Forged with Love

Ok, okay, it’s been more than 10 days since I posted…I get it!

The reason for the delay is, well, LIFE! I started back to school last week with meetings and then this week with kids. It’s been a VERY busy 2 weeks. I truly don’t know how working moms do it. I’m exhausted at the end of the day, and all Caden and I do is come home! I can’t imagine having to get her home, do homework, get her fed, and off to a practice of some sort…much less doing that with more than 1 child! The house is in complete disarray, the laundry is piled up, dishes are constantly dirty…and that’s just our life right now and we’re dealing with it.

In the last blog I mentioned that we were going to start feeding Caden some new foods. We chose to start with sweet potatoes and then moved on to apples. Here are two quick videos of how those went. Sorry about the video quality…Chris accidentally dropped our video camera, so we are having to use our phones until we can fix the camera. As you can see by her huge cheeks, she doesn’t really turn down many foods.
**I am having trouble getting the videos off the phone to work in iMovie. When Chris has a chance, I’ll see if he can figure it out. Sorry!!!**

We did have to put a hiatus on the new foods though. It seems Caden caught a bit of a stomach virus so we haven’t been testing her stomach until she gets over it. Our babysitter told me last Thursday that Caden had some diaper rash. By the time Friday morning came around, it was gone and Caden was fine. Then Friday night, the (TMI ALERT!!) yellow, watery poo started. That lasted all Friday night and Saturday. Sunday she seemed back to normal so we didn’t think too much of it. Then, Sunday night, she had TERRIBLE diaper rash…I’m talking blisters and all. She also went from 1-2 dirty diapers a day to 4-5.

All of that lasted until Tuesday afternoon when I called the dr. and they said to alternate using Lotramin and Dr. Smith’s diaper cream and that we should see some improvement in 24 hours. We did that until this morning, and when her rash hadn’t improved, I called the doc again. We took her in this afternoon and upon seeing the rash, the doctor listed the 2 “normal” rashes that he sees, and then moved on to Caden’s. He said the stomach virus is causing the messy diapers, which is in turn causing the rash. So, he recommended a probiotic (OTC) to get the “good” bacteria back into her belly that’s been washed out by the virus. He also said to just feed her cereal (a no-sugar diet) until her diapers get back to normal. He said the rash won’t improve until her dirty diapers start to get back to less frequency and less runny. So, we’ll see what happens in the next few days. I feel bad that she’s going from normal, tasty foods, back to bland cereal only.

Anyway, I guess that’s about it for now. Chris’ family is coming into town next weekend for Labor day and we are so excited. We are going to take Jordyn to a water park while Cindy stays home with Caden. It will be a nice break for mommy and daddy, even though we LOVE spending every minute we can with our sweet girl. I hope to get some pictures and post them here. Someone call me and remind me…you know I’ll forget!!

Have a great night!!

Can I say just one more time how much I LOVE our Magic Bullet?! It has made making baby food so ridiculously easy I can’t even believe it. I would like to say that this is the last time I’ll mention it, but it’s probably not.

We used the bullet to make some different foods for Caden this week. I’ve been doing the same veggies (peas, green beans, corn, lima beans, peas/carrots, and mixed) that we started with because of vacation and honestly, just laziness! Caden DOES NOT like lima beans. So her “no eat” count is up to 2 for those of you who are counting. If that’s it so far, I’ll take it!

This week we made bananas, sweet potatoes, and apples. We have only introduced the bananas to her so far. As you can see from the first part of the video below, she LOVES her bananas! You can also see from the second part how impatient she is when you don’t feed her fast enough. She IS her Daddy’s girl!

Tomorrow will be her third day eating bananas, so I’m thinking on Sunday we will introduce something else. I’m not sure if it will be the sweet potatoes or apples yet, but we’ll definitely get a video.

I can’t believe how much she is growing!! It makes me so sad to look back at pictures of when we first brought her home and see how tiny she was and how much she’s already changed. I looked at her last night during my nightly “check in” and couldn’t believe how big she looked laying in her crib. She takes up more than 1/2 of the length now. She’s also started to make more sounds. She now babbles the “words” da-da, la-la, and na-na. She also likes to sing along to the music in the car…or maybe she’s telling me to stop singing…I’m not sure yet. Either way, she’s growing up a lot faster than I thought she would in just 7 months. To steal a line from my sister’s blog, “I’m already starting to feel the tug in my heart that 18 years with her just isn’t going to be enough!”

On another note, I have read (almost) 3 books from the suggestion list you all made in this post at the beginning of the summer. I have read The Case for Christ, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, and I am almost finished with Jesus Among Other Gods. I have really enjoyed the books about Christ, and the Husband book was okay. It had some good points to it, but as Kim said, several parts made me groan. I am hoping to get started on Mere Christianity either this weekend or next week. With school starting next week though, I’m not sure how long it will take me to read that one.

