It's the end of the world as we know it.....and I feel fine

The title for the blog seemed appropriate; given that it's been so long since our last it's going to sound like the REM song that nobody can sing all the way through. Sing it with me now.......drop off, pick up, alarm clocks, baby bottles, midnight teething, late for work, playtime, bath time, squeaky toys, lots of noise, quiet time, time to eat, time to sleep, the dog is due for shots next week....it's the end of the world as we knew it....and I feel fine!

Actually, we are all feeling great! In just a few months our sweet baby boy has officially become a toddler. He started in the "big kids" class this week, can walk across the room on his own power and has zero interest in baby food. He's sporting 6 teeth, big boy shoes and an almost constant smile. But let me slow down and tell you what's been going on up to this point...


October

We had a very big month. The whole family made the trip home to enjoy Kaden's first Forest Festival. A time honored, annual event that brings the carnival, exhibits and of course the grand feature parade to the generally quiet streets of Elkins. No carnival rides for Kaden this year, but he did get to soak up the atmosphere as we hopped from ride to ride chasing Rhea and Lexi. I'm pretty sure he had the opportunity to experience carnival food, but neither he nor Granny are fessing up to that one. Other highlights from the weekend include the winged wheels motorcycle show and watching the grand feature parade with Grandaddy and Nanna. Of course Kaden filled his first festival right of passage by attending and falling asleep during the fireman's parade. (That's a constant parade of fire truck’s rolling slowly down the street, with lights flashing and sirens blaring for those of you not familiar with Festival)

But the party didn't stop there. Pappaw John and Grandma Nee trucked it down to Charlotte to visit the following weekend and take in the Nascar races. Kaden and Mommy had a great time hanging out at the campsite and strolling through the vendor stands. Daddy got to take a few nights off and enjoy the races and the after race activities of the campsite. Kaden got his first taste of fried potatoes and deer gravy and he's definitely a fan.

Halloween brought more fun in the month of October. We carved our first family pumpkins; big scary Daddy pumpkin, medium sized neutral Mommy pumpkin and cute little Baby pumpkin. We were all pleased with our art work, but I think baby pumpkin with his two teeth to mimic Kaden was by far the winner.

We were well stocked with candy and an oh so cute costume for Kaden's first Halloween. However, as we found out with this holiday, planning ahead doesn't always pay off. By the time we got to Halloween Kaden had taken a fairly decent growth spurt and his oh so cute Halloween costume went from being the very cool Batman to looking more like Bat-boy in short pants. Yes...his costume was too little. And if you are wondering if we dressed him up in the costume anyway...yes, yes we did. However, put your concerns at rest because he only wore it for about 30 minutes. That was all that was left of Halloween by the time he woke up. But in those 30 minutes we handed out candy, got pictures with our freshly carved pumpkins and a good time was had by all.


November

As I look back on the happenings of November I write this with mixed emotion. In November one of the most wonderful women I have ever known left us to take her spot in Heaven. We are all blessed and better people for having her in our life. Even Kaden, who only knew her for a short time, will carry a little something forward from Grandma Yokum.

It was also this November that a new angel entered our life, as proud parents Cassie and Joe welcomed Jackson Leonard Dooling to the world. Cassie and I have been best friends since our first day together on the YMCA van back in elementary school, so it's great that our "guys" will have the opportunity to be such great friends too.

Work was big theme in the month of November.. So big in fact that we had to fly in reinforcements to help out for a week. Grandma Karen was kind enough to drop everything and come spend a week with us to help out with Kaden and other stuff around the house. Mommy worked a rather intense schedule and Daddy was doing his normal work travel. It's hard to say who had more fun, Kaden or Grandma Karen, but I know they were both sad when the week was over.

Mommy and Daddy (or Lance and Amanda as they were once known) road tripped it to Pittsburgh for their annual anniversary trip. It wouldn't be an anniversary without good friends and Steeler's football! This year we were fortunate enough to see the Steelers bring home a victory and had a great time enjoying that victory with Justin, Amy, Steve and Angie. Kaden and Kiesel stayed behind to enjoy some quality time with Granny and other close by family members. This was of course the first time Kaden and Mommy had been apart for any real length of time. Kaden did great. Mommy had a few moments where she had to pull it together but didn't do too bad herself. I think we learned that 2 nights is Mommy's limit. As it got dark on the second night of being away Mommy was ready to make the drive back to Granny's, but Daddy to the rescue with reason and rationale.

And that brings us to Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving in Charlotte this year, just Daddy, Mommy, Kaden and the animals. Kaden enjoyed his first tastes of an assortment of yummy items...turkey, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. And of course there was a small feast passed down to our furry friends.

On the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) Kaden and Mommy braved the crowds and took advantage of some great deals at Toys R Us and the mall. Probably the last time we'll do that as a team for many years to come, but our first run was a huge success! Just picture a sleeping baby in the stroller, a mom with 4 hands and people everywhere. that’s kind of how it went down.


December

Looking back now, this is definitely the month where it all started to happen. We didn't even see it coming, but we were losing our baby. At this point we were starting to wonder if Kaden was ever going to get the hang of crawling. For weeks he had been up on all fours rocking back and forth as if he would take off at any minute...then all of a sudden on December 3..off he went. A little wobbly at first, but within a day or two he was quite proficient and catching us off guard with how quick he could move. Point in case would be the day that I stepped out to the garage to quickly grab something out of my car and turned around to find him trailing me and already down the stoop. (oops!)


A trip to WV for 10 days over Christmas didn't slow him down either. In fact, we came with a crawler and left with a babbling crawler/climber. I guess spending time with his older cousin made him realize that he didn't want to be hanging out on the floor and that the good stuff was up in higher elevations.


