The Bacher Blog

Wow- how did that happen? 18 months. A year and a half. 47,304,000 seconds old. (Well, even more now, since it is past his 7:51pm birth time).

Caden has been going through some transitions lately that have been exciting (for the most part). He finally transitioned from two naps per day to one nap per day about a month ago. Unfortunately his one nap was at times very short during our recent holiday travel, but overall- it is great to have a consistent schedule where we have a nice chunk of time in the morning to get out for some fun!

Yesterday Caden played independently in an unfamiliar place for an extended time. This was a first! He tends to be such a Mama’s boy and clings to me or wants me to join in his play, but yesterday he was happy playing on his own at a new local “play cafe”. I was able to actually converse with other Moms as we watched our toddlers play on the other side of a glass wall. We have been to similar places before, and Caden always wanted me nearby. I am so happy he is becoming more independent. When his little brother or sister comes along in a few months, he will need to be able to play on his own at times. Who am I kidding?!? He will need to play on his own quite a bit. It is so nice that this independence appeared naturally… I don’t want to force too many changes.

Caden’s vocabulary has taken off. Over our holiday travel to Fresno and Santa Barbara, his favorite saying was “all done”. And although he has said “all done” for quite awhile- he was using it for many many different things. “All done” with his nap. “All done” with the magazine Mommy… put that down. “All done” with anything he is finished playing with. “All done” when songs are over. It has been very cute when he says it, so we all laugh, which obviously encourages him. Soon we will be “all done” with this saying I am sure. And most likely on to “on” and “off” as he is already saying those words for many things now.

Another cute, new development is Caden’s interest in make believe. He will pretend things are hats, airplanes, or phones. He feeds his stuffed animals and gives them kisses (usually after prompting, but sometimes on his own accord). It is fun to see his imagination develop!

Caden can correctly identify and point to many people in his life, including himself. He will kiss himself in the mirror at times. He can also identify many body parts, foods, colors, letters, animals, and many other objects.

One of the not so adorable traits that Caden has taken on is testing us more. He will stare directly at us as he starts to move a crayon towards his lips. It seems like he is starting to realize that he gets one or two warnings before something gets taken away. Luckily removing things from his grasp hasn’t led to any tantrums yet.

Another not-so-cute trait that Caden has (but isn’t new) is that he often will wake up from his afternoon nap extremely cranky. He will sometimes cry inconsolably when he wakes up. It is so frustrating. We think that he is not taking a long enough afternoon nap, so he is waking up still tired. I wish it was easy to teach him how wonderful sleep is. I am sure

later in life he will wish he could nap more. He is sometimes cranky in the morning, but that seems to be getting a bit better. He has a harder time calming down when Dave gets him up in the morning. We are trying to get him used to different people getting up with him, since Mommy definitely won’t be able to console him after every waking when the baby arrives in May.

So, I think that is it for now. Although I don’t post often, I will try to be thorough when I do post here. To the left is another photo from the evening of his 18 month “birthday”. Such a ham at times… and clearly not as cranky as when he wakes up!

I have realized I am a delinquent blogger.  I have friends that blog every week or even more often.  I apologize to a future Caden (who may want to read about his milestones) and to any readers that may happen to still check this.  (I could understand why no one does anymore)… Sorry.  :/

Anyway… Caden is 17 months old now!!  He is at such a fun age!  Some of his favorite things are:

• silly peek-a-boo games with stuffed animals
• still loves books (gets addicted to a few at a time, then moves on)
• enjoys learning the letters of the alphabet (he knows and can say F, M, S, O perfectly and others somewhat)
• loves coloring with crayons
• laughs hysterically when playing tickle and airplane
• loves Dora the Explorer; Go, Diego, Go; and Sesame Street (especially Elmo).  Loves TV and videos- to the point of throwing a tantrum when TV time is over.  (Another reason we are trying to limit his TV time… But to be honest- because I have been so exhausted during this current pregnancy, sometimes a TV break is the only way to save my sanity.)

Some of his newly found skills include:

• can put shapes in the correct holes in his Shape Sorters
• can clearly say about 20 words
• can identify many animals, foods, letters, toys
• can follow simple directions (”put the blocks in the bag”, “put the sticker on your hand”, “put the stuffed animal away”, “turn off the light”, “pet the kitty cat”…)

Other notes of interest are:

• Caden is a great eater!  We lucked out that he isn’t very picky.  He still does enjoy throwing food on the floor, even when he is still hungry.  We need to work on that!
• He is starting to test more limits.  A few examples include: moving things to get to the wires behind the T.V. throwing tantrums after we are done with an activity he loves, climbing up onto boxes or things that he cannot get down from on his own.

