My Valentine's Gift to Corey

I wanted to do a special dinner with Corey for Valentine's day, but since our babysitters are few, I opted for a candle light dinner after Caedmon went to bed.

I bought what I thought was a good steak ( I thought the price pretty much meant it was good!:)) and he cooked the meat while I put together a few side dishes. We got Caedmon to bed and enjoyed our candle light dinner!

We had a lovely time, even if we couldn't go out!:)

My Valentine's Gift

I might get pictures posted one of these days when my friend e-mails them to me, but for now, I'll just share the story.

I've been going to the chiropractor for a few weeks now and once in awhile get a chair massage while I'm there, but five minutes is never long enough! The therapist told me about a deal she was running for Valentine's day and I told Corey what a wonderful idea that would be! Now, I wasn't really hinting, just thinking that a massage sounded a lot nicer than flowers or candy or anything else. My shoulders stay pretty tight these days. Now, we don't neccessarily do anything for Valentine's day, so it was mostly an off handed remark...

About a week later or so, he's on the phone making reservations at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa for a night at the resort, breakfast and a spa treatment (massage was among the choices)! Now, we have yet to leave Caedmon overnight and Corey could care less about a spa treatment, so he made the reservations for a night when my dear friend planned to be up here anyway!

Needless to say, we were extremely excited and had the best time!!! We spent the afternoon shopping, ate a delicious meal at Olive Garden and spent the evening exploring the resort, swimming, and enjoying the plush beds in our luxurious hotel room overlooking the bay and the city lights at night. Words don't do justice to the massage we experienced the next morning! It was heavenly! And we've both decided this will have to be an annual trip!

I am so thankful that Corey is such a sweetheart and decided I needed some time away. It was the longest I've been away from Caedmon, and mother and son faired just fine! Good to know, since we'll be apart when his brother or sister is born.

Thank you love for the wonderful gift! And thank you my friend for sharing it with me!:)

Caedmon's First Valentine

Caedmon received his first Valentine through the mail on Friday. Corey says to me, "so what are we going to do about this?" heehee

Well, Caedmon (via his mama:)) put together his own little Valentine and delivered it the next day.:)

Attempting to dump the contents (a few small goodies) before it's ever delivered:)

Reading with "Friends"

Caedmon likes to hand us his stuffed animals... thought this was adorable!:)

Working on Utensil Use

Caedmon enjoys sitting in my lap and eating with me, using the utensil himself. So I've been giving him utensils at supper time. Mostly he just plays with them; he'll try to use them for a little while, and then usually give up and go back to his hands. I'll be glad when he becomes more proficient with those spoons and forks.:)

24 Weeks

I'm feeling good these days. I enjoy my naps in the afternoon! Baby is quite active; more than I remember Caedmon being in the early stages. Caedmon is becoming more difficult to tote around, but he still loves to be held and I'd hate to miss out on that - it won't last forever!
I'm mentioning baby more and more to Caedmon - not sure if he really gets it yet, but he loves to find my belly button, which continues to become flatter!:)

A Crisp, Refreshing Walk

A week ago we decided to take a walk down the road and across the street to Lake Bellaire. We pulled Caedmon in his sled, but we had just experienced quite a warm up and for once the roads were clear, so it was quite a noisy trip!:) The exercise felt good as did the fresh air, which had cooled back down. We got to walk out on the lake a little. I did this a lot as a little kid and I miss things like ice skating and playing football and driving out on the lakes!

It was nice to spend time together outdoors!

The trek there...

Out on the ice

No idea what he was doing, but it was cute anyway:)

Me and the little guy out on the ice

The trek back

Such a big boy!:)

First Hair Cut

Yeah, I finally did it. I was really dragging my feet, but it kept getting into his eyes when the top would lose its curls after sleep or hats.:) Corey kept saying I needed to do it. And every time we went out in public, someone said something about his hair. One comment: "mama didn't comb your hair this morning, huh?" Gee thanks - just trying to keep the ears warm with a hat. And he's constantly mistaken for a girl, but his hair isn't really long enough for that - come on!

Thank goodness curly hair is forgiving - I have no idea how to cut hair, but it definitely didn't need to be straight!

And he's no longer wiping it from his eyes!:)

BeforeIt's amazing how long it really is!
I saved it all!:) I only cut the front and sides.
After:)

Caedmon and Church:)

Our church is in the very beginning stages of starting up and therefore we have no nursery. The first couple Sundays after moving up here, I spent my time trying to hold Caedmon and keep him happy, which lasted about half of the service. Then I had to take him out. It was so frustrating! I kept thinking that going to church was pointless if I had to spend the majority of my time in the basement with my son.

I finally had this great idea - lock Caedmon into the row with chairs on either end and bring books and toys for him to play with. It worked great! He didn't mind the limitation as long as he didn't have to sit in my lap for the duration. It has worked out great for us! A little while ago, another family started attending and left their young sons at home for the first few weeks they attended. The first week they brought their sons, a lady in our congregation ran downstairs and brought up a kids' picnic table with coloring books and puzzles and placed it in the back for them.

I love that this family feels comfortable coming with their sons and no one stresses over the little noise that's made!

One of the little boys enjoys coming over to our row and hanging out with Caedmon. I captured one of these sweet moments.