Caiden's birthday party

Well, okay...so we didn't have a party per se, but he was spoiled all day long. Aunt Sara and Dustin came down, he ate so many cookies, we sang "Happy Birthday" a dozen times, he opened so many presents, and we went to the beach after his nap. I would love to have a birthday like that!

He woke up in the morning to Sara and Dustin who arrived the night before. He gets so excited to see them and when we tell him that they are in the spare bedroom he'll throw open the door when they are still sleeping and run to the bed saying their name. Then we went downstairs and for the next four hours he opened presents, played with them and ate birthday cookies. I'm pretty disappointed with myself that these are the only photos we got all day.

Giving Sara kisses for his gift.

Having a tea party via Skype with my parents and all the stuff they got him.

A new Schwinn trike!

After his glorious three hour nap we headed to the beach! Caiden and me and Marc discovered sand crabs! There were millions all over the beach. You just pick up a pile of sand and they would come pouring out...pretty disgusting actually but Caiden loved them. He would say, "Caiden got 'em!", and we would make up names for each one.

I was pretty sad to see the day end. I can not believe he is two already, time is just flying by. The saying, "the days go slow, but the years go fast" has been going over and over in my head recently and I'm embracing every single day I have with him. Every night Marc and I say how much more fun and cute and precious he is and we love spending every minute with him. Happy Birthday, Caiden Max!

Caiden: 24 months...2 YEARS!

Where do I even begin telling you about what this boy is like. He has a pretty mild demeanor for the most part, just recently have I begun noticing little outbursts if he doesn't get his way...maybe the terrible twos are starting? But really, overall he's a good kid I think. I have to admit the closer I get to my due date I really start to cherish every last day I have with only him. I know having a sibling is the best gift in the world but the thought of having to split my time and love between two of them is so foreign I just don't know how I'm going to do it...and I'm a bit nervous about how I'm going to just survive on a day to day basis.

He's becoming more and more adventurous every day. Just last week he was watching some 5 year old boys at the park jump from big rock to big rock -so clearly out of his league- and he wanted to try it. I caught him in mid air ready to crack his head open. Then at the beach last week another boy was jumping over a pile of sand and he wanted to try. What happened? He ate a mouth full as he tripped over the pile. He loves to jump...and he loves to show you. He'll jump all over the yard if you keep egging him on. He loves to hang off of things, too. The island in the kitchen, his high chair tray, monkey bars. It's so cute watching his mouth fall open as if his mouth is hanging too.

He's really good at cuddling. In the mornings him and I still lay in bed before going downstairs for sometimes up to an hour just reading or watching nursery rhymes (I'm going to miss that). He says, "Mama's pillow" and snuggles up on it. And he's been accustomed lately to seeing my pregnant body taking a break on the couch and he'll grab one of the pillows and hand it to me and climb up and snuggle. 

He eats like a champ and isn't too picky...yet, which is a really good thing because he can't eat half the things other kids eat. The no dairy, nut and egg thing really throws a wrench in a lot of meals that are prepared, especially when we are at parties. And it's not just the exact food to watch, we have to be careful about where the food he does eat is cooked and prepared -which makes eating at restaurants with him almost impossible. And also watching him like a hawk making sure he doesn't pick up another kids cup and start drinking from it. I'm usually on it but slipped up a few weeks ago and I turn around and he's got a mouth full of regular milk. Within 30 seconds he comes over to me with puppy dog eyes gagging, I put out my hands and he vomits everything into them. He goes on gagging for a few more minutes then seems to be OK. Then an hour later he had a horrendous poo. Poor kid. His sensitivity to milk is so strong, I'm really not sure there is an end in sight in the near future. He knows if I'm eating cereal that it has the wrong milk in it and he'll point to it, rub his belly and say, "belly hurts". It's so sad. 

His talking skills are above average I'm sure. He enunciates very well and many people comment about how well they understand him. He's been singing his "ABC's" for months now, counts to 20 (missing a few here and there, switching some numbers up every once in awhile and adding the number "7" whenever he feels like it -it's his favorite I guess?), he speaks in almost complete sentences and can 99% of the time tell me exactly what he wants so I'm not guessing and so he's not wining. I feel very lucky because it makes life so much easier. 

His favorite saying right now has to be, "Caiden do it." It's really just when he's eating and he wants to do it himself, but I'm sure putting on clothes, shoes, and pretty much any other activity is going to accompany this phrase a lot more often in the near future.

