pants!

The week of November 11th, I finally got Zane to wear pants to school instead of shorts. I'd been fighting a losing battle until I discovered that he wore them while I was out of town! Tricky boy! He still wears his shorts at every opportunity, like when he thinks his daddy could start his workout at any moment. Zane also spent the whole week at the big school.


Caden finally grew just tall enough to reach all of the door knobs, and steady enough to push or pull them open. He also enjoys taking things out of one container and into another. Half the time he grabs Zane's clean clothes as I'm putting them away and tosses them right into the hamper!


It was helpful that weekend though when I had to switch out all of Zane's 3T shirts for his 4T ones, and switch out Caden's 18 month sized pjs for his 24 month ones. These boys keep growing!

weekend getaway

On Monday, November 4th, we woke up really early to catch our 6am flight out of Charlotte. The boys did great on our flights again and slept a lot. It always feels so risky when we take red eyes or really early morning flights - they could either go really well or really badly, with no real in between. We were all exhausted on Monday and went to bed early after our long day.

When I dropped off the boys at school, I found out that Zane would be transitioning over to the big school (the next class is in a separate building). Since he has a younger sibling, I can keep dropping off and picking up both of them at the main building, and Zane rides over in the van with the other kids. He was a little nervous about the van, but after checking out the van with one of his favorite teachers on Thursday, he decided it was ok on Friday and spent the day with his friends at the big school. He had definitely been missing a few of them! It also made it easier that Miss Tara is one of his new teachers, and he already knows her pretty well.


Then on Thursday evening, I took off for a girls' weekend in Phoenix with Amanda! It was great, and I totally needed it! The downside though was that Zane came down with the stomach bug that had been going around school on Friday night. While I'm glad I missed out on that messy adventure, I felt a little bad not being here to help. The good company and amazing weather helped distract me. :) Luckily it was a quick bug, and he was back to normal with his usual appetite when he woke up from nap on Saturday. And even better, neither of the other two boys caught it.

When I got home on Sunday morning, the boys picked me up at the airport, and we split up to attend two different events - Zane and I went to a bowling birthday party for one of his friends, and Caden and Daddy went to a baby shower. We all had fun, but I was glad the four of us got to hang out afterward.


And Zane loved the Spider Man sunglasses I got for him on my trip:


I also noticed when I got home that Caden's 8th tooth had surfaced on the bottom right. I'm pretty sure that added to the Friday night chaos.

cousins

Caden's 15 month check up was on Monday October 18th. He weighed in at 25 lbs 5 oz (82%) and was 32.25" (82%) tall! He had 3 vaccines - boo! At least he recovered more quickly than he has in the past! Zane came with us too in order to get his flu mist. I had to explain a few times that Caden was getting his vaccines in his legs with a needle, but Zane was going to get his squirted in his nose without a needle. They both did great! Dr. Evans was happy with Caden and how he is doing - even his super sensitive skin is normal. I asked her about it again because he breaks out in hives every now and again, and she said it's just his normal. Whew.


On Thursday morning (Halloween!!!), we started out on an early morning flight to Charlotte to go visit Uncle John and Aunt Ginger and crew! It was a long day, but we made it in time to go trick-or-treating with cousins. Zane scored lots of candy as Super Why, and Caden looked super cute as an alligator, even though he wasn't too excited about his costume at first.


Zane was stuck like glue to Mary:


See:


Caden earned our keep by sweeping Uncle John's new floors:


And on Saturday, Aunt Sarah and the Wheelers got into town! It was a lot of fun to see everyone. The boys had so much fun with their big cousins:


Zane even attempted to sit at the kids' table one night at dinner before he got too nervous and moved over to our table before dinner was served. :)





We had a lot of fun at the neighborhood playground. I think Caden convinced everyone to push him in the swing:




















After dinner with everyone on Sunday, we had to say goodbye. Since we had another 6am flight the next morning, we opted to stay in a hotel in Charlotte that night rather than leaving in the middle of the night.

15 months

Caden turned 15 months old on October 23rd! He was not pleased with me for taking his pictures. Zane on the other hand was having a great time, except when I tried to get a picture of Caden alone. ;)


Caden and his lovey have become almost inseparable! We may need to start calling him Linus (you know, from the Peanuts!). But he is getting really tall!


That weekend, we had a fun visit from Tal and Kimberly that included a couple grown up only events - dinner at the Needle on Friday night and a baby shower on Saturday - so that meant more babysitters for the boys. So after not having a sitter in forever, Miss Jess was back over for the second Friday evening in a row! And our awesome old neighbor watched the boys on Saturday during the shower.


