Big Bath Time!

I found this great little bath sling at Walmart.  It is compact so it fits great in the bath (or a sink) and still leaves plenty of room for Kaden to play in the bath too.  Both of my kids love it.  Kindi watches Kaden intently, kicking and giggling at him, and he helps me wash her.  He gets the washcloth and rubs her tummy or the empty bubble bottle in his hands and dumps water on her legs. 

The only down fall to it is that as Kindi kicks she slides farther and farther down into the water.  But since she isn't big enough to take a bath unsupervised anyway it isn't really an issue.  I just slide her back up periodically.

Mom's of little boys, see that empty Mr. Bubble bottle in Kaden's hand?  Guess what fits just right in there?  Sheesh!!!  Do all little boys do this?   

The Misadventures of Kaden Wells...

Kaden found a pen on the floor and colored on himself for the first time a couple of days ago. I wish I could say this would be the last time, but I'm sure it won't be.

It is a nice little line under his lip. As you probably guessed he was trying to eat it.

Have you ever heard a THUMP that made you sick to your stomach?

Yesterday Kaden was napping on my bed. This is a normal occurrence. It is his favorite place to take his morning nap. We go in and lay down together and talk and play until he is ready to fall asleep. Then after he is asleep I creep out of bed and surround him with pillows and blankets and things. My house is so small that while I am in the kitchen checking my email (yeah... my computer is in my kitchen...) I can easily hear him when he wakes up. He either shouts or starts talking. Yesterday he didn't do either. Instead he just decided he would use his new found abilities to crawl and come find me. This is when I heard a THUMP. I was out of my chair and half way to the bedroom before he could even start to scream. My heart was pounding and I was shaking so bad, my baby had just falling out of my bed. In normal circumstances this is bad enough, but my bed happens to be about 3 1/2, 4 feet off the ground. Not only did he crawl off the bed face first, but he landed on the step stool the my father in-law made for me to get into bed when I was pregnant. (That is how tall I am talking about, I couldn't crawl into bed with my belly without the step stool.) As best as I could tell he crawled off and landed on the edge of the stool with the bridge of his nose. He was just laying on his back next to it when I got there. Crying his eyes out with blood coming out of his nose. I held him and tried to talk reassuringly while I bit back my own tears. He cried and clung to me for awhile, but then he was fine. Other than the blood on his face and the nasty red line across his nose, which won't wash away like the blood, you would never know he had just had such a nasty spill.

His little nose is all swollen.

I talked to his pediatrician's nurse and they said that as long as he could still breathe through his nose and it stopped bleeding he didn't need to come see them. If in 4 or 5 days when the swelling has gone down his nose looks crooked or broken in anyway then they would fix it, but they couldn't do anything until the swelling goes down anyways.

I don't think it is broken, but it is hard to tell. There is a lump on the right side, but it is pretty swollen, I am hoping that is all.

He loves to chew on my watch.

What a great baby! Still smiling even with that nasty fall.

Still able to play and have a good time.

I think this was more traumatic for me than for him.

I will be sure to move my monitor back and forth to wherever he is sleeping now. He is back on my bed today, but the monitor is right next to him, and every time his breathing changes I am getting up to check on him.

Devastation

Up to this point I have not posted without at least one picture, but this morning Jeremy woke me up to tell me that my computer had a fatal error last night and made him do a full system recovery. I don't have any pictures. My pictures and videos are gone! I am practically sick to my stomach. I hadn't done a back up since before Kaden was born. Everything is wiped out. Now of course I realize that there is stuff on places like this and MySpace, I had printed some and scrapbooked a few. But most of them are gone. I don't have the videos of the first time Kaden crawled that I hadn't blogged yet, or the videos of him as a newborn kicking and 'talking'. The pictures that I post online have been shrunk, so when I try to reconstruct my calendar for the next year I am going to have to do something different because my pictures that I recover from here won't be clear when stretched out to an 8x10.
So, let my devastation be a lesson to you. Back up your pictures today! You can bet I will be doing a monthly back up from here on out. I am working at trying to be thankful that at least I will be able to have something when I complete the tedious process of downloading individual pictures off the Internet. Hmm, that didn't sound very thankful did it... well it is still a work in progress, I don't feel thankful right now.
This is turning into a whiny ramble, so I will sign off now. I hope you have a better morning then I did.

Canning Lids, Climbing and More...

