One last catchup story

Kaiden is the first grandchild for both my parents and Mike's parents. He's the first GREAT grandchild for my mom's parents and for Mike's Grandma Krupa. So inevitably, there'll be quite a bit of spoiling and loving for the little man! I don't' want to forget the many blessings we received when Kaiden was born. Both Mike's immediate family and extended family have sent cards and gifts galore to welcome our son!

When Kaiden was born, he was very blessed to have Mike's grandparents, parents, brother, sister, and brother-in-law here to meet him. Mike's grandparents and parents were both quite generous! The great grandparents bought us a jogger stroller/car seat combo. It's so deluxe and perfect for our mountain town home! Mike's parents also blessed us with a baby swing, a pack-n-play, and the funds to get a very nice backpack as our diaper bag. Here's a few pics of Kaiden's great-Grandma and Grandpa Sinclair and his grandparents: Nonna and Grandpa.

(Mike's Grandma and Grandpa Sinclair with Kaiden)

(Mike's mom and Kaiden)

(Mike's dad and Kaiden)

A week and a half later, my grandparents were able to bring my mom with them for a visit to meet the new grandson/great-grandson. My mom stayed with us and was super helpful with dishes, laundry, and rocking Kaiden lots. She brought Kaiden several books to start on his collection. She's a librarian and finds amazing deals on book selections. My dad couldn't take anymore days off this year because of a back surgery he had. So he didn't get to meet Kaiden on this trip.

(My mom, me, and Kaiden)

(a four generation pic)

I enjoy a great friendship with my grandparents (Nanny and Papa). They've always been very involved in my life since I was little. It was a treasure to see them meet their first great-grandchild. They spoiled us too in helping us buy Kaiden's nursery furniture and the wonderful Baby Bjorn carrier. This was the first time my family had been able to come back for a visit since the wedding (which was a whirlwind/busy time). This time we were able to take walks downtown, a drive to Silverton, and eat at Serious Texas-which all Oklahomans that visit seem to LOVE. I was still so very tired, sore, and adjusting, but it was a good time overall. I felt very loved they took the time to come meet our son!

This January Kaiden gets to meet my brothers and sister-in-law: Uncle Zack, Aunty Meg, and Uncle Joe! It'll be very exciting to have them come here! Kaiden is very blessed to have family in his life who love him dearly.

Ahh, my 7th grader

Today I took my 7th grade class to Starbucks to enjoy a tasty beverage out of the classroom and discuss life and a homework assignment! There's only one girl in my class, and with the questions she was asking me it seemed like she didn't order on her own much. After we hashed out ideas, she started to tell me what she wanted and started to hand me her money. So I told her ok, just tell the person behind the counter what you just told me, and YOU give them the money. It was her first time ever in a Starbucks! Crazy, huh? I suggested a hot chocolate to her because she wasn't really a coffee drinker. Thankfully, she had drank hot chocolate before. Whew!



So as we are in line, we're standing in front of the pastries, and I am recomending different ones to her (I used to work there and did lots of sampling-yum!). After I pointed out a few I thought were delicious, she said "So that's why you brought us here, so you could eat all of these. Ya know, my older sister eats stuff all the time she shouldn't eat."



I'm thinking but not speaking: Say what?? Oh honey...



I nicely replied that I wasn't going to get anything to eat, just a drink. I honestly think she thought I was going to mow down on pastries!

My cup runs over

Tonight, Mikey is at work. While Kaiden has been awake in between naps this evening, we've been singing... worship songs, silly made up mommy song, and Christmas songs. I have to introduce Christmas songs to him at a young age because of how much we LOVE Christmas!

So what does Kaiden do? This evening every time I have started to sing to him, he starts to "coo" right along with me, and his eyes just sparkle. It is the most precious thing, and my heart has melted into a puddle all evening. When I stop singing, he stops coo-ing and just sits there gazing at me. He's singing WITH mommy! I've got to get it on video; this is something I can't forget.


My cup runs over... as does my love for our son.

My never ending girly project

A woman's hair...is a forever project! At least in my world. I think the majority of women do this, but I'm always looking for new ways to cut/color my hair. My latest dilemma? I've been growing my hair out for sometime, and it's long and healthy now except... I never fix or wear it down! I always put my hair back because of my new lack of time (due to motherhood) and my hair takes forever to blow dry, especially being longer. That's my big complaint about thick hair, but at least I'm not balding. For that, I'm seriously thankful. Anyway, up here in the dry Colorado air, I can't quite get the natural curl going like I used to sport in Okie country. That's the ONLY nice thing about humidity is the plus for curly hair. So now I personally like my hair straight , but it takes way too long these days.