On Sunday after breakfast with Tal & Kimberly and sending them off to the airport, Zane wore his Super WHY! costume for the first time, and we went trick-or-treating in the Junction. We ran into a bunch of school friends, so he had a great time and scored lots of candy.

pumpkins

The week of October 14th was a special one around here known as "the birth week." We even celebrated Daddy's birthday eve with his cake (which is only referred to as "Costco sheet cake" and not just "cake) - we chose a dinosaur for the design since he's getting old. In Zane's terms, he's a giant (which is much bigger than a big boy, in case you weren't aware). We sang happy birthday early because we had a date night on Friday (gasp!), and the boys had a babysitter date with Miss Jess and her daughter Chloe. :)


On Saturday, we stopped off at a pumpkin patch on our way to a party at a friend's house, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere. :) So here are a bunch of cute pumpkin pictures! We had a lot of fun and picked out two pumpkins for our porch.

farewell curls

The next week starting October 7th, it was a crazy week for me at work, and I was later than usual picking the boys up most evenings. One evening, Caden fell asleep on the way home and woke up briefly while we came inside. I got him into his high chair to try to get a quick dinner into his belly before he fell asleep for the night, and he fell asleep again.


On Saturday, we took the boys to get haircuts. It was Caden's first, and I was pretty nervous about it because his curls would most likely be disappearing...


We asked Zane if he wanted to go first, and he said Caden should go first. Caden was a trooper though, and just hung out on the tractor chair. I tried not to be too emotional staring at all of his little rings of hair piling up on the floor (sniff, sniff).


Zane did just fine when it was his turn too, and they both looked great when it was done. I think we played with almost every toy there between the two of them, and that's saying a lot!!

family self portrait

The week of September 30th was filled with more walking, followed by injury reports! Caden was working really hard at starting and stopping along, plus he was refining getting up and down from standing even more. Caden also loves to move in other ways - primarily dancing! We went out to eat one night, and Caden was totally rocking out to some Buble and Adele when he heard them at a restaurant. :)


That Saturday, we broke out the remote for the camera for the first time in a while to attempt a family picture to wish a friend happy birthday. It worked out pretty well - we should try it more often! Caden wasn't too excited, but I'm sure with practice he might start to like it.


On Sunday, we dropped Daddy off at the airport for a work recruiting trip. Things were going great at first, and the boys were playing well together in the backard. Then around lunchtime, Zane took it upon himself to test every ounce of patience in my being. It also resulted in an over tired Caden not napping... at one point, I tried laying down on the floor next to his crib, but I just got things thrown at me (lovey, blanket, paci...). Thankfully, the rest of our two boys on one mama time went more smoothly!

steps!!!

Caden turned 14 months old on Monday, September 23rd! He celebrated by taking his first two steps that morning when I was dropping him off and talking about how he seemed to be really close to walking. He was so excited to see Miss Tobi again (it had been since Friday!), that when I set him down, he took two steps toward her and landed in her lap! It was pretty cute, and I'm glad I was there to witness it.

He woke up with a bumpy, mystery rash on Tuesday that didn't go away right away, so we went to the pediatrician Wednesday morning. The official diagnosis was that it was a virus, and it did eventually disappear on its own.

By Thursday, Caden had gone from two steps to walking everywhere. It was impressive! That weekend, Caden woke up with tooth number 7 (upper right), and we went to another birthday party.

sleepy

The week of September 16th, we all woke up tired that Monday morning. Caden's 6th tooth appeared (upper left). He woke up a bunch the night before and was pretty cranky. Teeth are rough! He was so exhausted from the evening's adventures, that he fell asleep during our sub-5 minute drive to school. Then he stayed asleep while I got him out of the car, handed him to one teacher, who then had to hand him to another teacher before he stayed passed out on the couch for about 30 more minutes. It's amusing after the fact, but it wasn't too funny that morning in my tired and cranky state. :)


Zane was sleepy that morning too and didn't want to eat much breakfast, which is weird. Then about mid-day I got a text that he woke up early from nap with a 101 fever. Boo! So I rushed out to rescue my Zaney-roo and stayed home with him on Tuesday. Amazingly, his fever broke on Monday night, and he was able to head back to school on Wednesday. It was his shortest fever to date!


Zane was even feeling well enough to let Caden try out his tricycle and helmet later on in the week. That was a big step towards more sharing! Caden also helped out with our never ending supply of dirty laundry:


We had a fun-filled weekend that started with going to the state fair on Saturday, and then on Sunday we went to the children's museum. On the way, we spotted a double rainbow over the great wheel:


The boys had a great time running all over (I'm glad all four of us went - I would have gotten a serious workout if it was just the three of us!), and the probably stayed still the longest while driving the city bus:





They even worked together without any problems in the construction area. It was pretty cute!


Later that afternoon, Zane and I went to a birthday party for one of his good friends while Caden and daddy stayed home for nap. It was at one of our favorite parks, and the kids ended up running around the playground for a while. It was pretty cold and rainy, not that you can tell from Zane's outfit (he's pretty insistent about wearing shorts!):