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!

Flowers

   Tuesday, late afternoon, I was practically falling asleep on the couch, so Jeremy sent me to bed for a short nap.  I made him promise to wake me up in 30 minutes, because I still wanted to sleep well and not be up late.  So I laid down and got some rest.  I don't know that I ever really fell asleep, (my Mommy ears are always listening to make sure Kaden is okay... even when I know he is in wonderful hands with his Daddy) but I did get to close my eyes for awhile and relax.

   Thirty minutes later Kaden (in Daddy's arms of course) woke me up with these flowers clenched in his little fist.  This is the first time he 'picked' me flowers and hopefully not the last!!!  (I think that Jeremy may have helped him a little bit... since he can't crawl or walk yet!)

5 Months

My baby boy turned 5 Months old on Saturday. (I'm a little bit slow on updating my blog this week... so expect a bunch all at once.)  Since May is Daddy's birthday we used Daddy's Cowboy hat and boots for our photo session this month.  Isn't he a doll!

He had a grand time pulling the straw out of the bales.

What a little stud!  He looks like he is posing for a CD cover or something.  :)

Fever

   My poor baby Kaden developed a mild fever last night, 100.5.  He was a little bit fussy so I gave him some Tylenol, fed him and put him to bed.  This morning he woke up with a fever of 101.9.  I gave him some more Tylenol and called the nurse hot line at his Dr's office.  They told me to watch him today and as long as he is eating, peeing and responding to me normally he would be fine, but to call again if his fever is still 101.5 tomorrow.  So that is what I am doing. 

   I wouldn't say that he is responding 'normally', but he knows that I am there and looks for me, so I am pretty sure that is what they were talking about.  In the top picture you can see the lethargic look on his face that I have been seeing all day.  I have gotten maybe a half dozen smiles out of him and that is not like Kaden.  Below you can see his stance of the day.  He isn't kicking, he isn't trying to roll over, he doesn't want to play or grab things, he just wants to lay still.  If you have ever held Kaden or spent any time around him, you would know that this is definitely a little boy who doesn't feel well.  Still is not in his normal vocabulary... oh wait... he doesn't have vocabulary yet.

   The plus side?  All he wants to do is be held and snuggled.  Mommy is very happy to hold him close and rock him.  I just wish he wasn't burning up in the process.  The Tylenol doesn't seem to help much.  So if you have some time today, would you say a little prayer for Kaden? 

Sweet Potatoes

When I put Kaden in his highchair and put a bib on him he tends to get a little bit impatient.  If I don't get the food to him fast enough he just decides to eat his bib!  (Okay, in all honesty... he has a tendency to shove anything and everything that he can get his hands on into his mouth, with bibs and drool cloths being his favorite.  He does do it more when he is hungry though!)

I love all his expressions!

We tried Sweet Potatoes for the first time.  They were much yummier than Carrots!

We didn't even get any disgusted faces for Sweet Potatoes.

You can't see it in any of these pictures, but when I am feeding Kaden he likes to hang on to my hand and 'help'.  So I let him hold my pinkie finger.  The problem with this is that as he gets stronger and figures out what is going on more and more, he has begun yanking on my hand when he reaches for a bite.  So instead of getting the spoon in his mouth, it ends up on his cheek, chin or nose!  I've heard of people giving a second spoon to the baby... well this might have worked well, except now he only wants to put his spoon in his mouth.  So I still wasn't getting much into him.  Oh well, maybe he just wasn't very hungry!

Not Just a Trim

Before

Kaden received his first full haircut yesterday.  I had trimmed the front and sides in February, but this time he got the electric clippers.  It was a little bit tragic for me.  My baby looks more like a little boy now, and it totally changed his appearance.  It is crazy!  He did so well though.  He sucked on my finger for awhile, and watched Daddy take pictures for awhile.  But he didn't fuss or cry at all.  My mom cut it for me this first time while I held him as we were not sure how he would handle the clippers.  His cousin Malaki hates them with a passion.  He didn't have enough hair to start with them as early.  So hopefully Kaden won't despise getting his hair cut when he his Malaki's age.  

We used the longest attachment and cut it all the same length to make it easy.  You can see one of his first locks of hair on my arm.  We cut 1 - 2 inches off.