The solution? A fresh hairdo! I'm consider a longer bob but then I can't pull it back at all. Maybe something a bit past the shoulders instead, or maybe just a healthy trim? Whatever I do, it needs to be something that I can fix easily. That's why my thought is to lose some inches because then it doesn't take as long to dry and my CHI straightener does a kick-A job to straighten in minutes! I shouldn't do something too short because double chins are quite prevalent in my family, and I still need to lose a few baby pounds in the next few months. I've also read that heart-shaped faces should stay away from choppy layers (definitely!) and blunt cut bangs, instead I should do a side-swept bangage (is that a word? sound kind of kinky?)

Mikey will chuckle reading this because I'm always threatening/brainstorming about my hair...chopping, going blond, getting bangs. Blah, blah, blah. I'm all talk! I myself am amused because I'm realizing it will probably be a life process to find the hairstyle that makes me happy simply because my life will always be changing; therefore, my hair will be too. Right?

I'm really not a vain person, just a nearly 30 year old (gasp!!) needing a new 'do and what better way to brainstorm than to blog, mainly to amuse myself! Tonight, I think it's relaxing to write.

Here's the style I like the best so far. I might do a longer version of it, not the color. I also bought a hair mag from Walmart today. I'm a visual type of girl and need a pic. A week from Tuesday, we'll see what happens!!

A chill Halloween this year

Last year, a lot of our friends got together for a slammin' costume party for Halloween. Mikey and I made our own batman and catwoman costumes. They were p-retty sweet if I say so myself. We had great food and great fun!!

This year, life is a bit different. With having such a little guy, we didn't have the time or energy to make costumes or plan a party. Friday night we had a few (too many for our small house we found out) couples over to make home-made caramel apples and hang out. Saturday after we got home from helping with the DFRA candy booth at the mall (SO many cute kid costumes there!) Mikey and I made dinner, watched movies, and carved pumpkins at home. It was a super enjoyable chill evening with my little family. Funny how life changes, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

The guessing game

So I have to admit...about a half hour after blogging a doting post about my son, he then began to meltdown for the rest of the day and well into the evening. I then began the guessing game :)
Mike had gone to help his dad work on putting up his new shop before the next snow comes. So Kaiden and I spent the day together. I had to get lesson plans done for the week. I start back teaching on Wednesday.
Yesterday morning we went to church. Kaiden dozed off during worship but then woke up during the sermon and wouldn't settle back down. So that's the first nap interrupted and shot. Then I fed him when we got home, and he fell asleep for a 30 minute nap and wouldn't settle back down again. From there it was all down hill. In fact, my nerves were shot by the time Mike got home because I had never had Kaiden seriously freak on me that badly. He got so worked up whether I held him or laid him down.

Of course I went through the checklist and so begins my guessing game...

Was he hungry? nope, he had a great full feeding

Was he wet/dirty? nope, just changed the d before putting him down

Was he in pain? really didn't sound like it, but I gave him a bit of gas medicine in case it was something I ate to make his tummy hurt

Did he need to burp? nope, tried that several different times

Did he want to be unswaddled or swaddled? no clue, he cried either way

Was he exhausted? YES! Beyond exhausted because he usually naps an hour and a half at each nap and hadn't had one of those from 10 am to 8pm.

So my final conclusion, come today, was that he was so tired he didn't know what he wanted AND possibly had a tummy ache after all. He had a couple of poopy diapers in the middle of the night that were had a tad bit of green tint, which means something probably did upset his tummy. Maybe it was his being so worked up? He slept awesome all night and is napping better today, but I'm not going to dote too much because it's only 1 in the afternoon and he could prove me wrong, as cute as he still is :)

And so the guessing game continues...

There's nothing like...

There's nothing like sweet sleepy/awake smiles that instantly melt your heart...

There's nothing like starting to hear a little boy's voice "coo", especially when he snuggles his head on my shoulder and let's out a sweet *sigh*...

There's nothing like having a husband who loves to play with our son, gets up in the middle of the night to help me when I need it, changes diapers, gives K baths, cooks, cleans, and still takes time to snuggle me. He takes such good care of us...

There's nothing like watching cute little feet start to kick, kick, kick in the air ...

There's nothing like still loving to watch Cheaper by the Dozen and still tearing up when Mark runs away and his dad finds him on the train, headed toward his favorite place back home. There's probably more tears on that part now that I'm a parent and imagine that happening...

There's nothing like praying together over Kaiden each night when we put him down to go to sleep...

There's nothing like having a son that takes after me in more ways than one. This morning he sneezed and farted at the same time, twice. So happened to me in a college class. So loud and embarrassing... I'm so proud?