The year has flown by and our baby boy is one already! Still a sweetie but getting every bit mischievous like little boys are. Kaden loves his big sister Maya, loves to play ball and rough house with his daddy, but is most attached to his mommy as he often bumps into things this age and has to cry to someone!
On his big day, we were at the family deer lease in west Texas. Poor Kaden has a stomach virus so he’s been miserable and couldn’t eat all the foods he enjoys so much. He started his day to a blow up (diaper) and had a 6 am bath. We went on a joyride on the deer lease with the girls where he and his cuz Addi took a long morning nap. For lunch we headed to town at this place called Jacoby’s. We eat there everytime we go to the deer lease because it’s the closest restaurant, gas stations and feed station. We sang Happy Birthday to K and let him smash up a cupcake. Maya blew out his candle for him. We got him this shirt that had a deer on it with camo and a “1”. An appropriate shirt for his birthday trip. He was likely to put his hand on it, so just playing it safe! The outing got the kids tried again, so we did a family nap, while Charlie had an evening hunting trip. Kaden’s big bash is on December 3rd and he’ll be able to smash up another cake and show his skills.
Stats (12/9/11): Weight 23.75 lbs (60%) and Height 31.75 in (92%)
Walking update…Kaden is SO close to walking, but not just yet. He walks along everything and manages to get into everything. He will stand on his own for a long time, but just won’t make that move on that first step. Instead he crawls about 10 MPH! Very fast. He has one of those push toys that he walks behind all around the house, in circles. He has learned to climb up the stairs and is trying to learn how to get back down. He doesn’t quite have it down yet. Instead of crawling backwards, he would rather go head first, causing him a bit of a dilemma (which is obvious because he pauses for a moment to plan things out J).
Playtime...I find myself telling people that he is “such a boy”.
- He loves throwing the balls around the house and chasing them.
- He enjoys anything car and will seek out the toys that have cars.
- There is this red baseball bat that he just plays with forever everyday while he watches some cartoon and chews on the end of it.
- He wants to open every cabinet and drawer in the house. We left a couple non-babyproofed in the kitchen and he has definitely found them! One is the Tupperware drawer and sometimes I will find Tupperware all over the place. The other is the ziplock and wrap drawer. He likes to take out all the ziplock bags out of the box and put them on the kitchen floor.
- I have this towel bar at the kitchen sink. He treats it like a bell he has to ring everytime he sees it. You know he’s been in the kitchen because the towel is always on the floor. As soon as I put it back up, he will usually come crawling back to take it down again. It’s still cute, but getting old soon enough!
- Whenever we have the dishwasher down, K wants to take all the dishes out and put them on the floor. His favorite item – the plastic straws.
- Kaden loves taking baths and enjoys playing with water. He can hear water from across the house and will come “run” crawling. When Maya is taking a bath, he will go to her and stand up at her bath until she is done. He tries putting toys in and out for her. Recently he’s even tried to take off his own shirt. Sometimes it’s tough watching, so I just let him jump in with her and have a bit of fun. He gets SO excited when I do this because he also likes playing with Maya and splashing the water everywhere. He does not like the Jacuzzi bubbles however. I’ve never seen him crawl up on me so fast the first time we put them on for him!
- There is this dog that plays music (I think it works with iPods or something). Every now and again, we will hear the dog playing music and it is apparent that Kaden is in the playroom!
- He really enjoys unplugging things and tries to chew on the outlet, which of course is a danger so this keeps us quite busy as we chase him around the house and taking things like this out of his mouth and hands. The monitor and cell phone charger near my nightstand are his most favorite. If I ever lose him, I typically know that he will be in my bedroom playing with the monitor base.
- K has discovered the toilet and toilet paper! We have to watch the cover now and make sure it is down otherwise you may have a surprise. And he loves unraveling the toilet paper similar to any other kid out there. I have also discovered what it is like to never have privacy, including when I go to the bathroom!! My goodness – he will always find me!
- This weekend we found out that he loves to push a broom. Kept him entertained for about 45 min. Go figure.
- As far as toys, he has enjoyed playing with the play
Sleep habits...wakes up around 7, has a morning nap around 10 and sometimes an afternoon nap but the time depends on what the day has to offer. No set schedule for the second nap. He is finally sleeping through the night. I am too tired to remember when he started it and honestly just don’t want to jinx anything.
