It's only just begun...

Kaden and friends up above. The twins are about a year and a half older, and have much fun figuring him out. Generally, they're getting the hang of "gentle" and have quit poking him the eye! What's much fun now is that Kaden is aware of them, and starting to try and join them in their play. We'll see how excited/tolerant they are when he's mobile enough to mess their stuff up!

And because I forgot to post it two weeks ago, here's Kaden at 5 months. He's now a bit more reachy, grabby, and generally more squirmy than ever before! Church is a bit less of a long reflective time and more of snatched prayers between bouncing him away from the hymnals.

Kaden's Christmas gift to us last week? TWO - yes, one and then another, TWO nights of 12 straight hours of sleep. We'll take 'em, because the rest of the time he's a bit more fussy about going to bed or being t-i-r-e-d in general. We're thinking a tooth or two might make an appearance soon.

And here's to 2009! May we all be blessed with health, happiness, and the courage to widen our circle of friends :)

Santa Baby

Here's Kaden figuring out how to open presents...



And try the gifts out...



You'd think he was confused all night!

But by Christmas morning, he got the hang of it:

Somehow, we missed the photos of Kaden eating the wrapping paper- generally, his favorite activity of the day. Maybe because we ran out of battery juice?! Here's a short take on how Christmas morning went:

Merry Christmas to all...

Three hours of wrapping, arranging and straightening up and I'm still in the Christmas mood. Must be the Spirit, eh?

While many folks have asked, I didn't really reflect a lot on this being Kaden's first Christmas. Until tonight, that is. I chased family off to bed early so I could start, um, FINISH my wrapping. Baby K woke up just after midnight, a tad hungry and really wet. Feeding him by the light of the tree was pretty neat. He watched the lights when he started, but soon drifted off. His little fingers were wrapped over my thumb, helping me hold the bottle. I can't help but think of next Christmas, and the one after that, and the next. Where will we be? Will he still be holding my hand? How big will those little fingers grow each year? I'm trying to fix this image, this feeling, in my mind. This is Peace.

7 Quick Takes

I'm totally stealing this from Aimee and I may have gotten the rules wrong, but here goes:

1. When I'm done with this, we're running out for more formula as the can is almost empty and I'm tempting fate the longer I wait...

2. While we're out, we may buy a tree. And lights. This seems like a good weekend for decorating, yes?

3. All Kaden wants for Christmas is post it notes. It's the only thing keeping him from typing with me right now, and entertained him for 20 minutes last night. Seriously- don't believe me?

See for yourself:

4. I SHOULD have taken pics of the piles o' laundry- I mean gifts. But I didn't. Maybe one of my sister in laws will save me and send a digital pic along when they open the box.

5. The only thing worse, possibly, than disappointing recycled wrapping is wrapping a young boy's stuff in this:

Look closely my friends, and you'll see the pretty flowers are actually whisky bottles. I ran out of regular paper midnight before the mailing deadline-- and used this stuff. I'm hoping they won't notice. I think they read this, though. Most likely, they'll post about how weird I am!

6. I agree with Aimee- Lindts chocolate is good stuff. Thanks to my Aunt Jeanne for introducing us to them. Actually, she introduced my mom, who was kind enough to share, and now they magically appear each Christmas...

7. I am running out of time, as the post its are no longer distracting the babe.

TTFN!

ps- is it me, or does the whisky paper look kinda pretty from a distance??

Eco-Cool... or not

So... every Christmas Jim and I try to figure out way(s) to simplify the madness and focus on the good stuff (which usually isn't stuff). It's a bit tricky when there's kids involved (13 neices/nephews). We honestly WANT to be revelant to their lives, but are a bit uncomfortable with the buying-lots-of-toys scenerio. Don't get me wrong, we succomb more often than not, but generally there's lots of thought and some teeth-gnashing trying to get a balance.

ANYWAY, one of the things we try to do is recycled wrapping when possible. We learned early on that newspapers- even the comics- fail to impress the under 4 set. In fact, most toddlers refused to acknowledge those boxes as a gift! So we've decorated grocery bags with stamps, painted and re-used old blueprint papers, etc.

