Dandelions

Our neighborhood seems to be overrun with dandelions. It seems people fall into one of two categories here: those who hire lawn services to spray for dandelions and those who accent their Kentucky bluegrass with bright yellow flowers. Being unwilling to pay for a lawn service or acknowledge the aesthetic pleasure of dandelions, we simply spend hours trying to rid our yard of the pests. I'm hoping if I get a handle on them early in the season it won't be nearly as time consuming. I may already be too late. Since it was warm today Caden came outside to help.

Its a Big, Scary World

First it was the bucket of sawdust Grandpa Scherbel had, then it was the strange new surface called grass, but today Caden discovered the scariest thing yet - the shopping cart. Until now he has ridden in his car seat carrier, but today I decided he was sitting well enough he could sit in the cart on his own. He didn't think that was too bad until he looked down. I'm not sure if it was that he was so high up and not being held, or if all those bars just looked intimidating, but he responded with a look of sheer horror followed by the wail to match. I did eventually get him calmed down, and once he realized he was safe he decided it was kind of fun. He swung his feet and gazed intently down for the remainder of the shopping excursion.

Getting Cuter All the Time

Caden has been doing some cute things lately.

- When he wakes up from a nap or while he's falling asleep he'll lie in bed playing with his binky. He holds on to the rubber part (the side that is supposed to go in his mouth) and shakes it so the handle makes a clicking sound. Caden really does like to make noise!

- Caden will play forever with his dumptruck. He's absolutely fascinated by the bucket that goes around. He'll hold it like a steering wheel and shake it back and forth.

- He has decided that every time Mama eats he needs to eat real food as well. He'll fuss and whine until I feed him. So far he eats bananas, applesauce, pears, yams, squash, and peas. Carrots are a no go. As of yesterday, he also likes to try and feed himself. He's not too bad at getting the spoon to his mouth, but it doesn't have much food on it by the time it arrives.

A trip to the Doctor

Last week Caden had a mild reaction (face rash that lasted about 3 hours) to me eating whole wheat bread. I considered cutting wheat from my diet, but discovered it would be really hard and expensive, and since Caden seemed to tolerate refined wheat I decided to hold off until I was specifically directed to cut wheat. Today I got my marching orders.

For the past few days Caden has been grabbing at his throat, coughing, and had a runny nose. Monday he woke up with a red, slightly rashy face that lasted through yesterday and was just all around grumpy. Yesterday every time he took a nap he woke up crying and coughing. Today when I put him down for his morning nap he woke up about 10 minutes later gagging and choking. I called the nurse hot line to see if there was a cold medicine I could give him. She said the symptoms weren't really consistent with a cold and recommended I come in to see the Physician's Assistant. After examining him, the PA called in the Pediatrician, who called the Pediatric Allergist we saw a few weeks ago.

Diagnosis: a sustained, mild alergic reaction that is restricting the airways.
Treatment: strict avoidance of all products containing egg, wheat, and peanut in addition to the already excluded dairy. For immediate relief I am giving him Benadryl.

The allergist feels Caden is too young to prescribe him an epi-pen so we all just need to be extremely careful. Exposure to any of the foods Caden is allergic to can cause his airways to be constricted and could even result in his death. And on that happy note, I'll leave you and go hunt through the kitchen for something allergy friendly for lunch.

More on the Engine and the Garden

We've been a little slow on the uptake for posting the last few days because our method of getting pictures from the camera to the computer died over the weekend. Ryan brought home a cord from work today, so we're back in business.

Saturday was a beautiful day here, and we spent most of it outside. In the morning, Ryan and I worked on the strawberry patch. We completely dug up last year's strawberries, put them in root starter, Ryan reshaped the patch, and then we replanted all the strawberries. The old patch was a little unwieldy, and Ryan read that replanting the berries will help them grow better. I think last year we got a total of 10 strawberries, so anything should be better this year.

Here is a picture of the new patch. The old one was a 7x7 foot square. This one is about 2.5x15 and runs parallell to the rest of the garden.

Mike arrived shortly after noon and he and Ryan spent the rest of the day dropping the new engine into the Prism. Its a lot of work to get all the necessary parts moved over from the old engine to the new one, and it takes quite a bit of skill to guide the thing in.

Ryan is running the engine hoist and Mike is pushing and pulling the beast into the correct position. Shortly after taking this picture I was recruited to help with the pushing and pulling. If you look closely, you can see Caden in the background supervising. After his nap he sat in the stroller and watched the men work. Now that the engine is in the car the process of hooking it back up begins.

Splish Splash!

Caden has graduated to a new bath tub. The newborn tub wasn't doing him justice anymore and barely covered the bottom two inches of his bum. He takes a 20-30 minute bath every night to try and help his eczema and he quite enjoys playing in the water. Daddy taught him how to kick and splash, an effect that really makes Caden giggle. Now that he can sit up and play with tub toys, bath time has taken on a whole new dimension.

Ryan's Projects

Ahh, the pinewood derby. Isn't it great to watch the boys develop skills, release their creativity, and spend endless hours perfecting their racers? At least its fun to watch Ryan do it for his co-worker's son. This year's creation is inspired by the Lamborgini Reventon.

