10 month update!

Kayden is now a double digit baby! He turned 10 months yesterday and I still am amazed at how time flies when your having fun! He is so much fun and brightens every moment of our life. I still get to wake up to that adorable smile everyday, I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to get to be Kayden's mommy!
This month Kayden had a cold, but mommy had it way worse! I think he got lots of antibodies from the breastmilk that helped him just suffer a little bit, I'm glad if one of us had to get it worse that it was me! Right after we both started feeling better from the cold Kayden got the tummy flu and threw up for the first time:( Poor baby! It was so sad to watch him and see how uncomfortable and confused he was. He started throwing up around 3:30 on April 22nd and kept throwing up that night till about 8pm. The next morning he woke up with a 103 auxillary temperature (converts to 104!!!) Mommy was a little freaked out by the temp b/c he has never had one that high. The nurse at our doctor's office assured me it went with the flu he had gotten and she even called to check on him! Made me fall in love with our doctor's office that they care enough about their patients to check in on them! But his fever broke that afternoon and he started feeling alot better. For those 24 hours he had no energy and would just lay across my lap falling asleep often. We took alot of showers during this time b/c he couldn't tell me he was going to get sick so we'd both get drenched....not fun. But yay for a healthy baby! I guess if sickness brings anything good it is an appreciation for health!!! Daddy says that our playgroup needs to be more careful about sick babies coming, but I keep reminding him it could have been from Target;-) or Walmart or starbucks. The doctor's office said the bug had hit the valley really hard!
Kayden's eating has been changing from less purees to more finger foods, mommy continues to make all of his foods from organic produce. We still haven't done any meat yet, so for now he is a baby vegetarian;-) On his 10 month birthday I did give him egg yolks for the first time & he wasn't a fan.....so I guess now he would be considered a lacto-ovo vegetarian (dairy products and eggs). I will give him meat sometime soon because while I agree that you don't need meat in your diet, daddy and I aren't vegetarians so I figure it will come sooner or later. When he does get meat though it will only be organic and will be hard for me to give him but I'm sure it is coming son. Will update with his first bite of chicken or ground beef sometime soon......sooner than I'd like if daddy has his way! Grilled cheese is a new favorite for Kayden! He loves when Aunt Jaclyn sneaks him grilled cheese at Joe's and he really loves when she gives him french fries. I figure I don't want him to be the nerdie kid carrying around carrots at birthday parties so as long as I keep him as healthy as possible most of the time, a treat here and there won't hurt him.........I'm worried though that he is going to think I'm the mean mom and Jaclyn is fun Aunt Jaclyn. So I might have to give him a treat here and there too, we shall see;-) While he was sick he wasn't eating anything but breastmilk, no big surprise there. He is still nursing throughout the day and night and uses it for his primary nutrition and of course mommy snuggles! He also is a huge fan of his yobaby yogurt and opens his mouth very wide for that spoon! Cheese is also a huge favorite, he could eat and eat cheese. Green veggies are still a battle and he is winning. If I try and feed him anything green he decides to refuse the rest of his meal......and I don't want him to not eat. He has also decided he hates his oatmeal cereal and clamps his mouth shut and shakes his head and hand no no over and over if he sees it in the spoon. He is the typical breastfed baby and loves all things sweet...probably a little genetic too b/c mommy has a huge sweet tooth! But I do love my veggies so that part would have to come from daddy!
Daddy or I continue to rock him to sleep for his naps and at night and we love that quiet, snuggle time with our cuddly little boy! When he is sleepy he loves to snuggle his head into our chests and we love when he does it right back! His naps are getting to be about 1-2 hours each which is great and such a change from the boy that would only take a 20 minute nap here and there unless I was holding him. We still have our routine of reading Goodnight Moon and then saying our prayers with the prayer bear that his Godparents gave him for his baptism. He LOVES his prayer bear and won't let us put him to sleep without saying his prayers with him. I love that the little bear has helped us incorporate God into his life at such an early stage. At night he continues to start in his crib and sleeps there from 8-11 or sometimes 3am! The nights he sleeps in his crib till 3 I don't sleep well at all. I miss him so much and I worry about him being all the way across the house but I hold strong and let him be till he needs me and then he comes right to our bed;-)
He continues to be Mr. mobile, crawling all over the place, pulling himself up on anything he can, cruising along furniture, making anything he can into a walking toy and standing here and there on his own (but as soon as he realizes he is doing it he still plops down onto his bootie!) He loves his "cabinet" in our kitchen. It is full of these little stainless steal pots and pans I got for him that he loves to bang like crazy and tupperware that he can play with. He thinks he is a big helper when I'm putting dishes away, pulling things out of the dishwasher and if he sees the fridge door open he races to get to the fridge and if we close it before he can "check it out" he lets us know he is not happy! He has also perfected his "bye bye" and "hi" skills and waves whenever he hears those words. Even if no one is there to wave bye bye too if I say "we are going bye bye" he starts to wave. And he is SO proud of himself. He loves doing it and smiles big, as if he is saying, yep I'm good, I can now say bye bye;-) He is starting to do the sign for milk more and more and we are working on "more" too but mommy needs to be a little more consistent with the signs. He knows what the sign thank you means but hasn't done it himself yet. He loves to share his food with mommy, daddy and Fifi and loves when we tell him thank you! Books continue to be a favorite of his and he loves to turn the pages and feel the textures in his texture books. His red car is another favorite, he loves when he gets in it because he knows that means he is going outside to help daddy with the pool or to the mailbox or to the park to swing. Grammie & Grandpa W just ordered him his wagon and it should be here within the week! He LOVES Tatum's wagon so he is super excited to get his! It will be great for the summer because it has a canopy and AZ summers are brutal!
This has been such a fun month with Kayden, he learns something new everyday and I love seeing the world through his innocent, trusting little eyes. He is such a loving little boy always ready to give us a big, slobbery kiss or a tight hug and I think he hears "I love you" more than any other phrase, at least a 100 times a day from daddy and I. But I'll write it here too baby boy, we love you to the moon and back!!!

