Molars and Words

I can't believe my first little one has almost reached a major milestone -- the end of teething. Jaden's first two two-year molars came in at the top of his mouth this week. It was a little rough for a few days, but I should have seen the warnings last week. The end of last week he had a horrible runny nose, but he he wasn't stuffed up and wasn't acting like he had a cold at all. He was a little more irritable over the weekend - which I attributed to his growing attitude as he gains more desire for independence. (Which I still feel that has something to do with it!) He also had a really sore bottom about the same time the runny nose started. Then on Monday night, he broke out into a horrible hour-long crying session. This has never happened. Eventually we were able to get him to take Tylneol, and he calmed down about 15-20 minutes later. Before we sent him to bed that night, he allowed me to stick my finger in his mouth and sure enough -- I felt the tip of his first molar poking through. That explained everything - the runny nose, the awful tantrum, the sore bottom... he'd also been pulling at his ears a lot. His ears were bothered because of his teeth. Well, a day later he was getting even moodier, and on Tuesday night he was crying so hard that I was able to see all the way to the back of his mouth - and saw the second tooth starting to poke out. He even pointed to his ear that night when he was looking at me and informed me that he was in pain. After having a rough day at daycare on Wednesday, he seemed much happier last night and this morning. I think we've gotten through the worst of his first two molars (knock on wood) -- now we get to wait for the bottom two to arrive. Once those are done though - he will have all of his teeth!!! No more teething for that little guy... seems incredibly hard to believe we've reached that point :) I hope the next milestone is potty training ;)

We also had another first this week - two full sentences! His vocabulary is quite extensive now -- I can't even list all of the words he can say regularly or tries to say regularly. (Some words he struggles with greatly even though he tries them. "Please" sounds more like "teeese.") :) But - one morning this week, we were getting his shoes and coat on and the Mickey Mouse cartoon started on the Disney channel. As soon as Mickey appeared on the screen Jaden said, "There he is!" Cody and I both looked at each other like -- "did we just hear that???" Cody realized Jaden was copying me, as I always say "there he is" when Mickey comes on because I know Jaden loves Mickey. Then last night my mom and I were playing with him in the basement, and Jaden was surrounded by all of his balls. He had one in his hand, and I asked him, "What's that Jaden?" He replied, "It's a ball." Another full sentence ;) He's a long ways from being able to hold a conversation... but he grows up more and more every day. The funny thing is Cody was admiring my ever-growing tummy the other night and said, "Wow -- I can't believe I have a second little child on the way. I still can't get over the fact that we have Jaden!" And it's so true - he and I both still have moments where we look at him in awe -- having trouble believing that he's all ours :)

I do have to mention some of his newest words that we laugh about all the time:
Bug (he at some point became incredibly fearful of bugs and notices them instantly if they are around)
Buc (Cody was teaching him how to say "go Bucs" -- he doesn't say it plural yet, but every time he sees the Tampa Bay logo he points and says, "Buc!"
Ella (he's able to say his little cousin's name so well)
TC (the Panther mascot's name - very proud of that one!) ;)

Bedtime Routine

I have to write about this so that I never forget this particular bedtime routine with Jaden. I'm sure it won't last much longer because we are going to be switching him to a bed in under two months, and I'm sure the routine will change. But right now putting Jaden to bed is one of my favorite moments of every day.

Jaden always gets a bath between 7:15 and 7:30 every night. After bath, we put in one of his movies while we put his PJs on. He spends this time watching his movie, eating a snack if he wants one, and playing with Mommy and Daddy. At 8:00 we tell him it's time to brush his teeth. He takes Cody's hand and walks up the stairs to the bathroom. We get his little stool out in front of the sink, and Cody brushes Jaden's teeth. After Cody's finished, he lets Jaden do it on his own for a little while. It's so amazing how willing Jaden is to go to bed every night -- as soon as we say it's time to brush his teeth, he drops whatever he's doing and heads straight to the bathroom. After he's done brushing, he automatically gets off the stool and leads me and Cody to his bedroom. He then waits for Cody to get in the room, throws his arms up in the air for Cody to pick him up. This is my favorite part - he leans down and lets me kiss him once on each cheek. Then he looks at Cody and kisses him on the lips, and then he leans down to me one more time and gives me a kiss on the lips. Cody then puts him in his crib, tucks him in, and I hand him his cup of water. He drinks a few sips while we say our bedtime prayer, then hands me the cup back, and we say good night.

