Kayden's first Christmas

Well, I can't believe how quickly this holiday season has come and gone. Kayden really enjoyed Christmas this year! Okay, he didn't have a clue what was going on at all. He started opening gifts on Christmas morning (with a lot of help from mom and dad) and then had to take a nap halfway through. Something tells me that this might be the last year he naps through christmas morning.

Getting closer...

Kayden has decided that life might be more fun if he gets himself to the things he wants to play with. I wouldn't call these moves crawling quite yet but I think he might be moving by Christmas. He now can put himself in the crawl position so trouble is on the horizon. Caught a little video of his current little worm dance.

And him attempting the crawl position (this video is a little long, thought I'd catch a crawl!).

Bogey's doing great!

I just wanted to let everyone know how everything went with Bogey! He went in for surgery last Friday and the Vet. was quite pleased with how things went. He ended up getting all 5 bone fragments out of his toe and was also able to save most of his toe and pad. I haven't seen it yet as it is always under wraps but Chad says it looks good, he's just missing a toe nail really. We thought it might have been infected yesterday so we got it checked out today and it was a false alarm, all is well. Phew! Now we just wait until he decides chewing the bandage is a good idea... He hates the cone on his head so that should be an adventure.

Molly and KD

Last weekend Molly and Kayden had the chance to hang out a bit. They sure are growing up fast. Despite Kayden being a month younger, he definitely caught up and passed Molly with the whole growing bit. Must be the Stager genes kicking in...

up close

And this was Molly's scrunchy face she was trying out that night.

And Molly sans scrunchy face...

Nana and Grandpa K's visit

Nana and Grandpa K came for a visit. It was short but sweet. I wasn't feeling so good and Chad hurt his neck so we must have been a joy to be around! Ahhh, we know who they really wanted to spend time with anyways...

Me and my pups

Some cute photos of the dogs and Kayden

Bogey sniffing things out.

Lorelei's favorite pillow.

Lorelei was using Elmo as a pillow.

Stager family update

It has been an eventful couple of weeks for us here at the Stager household. I hope to give you a quick idea in this little update. Some is bad, some is good, some is ugly but mostly, all of it has helped me appreciate once again, how lucky we are.

Firstly, as it is very much on my mind today, I just wanted to mention that sadly, a co-worker I knew at Canadian Pacific passed away last week at the young age of 39 years old. I was not a close friend of his but he was very close to a lot of people near and dear to my heart. He died of a heart attack on his way home one night. I felt it was important to write this so that we can all take a moment and appreciate all we've been blessed with. It saddens me that he had to leave us so suddenly. This has definitely made me stop and appreciate our life, friends and family and, it reminds me why I tell Chad and Kayden I love them both, each day.

Enough of the sad news, onto the ugly news.
Bogey broke his toe! Today he is in surgery where the veterinarian is going to amputate the toe and Bogey will just have to adapt. That means 6 weeks of healing ahead of us but luckily, I'm still at home and can take care of the poor puppy. I must say, Lorelei is loving being an only puppy today.

And the good! Ofcourse that's Kayden. He is doing great and making us smile each day. He is definitely moving out of the baby cuteness stage to the toddler cuteness. I can't believe he is 9 months old. No crawling, no walking, just a lot of sitting back and watching the world go by. He's a little too laid back to venture into crawling just yet. I'll do another post today to show you new photos.

Santa!

Kayden got to meet Santa for the very first time! Both Chad and I had our doubts that he would even let us put him on Santa's lap. He surprised us both with actually lasting a whole 5 to 7 seconds before realizing he had no idea who this was.

Who are you?

What is that shiny thing you're holding?

And then it was, wait a second where are my parents? I was going to videotape the lengthy visit (yes a whole 7 second video) but, it was quite noisy in there with all the kids so, no video of Santa.

I did get a video of Kayden opening his first gift.

This is why we nickname him Bam Bam.

He got a cute little Orange Monkey that has a little buddy he can use as a teething toy.

Yummy in my tummy

Kayden quite enjoys his Cheerios. He sometimes talks to them but mostly he just shoves them one by one into his mouth. He has become quite the expert over the past couple of weeks so I thought you might want to see...

He has also learned how to drink from a straw. He refuses to drink water out of his bottles now so we had to find something else to keep him hydrated. It was really confusing at first and I wasn't quite sure how you teach this skill but he figured it out. I'm pretty sure my fishy faces did nothing to help him learn it, he figured it out all on his own. When he first got it, Chad and I would clap and say Good Job! He still drinks a little bit of water and then looks at us wondering where the praise is.

