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Friday, November 30^th
Caden is just about able to sit up by himself for the first time.  Weebles wobble and... well, they sometimes fall down.

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Thursday, November 29^th
This kid was being silly and ticklish today.

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Monday, November 26^th
I was washing clothes today and had Caden sitting in the laundry basket.  He was being so funny that I had to go get the camera.  I stuck a funny hat on his head and got these great photos.

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Friday, November 23^rd
John, Caden and I went downtown tonight to San Jose's Christmas tree lighting event.  They actually have this pretty cool event called Christmas in the Park every year.  It’s pretty neat for a boring town like San Jose.  Anyway, we thought we would catch the lighting ceremony for the first time.  We got a little more than we bargained for.  There were gobs of people and we noticed a couple of news cameras and reporters there too.  They did the obligatory blah blah with the politicians and then lit the tree.  John and I were taking photos with Caden in front of the tree and Mike Mibach, a reporter from Channel 2 came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to "answer a few questions".  Oh crap.  Uh, ok…

He was pretty nice.  He'd clearly been assigned to do the "feel good" story of the night; something about people getting into the Christmas spirit.  We didn’t realize how much they had filmed us until we got home that night and watched it on TV.  You always feel like such a dork.  Caden looked cute of course.  Mr. Serious.  Where’s that awesome smile when we need it?!

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Thursday, November 22^nd
Happy Thanksgiving!  We had the Zenker family over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  I love to cook so it was a lot of fun.  I think everything turned out pretty good.  It’s always nice to have family together.

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Tuesday, November 20^th
It’s almost time to start solids!  Caden got a highchair from uncle Jeff and Grandpa Z. put it together for him over the weekend.

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Monday, November 19^th
Caden was sitting up on the counter today and I thought it would be fun to play some hide-and-seek and peek-a-boo.  I think he liked it but you’ll see that I probably scared the crap out of him at least once.  Oops.

He’s sure got a great laugh.

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Sunday, November 18^th
With the holidays coming up, our church is starting to plan a lot of our Christmas activities.  And one tradition that happens in churches across the world is a children’s play that reenacts the birth of Jesus.  Now, have you ever watched a Christmas play at a church?  Or worse yet, have you ever been involved in planning one?  They are usually an unbelievable disaster!  Everyone wants their kid to participate and be in the play, but then you sit on pins and needles hoping your kid doesn’t flash the crowd from under their costume or punch the baby Jesus in the head during the performance.

 But this year, our church had a great idea.  What if we took photos of all the kids in their respective costumes and put it together into a movie?  That way no one has to actually do any acting and we can get photos of all the kids over time and include more kids in the final production.  I thought it was brilliant.  So, today was Caden’s turn.  And what part was he selected for?  The big man on campus.  The one and only.  BABY JESUS!  Then again, it was a pretty easy part.  All he had to do was lie there and smile.  Although, he didn’t look very newborn-ish.  A pretty chunky Jesus if I may say so.

Anyway, we got his all dressed up today after church for his photos and he was hilarious.  It was like he knew he was in character or something.  He was playing it up like crazy.  Everybody in the room was laughing.  This kid is only five months old!

It’s going to be fun to see the final production.   Here are a couple of the photos.

Thursday, November 15^th
John had to work late tonight so Caden and I decided to go down to one of the outdoor malls to attend the Christmas tree lighting event (is it that time already?!).  We were running a little bit late and I was rushing around the house getting Caden’s stuff together.  I had him sitting up on the kitchen counter in his Bumbo seat.  We have a small sink in the counter and lately he’s been having fun pulling the faucet off and on again to turn the water on and off.  Well, I didn’t notice that he’d pulled the faucet on and the sink started filling up.  The next thing I now, the entire kitchen floor was flooded.  At least an inch of water on the hardwood floor.  Holy crap.  And Caden is sitting there grinning.

It was one of those moments where you can’t get mad or freak out.  You just have to stop, shift gears and change your plans.  Fast!  I actually laughed first and then shut off the water, grabbed our ShopVac and started trying to sop up the water.  Twenty minutes and a bunch of wet towels later, I think I had most of it off the floor.  The only thing that would have made it worse would have been him screaming the whole time.  At least he gave me that break. 