It's a little piece of Heaven at the end of the day :)

21 Months old and catching footballs!

I can not believe that Jaden turned 21 months old yesterday. And it is amazing how much he grows and learns every single day. He says a new word almost every day. This morning at 7:00 it was still pitch black outside, and he opened the curtains to our living room window, peaked his head around them looked outside and said "dark!" It was so cute as that was the first time has said that word. One of his other recent words has been "raffe" for "giraffe." He is getting to the point now where he really loves focusing on his toddler movies and Disney shows and seems to actually learn from watching them rather than just being entertained. The other night, he saw a little boy pouring himself a glass of milk in the movie and Jaden pointed at the TV and shouted, "MILK!" His little voice is the most wonderful thing in the world!

Last night Cody and Jaden were playing with Jaden's UNI football (one of many) in our living room. Jaden loves sitting at the top of the stairs (it's only about five steps up) and having Cody sit at the bottom. Jaden usually likes to throw the football down to Cody and then waits for Cody to throw it back. In the past, Jaden has just let the football fall to the ground and then he chases it down the hallway and brings it back to throw to Cody. However, last night out of the blue he started to CATCH the football consistently!! We were so excited for him and proud of him, and Jdaen caught on to that excitement. Every time he caught it, he would immediately shreak and clap his hands before throwing the ball back to Cody.

We have been teaching him all about the Panthers and UNI (of course)!! -- so he hears me say "Gooo Panthers!" a lot. Well he isn't able to see those words yet, but a few weeks ago he tried to imitate them by saying, "Daaaaa da da!!!" So now whenever he sees a football or the UNI logo on ANYTHING, he says "Daaaa da da!!!" Start em young, raise em right -- right?? I'm so proud he's already a Panther fan!

Jaden also is getting a lot better at feeding himself with a fork and a spoon. It's still a task that needs to be supervised just in case there are any major spills, but he's getting to the point now where he almost doesn't even want to use his fingers to eat any more - which is very exciting as it makes meal times easier for Mommy and Daddy. That means we actually get to eat our food right away rather than having to feed him first!

On Sunday night we carved our pumpkin. (Well, Cody carved and I watched!). It turned out really good. We of course had to make it a UNI pumpkin! I thought for sure that Jaden would have fun with it so we set everything up on our kitchen floor, I took all of Jaden's clothes off except for his diaper, and prepared for him to make himself a mess. That didn't happen -- he barely touched all the goop, and right away wanted me to wash his hands off! He then walked away from it and never came back to it :)


I will be 22 weeks pregnant tomorrow... yay!! Cody thinks this pregnancy is going faster than when I was pregnant with Jaden. (He's not the one who's pregnant!) I say the jury is still out on that - we still have potentially 18 weeks to go so ask me again when it's over :) Not that I mind being pregnant because except for the first few weeks I really have no problems with it at all. I love the excitement of counting down each week, the excitement of my belly getting bigger (until a few weeks from now when it's huge)! -- and how much stronger the baby's kicks feel almost every day. I am excited to be having another little boy -- and love the name we have picked out, which we will be keeping a secret until he arrives! Just this morning I ordered the nursery bedding and can't wait to get it here so I can pick out paint and get that room painted the way I want it! I am not worried about the next couple of months because I know the holidays will make time fly. However, I'm a little worried as to how I'm going to make it through January and February. When I was pregnant with Jaden, it was really hard on me when Cody was out during snow storms having to work on snow removal. I always missed him, had trouble sleeping and worried about him. (I'm a worry wart -- "is he falling asleep behind the wheel? Is his phone on him and will he hear it if I go into labor? etc etc.") Now add those worries to being home alone with a two year old in the dead of winter, a driveway to have to get shoveled out if we need to go anywhere, and being in the final stages of pregnancy. Cody also has a bad habit of either forgetting his phone at home or forgetting to charge it... those two habits will have to be corrected before this pregnancy reaches its end! However I am really excited (and slightly nervous) for how this labor/delivery will be different than the first. The first one I had to be induced and we knew that months ahead of time. We knew exactly what day Jaden was going to be born, and I never had to go into labor naturally. This time around they are handling things differently, and we are planning on a completely natural labor. I won't know what day he will arrive, and I will have to spend time at home with contractions before heading to the hospital -- should be kind of exciting! (And painful??!) :)

Here is my belly at 20 1/2 weeks :)

Happy Fall!

