Look where we were last year at this time!
Today's a busy day, so I'll have to continue this post later this week. But until then, take a trip down memory lane.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Caedmon is 1 Year Today!
Happy Birthday Caedmon! Can't believe that it's been a year!
Look where we were last year at this time!
Today's a busy day, so I'll have to continue this post later this week. But until then, take a trip down memory lane.
Look where we were last year at this time!
Today's a busy day, so I'll have to continue this post later this week. But until then, take a trip down memory lane.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Proof
Last week I mentioned that Caed is making great strides in the walking department, but since our camera and video camera are on the outs, I didn't have a video to show the proof of his progress. But now, thanks to Brad's phone, we do have the proof! The quality is obviously low, but at least it's something. Enjoy!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Getting Back to Business
Brad called just a few minutes ago to let me know that we're back in business at the 909 House. The plumber, HVAC guy and I think a foundation guy (so technical, I know) were at the house today with our contractor to look it over before they begin another round of work tomorrow. (The weather is suppose to be great for most of the day too!) Plus, the house next door, which burnt down a few months back, was "officially" bulldozed and the construction crew will come to pick up the pile of rubble tomorrow.
One problem that we were dealing with was trying to figure out how we could economically dig out the scattered pavement and stone in the backyard without having to pay $1500 to get it hauled away (including the dump charge as well). Since the demolition next door and our next round of work will be happening on the same day, our contractor is going to try to pay the construction crew next door to haul it away with their rubble!!! Cross your fingers and pray that this works out. It'll save us a lot of money and trouble later on!! (It's amazing how God works things out like this!)
For those of you that haven't been following our house sauga off-line, here's a quick run-down: Not too long after initial demolition, we felt that God was leading us to change the scope of the house project and take the addition we had planned to add on to the back of the house out of the project -- giving us a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house instead of 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an extra living space in the back. Typing this out makes the previous plan sound excessive, but the plan was to have this house be a long-term place for us, where we'd have room for guests and additional kids down the road. Now, our new plan doesn't change that hope too much, it just forces us to get a little more creative and ultimately trust that the Lord knows what's best for us. The process of changing this plan was tough. It took us going back to the bank, the contractor and the architect and pleading our case. (All of the paperwork had already been submitted for loans, contracts, etc.) But to make a long story short, God was good! He gave us favor with all of the parties involved, and although we still have a long way to go before we can have a final product and see how God worked everything out, we know that He will provide for us ... regardless of what that looks like. And through it all, God has strengthened our faith and our dependence on Him and has grown our marriage like never before.
Even though growing hurts, we're thankful that we've been able to go through this process. We hope that this will be the last road block in the completion of the house, but if it's not, we'll get through it and just trust God.
We'll look forward to keeping you posted on the house.
One problem that we were dealing with was trying to figure out how we could economically dig out the scattered pavement and stone in the backyard without having to pay $1500 to get it hauled away (including the dump charge as well). Since the demolition next door and our next round of work will be happening on the same day, our contractor is going to try to pay the construction crew next door to haul it away with their rubble!!! Cross your fingers and pray that this works out. It'll save us a lot of money and trouble later on!! (It's amazing how God works things out like this!)
For those of you that haven't been following our house sauga off-line, here's a quick run-down: Not too long after initial demolition, we felt that God was leading us to change the scope of the house project and take the addition we had planned to add on to the back of the house out of the project -- giving us a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house instead of 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an extra living space in the back. Typing this out makes the previous plan sound excessive, but the plan was to have this house be a long-term place for us, where we'd have room for guests and additional kids down the road. Now, our new plan doesn't change that hope too much, it just forces us to get a little more creative and ultimately trust that the Lord knows what's best for us. The process of changing this plan was tough. It took us going back to the bank, the contractor and the architect and pleading our case. (All of the paperwork had already been submitted for loans, contracts, etc.) But to make a long story short, God was good! He gave us favor with all of the parties involved, and although we still have a long way to go before we can have a final product and see how God worked everything out, we know that He will provide for us ... regardless of what that looks like. And through it all, God has strengthened our faith and our dependence on Him and has grown our marriage like never before.
Even though growing hurts, we're thankful that we've been able to go through this process. We hope that this will be the last road block in the completion of the house, but if it's not, we'll get through it and just trust God.
We'll look forward to keeping you posted on the house.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
More Steps ...
