the look out for your bridal shower gift! I stink as a friend and totally showed up gift-less. Who does that?!?!)

a letter

Dear Grandma,

I think we need to talk about that nice comfy chair you and my mommy promised me! I currently have to sit on a laundry basket when I want to watch my TV shows and that just ain't workin any-mo.

So, lets get together and figure this out.

Love you,

Caydin

Busy Week

*****I lied, these pictures were taken on SUNDAY!******

{insert big happy face here}

It's been a super busy week at school and with Oma here visiting so I haven't had time to take many pictures much less update! So sorry Grandpa! Here are some photos from last weekend (taken on Saturday to be exact!)

I pulled out some new shoes that we've had in the closet for Caydin. That boy's feet grow faster than a weed in the middle of summer. Little did I know when I put them on him that they would make for AT LEAST 30 minutes of independent play time! Velcro on, velcro off, velcro on, velcro off... {are we seeing a pattern here?}

We spent most of Saturday outside watching Daddy clean the cars. We mastered the art of "fish lips" {a huge milestone, let me tell you!}

...but doesn't he look so cute with fishy lips??

The only not-cute thing 'bout it is that it comes along with these whiny sounds that go something like this "ooooooohh whoooooo"

Happy Friday tomorrow!!

{how we spent} Caydin's half birthday!

To start off the day,

...Bubbles in our PJ's... of course!
After breakfast, which we ate in the garage while watching Daddy wash the car (Daddy is 10 times better than TV anyday!).. we watched the car wash bubbles go down the curb. Caydin was SUPER interested in this... He even would follow the bubbles down the street. Thank God we live on a quiet, friendly street!

We played in the backyard after our morning nap (after Mama got back from dropping Grammy at the airport) and ate some lunch.

Even Scout played! Scout has this magical way of getting Caydin to smile!

Then we took some Valentines Pictures for Mama's holiday frames. I suppose Daddy is tired of looking at Caydin's scream-on-Santa's-lap picture! But I'm saving those pictures. For a totally different post! We played with our big balls and watched the neighbor's dog for awhile before heading back to bed. Caydin heard me type my note earlier, i.e. the line where I said we were thankful for 2nd naps.... and then decided not to take one today!

Luckily, we had a Target trip planned so we headed out to do some grocery shopping. Caydin did great of course, especially since he had some snacks nearby!

After Target came more play time, this time with KoBe, then dinner.

Then bottle, then bath! Pssssshhh! Too easy!!! (Just kidding)

He went right to sleep tonight!

Now, thats what I call a great day!

18 months

Where did the time go??? How is it that my little big guy is one and a half today? I was thinking this morning that 18 months is like the end of being able to say how old your child is in months. Now, if someone asks, you just have to say "one and a half". No more of this, "He's 16 months" or "He's almost 17 months." Nope. Caydin is officially a little boy now. Maybe.

Anyways.

At one and a half,

**Caydin climbs everything: the couches, the beds, stools, chairs, tables. EVERYTHING.

**Caydin still loves his choo-choo's. Everything is a choo-choo - cars, planes, boats, trains. Everything.

**Caydin does say beep-beep now if you show him a car and say beep-beep first.

**As for other new words, he says "ju" for juice, "ba" for ball, "ta da" when he does something neat, "here" when he finds something, and says "bye-bye dada" even when Rob isn't going anywhere. He also says something along of the lines of "what's that" when pointing at something.

**Loves bubbles this month and calls them "buh buh"

**Caydin eats A LOT (but does it slowly).

**Runs from morning to night, and only stops to take a nap. He occasionally does not take an afternoon nap so we think he is starting the transition from 2 naps to 1. Thankfully, he still enjoys that afternoon nap most of the time!

**Loves to be outside (but that isn't new).

**Caydin sat in his first ever frost this month. He was forced by Grammy - boy is she mean!

**Caydin also found out he was going to get a cousin this month.

**Caydin got his first BIG BOY hair cut this month and didn't make a sound the entire time!

**Caydin wears a size 5 diaper at night and a 4 during the day. He wears 18 month shorts and pants (for the length, not the waist - thank God for the elastic on the inside so that you can pull them tight!!!), and 18 month, 24 month, and 2T tops.

