TEN Months

On August 12th Caden was TEN months old. (We are now on the verge of ELEVEN months - so I wanted to at least post SOMETHING before that happened!) At 10 months Caden is such a joy. He is moving everywhere, into everything, crawling like a CHAMPION (he is like a little lightening bolt!) He can cruise all over the place using anything even somewhat sturdy and loves the ability to be mobile.

He also LOVES to eat. In fact, Grandfather jokes when we go out to Sunday night dinners that from the moment he sits down to the moment he leaves he is eating... which isn't quite true... I think it has more to do with the fact that since he is self feeding only about 50% of what he eats ACTUALLY makes it into his mouth - haha (waiters LOVE us)! His current favorite foods are green beans, broccoli, black eyed peas, bananas, baby Gerber cheetos, and of course, WATERMELON. He is wearing a few 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes. We are still doing cloth and really still like it. Another new found form of entertainment during the 10th month has been the television. The only show that he will watch is one specific episode of Barney - Barney Sing and Dance - really only because he likes the music. He LOVES it.

He LOVES Chloe - though now that he is mobile she doesn't love him quite as much. Every morning when we get up we get good morning hugs and kisses (SO AMAZING) and then he wants to love on Chloe. This morning ritual is becomming a favorite of mine.

Also this month BATH TIME has become his and daddy's special time. Chris bathes him and they play and laugh, and mommy stays out of it - which is good for all involved. :)

He is honestly such a loving kid - we are amazingly blessed.

AMAZING and CRAZY July.

This month has been a whirlwind but an AMAZING whirlwind, I must say. We are blessed to have the summers off together, with Chris and I both working in education, it is without doubt one of the best parts of our jobs. We started off July going to Sevierville, TN (the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area) with my mom and our family for a week. We went out to eat, spent loads of time together as a family, and got to do some swimming. It was a really fun week.

Then we were home for a week and spent it resting and then left on Friday and had an amazing weekend with our AMAZING friends, Matt and Claire. We got to visit and had lots of fun playing and visiting with them. They are so so special to us.

We were really sad to leave them. But it was on to the next leg of our journey, which was Indian Harbor, Florida with my dad and Pat.

Now that we are home again, we are T-I-R-E-D. But loving home, and still, even in this whirlwind of July loving all of us being together. :)

EIGHT months!

Check out our BIG man. Holy moly. On June 12th Caden turned 8 months old. Now that he is 8 months there is SO much that he is doing. He is smiling, laughing, and talking (or ooohing and ahhing up a storm). He also said his VERY first word this month. We were at dinner and he dropped something and said "Uhhhh ohhh!" It was SO cute. He is also doing precious little things like playing peek-a-boo and saying "A booo". He is eating LOTS of different things. Baby yogurt in the mornings with oatmeal... fruits (like apples, bananas, pears, peaches, blueberries, etc) at lunch time. And meats and vegetables for dinner (like apples with chicken, turkey and rice, mixed vegetables, squash, carrots, etc). He LOVES them.
He sits completely on his own and is like THISCLOSE to standing up completely on his own. Just this week he has started to make a crawling movement - but the only problem is that we are going BACKWARDS. He has managed to get himself stuck in under the sofa and the china cabinet just this week. He is also SOOOOO smiley. As soon as the camera comes out he is all smiles - which makes photo ops a lot easier.

I am not sure how much he weighs yet - I will have Christopher weigh him tomorrow and I'll give you an update. He is wearing some 6-9 month clothes, mainly 9 months, and some 12 months (just because they are cute and he'll have room to grow). It is crazy to see him standing beside of the rhino that he used to not be anywhere near as big as. He is also taking some steps while holding onto our hands and can EASILY pull himself to standing if he has you there to help him.

One of the very cutest relationships to watch develop has been the one between Caden and Chloe. He LOVES her. And she loves him.... most of the time. :) They are so cute together.

They sit in the floor and Caden pets her while Chloe licks him. SO precious. I sure do love them both.

Bye Bye Blanket (Swaddle Blanket – that is)

For any of you that know us well, you know that from day one, Caden was a swaddled baby. At first this was by force. He was jaundiced when he came home from the hospital (which was both sad and really scary) and because of that he had to be on a bili blanket for the first three days. In case you don’t know (like I didn’t) a bili blanket is a paddle that lights up and provides UV rays on a flexible paddle that wraps around the baby’s skin. This way they can get rid of the bilirubin in their skin and become unjaundiced. Because of the bili blanket – he had to be wrapped up like a little baby burrito ALL.OF.THE.TIME. He didn’t seem to mind it, but it made me so so sad. However, from that, it became that the only way Mr. Caden liked to sleep was in a swaddle.

