15 Months!

It's hard to believe! Where does time go?! Looking back at last year's Christmas pictures, he was so little - 3 months! They grow and change so rapidly at this age!

I'm not sure where to begin or what all to include.

He's a sponge with sign language! He's constantly picking up new signs, mostly animal signs - which can be really difficult! He has his own version of just about everything. So far he knows

more, please, thank you, food, finish, I Love You (which looks like the manual "L"), deer, dog, fish, bird, bear, cat (looks like his version of thank you), dad (which for some reason is the same as deer???), mom (pointer finger to the mouth), tree (hard to distinguish between tree and fish) and today I saw him sign monkey. I love watching him learn and I love that he's able to communicate some of his desires! I can ask him if he's hungry and get a yes or no by whether he signs food or not. I can ask him if he wants more or if he's "finished, all done." It's fun to see people's amazement at his knowledge and use of sign language! I'm so thankful we have this language!

He's a very busy child; not hyper, just in his own world and constantly doing something. Which means he does NOT like long car rides! We drove to Muskegon (2 1/2 hrs) yesterday and listened to him scream and cry for probably a total of an hour. Not fun.:/

He's very cuddly, and of course, mommy loves this!!!:) But he doesn't sit in our laps for long!

We made huge progress two nights ago when Corey put him to bed and he went without crying! We started taking turns putting him to bed recently because he would scream something awful when dada put him to bed. It was successful again tonight. About broke my heart though as he realized I would not be putting him to bed and in dada's arms his lower lip came out and he wimpered and then you could visibly see on his face, "okay, I can do this," and he'd "suck it up" and stop whimpering. He did this about three times, and it was just heart breaking to watch! But he needs to be okay with someone other than mama! Especially with another one on the way!

He's our little social butterfly. He has started waving at everyone when we're out in public. And he will always grace people with his smile.

He's quite the chatterbox - we love to listen to his version of talking!:)

He's just started figuring out how to stand up on his own without crawling over to the nearest object to use in the process.

We are immensely enjoying this stage he's in. It seems like life with a child keeps getting easier as he becomes more flexible.

We love him to death and can't imagine life without him! He's such a blessing and a gift! Being a mother is the best thing on this earth!:)

Christmas Weekend

Here are just a couple more pics of the rest of our time at Corey's parents. We had a lovely stay! We even got out by ourselves again, after we put Caedmon to bed, and visited some friends. I'm always sad when Christmas is all over. There's just something about the holidays at the end of the year that feel so cozy and...I don't know how to explain it. I love it! Perhaps it's the looking forward to that's the most fun!

Taking a ride on Grandma's walkerGetting some fresh air
Loving the slide!
Tuckered out from the week's excitement

Christmas Day

The first group of family came around around noon or so. We had hors d'oeuvres for lunch...and throughout the rest of the day. Caedmon went to bed before the gift opening began. Yeah, we're kind of sticklers when it comes to our routine. Caedmon's much happier when his routine is followed!:) So he missed out on the first round. But we let him open a gift later on before the second round of family came over. He has really enjoyed his lego set - well, he enjoys when others build and he knocks down!:) As more family came and more presents were opened, this time he was eating supper! We just couldn't get it right! He did manage to open the rest of his gifts. It was nicely spread out for him so he wasn't so overwhelmed or overstimulated!

Just hangin' out

Enjoying quality time with Papa

Pretty strong little guy!

Papa and Nanna are in on the fun!

Playing with some of the cousins

Christmas Morning - In Memory of Grandma D.

Christmas morning was definitely low key! Caedmon doesn't yet know what's going on and other family would be coming later on in the morning and afternoon, so there was no hurry to open presents. Corey and his dad headed out to get a few items and Caedmon and I sat down to breakfast at the kitchen bar.

I decided at some point earlier in the week that I really wanted my Grandma's cinnamon yeast rolls, but I'd never made them before. I wanted them bad enough that I decided to make an attempt at it. I've not been very successful in making yeasty type breads in the past, so I was a little nervous.

I called my Grandpa and got the recipe the day before Christmas Eve and knew I'd have to make them that day since we were leaving the next. It was definitely an all day affair and quite the process - they will only be made on special occassions!:)

I finished the whole process late that night and tentitively took a bite out of a roll... SUCCESS!!!:) I was sooo excited! They tasted like the rolls I remember my Grandma and mom making!

So, all that to say, Caedmon and I enjoyed a breakfast of Grandma's cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning - and they were a hit with the little man!:)

A Date!!!

I don't have any pictures for this blog, but I have tell about our first date since Caedmon was born! Yes, we actually went out on a date!!! Without Caedmon!!!:) Some friends have been encouraging us to leave Caedmon with them and get away and we finally took them up on their offer, after they named a specific date and time for us!:) Needed the push!

We dropped him off and only the father was at home at the time, which I thought might be an issue since their little girl wasn't there to possibly distract Caedmon. But Caedmon walked right on in and went straight to their piano and began playing. So we snuck out right away!

We went to our favorite coffee shop in town which recently started staying open later and serving pizza. Right after we got there, Corey presented me with what I thought was a card in it's Hallmark bag, but it turned out to be a gift certificate for a jewelry store!!! Wow!! Totally wasn't expecting this! He had tried to pick out a piece of jewelry for me - I've been wanting a mother's pendant - but after realizing the bazillion choices he'd have to make, he just got the gift certificate instead. On our way up to his parents the next day, we stopped in Gaylord and I picked out my pendant and ordered it! I'm really excited to get it!

We had a lovely time out. We stayed our for an hour and a half and then got going, a little worried that Caedmon may have cried the whole time, and he can be very hard to calm down with mom or dad around...specifically mom. So we were more worried for our friends than for him!