Just my size!

I decided Kayden needed a baby pool that didn't have chlorine in it and could sit int he shade. He LOVES it! He saw it inflated and full on the patio and kept saying "uh, uh" and gesturing towards it, so even though daddy wanted to leave for lunch, mommy took him out to put his feet in it and he started jumping up and down because he was so excited to be in it. I decided I had to capture the moment and I stripped him down and plopped him in and he had a blast. He loved crawling in and out of it and even decided he'd brave the cold big pool while he was at it! Our 9.5 month old has been in our pool but us adults are too chicken to get in yet because of the chilly temp!

Mommies & Babies, Daddies & Babies

Last night we went to John and Christa's to celebrate John's 29th birthday and my 27th (I hate to type that......27 is no longer the mid 20's, I'm an official "late 20's" member now!). We grilled out and had lots of great food, yummy ice cream cake and fun times. The babies had fun playing together but got a little tired when the parents wanted to continue playing and the kiddos demanded their beds! It was a fun night!

Kayden's First Kiss!

So I have to write about this because I don't want to forget it. It was one of the sweetest things I have seen so far and melted my heart! At dinner on Saturday Tatum was down playing on the ground and I put Kayden down by her. He was standing at a chair and Tatum got all excited, started bouncing and grabbing at Kayden. Then she grabbed his shirt with her tiny little hands and used him to help her pull up and gave him a big smackaroo and smiled the biggest smile ever. It was so precious! Kayden got his first kiss from a girl! (I'm sure Tula and Danica have kissed him before too but this was the most deliberate kiss I had seen so far and it melted my heart!) Of course we didn't get a video or photo of it but I hope my description helps me remember it forever. They are just so sweet, innocent and loving and it is so amazing that they can light your life in such a special way each and every day!

Jargon by Kayden

Our Weekend

This weekend Daddy joined Kayden in the water at swim lessons. Kyle was sure Kayden would be more "brave" with him than he is with me and I hate to admit it but he was right! Kayden wasn't clingy with Kyle like he is with me in the water and seemed to want to show daddy how he was a big boy! He practiced blowing bubbles and kicking with a kick board and did a great job. It was our last swimming lesson class for this session, so he got a certificate saying he was a graduate of the infant/parent class. His first time to finish a class;-)

Saturday evening we went to dinner with some our friends that Kayden and I have met through our mommy group. The mommies have had about 6 months or so to get to know each other and recently we decided the daddies needed to meetup too so we have had lunch with Christa, John and Tula and dinner with Jaclyn, Josh, and Tatum but this was the first dinner with all of us and Adrienne, Steve and Danica- and it is alot of fun to have couple friends with babies to spend time with. We ate at Garduno's and the babies had a fun watershow to watch while the parents ate. They were all so cute and good-here are some pics of the cuties! We are so lucky to have met such a great group of friends to spend time with and share experiences of being new parents together! Kyle really enjoys getting together and watching Kayden interact with the other babies since he doesn't get to see that at the playdates during the week (of course he really enjoys the mommies and daddies too!)

