7 Months and Movin' On Up

 At 7 months Caden is now pulling up and standing with support.  He will take a few steps while holding on to objects.  He has mastered the crawl and can get anywhere within seconds.  He is discovering more and more of the house everyday, including the kitchen trash can and the kitties' water dish.

My best guess at his stats are:
19 lbs 12 oz
27 inches

He loves his solid foods and is starting in on the combined flavors.  We are just now starting to practice with a cup.

We had our first play-date with a little boy that we met at swim class.  He is 6 months older than Caden, but they were still able to interact.  It was a lot of fun.

His 2 new favorite tricks are to sit on the floor and roll the ball back and forth and blowing raspberries.  He is addicted to blowing raspberries and thinks that it is a language.  He uses them to get people's attention, even strangers in public (Nona taught him this during vacation - Thanks a lot Mom!)

We have a new nightly tradition of playing in the green bucket.  I fill it with water and let him splash around after dinner.  It helps get all the food off before we get into the bathtub!

We recently took a vacation to Lake Michigan, it really is beautiful!  The beaches and waves were just like the ocean, but we didn't have to deal with seaweed or salt water.  We were neck deep and could still see our toes, it was perfect! Caden loved it - of course - he is my little water baby.

Lake Michigan

Tuckered out after a long day at the beach

Breakfast and a bath on the porch?!?  It must be vacation!!!

Picking blueberries - YUM!

Nursery Pictures!

The added excitement and exercise of swim lessons has led to longer afternoon naps - Praise The Lord!  He'll sleep for around an hour and a half on most days.  In turn, I have a little more time to get a few projects done around the house, and one of the first on the list was to finish the nursery.  Here are some pics of the, almost final product (I'm sure I'll add some throw pillows and other items here and there).

Changing table and glider

The art piece above the bed was one of the last ones I completed

Having a book shower was a wonderful idea, look at the amount of books that we have!

That picture on the wall adjacent to the crib is actually a puzzle.  I didn't intend to put the puzzle on the wall, but since it was completed at 11:30 pm on December 27th (5 mere hours before I went into labor), and the color scheme was a perfect match, I decided that it needed to be in there.  I must have been nesting when I decided to stay up so late finishing that darn puzzle!!!

Close-up of fabric

Close-up of art

One of Caden's favorite things to do, pull books off the shelf and push them around the room

Yes,that's him pulling up on the crib and I have caught him chewing on it a time or two already too!

Splish Splash!

We enrolled Caden in Mommy and Me swim lessons this summer.  I wanted to make sure to get him acquainted with the water at a young age so that he doesn't develop the fear and dislike of having it in his face.  He did wonderfully, better than I even expected.  We even made a couple of new friends during the process.

As a former swim instructor, one of my main objectives was to teach him to swim to the wall and to hold on to the wall for support.  He started to get the concept and had the strength to hold himself up without support (although I was still hesitant to do so!).

Not the best quality, but look at how relaxed he is and how well he floats.  

SWIM!  SWIM!

Grin and Bear It

Here is a picture of his grin - complete with first teeth.  His second tooth came in just 3 days after his first one, so they are pretty close in size.

Here are a couple of videos of Caden crawling, sometimes hands-knee, other times (when he wants to get somewhere FAST) he'll army crawl.  He has now started to get into the bear crawl position, strengthening those leg muscles!

Today's Dish

This blog is generally used for providing updates of our son, BUT we have a recipe that is so wonderful I feel it would be a disservice not to share.  In all fairness, we wouldn't have this recipe if it weren't for Caden; a girlfriend of mine made this for us sometime shortly after Caden was born.
This has been our favorite go-to ever since.  We hope you enjoy!

Cheddar Bar B Q Meatloaf Minis
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg stove top stuffing mix  1 tsp garlic powder 3/4 cup bbq sauce
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese


Heat oven to 375.  Mix meat, stuffing mix, 1 cup of water and garlic powder. Press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray. Make an indentation in the center of each mini loaf with a spoon; fill with bbq sauce. Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Top with cheese, bake for 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Patriotic Pants

Here are a couple of pics from Caden's 4th of July.  Hope y'all had a good one!

I've never seen him so relaxed.

6 Months and Going Strong

Caden is now weighing in at 18 pounds 4 ounces (65%).  He is 26.5 inches long (55%).  This month he mastered the army crawl.  He will try to crawl conventionally, but only goes backwards.  If you put something interesting enough on the floor, he can be on it in a matter of seconds.  He is trying to push himself into sitting position, but he still can't get there 100%.

He started solid foods this month and has done pretty good with the spoon.  There are days that are much messier than others, the picture below is definitely one of the worst by far!  He has 2 bottom teeth coming in, but I haven't been able to get a picture of them. He is still on breast milk every 3 hours (give or take).

His sleep patterns have their ups and downs.  He will give me some hour and a half naps and there are nights where we only get up once to replace the paci and then up again at 5 to feed him (it's just not the standard).

 We've been having record heat in Ohio, so we spend our afternoon splashing in our backyard pool.