Goggles!

Kayden found these yesterday and tried to put them on his head? Not sure how he knew goggles go on your head b/c Kyle and I never wear them? So I helped him put them on and he walked around with a huge smile on his face:-) Now whenever he finds them he attempts to put them on his head!

One Year Update!

I know I'm very late with his 1 year update, thanks everyone that has reminded me to do it;-) We had his 1st birthday, then his 1st birthday/4th of July trip and then had new carpet installed. Excuses, excuses;-)

Kayden is now a one year old and although the thought of him being a big boy was pretty sad to me at the beginning of June, once the time arrived it was alot of fun and he is just becoming a barrel of laughs and fun. I truely to fall in love with him in a million new ways everyday.

Kayden continues to sleep in his crib for naps (one morning nap around 8:30ish and one afternoon nap around 2-3). Each of his naps are 1-2 or so hours and he still nurses to fall asleep for his naps. His bedtime is around 8 and he usually then sleeps in his crib until 12 or sometimes even 2 and then he wakes up for some num nums and comes to bed with us for some snuggle time. I'm sure I could nurse him in the rocking chair and put him back in his crib but they are only little for so long and he likes to sleep by us and I like him there so until that changes for one or both of us we aren't going to press the issue. He wakes up in the morning around 6 or 6:30, as soon as he wakes up he and I have some morning snuggles and then he calls out for dada and I put him down from the bed and he wanders into the bathroom or the living room to give daddy a hug and a kiss. He usually hangs out with daddy for a few minutes and then when daddy puts his work bag over his shoulder he starts waving bye-bye.

He is eating 3 meals a day, and we started giving him organic meat not long ago. It was hard for me to give him meat but we decided since we aren't vegetarians we had no reason to keep him a vegetarian, he also started asking for what we were eating so I thought it was definetely time. In the morning he usually has some fruit, cheerios, and toast, waffles or pancakes. For lunch he usually has cheese, fruit, and some bread with butter on it (sometimes we mix it up with grilled cheese or quesidilla) and sometimes he has nitrate free lunch meat or cut up chicken breast. For dinner he is now usually having a version of what we are eating, for ex-if we have spaghetti, he will have spaghetti but with his noodles that are easier for him to grab. He still usually has his organic mixed veggies he loves for dinner with butter on them and he really loves to end his meal with yummy blueberries, still by far his favorite fruit! We also have started giving him organic whole milk, not a fan at all, mostly spits it all out. One of my breastfeeding friends said her toddler refused whole milk too (must be smart babies to refuse a calfs breastmilk, really gross if you think about it!)and her baby would drink oat milk. So I gave it a try and the first time he drank some instead of spitting it all out. Now he has oat milk here and there, he is usually disappointed that it isn't water when he gets the sippy but he will drink some of it which is good. But for now he is still a booby baby. He loves to nurse and gets a huge smile on his face and runs for me when I sign milk, I love to see his happy face, especially because I am the only one that gets to see that look. When he wants to nurse he now signs more and taps my chest and then if I don't respond he resorts to pulling at my shirt.

Gross motor wise Kayden is now walking and running! I remember when Tatum started running from Jaclyn after bath time, I thought that was so far off. Now my monkey gets out of the bath, lotioned and runs down the hall as I chase him with his diaper and he laughs the whole way. He is also a climber and climbs onto anything he has a chance too, loved g&g Hingst's stairs in their vacation rental, climbed up and down them over and over. I still get a huge smile as I watch him walking in front of me, I just love the toddling look! His fine motor skills are also developing quickly and his hand eye coordination (important for throwing a football;-) is maturing. He loves to do puzzles with me, turn the pages of books and hammer his balls through the holes of his little hammer toy Sara & Audrey gave him for his birthday.

