It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

To get ready for the holidays, Kaden posed in his little Santa hat and a Marine outfit to honor his Great-Grandpa. His Great-Grandpa was a proud Marine born on Christmas day. He was a great man, and what better person for Kaden to try to be like at Christmas! Coming up, I am working on a favorite things post for both the first few weeks at home after giving birth AND my list of things that were essential to have at the hospital. In the mean time, enjoy some baby giggles!

Stick Out Your Tongue!

Kaden learned how to stick out his tongue & it's just too cute! Sometimes his tongue gets stuck on his lower lip & the whole lip pushes out with his tongue. We have a good time sticking our tongues out and making faces at him to get him to copy off of us. It's a bit of a baby milestone- he is both mimicking us and sticking out his tongue!

Kaden Travels to Washington DC

Kaden had his first overnight trip where we stayed in a hotel last weekend, and he had a blast! My boss helped get us a GREAT deal on a hotel (her husband works for the hotel chain) and we got to visit Washington DC. We have TONS of pictures, but I'll just post a handful here. I'll post again soon once I get some video of Kaden's newest trick- sticking out his tongue! Sometimes it gets caught on his lower lip and the lip comes out with the tongue, but it cracks me up! You would have thought I won the lottery by seeing how excited I got when was able to copy me and stick it out!

Faidley's Seafood in Lexington Market, Baltimore. Best crab cakes & Rob enjoyed the oysters from the raw bar.

And they even had a sale on Rob...I mean hard heads :-)

We've discovered that the very hungry caterpillar is very fun to chew on

We couldn't get to the Capitol Building because they are building the inaugeration site for President Obama!

Our little family on the steps of the Supreme Court

Our little family in front of the Capitol Building

In case you forgot where the Capitol Building is located, Rob has a sign for you.

That hat was TOO CUTE!


My boys with a view of the Washington Monument

Rob & Kaden took a break at the base of the monument...

and this is the view from where they were laying

Part of the huge World War II Memorial. My Great-Grandpa served in the Army in WWII.

They had these big signs congratulating President Obama and people from all over the world were leaving messages of hope- it was really cool!

Korean War Memorial- My Grandpa served as a Marine in the Korean War and the memorial was beautiful.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

In front of the White House right before the guards kicked everybody away from the fence. The President's dog was playing in the front yard and apparently somebody important was going to be in the area and they wanted people to leave immediately. I though 1 guard was going to arrest Rob when they split the crowd in half and Rob tried to walk towards the group headed in the same direction as our car! Thank goodness there was a nice guard who rode his bike over to us to tell us where we were allowed to go.

Finally, a new post! Something has been weird with my internet and I haven't been able to post pics, so this post is actually 2 weeks late. Rob's mother (Nainai) and sister (Gugu) came to visit from Taiwan and met Kaden for the first time. We had a very nice visit and Kaden loves his Nainai and Gugu! (Nainai and Gugu are not their names, but those are the Mandarin Chinese words for paternal grandma and paternal aunt). Gugu was very good at getting lots of great smiles out of Kaden :-) And of course we made a trip to New Jersey to visit Uncle Frank and into New York City.

Liberty Bell

Nainai

Gugu

At the Statue of Liberty...it was windy, so I was covering Kaden's head with the blanket.

Uncle Frank

He LOVED talking to his Auntie!

Aunt Maria

The whole gang at Outback Steakhouse...my first steak since having Kaden. It was so nice to eat meat that wasn't cooked to the point of being jerky again!

2 Months Old Already!

I can't belive it, but Kaden is already 2 months old! We celebrated the occasion by going to the doctor for his 2 month check up and 2 month shots. He is now 24 inches long and weighs 15.2 pounds- that's right, 15.2 pounds! He is in the 75th percentile for height and 97th percentile for weight. Taking his size and the amount of formula he is eating every day, the doctor recommended that we start incorporating cereal into his diet.

When we got home from the doctor, however, Kaden passed out and only woke up to eat until the next morning, when he woke up with a big poopy diaper and an even bigger grin on his face. I got a pic of him passed out, but I was not prepared with camera for grinning poopy Kaden in the morning!
















The next day we tried out the cereal. He did really well, too! The first time we put it in his mouth he just looked at us like he was trying to figure out what we were doing to him. After that he seemed to like the cereal. The only thing that made him mad was when I kept taking that darn spoon out of his mouth before he was done eating. How rude of me to take it away when his belly wasn't full yet!

So the meal went like this: Mama put the spoon with food in Kaden's mouth. Kaden got all the food off the spoon. Mama takes the spoon out to get more food. Kaden gets mad because he is not done eating yet. Mama puts the refilled spoon back in Kaden's mouth. Kaden is immediately happy and eats more food. Repeat until all the cereal is gone.

We had a visit from Kaden's grandma and aunt from Taiwan these past couple of weeks, so I will have lots of pics from their visit to put up soon!

Time for a Chat

This is my first time posting a video, so it's a nice short one. I was having such a nice chat with Kaden this morning that I had to capture some of it on camera. He is still figuring out how to use his voice, but he's getting better and better at it.

I just love those cheeks!!

5 Weeks Old!

The past month has been so busy, but I don't feel like I've really done anything! The only thing I did was start to run again and bought a pair of non-maternity jeans (exciting!) Kaden, on the other hand, has been very busy. Very busy eating!!! He is a BIG fan of food and is not picky about how he gets it. He will take any type of food in any type of bottle- as long as it goes in his belly he wants it. And when he decides he wants food, he wants it five seconds ago...he definitely has some of his Great-Grandpa Van's blood in him (or maybe he just hasn't learned patience yet).

He has been growing like a weed and no longer fits into newborn clothes. Thankfully he still fits into the 0-3 month clothes, but I think he is going to be in the 3-6 month size before he ever turns 3 months old. He has been practicing talking and for the past couple of weeks works really hard to make little noises. Last week, he smiled at me for the first time, too. When my Dad, his Grandpa, visited this past weekend Kaden smiled and talked to him a little bit. Then last night all of a sudden he started talking up a storm and smiling at his Daddy! All day today he has been doing the same thing! It seems as if he has woken up a bit and can interact with us. It's so cool and I get so excited whenever he talks to me. I am sure I look like an idiot trying to get him to keep talking and smiling. I'll do anything to get a big grin out of that boy.

Sunday night we had another amazing thing happen...Kaden slept for 5 hours...in a row!!! He didn't repeat that miracle on Monday night, but Sunday night was pure bliss :-)

3 weeks old- he can wiggle out of a swaddle already

4 weeks old- grinning for Momma














Tummy time on his surf board














Lady Belle kind of likes him














1 month old!



















Visiting with Grandpa- Lady Belle doesn't understand why he isn't playing with her














Having a chat














USMC!! Wearing the uniform from Great-Aunt Robing in honor of Great-Grandpa Van

New Pics

These are the last of the pics that my sister took before she left this week. I have big shoes to fill as far as picture taking goes, but I will take as many as I can before she comes back in October. We also have a visit from Rob's Mom and sister coming up, too, so there will be lots of pics of that.

Kaden smiles a lot in his sleep, a big goofy grin. I know that technically he isn't smiling because he wants to right now and it is probably gas, but it is so incredibly cute & he does it every time he falls asleep...I like to pretend that he's smiling because he's just so happy!

Goofy grin!


















A nice wink to go with the goofy grin













Aunt Lori













Gramma













Playtime on the floor, chatting with Momma