17 month milestones

I never would have anticipated that the seventeenth month would be a big one for achievements but Caiden's been doing some big milestoning (my new verb). It's really all been happening in the last couple of weeks.

-Most notable is his talking. He is doing a ton of it. Not only is he making new combinations of sounds but he said his first words. We're not sure if we should count "daddy" as his first word because although he's been saying it for awhile, it didn't only apply to Eric. He starting saying "gear" when he plays with his gear toy. He starting saying "up" this weekend and "cheese" when he was having his picture taken. He says "mommy" a lot, and most I the time I think he's calling for me, but i think he just likes to say it. He also says "abby" a lot so we joke that he has an imaginary friend. He says "tick tock" referring to a song we sing in Stroller Strides and swim class.

-He has 8 teeth now. The first molars (top & bottom) on the right side are making their painful way in.

-He likes for me to sing to him. Poor guy, I do it all the time and he has to suffer through it. His favorites are Itsy Bitsy Spider (he does the hand motions too!), Head/Shoulders/Knees/Toes (in English & Spanish) and the tick tock song.

-builds towers with blocks.

-can put his shapes in the shape sorter.

-runs and can almost walk up stairs by himself.

-loves to kiss and give high fives

-dumps objects out of containers

-can kick a ball

-imitates activities. We have to really watch our own actions now because he's imitate the strangest thing. He does the obvious ones like talking on the phone and brushing his hair, but the other day I was leaning against the counter and he came up beside me and backed up so he was against the counter too. It made me laugh :)

-he can lock the door! Not the deadbolt but the little turny one on the door knob. I found this out the hard way. I stepped outside to lay out our swim clothes to dry and he shut the door behind me and locked it! I freaked out! For a minute or two I tried to get him to unlock it by talking to him through the glass door, but he just thought it was funny. Luckily my wonderful neighbor, Jamie, was home and gave me our house key!

I'm sure we have tons of fun to look forward to but this month was definitely interesting!

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Zoo Day

On Friday, Caiden and I met up with Ashley and Savannah at the Fort Worth Zoo. (I had hurt my back so I couldn't go to Stroller Strides and thought walking might help loosen it up a little) Plus it was a GORGEOUS day!

Savannah and Caiden loved the vending machines!

Ashley brought their wagon for the kids to ride in, and Caiden was just kickin back eating some snacks!

Learning some animal facts...

Checkin out the penguins...

Then, the kids decided they would take over on wagon duty. Savannah was pulling and Caiden was pushing.  Great teamwork!

At this point Caiden was staring me down before deciding to run off.

At lunch, the squirrels ate better than the kids :)

It was a fabulous day!

Perfecting the Slide!

Last weekend, Eric's mom, Vicki, came into town to visit and to watch Caiden while Eric and I went to Oktoberfest in Addison. It's Eric's FAVORITE festival and we haven't been able to go for the last two years. In the morning that Saturday we went to the park to burn off some of Caiden's energy.

Caiden wanted to start off on the swing. Look close at his face. He is LOVING it!

Then he wanted to show Daddy his skills on the little slide.

Then, with a determined face, it was off to the big slide.

Eric was at the top and I was at the bottom.

 One, two three....

A perfect slide, all by himself!

The next time there was a little twisting!

And up they went again!

Grapefest

Thursday morning after swim class Caiden and I met up with Luna Moms Club at Grapefest. This is a wine festival held every year in Grapevine. Now, you might be asking... why would you take a 16month old to a wine festival? Well, they have a great Kid Zone! There is also a carnival section but Caiden is still to little for that.

Here's Caiden and pals playing.

Brady loved pushing this car! Caiden eventually bailed out because Brady kept crashing him :)

I don't think he realized he was pushing it backwards, but he had fun!

Petting the Lego puppy.

Now for the real animals!

Playtime with Naina

Our friend, Shiva, invited me and Caiden to come over to play and swim with her 6 month old daughter Naina.
Caiden, of course, went right in for a kiss!

The water was pretty cold and Naina wasn't too sure about it!

Caiden didn't want to get in much more than this, but he did like the waterfalls!

Thanks Shiva & Naina for the gret playtime. We can't wait to do it again!

Go Rangers!

Last Sunday, we finally made it to the Rangers game. We had gone on May 11 but the game got rained out. (I think that might have been the last time we got major rain!)  So we went to the game on Sunday planning to use our rain-out tickets. They said it was sold out, but there was a couple standing close by that was giving away two tickets!  What luck! The seats were even in the shade!

Caiden enjoyed his backpack ride up to the stadium.