This year, I thought we hit a real winner. We bought all the kids new ____ (ha! you didn't think I'd write BEFORE the 25th, didya?). And then decided to 'wrap' the presents in pillowcases specially designed for each child. Well, the crafting part didn't happen... but we did scour a few thrift stores looking for kid designed cases in good condition! We get home and have much fun, ahem, assembling the gifts one by one, then putting each into a 'family' pile. Then I turned around and discovered that....

very cool, very recycled, very fun piles of gifts inside pillowcases...

mostly just look like laundry. (sigh)

Sometimes I wonder what the assorted little ones think when they get boxes from us...

Rolling right along...

I've written so many blog entries in my head, it's amazing to log on and see... none of them. Hmm. Perhaps because I'm stuck between a writing deadline on one side and a broken sewing maching/mailing-gift-deadline on the other?

Kaden News: he's rolled over TWICE this week. Very concentrated effort, so it's not happening all the time or quickly, but definitely a milestone ;) He's been a little outta sorts this week too- perhaps he caught a bit of a cold.

And with all those posts in my head... none of them are rising to the top. So Goodnight, Gracie.

Happiest Baby Award

start 'em young...

Earlier this week, we had the 4 month "well baby" checkup for Kaden. He had been a little fussy, and we weren't sure if he caught something up north (he had lots of choices: head cold, sinus infection or stomach flu). Or maybe it was just that we strapped the poor kid into his car seat for three. straight. days. with over 8 hours on the road each day? Hard to tell. I was a tad nervous, in any case. He was a bit fussy with the nurse, and mostly stared at the doctor. Then we lay him down on his back for the exam, and... watch out! He starts kicking, and squealing, and laughing! The doc says, and I am not making this up, "Well, you win the happiest baby of the day award." You could hear some other kid screaming away down the hall, but not our boy. Happy baby, indeed! There was no certificate or anything, but I was pretty darn proud. As I type this though, I'm realizing our appt. was at 8:30 am... but still, he won!

Of course, that was also BEFORE he got the vac shots. We only had two given, instead of the recommended 8. (Yes, eight!) Good thing, too, because he's a tad grumpy/clingy/fussy and generally unhappy the last 2 days. But in spurts, so it's doable. Well, mostly doable because Mom's helping out (thanks!). Jim's out of town at a youth minister conference. Before you think he got the easy end out, know that it's in CLEVELAND, he's not fully recovered from the stomach flu, and there's some kind of white pollution floating around that artic city. Poor guy!

Holidays... on warp speed

Can you describe your Thanksgiving in five words or less? Here's ours:

Kaden's first.... "stomach flu".... freezing



I thought I'd be kind and spare you the details. Except for the 3 funniest parts:

Nephew, age 10, upon hearing his family is leaving b/c his uncle and grandfather are throwing up in the background:

"What's so bad about that? They just sound like ninja warriors: hoo-YAH" Picture him making karate chops and kicks every time a noise arises from the backroom...


Nephew, age 6, telling me he's afraid of Santa. Me: so how are you going to get all that stuff you want if you won't even sit on the man's lap? Nephew: "Hmm, that's a good one, Titi. Let me think about it."


Nephew, age 7, brother of 5 others, looking at Kaden: "Aunt Kristi, wouldn't it be neat if you had NINE kids?" I sputtered through my coffee, as I'm not ready to even think about #2 yet...


It took us THREE days to drive home- and each day had at least 8 hours of driving, and 2 hours of a crying baby (no, not the driver). Yucky traffic. And it was COLD every day. We had talked of moving to North Carolina... but you know what? It's still pretty darn cold up there. Maybe Georgia...


After ignoring Christmas music and displays and ads for the past 6 weeks, I am suddenly suprised that the big day is about 3 weeks away. Yikes! I'd like to decorate the house and set up a crafty, present making station... but, um, where? Cause our little bundle of joy has taken every free inch of floor space up! And now he can actually grab things, not just swat at them... and it looks like he'll be able to roll over by Christmas. So this will be interesting...


AND-- this weekend is the Feast of St. Nicholas, the saint who inspired Santa. Check out fun stuff here.



Here's a belated 4 month photo of Kaden. I think he looks longer- you?