Almost a Year Old!

Things have been pretty busy around here! Most of my time on the computer has been swallowed up by my newfound hobby--creating invitations and announcements (and 1 business card and 1 t-shirt graphic) for a ton of people!! I made Kamden's birthday invitations and then a couple people needed help with theirs and that led to me creating a grand total of 8 birthday invitations, 1 graduation invitation, 6 birthday Thank Yous, and the 1 business card and the 1 t-shirt graphic. I am LOVING it!!! I would put up pictures but I am pretty sure that everyone who reads my blog is also my facebook friend=)

I opened up a shop on Etsy, but I haven't put anything in it yet...waiting until after Kam's birthday party this weekend. It is stressing me out just thinking about it!! I'll be baking 2 of the layers for his cake tomorrow evening, 2 Thursday, then my sister is coming to help me put it all together and decorate it on Friday, my parents are coming on Friday for the weekend...we have family coming from out of town and are expecting between 40-50 people at his party! I am so excited! I just want it to be the best ever!

Kamden still isn't walking...or really even showing any attempt to! He still sits down as soon as he realizes he is standing on his own. He discovered the stairs at his Mema & Pawpaw's house a few weeks ago and now that is ALL he wants to do when he gets to their house! He is pretty quick, too. But he dives headfirst to go down. He pretty much dives headfirst to get down from ANYTHING. Kaleb asked me the other day (as he was diving off the bed), "Do you think he realizes that we are the reason he doesn't hurt himself when he lunges off of stuff?" I sure hope so. His next statement was something to the effect of letting him fall one day to teach him not to do it. I am 97% sure he was kidding! Haha!!

Speaking of Kaleb...my sweet husband...yesterday he went grocery shopping with me (HUGE deal for me), and today he went to Beaumont after work to pick up Kam's birthday gift from us AND he went to Hobby Lobby AND Michael's looking for cake stuff for me!!! And last week he, out of the blue, ordered the cutest phone cover for me! Sigh...I really do have the world in this one here!!! I love him so!

So, Kam will be a year one in less than a week. I am trying not to think about it. Or about the fact that I'd planned to have him weaned by then...he only nurses about 3 times a day and gets 2 sippies of formula at his sitter's...I am trying to figure out what to do next. I know a lot of things say that he will wean himself when he's ready and he still climbs up, assumes "the position" and starts nuzzling me when it's time to nurse. I am not quite sure how I'm supposed to tell him no???

Oh, that's another thing. Before now, Kamden would only really cry, I mean all out, tears streaming down, cry, when he was in pain. Well, now he has added "hearing the word 'No'" to that trigger list. Man. He really enjoys throwing food on the floor after he's finished eating. We say no. Sternly. And he starts working on the tears...the mouth turns down first, he turns red, and then the tears come. Sometimes it takes him a bit to work them up, but he sure does it big!! What a mess.

He also can say "Mama," "Dada," "bah" for ball, and "Nah-nah" when he's hungry. He waves bye-bye and occasionally blesses the person being left with a quick "Bye!" We swear we've heard him say "Eh-wa" for Ella, but he won't do it on cue. He loves singing "The Wheels on the Bus." He slaps his hands on top of one another when we sing it to him (his Nonna (his sitter) taught him that one!) and yesterday he actually did "Deep and Wide" for me! Well...he did the deep part. I was proud! This weekend we also discovered that he can catch a ball! I kind of flipped out when I saw it. I wish I would've recorded it!

He refuses all forms of baby food as well as food that's hotter than lukewarm. He loves fruit (oranges, peaches, and strawberries are his favorite) and his sitter tells me he loves veggies, too! He is a big fan of grilled cheese and loves brisket. When given a choice, he's chosen red meat over any other option at the time. He still loves his yogurt, goldfish, and animal crackers.

He gives big, wet, mouth-wide-open sugars when we ask for them most of the time. However, if he's holding any inanimate object (a stuffed animal, a picture, a pan) he will give it sugars every single time! And he kisses himself when he sees his reflection in a mirror. Tonight he also started giving me eskimo kisses...he doesn't quite grasp them yet, I don't think, because when I try to go nose-to-nose he just opens his mouth wider. Ha!

He's gotten so good at putting himself to sleep. We'd fallen back into the habit of rocking him to sleep, and we wanted to be sure to nip that again, and the last few nights he's gone down without any fuss. Tonight he talked for a while, but not in a whine or anything. I think he was probably saying his prayers.

I know this has been long, and it's basically been all about Kamden, but it's mainly for my records.

I have an Ella story! No picture of it because we haven't seen her since it happened...she cut her hair. I mean she cut her hair. It is short. I mean short. She'd been saying she wanted a haircut and her mom made her an appointment...but our girl is more of a proactive person, a "right now" kinda gal, so she took matters into her own hands. I promise I'll post pics of it after the birthday weekend!

(Pre-hair cut!)

We went up to see her weekend before last and were able to take her to Hodges Gardens...she pretended to be our hiking leader. She did a great job!

This is a picture of my dad and Kamden. Somewhere there is a picture of my Pappaw holding my dad on that same piece of petrified wood (which you cannot see, but trust me, my dad is sitting on it!) at Hodges a lllooooonnnngggg time ago. My goal: find that picture!!! Either way, this one is adorbs!

I think that'll do it for this update. I will (hopefully) be back after this fun-filled weekend!!