8 Months Old!

Cael turned 8 months old on Thursday. He started crawling shortly after he turned 7 months old, but has been crawling backwards since he was 6 months old. He's pretty speedy now and is obsessed with shoes and vacuum cleaners. I'm not sure why he likes to chew on shoes, but we have to remember to put them in the closet by the front door after taking them off. If he hears the vacuum start up he races to it and will just watch amazed as I vacuum with it. No teeth yet, but lots of drooling. He still spits up a lot, which is very annoying. Now that he is crawling everywhere he leaves a trail of spitup for me to clean up. We go through lots of carpet cleaner! He's still a good eater, but has seemed to slow down a little bit and not eat quite as much as he used to. He is getting pretty good at eating finger foods such as his mum-mums, and puffs. He even fed himself part of a pumpkin muffin the other day that I crumbled uo for him. He still prefers to nurse, but will happily take a bottle of breastmilk if it's offered to him. What a relief for me! He's a great sleeper and takes a morning and an afternoon nap of about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. He also is asleep within minutes of laying down. At night he sleeps about 12 hours straight without a peep. He is starting to enjoy having books read to him and will pay attention now instead of just trying to chew on them. Also, something that I am really enjoying, is he is becoming more cuddly and likes to cuddle with me. He will reach his arms up when he wants to be picked up or crawl over to me and try to climb into my lap. When we rock in his rocking chair he lays his head down and will snuggle. I love it! Cael and Ayden are best buddies, too. Ayden will get down on the floor and crawl with him or lead the way somewhere as Cael crawls after him. He is such a good big brother and is always playing with him and entertaining him. I think it helps a lot that Cael is mobile now and can get places on his own. I'm sure they will be chasing around after each other once he is walking. I'm still amazed by how smiley and happy Cael is. He's so easy-going and can easily entertain himself. It's not very often that he is cranky or in a bad mood. It's hard to believe that in 4 months we will be celebrating his 1st birthday!

While I was taking Cael's 8 month pictures, he was cuddling the bear, and I got a lot of cute photos that I had to share....

Cael and Ayden playing in the hallway.

Eating his first muffin. A pumpkin one, yummy!

Center Grove Orchard, Again!

I took the boys to Center Grove Orchard earlier in October during a weekday, but there were a few things we couldn't do since I was pushing Cael in the stroller. Ayden wanted to go down the huge slide, and take a tractor ride around the farm. This time Joel came with us. We went on a Sunday later in the afternoon after the boys took naps. It was cloudy and a little cool, but there were not many people there. It was nice not to have to fight crowds. The boys had a good time and we all got to take a tractor ride around the farm this time.

Joel and Ayden going down the big slide.

Cael loves being in the carrier.

Feeding the goats.

Kissing pigs :)

Cael in the corn pool.

Mommy and her boys.

Joel Goes Skydiving

Joel's birthday was September 26th and I always have a hard time coming up with ideas of gifts for him. He's a big tech guy, and I am pretty clueless when it comes to that kind of stuff. Unless he specifically shows me something that he wants, I beg for ideas. This year I decided to surprise him with a skydiving experience. He had mentioned before that he would like to do it someday. There is a place in Vinton, not too far from where my parents, where you can go skydiving. I've heard from several people that they had a great experience going there. Joel was excited. Most of our October was filled, but we had a few open Sundays. I scheduled it for Joel, but the first Saturday they had to cancel because of the weather. We rescheduled it for one of the last Sundays in October, and the weather was gorgeous! He had to watch a few safety videos and his instructor showed him what to do and told him what to expect.

Joel getting on the gear.

They took Joel up in a plane and he jumped out tandem with his instructor at 13,500 feet! They were in freefall for 48 seconds and then pulled the cord for the parachute. It took them a few minutes to come down to the ground once they had the parachute open. The boys, my parents, and I were all there to watch.

There he is!

Almost on the ground.

Landing...

Ayden was excited to watch and gave Joel a big hug when he was done.

Joel had a great experience except for his ears being plugged up for about 3 weeks. He wants to do it again, and who knows, maybe I will join him next time.

Here is the link to Joel's skydiving video if you want to watch it. The camera guy actually jumped out right before them and recorded Joel on the way down.

