Beach Trip to Kitty Hawk

Caed, Mom and I went to Kitty Hawk Tuesday through Friday of this week while Brad was out in Seattle at an Acts29 Boot Camp. What a fun time! This was Caed's first summer beach trip! (He's been to the beach on 4 other occasions -- once last November with our Community Group ... he was only 3 months old, and then twice to Oak Island before Mom moved ... both times were too cold to really enjoy the beach.) So, this time was really exciting.

Being that Caed still takes 2 naps a day, our time at the beach was somewhat limited ... however, the time we had was great ... any more time and we probably would have gotten burned or would have run out of ways to entertain Caed, even though the sand, birds and all the people are very fun to look at.

The water was still pretty cool and was pretty rough (compared to what we normally see in Oak Island), so we spent most of our beach time in the sand ... Caed was very content with that. (He wasn't so sure of the water at times, but here and there, he got more comfortable with it and did his share of splashing.) At one point he was splashing so much that I didn't realize that he had dropped his paci and before I knew it, paci was floating away! Luckily, I saved the day and rescued poor, wet paci ... Caed was thrilled!

Here's a video of Caed in the sand (None of his splashing footage came out real well):


Here are some pictures from the trip:

Farmer Caed

Well, he's not really a farmer, but he does love his little green John Deere tractor that the Mayhews got for him before he was born. He has grown in his interest for it over the past month or so. It all started with his fascination for the black wheels. He would just sit beside it and spin the wheels round and round with his fingers. Then, he got to the point where he could tip the tractor over sideways as if he we inspecting it for needed mechanic work. He's still very much interested in the black wheels and turning it sideways ... but he has progressed to be able to sit on it and move backward ... yes, backward, not forward. (That's what all farmers need to know how to do when they plow their fields, right?)

Here's a video of his talent from last week ... he was trying to show off for Ms. Pam:

Caedmon is 9 Months!

In the midst of our Asheville news, I forgot to mention that our little Caed turned 9 months on Sunday!
We have his 9-month well check-up tomorrow, so I'll update his stats then. But for now (before I forget), here are some of his 9-month milestones:

Weight: 23 lbs., 3 oz. (85 percentile)
Length: 29.5 in. (85 percentile)

New Foods: Kiwi, Grapes, Tofu, Apple Juice (mixed in his morning cereal, not in the sippy cup unfortunately), Broccoli and Tahini

New Activities: Caed's main mode of transportation these days is the ROLL, but there's definitely the occasional army scoot that I think will morph into a crawl very soon (we said that last month, but we'll see :). He's very content with rolling though, because he can go just about any where he wants to go. (He even made his way under the coffee table at community group a few weeks ago.)

Here's a shot of him in Asheville this past weekend:


Caed also pulled up for the first time on the footstool two days ago, which was pretty exciting. And you can see from the picture above that he is beginning to enjoy his little tractor. (Thanks Lewis & Toccoa!) He can sit on it and "steer" and occasional move backward as he scoots his feet. We can't be too far away from him though, because after a few minutes he'll begin to teeter off.

In addition to his mobility progression, Caed is also very interested in his plastic books these days, particularly Hello Bee, Hello Me and Baby's Peak-a-Boo. He loves to flip the pages and suck on them as he goes. They're great carseat and stroller entertainers!

Caed is also becoming skilled in his high-fives. If you hold your hand out to give him five, he'll give one right back.

New "Words": About two weeks ago, he started his "Ba, ba, ba" chants and as of this weekend, he progressed into, "Ma, Ma, Ma." I would like to believe that he's refering to me, but I know better ... one day!

While Brad, Caed and I were waiting for mom to try on clothes in Asheville this weekend, Brad and Caed were sitting in the rockers out front and Brad would say, "What does the turtle say?" and Caed would follow by pulling in his lips and smacking them. Here's a video:

Asheville?

A couple of months ago, Brad and I decided that we'd go to Asheville to celebrate our 5th anniversary in June. (We try to take a trip a year around our anniversary to just get away.) But as the events started piling up on the calendar for June, we realized that it was going to be tough to get away. So, a week and a half before Memorial Day weekend, we thought that we'd try to move the trip up to Memorial Day weekend. (At the time, I hadn't looked at the calendar and I thought we had a little more time to plan .... Since when was there a week left in May after Memorial Day?)

Any way, we started planning away and mom had agreed to watch Caedmon for the weekend (our first over-night trip away), so on the Monday before, we decided to make sure that Caedmon would be ok drinking from a bottle instead of nursing (he still nurses 4 times a day). So, that afternoon before his 5pm nap, I tried the bottle and there was no success, just screaming, crying, squirming and sweating! Later that evening before bed, Brad tried the bottle a second time with Caedmon and he experienced the same thing.