On a weekly basis we go to Music Together classes.  We started the class about 10 weeks ago, but Caden often is still clingy during class… wanting to be held while dancing around rather that joining in with the dance.  He sits calmly in my lap and is very observant during class.  I hear this happens with some kids and then eventually many will come out of their shells… or just take what is learned and perform at home.  In general- Caden is pretty attached to me and takes a bit to warm up in new settings. By the end of the class each week, he seems happier, but then we need to leave.

Besides music class, my mom comes over about twice a week to enjoy time with her grandson and to help me out.  She has been such an amazing help over the past 17 months, and I don’t know how I could’ve gotten through some very rough days without her.  I know she thoroughly enjoys watching Caden’s growth and milestones.  And he sure looooves his grandma.

On other days we often have get-togethers with other mommies and babies, or we run errands, or try to make plans.  I get Caden out of the house pretty much every day.  Luckily the weather has been good this winter, so we have been able to have park playdates and walks more often than last year.

In addition to not being a very good blogger, I also haven’t been great about taking photos since Caden turned one. But… here is a recent cute one showing that Caden is already contemplating future career possibilities.

Hmmmm… Chef or Plumber??

This little thing struck me several times this evening, so it’s worth sharing.

For the past couple weeks, Caden has been repeating, “baff,” when we tell him it’s bathtime. Taking a bath is part of his usual going to bed routine, and he likes it. But tonight, we didn’t give Caden a bath — it was a long day, he was exhausted, and we’re doing a little training to make sure things go smoothly when grandma and grandpa have to put him to bed next weekend.

As I was reading books to him tonight, several times he looked me in the eye and said, “Baff.” I don’t think he has the vocal control to turn a word into a question by using intonation, but it sure seemed like he was asking me a question.

My first reaction was of course, that it’s completely adorable for my son to ask me whether he’ll be having a bath tonight. In thinking about it later though, it’s pretty amazing what’s going on in that brain to bring together the predictability of past events with this new ability to name activities (not just things) and to ask Daddy, “what’s going on?”

It’s not as if this is completely unexpected and new, these abilities with language and pattern recognition have been building up steadily. But still, it’s little moments of realization like this that are really special.

I recently took on a photo challenge presented by another local mom. She decided to document a day with her son to be able to share it with her husband who was traveling oversees. Although Dave hasn’t been away from us for more than even 12 hours (luckily!)- I liked the idea of doing a photo documentary of a typical day in Caden’s life. Or really in my life with Caden. I ended up taking way too many photos to post here. Instead I started another blog that I will keep up every so often as I continue to occasionally do more “Day in the Life” photo shoots. So- if you have a good chunk of time and you are interested… below is the link… If you don’t have a lot of time, be sure to at least just jump down to 5:20pm for a chuckle.

Here was Friday 8/8/08 in our lives: http://cadens-corner.blogspot.com/

Our baby is one! We had a small birthday party for him a few days before his actual birthday. His Great Aunt Lorri traveled from Oregon and his uncle and fam drove from Fresno to help him celebrate. Other friends and relatives also gathered on the gorgeous afternoon to party with Caden. He really enjoyed the attention, especially when eating and playing with his birthday cake. He was able to show off his painting skills- using the back of his chair as his canvas and the cake frosting as his paint. We think he may take after his Grandma Jeanne and be an artist someday. He also thoroughly enjoyed sharing and playing in his new sand and water table that he got from his Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Bruce.

Some milestones that Caden is working on include unassisted standing, “walking” forward (holding mama’s hands), and much more communication. He has mastered consonants d, b, p, k, l, m, n, s, and sometimes t, often practicing those sounds when reading his “Eating the Alphabet” picture book. For instance when we turn to the page with peaches, he will say “pa, pa, pa…” He still loves to point and grunt at things until we name items for him. He sometimes waves hello and goodbye, but isn’t consistent yet.

Although last month I posted that Caden has become pickier with eating…  that seems to have changed a bit.  He has been a much better eater lately. In addition to meats, cheeses, carbs, and veggies, Caden is a huge fruit lover.  With all of the fresh fruit out now, he has tried many types and seems to love them all. Even when we think he is full- after slowing down with eating the main course- he will shovel in fruit as if he is starving. We haven’t given him much sugar (besides his birthday cake and the natural sugars in fruit), so we think he must consider fruit his dessert. We may as well keep it that way for awhile.

