Future Baseball Star?

From the looks of Caed's LEFT-HANDED throwing arm, a future baseball star might be in our midst. It all started a few weeks ago when he and I were sitting on the floor attempting to roll a ball back and forth. Although it seemed as if it were an accident when he pushed the ball back to me ... after several consecutive rolls, I realized that everything he was doing WAS intentional. Now, he can roll several different sized balls back and forth, and has graduated to throwing!


As you can see, he throws smaller balls fairly well, but when it takes two hands to throw, he can't quite get it out of his hands in time to throw forward.

It's funny how impressionable Caed is right now. We were at the pool yesterday, and we were playing with a 3 1/2-year-old girl and she wanted to play catch with Caed's ball. What an arm she had! She would take the ball over her head and launch it forward. I would catch the ball for Caed and then he would do the best he could releasing it from both hands. (The ball was too big for one hand.) Later on that evening at community group, we were playing on the floor and low and behold, guess how Caed was trying to throw the ball? With both hands over his head! Unfortunately, he didn't have the same outcome as the little girl and the ball fell behind him each time. But the look of determination on his face was priceless.

Look What Caed Can Do ...

Almost immediately after we returned from Atlanta last Monday (6/31), Caed hit the floor crawling. Then, just a few days later his steps were getting a lot more steady for walking. (He was taking steps with us as we held his hands and cautiously scaled the couch to the footstool and vice versa. He even pushed the stroller around the backyard last week while I steered.) But once we stopped to visit Erika and Mason on Monday and Caed got to use Mason's push cart, it was all downhill from there. Mason decided to push his little car cart around the house and Caed took off right behind him pushing the other cart (a little less certain about the turns than Mason). It was sooo cute! I wish we had a video.

Erika let us take the cart home and look what he's doing with it:

Earlier yesterday morning before I took this video, I left Caed in the living room to play while I made a pitstop. I heard faint whimpering and so I said, "Caed, I'm in here buddy, it's ok." And low and behold, a few seconds later, he pushed the cart out of the living room, halfway down the hall and into the bathroom to find me ... doding Aslan's food and water dish. I was so proud of him for coming to find me, but when I really think about it ... now that he's found me once, he'll be sure to find me again, and I'm afraid that my few minutes of privacy are over!

This isn't related to walking, but I took this picture yesterday and thought it was a classic Caed face at this stage in life. (Funny, I have a picture from our Puerto Rico trip, April '08, of me making a similar face. I wonder where Caed gets this from?)

Splish Splash

We bought a new pool for Caed yesterday. He loves the water and played in a similar one with Mason at the Lizotte's house a few weeks ago, so we thought that it would be fun to have one of our own to use in "our" backyard. We have quite a bit of space out there, but with a 10 month old, you can't just hang out back there with nothing to do, so for the summer, a pool is a great option.

Caed loved the pool, but sadly the mosquitoes loved Caed too. We'll need to figure out a solution for this before we go back out there. But ... we still had fun today!

When Caed had enough of the water, he decided it would be fun to push the stroller around the backyard. All I did was stand behind him to make sure he didn't have any major spills, and he did all the walking himself! I can't believe it! He's growing up SO fast!

Wow, Look at Caed Go!

In my previous post, I mentioned that Caed is now crawling. It's funny that the day he finally starts moving on his knees is actually the same day he starts making more progress toward walking as well. I guess he just wants to leave his options open when it comes to mobility!




In addition to crawling, Caed is also getting around more quickly on his tractor too. Check it out:


Notice that he's even making the appropriate sound effects too! Way to go buddy!

Trip to Atlanta // Caed at 10 Months

Caed and I were in Atlanta Wednesday through Sunday of this week while Brad, Dad, David and John had their 1st Annual "My Three Sons" Fishing Get-Away in Destin, FL. (Here's David's account of the trip.) We'll have to let Brad give you an update on the fishing trip, but here are some fun details about our trip to Atlanta.

During our trip, Caed hit his 10-month mark and it seemed like just over night that he acquired new skills. Here are his most recent milestones:

• Picks up grapes, in addition to Cheerios, to feed himself
• Transitions from laying, to sitting, to standing in his crib completely unassisted
• Crawls from one point to another (this just happened yesterday)
• Pulls up on furniture and toys and stands while holding on to something
• Takes several steps at once while holding on to something
• Understands "all done" and can make the sign when he's finished eatting
• Does most of the hand motions for "Pattycake" (thanks for the lesson Grandma)
  
• Two more teeth surfaced and a third is on its way, giving Caed a grand total of almost five teeth!
  

(Caed was quite fragile this week mostly due to his teething ... who wouldn't be if you had three teeth coming in at once!) But aside from that, Helen, Grandma, Caed and I enjoyed our time together and thoroughly enjoyed watching Caed hit these new milestones.

The first time I realized that Caed could "walk" was when we were in the dressing room at Dillards waiting for Grandma to try on some blouses, and just as I got Caed out to stand and hold on to the stroller, he started to push the stroller down the hall of the dressing room! Who would have thought? Here's Grandma's reaction:









Caed was so proud of himself!

Then, after we left Dillards, we headed over to Babies 'R' Us and Helen bought Caed his first pair of Pumas. They're awesome! Thanks so much Helen! While we were trying shoes on, I had Caed stand up and hold on to Grandma's wheelchair (we just had her ride in it while we shopped so that she wouldn't overwork herself). While he did this, he decided that since he pushed his stroller earlier, he would try to push Grandma in the wheelchair. He was however unsuccessful, but he certainly had the right idea in mind. What a sweet boy!