**Caydin can go up the stairs of his climber and done the slide by himself. woot-woot.

{I'm sure there is a thousand things that I am forgetting so I will add to the list as I remember them!}

My little guy is growing up... {insert sad face here}

On Saturday, I got to meet my friend's sweet, strong, amazing twins (a boy and a girl). The babies were born on Thanksgiving day weighing only 1.6 and 1.7 pounds and only got to spend roughly 25-ish weeks in their mama's tummy. On Saturday, they weighed in at 2 pounds 10 oz and are doing excellent. I must be honest, I've never visited a NICU before. {insert funny story here: you have to scrub your arms/hands/fingers really good with this sponge/brush thing before going into the NICU area. I jumped up to the sink first and started scrubbing away... There was an older lady next to me at the sink going crazy with the scrub, scrub, scrub.... so I... being the newbie that I am... followed along. I mean, she seriously spent 5 minutes on EACH FINGER. Tara, the baby mama, looks at me like 5 minutes after starting the ol' scrub job, laughs, and says... "You really don't have to do all that.. You don't get to the touch the babies anyways." Urgh... I really just wanted to give my hands a super cleaning... really!} The picture above is sweet Ms. Abigail, snuggled up and sleeping inside her "room."

Then I went home to this guy, looked at him and was amazed by how much bigger he looked... then some 2 hours before. There's nothing like seeing a little-itsy-bitsy 2 pounder to make you realize that you're own child is all GROWN UP. Well almost.

Here Caydin is with his new Milk cups. We were having trouble gettig him to drink milk from his other sippy cups. He has always used his sippy cups for juice so when we started giving him a sippy cup of milk... he didn't want anything to do with it. SO, we got him some new ones and only put milk in there and he loves them!

He also loves to drink juice out of juice boxes. It literally takes him 2 minutes to drink the whole box. He is fast!
In true Monkey fashion, he has learned to climb into the car on his own and LOVES the driver seat. Like all good drivers, he ALWAYS wears a seatbeat. Now, if this picture doesn't make you realize that our once-little-baby is all grown up... I don't know what will!

Brush Brush

"Brush, Brush, Brush your teeth

Brush your teeth each day

for everyday you brush your teeth

you make the cavities go away!"

----Made by the creative minds of Mommy and Dada

Our little tune seems to be working...

The other day, Caydin grabbed my toothbrush and did a good brushing on his own teeth! He is also doing a much better job at letting us brush his teeth. He doesn't mind me brushing the bottom teeth at all but for some reason, still doesn't like the top teeth to be brushed.
He gets the toothbrush and the hairbrush confused sometimes...
We're working on that!

the Caydin stool

Coolest stool eva!

Caydin agrees!

Thanks Aunt Katie

{I can now climb anything, watch anything, and do anything I want... with the help of my handy-dandy NAME stool!}

Medieval Times

I took Rob to Medieval Times this past weekend. It was one of his x-mas presents! We had a great time!!! I've actually never been, strange since I've lived here in Orlando for nearly 8 years!
Loved the plates, considered taking it! (JK)
Yummmmmmy! Food!

I took pictures of the pictures! I'm so smart... shooooooot, who wants to pay 20 bucks for a silly picture of my half dressed?? I'm looking pretty good however... if I don't say so myself!

Muscle Man Rob

Lots of horses and long-haired knights!

Again, a picture of the picture. Apparently, you aren't supposed to do that as the b***** server stuck her hand in front of the picture as Rob was playing with the camera... little did she know that I already took the picture!!!

My cool shot of the knight (I meant NIGHT). Our Red and Yellow Knight kicked some butt...

...but sadly didn't win... I mean, save the prince.

Thanks for watching the monkey, Grandma and Grandpa :)

Gifts from Germany!

