More Fun with a Pot

"What do you mean a pot is not supposed to be on my head? Why not?"
He actually had the pot hanging on his head without touching it, but apparently didn't want his picture taken with it that way.

Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend last weekend. Maybe that's why this is the only picture I took. We had a picnic on Saturday in Bloom at Marisa and Stan's. It was great seeing them again along with other people I used to work with. After that, we just traveled through to my mom's. We taught Caden how to say GG on the way there. It has more of a 'z' sound, but we know what he means.

Jason and I went to Hersheypark on Sunday. My mom and Erin both volunteered (and worked hard :) there last summer through our church and got 2 free tickets. We decided to take them off their hands, and let them babysit Caden. Wasn't that nice of us? We all had a good, exhausting time. I don't think I've ever seen Erin as tired as she was when we got home. Caden apparently was hanging on her and giving hugs all day.

A Baseball Game

We tried (we got there at around 6:30 for a 7:00 game which they delayed and then canceled due to rain, so we left around 8:30) to go to a WB Yankee game last night. Thanks to J's parents for the tickets. Caden sat in his stroller for maybe 10 minutes, and then he had enough. He wanted to walk around everywhere and wave to everyone. He stopped walking, waved to a woman inside the restaurant they have there, and as soon as he heard the music, he stopped waving and boogied. She got a big kick out of it.

Then, we passed 2 women who were in the same tent as us, and they asked me if Caden was my son. I didn't know what to say; it threw me off guard. They said they didn't know if I was his sister or his mom! Talk about making my day :)

A Summer Day

We now have an orange kitchen/computer room called "Summer Day." We worked on it Thursday and Friday of last week. I'm liking painting a little less as each project gets completed :)

Racheal's Visit

Last Tuesday, one of my closest frineds from college, Rachael, came to visit us. Caden had a blast with her...grabbing her finger, dragging her all around, and showing her all his toys. It was so great seeing her again after almost a year and a half!

Caden was sitting nicely on her while she read to him before bed, but by the time I came back with the camera, it was a different story.

Phonebook

I was looking for a dentist the other day and marking the phonebook with a red pen. Apparently Caden was watching all of this, and then decided to help. He can now crawl up on the chair all by himself. My neighbor says it all starts with the kitchen table chair...soon he'll be pushing it to wherever he wants to climb up to, like the counter...fun!

Hugs

One of Caden's favorite things to do is hug people. He had a great time giving all of his cousins a hug last weekend. He even walked past me while I had open arms ready for a hug to get to Katie. I got a picture of just a few though.

After a hug with Cori.
Hugging Matt.

Oops Caden...I think you missed!

Relaxing with Cori. I love the look on his face.

1st Time Swimming

Caden went swimming this past Sat. for the first time. We went to visit my sister-in-law, Justine's, and decided to hop in the pool. It didn't last long since it was a pretty cool day.

Incase you can't tell by the look on his face...he's not too sure about it.
He was happy as long as he had a water ball.

Then all the kids wanted to play with him. Katie is closest, then Matt, and Cori in the corner.

Everyone having fun.

"Time to get OUT!"

Chris, Caden ("Why is my hand wet?") J, and Katie.

Our Bedroom

Our third room is finally done. I did our bedroom on Sunday. I'm not too sure about the color yet; I'm thinking I would like something a little darker maybe. It's easy enough to change in a few years. Yes...that's a telescope that my mom got J for Christmas - it's really amazing all you can see with it!

The door to the left is from the hallway, then the cracked door is our 3/4 bath, and then the other one is our closet.

16 Months (yesterday)

Some 16 month updates:

Eating: He now finally eats just about everything we give him to try, including vegetables (so we're pretty much off baby food). He really likes ketchup so that he can dip his Smiles, ham, and zucchini in it!

Talking: He hasn't been trying to say too many new words lately. He did say Papa the other day when he was at their house. So, it's pretty much just limited to Dada, Mama, hi-ya, bye, woof, and the neighbor girl's name (leave it up to my son to say a girl's name as one of his first words - hope this doesn't give us some insight into teenage years). He also kinda says "thank-you" and signs it too.