Jargon!

Ladies and gentlemen we have jargon! Kayden's babbling has slowly been progressing through variegated babbling to jargon but as of Sunday I know he is to the jargon stage. Kyle was watching him while I was doing laundry and I heard him cry and came into the room. Some how he had hurt himself with his red car and was pretty upset. So I gave him some mommy cuddles and after he stopped crying he looked at Kyle, raised his arm in the air and gave him the riot act! He was telling him all about it and shaking his arm and all. It was hysterical to watch! After a few minutes of letting daddy have it he was nursing and broke off to give him one last piece of his mind and then felt better. I'll try to get a video of his new language play!

Mac N Cheese please mama!

Kayden had some organic whole grain mac N cheese tonight and LOVED it! He couldn't get enough of it and even tried to smash his face into the tray to get more in his mouth than his hands could shove at a time. I tried to capture the face smash in a picture but missed it. He is loving his finger foods so much that I'm trying really hard to be creative and tonight ran out of ideas......we decided to try it and of course he loved it. The other stuff on the tray is a cut up peach........of course my cheesaholic goes for the cheesy pasta, not the good for you fruit! Oh well, it was cute;-)

Fifi loves to chase this egg and Kayden loves to watch her.......he decided he could do it too!!

My Little Helper!

Kayden and I went to lunch today with our friends Bec and Viola and then we went with Bec to her dentist appointment to sit with Viola in the waiting room.....having twins would be soooo hard! Viola is 2 months old......so they are 7 months apart but boy would it be difficult to have 2 the same age or that couldn't walk! For most of the appointment Viola slept in her carseat and I entertained Kayden, but about 10-15 minutes before she was done Viola decided to wake up. For a bit I was holding them both and everyone in the waiting room was amazed at my skills;-) and then I put Kayden in her seat and bounced Viola who was ready to eat and mommy was still busy. Kayden hung out in her seat for a bit but then decided he wanted to get out and explore the room......so I decided to let him "hold the baby" and he did a great job! It settled him down right away and he just stared at her in awe! He kept pulling her paci out of her mouth but didn't want to put it in his mouth, I guess he just wanted to see her without it? He will be a great big brother when it's time!

9 Month Update!

Okay, now that the shock has left from him turning 9 months old, I figured I better write his 9 month update........what am I going to do when he turns a year??

The last month has been an exciting one! It brought with it his first road trip to San Diego to see Brandon, his first beach day, his first apricots, first broccoli, first swimming lessons, first Easter, first asparagus, and his first taste of mommy's ice cream cone. He didn't like ice cream!!! Kyle said he must not be my son b/c everyone knows my love of ice cream is strong. Maybe it will grow on him:-) Broccoli was strongly disliked as well. He held it in his mouth and crawled around with it, spitting as much as he could out. Then he tried to swallow some of it and gagged and threw up! So we are mixing little amounts of broccoli in with favorites to hopefully let the taste grow on him. Along with the fun firsts was also a not so fun one. He had his first ear infection:(, first fever, and first antibiotics. Actually believing the doctor that he had an ear infection was really hard for me, I don't like that I can't look in and check that he is telling me the truth and I really don't like putting him on antibiotics but his fevers weren't going away, we waited 4 days and every night they were spiking to 102.7 and then in the morning they would be gone or around 99.6 degrees. At first I thought it was teething but since the fevers were higher than they say babies usually spike with teething I decided I better check it out. I really wanted to ask the doctor if I could look with his otoscope....but I thought he would probably be upset I wasn't trusting his clinical judgement so I swallowed my worries and decided since it was his first ever antibiotic at 9 months, I'd just let it be for this time......now if it happens again anytime soon I may be buying an otoscope;-). But after starting the amoxicillin he did seem to be better pretty quickly and he didn't have anymore fevers. Grandma and Grandpa Hingst got to be here for his first ear infection, luckily he wasn't too bad for being in pain!

