See-at-tull

Michael had a business trip/class that he had to take up in Seattle last week. We thought about him going for a week and me alone with Caden all day and all night with no reprieve and we (I) said, "No way, Jose-Michael" - so thank you Boeing for paying for Michael's room and board and letting me crash the party. It was my first time to Seattle; and, next to our honeymoon when we got rerouted from Mexico to Vancouver, Canada (yay for Swine flu!), it's the furthest north I've ever been. 

So while Michael slaved the day away in a required class for work, Caden and I tore up the city...or at least the hotel room. Michael got long lunches, so we were able to meet him each day for lunch, and when he got off in the afternoons we did our touring.

The gum wall near Pike's Place Market.

Choose the Right! 

 

 

Overall, it was a nice change of scenery and very nice to not have to cook or clean for a week! 

I Want My Baby Back

"I want my baby back, baby back, baby back..."

So, to go along with my post a bit ago about how Caden's been pretty cranky lately, I'd like to add that it's fueled a craving for Chilis. I want my happy baby back = start singing the song = think of Chilis = miss Chilis! I think the closest one around here is a couple hours away...

Anyway, I'm happy to announce, I GOT my baby back!! Just as suddenly as this cranky impostor came (8am May 29th), he left at precisely 6:30pm June 14th (when he woke up from his late-afternoon nap) and he honestly has not been seen since. THANK OUR LUCKY STARS. The homeless guy on the heating vent outside the Burger King near our Hotel in Seattle was about to get a new companion. I have no idea what was wrong; I wish I knew so it'd never happen again; but regardless, my happy baby boy is back and loving life again. Hal.lay.lieu.ya. Michael and I are giddy with joy. 

Helping Mom make the bed. 

 Pillow fights ensue

...guess it's more like pillow paddling, because it's only one way. 

Just the way I like it.  

His two toofers! 

More post-bath crazy hair :)

It's a baby! No, it's a boy! No, it's a MONSTER!

We've had our hands a little full the last month - Caden turned 7 months old and it seems like the only thing he ever wants is for Mom to hold him. Not Dad. Mom. It took me by surprise because it was very much an overnight transformation. One day he was my cute, content to play and explore (as long as I wasn't talking on the phone...how dare Mom EVER talk on the phone without allowing Caden to hold, and therefore chew on, the phone) little boy; the next day, all heck broke loose. According to Caden, it's child abuse and the absolute end.of.the.world. if I dare:
1) walk into a room that he is in and do something before I pick him up (like set down the groceries)
2) leave a room without taking him with me
3) be in the same room as him and not have him in my arms/sitting next to me.
Yes, it is a little sweet - my little boy loves his momma - but my goodness it makes cooking, cleaning, eating, getting dressed, going to the bathroom! quite the production. It makes for some pretty wiped out parents at the end of the day (to be honest, beginning of the day is more like it) and there are no more nerves left to grate. And don't even mention bedtime - the kid starts crying so hard he throws up. I really think it's just a phase, and a phase that's very much aggravated by boredom/frustration at being soooo close to crawling for the last month and still just not quite getting the hang of it...so luckily we have lots of adventures (Seattle, Utah, California) coming up to keep us occupied and sane!

And...so just to contradict everything I just said, here's a video of our little belly-flopper/inch worm man!

(Sorry, the lighting isn't great in our apartment - and my lens got sand in it awhile back and ever since it's had a hard time focusing) 

Also, at the end you see him going for Michael's shoes. My child licks the bottom of shoes. If it's quiet for too long I go look for him and usually find that he's found himself a shoe to lick clean. Yuck.

twenty-six

So it's been several weeks since my birthday, but I have to write about it because of the hike we went on to celebrate it. First of all, if you know me, what better way to celebrate a birthday than with an outdoor adventure? I told Michael about this hike 2 months in advance so he could get psyched up for it because I REALLY wanted to do it - but it was 10 miles: a bit long for a 7 month old and a husband with a bad knee. It's called the Trail of Ten Falls in the Silver Falls State Park here in Oregon and oh.my. is it absolutely breathtaking. Ten water falls in 10 miles (upon further inspection it turned out to be 8 waterfalls in 5 miles and another 5 mile out and back for the last 2 falls) with a path that winds deep into a luscious, forest-y canyon along the river the whole time. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beauty-full! You wind back behind a couple of the falls, cross over the river several times, and just lose yourself in what Michael called, "'Lord of the Rings' landscape" (I'm not quite sure of the comparison because, to be honest, despite my English capstone class being on the comparison of the books and the movies and my multiple attempts to watch the movies, I still have not been able to stay awake through the movies or even really remember that much about them besides the evil sound of, "My precious...").
Anyway, you start out the hike going behind the first huge waterfall and from that moment on, Caden was in heaven. This kid loved every second of this hike!

