There is a sacred haven for little ones and their parents in Silver Lake, it's called Naya's Garden. The wonderful Boceks introduced it to us about a month ago, and the first time we went, Kaden and I were completely smitten! We went on a Friday, when the music man was there, and Kaden stared googly eyed at him the whole time. He absolutely LOVED it, and loved all the fun instruments they have out for the kids to play. Chad took him yesterday for their daddy day outing, and met up with Mike and Hanna and the lovely Mama Bocek! Yay Mama Bocek for having her camera and taking AMAZING photos!
his "wings" on his lil do are so out of control! I couldn't help but put a lil santa hat on his head with the help of photobucket to try to tame that bedhead.
Hanna attempting to teach Kaden the art of bouncing
Yesterday was such a fun day! It started off with a Christmas brunch at Margaret and Miguels house (Kaden's daycare providers). It was such a nice time and so much fun to spend time with some of the other mommies and daddies and to see all the little ones in action together! Miguel is an absolutely AMAZING chef, and we absolutely stuffed our faces! We rode in Daddys truck, and it was such a treat to have nugget behind me facing forward in his carseat. He looked so HAPPY! It is not reccommended to have babies ride facing forward until 12 months and in my car, I plan on going as long as possible with him rear facing, as it is more of a safety issue, but he definitely loves facing forward and being part of the action! Because of Chad's truck and the way it is laid out, he needs to face foward. I don't worry so much about him facing forward in Chad's truck cause it is basically a TANK and he doesn't drive on the freeways with him and basically only goes shot distances. I took a slew of pics of him riding behind me yesterday, partly because I couldn't get enough of him, and also because I wanted to capture his new GREEN eyes, or at least they looked super green yesterday! Bye bye Blue!!!!
We started getting Xmas presents wrapped and Kaden loved going through all of our andom Xmas stuff! Where on earth we got so many red, green and white balloons, I have NO idea! But they certainly made for a fun day. Kaden can't get enough of his balloons!
After playing with all the Xmas stuff, Kaden took a late nap. The problem with late naps, is he gets super annoyed and groggy when he wakes up and usually has a tough time going to sleep at bedtime. He slept FOREVER and we were nervous it was going to be too late to visit Santa, and knowing that next week would be absolutely chaos at the malls, we decided to gracefully wake him up. Everyone knows you should not wake a sleeping baby, and the few times I have, I've experienced the wrath of Kaden. So daddy decided to go into his room and quietly serenade him with his electric guitar. The look on his face was priceless, and I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of it! He stood up and looked at him in absolute wonder, and was not cranky one bit. So we got him ready, and we were off to the mall, which of course was a madhouse. Santa apparently took a smoke break and there was a sign on his chair saying he wouldn't be back for an hour. So we thought for sure, he would be annoyed (kaden HATES the stale mall air!)and would have a meltdown when it came time to meet the man. So we waited and daddy took him on a ton of escalator rides (his new favorite), and we stood behind the sweetest little boy in line to meet santa. He was one month younger than Kaden and super sweet. Santa finally came back and we were almost ready to meet him! We watched the little boy in front of us go and sit on his lap and scream in absolute TERROR! I felt so awful watching this little guy and it took everything I had not to rip him off the scary mans lap! I decided that if that happened with Kaden, we were not going to wait for the photographers to take 2 dozen pics of him screaming his head off....we would snap a quick one and off we would go! To my surprise, it did not go that way at all! Kaden was absolutely content sitting on this strange bearded man's lap and was curious as can be about him! Chad had to shoot this video from afar, because they had strict rules about camera/video use, but you can see how calm and content he was! Chad started shooting just after that little boy calmed down after a whole 6 minutes of him losing his mind, but you can see his little traumatized face. There's also a few pics that Chad attempted to snap from a million miles away that didn't come out nearly as good as the overpriced mall shot!
It's no secret that I have been trying to work on Kaden's dance moves for a while now. Ever since I saw that little girl on you tube dancing to the Beyonce tune, I've wondered if he has the dancing gene too! Lately, he has been working on his moves whenever someone plays the ABC song on his baby cd player. He has always been obsessed with this song, it has saved us during meltdowns in the car since he was only days old! Whenever he starts to lose it, we start to sing the ABC song, and all is zen again. So it is no wonder that this is his tune of choice for working on his skills! I wish we got a better video of the dancing machine, but this gives you a glimpse! More to come soon....
Kaden was ecstatic to meet Grandpa Miller this weekend! Kaden has been experiencing a little stranger anxiety lately, so we were not sure how he would react to Grandpa, but he instantly warmed up and knew he was Grandpa! We spent the weekend showing Grandpa around...playing at the park, dinner at LaLas, travel town (it's becoming a regular weekend event!)and we made sure to get grandpa to our favoite beach and biker joint for some amazing seafood! We had an amazing time with Grandpa, and we were all sad to see him go! Until next time Grandpa....
a visit to traveltown
horsie
lounging
yum yum
boy plus balloon plus box equals heaven
El matador beach. Super high tide...the beach was almost non existent!
and finished up the afternoon at kaden's first biker joint, neptunes net!
How is it possible that you are almost a YEAR old? 1 year. It's just so hard to believe it has all gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday your daddy and I were washing our hands at the ginormous sanitizing sink before going into the NICU to see your sweet little face. I have been thinking about those first few days so much lately. How fragile and vulnerable you seemed. I laugh when I remember how many times I called the nurse in the middle of the night the first night you stayed in our hospital room. I'm sure she thought I was a bit nutty, or maybe she is so used to it with first time new mommies, but I remember not being concerned what she thought, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.
This month, you have truly come into your own. You are talking SO much, you have at least a dozen different smiles, and you are truly one feisty little boy! You learned how to smack your lips when you eat this month, and I have to say it is the cutest thing I have ever heard! You also say mama and dada very clearly now, and tat for cat. Simon is your best friend, all I have to do is say his name, and you get a big smile on your face and you look for him. You perfected your wave and also your clap this month!
This was the month we decided we had to give sleep training a try, even though I was sure it would be traumatizing for both you and I. It was a difficult first couple of days, but you started sleeping for MUCH longer periods of time, and you could see such a difference in you in the mornings. You are now sleeping through the night! Just over the past week, you have gotten so comfy with going to sleep on your own, that you wave goodbye to me when I kiss you good night, and you have chat it up with yourself for about 5-10 minutes after I turn off the lights and have left the room!
I have to keep this a little short, as I am writing you this letter while you are sleeping in the backseat of the car! You are not very excited to be waking up in your carseat, so I am going to go free you.
I love watching you grow!
I love you nugget!!!!!! Love, your mommy
here is a video of you playing with your best friend Simon
and this is an amazing video that my nephews and niece put together for my birthday...I had to share it because they are just the most amazing kids!!!!
There is so much to be thankful for this year, I cannot even begin to put it in words! I would try, but sadly I am sicker than a dog while writing this, and I can hardly even focus on the keyboard!
Here are some pics we took yesterday at Disneyland! We went for my birthday, and we were probavly only thee for about three hours, but we had a wonderful time, and Kaden made a new mouse friend.
~taking it all in on main street
~this was the expression pasted to his face for the first hour or so! This is us in front of Cinderella's castle.
~meeting a new friend.
~I'm not sure what on earth I'm doing in this shot, but how cute does Kaden look?
~kaden trying to get me out of bed on thanksgiving morning, soooooo sick!