Food…This is Kaden’s favorite part of his day. He loves to eat!! He is completely done nursing and takes formula. He will begin milk soon. It was delayed a bit due to illness and all this traveling! He still takes 5-6 formula feedings, mixed in with food. He loves eating on his own, so we’ve had to make adjustments to dinner and eating out to accommodate finger foods for him. In fact, he sometimes takes the spoon out of my hand when I’m not paying attention while feeding him! He loves bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe (although banned in the house now due to the contamination outbreak L), mandarin oranges, and those mixed fruit cups. He still eats oatmeal with gerber fruit in the morning. I am introducing eggs to him since Maya eats one every day and it will be pretty easy to add one more to the daily routine. He loves his vegetables. He loves green peas and corn, He will seek out these two things out of the green beans and carrots from the mixed veggie medley. He loves pasta and mac and cheese. I loved it one day when he and Maya just ate and ate my lasagna one night. It was a huge hit! There isn’t much K doesn’t like to eat. This is a big part of his day and he is so happy afterwards. For snacks, we still give him the occasional Mum or puffs and now we are getting into goldfish. The ONLY food Kaden does not seem too fond of is potatoes. I have never seen him eat an entire helping of mashed potatoes and even sweet potatoes. All this vegetable eating by Kaden seems to be rubbing off on Maya because we are getting her to eat things she would never thought imaginable to her like broccoli, corn and sweet potatoes. Hopefully his palate will remain as big as it is now and continue to rub off on Maya. I enjoy cooking when everyone eats it!
Tooth update…K has one “toothy” as Maya likes to say. He got it at 11 months. Maya was 14 months before she got one so both kids are very late teethers. I see the other bottom one coming in soon and maybe one of the top front ones coming. It hasn’t stopped him too much on eating even though I like to think it would.
Sibling rivalry…Kaden and Maya love each other and love being around each other, but its gotten to that time where K is making his mark. Every morning while we are getting Maya ready, he will go to her room. They are both so happy to see each other. Its so cute. K will make his typical rounds – the cough machine, open and closing her drawers, into the bathroom where he always tries to get her crayons and stick his hand in her toilet (gross!). He loves playing with Maya’s ankle and knee braces and getting her water cup from her nightstand. In the playroom, he will surely knock over all her toys she is playing with. Obviously this becomes a greater issue to Maya since she cannot defend herself nor pick them back up. So this will be more of a challenge as K moved through this stage (another 18 months probably!). Maya has handled everything pretty well though. She will tell me that Kaden is going to knock her over or her toys over, but she doesn’t seem so bothered about it where she is crying or complaining over and over which is a good thing. Maya is SO particular about her toys and until Kaden was moving, all the parts of her toys stayed with that toy. Now they are all over the house. Fun stuff. Kaden is busy tagging along to all his sister’s appointments every week. He often misses his morning nap to come along but he is a good trooper for sitting in the car and being woken up abruptly. They also have a love hate relationship starting in the car. Maya will grab his hand and entertain him when he is crying. But Kaden, he doesn’t know any better yet, will throw his sippy cup and accidentally hit her in the head, or he will get her water cup and start drinking from it, or he will steal her snack bag and throw it everywhere. He is just at that age, but Maya adjusts pretty well to it.
It has been a fun but challenging year for Charlie and I. Kaden was a much needed addition to the family. Its allowed us to focus less on being an SMA family. The bad part to that is that I find myself less on top of things with Maya. Kaden is a lot of fun and it is a joy to watch him grow up and reach the milestones that we did not get to see as first time parents. In that regard, we are first time parents in a lot of ways with Kaden. Baby proofing the house, for example, was all new to us. So the year brought many joys, but also sadness as we watch Maya watching him. He loves her so much you can tell and she does to him, so these feelings should grow with the children and they will become so close. I can see K becoming protective over his sister and Charlie and I would be delighted to have one more person in the house to watch over our other blessing! The next year will continue to be a lot of fun as we watch Kaden start to walk and run and climb on everything. My back will also be happy that I will have one less child to carry and pick up! And finally, Kaden will finally be able to get a ride on his sister’s powerchair!
Kaden, we love you SO much and have had a lot of fun watching you over the past year. You were a very good and patient baby and becoming an ever so busy toddler! You hardly cried until the age of around 9 months when you started to crawl and we begin locking you out of things! But you weeped only a few minutes and then back to your big and beautiful smile. We still haven’t made out your eye color. I recently called it camo color or dark hazel. You appear to be a cuddler like your sister, but you are also wanting to be so independent that you can’t sit still anymore! By the end of next year I can see all four of us having a family nap like we did when you were just a little baby!
