Life with a Toddler

I must say, life with a 1 1/2 year old is an amazing amount of fun... and it completely wipes me out. Kaden is non-stop all day. From the minute he wakes up in his crib, he is chatting. I hear him on the monitor just talking away- sometimes I hear an "uh-oh" and find myself sprinting upstairs to make sure everything is okay. Most of the time, he has dropped his penguin or a chomper out of the crib. He usually wakes up pretty hungry and can get pretty whiny before breakfast is made. After he has some food in his belly, he is off. I typically have to "bopen" (open) the closet door so he can get to his "dahdoom" (vacuum) and the attachment. He likes to start off the day with a clean house, I suppose. He runs... runs... around the house screaming at the top of his lungs with vacuum in hand. Then he makes sure he uses the attachment to get to things he is not supposed to get to... the dogs, the counter tops, etc.



If I am cleaning up from breakfast, he will typically grab a few books and read them by himself. His favorites are "Am" (Green Eggs and Ham), "Go Go Go" (Go Dog Go... getting closer!), and Hippos Go Berserk. He is getting into Are you My Mother, in which he replies "Noooooo" when you ask him if the kitten, the hen, the dog, etc are the mommy. I'll get it on video. It's cute! I try to have something planned for the morning so we don't both go crazy. Typically we have errands to run so we are out and about for awhile. He is pretty good when we go out, especially if I have food with me. I think he would eat all day long if I had enough cereal to refill his snack trap.

We eat lunch around 12:30 and nap around 1. I am definitely ready for his nap by the time 1:00 comes around. He sleeps for 1.5 to 2.5 hours and then we start the afternoon all over again. Our house is a complete wreck by bed time, but luckily Kaden has been very good about helping to clean up his mess. One night I said, "Okay Kaden, we need to clean up before we go take a bath," and he started singing, "Meanup meanup" (clean up, clean up) like the preschoolers all sing. I learned Grammie sings that and so does Kelly at day care. I was shocked when he started singing that... I had no idea where it came from!

Kaden talks non-stop and learns new words every day. Today we drove past a grocery store with pumpkins out front and he yelled, "punkins!" without any hints from me. I told him we were going to Be-dazzled today and he said, "Mimi, Yeayah (Drea), Don (John)" We are still working on Steph- not an easy word to say.

His favorite things in the world are buses and trucks. He gets so excited when we drive by a bus. One day I chased one down in our neighborhood for him... it was very exciting. Yesterday he was standing at our front window and a school bus drove by-"Bus! Bus! Bus!!" Then he pulled Nic over to the window to show him.

Kaden knows the color yellow. We are currently working on blue. He likes to count things and usually says "Bus, tooo, eee" for one, two, three. He is getting better at using a fork... I honestly didn't have the patience for it, but figured it was probably time he stop eating with his hands. He'd prefer to use his hands at this time because he can shovel a lot more food in that way! Kaden loves stacking things. Today at lunch he stacked his string cheese rings. He can do a puzzle with only a little help! He knows most of his body parts (including weird ones like lips, tongue, cheeks, tushie). He is even saying a lot of them instead of just pointing to them ("eye, nose, mouse (mouth), gear (ear), beeps (feet), bips (lips) and keeks (cheecks)).

Kaden is very shy. It takes him awhile to get warmed up to new people, toys, noises, etc. I feel a little frustrated at times, but I have to tell myself not to push him... he probably gets that from me anyway! He is also a big scaredy cat, seriously. He gets scared really easily- today he was riding in a cart, and the wheel stuck and made a weird noise and he started crying! For some reason he is scared of coming down the stairs (not a bad thing, I suppose) and now he stops 8 feet away from them and won't walk toward them. No, he has never fallen down them or even gotten close to that. Yes, he knows how to go down them safely on his belly and pretty well walking down them holding on to the rail. Crazy boy.

Kaden now tells me when he has pooped... "Poop." We are working on going on the potty, which I thought was going really well. Now he'd prefer to take the potty apart than to sit on it. I hear it takes awhile with boys. I feel like if he did it once (and the potty started singing to him) he will always want to. We'll see!

Good news

Here is an email from my brother, Eric. Please be sure to check it out!!

