Happy 2 Months!

Kaden celebrated being 2 months old on October 16! I can hardly believe it.  Time flies quickly with a baby.  He had his two month checkup this week and he is weighing in at 9 lbs 8.5 oz, 22 1/4 inches long.  He is 10th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height still.  Still small, but growing.  He has finally outgrown a few of his newborn outfits.  We'll see how long it takes him to fit into the 0-3 month size though...

 

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and wanted to try it with Kaden...

 

This is how Kaden's version turned out! He HATED it!! I tried it with things inside the pumpkin propping him up so it'd be soft. I thought maybe he was cold and brought down the space heater. Nope. Despite my best efforts this boy was not happy to be in a pumpkin. Oh well. Maybe next year?

 Curtis was snuggling Kaden after the traumatizing pumpkin event I caused

 He's still a cute little pumpkin even if he won't sit in the pumpkin for me

 My favorite thing about Kaden getting bigger right now is that he is smiling more and he will coo at you.  If you coo back he keeps doing it back and forth. It is the cutest thing! It's like he's having a conversation with you. I love it.

Auntie Missy Comes to Visit

Missy got to come visit this past week.  We had so much fun with her and it was fun to see her bonding with Kaden for the first time too.  We got to go a few fun places so here are some of the highlights.

This may sound weird but Rochester has the COOLEST cemetary! It is like 10 city blocks large. It is super old and has a few famous people buried there like Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Anyway, we took Missy there because it's beautiful in the fall.

 

 

 

 We also went to this cute little pumpkin farm that is a few miles from Rochester called Wickham Farms.  If it hadn't been sub-zero temperatures with freezing wind we would have loved to stay longer.They had the world's most delicious homemade donuts.

 

 I got the cutest picture of Kaden in the pumpkin patch and it somehow got deleted so I'll have to try and re-take a picture of our little pumpkin.  For now these can suffice...

 Kaden has started smiling recently and we were trying to get a picture of him smiling.  This was taken 10 seconds after he wretched ALL over Curtis but the look on his face was pure delight and I couldn't resist including it for your enjoyment. :)

 My sweet smiling boy! I love this picture!!!

We also went to Watkins Glen State Park with Missy.  It is near the Finger Lakes (about an hour and a half south of where we live).  It was absolutely beautiful with all the fall colors!

Despite his best efforts Curtis is not very good at frowning.  Missy was just trying not to laugh at him trying...

 

 Kaden thoroughly enjoyed his first hike.  Thanks Chelsea for the darling beanie,  It finally fits him! Yay!

 

My Two Favorite Boys

This past week was Curtis' birthday (on Monday October 1st).  He was busy with tons of homework and preparing for a career fair in Orlando on Wednesday so we didn't get to do a whole lot for his birthday on the actual day so we'll be celebrating late on October 10th.  I made Curtis a birthday breakfast and he opened his presents, which were all biking-related.  Curtis likes to bike to school each day since we only live about 5 miles from the University of Rochester.  He was worried that his nice road bike would get trashed since it rains a lot and the people aren't very careful around the bike racks here so we found this awesome 1970's road bike on Craigslist which has been getting him to and from school ever since.  Since it rains a ton here (not just talking frequency, but the actual quantity of rain is INSANE when it does rain), he needed some rain biking gear.  I think he will stay dry in all of this stuff for sure :)

 

Curtis also received a package of spoons and forks for his birthday (only as a joke) but I have to explain.  I pack him a lunch every day and without my gentle reminders he often forgets to eat. (I personally don't understand that... I NEVER forget to eat. Mostly I have to remind myself not to eat so much.) He got in the habit of waiting so long to eat on certain days that by the time he went down to the place where you can get forks and spoons and napkins, they've already put them away for the day.  There was a period of a few days where he didn't eat any lunch since he had no utensils... so he got this brilliant idea. Why not just take several days worth of forks and spoons so he wouldn't have to eat lunch at a normal time? He came home one day with his bag full of forks and spoons and salt and pepper packets.  I thought it was quite funny so I decided to buy him some utensils for his birthday so he can keep them in his locker and doesn't have to steal large quantities of them from the school.

