Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!!!

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hese are the photos that would have been on our Christmas card had we have gotten around to sending them out  So here you go– its virtual this year!

Tonight Adam and I were reflecting on how truly blessed we are.  We have the love of Jesus Christ, a precious little boy, tons of wonderful family and friends, and a thriving business.  As we work and work and parenting and relationships it is easy to think that we have in some way earned all these wonderful things.  Christmas is a good reminder for me of my great need for God and the tremendous sacrifice he made by sending his only son to Earth in order to give me a way to connect with him.  Because no matter how good I am or how much I do it is absolutely impossible to live up to the standards of a perfectly holy God.  I am only able to have a relationship with God because Jesus came to Earth, lived a perfect life, and died in my place for sins I commit.  Through his death I am washed clean and able to live a new life.  Who would have thought that a tiny baby in a manger so many years ago could bring new life to a mom and wife in 2010?!  This is the best gift I have ever received, and I mean that genuinely. It is a gift that has changed the course of my life in dramatic ways and has given me purpose and meaning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My little monkey boy

I was outside working on a project in the garage (pictures to come!) when I looked over to see Caden sitting on Adam’s bike bobbling his little head like he does in his rocking chair to make it move.  Oh boy!  I took him down and he did it again just scaling it like he’d done it a thousand times.  He is such a climber its scary!  His head doesn’t even reach the crossbar for goodness sakes!

Santa Terrorizes Caden :)

Yesterday morning Adam and I took Caden to Baybrook Mall to get his picture taken with Santa.  We were there all of 15 minutes when we found out the line was approximately 3 hours long in the middle of which Santa would take an hour lunch break.  Not a chance that Caden (or Adam) would make it in line for 3 hours!!!  We decided that Santa was overrated anyway and left.

Today Liz mentioned to me that Santa was down at the Festival of Lights in Dickinson.  Liz is a master of hunting down things that can’t be found or done.  She found me a discontinued belt from White House Black Market after Caden threw my first one away and some how she found a place that had no line for Santa on the 21st of December!…she’s good to keep around  We decided to give it a try and I’m glad we did.  Grandma Denise came with us and we got there a few minutes before it opened.  We waited maybe 5 minutes in the Santa line and then enjoyed the rest of the festival after Caden finally calmed down again.  Santa was okay as long as Caden was sitting in Aunt Liz’s lap.  As soon as she left the sleigh so I could take a photo he freaked out.  I grabbed the prize photo and we rescued the poor kid.  It was possibly the worst 3 seconds of his life  Aunt Liz made up for her betrayal with a candy cane and things got better after that  Despite having my house decorated and all my presents wrapped under the tree I think tonight was the first time I really felt in a holiday mood.  It was a great evening.

The money shot

I love this one…Liz fleeing the scene and the photographer trying in vain to make Caden smile

Like I said he eventually calmed down.  Doesn’t he look like a little boy in this one!?!  What happened to my baby?

A photo with my little man

Caden and Grandma Denise

Aunt Liz making him laugh

They had a cookie decorating hut.  I almost passed it up because I figured he was too young.  I’m glad I didn’t!!!  It was his favorite part of the whole night.  I find myself constantly surprised by how much Caden can do and how fast he is learning!

At first he is slightly unsure…

It didn’t take him long to catch on!  He is so big!

Cookie decorating is serious business.

Finally, he ran over to this bench and climbed up and down and up and down.  Never mind the hundreds of thousands of lights, all the kid needs is a bench

Thanks for looking!  Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Uh-oh skettios

Yes Caden is try to say uh-oh spaghetti-o.   My Dad got him saying it  That is exactly what I was thinking when I started to hear water running in the laundry room.  Unexplained running water is never good.  I ran in to find Caden standing on a laundry basket clapping his hands.  He managed to turn on the washer and start it filling with water.  He was so proud of himself!

We got a new front-loading washer when we moved and he is loves watching the clothes spin around through the window in the front and he helps me move the clothes between the washer and dryer.  I guess it was only a matter of time considering his level of obsession.  Turning it on involves holding down the power button, spinning the selection wheel, and then pressing the start button.  Another door that I need to make sure always stays shut!  It is all over when he learns to open doors!!!

Here is a pic of him playing in the dryer a few weeks ago.  He LOVES the dryer.  He often throws a fit when I make him get out.  Unfortunately all I had was my iPhone but you can get the idea

No we didn’t drop off the face of the Earth…

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I have some older things I’ll put up but I thought I’d start with these videos from yesterday.  I realize that your visions of me as a perfect mom will now be shattered! Haha  Caden is generally a good natured little guy, but he definitely has his moments where he wants what he wants period.  He can be as stubborn as his Daddy  Unfortunately he is too young to reason with so forcing him to follow the rules requires lots of constant direction and redirection.  Really we don’t even have that many rules!  I’ve set the new house up so that all the living areas are Caden friendly and there is only one NOper room. Thankfully the doors all shut here so keeping him contained is much easier!  To give you an idea here are our most common nos.  Don’t climb on the piano and then walk across the keys.  Don’t play in the dogs water bowl and dump it all over the floor.  Don’t climb on Mommy’s desk and throw everything on the floor.  Don’t climb up the bookshelf.  Don’t play in the toilet. And don’t hit the dogs with sticks.  I’d say those are a daily occurrence.  Is he a boy or what?!?

Yesterday I was trying to get him to go down for his nap.  Naps and bedtime have been a huge battle this week for some reason.  Video one is about an hour into “naptime”.  In this case he was throwing a fit because he wanted to be allowed to leave his room.  I went in to check on him and he had climbed out of his crib.  This is just a tiny clip of Caden at his finest.  (*interruption: Caden don’t stick you camera in the dogs water…)

He repeated the crazy spinning along with rolling over the floor while screaming for another 30 minutes before I finally gave up on naptime.  He actually played happily the rest of the evening.  For some reason I decided to paint my bedroom that day and since Caden didn’t take a nap he was up all day helping (no one else was home!)  Thankfully all we ruined was an old pair of sweatpants.  By dinner time he was pooped.  This is a kid that wont sleep anywhere but his crib if that tells you how tired he was.  This video is him attempting to feed himself applesauce but his eyes were just too heavy.  He would not let me feed him. He had to do it himself!  Btw, the blue mark on his forehead is sharpie he helped himself to when he crawled up onto my desk.  Not sure how I’m going to get that out

And finally I’ll end this post with a little story from this morning.  I walked into Caden’s bathroom to find holding the plastic toilet bolt cover like a cup, with his arms wet up to his elbows making a satisfied aahhh drinking sound.  Draw your own conclusions…EEEWWWW.  Thats what I get for not checking to make sure the bathroom door clicked shut!