He is such a good little trouper.  The pictures don't show it very well, but cutting his hair shorter made his bald spots fade.  He seems to be growing some hair back, but it is short and very light.  Having the long dark hair cut off makes his little head look much more uniform.  He doesn't have that comb over look anymore.  His hair looks almost blonde now.  So now we will really have to wait and see what it turns out like.  I'm still hoping he will keep some of the red.

What are you doing to me Grandma?

I couldn't believe we cut off that much hair!!!  And there was more on the floor!

He was getting a little bit tired of being still...ish.

We finished up with a little bit of scissor work.  I am still working on some scissor trimming today.  He was wanting to look at the scissors and bounce again.  So we let him off the hook.  He looks so different!

I think his cheeks look even bigger now... if that is possible!

Carrots

Last night Kaden got to try Carrots for the first time.  This was his first introduction to the world of tastes.  (Milk and Rice Cereal are pretty bland!)  He eagerly leaned forward in his highchair for his first bite.  (He loves to eat his cereal, even though he makes a funny face.)  Took the spoonful without a problem, then...

WHAT IS THIS?

Although a little bit thrown by this strange taste sensation, he bravely tried another bite.

Mom?  Is it supposed to taste like this?

Then he promptly scowled at me.  I have NEVER seen such a look of utter disgust on a baby's face before.  I, of course, burst out laughing and tell Jeremy to take more pictures!

Please don't make me eat anymore Mom!

You don't seriously want me to take another bite do you?

Fine... I'll just spit it back out!

I think that I have just been told 'No' for the first time!  I guess we will try carrots again another time.  I served them warm to him, maybe I should try cool, or room temp. perhaps?  After convincing him to try a total of 3 bites, I let him off the hook and made him some cereal.  He kept looking at that orange spoon like, 'You aren't getting me to eat any more of that garbage Mom'.  I did get him to try a bite of his cereal and then eat some of it, but he definitely was not as interested in it as he was before.  We will see if he still likes it when I give it to him for breakfast in a little bit.  :)  

I guess I was a lot more excited about Kaden trying new foods than he was!

A Blog of Randomness...

So, since I am not very good about getting on here and blogging as daily events happen, here is a 'Blog of Randomness' for you to enjoy.

We don't give Kaden a bottle very often, although I don't really know why not.  We have plenty of milk in the freezer that I have pumped through the months.  But when we do Jeremy usually is the one to give it to him.  It gives him a chance to participate in that part of Kaden's life.  Anyways... all that was to tell you that Jeremy gets a kick out of getting Kaden to hold his own bottle.  Jeremy opens Kaden's chubby little fist and places his hands on the bottle.  Usually once that is complete Kaden will hold it there for quite awhile before he decides to do something else with his hands.

I have the hardest time keeping Kaden's nails trimmed short enough.  They grow like his Daddy's.  When he was first born they used to just tear off when they got a little bit long, but now they are harder and I actually have to clip them.  I hate doing that!  I'm so afraid I am going to clip his fingers instead, I haven't, but there is always a first time.  As you can probably see in the picture above, I didn't get them clipped soon enough, and he has a mean looking scratch across his round cheek.  

My other problem has been trying to keep his neck clean and dry.  You can't tell real well in the picture but he gets red lines in the fold of his neck.  And there are a LOT of folds in his neck.  :)
My finger sucker is contemplating becoming a thumb sucker.  Every once in awhile he gets hold of his thumb.  I guess we will see how he ends up.  

I thought you might enjoy some of Kaden's many facial expressions.  

Kaden gets a kick out of 'crawling' across my stomach.  He starts by standing up next to me then flops down on my belly.  Since his feet are on the ground he bounces and kicks, and if I put my hand under his feet he will slide all the way across and down the other side.  Although instead of using his arms he smashes his face down while he picks his bum up.  

Kaden loves it when I sing to him.  He doesn't care what it is as long as I sing and dance in front of him, and get real close to his face once in awhile.  And I will do pretty much anything to see that smile!

Well you are now caught up once again on the life in the Wells' household.  Maybe it won't be so long in between posts next time.  

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.