For the first few months we would use the receiving blankets to swaddle him, like we had been shown in the hospital… and that worked well UNTIL he became able to flail his little arms around – and then we were constantly REswaddling him as the night went on. Then, when he was about two months old – we came across the BEST invention we had found so far – the SwaddleMe Blankets that are made JUST for swaddling. He loved it. We loved it. It was perfect. It was tight enough to make him feel secure but easy enough to use that any of our sitters could do it. We were hooked – and he would snooze away.

But it comes to a point where you start thinking… HOW long is my baby going to be swaddled?! You begin to panic and think – should I stop this? What if he doesn’t EVER want to stop being swaddled?! What if he is 19 and in his college dorm room asking his roommate to Velcro him in for the night (I know it sounds crazy – but I’d be lying if I told you I had never had the thought). So Chris and I decided, come summer, we were going to say BYE BYE to the swaddle. Even if it was hard. Even if he cried. Even if it took nights and nights without sleep – we were going to help him transition OUT OF THE SWADDLE.

So one day, during his nap, I put him down without his blanket – and he cried (oh man did he cry) for over an hour. And I just let him. I went back in and shhhhed him and comforted him. That night, when Chris put him down, he cried for about five minutes. And now, over two weeks later, he goes down every nap and every night without being swaddled and sleeps (blissfully) through the night. FABULOUS.

Happy Anniversary to one amazing man.

Now, this may be hard for some of you to believe - but there are times that I am NOT the easiest person to live with. In fact, if I had to live with me, there are many times that I would end up being REALLY frustrated (lol). However, today is a day that is all about giving praise to an AMAZING God whose plan (and sense of humor) is wonderful. Today, June 21st, is our anniversary.

God has (beyond) blessed me with a man who is loving, caring, patient, Godly, loyal, supportive, humble, strong, and perfect (or at least perfectly made for me). Though it has only been three years - and not all of it has been easy - Christopher has been there every step of the way.

From silly flirtation to meaningful conversations to knowing he is the one I want to talk to no matter how my day is going. He's been there.

From Appalachian to Western Carolina. From undergrad to graduate school. From rivalry to being our biggest fans. He's been there.


No matter where we are... From Hickory to Gastonia to Hickory again (and into my mom's house - where every newly married couple wants to live), to a house of our very own. He's been there.

From families of our own to a family of two to a family of 3 (chloe has to count) to our family of 4. He's been there.

He has been there. And I am thankful. Happy anniversary my love - here is to all of the years to come.

Epic fail. Seven months?

So... you are probably wondering where in the world I have been. With as crazy as our lives have been - there are times that I am left wondering the same thing. Though in the past I haven't been the most reliable blogger - I would at least pop in once a month and give you guys the update - HOWEVER, as you can see from looking at the last post, and looking at the ticker up above - we COMPLETELY missed the SEVEN month post! This makes me sad, because Caden is probably the most fun now that he has ever been! He is truly SUCH a delight (though at 5am I might be singing a slightly different tune). I can promise you that on June 12 we WILL be doing a 8 month update, so we will just switch that to a 7/8 combo and give you all of the goods. But for now, a few pictures to tide you over. :)

The 7th month has led to LOTS of smiles and LOTS of laughs. We love it.

I vividly remember when this thing looked HUGE beside of him. Holy cow.

Sweet Caden on an afternoon walk. SO much love.

SIX months.

Okay - insert mini mommy breakdown here. My baby is six months old. Now, many of you would say that six months is still little so why the freakout. But in visiting with Bailey - Caden's newest little cousin and seeing her at only five weeks old I could have cried. Wait a minute - wasn't I just on maternity? Wasn't I just freaking out over Caden eating every three hours and wondering if he was getting enough food and dealing with little baby gas... wasn't that me? No, now Caden is the big man on campus (or in our case on the blanket) taking over the thing and towering over Bailey!

I know that Caden used to be this little - but suddenly it is hard to remember. Which makes me sad. All of that said, Caden is six months old. At six months I find that we are suddenly doing ALL kinds of things that I can't even begin to explain. Allow my photos to tell the story.

In month six we started eating some solid foods - starting with cereal and moving into bananas, sweet potatoes, and apples. He LOVES it. :) And is doing GREAT.

I have really found that in the past month he has really started to LOVE his different toys. Watching him interact with all of them and really start to enjoy them.

And... we're sitting on our own! I love to sit in the floor (or the grass) and play with things and check out the world. Still not quite sure what to do when I fall over - but all in all I am liking the freedom of sitting. And last but not least is one of the biggest (and fussiest) things that has gone on this month is that we have TEETH. The first tooth came through about 2 weeks ago, quickly followed by the one on the right this past Thursday. These suckers are SHARP! The consensus seems to be that he is eagerly waiting for all of the yummy foods he can't have yet. haha.

