Stay tuned for beach pics!

We took a 48-hour trip to the beach this weekend on the heels of Hurricane Irene. Here's a short video of our sweet boy just being silly. More pictures to come!

Caden's first fort

One day this week, I left Caden in the den for a minute to fix my sandwich in the kitchen, and I came back to this scene. I guess he had pulled the play gym over his head from behind, but he was just sitting there happy as a clam, playing in the little fort he had inadvertently made for himself. Funny boy.

Wiggle worm

Diaper changes have become small wrestling matches as our little wiggle worm is not content to lie on his back anymore for any period of time! I usually let him explore the changing pad on his tummy for a little bit in the midst of a diaper change. Although now he wants to pull over the box of extra diapers, wipes & ointments on the dresser, so I'll have to figure out how to distract him from that.

Books!

I've felt a little guilty thus far as a mother for the lack of reading in Caden's life. In theory I wanted to always read to my child and make that a daily part of his life. But, it just didn't happen in the hectic first few months, and then things settled down but logistically it was hard because he wouldn't just relax in my lap for me to read him a book.

Now he can sit up but all he wants to do is grab them and eat them, so I still don't read to him all that much because I can't get anywhere (and I'm a perfectionist who wants to be able to read every word from cover to cover straight through, not stop for munching and drooling and flipping the book over and over).

But, the other day I at least got a couple pictures when he took his Toddler Bible from me so he could "read" it on his own :). Doesn't it look like he is reading to a classroom full of people or something? So funny.

A new pacifier

Caden used to love his pacifiers, which was such a blessing for keeping him quiet at night, at the grocery store, at church, etc. Lately, he would rather play with them than keep them in his mouth, and if he's really upset, those pacifiers are going to do nothing to stop the screaming. But, he has started sucking on his two middle fingers a lot, especially when going to sleep, but really anytime. It's so cute!

On the verge

This was Caden a couple weeks ago. All month he's been on the verge of crawling. He started getting up on hands & knees and just whining. Then he would move his one knee forward, but stop and either whine or sink back down onto his belly.

Now as he's about to be 7 months, he's a definite army-crawler, pulling himself forward on his tummy and inch-worming his way to whatever he wants. I want him to get the whole arm & leg crawling thing so badly, but I know he'll figure it out very soon and then nothing will be safe :).

Catching Up

In the interest of launching this new blog, let me recap the major shift(s) my life has undergone in the last 4 years. In June of 2007, I was a single girl, turning 25, working for the Girl Scouts and sharing my first condo with my puppy, Paisley (and a roommate).

In July, I met a tall, funny, cute, all-around wonderful guy at a country line dancing bar. Within a few weeks, we were dating, I knew he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and I also received the news that my mom's tumor was back and really couldn't be stopped.

In May/June of 2008, I left the Girl Scouts to work at a church, Wade graduated from college & returned to Charlotte, and I spent my mom's final days trying to take in enough of her love, beauty and godly wisdom to sustain me for the next 60 years. She was freed from her earthly body on the 4th of July.

In October of 2008, Wade whisked me away to NYC for a day and asked me to be his wife. We got married on May 30, 2009. Six months later, we decided to try to sell the condo, and ended up moving into our new house in January 2010. Mother's Day weekend brought us the news that our first baby was on the way. Six more months and we finally got rid of the condo, just in time to welcome Caden Mitchell on January 22, 2011.

This blog is the story of our family.