Hey all,

Good news. We just got word that Chicago Public Radio will be featuring The Lacey Study on their show "Re:sound" this weekend. We're not sure how it will be presented, or how much of it, so I guess we'll have to listen to find out. The program is an hour long, and will air twice - once on Saturday the 26th at 1 PM CST / 2 PM EST, and once on Sunday the 27th at 9 PM CST / 10 PM EST.

You'll be able to stream the live broadcast here. Just click "Listen Now" when the time comes.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/default.aspx

And afterwards, the show will be available in the Re:sound archives here.

http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/re-sound.asp

18 month update

Our little boo bear turned a year and a half on the 8th!! Due to some changes with our insurance company, Kaden's 18 month doctor appointment wasn't scheduled until today.

Here are the stats:
Height: 34 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 27 pounds, 2 ounces (65th percentile)

Overall, Kaden looks very healthy. He impressed Dr. Dunlap by pointing to his ear when he took out the scope to look inside his ear! Dr. Dunlap also commented that Kaden must have a lot of girlfriends because of how good lookin' he is :)

Kaden was a good boy and let the doctor check out his heart, lungs, ears, eyes and tummy. I asked several questions regarding Kaden's personality- He's so shy (and overly cautious) around other people and I wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help him be more outgoing. Our doctor said that he would worry if Kaden weren't shy at all, and that it's probably a good thing to be overly cautious at this age. He also said that pushing him into situations might make it worse... So we'll wait it out!

They were out of the flu vaccine so we'll be back later this week for that.

Here are pictures of some happenings over the past month. Thanks to a suggestion from our neighbor Kelley, we headed up to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainsville on Labor Day. Mimi and Papa came with us for Mimi's birthday and we had a lot of fun. The problem with many zoos is that the animals are so far away and hard for Kaden to see. They had a lot of animals that were easier to see and I think Kaden (despite not feeling well) had a good time.

Here is a kangaroo with a baby in her pouch! I have been to a lot of zoos but don't think I've ever seen a kangaroo!


We got to feed the giraffes! Kaden was a bit shy (surprise surprise) but mom and Mimi had a great time!




Kaden feeding the goats


We also took Kaden to see Clifford!! We were very excited. They had a pajama party at Barnes and Noble and Clifford made an appearance. Kaden sat fairly still during the book... and then Clifford came out!!


And check out his reaction...


Not a successful night out.... But the good news is that Kaden still likes to read his Clifford books at home :)

Proud Tister

As many of you know, my brudher Eric moved to New York last June to pursue his dreams as an actor. I have honestly probably not been completely supportive because of selfish reasons- wanting him here with me!! But I really am proud of him as he has gotten several parts for plays, films and... this!!

It's a radio sitcom called The Lacey Study. Eric says (and I agree) "It is a really well produced show, that is very light, funny, and easy to listen to."

About a week ago they had a premiere "listening" that went over well. The pilot was sent to the BBC. Unfortunately, because the show was not produced or based on a British family, they did not pick it up. However, they did give it a great review, Robert Gallacher of BBC 2, saying that is "funny and really well produced - a great show!"

You can go to laceystudy.com and click on the red door. Then you can click the "listen" link and either stream the file or download it to listen.

Please help to get the word out and get as many hits as possible on the website. Eric plays Mitch Lacey, and in my personal opinion, is the star of the show :)

South Beach, Florida

So...

It's been a long time since Nic and I had a vacation. A long, LONG time. We decided that it was time to leave Kaden (for the very first time) and set out on a beach trip. It took us a little while to decide where to go. We are beach people without passports, on a budget. After much research, we found South Beach and booked our trip.

What a crazy place!! I've never been to NY but it reminded me of a tropical version of the city... Lots of crazy people screaming at themselves, taxis everywhere, everything is in walking distance and a lot of things I haven't seen since college :) We probably walked an average of 4 miles a day!! But we spent a good amount of time in the ocean, sleeping on the beach and napping too!

A view from the back of our hotel. Just past the pool was a gate which led right out onto the beach


Hotels line the beach for miles. We stayed on Collins (A1A) and spent a lot of time walking down Ocean Drive. So cool!!! Art deco hotels everywhere- it felt like we were in the 40s!