Kindermusik

I started taking Cael to Kindermusik in September right before he turned 6 months old. Ayden was about the same age when I started taking him. Cael is really starting to like the class and seems more adventurous than Ayden was at that age. It helps that Cael can crawl, and Ayden didn't start crawling until he was a little older. We do a lot of bouncing songs and dances. The babies also get to play with their chiquitas, rhythm sticks, and other instruments. Sometimes at the beginning of class there is a pool with balls for the babies to explore or a baby gym for them to crawl on. A few weeks ago, Judy brought out the parachute at the end of class. The babies get to go under it and we walk around and raise it up and down. Cael loved it and was all smiles for both classes that we did it.

Hanging out in the ball pool.

Relaxing.

Yum, a mallet.

Trying to get the bubbles.

9 Week Challenge Update

On Saturday we had our halfway point testing and weigh-in for the 9 week challenge. In 4 weeks I lost 11.5 pounds, and went down a size in my pants. I also was able to increase my push-ups by doing 16 more in one minute, I increased my sit-ups by 6 more, and increased my flexibility by 6.5 inches on the sit-and-reach. I haven't missed any workouts yet, and I am feeling really good! I'm so proud of myself for working out hard and sticking to the nutrition part of the program. I'm excited to see what the next 5 weeks bring!

Trick or Treat

I took the boys trick or treating on our street this year while Joel handed out candy at our house. Ayden's costume made it pretty difficult to get up and down stairs easily, so he needed my help. He was pretty tired by the time we were done, but he had a lot of fun and was so excited to go to everyone's door. When we were coming back and were a few houses away, Ayden saw Joel handing out candy from a big bowl to some kids. I think he thought it was his candy because he started running towards them and yelling "That's not fair! That's my candy! Go away! It took lots of explaining for him to understand that it wasn't his candy. It was pretty funny though!

Off we go...

Pumpkin Carving

I fell behind in carving pumpkins this year. Usually I have carved a few at least a few weeks before Halloween, but this year I barely got one done. Ayden helped me this year cleaning out the pumpkin so I could carve it with a smiley face.

He wouldn't touch the seeds with his hands, he had to use a spoon.

That smells really bad mommy!

Main Street Trick or Treating

On Friday morning, the stores on Main Street in Ames held a trick or treating event for the little kids not in school from 10:00 am-2:00 pm. We met up with some moms from the moms group I belong to and went to the stores so the kids could trick or treat. There were so many people there that it was a little hard to stay together. Ayden had a blast and wore his costume the whole time. He got lots of compliments and attention, once again. He had many people tell him he had the best costume they had seen. Cael was great too, and just had fun hanging out in the stroller and watching everyone.

Done trick or treating and ready to leave. (One of Ayden's headlights fell off, so we had to glue it back on when we got home.

Candy!

We saw my friend Destri with her 2 girls Carissa and Cae. Cae was also an ear of corn!

Carissa and Ayden.

Night Eyes

On Friday night before Halloween, Joel and I took the boys to Night Eyes at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. I had no idea how busy it was going to be. We were about 1/2 mile from the zoo, and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the zoo because it was so backed up. We we did get there we had to park really far away, and then wait in line for tickets for another 20 minutes. Once we got in it was packed and the lines were barely moving. Ayden still enjoyed waiting to get candy. I'm glad the boys were in a good mood and having fun though. I think next year we will get advance tickets and go during the day on the weekend when it's not so busy. Ayden's costume was a hit. He got TONS of compliments and attention. He was so proud, and surprisingly, he wore it the entire time. His working headlights came in handy too because it was really dark!

Cael as an ear of corn :)

There were a lot of neat displays to look at as we walked though the zoo collecting candy. I am sure they took a lot of work to make.

The rainbow was part of the Wizard of Oz theme.

My favorite display was "Where the Wild Things Are."

Cael did great, especially since it was hours past his bedtime, but he did NOT want his hood up for this picture...

Ayden's John Deere Tractor Costume

A few months ago I came up with the idea of having Ayden dress up as a John Deere tractor for Halloween. He LOVES JD tractors! I found a few examples online of other people who made a tractor costume for their child. I was telling my sister about it and she told her husband who said he would help. Well, they ended up making it on their own out of some cardboard boxes one weekend at the beginning of October. I'm not sure if mine would have turned out as well, but I did contribute the working headlights on the front :) Thanks Angie and Jeff! Ayden was able to wear his costume after I attached some suspenders to the box. We'll have to save it so Cael can wear it in a few years! I was trying to think of something for Cael to wear so that there would be a theme and I thought an ear of corn would be cute. I found a cute costume on ebay, but it was too small so I put a wanted ad on Craigslist, and someone responded to it. They were both so cute in their costumes!

Side view

Rear view

Front view