Other basic stats are...

Weight:

• At the last doctor's appointment he was 17lbs. We go for his 6 month appointment on May 3rd so we'll update then. :)

Length:

• LONG enough to almost hang off the end of his carseat... and to look like the jolly green giant beside of Bailey but again, no formal length until we have the 6th month apt.

Clothes:

• Little man is wearing mainly 6 month clothes (go figure) with some 6-9 month clothes mixed in there.

Neat traits about Caden:

• He has such a precious little personality. He is completely in love with both of us. He smiles and talks and laughs and just loves on anyone who will let him. We say over and over again that he is so incredible and that if we were to have another he/she would/will probably be a terror. lol.


• He LOVE LOVE LOVES to stand. Like for real, this kid is going to start walking by next months post (just kidding but you get the point).


• His favorite toy of the moment is his new Fisher Price Puppy - and our own sweet puppy - Chloe. lol.


• Of the food we've tried, I'm pretty sure bananas are the favorite.


• He is quite the social man. He even already has some best friends that he loves to play with. Most recently him and his little friend Connor have had MANY fun adventures!

Overall life with him is a blessing. Every day is a joy. And we have never loved our family any more than we do at this moment.

It's not just coupons...

I have an Easter Bunny example of how sometimes "couponing" is not JUST about coupons. We were pondering what could come in Caden's very first Easter basket - and I got a coupon for a few different Fisher Price toys, with one of them being the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Puppy. Well we knew ALL to well about this little guy - because Zelina had one while she was growing up and LOOOOOVED it.

So off I went to Babies R Us, because I also had a $5 off rewards coupon... thinking that I was making the best choice. At Babies R Us it was $24.99 - so with the $5 Fisher Price coupon and the $5 off rewards card - it was $14.99. Not bad. So I left feeling pretty good about myself. UNTIL, I saw that the puppy was on sale right next door at Target for $15.09. Add to that the $5 coupon, and an in store 20% off Fisher Price toys coupon - and the Easter puppy was ONLY $7.09! So, new couponers... keep in mind that MUCH more importantly than having coupons is WATCHING THE SALES. It can save you LOTS of money. :) And even more importanly than that - Caden' LOOOOVES him.

Best Deals This Week (and last)

So... my guess is you are probably looking at this and thinking - who in the world needs THAT much shampoo?! Well, let me tell you first that for any of you who watched TLC's Extreme Couponing - I am NOT turning into the lady that bought 60+ things of mustard just because they were free (as I told Kelly today - I don't really even LIKE mustard - haha). First of all - these are the brands that I use normally (nothing like scoring on an amazing sale on things that you already LOVE) - the different types of Herbal Essence are because of the whole "you're supposed to change your shampoo every 3 months... blah blah blah" thing that I have heard before - plus I like having the different smells. And I also love Aussie hair spray. However, I want you to know that I am aware that this seems like a lot of shampoo - and it is. But let me give you the breakdown of why.

This week (4/3 - 4/9) at CVS - Herbal Essence and Aussie products were on sale 2 for $5.49.Normally they are anywhere from 3.99 to 5.49 each - so this on it's on wasn't a bad deal. But it gets better. On Monday of this week I had my first trial and error of using a coupon clipping service to get coupons we don't have here. I used www.couponsthingsbydede.com and ordered 8 Buy1Get1Free coupons for Herbal Essence products (which cost $1.60 shipped) and 6 coupons for $1.00 off 2 Herbal Essence/Aussie products (which cost $0.60 shipped). Once I got the coupons on Friday I was eager to see if this was going to work as well as I thought it was.

CVS was also running an Extra Care Bucks Special where you get $10 ECB if you spend $30. So this morning I went to CVS and this was the breakdown:

2 Aussie Hair Spray (originally $5.49 each)

6 Herbal Essence Spampoos (originally $3.99 each)

2 Herbal Essence Conditioners (originally $3.99 each)

2 Herbal Essence Scrunching Gels (originally $4.59 each)

====================

This WOULD have cost me (before tax): $52.08

I actually SPENT (after tax): $13.12

+ Cost of coupons from service = $2.20

Coupons I used:

6 B1G1 Herbal Essence/Aussie Products

6 $1.00 off Two Herbal Essence/Aussie Products

======================

My TOTAL expense = $15.32

Extra Care Bucks Earned = $10.00

TOTAL SPENT: $5.32

That is a 90% savings. Each item was ONLY 44 cents a piece. CRAZY.