Kayden has gotten SO mobile it is crazy! He crawls everywhere and has mastered crawling on all 4s, but from time to time he still drops down to his belly and army crawls as fast as he can to get to something. He gets very antsy now if he can't get down and explore and tells me all about it if we are in a store or out to eat and I won't put him down. He is strong willed, which I keep telling myself is a good characteristic for a boy and the first born. He continues to love pulling himself up on everything he can. His favorites are the refridgerator door, dishwasher door when mommy is doing dishes and the sliding glass door when Fifi is outside. He is starting to stand here and there independently but still isn't sure of himself and plops down as soon as he realizes what he is doing. He also pushes up on his hands and feet now with his bootie in the air, it is so funny to look at! He is starting to really like his walking toy and has also turned everything else into a walking toy, his red car is a walking toy now, awhile ago the diaper box was a walking toy, the stroller is a walking toy, he loves to push and walk with anything he can find. His fine motor skills are also fine tuning as his gross motor skills mature. He loves to use the pincher grasp when eating and playing with his toys. A new favorite toy is his shape sorter and he is getting better and better and putting the shapes into the right hole, but still prefers to bang the shape on the lid over actually doing the activity:-)

His language development is continuing to grow and grow! He babbles almost constantly. We wake up to his babbling and he often babbles himself to sleep, kind of like he is singing himself to sleep. So sweet! His favorite sounds are bababa, gagaga, goo, and mama. He loves to say mama and has even started saying "mom" here and there. As soon as I leave a room I hear "mama mama" and of course the speech therapist in me won't let me not respond! I have to let him know that he can communicate with me and that I will respond to his communication.....so we have a mommy that is constantly running back into rooms to let him know he has used "mama" as communication. Makes for difficult days sometimes, and not much gets done. But in the long run the laundry will always be there, the dishes always need to be put away but he won't always be this tiny and learning about his developing communication skills;-) Kyle is still waiting for "dada" he tries to say it is because I am home with him all day saying "mama" but we all know it's just because he loves his "mama" so much! Along with his sounds he has also started to "Growl" at Fifi. At first we didn't know what he was doing but then we noticed it is a special sound he makes for her! They growl back and forth! It is hysterical to watch and listen to and I get many giggles through out the day watching their little banter. Kyle always says they are "two pees in a pod" and they really are. Fifi is his favorite toy by far and he smiles as soon as he sees her in the morning and loves to watch her, play with her and share his food with her! Sharing is also something that developed this month. It started when we were in San Diego, he decided to share his mum mums with daddy and I and now he LOVES to share all of his treats, puffs, cheerios, mum mums with us AND Fifi! He'll chew on the mum mums and then hold it out for Fifi and she'll chew on it and then it goes back in his mouth........hard for mommy to watch!

Within the past couple of days he has finally decided his table food really is good. He now lets me know when it is his lunch time because he wants his yogurt and at dinner time he is now getting excited when he sits in his high chair. Finger foods are by far his favorite, he loves slices of banana, cheese, cheerios, pretty much anything he can feed himself. He surprisingly does pretty well with it and most of it is going in him! He could eat cheese for 3 meals a day and probably would keep shoving it in his mouth if I would let him! Daddy says him loving cheese means he is his father's son. We are still doing mostly 2 meals a day, some days he sits in his high chair with cheerios and banana at breakfast but so far that isn't too much of a hit yet. He continues to nurse about 5-6 times a day and then a couple times during the night. We moved his crib to his room and he starts the night in there and then when he wakes up he comes to bed with us till the morning. I still love sleeping with him so I'm not pushing the transition that hard. Daddy was all for it but then when grandpa and grandma Hingst were here for Easter and I asked them if they had ever co-slept they said they did with all of their kids for about 2 years each! Now he isn't so against it.......funny how it is a different story when he hears it from his parents;-) Mommy is happy with that. He is waking up between 6 and 6:30 and takes his morning nap around 8:30 and his afternoon one between 2 and 3 and his bedtime is between 7:30 and 8:30. So far his sleeping is going pretty good in his room.......I think it was harder on mommy than him!

We started Rolly Pollies this month and are transitioning from Gymboree to Rollies. I think it might be a better fit for Mr. Mobile because he has started getting pretty opinionated at Gymboree and doesn't want to sit for the songs right now, he would rather go and explore the room. Rollies is more gross motor based and I think for now that is what he wants. He has these new skills and he is super proud of them and wants to use em! We are in Rollies with his 3 friends, Tula, Tatum and Danica and he is excited to get to see them every Monday at 12. We still go to storytime on Wednesdays at the Hamilton library and he loves the books, bells and bubble time. So we keep very busy each week with our scheduled activities and then our playdates on top of that. He is a social guy and loves getting together with his friends and rolling around on the ground. Daddy had always thought we were in our mommy group for me but then we went out to dinner with his friends and he got to see how much he really does like Tula and Tatum. Daddy also got to meet his friend Danica at swimming lessons and he has decided he believes me when I tell him he has "friends":-) He always tries to say our playdates are just mommy social hour.......but now he knows that on top of mommy social hour Kayden is learning some good socializing skills!

It has been a fun and exciting month! So much has changed and I know I'll say the same thing next month but man does it go fast!