Mom Update

NKOTB
Yes, you read that right. I went to The New Kids on the Block concert this week! Now, for those who don't know, this was my first concert when I was 12 years old. My brave mom took me, my cousin and friends to see my favorite band. When I was little, my favorite boy in the band was Jordan, wow, he was sooo hot! I must admit, when the concert started and the screens read "15 years ago...." I thought, really? 15 years? It's actually been longer than that. This might have been a bad idea.....
I must say, I had a blast. We ended up with floor seats and at first I thought, short people really should avoid floor seats, this is going to be a long concert. And then, just to the left of us, they unveiled a piano from underneath a black tarp and low and behold, the New Kids came out to sing to me! I mean, us, whatever. I was inches away from my favorite New Kid! Actually I could have probably reached out and touched him but I thought, what's the point? I will be washing my hands and I'm sure he feels just like every other human being. The boys have aged, alot. The New Kid I didn't like when I was a kid is my favorite from the concert, Jon Knight. He's aged the best out of all of them. Anyways, all that to say, I had a great time. Jordan must have seen my wedding ring though so he knows, he lost his chance.

Hypo-Half Marathon - February 15th, 2009
Lisa and I have officially signed up for the Hypothermic Half Marathon. There is no turning back now. We have 12 weeks from today to train so I am getting back into running. I ran just under 8 km last weekend and, I won't lie, it was hard. With Chad's crazy work hours I haven't managed much time for running this week but, I've had a talk with Kayden and he's up for helping mom by staying happy in the stroller for some runs during the day. So, here goes, lots of training ahead of me and I'm super excited about it.

Dayhome
We have been fortunate enough to find a great dayhome for Kayden right here on our street. The lady is bilingual and is really great. It makes me feel much better now that I know he will be in good hands and I can go back to work knowing we picked a great spot for him.

Family Photo

Some of you might have been aware that for our anniversary this year, Chad and I decided to do family photos instead of getting each other gifts. We finally found a great photographer and got them done the first weekend in November. This just happened to be when one of Kayden's upper front teeth broke through so he stuck his tongue out in pretty much every shot. I guess that will be a story to remind him of when he gets older. Our photographer sent us the disk in the mail and I think it got a bit damaged so we can't open all the pictures yet but here are a few of my favorites so far...

I think she did a great job and there is 200 some pictures in all so this is just a taste of our afternoon. We went down the street by the french school and took some pictures in the Paskapoos. When Susanne gets back from holiday, we will try and get another CD of the pictures and post some more.

At the Zoo

Rowan, Terri and Andrian came to Calgary for a visit. They usually stay at Andrian's parents place but there was a flu bug going around and joined us instead! It was great as the kids got another chance to bond. I'm pretty sure Kayden babbles just a bit more after visits with Rowan. I really believe Rowan will be the first to talk amongst the cousins because she already has so much to say we just don't understand it yet!

So, we met up with Molly and Ali and headed out to the zoo on Friday.

Here's Rowan and Terri.

Ali and Molly (I guess you have to trust me that Molly's in the stroller)

And the cutest Giraffe!

It was a beautiful day in Calgary so the zoo was a great idea.

8 months, really?

Kayden is 8 months old now, wow. I keep having to recount the months in my head because I really do not believe it quite yet. We have seen a lot of changes in him this month though. Not so much on the outside but on the inside. He really concentrates on things when you talk to him. He's not crawling yet but, it's not too far off I don't think. All moms probably say that! I just see him have more determination everyday to get from one spot to another. He moves backwards and uses his rolling skill to move now. I guess we will have to wait and see! He has just recently had both upper front teeth break through so he's now a four tooth baby. I think he wants to stay ahead of his cousins in at least one department! His new skill as of the last couple of days is a 'High five'. He skipped the clapping and went for something more boyish I guess. I'm not sure if he understands what we are saying or if he just likes the way 'High five' sounds and then sees us lift our hand but, it's a start! I caught it on film for you...

leftovers for Bogey

Now that Kayden is getting older, we are feeding him more things and trying to let him practice eating with a few Cheerios on his tray. He's not really great with getting the Cheerios in his mouth yet. Bogey loves his bad aim and can often be found hovering like a shark waiting for the next drop...

The swing

I decided while the weather is nice we should see how Kayden likes the swings. I have always loved the swings (still do...). As soon as I started moving the swing he started giggling away! It was the sweetest thing.

Kayden's first Hallowe'en!

Well, our little shy guy did really well for his first Hallowe'en. I think I dressed him up in his skunk costume 5 or 6 times in total and he never complained! Chad took him around to the neighbors we hang out with and they all enjoyed seeing him join their kids in this experience.



Here is the part that sold me on his costume...

It's a little out of focus. It says 'lil stinker', love it!



Here's Kayden with his ladybug cousin Rowan


And with his Penguin cousin Molly

Visit with Rowan! and family...