We kicked off the week with Kaden's first haircut. It was an easy decision to say it was time when Daddy kept referring to his baby boy as Billy Ray...in honor of the famous 80's hairstyle he brought back (aka the mullet). Kaden did great in the chair. His first haircut was delivered at Cathy's Beauty Boutique in Valley Bend, by none other than Cathy herself. Kaden also had Austin, Savanna and Tarra there to support him as well. Probably all reasons why he laughed and smiled the whole time. It was a great social event too as it's been a while since I had been at one of my old child hood stomping grounds and spent time with Tarra and the kids. Tarra and I spent some quality time in and around the shop when we were kids. Probably why we were there for about 3 hours that night, so thank you to Cathy for putting up with us so late in to the night.


Christmas was much like the Christmas' I remember from my childhood. Lots going on, family everywhere, places to go and presents to be opened. We did a good job of spreading it out this year and really got to enjoy quality time with everyone. Per usual for a 9 month old, Kaden was not yet in to the present opening scene. He was pleased with the finished results however, so it was lucky he had Rhea on hand to be his official present opener. They were quite the dynamic duo ripping through paper and smiling big when the contents revealed themselves.


Holiday baking has come to be a big part of the Christmas tradition in our family and this year was no exception. The coolest part of this year’s cookie baking was the immersion of Rhea in to the process. In previous years she's been interested and capable of helping with a few things here and there, but this year was different. She was not only by my side measuring things, but she took on tasks all by herself. As she will tell you, she skinned the whole bag of hershey kisses and reese cups all by herself! (And for the record, it's not child labor...she wanted to help). We made gingerbread people, cut out and decorated sugar cookies, rolled ball after ball of peanut butter blossoms and of course made a couple of batches of traditional chocolate chip cookies.


We had another slight wardrobe malfunction over the Christmas holiday. Once again careful planning and forward thinking were the enemy. In honor of Kaden's first Christmas Granny had a pair of red butt flap pajamas (you know like the old moonshiners wore) custom embroidered to commemorate the event. Once again, our off the charts little guy was a bit too long for his outfit. And yes, like all good parents, we did make him wear the outfit for pictures but have otherwise retired it to his keepsake bag.

In an ironic turn of events, we drove back the day after Christmas to Charlotte, only to find that Santa had brought more than just presents.......the ground was covered in snow! By the time we got back it was mostly crusty ice and it melted the next day. but all the same we had snow for Christmas in the south. After getting a good nights sleep, we awoke to find that Christmas wasn't quite over. By the time we unpacked all of the boxes that arrived in our absence the Christmas tree was full of gifts. We spent the morning opening presents and enjoying some of the great stuff mailed to us by far away family. I know it's hard to keep count, so let me summarize for you....in a matter of 10 days, Kaden got to experience Christmas 6 times. Talk about being loved!!

You would never know it to look at him, but Kaden's handsome and energetic Daddy finally turned the big 4-0! We commemorated the event with a gathering of family and friends and course what else but Steelers football. We had a bit of a challenge finding a location with the game on, due to the Thursday night schedule, but by mid-first quarter we were able to commandeer some bar stools and watch the Steelers lay the smack down on the Panthers. Daddy and Mommy will be rounding out the celebration with a 3 day trip to Key West in April, where we'll hopefully be soaking up the sun and laying in to some nice big fish off the deck of our fishing charter.

January

So if December was the beginning...January would be the end. Not long after the first of the year our sweet baby boy became a toddler. That's right..no more baby, he's a full fledged feeding himself, walking and climbing toddler. It was so random that I don't even remember the exact night, but we were all in the living room, winding down for the evening when Kaden took his first steps. He had pulled himself up on his toy box and was holding one of Kiesel's bones. Without a thought he just started to move forward and before anyone (including Kaden) knew what was going on, he had traveled 3 steps, dog bone still in hand. We all sat silent for a moment, and then everyone just started smiling and laughing. For the next few days, most of his walking was limited to walking behind his school bus or push cart.
It was again a trip to WV and time around his big cousin Rhea when he began to further progress in his walking skills. The video of Kaden's first documented steps was taken in Granny's living room on MLK weekend and there are several since then all marking the progression of his walking abilities. Nothing grabs the attention of an audience like a cute little boy demonstrating new skills, and Kaden is quickly learning that. During the gathering to commemorate Granny's 60th birthday Kaden was more than happy to entertain the family with demonstrations of his walking abilities. Big cousin Rhea was always close by, just in case he needed encouragement or assistance.
Speaking of Granny's 60th birthday, we are sad to say that we have only had limited sightings of her since. There is a body with an iPad head that is seen frequently, but very few Granny viewings.
I can't believe it, but I almost left out the snow storm that hit Charlotte the second week of January. Very unusual for the south, but one morning we woke up to about 3 inches of snow on the ground and of course schools and businesses were closed for the day. Fortunately/unfortunately Mommy and Daddy both have the ability to do some work from home, so it wasn't a total snow day. We did however all take a break and go outside in our snow gear to enjoy the freshly fallen snow. Kaden loved it from the minute we put him down. He took off crawling through the snow like a bundled up little plow. And of course he thought it was quite funny to see Kiesel kicking up snow when he went running after the ball.
Phew...finally..my head is swimming with trying to remember all the events of the past few months. And while I would like to say that I'll do better next time and write more frequently...I try to never make promises that I'm not sure I can keep.

OK...everybody now..let's sing this one out.........dirty diapers, dirty dog feet, did Kaden get enough to eat, what's for dinner, what's in your hair, get the cat out of the chair, uh oh overflow, clean it up, let it go...it's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!