eight months old

and here we are. another month into this parenting gig. this morning i said a little prayer thanking the Lord for another month with our sweet sawyer. (and of course for our sweet cayden. we're about three months out from his THIRD birthday.)

with that being said, sawyer, you light up our lives in ways we never knew were possible. this month has been no different than the last seven. you amaze us, and continue to show us just how different you are from your brother. right now, we're dealing with your second double ear infection... so try as you might, you DO still have things in common with big brother. mama and daddy aren't thrilled this is one trait you're sharing, but we'll get it all figured out.

you moved up to the next classroom at school this past month. there are kiddos already cruising in this class! you've showed us that you're ready to learn about the whole crawling thing after only being in the class a little over a week. tummy time isn't quite as awful for you and you're starting to push up on your hands AND knees! you also like trying to figure out how to go from sitting to tummy. your poor little face has met the floor more times than we can count lately, but you seem ok with it.

you still prefer pureed foods over anything solid. you will stick toast and other bread-like food in your mouth but quickly remove it. that's ok, we'll move on when you're ready! you do like the little puffs and yogurt melts. and i suppose that's a step in the right direction. during the week, you still nurse in the mornings and at night; you have bottles at school that are about half breast milk, half formula. i feel like our days of nursing are starting to dwindle, but i'm going to keep at it as long as you're willing to keep at it!

big brother is still your favorite person. the two of you had a giggle war the other night. cayden would laugh. then you would laugh in a higher pitch. and then cayden would try to top you. the two of you went back and forth for a while and totally enjoyed each other. i have to say that daddy and i thought it was ridiculously cute.

i suppose you'll start crawling sometime in the next month. sigh. and that's alright, i suppose. we are so excited to see what fun you (and your brother) will be getting into. you are both such a joy. we love you to pieces...

bedtime prayers

for the past couple of years, when we put cayden to bed, we would always say the "now i lay me down to sleep" prayer. now that little man is getting older and is starting to understand things more, we've switched to a nightly devotional just for little boys. there's always a bible verse, a little message and then a prayer. jeremy reads the prayer and has cayden repeat after him. it's pretty much the cutest thing ever and just makes my heart smile hearing that little voice repeating after his daddy.

of course, this is always followed with a request for songs. usually twinkle star & jesus loves me. some nights cayden requests the "pink teddy bear" song. um, we're gonna need a little help with that one kiddo.

a tag blanket

one of the things that fascinate sawyer the most? tags! on his stuffed animals, the boppy, a blanket... seriously, you name it and the child loves the tag on it. i never understood the tag blankets until about a month ago. cayden never seemed interested in that sort of thing, so the light bulb never went off when he was little. since the nugget was showing such an interest in tags, i decided it was time to make him a tag blanket. and i'm so happy with how it turned out! whenever he gets his hands on it, he shoves one tag in his mouth while his fingers work on other ones. adorable, to say the least. and it's the perfect size at 15" square... pretty sure it's not going to stay this clean-looking at this rate. but i want him to enjoy it, so whatevs.

a fun little valentine's day

earlier this week, the plague hit our house. ok, not the plague really, but something equally not as fun. it all came about on sunday night. we'd been out of town visiting my parents, and that evening something felt off. i shrugged it off as being tired and went to bed at like 8:30. around 11:30, i woke up and things were definitely not ok. at all. after something that could equal the exorcist, i finally settled into bed and slept the rest of the night.

woke up monday morning and things were still not right in the stomach regions. add to it? body chills. fun, right? jeremy and i chalked it up to me eating something bad. until 10 a.m. daycare calls. cayden apparently showed them his exorcist puking skills as well. (seriously, the kid was standing up, puked and only had some splash on his shoes. impressive.)

cayden and i snuggled in bed together while jeremy worried he'd somehow managed to give the two of us food poisoning the night before. i called my parents then. guess what? both of them got sick too. talk about some sort of contagious bug. and none of us had eaten the same things...

anyway, because cayden got sick at school on monday, he wasn't allowed back on tuesday. cue sad music... our little guy was going to miss his valentine's party. of course, being 2, he had no idea. we started the morning with some fun cards for the boys and they each got a cute stuffed animal – an elephant for sawyer and chocolate-smelling bear for cayden (omg. the bear? i wants to eat it.). cayden struggled with the fact that he wanted the elephant for a bit... but i finally convinced him the bear smelled so. good. that he should have it. so he did.

jeremy and the nugget left for the day. and cayden and i started our mama/son day date. first up? a movie enjoyed on our couch. we tried out "where the wild things are." i really, really loved it. i think little man was confused though. he kept asking to watch "wild things." i think he must've been expecting a cartoon... but he quit asking about 20 minutes into it and paid attention.

after our movie, we headed out to target to pick up a few supplies to make a treat after naptime. then we were off to chick-fil-a for lunch! my plan was for him to wear himself out on the playground. after about two minutes on the playground, little guy came running out, all distraught looking. seriously so sad. i later learned that a boy had hit him, that it was an accident, that i needed to tell the boy "no-no!" and all was well. thankfully cayden still fell asleep on the way home. i squeezed in a little "breaking dawn" (don't judge!) during naptime, but had to turn off before it ended. boo.

we tried out the pretzel/hershey kiss/m&m treats i've seen floating around everywhere. one change for ours though – peanut butter m&ms. seriously, try it with those next time if you've made them before! cayden was such a great helper and really enjoyed getting to cook with mama. he had a little trouble unwrapping the kisses (admittedly, i did too), but we got it all together.

such yummy little boogers. a little salty. a little sweet. and oh-so-good!

listening? now that might be a problem!

little guy was completely blown away by the fact that both TVs were showing the same show. at the same time. confusion for sure!

we had cayden's follow-up appointment with the ENT today. unlike our first appointment there, this one only lasted about 30 minutes. we checked in with a nurse, saw another nurse who checked out his ears/tubes and off we went for another hearing test. the lady we saw this time was much more friendly and let us watch through a window while our big man played the hearing games.

my stomach started to sink when i could see her lower a decibel number, see no response at all from cayden, and then she'd slowly start bringing the decibels back up. i thought for sure our little guy had permanent hearing loss. jeremy and i just kind of looked at each other sadly and readied ourselves for the outcome.

in a surprise turn of events, the audiologist took the headphones off, put them on herself and then proceeded to ask when the last time the headphones had been calibrated. could it be? his hearing might be fine, just the equipment was faulty? our audiologist friend came out of the testing room and ran some different tests not using the headphones. & cayden responded perfectly!

"congrats, his hearing is perfect!"

whew. and yay! and then we were done. we don't have to go back until next february just to make sure everything is still looking good. and, if we have any problems with his ears, we can call the pediatrician or the ENT. know why that's good? co-pay at the pedi's office is only $30. the ENT? $50. i'm thinking this mama and daddy will be seeing the pediatrician in the event of ear problems.

this one.

oh, for sure that look in his eyes is exactly what you're thinking! this little guy, he's mischievous. but so smart. and witty. this morning he had a nice pee on the toilet. (what? we're potty training so it's perfectly acceptable to speak of pee on this here blog, ok?)

me: "good job on the potty, kiddo."
him: "i not kiddo. my name cayden allen."
me: "oh, well then good job, cayden allen."
him: "thanks."

and then he hops in the shower. like a big boy. the end.