Kaden loves to clap

He claps as soon as he wakes up and he claps while he is putting himself to sleep. And pretty much all day.

Happy 7 months Kaden!

Happy 7 months, Kaden!! Today at his seven month birthday he spent the day at GiGi's house while the rest of us make the drive to Disney. He will be flying with Bill and Gayla and meet us in Orlando.

Here is what Kaden has been up to in the past month. This was been his most milestone filled month yet.

- He started sitting up, officially on June 1st. Less than a week later he is sitting for long periods of time before reaching so far that he finally topples over. He pushes himself way forward and pushes himself up. He is such a strong boy. My goodness. And so the fighting for toys has begun with Maya!

- He is "flipping" all over the place. I call him my little salamander since he's so fast at it. I'll put him down one way on his back and next minute he is on his stomach and flipped to the other side of the crib.

- Kaden started clapping June 18th. Very cute. He started in his crib. When he sits up, he keeps one hand steady while the other claps it. Then smiles. He's proud of himself.

- He is following more of a schedule now. He gets up early, plays for an hour and then is just tired and wants to nap. Sometimes takes 3 naps, but usually two are long and then a catnap here and there. He wants to sleep at around 7:30 or 8 every night which is super early for us and we don't recall Maya being that way. He will still wake up to eat around midnight to 2 am and then again about 3-4 hrs after that. I tried the water thing instead of milk and he just got so mad. Then I tried some juice. He drank it and then still wanted to eat (nursing still). What's a momma to do when its just too easy to just feed him on demand! Pediatrician said if all those tactics didn't work to just let him cry for intervals. I can't do it yet. Mainly cause I just don't want to hear him cry. Second, I am pretty darn tired as it is.

- Kaden is sleeping in his crib all night now and during naps. I started putting him up there and then at the midnight feeding would put him in our pack n play in the bedroom. Then the next feeding he always ended up in our bed...plain tiredness on my part. Then at naps the nannies would still lay him on our bed or pack n play! I had to really crack down and say crib only for naps. Then we moved the glider upstairs and since then I haven't brought him downstairs until morning. Sure, I fall asleep up there all the time with him in hand but usually I will wake up after about 20 minutes and put him back in the crib. This moving the glider change even made the nannies successful at putting him in the crib! Plus he moves so much now that he just really needs the protected boundaries. 

-He is a great eater! I didn't really start the solids full gear until we went to the 6 month appointment. Until then, we gave him cereal once a day, maybe. Then after 6 months, he is now getting breakfast, lunch and dinner. He eats oatmeal, sweet potatoes, apples, squash, peas, green beans, prunes, pears without a fuss. I started making baby food again. I decided to go jar food on the fruits home or while out but for veggies, I prefer he eat the "cubes" like I used to do for Maya. So far I've made squash, peas and sweet potatoes. It requires a lot of time to steam, puree, freeze and clean all up so still need to get some more in the freezer for him! We are starting to give him other foods here and there. If he is with his Papaw Bill he is sure to get some ice cream (bad, bad Papaw). I gave him itty bitty pieces of garlic breadstick at Olive Garden the other day. OMG, he just attacked it. Loved it. He is starting to get really mad when we start eating and can't have it. He watches my every bite. We gave him some formula in preparation of the Disney trip and he liked it. We are trying Gerber Good Start ready to feed as I hear its closest to momma's milk.

-He is still growing like a weed. He is wearing size 12 to 18 month sleepers and 9 month separates. Growing into size 4 shoes. Haven't weighed him this morning but I'm sure we are somewhere around 19 or 20 lbs at this point. BIG BOY...plus the strength and he has me whooped.

-We starting introducing funner (it is a word!) toys to him this month now that he can sit. He just loves everything we give him and bangs/slaps at everything. His favorite is paper and napkins. Everything ends up in his mouth within seconds. In his walker, he is moving all around. One day he got to Maya's dollhouse in the living room and it almost toppled on him. Didn't see that coming so soon. So now we put barriers in front of all that stuff. Time to put away the Polly Pockets, Maya. The door jumper is still a huge hit, while the exersaucer and stationery jumper are getting to be a bit of a bore for him. He does just enjoy sitting on the floor now and playing with a bin of toys. Takes 'em out, chews on 'em, tosses 'em, and then next toy.

- Kaden's temperament is still pretty mellow, but lately around naptime and bedtime he is getting more and more vocal. Its okay though. Its a good sign for us to make a move!

- Summer is in full swing, so he is enjoying the pool and swing in the backyard and whatever big sis has us doing for the day. Good boy!