To finally wrap up this “other things” part of the blog (I know y’all only really come to see Caden, it’s okay!), I think I have made a decision on the baby front. The decision is….PRIVATE! Hahaha!! No but really, there’s no point in saying when we are or are not going to start trying for baby no. 2 because all that does is create anxiety and questions. When it all boils down to it, no matter what WE have decided, God has the final say and I know that. Thanks to everyone who reminded me of that in the last post….I need constant reminders that my life is not in fact mine, but HIS.

Love to you all!!

Well, I’m back to thinking about things. You all know me, so you all know this is not good. Hehe! I can’t make a decision to save my life. When I was pregnant with Caden, Chris and I talked about having another baby when Caden is 18 months old. Now that the time is here to really start thinking about it, I’m not so sure. It’s not that I don’t want another child. I definitely do! It’s just that I always question things.

I’m not sure about the timing. I wonder if we do have another baby this coming summer, how will it go? Will Caden be old enough to “help” with basic things? Will it be too much work to have 2 kids under 2? We can’t afford 2 in daycare so I would stop working when the second child comes along. Will we be able to make it with Chris’ income? Should I work 1 more year after this one? Will that force us to put off our hopes of a new home in the near future? I don’t know…

I’ve thought about waiting until next summer when Caden’s 2 and a 1/2 to have another baby. I’m just not sure I want to wait that long! I already miss Caden’s newborn stage, and while I know that’s not really a great reason to have another baby, it makes me want the next one even more. If I’m honest, I miss being pregnant and knowing that God is growing a new life for our family. I’m ready for that…but am I ready for 2 kids yet??

Anyway, for all of you seasoned moms out there, what are your thoughts on the spacing out of your kids? Do you like the age difference between them? Wish they were closer together or farther apart? I’m really asking about when they were young. I know as they grow things get easier, but think back to when they were babies. Would you change the timing or keep it the same?

Thanks for letting me ramble, sometimes it’s just what I need. Make your suggestions now!

Today our sweet baby girl is 7 months old. It feels like she just turned 6 months old yesterday! I don’t have her monthly Mr. Moose picture because we are in South Padre and we didn’t bring Mr. Moose with us. With all the other things we had to pack to travel with a 7 month old for 9 days…he just couldn’t come. Caden celebrated her “birthday” today by staying up to party until 9:45. Baby girl just DID NOT want to go to sleep tonight. We originally put her down at 7:45, but after almost 2 hours of screaming, mom and dad gave in and gave her another bottle, played with her a while, and walked with her to calm her down. She’s now (hopefully) down for the count!

While we were driving Friday and Saturday Caden had her first taste of mixed veggies. I didn’t get it on video because we were traveling, but she does like them! I didn’t intend to give them to her, since they have green beans and lima beans mixed in and she’s never had those before, but it’s what was in the container and didn’t need to be thawed out. She still hasn’t tasted green beans or lima beans by themselves, but that’s coming by week’s end. I’ll try to remember to get it on video for you.

Here are a few pictures of Caden at the beach. She’s definitely NOT a fan of the ocean. The waves scare her. She does like the sand, however, and surprised both Chris and I by not even trying to eat it! We will go swimming in the pool again tomorrow (she’s been on hiatus for the past 2 days due to diaper rash) and I will try to get some pictures of that for you all as well. Hope everyone is doing great!

Right before going out!

What she did the whole time

Sitting with Daddy before deciding she didn't like the waves

Mom, stop taking pictures already!

The little hole she made.

Well, we tried yet another vegetable tonight- corn! Caden LOVED it! From the first bite she was hooked. Here are a couple videos for you to enjoy.
Here is her first bite of corn. You can see how right after the first bite was down, she was ready for the next one!

Here is something she just started doing yesterday. After every bite, she has started putting her thumb in her mouth. I don’t know if she thinks something will come out of the thumb or what, but after the bite is down, the thumb is out and she’s ready for more food. When she started doing it yesterday, I just held her hand to prevent her from making a mess (the food just runs down her arm), but after she made a mess this morning with the thumb/food combo, I just let it be. I guess she’ll just eat like this for a while.

She is starting to show the beginning signs of crawling. She gets up on all fours (well, 2 knees, a hand, and an elbow to be exact) and rocks back and forth. She’s getting really good at turning herself around to get something that’s by her side or behind her. Half of me is hoping crawling is coming soon and half of me isn’t. I find that I’m already missing her newborn stage, but can’t wait to see what she learns next. I know once she starts to crawl she’ll be much less inclined to let me hold on to her whenever I want to. Sadly, she’s already showing signs of this by pushing away from me at times. Anyway, I hope to get a few more videos of her in the next weeks, and maybe she’ll have learned something new by then.
Love you all!