 

 Best family picture ever!

Happy Birthday to me!

We finished off our fun day with pie shakes at Shari's - a new favorite in our family :)

YUM!

22,000+ Words

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I don't know why I never put them in essays when teachers said you had to write a  ____ word paper. 500 word essay? No problem, just put half a picture in. I would have totally bought it as a teacher if done creatively enough. 

(Then again, I tought 7th grade. If a 12 year was that creative and gutsy, I'd definitely give them props. Not on every essay, but I'm sure they'd get away with it once.)

I was going through my pictures on my camera today because my memory was full and I decided to post some of them to show what us Roots have been up to the last 2 months or so (and by Roots I mean mostly Caden because really, the world does revolve around him at the moment):

My drool-mister back in March...

 He LOVES to jump...whenever the neighbors below us leave - this is the first thing we do!

 Back in the middle of April we went to the tulip festival! It was a beautiful day and we turned in into a little impromptu Caden shoot! 

Love his eyebrows in this one - gets it all from his dad. 

"Yeah, I'm cool - thumbs up"

"Look at me! I'm sitting up for the first time!"

(The sun was a little too bright...I got myself a white boy on my hands!)

Our little-man stands!

 Caden reading his favorite book, "Moo" - he closes every single other book and will climb over me to get to this one every time. Whenever we sit down to read he looks all over until he finds "Moo". He loves his farm animals apparently! 

(I think it has a lot to do with the page that has a squeaky rubber ducky on it - anything that makes noises!)

 

Multiple times I've turned around to find Caden like this:

He's not moving, not making any sounds...nothing. The first time it kinda freaked me out because I called his name and everything - no response. Not even a leg twitch. So I lifted up the bed skirt and called his name. He turned his head toward me, said "Hey" and then went back to staring straight forward! I cracked up, put the bed skirt down and he stayed like this for several more minutes!

Crazy kiddo. 

The Saturday before Mother's Day I ran a half marathon with several of the women in my ward. Sadly, this is the only picture I got of the race...100yds from the finish line. I'm so focused on getting that darn race over with I didn't see Michael or hear him yelling my name at the top of his lungs from 10ft away! But I finished! YAY!

Kind of a long photo dump, but some of the highlights from life here in Oregon! Next up will probably be about teeth and crawling - that's been our life for the past two weeks or so. :)

Then what do May flowers bring?

May's an exciting month for our little family. It's always been my favorite month, regardless of the fact that it's my birthday month. It always marked the ending of the school year, the warming up of the weather and the coming summer, and you get Memorial Day off! Then you add Michael's birthday, our anniversary, and my birthday and it's just the best dog-gone month around!

However, all these celebrations can get a little pricey on our budget (especially since we have to pay a babysitter now if we want to go out!), so we decided to wrap all the festivities into one grand date night: The Melting Pot and Cirque du Soleil!

Michael started off the celebration with 3 dozen roses!! It was the biggest bouquet of  flowers I've ever seen :)
They smell wonderful and are so beautiful <3

Our waitress at The Melting Pot decorated our dessert plate!

 

Yumm!
The Melting Pot was delicious and a really cool experience -  we loved it!

 

After dinner we rushed (hyper-speed...dinner took over two hours!) off to the circus.

Headed under the Big Top

 

Yay for date nights!

It's still strange for me to be so long without Caden, but it is so nice to get out and feel like people with some semblance of a night life for a little bit! Cirque du Soleil was AMAZING - we loved it! And Michael confessed that he always has a secret desire to be in the show - and I'm having visions of Michael in a cricket suit doing flips off a rock climbing wall. :) I have to admit, he really would love it.

After our exciting night out, we headed back home to this cute little guy.

Hey guys, where ya been?

Having so much fun!