And last but most importantly (at least for this speechie;-) is language. He is loving communicating with us. He now realizes his sign for "more" gets our attention and he has broadened it's use to "I want" and "again". He also loves the attention he gets when we are out eating or shopping and he signs "more", everyone loves it and he smiles big and does it for them again to get his raisin or whatever he wants, he is a very social little boy and loves to walk around and greet people whenever we are out. Starbucks is one of his favorite places to walk from table to table and smile and show his walking strut off to everyone, the men there think they are going to teach him about the world(there is a group of men there every week that argue about politics in a friendly way and they love to tell Kayden how he should think:-) and the women want to take him home with them. I'm so glad that even though I'm home with him he is a social little man, I have to give credit to my amazing mommy group for this, he has learned so much from those great women and the adorable babies! His new sign as of Wednesday was "fresh diaper" when he has a poopy diaper, he continues to use "doggy, all done, sleepy time, no, baby, and book". He only has to see a new sign a couple times now and he picks it up quickly and uses it. He now says "more" when he signs it, this, that, doggie, mama, dada, yeah, no, and hi, he also barks like a dog;-), quacks like a duck, moos like a cow, and baas like a sheep, I'm sure I'm missing some but I'll come back if I remember them. Receptively he can follow several one step commands, like get the ball, sit in your car, get your sippy, etc. Receptive language develops alot quicker in kiddos than expressive language which is why tantrums are a big issue at this stage of the game, so far no big ones here, he will try to tell me what he wants and gets frustrated with me if I don't understand but he is a pretty happy boy as long as he has his mama! He loves books and flips through them on his own and points and jabbers at all the pictures while he "reads" it too me. He also loves our picture wall and points to each person and says "that and this" as I tell them who they are and we walk down the wall, then he wants to start over again and on we go. Music continues to be a huge hit in our house and we have an adorable little bootie shake whenever it turns on, whether it's his music, our music or a jingle on a commerical he starts to dance. When we are in the car and his music comes on he waves his arms in the air and bobs his head, he is going to teach everyone that white boys can dance;-) He loves doing his name puzzle and wants to do it over and over and his shape sorter is also a favorite, he puts the shapes in and we dump them out and start over again. Body parts are another new favorite, so far he does belly button and ear pretty regularly, mommy's belly button is way more fun to find than his own though! When we were getting ready for the carpeters I found my teddy bear my grandma gave me, so I washed it and gave it to him and it is now his new favorite teddy. He loves to give it kisses and hugs and I am amazed everyday at what a loving little boy I have.

As I say every month Kayden, we love you so much and are so happy for all the joy you bring to our lives!

My Buddy & Me

Hugging Tula's doll to try and stop her crying, what a sweet boy I have!

Tula couldn't decide if she wanted milk or water so she went from one to the other, so funny to watch!

Kayden taking his girl for a ride

Tula not wanting his big bum squishing her:-)

Having fun getting into a cabinet they know isn't the play cabinet, little stinkers!

Today Kayden spent the day playing with his friend Tula. Auntie Christa had a doctor appt to check on her little peanut that is due very soon so Kayden and I went over to watch Tula. When we arrived at their house I said "we are at Tula's" and he instantly looked at the front door and let me know he knew his friend would be inside. When we got there Tula was sleeping (I think he was a little sad and kept looking up the stairs when I asked him where she was) but Kayden had fun playing w/ her toys (when her baby doll would cry he would either hug, kiss it or try and give it a bottle, so interesting to see b/c he has never had a baby doll to nurture, my little paternal boy!)....he then fell asleep and I decided to hold him while he slept(I still love watching him sleep!). About 10 minutes after he fell asleep I hear Miss Tula calling out. So I put Kayden in her infant carrier and in the guest room, go get Tula, bring her down stairs and take Kayden upstairs to her room so that Tula could play loud w/o waking up the monkey. When Kayden woke up Tula was so happy that she gave him a big hug and a kiss, of course I tried to get her to do it again for the video cam but no such luck. They had fun fighting over the red car (I think K thinks it is his red car b/c they are the same) and doing puzzles, singing and dancing and going through the cupboards together. A few times I had to remind Kayden to play nice and share, officially a toddler now! I love seeing them play together though and watching him learn to be a friend.When Christa got home we fed the babies and then went out for lunch, I was sure it would be an interesting lunch b/c they didn't have their meals to occupy them but for some reason they were really good and let us enjoy our lunch! Always there to surprise us;-)

Grammies & Grampies!

Are such special people! Kayden loves his grandparents and wishes that he lived closer to them, I was so lucky and got to have my grandma apart of my daily life but geography doesn't make that possible for Kayden right now so he gets extra spoiled with attention when he does get to see them.......he is very excited that G & G Westerbuhr just bought their tickets to come visit for Thanksgiving for a week.....he is wondering why they bought thanksgiving tickets before their tickets to come visit in early September, but he asked me to tell Grammie to buy them ASAP b/c he can't wait to swim w/ her in our pool for the first time! G&G Hingst, Kayden is hoping you plan a trip soon, he thinks you should come right after football season grandpa!

Our little Fisherman!

Sarah got HOOKED! She was a tough girl though and made it through the event!

The crew meeting for the shopping adventure at Costco!

Kayden taking Paige for a ride:-)

Uncle Kurt & Kayden fishing

Downtown Grand Lake with Uncle Mark, Carrie and Grammie

Uncle Mark is going to be an AP daddy someday so he gets to practice with his adorable nephew;-) He was really worried Kayden was going to get ice cream on his back........just wait Uncle Mark!