Well, this past weekend we went up to Edmonton to finally get the cousins to hang out. Chad is done school, yay! We still await his final grades but I have every confidence he has officially completed his 2nd year. That will be confirmed at a later post. So, we went off to Edmonton to spend some time with Rowan, Terri and Andrian. It was a great weekend and lots of fun to see the cousins together.

Rowan is not camera shy...

Kayden is a little off balance still with his sitting. He's fine if he doesn't have to look around but just incase something was more interesting, we put the crash helmet on...

And so the cousins played with little complaining. I think they really get along! It will be interesting to see how this continues as they grow up.

Bath Time and Bogey

Usually you wouldn't put the two together but Bogey just loves to watch Kayden at bath time. I'm pretty sure he's just jealous as Bogey loves water. He's not much of a swimmer, more just into trying to drink all the water he can swallow.

One day they will be the best of buds...

Voting Day

Well, Chad and I headed out to go vote as soon as the polls opened as Chad had class late that day. We thought it was never too early to get Kayden used to the idea of voting. It was pajama day for Kayden! These ones are just so cozy I didn't have the heart to put him in anything else!

First Swim

Chad, Kayden and I decided to take advantage of holiday Monday and so we headed off to Westside Recreation Centre to try out the pool. At first, Kayden was a little confused about this huge bath we had just gotten into. He got used to it pretty quick and started splashing around. We then headed off to the toddler pool which is a bit warmer and then, he was in love. This was just the greatest!
We will definitely be doing that again as I think we have a bit of a water baby on our hands.

Giving Thanks...

We celebrated a really quiet thanksgiving this year. We did take a moment to give thanks for an incredible year so far. We are so very lucky to have a healthy boy who has two healthy cousins to grow up with. Kayden is surrounded by love from G.G. and all his grandparents, aunts and uncles. He is even blessed with one grandparent who has a special viewpoint up in heaven to watch over him. We feel very blessed this year and we want to thank you all for all of your support over this past year.

We decided to give Kayden a little bit of Chad's pumpkin pie in order to celebrate Thanksgiving. I think we felt he needed something tasty after eating all his potato, carrot, spinach, beef mushy creation. He loved the bits he actually got in his mouth! It was pretty neat to watch because it was the first time he was bringing food to his mouth without our help.

The times he decided to actually try and eat from the spoon, I was there to help out with actually putting something on the spoon to eat.


Ahh, the fun of discovering food...

He was pretty sticky after all this exploring but seemed pretty proud of himself. Who needs parents?

7 months old

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. Kayden is growing everyday. He is learning different sounds but doesn't quite associate them with objects yet. He reaches and grabs for things, mostly my glasses, he's an expert at getting those! He's still pretty easy going, analyzes a situation before feeling comfortable. We still meet up with our birth and babies group every once in a while so he's getting some socialising time in. I also drop him off at the daycare at the gym once a week right now for an hour while I do a class. So far, he jumps into the persons arms and plays and is in a great mood when I get back. He usually naps afterwards as he's so tired from all the play. I'm told that soon I might expect the 'playing strange' phase so I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

Mommy Minute

This blog is mostly for Kayden but I thought I would throw in some things about what's going on with Chad and I every once in a while. Chad is busy with school right now but doing well and only has a couple more weeks to go. At the end of October he will officially be done his second year of his Electrician apprenticeship and will be on to his third year already! It seems like just yesterday he decided to take the plunge and change careers.

I have decided to get back into running because I have missed it a lot over the past year and a half. It has been really difficult to get in running time as I always have that guilt that maybe I should be doing something else. I've decided to let that go as running really is therapy for me and when I do get out there I am a million times better at everything else in my life. Lisa Cameron and I decided in order to get ourselves back into the running mode we would run a race together. We completed the Ambulance Chasers 10 km run this past Friday. Our goal was to complete the run, and we did! Our time was 1 hour and 16 minutes. Kayden and Dad came out to watch Kayden's very first race. Lisa's Fiance Bill met up with us too so it was a lot of fun to be out there again.

Our next goal is to get back into the Half marathons. We have picked the Hypothermic Half marathon which happens mid-february in Calgary. It happens to be just before I get back to work so it'll be a great goal for the both of us.

Elmo

So, I'm not sure if I've told everyone but a lot of people have seen how much Kayden loves his Elmo. I thought it would be fun to capture his love for his buddy Elmo on video. I really have no clue what we're going to do if we lose Elmo...

Kayden and the puppies

So, I tried my best to get a picture of the puppies and Kayden together.

Here is the best shot I think...And here are the other attempts. Apparently this was pretty boring for Lorelei...

And then Kayden wanted to pet Lorelei...

And that is why dogs and babies are the most difficult things to take pictures of! Oh well, I'll get it one day I guess!