Remember this picture from last October? Hard to believe a year has gone by. Happy Fall!

I'm back!

Sorry it's been a while --- my new goal is update this at least once a week. Especially with our family growing -- this is kind of like my diary so I don't forget anything going on with our little one's lives.

Jaden turned 20 months old yesterday. I can't believe that in just four months, we will be the proud parents of a two-year old. He is such a funny little guy, and every day he does something new to make us laugh or smile. As our family knows, Jaden is OBSESSED with ceiling fans. We have three of them in our house - one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in his room. He thinks that every time we are home all of those fans need to be turned on, and he will point at them until we turn them on for him. Well throughout the summer, we followed his "orders" since it was usually warm enough out to do so. But with it cooling down lately, I'm trying to get him used to the idea that they don't need to be on all the time. So lately when he points at them, I shake my head and say "no -- too cold -- brrrrrrr." Well this morning after he woke up, he of course pointed to the ceiling fan. I said "no -- brrr." And he followed that up by shaking his head no with a very serious look on his face and forcing himself into a shiver. I wish I had it on video -- it was hilarious. He was so serious!!

He still doesn't say full sentences, but he tries new words all the time. Sometimes we only hear the word once and then he doesn't repeat it again for a while. However, his first official word is definitely "hot." He says it all the time - when something's in the microwave, on the stove, when he sees steam coming out of something, when we put his warm food in front of him... in the bathtub. And he says it very clearly and in such a high pitched voice - it's the cutest thing I've ever heard. Other words include -- Elmo, Grandpa, Tucker (the dog at daycare), cold, no (he uses that quite frequently now), milk, water, aacky (yucky), peacock (there's a pretty one in one of his books), up, down, -- and a few others as well. He also is a champion animal noise maker. Woof-woof, meoww, moo, cheep cheep (his bird noise), cack cack (his duck noise) -- and on occassion he has been known to snort like a pig. The other night I was singing "Jesus loves me" to him and I swear I heard him try to say Jesus. (Sounded more like Esus -- but close)!

He getting better at being able to brush his teeth. He had a little step stool in the living room that we put in front of our big window so he could see outside. He also used it as a little snack table. But lately he hasn't been using it at all because he's tall enough to see out the window without it, and he insists on eating his snacks sitting on the couch like a "big boy." So I moved the step stool into the bathroom so that he could stand on it over the sink to brush his teeth. The first night we did it that way, he was so proud of himself. Still haven't really tried potty training. We tried it a couple of times about a month or two ago, but he hated sitting on it and ended up throwing the potty seat down the stairs a couple of times. I didn't want to push it -- but I'm hoping to try again soon.

Jaden's also showing signs of becoming a soccer player (much to mine and Cody's dislike). He loves kicking balls, and he is getting really good at it! He comes after them with full speed and kicks them as hard as he can. Oh well -- even though I hate the sport, I know I will love cheering him on in anything he does!

Now on to our 2nd little bundle of joy. I am now 17 1/2 weeks into the pregnancy. Almost half way there... yay! I started feeling the baby move at 15 weeks but it's been very faint movements and only every few days or so. Yesterday there was finally about a 20 minute stretch of time where the baby must have been doing his/her afternoon workout because I could feel the little one punching me or kicking me constantly. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and then an ultrasound scheduled for next week. So hopefully we will know what we are having very soon!

