Is that a cough?

This week, Caedmon has been coughing. I let it go for a day to watch him, but when he continued, I called the pediatrician to find out what to do for him. It didn't sound deep, and he seemed to feel fine. The nurse gave me tips on what to do to help break up any congestion from a cold, and told me what to watch for...but warned me that sometimes babies cough just because they figure out that they can.

So, our little guy kept coughing - and I watched him - and after a few days, noticed a pattern. He rarely coughed while sleeping, and was fine as long as he was entertained. But if I put him in his swing our bouncy seat while I made dinner or washed dishes, he got bored and it wasn't long before he would start it up!

I do think he had a little bit of congestion, maybe from allergies; perhaps that got him started. But he's picking up new "skills" quickly, so once he figured out how to cough, it was a fun new little trick to practice! I'm just thankful he's not actually feeling sick. And pretty sure he's going to have quite a sense of humor...can you tell it by the look on his face?


We also put together his "big boy" stroller this week. He's not quite big enough to hold himself up well enough to use it on our errands yet, but I think we're getting close! He was content to stroll a few laps around the house, and really inspected the warning label for me.

4 month-old

Sunday was Caedmon's 4 month birthday!  Our little guy is 1/3 of a year old.  Actually, it was just over a year ago that we found out he was on his way.  What a precious year this has been!

Four-month birthdays also mean another check-up with the pediatrician.  Caedmon is a tall boy - 26.5 inches, which puts him in the 92nd-95th percentile for his age!  He weighs 15 lb 6 oz, which is about the 75th percentile.  We think he's just right.

Easter weekend

Caedmon had a busy first Easter weekend!  We went to Garland on Friday, and he spent his first night at Gramma and Grandpa's house.  Packing to travel isn't as easy as it used to be - we definitely don't travel light anymore!

Caedmon handled the trip really well and everyone enjoyed getting to see him and play with him.  He met several cousins, aunts, and uncles for the first time, and his Gramma and Grandpa definitely enjoyed having him at their house!

Here, Caedmon takes time for a photo with his Uncle Mark and soon-to-be Aunt Lindsay, who are also two of his baptismal sponsors.  Even though they don't get to see him often, we're so thankful for them and their faithful prayers for him!

We came home Saturday night, then re-packed and left early Easter morning to go to Olney for church and Jentry's baptism.  Here are the three newest cousins after church and lunch - Kayla, Caedmon, and Jentry.  They are the sixth, seventh, and eighth great-grandchildren to my grandparents, Leo and Frances...all within six months of each other!

When we got home Sunday afternoon we were all tuckered out, but thankfully Caedmon had enough energy for a quick Easter picture with me in the sweet little outfit that his Aunt Julianne, Gramma, and Great-Aunt Cherie helped pick for him!

Easter is always a joyful day, but especially so this year.  Never before have I been able to truly understand a parent's love for their child...and to think of God sending His only Son into the world to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, to suffer, and to die in my place, your place.  Yet, how amazing to know that we are also His children!  "How great is the love that the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!"  1 John 3:1 

He is risen!

A few of our favorite things...

It was a bittersweet moment when we realized that Caedmon's Pooh-jamas (a light blue footed sleeper with Pooh and Tigger, and little Pooh faces on the toes) are truly too small (correction: too short) for him. We rejoice to see him growing, and thank God for his healthy little body! But when we received the Pooh-jamas from Caedmon's Gramma, his little toes didn't even reach the feet. Now his feet are longer than the foot in the jammies and they stretch whenever he straightens his legs, and the sleeves are about halfway to his elbow when he sleeps (with his arms up over his head.) This particular sleeper has been a favorite - it's so cute on him! - so it's sad that he can't wear it anymore.

But thinking about the Pooh-jamas today has given me the opportunity to reflect on other things that are current "favorites," and as I made a mental list, I realized that many of these things are also temporary and will eventually be outgrown.  So Caedmon, for the present, I thank the Lord for:

1.  Waking up in the morning to hear you "talking" in your crib as you look around in wonder and relief that the light has returned, bringing with it your familiar surroundings.

2.  Getting to go get you out of your crib in the morning, and seeing your face light up as you wave your arms and kick with excitement.

