playing in malibu

These weekend was off the radar HOT, and we decided to escape to the beach in search of cooler temps and some refreshing clean air! We introduced Kaden to Malibu, and took him to Zuma Beach, which is the beach just next to where we were married! It was wonderful to be there with the little guy, and he was super excited to see the water again! Even more so, the ginormous sandbox was absolutely heaven for him! I set him down in the sand and I swear he never stopped smiling. He loved running the sand through his fingers and pouring it out of the bucket. daddy took him down to the water, and at first he was so excited, but I think the roar of the crashing waves was just a wee bit too much for him. He was so curious, and you can tell he really wanted to love it, but he just may need lots of practice with going to the beach....many more visits to come!
















we put so much sunscreen on poor kaden's hair, he was sportin this awesome 'do when we got home, and did not look too happy about it!



Here's Kaden showing off his new swim shorts, a super sweet gift from our neighbor that doesn't speak a lick of English, but is utterly enchanted with Kaden! She absolutely adores him, she comes outside and yells stuff to him in Spanish everytime she hears us walk by. We can't understand a word of it, but I'm sure it's all very nice!

I have bought Kaden three bathing suits that he has never wore, mostly because he grows out of them so fast, but also, how do they fit over the lil swimmer diaper??? It seems ridiculously uncomfortable for him, so we have always opted for him to wear just the lil swimmer. We put this lil red suit on him, so that the neighbor would see him in it, and that we could thank her for it. I thought that maybe we could try it without a lil swimmer since he was only going to be going in just for a lil bit. Just after taking this pic, I carried him downstairs, and sure enough, he peed on me. It must have felt just a LITTLE too free for him! Next time, I think we'll go back to the lil swimmers.





this is a few weeks old, but too cute not to post..






I have also been trying desperately to get video of Kaden crawling! He has been crawling a little bit, but at turtle speed. And then just the other day, I brought him home from daycare, and put him on his playmat, and he did this little spiderman move and crawled at lightening speed after simon....look out kitties, here he comes!

I grabbed the camcorder immediately after and tried to capture it...of course I had to throw my water bottle across the living room floor to inspire him.

we miss you mamaw!

Mamaw came to visit for the weekend and we had so much fun! It was really sad to see her go....

we had so much fun at the park! If you look close, you can see that Kaden's shirt says "stud puffin". She brought it back from Alaska for him, and it is just too cute for words!






check out the back...stud puffin petey paws!!!



kaden also crawled forward for the first time while mamaw was here....so happy she got to witness it! I'm sad that our camcorder was totally full at the time and I he is a little camera shy about crawling for the camera! Here is a little video of me attempting to get him to crawl. Mind you he is utterly exhausted and is soooo not in the mood.




mamaw brought the coolest xxylophone (how on earth do you spell that?) for kaden! He loved it!



we also went to kaden's favorite restaurant pitfire, where he loves to bang on the table!






sometimes when it's just nugget and me home for dinner, I entertain him while he eats! Had I know it would have been recorded, I would have worn something cuter that did not make me look like a hippo! just listen to those wonderful giggles....

recession proof toy

Kaden has been bursting out of his infant carseat for some time now, and I was going back and forth looking for the perfect "big boy" carseat for him for months! He hated his infant seat so much, that I was determined to get something ultra comfy for him. After so much amazing feedback from everyone, it seemed in our best interest to go with Britax. I went back and forth about which style to get, and settled on the Marathon when they were having a crazy sale on Diapers.com! I really wanted to get the Cowmooflauge print, but Chad being the animal rights lover that he is, felt like it was disrespectful to cows. Insert smiley emoticon here, because that is one of the many reasons I adore this man! So we went with the Black Onyx instead. The chair sat in our living room for about two weeks, and we finally had a chance to get it in the car. It turns out that Kaden is not a HUGE fan of this seat either, I think he is against the idea of being restrained in any way, he is too much of a free spirit!



here he is munching on a carrot...his new favorite teether.