Now onto my other favorite boy.Kaden is a happy baby.  Lately he only likes to sleep in his carseat if and when he decides to sleep.  (Most of the time he seems to like to be awake and be held and be right in on the action at all times. He is one spoiled boy!)  He sleeps in strange ways sometimes...

I've mentioned before that Kaden is super wiggly.  He has started this new thing where when I try to burp him he doesn't burp but instead likes to try to climb up me.  Here is one such instance.  Or he'll pull his head back and then abruptly slam it into my face or shoulder while he's supposed to be burping.  He has a really strong neck for such a tiny boy and can hold his head up on his own.

Kaden is 7 weeks old and he just finished a growth spurt and is weighing in right around 8 lbs. which for him seems huge and chunky but then when I really stop and think about it I realize that is still smaller than average babies birth weights. For the first time since he's been born his newborn clothes are actually looking a little bit tight on him. Imagine that! Don't be fooled though by his "growth" because all of the 0-3 month sized clothes I have for him look like they will drown him for sure so I think he'll spend another few weeks in the newborn clothes.

 

 Kaden really likes his bath and I really like his bath because he smells SO good after! I love Johnson's baby products... (He really does like his bath but in this picture I accidentally got the water too cold so it looks like he hates it but usually he is all smiles and cooes. Oops!)

 

 Thank you Grandma Richelle for the cute Halloween sleeper! He loves it and he is so cute in it :)

 

This little boy has the cutest personality.  He makes really cute noises and faces and is starting to smile which is so FUN to see.  I love how this picture really captures a bit of his personality and expression.

 

 

Highland Park and 1 Month Highlights

One of my favorite things about Rochester is all the parks.  I love how green it is and how many trees there are. It is just beautiful.  We decided to go explore one of the parks close to our house last Saturday.  Now these are not your Utah-type parks where you can see the whole park from where you park your car and it consists of a pavillion, playground and bathrooms if you're lucky.  No... they are HUGE! I'm talking several blocks worth in each direction. 

Highland Park has a botanical garden (which we were going to go to but didn't realize you had to have cash to get in, boo!), a rock garden (which is lame-o, literally just a cluster of rocks in a flower bed, ha ha), an ampitheatre, a castle, etc...  It is super pretty!

 

The world from Kaden's view :)

Even though he's crying I just love the expression on his face.  He's such an animated baby with his face and his body motions.

There is a HUGE cemetary here called the Mt. Hope Cemetary where Fredrick Douglass and other famous people were buried.  It spans probably 8-9 city blocks in every direction.  This is one of the cool buildings just inside the cemetary and across the street from Highland Park.

 

The castle! It is a building that belongs to the Garden Club of Rochester or something like that but I thought it was such a cool building.

 

 Hello world!

 

And now drumroll for Kaden's....ONE MONTH HIGHLIGHTS...

This sweet boy loves his pacifier.  I thought about removing it for this picture but decided against it because he really likes it and it is the best $4 we've spent in a long time.  This kid would eat all day if I'd let him, so the pacifier is a nice happy medium so he can suck all he wants when it is not time to eat.  This poor boy has also developed a bit of colic in the last week or so, so the pacifier and his swing are the saving grace for both us and Kaden so he's not so miserable.

This is the newest addition to the Little Houdini installment. I tell you, this kid never ceases to amaze us that he can somehow find a way out of everything he wears... This is how Curtis found him in his crib the other morning. :)

 

 My favorite little wiggleworm! This picture captures so perfectly our sweet little boy with all his wiggles and personality.  He is such a happy, content baby.  He is starting to get more chub on his cheeks and his tummy and growing a lovely double chin by the day so I thought I'd put this on so you can admire his little Buddha belly.

 

 Bath time is a new thing since he just barely got old enough to start bathing in the baby tub. His poor skin is still too sensitive to use the yummy smell-good baby bath, but we'll get there.  He likes his bath for the most part and is the most content baby when he's all done and snuggled in his towel.