3.  Changing your clothes and you relishing the "freedom" by getting in as much wiggling and kicking as possible before the new outfit is on.

4.  Watching you wake up from a good nap - as you wiggle, then open your eyes...then see my face...and finally give me a sweet, sleepy, almost bashful little grin.

5.  Our post-mealtime conversations.  You have a completely different voice at this time, and gurgle and coo so softly while looking directly into my eyes.  Your eyes and face seem to tell me that you understand me completely when I make the same sounds back.

6.  Naps that you take in my arms.  This used to happen a lot - I could rock you at any time of the day or night and it would soothe you to sleep.  You want to be so alert and awake now!  I relish the opportunities to hold you while you sleep.

7.  Playtime!  When we sing silly songs and play with our hands and toes you smile as big as you can, and occasionally even laugh out loud.

8.  Your hair...for some reason, the top is growing longer but the sides are staying the same.  And it's definitely got some red in it!

9.  Bedtime.  When we put you in your bed and say your prayers with you, you watch us with wide eyes.  I sing to you, and you grab my finger with your hand and keep watching intently.  It's so hard to leave - I want to stay and watch you too!  But I leave, and you find your thumb and settle into sleep.

10.  Your curiousity.  Now that you can see more clearly, you are quite the little observer.  I love seeing you take note of new things (like the cat) at watching you stretch and lean and crane your neck to take in as much as possible of the world around you.

I should probably stop at 10, at least for tonight.  But the list keeps growing.  Thank you, Lord, for showing us Your fingerprints - evidence of Your loving, creative design abounds in even the smallest of Your children!

Rice cereal

We've been debating when to start Caedmon on rice cereal.  It was a hard decision (for mom!) to go ahead and give it a try - but here's the evidence!  He was quite ready to put the spoon in his mouth, as with just about anything else that comes close, but then when he all of a sudden had something liquid too, he gave us some very perplexed looks.

It's a good thing we had a bib on him!  I don't think he actually swallowed much, most of the cereal came right back out, ending up around his mouth and dripping down his chin. 

We finally let him just play with the spoon, which he seemed to enjoy.  I guess the rubber tip was something new and interesting to chew on!

We'll try again in a few days.  Now that he's gotten a taste of it and it's not all brand new, he might be more ready to eat!  In any case, we got some cute pictures.  Our boy is growing up so fast!

Is that a family name or did you make it up?

When we chose his name, we knew that Caedmon probably wouldn't ever have to use his last initial to help a teacher or classmates differentiate him from the other little boy with the same name.  I'm sure a lot of people we talk to probably think we just wanted to be different, and I would estimate that 30 to 40% of people I talk to misunderstand.  "Oh, Caden.  Camden?  Cadebon."  That's okay.  But when our little boy gets bigger, we want him to understand how carefully we deliberated and how important the meaning of his name is to us.  "Caedmon's Call" is a Christian band (that happens to be one of our favorites) so Daniel began investigating...

We discovered that Caedmon was a simple laborer at Whitby Abbey, a monastery in England in the 7th century.  While the monks there were able to create verse and sing, he was unable to do the same and would often retreat to tend to the animals whenever the others would share their songs.  One night he had a vision and heard a voice instructing him to sing.  He replied that he did not know how, but the voice repeated its instruction, and in his dream he sang verses about Creation that he had never heard before.  Upon awakening, he recalled the words from his song and shared them with the learned men of the monastery, who acknowledged he had been given a Divine gift.  When the monks shared other Scriptures with him, he turned those stories into verse.  They instructed him to take on the monastic habit, and he continued learning about Scripture and composing vivid poetry that could be shared, making those precious texts accessible to everyday people.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV)

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.

Wow.  God really does use the simple, the lowly, the often-overlooked...for His glory!  He used an illiterate cowherd to share beautiful verses so that others - the simple and lowly - could have access to His Word.  We want our baby boy to remember that God can, and does, use anyone for His purposes, that our gifts are from Him, and that we should use them to glorify Him and share His Word with others.  Like Caedmon.

Since I didn't get any of our earliest photos on here, I'll post one now...what a difference 14+ weeks makes!