Kaden is 6 Months

I can't believe Kaden is already 6 months old.  Time has gone so quickly it's insane.  He is FINALLY growing!!! After months of having the odds stacked against him- 4 weeks premature, failure to thrive and reflux we are thrilled to see some chub on this boy.  He has always been between the 3rd and 10th percentile for everything since he's been born and at his 6 month appt he finally made it to the 25th percentile for everything- height, weight, and head.  He is 15 lbs. 12 oz and 26 inches.  Yay!

This picture says it all. Kaden is one curious boy!  He follows things with his eyes, tries to put everything in his mouth and is getting good at grabbing things and manipulating them with his hands.  Most of the time he can take his pacifier out and put it back in successfully.  This often prevents him from going down for naps because he is so persistent at trying to take it in and out and in and out.

 This picture says exactly what Kaden thinks of tummy time- not happening. Hates it. Still...

 This picture will probably be a source of embarrassment later in poor Kaden's life but we think this face is so funny.  This is the "I'm pooping, hold on a minute" face.

This kid is loving his Christmas presents- an exersaucer and a toy car that lights up and makes noises and sings songs. So fun!

 Kaden likes to try and help feed himself with the spoon. Very messy.

This is one of the things Kaden does all day long.  He'll roll over, be on his tummy for a few seconds, then get bored and switch to the swimmer position- arms up, legs kicking, going as fast as he can.  Then he'll get tired and switch back to his arms resting, then back to swimmer.  When he's finally had enough, he'll cry, we'll roll him back over and then he'll roll back again two seconds later.  Yes, folks, this is all day long. Maybe he's preparing for a future career?  Michael Phelps watch out!

We love this little man so much and it has been so fun to watch him grow and enter new stages.  More/cuter pictures to come when this poor baby is feeling better.  He's had a fever all day so I haven't wanted to do anything but let the poor kid rest.

Odds and Ends

Oh blogging. Starting to look like my journal- sporadic and infrequent entries. Tsk, tsk...

We Moved! On Feb. 1  we moved because our other neighbors were chain smokers and we didn't appreciate that lovely smell joining us in Kaden's room.  My life was in shambles for a week or so but we are finally unpacked. We love our bigger townhouse that does not smell like smoke.  It has more closets and bigger rooms. Woot.  The kitchen, though still fairly small compared to most, is double the size of our last cubicle so we are thrilled! Best part about moving besides the bigger place was getting to see my Mom for a few days.  She came and helped with Kaden while we packed up, moved and cleaned.  I'm so grateful for her help and it was fun to see her and for her and Kaden to get to play.  He loves his Grandma Richelle :)

We were so grateful for great neighbors and friends from our ward that let us borrow their truck and help us move the furniture from one townhouse to the other.

 Sickness-bleh. The plague has come and is hopefully on its way out of our house.   Most of my time has been spent holding a very sick boy who couldn't seem to stay asleep on his own.  For three days now Curtis and I have taken turns holding him during his naps just so he could get some sleep because he'd be coughing so hard he'd wake himself up and start to cry every time.  So sad. I will not miss this cold.  Good riddance influenza!  It has been nice to snuggle my baby though so I will miss that.  Even when Kaden feels rotten he is the sweetest boy and always tries to smile.  I took this picture right after he coughed so hard he puked all over me.  Apparently that can make a boy smile.  Why shouldn't it?

Can I just mention how great our neighbors are here? When you don't have family around it is such a blessing to have good friends from your ward. My friend Angie noticed we weren't at church on Sunday and found out that we were all sick and brought us dinner Sunday night.  I was so grateful for her thoughtfulness.

Let's talk Valentines.  We traded babysitting last week with some of our friends here, Miranda and Kyle Maclean.  They went out on Valentines Day and we watched their cute little Evelyn and we went out the next night and they watched Kaden.  We went to a cute little, local Italian place called Veneto and had their homemade pizza and gnocchi.  I'm such a sucker for homemade gnocchi, it's the best.  Yum! It was downtown and we really liked it.  Then we got to go to a movie "Here Comes the Boom" (don't judge-it was actually really funny.)  So nice to have a night out with just us and not worrying about Kaden. (I forgot to take a picture though so picture it in your minds...)  Until next time!