Overall, I say again, it is WORTH it to watch the sales - and I must say, for my first time using a couponing service - I think it was certainly worth the little bit of money that I spent. Overall, I am REALLY loving this CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY "dip" into the shallow end of the coupon pool. :)

Growing Growing Growing

Friday night I went to Baby Group (formerly known as Breastfeeding support - but alas I am no longer breastfeeding so I have renamed it) and we weighed Caden.

At 5 months and 2 weeks he weighs....... 16.15 pounds. According to the chart he is in the 35% for weight. He sure is growing. I feel like he gets taller and taller each day.

As I said before he wants nothing to do with sitting down - he is ready to stand thank.you.very.much. Him and Chloe are becoming best friends fast. Chloe isn't going to know what hit her once he is on the move. Daddy is already encouraging some bad habits - like riding Chloe like a horse!

What are we ever going to do with those boys Chloe?!?

COUPONING. phew.

Couponing. Man. This is quite possibly the hardest thing I have done in a long time. Typically, when I decide I want to do something I am able to pick it up fairly quickly. Now, don't get me wrong. Mostly this is because I choose to try new things that I think I will be good at... I am not like attempting to run a 10k. So, in careful scrutiny of our budget (which could be - and possibly will be a whole different post) I decided that I could start couponing... so I tried. AND... failed. Now, you may think how can one FAIL at couponing - but please remember, we are the couple who FAILED at our first church nursery experience. Hahaha. So from the struggle, and the collecting of coupons that started February 20th - I feel that I have had my first really successful week. As I am writing this Chris proclaims "I just LOVE how proud of yourself you are! Hahaha" Followed by some smart comment about my humility; however, this is something that I am proud of. I feel like I have entered into some secret world where the stores PAY YOU to shop. Yes, you read that right. So below is a breakdown of what we got, what we paid, and MOST importantly, what we saved! :)

RITE AID:

6 American Greetings cards - FREE

TOTAL Spent at Rite Aid: Actually this is the deal where THEY PAID ME $0.12 to buy the cards. What a great deal!

HARRIS TEETER:

Smart Balance Skim Milk - Original cost $2.99

FREE (HT Double Coupons - $1.50 coupon doubled = $3)

Philadelphia Cooking Cream - Original cost $2.99

FREE (HT Double Coupons - $1.50 coupon doubled = $3)

JELLO Temptations - Original cost $2.99

$0.99 (HT Double Coupons - $1.00 coupon doubled = $2)

2 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste - $3.39

$0.39 each (HT Double Coupons - $1.50 coupon doubled = $3)

TOTAL Spent at Harris Teeter: $1.08 + $1.12 = $2.20

CVS:

3 bottles of Listerine - Sale 5/$5

$1 (Coupon for $2 off 2 Listerine products)

2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste

$2 - In hind sight I would not have purchased these - but the lady said you had to buy all 5 to get the deal - which was actually not accurate - she was new and just thought it was.

TOTAL Spent at CVS: $3.40

=================

Would have cost: $29.08

TOTAL SAVED: $23.60 (81.2% savings!)

GRAND TOTAL: $3.40 + $2.20 - $0.12 = ONLY $5.48

So in closing - it is exhausting - it takes a. LOT. OF. PATIENCE. But, in the end, today when I walked out of Rite Aid with those 6 cards - it was all worth it. Look out couponing world. Here I come.

5 months!

FIVE MONTHS! When did this happen!??! Caden appears to be as confused as I am... haha.

Life in our home is as crazy as ever. At five months Caden is a bundle of life and energy. His favorite activities currently consist of drooling, smiling, being absolutely adorable, and grabbing ANYTHING he can get his hands on (recently long hair and earrings have been added to the list). Loves laying in the floor and "talking" to random objects that are around. He is liking sitting up with support (we are still working on balance) and LOVES to look at anyone and everyone. :)

He is a mess. Such a fun personality this little one has. And seriously, not to brag, but he is The. Best. Baby. Now... don't confuse this with us being great parents - we are often "trial and error" parents (as my lovely friend Kelly calls it - and it is SO FITTING) - but he is SO good natured. God truly blessed us. He is happy 90% of the time. He is just a blessing.

Some stats - As for weight, we won't have an updated weight until BF support next week (which is kind of ironic - since we are going and we aren't actually breastfeeding anymore) but I know he is growing! I can tell in all kinds of ways - carrying him in his carrier is harder and harder - his clothes are bigger and bigger (we are now wearing FEW 3-6 months, Mostly 6 month, and FEW 6-9 month clothes) - and everyone is commenting on his cute little cheeks! Hahaha.

He is still sleeping and napping great. Somehow in the midst of these naps I still can't manage to get all of my life together - but that is for another post. Spit up is still an issue... but we're making it. :)