I can't believe how tiny he looks in this humungous seat!

So even though he doesn't LOVE the carseat, he sure does love the box! Daddy helped make windows in his new fort, and he could not be happier in his box.






sharing the fort with his "brothers"





sloooooooooow down little man. You are growing up too fast!



showing off his new BamBam tee.

Happy 8 months Kaden!

he was not too happy about doing his monthly portrait session on the bed...



Can I just sit in front of the air conditioner please? much better....




Dear Kaden,

Today you are 8 months old! I say this every month, but it's all going by soooo fast!!! I try to imagine the first time I saw you in your itty bitty incubator, and I try to hang on to that feeling of first meeting you. But then I think about how amazingly BLESSED I am to know you and how proud I am to be your mommy, and I love you all the more exactly where you are in life!

What a precious lil nugget you are! You charm the pants off of everyone you meet, your smile can brighten anyone's day! You get so much attention, and you just EAT it up, just like I want to eat you up everyday! I just love your chubby little legs and your pudgy toes and your precious lil tushie! Your giggle is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. And you LOVE to laugh, especially with daddy, he makes you laugh the most amazing laughs! I hope I never forget these precious little squeals that you make...they are definitely my most favorite sounds in the whole world! You are vocal, happy and I can tell you already LOVE to flirt with the ladies!

You aren't quite crawling yet, though you do crawl backwards a bit! You want to crawl so badly, but you just can't seem to get your right leg to straighten out when in your crawling position, I can tell it's frustating you! We thought maybe the hardwood floors might not be giving you the traction that you need, and our little playmat just wasn't cutting it for you, so daddy surprised you with this ABC playmat for your happy day. I took this pic of you when we came home from "school" and you saw it on the ground...it's nice and padded and I'm hoping it will help you move in the right direction...



You absolutely love to hang onto things and stand, if you could, I think you would do this all day!


You are so smart....Margaret (your wonderful daycare provider) says that you try on other kids shoes at daycare, even though you have never even worn a pair of your own shoes yet! You LOVE the pool, especially now that daddy found you the perfect boat!


you absolutely love to splash in the pool!



Along with your amazing musical talent (see bongos and tamborine videos), you adore banging on just about anything at all, hearing the different sounds you can create! We went to Pitfire pizza cafe last week in NoHo, and you were ecstatic about the metal tables!





look at my two front teeth!!!! You also have two teeth coming in on top, and I can tell these are some little toughies...I just hope they cut through soon, and then hopefully you can get a lil breather from chomper hell!



we spend this weekend indoors trying to protect your precious little lungs from the smoky air outside due to all the raging wildfires in the area. Even though we really try not to let you watch tv very often, we put in The Little Mermaid and got cozy on the floor and cranked the air conditioner.



You also love your new fun dinosaur puppet book that TT Nan sent you!!!!



Happy birthday sweet baby boy! I can't wait to see what this next month brings!

love,
your mommy

three years

Three years ago, I married my soulmate and we celebrated our love with a small group of our family and friends. A certain special angel parted the clouds at just the right moment when we were saying our vows and the sun danced on our faces as we started this new chapter as husband and wife. Three years ago...who could have known that this amazing little human being would bless us with so much happiness?




we spent the weekend doing lots of snuggling and having cozy time since nugget was still hurting quite a bit from his newest chomper. We went for a hike yesterday up in Fryman Canyon and he absolutely loved looking at all the trees and feeling the fresh air on his face!

I love his little tiny precious hands on daddy's shoulders



daddy teaching kaden about the sky and the clouds



our feeble attempt at a family portrait



and some other kaden randoms...


a random precious daddy and kaden self portrait that may be my new favorite




pulling himself up from his duckie tub to peek out at daddy




so excited to read the newest O mag



kaden in his birthday suit loving his new melissa and doug blocks



riding in the big boy cart with his new cart cover



cruisin around trader joes



I spy something that does not belong....