Caed has increased his mobility by several steps over the last few days. We were at church for a little while last night, 1) To meet with our contractor about the house, and 2) To participate in the "Pray for Favor" evening. While we were in the back room talking with our contractor, Caed decided to step away from the comfort of the wooden benches and venture off into the middle of the room by himself. Then, he just stood with a slight wobble, saying "ohh, ohh" and sat down. It's so crazy how quickly he's progressing! Sadly, we haven't been able to get any of this on video because our camera is broken (we've sent it in for repairs) and I can't find the battery charger for our video camera (Caed and I are going to buy another one today). I'm hoping to capture some of this in the next few days so that we still have some 'first steps' footage. (Actually, I take that back, we do have some early footage of him lunging toward Brad or me a few weeks ago, when he'd take one step or two steps with his arms out wide and lunge for us. I'll have to find that one and post it soon. But it will still be fun to capture some of his latest developments as well.)
Friday, August 7, 2009
A Tongue Like Mommy ...
Caed has been using his tongue a lot more this week, and as of yesterday, he started sticking it out when he's concentrating on something. Sounds strangely similar to someone else you may know .... And no, it's not Michael Jordan. He'd have to watch old VHS of the Dream Team or Chicago Bulls for that. (That may be where his mama got it though :).
Coldplay Concert Raleigh
I was waiting for this for almost a year (and at the time I didn't even know they'd be coming to Raleigh) ... yep, it was the Coldplay concert last night ... what a great show! I definitely have a place in my heart for Coldplay, especially since almost a year ago, little Caed entered this world to the tunes of Viva La Vida streaming from our iPod setup in our labor & delivery room ... and to kick off his birthday month, we got to go see them in concert, how cool!
Caed stayed at GG's last night, so unfortunately he didn't get the chance to experience Coldplay first hand, but it sounds like he had a fun evening just the same hang'n with GG, Champ and Tucker. He e
ven ended up having his first slumber party ... what more could an 11-month-old want? Brad and I had planned to pick him up after the concert and just transport our sleeping baby from GG's back home. But when the concert traffic didn't allow us to get home until after midnight, we decided to let Caed just stay over, and it worked out great! (Except for the fact that he woke up at 6:30 am ... meaning that I had to drive over to bring his breakfast at 7:15 this morning and then take him home.) Oh well, all in all, I don't mind a bit ... this slumber party opened doors for many new possibilities and marked the 2nd successful night that I didn't have to nurse him to sleep ... he just drank his milk from his CamelBak and went to bed (well ... and with a little cuddling on the couch with GG and a few minutes of TV.)
But back to the concert ... we had a really great time. We went with Jason and Amy and then ran into Jumbo and Lisa, so th
e company was great, and we even got pretty good lawn seats (well, until we found out that the 2 people sitting in front of us were saving seats for 5 more people, all of which had lawn chairs to sit in ... but we ended up standing for the 2-hour Coldplay show any way, so it didn't really matter.)
I haven't been to too many concerts in my life, but I think this one has been my favorite so far. The music was obviously great,Chris Martin is a great entertainer, and the videography and lighting effects were really neat. Plus, we even got a free CD, Left Right Left Right Left. It's a great compilation of the songs they're singing on this tour.
Here's some of the footage:
A Sneak Peek of Viva La Vida (my camera isn't working correctly these days, so I couldn't zoom ... just enjoy the music (and the girls singing next to us):
A Sneak Peek of Lost:
A Snippet of Billy Jean Cover (they actually played at a remote stage half way up the lawn for this one and a few other numbers ... very cool):
Caed stayed at GG's last night, so unfortunately he didn't get the chance to experience Coldplay first hand, but it sounds like he had a fun evening just the same hang'n with GG, Champ and Tucker. He e
ven ended up having his first slumber party ... what more could an 11-month-old want? Brad and I had planned to pick him up after the concert and just transport our sleeping baby from GG's back home. But when the concert traffic didn't allow us to get home until after midnight, we decided to let Caed just stay over, and it worked out great! (Except for the fact that he woke up at 6:30 am ... meaning that I had to drive over to bring his breakfast at 7:15 this morning and then take him home.) Oh well, all in all, I don't mind a bit ... this slumber party opened doors for many new possibilities and marked the 2nd successful night that I didn't have to nurse him to sleep ... he just drank his milk from his CamelBak and went to bed (well ... and with a little cuddling on the couch with GG and a few minutes of TV.)But back to the concert ... we had a really great time. We went with Jason and Amy and then ran into Jumbo and Lisa, so th
e company was great, and we even got pretty good lawn seats (well, until we found out that the 2 people sitting in front of us were saving seats for 5 more people, all of which had lawn chairs to sit in ... but we ended up standing for the 2-hour Coldplay show any way, so it didn't really matter.)I haven't been to too many concerts in my life, but I think this one has been my favorite so far. The music was obviously great,Chris Martin is a great entertainer, and the videography and lighting effects were really neat. Plus, we even got a free CD, Left Right Left Right Left. It's a great compilation of the songs they're singing on this tour.