Just a bit of a disaster tonight.  We still went to the mall, albeit with me a little soaked and a lot sweaty.

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Sunday, November 11^th
Even though Caden is only five months old, I think it’s not too early to start getting him used to the water.  In my younger days, I used to run a swimming program and taught infant swimming classes.  We typically started infants at around six months of age.  The idea is never to “waterproof” your kid but rather to teach them skills that might help them survive should they fall into a pool or tub.  Nothing ever replaces parental supervision of course.

Anyway, we have a pretty big bathtub so I’ve been taking Caden in it to start a few swimming skills.  At this age you mostly want them to feel comfortable with water on their face and make sure they aren’t bothered too much if they inhale a little water.  This kid loves it!  He lays flat on his back in a floating position.  He dunks his head underwater.  He splashes and blows bubbles.  I think we have a natural on our hands.  We can’t start him in real baby swimming classes until January but this is a good start until then!

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Thursday, November 8^th
Our kitten LuLu is in love with Caden.  Captivated might be another way to put it.  She can’t get enough of him.  She loves to cuddle next to him and head butt him.  She purrs so loud when he’s near her.  She doesn’t mind anything he does to her.  Naturally, we are already trying to teach him what “gentle” means and how to be gentle and careful with the cats, but once in awhile he still yanks or pulls their hair.  She loves it.  The more the better.  You have to monitor things pretty close though because he’s putting nearly everything in his mouth these days as the picture here (close call) attests.

Sunday, November 4^th
Getting Caden to go to sleep last night in the hotel room was a bit of a challenge.  We used a hotel crib and, well, being in the same room with him was just too exciting a notion for him.  He didn’t want to lie down.  As long as he could see or hear us, he didn’t understand why it needed to be bedtime.  And there John and I sat, prisoners in our hotel room, trying not to make a peep.  You can’t even turn the pages of the newspaper to read it without Caden noticing and saying “Huyh!”

It took almost two hours and he eventually fell asleep.  There’s got to be a better way!  If we were made of money, we’d obviously get a suite with two rooms, but that ain’t gonna happen.  Needless to say, I’m a little sleepy today.

Another beautiful day in Lake Arrowhead today.  We met up with Candice, Erin and also some of Candice’s friends today.  It was fun to just hang out and spend time together.  We didn’t really need to do any big activities.  Caden was our activity and that’s how it should be.

It was great seeing Candice and her mom and we look forward to planning another visit again soon.  That’s what open adoption is all about.  It’s important to us that Caden know Candice and her family as he grows up.  Check out more of the photos we took by clicking here.

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Saturday, November 3^rd
We had an early flight this morning from San Jose to Ontario.  We are planning to hold Caden on our lap; we didn’t buy him his own seat on the airplane.  Caden did great on the flight (of course it was only 50 minutes long) and I was sure to have a bottle in his mouth during take off and landing to ease the pressure in his ears.  The flight attendants loved him and gave him lots of attention, a pair of Southwest wings and a rubber glove blown up with a smiley face drawn on it.  Spoiled kid.

We drove to Lake Arrowhead and checked in to the hotel.  Things are definitely not business as usual because of the fires, but it sure is beautiful up here.  The lake is gorgeous.  We called Candice and met her at her house.  We spent some time there with her and her mom Erin.  It was really great to see them.

Later we met at our hotel and had dinner by the lake.  I think they’re astonished how big Caden is getting.  They got to have some great quality time with him today and we got some good pictures. Check out more of the photos we took by clicking here.

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Friday, November 2^nd
Despite the fires in Lake Arrowhead, we’re still planning our visit with Caden’s birthmom this weekend.  From everything we hear, things are starting to return back to normal and the air quality is pretty good.  But nothing, of course, goes as planned.  I got an e-mail today from the hotel telling us that they were canceling our reservation – for tomorrow!  They have been housing firefighters and power company employees and say they don’t have room.

Not to be pushed around, I gave them a call.  Let’s just say that I can lay it on pretty thick when I need to.  Our reservation has been reinstated, and at a discount!  Hurray!  Thank you Lake Arrowhead Inn.

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