Playing: He continues to be into everything and is entertained by lots. He had a blast the other day with a curtain tension rod. He LOVES playing with other kids, but unfortunately the only play thing I know of is with the library at 18 months. If he sees any of the neighbor kids out playing, he just marches down the driveway thinking, "They want to play with me!"

Signing: He has a new sign...he rubs his arm with his hand which means suntan lotion. I think it really means he wants to go outside, and he knows he has to put that on first. He also walks around with his arms up when he's lost something (which I know is not really a sign, but it's so cute!) and makes this bwa, bwa sound.

Arizona Anyone?

If I want to go to Arizona, I only have to walk a few steps into our 1/2 bath. The paint color is "Arizona Dust", but the color is like, "walking into a clay pot" - my husband. Two rooms down...only like 4-5 rooms + foyer/hallway to go! I still enjoy painting, but check in at the end of the summer, and I'll let you know how I feel then.

Fun with Water

We decided to create our own water table for Caden on Sunday. Here he is waiting patiently to go outside with his cute sun hat...

which Daddy thought was a little dorky, so he put on his bug hat.

Our make shift water table is a little tub with water that we put on his picnic table...he was happy.

This was the free picnic table I picked up from a neighbor down the street.

(I decided to put a shirt on him to help block the sun - didn't match the shorts, but oh well!)

Daddy tried putting him in...

but he got right back out.

Mat and Leaps

Caden and I went to a few yard sales this past Saturday and found a few good buys. We decided to put the mat ($3 - no missing pieces) on the front porch to protect Caden from falls. So far it's helped a little. At least he likes it!



We also found a Leap Frog Little Leaps game with 4 CDs for $10. We're working on getting that set up, so I can't tell you yet if he likes it or not. Hopefully we'll be able to get it working (fingers crossed).

Lunar Eclipse

On June 29, Jason an I took on the adventure of painting Caden's room. We did fairly well with only two minor mishaps. I stepped off the stool right into the tray of paint (with socks on), and Jason tripped and caught himself by slapping a wet wall with his hand. We found that we are a pretty good painting team though...I like painting, and he doesn't mind trimming. The color is called Luncar Eclipse, incase you didn't get that from the title. It was gray on the sample, but it's blue on the wall, funny how that works!

Decorating Ideas

If you're looking for some decorating ideas, my friend Renee is doing a whole month of decorating ideas/tips for the month of July on her blog (Tackling Today's Tasks). She emailed a bunch of people for ideas, but of course I missed the deadline. I thought I'd still share an idea we had that I've been wanting to post about for while now.

First off, I found this frame at a yard sale for $.50. Then we found a scrapbook paper (very cheap and there's a ton of different designs) that we liked and then got the matting for it. The total cost was less than $5.
This idea was off of a decorating show on HGTV. We found some cheap left over matieral at Wal-Mart and just stapled it over 2 blank canvases on sale from Michael's. Total cost was less than $10.

4th of July

My mom and sister came to babysit Caden so that J and I could go to the wedding on Friday and stayed until Sunday. They had a blast with him all weekend, laughing at everything he did. They especially enjoyed it when every time he sat down on the deck to play with bubbles, he moaned and sat on his chair and "read" (ba ba ba) to everyone. They had fun giving him a bath too where they learned he likes to try to pour water over himself on both shoulders.

To celebrate the 4th, we went to Nay Aug Park to see the treehouse and play on the playground a little. I was running out of batteries, so I didn't get many pictures, well...at least not many compared to what I normally take!

Everyone enjoying the beautiful weather; Caden is enjoying his snack. Now let's try looking at me this time.That's better. Thanks, Erin, for smiling.

Snack time!

Caden found a little branch with leaves on it and had a blast shaking it and hitting things with it which is why it's a blur on the picture.

Marching off to say hello to the poor woman who was trying to read a book but kept getting interrupted by little boys and dogs.

There was a lot going on at the playground. I'm not sure what this look and the look at the top of the blog are saying, but he sure is interested in what others are doing and apparently doesn't like it? As you can see, I tried and tried to get a picture of him looking at me in the swing, but no luck.

Then that evening Caden stayed up until about 9:15 after watching just a few minutes of fireworks. He wanted to play with the stones (something he does EVERY day) rather than sit and watch something that happens once a year. J's parent's came over and we all watched from our front porch - can't beat that!