Overall- things are going so wonderfully with Caden. We love him more than we ever imagined possible and he makes us laugh everyday with his contagious giggles, funny expressions and great humor. We are always finding ourselves amazed at his growth and changes. Where did my little, itty baby go? Happy Happy Birthday, Caden!

It is so hard to believe how time flies. I have to be honest that it did not fly by quickly the first few months, as there were some close to sleepless nights and lotsa tears. But for the past couple months, because Caden’s sleep has improved, his demeanor and zest for learning also has. He is so amazing. He laughs at us (and with us), points to things and grunts for us to tell him what they are, loves for us to read books to him over and over… just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.

About a month ago he started consistently saying “D” or “Dah” or “Dog” for any friendly canine. Well, sometimes also when he sees other furry animals in books… but he is identifying them correctly out in public. He also has been sorta saying Mama, Dada, Ball, and Up. And definitely knows and says “nana” for banana. We are amazed each day to see what words he already knows- window, flowers, hat, book, sock, bear, boat, milk, light, bird, fish, the list goes on and on.

We also are amazed at how quickly he learned to pull himself up to stand and lower himself to sitting before and after he cruises around the room. Although he was behind in his gross motor skills early on, he seems to have caught up. I actually attribute a lot of his gross motor learning to the “SuperYard” (which unfortunately looks too much like a cage) in our living room. Because he can place his hands at many heights, and he loves to stand, he has spent so much time cruisin’ the SuperYard… working those muscles

So much to report, since I have been so bad about updating this blog. For now, I will just list a few more exciting things…

• Caden started weekly swimming lessons w/ Mama a few weeks ago. Still not excited about it, but hopefully by summer!
• About a week ago his third tooth cut through. This time around teething didn’t seem to affect his sleep or mood as much, luckily!
• Finally has accepted bottles! Because Caden’s weight has been a bit of a concern (for us, but not our Pedi), we are very excited that he is finally taking some formula.
• Loves to throw food on the floor now. He has become pickier in his eating. Which makes mealtime not so enjoyable. Hopefully he will grow out of the food throwing.
• Celebrated his first Mother’s Day w/ his Mama, Daddy, and all three grandparents.
• Loves music. (Even has a dance on on our YouTube Channel)… http://www.youtube.com/user/kellina71

There’s a race going on between Caden’s development and our desire to protect the house — I mean protect Caden from hurting himself.

First, Caden started scooting. He’ll use his legs a bit, but mostly he’s pulling himself along on his stomach using his arms. The doctor says it’s considered crawling. We call it the army crawl.

Caden’s new mobility encouraged us to redecorate the living room (more on that later). The crawling also lets him experience new tastes (yummy leaves!).

But he’s not content with staying at ground level. He’s standing, if he has something to hang onto. He’s still working on pulling himself up — can’t quite do it on his own — but once he’s up, he can maintain himself for a minute or two.

He’s working on cruising too (or at least exploring his new boundaries).

Caden has always been quite the active boy, but now that he is rolling and scooting all over… we are busy! It is fun to watch him try to get to things, but he does get frustrated at times.

He is a little behind on some of the developmental milestones, but we are not too worried. He always seems to do things on his own time frame (like refusing to be born on or near his due date). We have been taking him to physical therapy appointments, because we noticed that his head/ neck control was not up to par at about four months. He has improved tremendously, but I still think he is behind in areas, because he got a slow start. I think once he is able to get around more and become more independent, he will be so much happier. He seems to have an independent spirit.

YAY! Now we can post videos of Caden. We have a few on there already. Here is a link to my YouTube Page, for all who are interested in seeing Caden in action.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kellina71

And just for fun- here is one of Caden’s laughter right on our website…

I have been such a slacker about keeping up this blog! I have no good excuses. Since the last entry a lot has happened…

• We (Dave & Kelli) had our 1st date night since Caden was born. (This was unbeknownst to him, as we left after he was sleeping since he goes down to bed at 7pm. Pelly & Edwin were kind enough to babysit!)

• Traveled to Minnesota for Christmas. (1st flight for Caden, got to meet Grandma Jeanne and Uncle Hart, had some sleep issues since it was unfamiliar, experienced snow!)

• Caden loves to roll all over the place now! And he is starting to learn to sit.

• Started solid foods. (Caden is such a good eater! So far he has liked every food we have introduced to him. He especially likes applesauce and bananas. Carrots are yummy too!)

• Had his first tooth cut through. (This actually happened just two days ago! It is very exciting, except that it has cause some discomfort, clinginess, and more sleep issues.)

• And much more! (See Caden’s photos for more of a photo journal.)