We stayed pretty busy the five days we were there, and it was nice because Helen only had to work until about noon every day, so the four of us were able to do quite a bit together. We took Caed swimming at the neighborhood pool, visited Pop at the National Cemetery, went shopping -- twice, rode the carosel at the mall and enjoyed a couple of nice meals out. Grandma even took Caed and I on a grand tour of Chambrel and ate lunch with her neighbors. Thanks for a great trip, Helen & Grandma. Caed and I had a really nice time!

Here are some more fun pictures from our trip:

There's a Place in My Heart for Michael Jackson

When I heard the news of Michael Jackson's death, I was in disbelief. Not that I have followed him for sometime, but he was just sooo young (he was about our parents' age), and I have such fond memories of his music from when I was a kid. How could he be gone?

As I remember him, I think of 4 things, really:

1. Beat It
2. Black or White
3. Erika Lizotte's Dancing
4. How did a black man make himself look so white? And what happened to his nose?

Beat It
When I was a kid, I think like 4 or 5 years old, I can remember jamming out to Beat It in the back of my aunt Laurel's van with my cousins, Chris and Jon, during our Ohio trips to visit my grandparents. This was our song. As soon as the cassette tape began to play, Dong, Dong, Donnnnng ... we got all revved up. I didn't even know most of the words to the song, but we certainly would belt out, "Beat It, Beat It." And any time I hear the song today, I remember those fun times. In addition, I think this was my very first Pop music tape.

One other fun thought about Beat It is the time I took a trip with Brad and his family to Charleston, SC (we were still dating at this time), and we were playing Cranium. For those of you who are familiar with this game, you'll be familiar with the Copycat category where you're suppose to act out the famous person whose name is on the card you draw. Well, when it was Nancy and Mark's turn to draw, Nancy selected the Copycat category and low and behold, the name Michael Jackson appeared on her card. At first, to act out her card, she hurried over the banister by the stairs and proceeded to dangle a baby doll over the banister, but none of us guessed it. So, after consulting with Mark, she decided to moonwalk across the floor for our entertainment pleasure. She did her best to scoot across the floor and sing Beat It, Beat It, Beat It ... however, it wasn't in the tune that you would normally accompany with it ... it was more mono toned due to her quick-thinking and excitement of the moment (Nancy actually does have a very nice voice, but the heat of the moment didn't showcase it well) ... I can just hear it now ... thanks Nancy for a great laugh. Remember, we're still laughing WITH you, not at you!!

Black or White
Many years after my cousins and I adopted Beat It as our song, Michael Jackson's hit Black or White came out. I'm not sure where we came up with this idea, but during another summer visit to Grandma & Grandpa's house, we decided that it would be fun to put on a show for the entire family to showcase our singing and dancing skills to Black or White. So we cleared out space in the basement, changed the spotlights in the ceiling to red and green (real classy) and worked on our moves. I'm sure that Jon & Chris will attest to this, but it was more their moves than our moves. I can't dance worth a flip and Jon & Chris were showcasing their break-dancing and karate (not sure how that played into the repertoire, but karate was part of the show too and Courtney, yes me, was doing her darn dist to keep up. Ha, what memories!

Erika Lizotte's Dancing
I'm sure Erika's really going to appreciate me including her in this post, but I can't resist. WhenI think of Michael Jackson, I can't help but think of her and how excited she gets when Thriller or Billie Jean comes on. The songs take her back to her childhood as well, but it's not just in thought, it's in the form of dance. And man can she bust it! Go Erika! If you want to see her in action, just invite her to your wedding and play one of these songs. You'll be sure to see a great showcase of her skill! (I wish I had a picture! If anyone has an electronic copy, please let me know :).

How did a black man make himself look so white? And what happened to his nose?
This last thought of Michael Jackson doesn't really pertain to a fond memory that I have of MJ, but when I said that when I think of MJ, these are the 4 things that come to mind ... if I'm honest, I've always wondered about his skin color and nose. Not that it makes much difference to me, but it's always been a bit odd to me.

Well ... Michael Jackson, thanks for the years of great music. Beat It and Black or White helped create some great memories in my childhood and I will always remember you for that.

I came across a neat commentary of MJ's death from Sojourn Music. Check it out if you're interested.

Demolition Begins Today!

Yay!!! We have been waiting for this day for a year and a half ... that is the demolition of our 909 House and forward steps to move-in! We finally closed on our construction loan at the bank last Monday and we knew that demolition wasn't far out of sight. The bank has actually been the biggest hang up for the last few months. We have agreed on all house plans, submitted all of our info, crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is, but since banks are taking much more precaution these days with loans, especially construction loans, the processing time just took that much longer. But either way, everything has been processed now, we have all of our permits, the loan is in effect and the dumpter and the initial demolition crew just showed up today!

Caed and I drove down there right before Caed's nap this morning to get one last peek of the "Before" look of the house:
You can see from the second picture that the crew is beginning to take off the siding in the back. They're doing this because we're going to keep that same siding on the rest of the original structure, and they'll use the good siding from the section they're removing to fill in any bad patches on the original structure later on. (They'll finish it with a nice, fresh coat of paint ... color is yet to be determined.) Simultaneously, they're gutting the interior of that back section and preparing to knock it down and pour concrete to repair the foundation. From there, they'll clear out old concrete and yard debris from the backyard and frame up the walls for the new addition on the other side of the house (adjacent to the section they're working on today).

Once they complete that phase, weather shouldn't be a factor any more because the majority of the remaining work will take place indoors. Please pray for good weather over the next month!

Stay tuned for more updates!