What the heck were we going to do? Since mom's only 15 min. away, we thought that she could try to get him to take it, especially if I wasn't around, so I called her at about 10:30pm Monday night and arranged to bring Caedmon over Tuesday morning. I took Caed over to mom's to put him down for his first nap that morning and the plan was for him to sleep over there, play when he woke up and realize that I wasn't around, so he'd know that there was no chance for milk except from his bottle. This attempt, however, was again unsuccessful. Mom tried again 2 more times that day (from a bottle, a sippy cup, a spoon) ... nothing worked. Caed still ate his lunch and a good snack that day, so he didn't starve, but there was no hope for the bottle. So, by the end of the day, we were coming to the realization that we wouldn't be going to Asheville after all.

Brad and I were pretty disappointed. We hadn't put a whole lot of effort into planning, but we were still very excited to go away just the two of us for the weekend, so we were trying to come up with other scenarios that would make it work out. We came up with three options: 1) Take Caed with us, 2) Since mom had offered to watch Caed anyway, why not see if she would want to come along and watch Caed in Asheville while we went out during the day and enjoyed an evening or two out on the town, or 3) Stay in Raleigh, but have mom babysit a night so that we could go out. Thinking about staying in Raleigh was definitely a downer since we had already planned to be out of town, so we thought through options 1 and 2 carefully and decided that option 2 would give us the most flexibility to enjoy our time in Asheville -- just the two of us. So, as romantic as it sounds, we ended up going to Asheville to celebrate our anniversary with Caed and my mom, but it turned out to be a really great weekend! Thanks to mom for being so gracious to come along with us, along with Tucker & Champ, and hang out with Caedmon at the house while we went out and enjoyed Asheville Saturday and Sunday!

When we first arrived, Brad took me up to see the Grove Park Inn. I had definitely heard about it from all the spa ads that you see on TV, but when Brad got to stay there for a restaurant show he was in this past February, I wanted to go and see what the hype was about. Wow, what a gorgeous place! The weather was just perfect when we went, so we strolled around the property, through the main lounge, onto the veranda overlooking the spa and view of Asheville. There was a wedding just beginning on the left veranda, so there was nice music playing as we strolled down the steps to the little waterfalls. Then, as we were about to leave, we grabbed a seat in the rocking chairs by the enormous fireplace (how neat to be there in the winter with the huge fire blazing!) and then we thought we'd have time for a quick drink ... it definitely wasn't a quick drink, but it was so relaxing to just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

That evening, the 4 of us were planning to go out for dinner to Barley's Taproom, but Caedmon was way too tired to make it, so Brad took mom over to the Fresh Market to pick up a salad and sushi and she ended up staying home with Caed so he could get to bed. (Thanks!) So, Brad and I ventured to Barley's alone and enjoyed some good beer and pizza. Then, we stopped by the Thirsty Monk to enjoy another beer after dinner. What a neat little place!

Then, on Sunday morning, we got Caedmon all situated and we headed toward Hot Springs for a day of hiking and sightseeing. We ended up spending most of our day on the Laurel River Trail. It definitely wasn't a very strenuous hike -- all fairly level -- but it was fun to venture out onto the rocks into the river. We picked up lunch from the deli at Ingles (what an experience) and ate out on the rocks, partially under my umbrella (well, just me ... Brad braved the rain).

After a few hours of hiking, we turned back and drove through Hot Springs and up the winding mountain road to Max Patch. This was only a small portion of our day, but it was one of the neatest parts. The views were just amazing and the light breeze and moderate temperature felt heavenly!

Then, after we finally found our way home ... mountain roads can be tricky to navigate sometimes ... good job Brad ... we headed home to clean up and enjoy and evening out at Salsas!! (Our favorite!!!) (Funny thing, when we got there, we ran into Mark (Brad's brother) and Jed. We knew they were in Asheville for a backpacking trip, but didn't get a chance to connect with them to see what their plans were, so it was nice to run into them briefly.) If you haven't been to Salsas, we highly recommend it. The atmosphere is neat and the food is fantastic ... Mexican/Carribean ... yum. This time around, Brad and I shared a nacho appetizer (w/ pork ... yum) and the Cuban Mojo Steak ... yum, yum, yum and I washed it all down with a delicious margharita. We were definitely living it up!

On Monday, instead of getting up early and heading out as originally planned, we ended up sticking around and enjoying downtown Asheville -- Brad, Caedmon, Mom and me -- the fun window shopping that you can do there.
What a fun weekend! It was really nice to get away and be out of town when the entire purpose of the trip was to do just that -- get away. Thanks again, mom for being such a huge help with Caedmon ... we had a really nice time celebrating our 5th anniversary a few weeks early!