Lake Boy

The family at Kayden's first fireworks show (last year he was so tiny we watched fireworks on the TV!

More fishing

HAIL!!

Daddy and Kayden trying to catch the big one!

Kayden driving (must have boating roadrage)

Too cute in his vest!

Our 1st Summer Vacation with Kayden!

Presents with cousins

Carrie working her magic getting Kayden to sleep

Keeping up with the big kids!

Being a boy with his cousin Zion

Kayden & Shekinah

Paige & Kayden waiting to take a bath together

Eating outside with the fresh mountain air

Kayden with Gabe, Corban & Israel

The Hingst Bunch

The Paplow Clan

Vacation has always been a fun, special time for me, in my memories of growing up our family vacations have always been things that have stuck out in my memorybank. And of course family get togethers are the other special times I remember so well......so when you combine vacation with a family get together you have one amazing time to be had!! Growing up my family always went on family vacations every summer sometimes just our family, sometimes we combined with the rest of the Paplow clan, no matter what it was a great time. As Kyle and I started making our family of 2 we kept summer (and random times) vacations apart of our must dos and I'm so happy we have because some of our happiest memories are on those trips. So now to have Kayden with us on our summer vacations and start the tradition all over again with our little family is so exciting.....and then we get to top it off with the whole Paplow gang and the Hingst family too!!! What a great time! So here is our trip chronicle so that Kayden will be able to read all about his first family vacation...what a special one it was!

On Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to head to the airport, we had an early flight so that meant an even earlier morning. Kayden slept while daddy and I did the final packing and preparing Fifi for our time away (she now doesn't always fly with us like she used to...poor doggy!). When Kayden woke up we got him ready for his 4th flight so far! Yes, my 1 year old has flown 4 times! I don't think I flew that much until I was done with high school.......I bet he won't have the same fear of flying as his mommy did. As usual, I was sure we were going to get to the airport too late for our flight (daddy made us miss a flight before so now I'm paranoid, I like being punctual!), but we made it in time, barely! Traveling with a baby is so much more time consuming than 2 adults! Hopefully we learn soon how to manage our time. Kayden was a little trooper on the flight and ate breakfast, nursed, and read stories. He didn't sleep really on this flight though so that was a bit of a change from our previous flights when he usually had slept most of the way. Carly picked us up from the airport in Denver, CO around 11:30 and we headed back to her place for lunch and playtime for Kayden & Paige. They hadn't seen e/o since Christmas but they hit it off right away and loved playing together. It is so fun being with Carly and having our babies play together. We went to college together and always talked about being mommies, and our future babies, and imagined life as a mom, we are now at that point in life and it is so fun being there together and sharing the experience with someone I love so much! The babies went down for afternoon naps and then we went to the park and out for dinner at a place that serves buffalo burgers-so Kayden had some buffalo for the first time, and he seemed to like it! He also had to show off to all the fellow diners his new moves and walked around smiling and greeting everyone. He has become such a little ham! Then the daddies took the babies home and Carly and I ran to Target....yes, we ran to Target. In our former life we would have went to have a glass of wine together but now that we are busy mommies we took our time alone to run errands. Regardless of what we did it was fun having some time with just the 2 of us to catch up. (And thanks Auntie Carly for the Haba blocks, Kayden loves playing with them!) The next morning the babies played for awhile and then grammie & grampie W came to pick us up to head to Costco and Sam's club for our big shopping trip before we headed up to our vacation home in the mountains.
So on we go! At Costco I was very surprised that my whole family from TX and NE had beat us there! They had a 5+ hour drive but yet they still managed to get to Costco by 10am! Wow, Uncle Mark....you must be old too b/c you'd normally never get up at 5am to meet me at Costco in Denver. We did some rearranging of luggage-put most of it in Little Ray's truck and the boys all headed up to the Mountain rental while us girls (plus daddy and Grampie) shopped for the weekend. We did a big shop at Costco and a big shop at Sam's club....getting food for around 35 or so people for 5 days is alot of shopping! Kayden took his morning nap while we were doing our big shopping trip...what a life he has;-) On we went to the mountains, aside from getting stuck in the huge traffic jam of all the Denverites trying to escape to the great outdoors. Kayden had a few breakdowns but mostly danced and sang along to his new tunes Great Auntie Martha got him for the ride. We didn't get into Grand Lake until sometime after 5pm and had lasagna that night, we played cards, walked around and mostly just enjoyed being surrounded by so much family! The Hingst clan was in a house a few houses up the hill and so we stopped over there to say hello to all the aunties, uncles and cousins & of course G&G Hingst too.
Friday was the 4th of July and we started the day with a hike around Grand Lake (our whole gang went for the hike), it was alot of fun showing Kayden all the pretty things on the hike and he loved seeing the water and birds, ducks, etc. Some of the hikers turned around after awhile but a couple of us headed on for a bit. When we got home we arrived to Grammie and Grampie preparing Kayden's 4th of July bbq lunch. Soon after the Hingst clan arrived and even Grandpa & Grandma Cunningham from Steamboat, CO drove up to help us celebrate little man turning 1! 40 family members were at Kayden's 1st birthday party in the mountains! What a loved little boy we have. He is so blessed to have so much family and friends surrounding him, thinking of him and praying for him all the time. He gets to have so many people bring different things to his life and teach him things that daddy and I can't. He is so lucky! I am so thankful that even though we live far away he gets to have them all be apart of his life! Many of them he had seen 3 or more times already! What a lucky baby to get to share such special events with such special people! He had lunch, enjoyed smashing another cake (this time he got into it a bit more!), took some photos with his cousins sporting their birthday hats, and then opened presents. He was spoiled again by his family and loved having all the fun new stuff to play with at his mountain retreat! As soon as the party was over he wanted some alone snuggles with his mommy so we snuck away to the bedroom to nurse and he fell asleep right away, his party definetely wore him out. That night we went and walked around downtown in Grand Lake-it was PACKED with people for the holiday, we had some homemade ice cream from a cute little shop (I was going to share mine but he ended up talking Grammie into getting him his very own kiddie cone, I guess it is okay to have a special treat on vacations...that is part of the fun, right;-) and then watched the fireworks. Kayden LOVED the fireworks! Once they started he couldn't take his eyes off of them! He didn't even get scared by the loud booms like I thought he would.
Saturday we had a boat rental and so the boys all went to the boat bright and early while us girls hung out at home and chatted and played with Kayden. Carrie even got Kayden down for his nap, she must work magic because I'm usually the only one that can get little man to sleep. Once afternoon arrived we took Kayden for his first boat ride, he loved seeing the water and going fast in the boat but wasn't much of a fan of his life jacket or sitting idle while the fishermen fished. That night was a Mexican Fiesta with yummy mexican food and then we celebrated Kayden's Godmother's 20th birthday (what a party vacation we had!). Kayden's cousins from MN and NE were there to play with him and it was so cute watching him try to keep up with the "big kids". Gabriel kept calling him "baby Kayden".......so funny hearing Gabe say that, he used to be the baby of the family and I spoiled him rotten, held him all the time! And now he is 6 years old and I have my own baby to hold, time does fly by! Then outside to the deck we all went to play games and chat, while Uncle Brian kept yelling at us to be quiet so he could sleep......
Sunday some of our party left to drive back to AZ or NE and so it was a bit quieter. Daddy, Grampie W and Grandpa H and I went for a hike while Kayden stayed home with the rest of the crew. That afternoon we went on the boat again and the fishermen fished and the rest of us enjoyed the scenery and the ride. It started to rain while we were on the boat and even HAILED! Yes, my baby saw hail for the first time while taking cover under the small cover of the pontoon boat. We had some die hard fishermen though that stayed out under the hail to fish! Kayden LOVED helping daddy fish and would get pretty upset if we took him away from his fishing pole! (Jaclyn, tell Josh he has a new fishing buddy!). After our boating adventure we headed to downtown for some more yummy ice cream (Kayden took to signing more when we walked by others w/ cones....he knows how to get what he wants from his grammie!) and to shop a bit. Grandpa H grilled filet mignon that night and Kayden thought it was really yummy! That night we played our family game of PIT. It isn't a family get together with our clan unless we play our "yelling" game of PIT. Kayden slept while the yelling went on on the porch, mommy was the big looser and Amber was the winner this time...we'll see during the holidays who wins then missy!
Monday was leaving day for everyone still left, since our flight didn't leave until around 6pm we drove up to the Alpine Visitor center above the Continental Divide (we got up above 12,000 feet!) and looked at Elk and other wildlife and the beautiful Mountain views. We ate lunch with Uncle Mark, Uncle Kurt and Carrie and then headed to Denver to shop a bit at Flat Iron mall and then headed to the airport to depart.

It was such a wonderful time with our big, loving, amazing family. We have so much fun when we all get together and are already planning our next family vacation (Amber thinks we need to do a beach house next year.....get on that girl!) I'm so glad Kayden got to celebrate his 1st birthday with his big, wonderful family in such a fun, relaxing atmosphere! What a special way to culminate a year of wonder with our beautiful baby boy! Thanks family for making his 1st birthday and first summer vacation such a special, memorable time! We love you all so much and are so thankful to have you each apart of our lives!!

Walking with his balloons!