We have some big house projects coming up that we need to get done by March. Since we have such small closets, my clothes take up our entire closet in the bedroom. Cody's been using the closet in the spare room but that will soon be unavailable -- and the majority of his clothes have to get washed a lot because of work so they end up on the laundry room floor. His dad has shelves from his hardware store that he is going to be giving us so we can transform the laundry room a bit. Cody will be able to put all of his clothes in the laundry room and he will hopefully keep it somewhat organized with the new shelving! We are going to be transforming Jaden's room out of his nursery phase and into his little boy room. I hope to get him into his bed right after Christmas so we have time to get him used to a bed before we have to get up in the middle of the night with the new baby. I already have the room decor/bedding picked out but haven't purchased it yet in case I change my mind at the last minute. It will be a sports theme -- of course! Once we find out if we're having a boy/girl, I'm going to immediately begin painting the spare bedroom. It's so ugly right now and it's driving me crazy since we haven't touched it since we moved in. I also don't want to save doing that room until the last minute -- I want to be able to gradually add to it as we get closer. We're also needing to find a new changing table/dresser combo to save space in that room (it's a small room and if we have a changing table and a dresser that's separate pieces we won't have room for a rocker) -- and also so that Jaden can keep the small dresser in his room. Our other project is getting the garage organized and to move a lot of stuff into our storage room in the basement. All summer Cody's been keeping his truck outside and I've been the only one parking in the garage just because so much stuff has been kept in there since the move. But once the snow comes, Cody's going to want his truck in the garage! I also need to go through all of our "baby" boxes. I can't remember where our baby bathtub is or where certain pieces for the car seat are, etc. etc. Even if we have a girl, there are things we had for Jaden that we'll be able to use for a girl -- I just need to find it all and remind myself what we have already and what we need! There's other little things I want to get done, too -- I finally figured out what I want to hang above our couch -- I just need to get around to actually doing it :) I finally figured out what I want to use to fill the cute little cubbies above our kitchen cabinets -- I just need to get around to doing it :) Of course the room that has received the smallest amount of attention is our bedroom. I'm hoping to find a nice new bedding set to ask for for Christmas -- once I get that, I will start focusing on transforming our bedroom into a room that I can be comfortable spending a lot of time in once the baby is here and I'm getting up for middle of the night feedings all the time! Right now I don't even like reading in that room before bed because even just sitting in our bed reminds me of all the things I want to do to that room!

New Videos!

Uh oh... he's a toddler!

Okay so we're all used to the pretty much "perfect" little Jaden. Well... he's still perfect. Perfectly cute, perfectly cuddly, perfectly fun, perfectly giggly, perfectly chatty, perfectly sounding little voice...

Perfectly BOY, perfectly equipped with ATTITUDE, perfectly a TODDLER!!

It has happened. Jaden grew up... again. He's almost 16 months old - but I wasn't quite ready for this for a few months yet. I think the "terrible two's" really means the two years between age one and age three. Now I really should be careful how I describe this because I have seen much much worse coming from toddlers ------- but ------ Jaden's attitude has arrived.

The laid back, easy-going little boy has vanished, and in his place we have the... well, not so laid back easy-going little boy. He still laughs and smiles, still talks up a storm with his sweet little voice, still cuddles when he wants to and gives hugs and kisses. Still melts everybody's heart the minute they see him. But now he also whines whines and whines when he doesn't get his way. You know - the "eh eh eh eh" sound that just can begin to remind a person of nails on a chalkboard after they've heard it enough. And we've had actual TEARS coming out of his eyes a couple times during the last week. Now Jaden has not cried TEARS (unless it came from injuring himself) since he was a tiny little baby. He cried tears on Sunday because I took his snack away because we had to get in the car. Yesterday, I walked into daycare to pick him up and for the first time EVER, I walked in the door and heard MY SON... crying??! Usually the only kids I walk in and hear crying are the other people's children. Why was he crying?? Because baby Carter's daddy was there to take Carter home, and Jaden had lost his playmate. Seriously. Getting dressed in the morning ---??? Awful. He kicks kicks and kicks me until all of his clothes are on. And every once in a while, he arches his back because he gets so angry. And we did a terrible thing this week. Ever since he turned one, we have been slowly weaning him from his "before bed" bottle. For weeks now he's only gotten two ounces before we've put him down for the night. So I thought this week was time to take it away comletely... two ounces really is not a lot, and it's not like he's HUNGRY for it -- he just likes it. I thought it would be a piece of cake. OOOPS -- bad assumption. The last couple of nights he's whined in his crib for 45 minutes before finally putting himself to sleep. For months now, it has been so easy to put him in his crib at night and just walk away. Sure, sometimes he talked for a while but never cried. Now -- we're reversing back to his little baby days when we had to bounce him around to get him to fall asleep before putting him down.