A Weekend "Away"

It feels like we just got back from vacation ... kinda, but we were only 15 minutes down the road. Mom was out of town this weekend in Hilton Head for her annual DG reunion and Brad, Caed and I headed over to her place to watch the dogs and do some other odds and ends around the house. It was amazing to us how nice it felt to spread out. When you've lived in a 1000 sq. ft. duplex for almost 7 months, when the original plan was to be there no more than 6 months, you begin to feel a bit cramped. Maybe it's not even the smaller space, but rather the layout and our inability to casually hang out outside or hang out as a family in more than just the "family/dining/laundry/kitchen" room.

I feel bad for complaining b/c I feel like I was fairly content about a month ago, but since we've been spending more time at Mom's, I realize what life use to be like when we had more space. Plus, now that the weather is nice on most days, it's difficult to enjoy being cramped up indoors without easy access to the outside. (We can obviously hang out on our front porch, but there's always the constant hum of Wade Avenue traffic .... And we could spend some time in the backyard, but the landscape crew has forgotten about our property and the grass is a bit gnarlly.) These are all reasons why Caed and I escape most days and venture to the park or for a long stroll around the neighborhood ... all of which we would enjoy even if we didn't feel the NEED to get out.

But as we were hanging out this weekend at Mom's, it was just a nice change to be able to grill out hamburgers on the back deck and enjoy the fresh air outside ... and to be able to enjoy the company of friends with plenty of space to spread out ... and to be able to lay in bed with more to look at than the four walls around us and a nice view of the backyard. Thanks for the weekend "get-away," Mom!

My First Mother's Day

Last year, I got a rose at church on Mother's Day since I was already a mommy to the unborn Caedmon in my womb, but this year it was for real ... I am really a mommy and I'm so thankful to have this blessing in my life!

And what a lucky mommy I am! Caedmon and Brad woke up and made a delicious breakfast of strawberry crepes .... yummy, yum, yum, yum! (Caedmon had to take his 9am nap of course, but he dictated his wishes to Brad and Brad carried them out :). Then, we met my mom and brother at church and spent the rest of the day with them over at mom's house. This was the first mother's day in a long time that all 4 of us, now Caedmon, were together ... it was very special!

As I was getting Caedmon up from his early afternoon nap, I noticed an envelope in his pack-n-play that said "Mommy". I opened it and found an adorable card and some really cute pictures of Caed and Brad. (Brad wanted to give me some pictures of Caed and me, but those pictures are very hard to come by since I'm usually the one taking all the pictures.) Here's the one that I like the best:
(It was taken right before we went to Pullen Park on Saturday ... the boys and their red hats.)

As I thought about being a mom yesterday verse 28 from Proverbs 31 continued to come to my mind: "Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her." Not that I'm solely seeking blessing and praise from Caedmon and Brad, but the thought that on this day in 40+ years, I want to be able to look back over my life, see how God has grown me and shaped me into the woman in Proverbs 31, see how He has enabled me to raise and care for my family well, teach them of the glories of God and love my husband well. To be able to know whole-heartily that my family loves Jesus and chooses to use their lives to glorify Him because of how God shaped them through their years at home will be amazing! This is my prayer. And for all of you moms out there, I pray this for you as well.

Happy Belated Cinco de Mayo!

In case you missed my Facebook update yesterday, here's a picture of Caedmon celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
As you can see, he has his trusty paci and cellphone in hand. I was actually trying to bribe him with the phone so he'd take his focus off the hat and let me keep it on his head long enough for a picture. Sadly, the long strings and weight of the hat were too much and it took me several shots to even get this photo :). (Notice his hand placed strategically under the side brim, ready for a quick jerk to take it off.)

After C's "photo shoot" in the morning, I decided that in honor of Cinco de Mayo, it would be fun for us to have a fun Mexican-style dinner. So, I busted out my Mexican cooking magazine and went directly to my rabbit-earred page in the middle -- sweet potato stuff aneheim peppers ... yum! I added all the ingredients to my grocery list, but once I realized all that I had to do before dinner, I realized that the stuffed peppers weren't a realistic option ... so, I decided to get the majority of the ingredients for the peppers and make some type of quesadilla filling instead. If we wouldn't have had the scary threat of a tornado, dinner would have been ready on time, but it was still quite delicious. If I'm allowed to toot my own horn, these quesadillas were some of the best I've made ... sweet potato and black bean ones that is ... emmm. I feel that lately I'm becoming more comfortable mixing a variety of flavors together ... it makes my experimental cooking more fun and a whole lot more successful. That's at least my opinion, should you probably talk to Brad and see what he has to say about the matter :)