 Had to take a family pic!

Caiden and Eric enjoying some nachos!

I wanted a picture in front of the huge Cowboys stadium!

Caiden did so well, was even watching the game. He would "throw" when Eric was showing him that the pitcher was throwing. The highlights: we got free hats, Beltre hit his 300th career home run, and the Rangers won!

Did we survive?

About a month ago, I posted about how hot of a summer we were having. I didn't know at the time it was not going to get any better for a long time! Tomorrow is going to be our 70th day this summer of temperatures over 100. This will set a new all time record! Hopefully, once this heat wave passes, we will be done with it. I am trying to resuscitate what is left of my poor garden.

Here is my hanging tomato, which almost died all together, but with a little relief last week, there is some new growth and blooms. Maybe we'll have some fresh tomatoes in October.



My flowers survived and the zinnias actually are a little out of control!



My poor herb garden. I think the basil and sage are the only things left.




My plumeria is doing great! I brought this back from Hawaii as a 12" cutting in 2007!


It's even blooming!



Did you notice the rest of the planting bed that the plumeria pot was sitting on. Yep, all gone. The squash, tomato, jalapeño,and yellow pepper... all gone. So sad!

This is our sky pencil holly. I hope it makes it, it's one of my favorite things in our yard! Poor thing got burnt up by all the heat and sun!



This guy definitely survived... and is growing and growing. He's ready for cool weather too though!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What does a SAHM do?

Have you ever wondered what a SAHM (stay at home mom) does with all her free (ha!) time? If not, you can stop reading right now. Since I use this blog as a personal journal, I thought I'd share what a typical week looks like for me and Caiden I figure that five years from now I'll probably look back and say "Man, I wasn't working. How did I stay busy? Didn't I get bored?" These were a couple of questions that were definitely in my mind when we were making the decision for me to stay home. For the most part we have a pretty set morning routine and then our afternoons are flexible for outings. Now that the weather is a little better we are looking forward to going to the park, zoo and botanic gardens more. So here's what the average week looks like right now (when Caiden is 16 months).

Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays: Stroller Strides in the morning and then playing to keep Caiden awake until at least 11:30 or 12. Many days we will have an activity planned with Luna Moms Club. Then it's lunch and nap time. Monday afternoons usually consist of running errands. Other activities in the afternoons include playing with friends like Landon & Camden, or the Ridgell's across the street. We were going to Gymboree class on Wednesdays, but I think we will stop that since it's right during nap time.

Tuesdays: Ladies Bible class in the morning. Caiden gets to play in the church nursery. He usually falls asleep on his way home from church. In the afternoons, we are free to play!

Thursdays: Swim class with Landon in the morning, then playing so Caiden will stay awake. I think we will start going to a library storytime after swim class. Once again, playtime in the afternoon.

I know, it probably doesn't sound like much, but we stay pretty busy. We both like to be out and about so we find lots of fun places to play and explore!

4th Annual OMY Labor Day Family Vacation

That title is a mouthful, huh?  Well, if you are wondering what "OMY" is, it is the initials of our last names. My mom and Geno are the "O", we are the "M" and my sister and her family are the "Y". This past weekend we had a ton of fun at Table Rock Lake. If you're not familiar with it, it is a beautiful lake in southern Missouri very close to Branson and Springfield. I think this was the fourth year we've done our family lake trip.  In the past we've gone to Grand Lake and Lake Eufalla in Oklahoma.  We rented a "cabin", but it was huge and fully loaded. 4 bedrooms, 3 bath complete with horseshoe pits, pool table, ping pong table, air hockey, fire pit etc! They even had a pack-n-play, high chair and safety gates so we didn't have to worry about that stuff!

Nana brought everyone some goodies!



a good game of Sorry!

 On Saturday we went to the beach and swam and played.

That night we all grilled dinner and sat by the fire pit and ate smores!  On Sunday, we went into Branson for some fun. We started off with a very competitive game of putt-putt golf. Even Caiden got to play. (My camera was dead, so hopefully my sister got a few). Then we went to get our air-brushed family t-shirts. Cheesy, I know... but I like being a dork sometimes!

The O's and Y's stayed in Branson for a bit while we took Caiden back to put him to bed and they rode go-carts. When they got back we played some games. You should check out a really fun game called "Funglish"

On Monday morning, when Caiden woke up before everyone else, we went down to the water and Eric was showing him how to throw rocks. He loved it, and wanted to walk right in.

It was a wonderful vacation with beautiful weather! We couldn't have asked for a better family trip!