As I was trying to get stuff ready to leave for camp tomorrow, Kaden was whining at me. He wanted me to play with him. Unfortunately he didn't want to take much of a nap today, so I really had a lot that had to be done and didn't have the time to play at the moment. So I set him up on the floor in the kitchen where I was working and gave him a canning lid. He was having a blast, it makes cool noises when you hit it on the floor. Then I turned around to look at him and it struck me, this resembles my sister and I at Grandma's house so many years ago. So I gave him a few more lids (I don't have anywhere close to as many as Grandma Wilson had) and started snapping pictures. I'm sure Grandma will get a kick out of them. :)

Gotta get 'em

Wow! That was a cool noise!

Please don't take my toys away.

I love it when you can glimpse those little teeth!

Just the other day I was doing dishes in the kitchen while Kaden played in the living room. He gets a kick out of this suitcase on the floor. It is great for holding himself up on cause even though he sits really well now, he has a tendency to get excited or distracted and flops over. As I put some cups up I happened to glance over at him and he was no longer sitting next to the suitcase...

He was on it!

My life may have just gotten busier!

Here is another blurry sleeping shot... I just can't stand the idea of startling him awake with the flash! He was sitting on the couch with Jeremy while we watched a Stargate episode. Slowly his eyes started blinking, and the next time I looked over he was fast asleep. What a cutie!

So today Kaden officially got in trouble. I was trying to feed him his sweet potatoes and he kept spitting them out. And not just drooling them down his face, but projectile spitting... He thought it was funny. I admit the first time I thought it was a fluke and let it go... the second time I thought it was funny and had to try not to laugh while I sternly told him NO. Then I had to flick his lips. I did that two or three times and his face got all red and he stopped breathing for a bit. (Quite the temper tantrum for such a little one) But he only tried spitting at me one more time after that. When he got flicked again he pouted pretty hardcore and then settled in to eat.

Teething

No, I am not feeding Kaden the biggest Oreo cookie you ever saw.  It is a teething toy!

Poor little Kaden has been teething the last few weeks.  He cut his first tooth (bottom left) on his 5 month Birthday and has already cut his second one (bottom right)  as of yesterday.  It was bleeding yesterday and today he has a bloody lip from biting it, I presume.  Just a little bit of blood, but enough to make my heart hurt for him.  Most of the time he is still in a great mood, but when he gets sleepy he remembers that his mouth hurts.  A lot!  Now, my fingers hurt too...  I seem to be the best teething toy, although I just discovered that he really likes the soother pacifier.  I can stick my finger in it and he can gnaw on that, it seems to be his favorite now... although not as cute as the cookie.  So he is needing some extra cuddles when it comes to nap time, and we are dealing with some extra crying, but he sure is going to be cute with those little toothers popping up!

Please don't take my cookie!

Oh yeah... and he seems to enjoy his carrots now!

A Day with Daddy

Yay!  My Daddy is home!

Kaden was pleasantly surprised this afternoon when Daddy came home early.  Unfortunately he came home early because he felt really crummy, but that didn't stop him from playing with his son for awhile.  
Kaden always seems a little bit confused when Daddy is home at strange times...  I don't know if he really knows the difference or if it is just in our heads...  I suppose he always looks at his Daddy this way!  :)  
One of Kaden's new activities is playing with Daddy's goatee.  When he is being cradled in Jeremy's arms he will get both of his hands buried in Daddy's facial hair.  It is pretty cute.  He is fascinated.  I of course do NOT have any facial hair, so this is a unique activity that is only between him and Daddy.

What is he doing you ask?  Giving kisses perhaps?  Well...

This seems to be another new activity Kaden has been enjoying lately...

Sucking on Daddy's nose!  Maybe chewing is a more accurate term...  Luckily he doesn't have any teeth yet.  Kaden practices crawling when you hold him on your belly, he will worm his way up to your face and get hold of whatever he can find!  I get a kick out of watching them.  Jeremy is clearly disgusted with the slobber on his nose, at the same time that he is laughing at the absurdity of being chewed on.  

A Tongue and a Cold

Kaden has known that he has a tongue for quite some time.  And he has always enjoyed rolling it around in his mouth or playing with it while sucking his fingers.  Now he has figured out how to get it out of his mouth.  I never thought it would be so adorable to see him stick his tongue out!  :)  The greatest part is that he will do it when you stick your tongue out at him... hmmm, maybe that is a bad habit to start... too late!  

Sticking his tongue out only increases the drool problems though...