He wakes up anywhere between 6-8am. He takes a dreamy 2-3 hour nap around noon everyday going down without a peep and almost immediately falling asleep. Bedtime is a different story. Marc usually does bedtime...bathtime, pj's on, reads a few books and then he proceeds to milk it for all it's worth. If you don't hold him "this" way, or talk to him "that" way he stands up and throws his blankie out and cry's until you go back in and pick him up and hold him until HE is ready to go down. It's a dreaded task every single night. I'd like to say he's a good sleeper once he is down but he still wakes up in the middle of the night sometimes and screams bloody murder. Almost like he had a bad dream or something. If we go five nights without him waking up we feel very lucky -right now we have two nights under our belt. It's going to be really tricky when this new baby comes into the picture.

He loves Curious George. He has a couple of books that he got as gifts before he was born and they are in the rotation every single night. He calls them "Pizza George" and "Ocean George", and will ask for you to read them whenever you are in his room. I recently purchased a couple of new ones because Marc was ready to go bat**** crazy reading those same two books every single night. I discovered the show on PBS as well and it is the one show that I will legitimately turn on knowing it will give me 15 minutes to eat breakfast, catch up on emails, brush my teeth, go to the bathroom in peace...you know, the simple things in life. 

Happy Birthday, Caiden Max! We love you more than you'll ever know!

Here are also some photos from the past few weeks.

We found an organic garden about a mile from our house a few weeks ago. They are only open on Saturday's but they also have two goats, chickens, roosters and ducks. Caiden's favorite animal is still a sheep, he calls it a "baah, baah", and this one he's feeding looks like a sheep (but it's a goat) so he was in heaven.

This is Caiden with his blankie, he loves it more than you know!

Whenever he puts it to his face he always does this thing with his mouth.

I've been doing tons of activities with him -every day going somewhere new. This day we went to the Birch Aquarium. 

Last week I took him to the beach three times. I've got it down to a science. We usually leave by 10am, drive 10 minutes, get a killer parking spot, stay for an hour and a half, rinse him off in the outdoor showers and get home by noon to feed him lunch and put him down for a nap. Here he is checking out a hole with some older boys.

I never knew that kids had such a love for sand holes. You seriously see every family bring a shovel and the Dad head out to dig a hole when they arrive. The first thing he did when he found this gigantic hole was lay in it. 

We've been going to Seaworld about every other week as well. Again, we usually just stay an hour or two in the morning and see a couple of different things each time, although he loves the Dolphin Show and wants to see it every time. He also sleeps with the polar bear that Sara got him when he was a baby from Seaworld so he loves to check them out when we go.

I could just eat them cheeks!

Here he is sleeping with his blankie and polar bear.

35 Weeks

35 weeks, 2 days

How far along? 35 Weeks

Total weight gain: 20+ pounds

Maternity clothes? I'm proud to say that I haven't purchased one item of clothing during this pregnancy. I'm either wearing stuff from the first round or stuff friends have given me. But boy am I going to be glad to see these five items out of my rotation. It's literally the same clothes every single day. It's like groundhog day up in here. 

Sleep: I feel like I was sleeping way better when I was pregnant with Caiden. It's not that I'm particularly uncomfortable, because laying down and having my feet up his heaven, it's more of the bathroom thing -getting up every two hours to use it...it really sucks.

Food cravings: I've been going to a yogurt shop quite a few times during the week after Caiden wakes up from his nap around 4pm. It's nice because there is a little water feature at this place and Caiden just runs around while I eat my chocolate, oreo cookie, cheesecake bites and gummy bear yogurt.

Best moment of the week: I had the best baby shower celebration this weekend with my sister and a few girlfriends here in San Diego. We went to the Rancho Valencia Spa in Rancho Santa Fe and did lunch, pool and the spa. It was so nice and so thoughtful. I felt guilty having anyone do anything since it's my second kid but we kept it small with just a few close friends so it was really nice. An extra thanks to my sis and Becky for planning and taking care of my massage! THANK YOU! XOXO

Miss anything: Bending over, squeezing through small spaces, sleep, sleep and more sleep. 

Movement:  Oh yes, she's crazy busy. And I can almost always guarantee that between 3-5am she's up and hiccuping. I'm not joking that this is almost a nightly occurrence and so annoying. It lasts for a good 20 minutes or so and all I can do is wait it out and then try to fall back asleep.

