12 Months

Well, we did it! We got a picture of Cael on the 10th of each month for an entire year. Last night's picture was a little difficult to get because he had been sick with a fever for 2 days & he wasn't feeling very smiley. But we got the picture and Mommy is happy. Here he is in his last monthly picture.

I love his laugh!

Year One

Dear Cael,
Well Baby Love it's the night before your 1st birthday. Where has the time gone?! You are sleeping & I am waiting for Aunt Joy to get here from the airport. You have a fever that I am hoping breaks before the morning. I don't want you to spend your first birthday sick!!

What a year it has been! You have changed our lives so much. We can't even remember what we did before you! We used to sleep in on the weekends & now we are up watching cartoons. We used to get a full nights sleep & now we sometimes get to sleep, it depends on the night! I had so much fun with you during wrestling & baseball. We went lots of places this year - you are a well traveled boy. The holidays this last year were so special because you were there. I can't wait for your birthday party this weekend!!

You amaze us every day by what you can do. Now you are starting to pull yourself up & walk while holding on to things. Pretty soon you'll be walking on your own. I'm sure your dogs will take go after something & you will go off after them. I can't wait for you to start walking & talking with real words. You have mastered your stacking rings & now you are working on fitting the shapes into the right place on your ball. You have now figured out how to use both hands to get them to fit the right way.

You make us laugh & smile every day. I love to pick you up from daycare & see how excited you get when you realize I'm there. And then when we get home & you get to see your Daddy you are just as excited. I live for your gummy smile! You are getting more teeth though so it's not as gummy now! You love to clap at yourself in the mirror & any time someone says, "Yay!". Just tonight you were standing up holding on to the bathtub & you were dancing & laughing when your dad & I would sing the "Hot Dog" song. It was so funny!!

This has been the scariest, most challenging, most tiring, best, most wonderful year of my life. Thank you for picking me to be your Mommy. I will always be here for you. You are my heart.

Sleep well Baby Love.
I love you,
Mama

Cael Ryan

Here are just a few pictures of Cael from the last few weeks. You can tell from his shirt that he was teething. Thank goodness the tooth came through! And he loves the horn we got his Grammy that is on her knee scooter. First he tried to bite it but now he's figured out how to squeeze it.

What's in the fridge, Ma?

He can't open the door to the fridge yet but once it's open he can sure pull stuff out!

Graduation

We made it to the PRHS Graduation and it was...interesting.... We got there & changed Cael's diaper & made sure he was ready to sit for a while. Well, about 15 minutes into the ceremony he peed all over Courtney!!! Apparently the inside leg liner part of the diaper ripped a little. I took him out to change him & the diaper was DRY! There was no pee anywhere except for on his clothes...and Daddy's pants. After Graduation we went to 4 different parties before calling it a night. Cael was such a trooper. He fussed a little but overall he did great! Here are a few pictures from our day!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game....

Last week Cael & I went to watch Daddy's team play in 4A regionals at the T-Bones stadium. Yeah it didn't go too well. The boys just didn't show up. Don't get me wrong - everyone was physically there but they didn't care at all about winning. At one point I texted Courtney in the dugout and asked if certain players were planning on playing at all because they were doing terrible! There were balls rolling - not flying, rolling - past them that Cael could have stopped! Not even joking! Cael & I still had fun though & took a few pictures. Gotta love my boy's hair in the wind!

Some of my favorite things....

Cael LOVES to 1) play with the dogs' bowls and 2) play with his stacking rings. He can now stack the rings very easily although they aren't in the right order. If we give them to him one by one he'll get them in the right order. We also have to take the dogs' water bowl away all the time because he'll dump it over! He also has a ball that has shapes inside it. You can open the ball and dump the shapes out & put them back in. If we hold the ball so he can see the right shape he can put them in! He's so stinkin' smart!!

TEETH!!

Neither of these are very good pictures but they're the only ones of his teeth! He does not like to show his teeth....hmmm, sound like anyone else?! I was close enough to him the other night that I was able to get a picture of his bottom teeth. He now has 2 top teeth also! He's getting closer to being able to eat that steak with Papa this summer!

Going to Grandma's!

This is a suitcase that Courtney used when he was little. We got it out to use one weekend when he was going to Grammy & Papa's house but it was too small for all of his things. I know we probably pack too much for 1 or 2 nights but you never know what he might need!

I'm comin' to get ya....

11 Months

I can't believe our boy will be 1 year old in less than a month!! This last year has gone so fast. He's such a good boy. He's getting to be a big boy too! He doesn't want to lay on his bear skin rug anymore...he wants to play with it!

I can crawl...in my own way!

And my favorite place to crawl to?! The bathroom because I want to take a bath!!

¡Yo soy boricua!

Cael apparently likes rice & beans! Here he is trying them for the first time a few weeks ago. Maybe he is part Puerto Rican?!

I'm a Swinger!

Out for a walk!

Cael & I have been taking advantage of the nice weather lately by walking. It's quite a workout to push him in his stroller up a steep hill! I don't take the camera on every walk - only on the first one. He was so cute!!

Easter weekend

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - I know you are all heartbroken! Last week Tracy had a birthday/Easter party for the kiddos and Cael was WORN OUT! By the time I got him home & pulled into the garage he was asleep! It was so cute because he had a death grip on the bunny that she gave him so I had to take pictures!














Last weekend for Easter we went home. We hadn't been home in about a month so it was nice to see everyone again. When we got to Granddad Marsh's house we decided we needed to get Cael a walker for there. He gets bored when we're there because he just gets passed around. He's at the age now where he wants to be independent....sometimes....so we went & got him a walker. He loves to ram into the dogs & chase them down in his walker! It was nice because at Calvin's house it's all hardwood floors. Cael would run from the kitchen to the living room over & over & over again. Then he figured out how to ram into the chair or whoever was sitting there. One night Courtney's friend, Grant, was there & everytime Cael rammed into him he'd yell "Boom!" which Cael thought was hillarious. He also figured out how to go really fast & then lift his feet up to coast to a stop. He's such a goof!!












We spent part of Saturday with Great Aunt Kim & Bogum (Great Grandma Butler). Cael had a lot of fun with Izzy. He took a tiny nap & was in a pretty good mood...for the most part. We went over to Dustin & Monica's after that and he was pretty fussy. His nap schedule was off & he was getting passed all around which can make him a little grumpy.














We spent Sunday at Sharon's for East lunch. He got to meet some relatives for the first time & go on his first Easter egg hunt! He took a good nap while we ate lunch and then was ready to party. Courtney took him out for the Easter egg hunt while I took pictures. Since he can't walk yet Daddy had to carry him to the eggs. He picked them up by himself though! He looked so cute on Easter. He was wearing jeans, a button down shirt & a tie! So stinking cute!!!















We got to meet 1 of the newest members of the family. We had to take a picture of the 3 babies. Joshua & KayLynn are 1 week apart and Cael is of course 8 months older than them. Joshua looks almost as big as Cael!!













We took Cael outside to the playset that Sharon & Wilbur have set up. We put him in the little swing and he LOVED it!! I think we've figured out what to get him for his birthday! A swing will fit perfect under our deck so he'll be out of the sun. I think we also need to get him a sandbox because he loved it so much at the beach. I can't believe I already have to start thinking about that!!