The Versace Mansion


You can't go to Miami without getting a cigar... and yes... we were sitting in front of Starbucks.


We found Dash- very exciting! We were on our Go Car tour, so we didn't go inside. Wonder if Khloe or Kourtney were there??


We went to the Holocaust Memorial. It was beautiful. This is a sculpture you could see from the street. It's a hand and up the wrist are people. Going to the memorial was really moving for both of us. "...Then in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank


Our Go Car. This was our favorite thing we did while we were there. It's a GPS guided tour which sits like a car but rides like a scooter. The accelerator, brakes, etc were on the handlebars. It was a 3 hour tour with lots to learn about the area. We even took it across the bay to Miami!! Not on the highway...


Hanging out on the beach our first day


And our last day


We were sad our vacation came to an end, but were SO excited to come home to see our boo boo bear. We did "see" him every day via webcam... but that's just not the same!!

Some cute stuff

I've done some painting here and there, but for the most part, I haven't been too busy since Father's Day! I've enjoyed the break so far, and have gotten a chance to do some cute plates for some family and friends (of friends)!

This plate was for a Be-Dazzled customer. I painted one very similar to this with Kaden's prints at 1 week old!!


The next 3 plates I painted for my sister in-law, Alicia's family. We did Josh's prints when he was up here in July! This one was for her mom:


This if for her dad. She told me that he likes to barbeque and her step-mom loves different kinds of wine. I haven't done a steak before but I think that plus the A-1sauce came out really good!


This is my all time favorite!! How cute is that cow?? I may have kissed it when it came out of the kiln... :)


These next 3 were for a friend of a friend. We did footprints with some funky stars on a to go coffee mug for her:


And Cowboys with the little footprint into a football for him. The Cowboys star is on the other side of the mug.


This came out fabulous! It's a fishing mug for Grandpa with 2 footprint fish:



And polkadots for Nana:


Check out my new hot pink! Love it!!

We are still alive...

Yes, you read it, we are still alive. I'm not sure what happened to me, but I have been an anti-blogger lately. I feel a bit guilty about it since I know a lot of our friends and family from out of town look at our blog to catch the ins and outs of our days. And it's not like I stopped reading other people's blogs! I read about moms who work full time, moms with multiple kids, moms with sick kids, etc, etc etc... How do they manage to blog all the time and I can't seem to get it together? Oh well. I guess you will have to forgive me for my laziness lately.

On a more positive note, Kaden has been doing some pretty cute things lately:

-The other day we walked into the house after a morning walk and he said, "gunk guck." After saying, "what??" a few times he pointed to our living room at his.... dump truck!! I feel like this is the first time he used an adjective and noun together.... I know that sounds weird, but before that, it would have just been "guck"- truck.

-Kaden loves singing songs now. I will try to get a video of some of the songs he sings. If I ask him what he wants to sing, he will say "baber" [spider] and clasp his hands together like a spider. After we are done, he says, "bus" and we sing The Wheels on the Bus. He puts his hands up and says "swsh" when the wipers go swish swish swish. After bus he says, "na ma na ma." This is no more monkeys jumpin' on the bed. He puts his pointer finger up in the air and waves it back and forth. Too cute.

-He still loves books. We read books ALL DAY LONG over and over and over. His favorites these days are... of course Go Dog Go which he now says "Go Go" instead of "Ba Ba Ba?" He also loves The Magic String which was a favorite of mine when I was little.

-He loves his pups. He now calls Max "Mah" and still calls Roxie "Dotdy." When they are playing, he runs up to them and tells them to "bop" the ball. Most of the time, they listen and he throws it for them to catch. The other day we went out to get the mail and Max had walked to the front door with us. Kaden turned to Max and said "Tay" [stay] and proceeded to walk out the door.



-He occasionally says "cheese" when you ask him to smile. Here is an example:


-He makes Nic vacuum. Seriously.



Anyway- I think that's all for now. I'll TRY to keep it together and update more often. Kaden has his 18 month check up in a few weeks. Can you believe he is almost a year and a half??