We arrived at their house and walked in and the first thing I heard was absolutely nothing. I couldn't see anyone from the door we came in, but I was thinking I'd hear crying...I didn't!! In fact, he didn't cry at all and they said he didn't seem to even notice we were gone!! YAY!!! A success and now we can do it again and feel more comfortable!!!

He's growing up and adapting more easily and it's wonderful!:)

Christmas Eve Morning

We haven't yet started our own family tradition for Christmas. About the only tradition we have is to go pick out a tree and cut it down ourselves. Corey and I have never bought gifts for each other and Caedmon is still too young to know what's going on. But I got him a couple of things this year and decided we'd let him open them Christmas Eve morning before we headed up to Corey's parents' house.
I'm glad I only got him two things, since he could have cared less about the second gift after opening the first. And his first give was just an ornament, more for me at this point than him I suppose, but he sure did seem to like it!:) I wanted to find an ornament that would be significant of something in his life this year and decided on a book since that is his love! I found The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle in a cute ornament! The other gift was a book I knew he'd love since it had real life pictures of deer in it!:)

He found them!:)

Hmm, now what to do?

Gettin' the hang of it...

Fascinated by his ornament

His book, and his right hand is signing "bird" -

his version of it anyway -

it's supposed to be up by the mouth...

A Trip to the Library

I was desperately trying to come up with a place in our tiny town that I could take a one year old and let him get down and run around, just to get him, and me, out of the house! I came up with the library. Well, guess we couldn't exactly run around, but he could look at books, which he loves to do and it was a change of scenery!

We enjoyed our outing, but only for about a half hour. There was too much to look at to just enjoy sitting and looking at the one shelf of board books! I managed to keep him from pulling everything off their shelves, and we cleaned up our mess before we left, so hopefully the librarians won't dread seeing us come again!:)

He pointed to various things around the entire library

and signed one of his few known animal signs -

these days, there are a lot of deer and dogs around!:)

One book is never enough -

he'd prefer to empty off the whole shelf first

and then read one of the books strewn around him

Attempting to pull things off the shelf:)

Uh Oh...

...here we go...he's going to be climbing the bookshelves soon enough! Oh dear; not looking forward to visiting the emergency room! Hoping this won't be the case!

Hangin' Out

with the dada :)

Aquadoodle

Caedmon received a present from his little friend in town and we tried it out today. He scribbled for a short time, but soon found the box more interesting. I don't think he's quite ready for the fine motor skill stuff yet.

In the Kitchen

I was making cookie dough the other day and thought I'd put Caedmon on a chair next to me. Originally, I thought I'd let him "help," but I never even attempted that process...he's a little young yet for that. But he enjoyed playing with the water in the sink. And when I'd grated the zest from the orange and thought he might enjoy playing with it, it went right in his mouth and he actually ate the peel!

I peeled the orange for him and he ate the whole thing!

He's actually not bad at cleaning up with a washcloth!:)

A Friend Came to Play!

Ben made the trip up again - we're always glad to see a friend from down state! He's always been great with Caedmon and Caedmon loves him. Ben actually brought his snow clothes and we got out and got some fresh air! Caedmon always seems a little indifferent to being outside, but I think he has a good time. He definitely enjoyed getting all the attention for a few days!:)

He was doing a great job of walking in his boots and in the snow...

he didn't even cry when he slowly fell forward

and came up with snow on his nose.

And mommy had to get a picture before she rescued him.:/

He's signing deer - not the correct way to sign it;

he has his own version of ASL.

He's been a sponge with sign language.

He's loving animal signs right now!

And those are some difficult signs!

The Big Tub

Mommy finally got rid of the ducky bath tub. I know, he probably outgrew it long ago, but I figured it was saving us water by not having to fill up the whole tub. Now I need to get one of those rubber mats - he slips all over the place.

Unloading Groceries...

Not sure how he managed this one!

A Shopping Trip

We took a trip to TC to do some shopping last week. On the way home we stopped at Subway and enjoyed some lunch together. It was fun to hang out with the little man! He enjoyed eating some chips (a VERY rare occassion) and looking out the window. He DID eat some healthy food as well!:)

Santa Came to Town

Santa came to our village hall a couple Saturdays ago and I thought it'd be fun to take Caedmon. I knew he probably wouldn't like Santa too much, but it was a chance to get out into the community, and hey, 'tis the season.:)
He did NOT like Santa, but I was a cruel mom and put him on Santa's lap anyway, and then thought his reaction kind of funny. :/

But once a safe distance from Santa, he became quite the ham and entertained the small crowd. I discovered that day, after he'd been rather crabby and fussy that morning and then quickly changed to entertainment of the day at the village hall, that he was getting sick of being in the house! Cabin fever seems to hit even one year olds!

Oh Boy...

...the climbing begins! Yikes! Watch out! But looking cute as always! Okay, so perhaps I'm a biased mom!:)

A Trip to TC

Corey's step-mom had knee surgery in TC and we went to visit her as she was waking up from surgery. She was pretty funny to listen to as she was still pretty drugged.:) It was getting late when we left the hospital, so we ate at La Senorita's before making the trip back home. Here's Caedmon enjoying his tortilla.:)

Corey's B-day - Part 4 - Putting Up the Tree

The finale to the day was putting up the tree. Well, that was the end of Caedmon's day anyway. I did make a strawberry pie, which Corey enjoyed when he returned from bowling.
Caedmon enjoyed touching the tree and "helping." But once the lights and ornaments were up, the tree became off limits for him. He still tests those limits, but so far, nothing has been taken off or broken!