I know the reason for all of this. I know it's completely normal. I know that toddlers do this because they are old enough now to get incredibly frustrated when they don't know how to verbally communicate what it is they want or need. I know he is testing things out. I know he wants to form words and tell us things that he just can't do yet. I understand. I also know that I have been incredibly spoiled by such an EASY little baby for over a year now so it is going to be a little bit more difficult to adjust to the change. I also realize that the only times I get to see him are in the early morning and then at night -- when he's tired, over stimulated and beginning to get cranky after a busy day of playing outside. I know that weekends will be better when I can enjoy him all day long -- see him right after his naps when he's fully rested and happy. I also know that this too shall pass. And I am also bracing myself for it to get even worse. Because really... it's not that bad. We have started doing "time outs." When his whininess gets to the rediculous point -- just a few times now -- I have placed him in his crib for a minute. (Which by the way -- is really hard to do -- because during that moment when I put him in the crib he turns back into that sweet little innocent baby that could do no wrong -- his eyes know exactly how to play on Mommy's emotions).

On a good note - we close on our house a week from today. And no... I'm not done packing. Not by a long shot. Guess what my Memorial Day weekend will consist of???

Basketball!!!

This picture comletely sums up our weekend!!

Turkey hunting, NFL draft, new-house celebrating, shopping... too much for these boys! I went back to our bedroom to put some clothes away, and this is what I found when I came back out five minutes later! ;)

Home Owners!

So thanks to God and our family and our wonderful realtor ;)... We have purchased a house. I cannot believe it. I really didn't think we'd find a way to do it for a long time. Sherry, our realtor, informed me of a listing Monday morning that I almost didn't even take the time to look at. It's listed in Waterloo even though it is right one the edge of Cedar Falls. It's in a good neighborhood but the high school district it's in isn't the greatest. However, realizing that we'd be moving on to a bigger house by the time Jaden is in high school anyway, and seeing as how the actual neighborhood is just up the street from a good Cedar Falls school, we thought we might as well at least just look at it. Well, we were at the house for about 15 minutes and decided to put an offer down. It's on Rainbow Dr. in Waterloo, and I'm so excited to make it our home. (A little scared, as well). It is a three bedroom, split level. The main floor has the eat-in kitchen and the living room. The back door is leads from the kitchen onto a good sized deck. From the living room going up a few steps is the bedroom area. There are three bedrooms and a bath. Then going from the kitchen down a few steps is the lower level family room that is all finished off. It will be a great play room for Jaden. There is a door then that leads to the furnace room and down another few steps to the unfinished storage room. There is also a small laundry room closed off from the family room in the lower level. The lower level also has a back door leading to the back patio. So there are two back doors - a patio and a deck -- and there are outdoor speakers attached to the two stall garage. It will be a great place for cookouts! There is a small creek in the back that Cody will be working to make pretty, and we will probably put up a white fence with a gate to help keep Jaden away from the creek :) But Cody can't wait to go looking for frogs with him.

We have to thank Cody's parents for helping us with the down payment. And we have to thank my parents for storing so many of our things while we have been waiting to have our own storage room in our own home! We get possession on May 28 and there is lots to get done before then. But I am so excited to have something that is finally ours! We are very lucky that we got the house. Two other families looked at it after us while we were writing up our offer, and one other couple offered the same time we did. Luckily, we won out thanks to our hard working realtor! We are figuring out ways to budget our money better, and Cody might try to pick up a second part-time job and try to put in some hours on the weekend nights every once in a while. But we will find a way to make it work. I have always had that outlook -- if you want something badly enough, you find a way to make it work! It might be a little scary and we might be tight with our funds for a little while... but we believe this was the right thing to do. We needed a home for our family.