Look at him so proud of himself!

In other news...

Some of the following may gross  you out!

Since it was Easter weekend Kaden had a lot of people to visit, most of my mom's side of the family hadn't ever met him.  He did a great job, but was a little bit subdued, I thought he was just overwhelmed.  Maybe that was part of it, but after I put him to bed last night he woke up crying really hard around 11:00.  Several weeks ago I would have thought nothing of this, but lately he doesn't wake up at night (Hurray!).  I got up and went to see what was wrong.  Poor little guy was screaming, then all of a sudden he coughed really hard... and now I have a very unpleasant glob of mucus running down my front.  My poor baby has his first cold.  This explains why he seemed to have a lot of boogers the last day or so, and I thought he might have a bit of a runny nose last night, but with as much as he drools and rubs his hands all over his face... it can be hard to tell!  So I did not get a lot of sleep last night.  He needed to be held upright to keep the gunk from choking him, and I have never been able to sleep while holding him.  So I tried that for awhile, then put him back to bed, he woke up an hour later screaming and gunky again.  So I sat with him again for an hour or so and put him back in bed, but this time I strategically laid down some blankets that would prop him up a little bit.  Still he woke up after a bit.  So we tried it again.  Then around 5 or 6 this morning (I lost track of time) I had a brainstorm.

After I rocked him back to sleep I put him in his car seat.  He was able to get 3 hours of sleep that way.  This is how he is taking his nap right now while I post this.  (As soon as I'm done... I'll join him in that nap!)  

Oh, I tried those yucky suction things, but either I am too timid or his nostrils are too small, because I can't get it up his nose to suck out the nastiness.  So far he seems to be okay if I keep him propped up.  Although he did have a fairly 'good' explosion after his breakfast this morning.  Hopefully he kept some of it down when he coughed his little throat clear.  Being the beautiful blessing that he is, he had lots of smiles and wanted to play with me this morning, so at least he isn't a cranky grouch... maybe you shouldn't ask Jeremy if I am though...  :)  Kaden got a lot more sleep than I did!

Great Accomplishments....and Not So Great Accomplishments!

Warning: This post is not for those who are squeamish.  It may contain material unfit for tender ears, uh... eyes.  Proceed with Caution!

So I haven't posted in awhile, and have several entertaining stories to catch you up on.  They are color coded for your convenience (and my enjoyment!).

I had planned to post today bragging about how Kaden slept 8 hours last Friday night, and has had at least one 6 - 7 hour stretch each night since.  That was until I woke up this morning and realized that my baby boy had been sleeping for 10 hours!  I was shocked, and a little worried that he was still breathing!  Jeremy had just checked on him though and assured me that he was breathing and sleeping soundly.  So if you have ever been a nursing mother... You will understand what comes next.  I felt like I was going to explode!  I had completely soaked through my breast pad and was working on my bed.  It is a good thing skin is tough, otherwise I might have popped... and what a mess that would have been!  After I nursed Kaden I pumped 7 1/2 oz... and only quit then because one of my bottles was full.  Guess I don't need to worry about having enough milk.  :)

Have you ever had a baby boy?  They have this nasty habit of peeing all over everything!  Kaden is a pro.  I can change a diaper with lightening speed, but he is even faster!  The second I get his diaper off he will go.  Well...  it back fired on him the other day as I was getting him ready for bed.  Maybe this is uncouth of me to put in my blog and he will probably be mortified someday, but it was pretty funny!  I pulled his diaper off and lifted his legs as I slid his new one under him...  He jerked funny and I looked up to see him totally showering his face.  Full contact his eyes and mouth were closed and all the little crevices were filled.  Luckily I always keep a towel nearby since he is such a drool monster.  I quickly soaked up all the excess urine and dried his face and hair.  (Then sponge bathed him down)  He didn't get any on the bed this time though.  Of course he was already a little bit cranky and that REALLY ticked him off.  Oh, well.  Maybe he will learn a little bit of control!  Is it bad to find this amusing?

If you have spent much time with Kaden you have probably seen him trying to suck his fingers.  Usually he just sucks on the edge of his fist, but lately as he develops some more coordination he would get a finger or two.

Now he is fairly consistently getting his fingers in his mouth.  These seem to be his favorite ones, although sometimes he goes for his middle two.  Never his thumb though.  His thumb is almost always tucked in, so he never figured out how to get it in his mouth.  I think it is so adorable when babies suck their fingers!