Thank you, Kareen and family!

for these AWESOME playmobil toys all the way from Germany!

Caydin LOVES this little garage and truck box set!

Just saying...

....that I brought home an entire cart of school work to do and it didn't even make it out of my car's trunk. How sad is that???

....also, I watched The Bachelor tonight. Jake is pretty cheesy. I wish I could say that I won't watch it again but I don't really want to lie to anyone.

....also..... I have a slight (who am I kidding... serious) addiction to Rolo chocolates. It's bad, really.

....finally, I have a ton of pictures to upload and post. But I'm lacking the motivation... and I just heard the garage door open so I know Rob is home from work. So, yup. It's not gonna happen tonight!

But just as a teaser... (for my dad who is enjoying his visit to the middle of nowhere... you know... he's busy tipping cows and stuff...)

Here's a list of upcoming posts!
1. toothbrush/hairbrush - I won't even get into that!
2. Medieval Times
3. the Caydin Stool

Woot. woot.

"Give Kisses"

Sooooooo, I know this is the 3rd post of the day.... I really only planned for 2 as I tend to post lots on the weekend and not much during the week. Stupid work.

But Caydin just did the CUTEST THING EVER!

I told Caydin to give Daddy kisses because it was time for bed. We do this everynight with anyone who is over at bedtime. He went to Daddy, leaned in and said "muuuuah" and kissed Daddy. Then I said "Give Mommy kisses." Instead of coming over to me, he went to the couch pillow, leaned down, kissed it, and said "muuuuah." Then he went to his remote control car remote, leaned down, kissed it, and said "muuuuuah." Then it was on to my "Triumphs Intervention" Teacher's edition book to do the same thing. Then back to the car remote (he must really like the remote control car!!!!). He even attempted to give the DVD player a kiss. It was so funny to watch.

I did eventually get a kiss, then Daddy got another one, and then one more for Mommy before bedtime.

Boy, that kid is awesome!

3 Growing Babies

Sorry for the overload on pictures!

These were all taken January 2nd. Caydin and I drove over to the Cape to hang out with Catherine, Kristie, Landen, and Brilee. Catherine's family was getting ready for a wedding/cruise so we got to hang out and visit at a nearby hotel for the afternoon. It's been alittle over a year since all 3 babies were together.

It was a very nice afternoon (compared to what its been this past week) so we took the babies out to the hotel tennis court, closed the gates, and let them run around! We were silly and didn't bring a single toy out but the boys had a lot of fun with a lunchable box and plastic spoon.

Monster, I mean, Caydin chasing after Landen, ready to give a helping hand.
Such a sweet boy, this side... the cute helpful side, he gets from his mommy ;)
He was helping Landen get up in this picture... though I doubt Landen needed or wanted the help!

Landen saying "Cheeese."

Brilee wanted someone to help her walk around the tennis court. The boys offered but she insisted her daddy help! haha

Trying to figure out a way to escape!

They came up with some interesting toys. Caydin enjoyed the kleenex box. (I apologize now for anything found in the box by the next hotel guest... as he enjoyed sticking cheerios, cheese, and lunchmeat in there.)

Brilee's toy of choice was the waterbottle.

Don't you just love baby group shots!!!! The boys are running and Brilee is crying! LOVE IT!

This is the best we got!

Caydin was exhausted after our afternoon play date! He slept the 45 minute drive home and then another 2 hours in his bed. I loved it!

Name Pictures

This is Caydin with his letter ornaments last year (2008).

And this is Caydin with his letter ornaments this year (2009).
I had all but given up on the idea of getting his picture with his ornaments this year and didn't even bother to try. Then last weekend when I was taking the tree down, I thought I'd try and if he didn't want too... I'd put the letters away and try again next year. Well I set down one of his beloved blankets and set down his letters then told him to sit and he did AMAZINGLY well! Go figure!

(and no, we didn't change his name!!! He's holding the "C" in his hands! Sometimes you just have to pick your battles!!!)