 Yet another view of this little cutie and his favorite item :)  We love this little boy and are so glad he's been a part of our family for the last month.  We've enjoyed every day of having him here.

Our Humble Abode and our Little Man

A lot of you have asked about our house and the area where we live so I thought I'd give you a little picture tour of the place. Our townhouse is about 5 miles from the University of Rochester, so Curtis bikes to and from school everyday.  Here is the outside of our townhouse.  It is in a complex of about 200 townhomes and they are all different colors and sizes.  I quite like our brick color.

 

This is our livingroom/kitchen when you walk in.  To the left the big cabinets are our "pantry" since apparently pantries are not a big thing back East. (Thank you Lowes...)  We like our house but there are some definite quirks.  Besides no pantry, there are no overhead lights in any of the rooms.  You have to plug lamps into outlets and that is what the light switch turns on.  It is still taking us some time to get used to the idea of it all.

 

 This little cubicle here is the kitchen.  Don't blink, you'll miss it. Don't worry, we do have a fridge you just can't see it in the picture.

This is one of my favorite things about our place- our backyard view! It is beautiful.  It is like having the forest 5 feet from our porch. So pretty.  (The only downside is constant leaves to sweep but I'll take it.)

 Now pretend we are walking up the stairs...This is our bedroom to the left of the staircase.  Closets are to the right.

 Here is the one and only bathroom.  I know you're all jealous of our 80's sparkly white and gold-flecked counter top.  We got lucky and have the same lovely design in the kitchen too.  Pro: there's only one bathroom to clean. Con: There's only one bathroom.  It's been a bit of a change to go from having three to only one but it works.  Quirk: In the middle of the tub about 4 feet up there is a towel rack.  Yes, in the shower.  Anyone have any ideas what that might be used for? (Besides for poor Curtis to hit his elbow on daily during his shower... so far that is the only use we've had for it.)

 

 Still upstairs to the right of the bathroom is Kaden's room.  This is a happy place where I currently spend about 8 hours a day with the boss.  We love our reclining chair and Kaden's swing (far right of the dresser) has been our saving grace because that boy doesn't like to sleep in his crib as much as we thought he would.  The big black thing to the left of the chair is our six foot bookcase which, as a teacher, I am proud to say is well stocked with years of carefully collected children's books that I intend on reading to Kaden.

 Now if we go back downstairs we'll go to the basement.  This is our office/workout room/craft room.  It is really nice to have a place for all of these things since in our other house these things took up two separate rooms and now have merged into one. 

  If you walk through the room of many uses you'll get to our storage room/garage/laundry room.  Yet another great blessing to have this since we lost our garage in our move and we have a lot more stuff than we realized even after downsizing, storing things with family and our moving sale.

 Well, there you have it! The house tour.  Hopefully you enjoyed getting to see it.  Now because most of you probably care more about seeing something cute than where we live, here are some pictures of Kaden.  I was thinking that it is kind of surreal that today is my actual "due date." Isn't that weird? Anyway, I was thinking how glad I am that we didn't have to wait an extra month to meet this little cutie.  Even though these pictures are now almost a month old I figured none of you had seen them yet so they are worthy of sharing.  This is Kaden's first faux-hawk :)  He's already grown so much.  This sleeper and the one in the next two pictures were one of three items (preemie sized) that fit him the first two weeks he was here.  Now he's outgrown them.   Don't get any ideas though- most of his "newborn" sized clothes are still too big on him.  There's a few that fit but not many.  At his last pediatrician's visit at two weeks he was a whopping 6 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 3/4" long so he's grown almost 2 inches taller in just a few weeks.  He was also 10th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.  Tall and skinny.

 This picture makes me laugh! He's so pint sized in his car seat.  This is the day we brought him home from the hospital on August 19, 2012.  When we left he weighed 5 lbs. 5 oz and by the next day at his 5 day pediatrcian visit he was already up to 5 lbs. 9 oz.  This kid has a teenage boy's appetite! Yikes...

 

 Our happy family of three :)