9 Months

My baby is growing up so fast these days! I can hardly believe it. It is amazing how quickly he is changing and growing too. One of his favorite activities these days is 'reading'.
He loves to crawl up in the rocking chair with me, then lean over the arm where his books lay on the floor. Then he points (pointing is pretty recent and Oh, so cute!) at his books and gives a half giggle. Until I pick one up! Then he snuggles back with me to turn the pages. That is really all he wants to do, but he tolerates me reading, as long as I don't take too long, and make sure to point to the page a lot!

Dog has an orange fish.

Mom! I'm trying to read here. You are disturbing me.

Gotta love that smile!

8 Months

So since my computer was down for awhile I am a wee bit behind. (But thankfully I am back up and running... it seems that it didn't delete my pictures... it just moved them somewhere else. :) Uncle Chuck found them for me. I didn't think to look in a different place for them! At least I think that is what happened.) So, just in case you thought I forgot... Here are Kaden's 8 month pictures!

I love this expression!

Oh how he loves to stand!

May Calendar

This picture cracks me up! Kori is 'backhanding' Kaden and Lillie's face is too funny. :)

In case you don't know, Jeni and I make a calendar for our parents (which has branched out to our in-laws, ourselves, and grandmas and grandpas...) every year. So yesterday I went over to Mom's (where Jeni is staying while her husband is at Basic.) and we did the pictures for the month of May. (I'll be making several trips in the next few weeks. We have to finish next years calendar before Jeni moves to who knows where.) Here are just a few of them.

Korinthia Dawn

Kaden Raymond

Malaki William

Lillie Lee

Climbing

As I was sitting at my parent's computer reviewing my latest calendar pictures, I glanced over to see my son starting up the steps. YIKES! We already had one fall this week, do we need another?

I grabbed my camera (which was right in front of me) and went to stand behind him.

He could see his cousin Kori headed up and wanted to follow.

He did so good!

I was way impressed!

He doesn't even pick his belly off the ground when he crawls yet, and here he is scooting up the stairs.

Are you watching Mom?

The only time he would stumble was when he would look back to make sure I was watching. Then he would tumble down a step or two (I helped him with a controlled fall, so no owies today.) and turn around and start right back up.

He got hung up on the corner though. The steps are too narrow next to the wall.

So proud of himself!

(Malaki and Lillie are sneaking in the picture so they can see themselves on the camera!)

Wanna Take a Bath?

Wanna take a bath?

This turtle is great for splashing!

Time for some serious splashing!

He is sitting so good now.

First I eat the turtle...

Then I use it to SMASH the crab!

Watch out ducky, you're next.

I'm sure he will hate that I posted pictures of his naked bum when he is 16!

Look at those beautiful baby blues!

He even likes to lay down in the water.

Oh, look! I have hands!

Love this crazy face!

Then, while I am snapping away, he grabs the side of the bath tub, and stands up! He had never done this before. He has only been pulling himself to a sitting position for a week maybe. Now he pulls himself up on the couches and chairs, and me. I had to lower the mattress in his crib yesterday because he was standing up in there and I wasn't taking any chances of him falling out of his crib too. My baby is going to be a toddler before I know it.

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.

Song Titles

Some of you that get my blog, sorry this isn't about Kaden. But my cousin did give me a couple of sites that might retrieve some of my pictures. We are running one now, and so far it has found a few. So I am hopeful. Thanks so much Eric!!!

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST/Band, cleverly answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think!

Post this to your blog and leave me a comment to let me know you did!

Pick your Artist:
Audio Adrenaline

Are you a male or female?
"Bag Lady"

Describe yourself:
"Never Gonna Be as Big as Jesus"

How do you feel:
"I'm Alive"

Describe where you currently live:
"Big House" (OK, maybe not...)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
"Walk on Water"

Your favorite form of transportation:
"Free Ride"

Your best friend is:
"Superfriend"

What's the weather like:
"Summertime"

Favorite time of day:
"Rest Easy"

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
"People Like Me"

What is life to you:
"Good Life"

Your fear:
"Some Kind of Zombie"

What is the best advice you have to give:
"Jesus is Right"

Thought for the Day:
"Can't Take God Away"

How I would like to die:
"I Hear Jesus Calling"

My soul's present condition:
"It is Well"

My motto:
"I'm Not the King"

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.

7 Months

Kaden and I spent the week out at camp all last week, so at least I have a good excuse for being late on his 7 month pictures!

I'm 7 months old! Isn't that exciting?

Mom... do you seriously need to take another picture?

I love the attitude in these two.

Yeah, that's right... I can crawl.

Peek-a-boo

He just melts my heart!