Here's some of the footage:
A Sneak Peek of Viva La Vida (my camera isn't working correctly these days, so I couldn't zoom ... just enjoy the music (and the girls singing next to us):
A Sneak Peek of Lost:
A Snippet of Billy Jean Cover (they actually played at a remote stage half way up the lawn for this one and a few other numbers ... very cool):
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
A "New" Play Area
So ... I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my previous post or not, but Caed is in to EVERYTHING. The house has been baby proofed for a while now, but there's only so much you can do to keep him away from floor lamps and electrical cords ... especially in our small place! (I even rearranged the living room furniture to barricade off the lamps and cords, but he was still squeezing by!) So, toward the end of last week, I was at my wits end ... it was 7:30pm, Brad and I had just finished dinner and Caed was hanging on our legs to get our attention as we finished eating (between this and chasing him from lamp to lamp and taking him away from the entertainment cabinet) ... I was exhausted! Brad and I came to the conclusion at that moment (thanks to suggestions from my mom) that Caed needed some boundaries, and we couldn't agree more.
Brad immediately scoured the Raleigh Craigslist and Amazon.com for good deals on super play yards. We had priced them out about a month ago, but didn't think they were totally necessary ... so we didn't get one. It may have been a good idea then! As I was on the phone with Erika to get the name of the brand they have (they use theirs outside while they're doing yard work), she mentioned that since they were heading out of town, we were welcome to use theirs for the week ... what a blessing!!! We drove over immediately and picked it up.
I couldn't advocate more for boundaries now. The "new" play area or cage (ha) is wonderful and Caed does really well with it. He's obviously not in it all the time, but when I'm in the kitchen cleaning up or getting a meal ready, it's perfect. He can just sit down or stand or scale the walls of the play area and play with his toys, and I don't have to worry about the things he's getting in to. Or, even when I'm eating my breakfast or he's finished with his dinner and we're not quite done yet, it's a great place for him to go to have his space. But even last n
ight, we had about an hour to play before he went to bed, and the two of us (Brad's in California for work) just sat in there and played. We'd play together for a bit and then he'd venture off into the corner to play by himself. It's so wonderful and I don't have to constantly pull him away from the things he's not suppose to be in to or be on all-day "NO" patrol. This way, I can save my "no's" for the times when it's really important and as he gains a deeper understanding of what "no" means, and how he's suppose to listen and obey his parents, we'll be able to make greater strides and not get frustrated over the things that he doesn't quite get yet or that we can't figure out how to communicate yet.
Plus, I think the play yard, in addition to his morning reading time, will help him develop a sense of independence and reduce his "clingyness" in this stage of life right now.
By the way, Caed's wearing his new soccer jersey in the picture above that we got him the other day. I think it's sooo cute ... and he and Brad wore their white jerseys to church on Sunday. :)
Brad immediately scoured the Raleigh Craigslist and Amazon.com for good deals on super play yards. We had priced them out about a month ago, but didn't think they were totally necessary ... so we didn't get one. It may have been a good idea then! As I was on the phone with Erika to get the name of the brand they have (they use theirs outside while they're doing yard work), she mentioned that since they were heading out of town, we were welcome to use theirs for the week ... what a blessing!!! We drove over immediately and picked it up.I couldn't advocate more for boundaries now. The "new" play area or cage (ha) is wonderful and Caed does really well with it. He's obviously not in it all the time, but when I'm in the kitchen cleaning up or getting a meal ready, it's perfect. He can just sit down or stand or scale the walls of the play area and play with his toys, and I don't have to worry about the things he's getting in to. Or, even when I'm eating my breakfast or he's finished with his dinner and we're not quite done yet, it's a great place for him to go to have his space. But even last n
ight, we had about an hour to play before he went to bed, and the two of us (Brad's in California for work) just sat in there and played. We'd play together for a bit and then he'd venture off into the corner to play by himself. It's so wonderful and I don't have to constantly pull him away from the things he's not suppose to be in to or be on all-day "NO" patrol. This way, I can save my "no's" for the times when it's really important and as he gains a deeper understanding of what "no" means, and how he's suppose to listen and obey his parents, we'll be able to make greater strides and not get frustrated over the things that he doesn't quite get yet or that we can't figure out how to communicate yet.Plus, I think the play yard, in addition to his morning reading time, will help him develop a sense of independence and reduce his "clingyness" in this stage of life right now.
By the way, Caed's wearing his new soccer jersey in the picture above that we got him the other day. I think it's sooo cute ... and he and Brad wore their white jerseys to church on Sunday. :)
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