Kaden's First Birthday!!!

A year ago today, my life changed in ways I could never have imagined. Being a mother is every bit as hard and wonderful as I imagined, and I am completely, 100% head over heels in love with my little man!

We celebrated his first birthday with a Phillies game! It was a great game and we all had so much fun, despite the heat.

Yeah! Home run!

My new most favorite pic EVER!

Belly shot at 29 weeks- the WHOLE family!

But this is my favorite family pic just because of how sweet little man looks.

He even had a little celebration at school. I brought in cookies and got to hang out during a cookie feeding frenzy!

Then Baba brought a cake home for the birthday boy.

Some of the strawberries apparently were a bit sour, but not too sour to eat.

Mmmmmm, cake!

My little prince Sharing with Lady Belle

And we finished the day with a bath.

It has been an amazing year and I am so looking forward to all the experiences that Kaden will have over the years. I am truly blessed and forever grateful for the privilege of being his Mama!

Visit from Gramma & Aunt Lori

Gramma and Aunt Lori came for a visit and had LOTS of fun with Kaden- he got just a little bit spoiled! We have lots of pics from their visit, so I'll get right down to business. Oh, and Kaden turned 7 months old on the day they got here!

Yay, Gramma & Aunt Lori are here! Happy Birthday Kaden!

Aunt Lori & Kaden

Mama, Gramma & Kaden

Aunt Lori is HILARIOUS when she barks like a dog!

Being goofy with Gramma

We discovered that Baba's head makes a good chew toy, too.

Kaden loved Tigger at the Disney Store, so Gramma couldn't let him go home without him!

Mama got a little placemat for Kaden to use when we go to restaurants...surprisingly, it makes a good chew toy, too.

Being goofy with Gramma again...see the theme starting? He's performing his newest trick- he claps and everyone around him claps back and says "Yay, Kaden!"

Being goofy with Aunt Lori at the outlets.

Goofy with Gramma once again!

We stopped at Ten Ren Tea Shop for a treat and Kaden wanted a taste, too. He knows what to do with the straw, but he couldn't quite get that mango slush up to his mouth!

Mama, Baba, & Kaden in Chinatown

Playing a little basketball...

Wanna play with me?

Time for a break to do a little reading...it's hard to read books when they are always in your mouth, though.

6 Months Already!

We celebrated Kaden's 6 month birthday this weekend- I absolutely cannot believe he is 6 months old! It seems like just yesterday that he was so tiny in my arms, and now he is a little linebacker and SO active. I love seeing him learn new things everyday, even on the day that he learned that Mama's hair makes a handy toy to pull around (I am back to wearing my hair in a pony tail, thank you very much!)

RSV Update: Little big man gave RSV a beat down! On Thursday we went back to the doctor to make sure we really were fortunate enough to avoid the hospital and that he was indeed getting better. He still had junk in his ears and lungs, but was much better than when this whole thing started. We are lucky that he responded so well to the nebulizer- if he hadn't had an immediate response we would have been sent directly over to the hospital so he could get oxygen and treatments there. He still has a cough and a wheeze, but he is getting so much better. He has actually been wearing us out- that medicine that you put in the nebulizer, Albuterol, makes him act like he is hyper-caffeinated. I swear I don't put Mountain Dew in his bottles! Wow! He gets so tired and you can tell he needs to go to sleep, but he just can't. He's up and wild for hours and then just crashes, but still can't sleep so he just gets angry. We cut down to 2 nebulizer treatments a day now, and add another one in if needed. No we just need to get through the rest of RSV season without getting it again...

So what do you do to celebrate your very first half-birthday ever?

You give drinking from a big boy cup a try for the first time.

You play with the beach ball while babbling to Mama.
You try to figure out what the heck is making all that noise in there.

You eat some yummy Earth's Best Pear & Mango...sour, but one of Kaden's favorites. You can see he kept some on his face and clothes in case he wanted a snack later on.

You have a lot of laughs and giggles with Baba.

Baba is so HILARIOUS!!

You take self portraits with Mama (this is the best of a bunch of attempts...Mama's not the best at taking self portraits).

You eat some beef noodle soup...well, Mama & Baba got to eat some yummy beef noodle soup. Kaden will be eating that soon enough.

And of course, a birthday full of that much excitement will inevitably result in a nap on the couch. The light must have been too much for him (don't freak out, he passed out as soon as he pulled this over his face and we took it off...after we took a picture, of course!)

Happy Half-Birthday Kaden!