5 Month Updates

Kaden turned 5 months on January 16.  He has gained 2 lbs since December which is really great for him since he had failure to thrive.  He is 13 lbs now and is actually starting to finally look chubby! Hooray.

   

Kaden loves to SMILE! He is such a happy boy.  He has also started to giggle and it is irresistible.

 Kaden absolutely loves his veggies.  We can't say as much for the rice cereal and oatmeal, but he'll eat them if he's pretty hungry.

 This boy wiggles ALL day long...

 Beautiful blue eyes

 Kaden loves to grab his toes.  When he is wearing socks he'll often have one on and one off.

Kaden's other new favorite thing is to roll from his back to his tummy as fast as he can.  He goes pretty quickly from this.... Pleasantly enjoying his tummy time

To This.... Starting to think tummy time isn't so fun

 To This... I Hate Tummy Time!

As soon as he's been on his tummy for a little bit he starts to whimper and cry.  We'll flip him back to his back and he instantly rolls back to his tummy. 

Christmas in Utah

We were so excited to go to Utah for the holidays! We had an eventful two days of travel where our flight out of Rochester got delayed so we missed our connection in Atlanta and had to spend the night without luggage.  Luckily the airline was nice enough to comp our hotel and give us airport meal vouchers for dinner and breakfast the next morning.  We learned an important lesson though- always pack more diapers than you think you'll ever use in a million years.  The airport only sells Size 2 and 3 diapers (Kaden wears a 1 barely) that cost $7.00 for two.  Yikes! Good thing real diapers outside of airport land aren't so expensive.  No matter that we arrived on Dec. 23rd instead of Dec. 22nd but at least we arrived and our fun began. 

We spent the first part of Christmas with the Fairbourns.  Grandpa Fairbourn was there and it was fun to get a 4 generation picture.

 We had our shepherd's dinner that we love each year where we get to dress up and eat on the floor with our hands. And the shepherd's bread is about my favorite thing EVER! I could eat a whole loaf by myself.

 We all got matching family pajamas and wore them for Christmas Eve and the duration of Christmas Day

 Kaden and cousin Jace got to meet for the first time.  Kaden is 4 months and Jace is 3 months (they are exactly a month apart) and I think they'll be buddies for life.  They seemed to hit it off well.

 We also went sledding with the Fairbourns but I don't have those pictures yet.  Suffice it to say, we had a great time with them as we always do.

On Dec. 29 we headed to the Seawrights.  We got some family pictures taken and then we had the annual Seawright Family Christmas party which is always one of my favorites.  We had lots of little kids this year- the most we've ever had I think.  These are my cousin Jay and Alan's kids with Kaden. From left to right: Kaden, Athena, Artemis, Sam and Jack.

Kaden got to re-meet Aunt Missy

 This was the first time Ty and Ashley got to meet Kaden and I think they had a good time

 

Curtis snagged quite the find in the White Elephant Gift Exchange, which I'm sure he'll put to good use for a future Halloween costume.

 A boy and his dad enjoying some bonding time

 Kaden and Grandma Richelle

Can I note that my dad has lost 40 lbs and my mom has lost 28 on their new diet? Woohoo! I'm so proud of them. They look fantastic!

We went to Temple Square to see the lights and I think we may have picked the absolute COLDEST night on the planet to do so. Oh well, still a holiday favorite.

 

Kaden got to meet Brindslee Romph (our friends Trent and Kelsey's daughter).  She's a bit bold and wasn't shy about holding hands on the first meeting :)  In 20 years from now if they decide to get married this would be the best photo for a wedding book eh?

Just before we left on this trip Kaden started eating oatmeal and boy does he love it!

Kaden got to hang out with Grandpa Santa/Mike

 

 We also got a 4 generation picture with my Grandma Thomas

It was a bit sad to get on the plane to come back to Rochester after two fun weeks with family. We had a great time with both families and look forward to our next visit with them already.