July 4th weekend

We had a nice long weekend! It started with a BBQ and pool at the Taylor's on Friday after his nap.

He started off in the pool very clingy to anyone in his vicinity. After about 40 minutes he was having a blast and would go off on his own and try to "swim" after a ball or a toy in the pool. It was so fun watching him become more confident as the day went on.

He loved this mini 4-wheeler. You step on the pedal and that makes it move. He had no idea how to steer it but got the hang of how to make it move real quick and just kept running into everything.

On Saturday we were in total house mode. We went to breakfast, laid mulch, had patio furniture delivered, a dining room table delivered, finally pulled out the rug for the living room we bought months ago, picked up Caiden's new dresser and went to Home Depot...and we got a babysitter that night after C went to bed and Marc and I had a date night! Caiden was pretty annoyed with us by the end of the day because we really didn't do much "fun" stuff for him and he was either stuck in a car seat or playing with his same old toys at home.

To make up for it we took him to the beach on Sunday. We loaded up Marc's new truck with a wagon, beach chairs and sand toys to break it in with what we knew would end up with tons of sand and wet butts all over the seats...so great to not worry about how dirty your car is getting and how much sand you're going to be vacuuming out.

This is Caiden running as fast as he can to get away from the wave that was rolling in. "OH NO!", he would shout when it would get close.

After we were there for an hour or so he started to get more adventurous.

Then we couldn't get him out, he loved it! He would laugh as the waves would roll in and run out to catch more. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing.

It was great having a 3-day weekend, wish we had more of those. Happy 4th everyone!

34 Weeks

34 weeks

How far along? 34 Weeks

Total weight gain: 20 pounds

Maternity clothes? YES. And shorts with an elastic waist band.

Sleep: I'm SO hot when I sleep (and all day long). It's either no covers or a light sheet only on one leg. And I toss and turn all night long and get up to use the bathroom every 2 hours. As long as I go to bed early though I feel like I can hang with C all day.

Food cravings: They aren't that bad. It's getting hard to eat a lot in one meal since there's not a lot of room to put it. 

Best moment of the week: Let's be honest, this has not been happening weekly so the sweetest things that have happened in the last few weeks are, 1) Normal Dr. appt last week and hearing the heartbeat, 2) We broke down and purchased a double stroller. I've been going back and forth on which one to get and a few weeks ago we just happened to find a brand new double BOB for a killer discount so we bought it. 3) We purchased a dresser for Caiden -we are moving the one in Caiden's room to her room. 4) And nothing to do with the baby...but we finally bought a dining room table, entry console and outdoor patio furniture -all arriving in the next month! Guess you could say I'm starting to realize I won't have time to do much shopping when #2 is around.

Miss anything: Sleep. Bending over. Holding Caiden comfortably. 

Movement:  I think she's way more hard core than Caiden. She's definitely head down because I feel all the hiccups down low and ALL the kicks right at my ribs. She will literally take both legs and wrap them up around my lower rib cage and kick. Sometimes it really is shocking how much force there is behind it...I never remember Caiden doing that. And she moves like crazy, especially when I'm laying on my side. Even Marc was shocked when he saw an extremely pointy object rolling around my stomach. Another thing that I don't remember seeing with Caiden.

Silly boy

The things Caiden does and says nowadays are down right entertaining. Every time you turn around he's saying something and you wonder where he learned that or doing something goofy that you just can't help but crack up. A few weeks ago he comes around the corner with two straws hanging out of his mouth like fangs. Or he takes the tongs from his Fisher Price BBQ Grill and has them wrapped around each side of his cheeks. Where he comes up with this stuff -I don't know? Marc thinks he's going to be a jokester...definitely doesn't come from me -I'm pretty much the least funny person you'll meet ;)

He's still obsessed with his blankie. He never has it far out of reach when he's in his crib.

We went to Seaworld last week. I even took him on an actual ride, Elmo's Flying Fish, he talked about it all day long. I couldn't believe he was old enough to go but as long as they can walk and have adult supervision they're on!

His new thing is to hang off of everything. 

Poor kid is already getting pushed out by his little sister (doesn't he look comfortable?)

We went to Landon's birthday party on Saturday. He had a blast in the water as long as you were right there with him. He doesn't like to be left alone. This was the first time we put these water wings on him and they take some getting used to -plus I think he's a little too small for them yet so he wasn't that comfortable. But he still managed to have fun!