7 Weeks old

Here is a picture of Caden at 7 weeks old. I finally got a smile on camera!

Caden has been looking around at everything. It is amazing how strong his neck is!

We went for a hike the other afternoon to Taylorsville Park in Vandalia. Everyone had a great time! Nia saw more squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits then she usually sees at the house. She was just pissed that she was on a leash and couldn't chase them! Caden liked riding in the baby Bjorn with Mark, he was awake for most of the hike and then fell asleep towards the end. He really wanted to look around at all the trees!

Trip to Cox Arboretum

Caden and I met up with my college friends on tuesday at Cox Arboretum in Moraine/Dayton. There are some paved trails around the gardens which were beautiful.

We had a beautiful day there and had a picnic in the shade. The babies loved the light breeze and took turns crying and eating, it was pretty funny really!

Isaac, Caden and Kristin

Caden punching the other two!

The stroller gang taking over the paved paths!

Issac (and Amy, kinda)

Tricia and Kristin

Thought we would take a nice fall photo with the display that they had out front. Thank you!

Happy birthday Jen!

My sister Jen turns 27 today! Happy Birthday! We love you and wish we could be there to celebrate with you! The countdown is on for her wedding as well, 3 1/2 weeks until the big day! It has approached very quickly, and has been good motivation to get back into shape and fit in my bridesmaid dress. We are very excited!

We went to cheer on the Troy Trojans last Friday night when they played Wayne...we must not have cheered loud enough, (I know Maddie did!) because they did not win.

Here is a picture of Caden and Grammie Clarice at the game. He loved the noise and all the lights!

First trip North

Week 5

Caden met his Great Great Grandmas the other day. He was on his best behavior, didn't mind being passed around and visiting with everyone.

Great Great Grandma Viola and Great Great Grandma Joann

Caden and Grandma Marge

Caden, Grandma Marge, Grandpa Tom and Holly

Well, we hope all the trips up to see my family go as smooth as last weekend! Despite the wind on the way home, Caden slept almost the entire way up and back to Cleveland (over 3 hours each way)! How fantastic! We didn't get a picture, but Nia and Caden rode in the backseat really well together.

Here is a picture of him at the LaGuardia family party! The fam couldn't resist getting him dressed up in Italian colors!

Great Uncle Lou, Grandpa Joe, Caden, Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle John

Great Aunt Vicki, Great Aunt Martha, Caden, Great Uncle Tom, Grandma Ginny and Great Aunt Mary

Grandma Ginny and Grandpa Joe with Caden at the party

Caden has recently started smiling and cooing back at us. I tried to get a picture of it, but you gotta love the delay on cameras. Here is part of a smile. He seems to actually be seeing us now. And he just saw Nia for the first time a few weeks ago! Also, I couldn't resist a picture with these huge slippers on!

Week 6

(He lost a little bit of hair in the front, daddy is having a harder time with it than Caden.)

1 Month old

I forgot to post something after his 2 week visit with the doc, so here you go. At his 2 week visit with the doctor, he was 21 inches long and 9 lbs and 4 oz, more than 1 lb up from his birthweight of 8lbs 2oz. He did really well at the doctor's office, didn't mind being naked on the scale...I was just waiting for him to pee on all of us while he was waiting to be weighed! It didn't happen fortunately.

Here is a 3rd week picture.

The other day Caden and I went on a little road trip to Greenville, OH to see my old college friends/roommates and their new additions. Tricia/Jeremy Geiser had a beautiful little girl named Kristin Madison and she has an amazing amount of hair! Kristin was born on July 19th. Amy/Rob Winner welcomed their second boy, Isaac Steven, on August 14th.

I had to put one on of little Andrew Winner with all of us.

Andy Metcalf (college friend) visiting with the babies.

Caden and his new friend Isaac Winner. They are only 1 week apart!

Today Caden is 1 month old!!! Hard to believe! So far our little family is getting along pretty good. We have adjusted (somewhat) to the lack of sleep and are happy that Caden wakes up every 2-3 hours at night. This is a change from the first week when he was waking every 30-60 minutes! So much better. His umbilical cord stump fell off at about 2 1/2 weeks and he now enjoys being submerged for his baths. If you cannot tell from the pictures, Caden has deep blue eyes and a good amount of brown hair. He is just starting to smile a little bit more which is very exciting!

4 week picture

More bath photos...
When my parents came to visit, we all went down to Dayton for a family night out. We went to the Dayton mall, Babies R' Us (of course), Dewey's pizza (which is on my top 3 best pizza places) and to Dolcessa (a Gelateria down by UD that I have been trying to locate for a few months now). We had a great time out of the house, mostly me, and Caden was a gem. Only waking at Dewey's in hopes of getting a slice of pizza.

Caden and Grandpa Dave

At home with Caden

It is hard to believe that Caden is almost 3 weeks old already. I guess the sleepless nights begin to run together and the days just pass right by! We have good nights and bad nights, which don't seem to be consistent either way right now. I am trying to watch what I eat to see if that has any affect on the boy. So far this experiment has gotten me nowhere. Caden has changed so much in the past few weeks, his face has filled out a little more and he has definitely gained some weight. At his two week appointment his weight was at 9lbs and 4ounces! A full pound (and then some) up from his birthweight! He has started smiling more, but I think it is just from gas.

I am going to try and get a picture every week for a full year, we'll see if I can keep it up. Here are the first two weeks.

Caden's Uncle Joe, Aunt Amy and cousin Joey (4 1/2 months old) came for a visit two weekends ago. Check out the two boys together!

On Sunday, Mark and I took Caden to Fraze pavilion for the SeaFest seafood festival with Caribbean music. It was fun until it started to rain and then once it stopped it was so muggy and sticky we decided that it was time to head home. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, bad mommy. He slept the whole time anyways, until he started getting rained on! oops!

He is finally here!!

Well, if you haven't heard we had our baby last Wednesday! Caden Joseph Francis was born at 5:29am weighing in at 8lbs 2ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. He is beautiful and wonderful and we are all doing well!

It took some convincing to get Mark to believe that I was in fact having contractions starting at 5pm on Tuesday afternoon about every 5 minutes. He said "I thought I had a few more days, I don't know if I'm ready!" Well, our little one ended up wanting to come 6 days early, what can you do!?!? So, Mark quickly ran through our hospital bag to make sure that he had everything and we called Dr Karr to see what we should do. The Dr said to go to the hospital and just get checked out. So we said goodbye to Nia, loaded the car and made our way to the hospital. Once there, they admitted me and we made our phone calls to the family to let them know that it was in fact time! So...my sister and Dad began the drive from Cleveland and made it to Troy around 1:45am. Things progressed somewhat quickly and we welcomed our little boy into the world at 5:29am on Wed August 6th. Many thanks to my "coaches" for all of their motivation and letting me squeeze the heck out of their hands. I was glad to hear that they had no bruising and/or broken bones!

Mark, Caden and I came home from the hospital on Friday and have been enjoying introducing him to everyone as well as getting him comfortable in his new home.

Caden leaving the hospital!

Scot, Amanda, Maddie and Izzy meet Caden.

Maddie meets her new cousin!

Nia was very excited to meet Caden as you can see. She likes to lay close to Caden, but doesn't crowd his space. We are very happy with the way she has accepted the new addition!

Here is the link from the hospital website:

http://www.uvmc.com/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=14&action=detail&ref=95459

(If it doesn't work, I delivered at UVMC and the photo is up on the online nursery.)