Farewell Tyson

My cat Tyson was put to rest today, June 21st. He was almost 11 years old. Born in August 2000 and I took him when he was only 2 weeks old. I still remember I was living with Helen, an old friend from my DeltaSig days and she had a cat too. I wasn't at all a "cat" person until I saw Tyson. His name used to be Milo, but after all the biting, it was clear that a name change was needed. I'll have to find his pictures of when we used to put him in the bath like a little baby and he used to look like a rat when he was wet. I had just started dating Charlie that April and he wasn't too happy about my new pet. I thought it was kind of funny back then because I was like "who are you to tell me I can get a pet...I mean, we've only been dating a few months". And now look, our relationship has outlived little Tyson. Tyson was by no means a little cat though. BIG, HUGE mainecoone. He was black with a few stripes of white here and there.

I remember all the mornings he would scratch my door to be let in and then when I let him in, I tried to go back to bed. He would just get on top of the dresser and start pushing things off - in an effort to wake me up. This is WAY before kids and work, so waking me up at 10 am wasn't a big push for him. Oh the days of sleeping in are so long gone! I didn't like having a litter box out, so I remember I put it under my sink and propped the cabinet door open so he could jump in and out. And he did! It was pretty neat that way. He was so very playful. I would throw balls of aluminum foil across the room and he liked to "fetch" and bring it back to me. It was alot of fun. I remember studying or doing homework and he would come sit right on top of my book!

In 2001 when I moved to Houston for my internship, he moved in to my parents house with me. They grew to love him so much and were more sad to see him go back to College Station than their own daughter! I remember my mom used to call and leave messages on the answering machine for him and he would run to it and just listen to her. My mom thought I was neglecting him - you know, cause I didn't stay at home ALL day with him and such, so they drove up to CS and took him! So since 2002, he had been living with my parents. When I came home to visit the few years after that, he would still run to me when he heard my voice. That changed after a few years and his new parents took over. My parents got another kitten, Angel, and even though they always told me to take Tyson back, they really just wanted to keep him still.

Tyson was always a pretty feisty cat. Every time he got shots, they had to sedate him. He was just hiss and growl at everyone. I remember having to take him in and out of the kennel with one of my old Bonfire sweatshirts so he wouldn't bite me! Dr Hendricks, an Aggie, has been his vet for all these years. A few months ago, Tyson had starting throwing up alot. Then, he stopped eating. They took him to the doc and initially said he had some irritable bowl disease. So they gave him meds, changed his food, etc. Well, it didn't get any better. And also over the last few months, my parents had noticed that he wasn't running around as much or jumping up on the counters or anything too high. So last week, they did an MRI and ultrasound. They found that Tyson had lymphoma all in his stomach and it had spread to his liver already. There wasn't anything they could do to save him. Doc said it could be days or a couple weeks. So my parents took him home over Father's Day weekend for his last days. We are leaving for Disney tomorrow and the doc said it wasn't fair to him, so much pain, to keep him in the kennel while we were gone. So, they had to do it today. So sad.

Sure, his hair got everywhere and he had to have special places to sit in the house. And he was still a biter at times and pretty moody. And Angel and him didn't get along. But still he was part of the family and now he is gone. But not in anymore pain. My parents are definitely having a hard time with parting with Tyson. He became a lapcat after a while and that is what we all wanted in the first place! RIP Tyson Mistry.

Brynlee

Last night I finally visited our own blog after weeks just to read the saddest subject line of one of the SMA families I track on our blog. The Listons lost their daughter, Brynlee, to SMA on June 6th. I am so sick to my stomach. I never did have a chance to meet her in Salt Lake City due to either her or Maya being sick but I know that her and Maya would really have liked to play with each other. Both have spunky personalities it seems. I wanted to wake Charlie up and tell him but I knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. So I waited until this morning. Even he is recently feeling a huge grief feeling from all the friends we've made and the news lately. Brynlee was such a beautiful little girl. A fighter. Her picture has been in the FSMA booklets every year. Such a cutie. We will miss you, Brynlee, but we know you are now free of this disease and running around and enjoying your new life. We will have the Listons in our prayers while they cope with Brynlee's loss.

It's moments like this that prompt all us SMA moms to post about Brynlee and the sad reminder of what SMA really means. I know I don't talk to anyone much about the fact that SMA is terminal but it is in fact the case. It does no good to talk about it for me because Maya has ears wide open listening...she is so smart. I try so hard to be strong for her. But tonight I am really hurting. It's just not fair. It makes me never want to leave her when she is sleeping. I actually have Charlie keep her monitor on the highest level so I can hear her breathing. We don't keep her on the pulse ox machine every night. Only when we she is sick or when she looks to have started a cold. It makes the guilt worse when she begs me to sleep with her. Sometimes I wonder if the days she really cries for me to sleep there are just the three year old blues or her sign of needing someone to watch her while she sleeps. It's a tough decision but I try not to make the bad habit of doing it.