The other big project for the month has been replacing an engine in a Prism we bought as an investment. Last night Ryan hit a milestone - the old engine is out and the new one is ready to go in! Check out the pics. The first is of the two engines side by side. The second is of the empty engine compartment in the car.

He Sits!

I was right when I thought Caden was close to sitting. After a little over a week in the Bumbo chair, he is sitting on his own. He thinks being able to see the world from this new perspective is great and is no longer content to lay on the floor. This morning I put him on his playmat and he fussed and growled until I sat him up. This video was taken Saturday night when he was still a little unstable and we were a little excited, so ignore the crazy parents you can hear. The rattle he is holding is his FAVORITE toy because it is the noisiest rattle ever invented. Both grandmas's have one at their house and Caden is endlessly entertained by it.

Spring is Here

Its officially spring. I know that because the peas have now been planted in the garden. On Saturday morning we planted 44 rows of peas, with each row being approximately 7 feet long. For those of you who don't want to do the math, that works out to be a little over 300 feet of peas, or about twice as many as we planted last year. Mmmmm. I can't wait for the harvest! We took this picture when we were about half done with the planting.

Sweet's Candy Factory

My sister has been in town this week with her two girls, and Caden has been loving his cousin time. Yesterday we took a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory in Salt Lake. The tours are free and the kids had a lot of fun. It was amazing to see the candy making process, and they gave us a few samples along the way. It was cute to watch Caden, because he would look at the tour guide, then the factory, then back at the tour guide as if he completely understood what she was saying. At the end of the tour, every participant got a small bag of taffy. Caden sort of knew what to do with his.

They also have a store where you can buy candy for cheap, usually because it has something wrong with it. There was taffy with swirls that weren't the right shape, chocolate covered nuts that had stuck together, or Valentine's themed cinnamon treats that they didn't want to store for a year. My favorite, though, were the orange slices that weren't orange. I wonder how it went over when the mistake was discovered. The sign reads "OOOPS! These Orange Slices are Red, but taste like orange."

Caden's 6 Month Stats

Caden had his 6 month well check with the pediatrician on Monday. He is 27 inches long (75th%), weighs 16 lbs 4 oz (30th%), and has a head circumference of 42 cm (15th%). The best news of all, though, is that his eczema is finally under control. The last spots left are the ones around his mouth that come from him chewing on his fingers. If we can convince him that teething toys are fun we'll be good to go. The handout on teething the doctor gave me states "this is the infant's first experience with pain..." I had to chuckle at that. Teething will definately NOT be Caden's first experience with pain. We are so greatful for our happy baby.

Conference Projects and Birthday Money

Ryan spent Conference Saturday in his Zen (the garage) working on replacing the engine in the Prism we bought. He's working hard to get the long list of house projects done so he can start working on his new motorcycle. He used his birthday money to purchase this beauty.

I used my birthday money to buy a shelf for the office closet. I figure the unit can be moved to the laundry room once the closet gets finished. I spent Conference Saturday organizing my shelves and rediscovering the piles of paper that had previously been in boxes piled in the closet. As part of that I found my family history stuff, and since our Stake President has issued a challenge for us to do more family history work, I spent Conference Sunday organizing my family history files. Its the file boxes and binders you can see on the top shelf.

And so as not to disappoint those of you who really only check this blog to get news of Caden, he spent Conference Sunday playing peek-a-boo with himself. Ryan tried to get a video of it, but Caden wasn't cooperating for the camera and this is what we ended up with.

Life Lessons

Never mix pureed peas into the mush when your child has a stuffy nose. Inevitably, he will sneeze, spewing sticky green stuff everywhere.

Almost Sitting

Caden is so close to sitting! He can balance on his own for up to 45 seconds. I finally decided that me pushing him back up every time he started to topple wasn't building up any of his muscles, so we borrowed a Bumbo chair from one of my friends. The chair keeps him upright enough that he can get back to a sitting position on his own. I'm hoping a week or two of this and he'll be sitting on his own.

Parenting Class

Thursday was the last night of our three month long parenting class we've been taking. It was taught by a couple in our stake and based on a curriculum put out by the Church. Caden was everyone's favorite student, and for the most part he cooperated really well with the later bed time. Topics for the class included Parenting practices based on the Proclamation to the Family, Understanding child development, Communicating with love, Nurturing children, Fostering confidence, Overcoming anger, Resolving conflict, Teaching responsible behavior, and Applying consequences. We really enjoyed the classes, and I’ll miss going each week.

Caden's New Toy

After careful consideration (ie, Ryan and I got excited that Caden is starting to stand a little), we decided to buy a doorway jumper for Caden. I got on Craig's list this morning, and this afternoon we have a jumper. I'm not sure how I feel about the tray, so I may still keep looking for a jumper that doesn't have one and sell this one. Caden isn't sure what to think about the contraption at all. The first 5 minutes he was in it he just looked around at it, exploring the tray and the straps.