first birthday party

i apologize for not getting these pictures up sooner, however, of all the days for my camera to die, it did so on talan's first birthday. fortunately, we have an entire family that is as snap happy as i am so we had about 4 cameras taking pictures for me all evening.
thank you to all of you photographers that came out for the party and took hundreds of pictures for me. i couldn't have done a better job myself.

after much debating on whether to have talan's party on the saturday after his birthday or on his actual birthday, i gave into my neurotic ways and had it on his actual birthday. i couldn't possibly imagine him eating his cake NOT on his actual birthday.
because of his love of jumping we had a jumping themed party. we decorated with 1st birthday goods as well as bunnies, frogs, kangaroos, grasshoppers, and trampolines. the main cake was a trampoline....i did the best i could but this may be the cake we look back on and laugh at how bad it was...we also had mini bunny cakes and frog cupcakes. i also made a mini version of the trampoline cake, minus all of the black frosting, for talan. the dessert table also had the sugar cookies and chocolate suckers in the shapes of frogs, bunnies, kangaroos and grasshoppers that i had made.
since we decided to make it so inconvenient on everyone by having the party on a wednesday, we decided to feed them all dinner. we ordered bbq broasted chicken, chicken tenders, broasted potatoes and rolls from chicken king...THE ONLY place to get chicken. we also had chips, potato salad and cole slaw.
those lucky enough to participate in this magnificent feast consisted of mom and dad, jenn and rainah, jessica, melanie, ashton and lorelei howard, tina taylor, and caroline skiver. daniel skiver also stopped by around 8 o'clock when he got done with work.
it appeared everyone enjoyed the meal....especially dave who has eaten it for lunch AND dinner for the past 4 DAYS. that's not even a joke. even hayden ate 1 entire chicken tender. talan sipped on his bottle but also enjoyed some chicken tenders, broasted potatoes and rolls.
when dinner was done we all gathered around the mini trampoline where all of talan's presents had piled up. dave took talan and helped him open the presents, with some help of course, from hayden. considering he doesn't like to sit still for more than a second, he did a really good job sitting on dave's lap the whole time. he got a little bored when clothes were being opened but as soon as he opened a toy that made noise he'd sit there quite content.
some of the MANY gifts he received were: a leap frog fridge dj (which hayden has played with FAR more then talan has), a baby mp3 player (hayden got one for his birthday, why not talan?!), a jumping zebra, a giant stuffed dog blanket, books, clothes, a farm animal truck, a puzzle, a lawn mower, a ball popper, and quite a bit more. everyone was so generous and we thank you for all of the great gifts!
after the presents were all opened, the adults started trying to take the toys out of the packaging (if you've ever done this, you know this process can take several hours) and putting them together. the kids all started playing with those toys that didn't need to be put together...the favorite being the ball popper that all the kids were playing with at one point. good thing talan doesn't take after his brother, and he doesn't mind sharing....for now at least.
after we let the kids play for a bit it was cake time. we sat talan in his highchair and the paparazzi gathered 'round to take pictures. hayden helped by blowing the candle out and then talan stuck a finger into the frosting. as soon as he got his first taste of the sugar he couldn't shovel it in fast enough. when he did eventually stop we pulled him carefully out and ran him upstairs to get him changed and cleaned up so that we could eat our cake.
when we brought him back downstairs we put him in his jumper where he happily jumped for the rest of the evening.
when everyone headed home we sent them with a big bag of goodies. the kids got a wind up bunny, a jump rope, a stuffed frog, a bouncy ball with a frog inside, jumping grasshoppers, and they all got to take home one of the ball hoppers that you jump on. the adults got a bag with cookies, chocolate suckers and a tin with talan's picture on it and inside some "jumping beans." i tried desperately to find some real mexican jumping beans, but unfortunately they are not in season until july or august. so we had to make do with the little pill looking jumping beans that my dad remembered growing up with.
even though it was about 9 o'clock by the time we were putting t-money to bed, he was still in a great mood. he seemed to really enjoy the whole party. the food, the presents, being the center of attention, and of course...the cake!
here are just a few of literally the 400 pictures i gathered from dad and jessica alone! and people say the second kid hardly has any pictures taken of them. HA....not my kids.


all ready for a party:

the birthday throne:

mmm, chicken king:
the dessert tables:


frog cupcakes:
talan's cake:
trampoline cake:
the birfday boy:
hayden:
teens, jessica and jenn discussing how awesome my parties are:
johnny cash folsom prison stripes:


ain't that the truth:
the big stuffed dog blanket:
he LOVED his winnie the pooh bear from aunt ruth and uncle jeff:
are we done yet?!:
sitting back and checking out the loot:
whoever heard of a bouncing zebra? apparently fisher price:
one of the favorite toys of the evening voted on by all children ages 1-5:

what is this you're giving me?!:
trying it out:
are you sure i'm allowed to be doing this?:
ok then:





the damage done:
trying to lick the last bit off before being cleaned up:
always moving:

1 year

at 12:22 this morning, talan cash turned 1 year old. he was gracious like his brother and came out quickly, but unlike his brother, not so forcefully. and even after an entire year, i don’t believe that i’ve thought about returning him even once. that’s saying something.
as you may have read once a month, talan has been a happy, relaxed and easy going baby. he’s had to deal with his share of illnesses in his first year of life, including a stay in the hospital at 6 weeks old for pneumonia, an 80 year old man smoker’s cough that he has battled since day 1, countless colds and a dermoid cyst near his eye which will one day be removed. but through it all, he has continued to be, dare i say, the best baby that ever has been.
after having hayden, let’s just say NOT the best baby that ever was, many people would ask…and you want more?! my answer was always…why not?! they don’t get any worse than this one, so why stop now before getting a good one?! my dad always insisted that things CAN get worse and i better watch what i say.
and along came talan giving me polar opposites in almost every way.
he entered the world weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 21 ¼ inches. after 1 year of formula, gerber baby food, and some table foods he now weighs in at around 22 pounds and quite a bit longer than 21 ¼ inches (exact weight and measurement to be posted after his 1 year checkup on the 15^th).
talan continues to sleep relatively well. he typically takes his morning nap around 9:30am. there are several days he doesn’t actually sleep, but for the most part he typically does still get his morning nap in. he then will go back down around 1 or 1:30 for his afternoon nap and then goes to bed around 7 and doesn’t wake up until around 7:30-8am.
he hasn’t been eating table foods as well as he was last month. it’s most likely because he hasn’t been feeling well lately, but he’s just been much more interested in his bottle again. when he does eat food, his favorite is pizza. last nite he ate almost an entire piece by himself.
i have given him a sippy cup several times with milk in it and he’s looked at me as though I’m insane. he refuses to drink it. not sure if he just wasn’t getting anything out of the cup or if he just didn’t like the milk, i put formula in it and he instantly drank it. so…we know he can drink out of a cup. it just has to be the right stuff (a little new kids reference seeing as though they have reunited).
we still have not switched talan over to the big car seat as we’re just trying to make it through the winter with him in the infant carrier. we’re hoping we’ve seen the last snow fall so the switch should be coming soon. don’t freak out…my dr. totally understood so you should too.
talan continues to love jumping but has grown to enjoy swinging in his jumper even more. or maybe it’s just that he’s a little too big for the jumper and can’t quite jump in it the way he used to. either way, he now loves to swing.
i took him outside yesterday as it was 66 degrees. he sat in the grass picking at it and trying to put anything he could in his mouth. every time he’d start to crawl he’d sit himself back up. grass feels pretty weird when you’re used to nothing but hardwood and carpet! he eventually got used to it and was soon crawling all over. this summer is going to be work between trying to keep him off of the concrete so he doesn’t put holes in his pants or scrapes on his knees and him putting everything in his mouth.
he loved when i put him down the slide and loved the wagon ride even more. hayden pulled him and our next door neighbor’s daughter around for quite some time before he passed it on to me. talan just sat in the seat smiling and talking away to kylie.
he has begun to take A FEW steps when he hold on to our hands, but he prefers not to. he does walk along the furniture quite fast though. he has also started letting go of things and standing on his own for a few seconds at a time. last friday i actually saw him stand on his own for about 30 seconds until he suddenly realized what he was doing and dropped to his knees. he also walked a little ways holding on to his walker the other day. until he realized he could again, drop to his knees and walk on them.
hayden was never a climber and i’m wondering if talan will be one. i have seen him climb up on the baby gate several times now and he loves to pull himself up and climb up on anything that he’s able.
he has wicked strength, just like his brother. his new favorite thing is to go into the bathroom and turn the hot water on in the bathtub. we can crank that thing off as hard as we can and he just comes in and with one twist turns it on. he thinks it’s the world’s greatest game. so between that and him constantly unrolling the toilet paper, the bathroom door is now always closed.
last month he was next to impossible to change as he wouldn’t lay still for even a second. for whatever reason he’s given us a break this month and it’s not quite so difficult…..most of the time.
he’s been very into fake laughing lately. in fact, the other nite at around 2am when he woke up, dave went in to rock him. after calming down he apparently thought it’d be a good idea to sit there and laugh. in the dark. at 2am.
he also has this thing with his arms. he’s always moving them as if he’s directing. he’ll fling them above his head or dramatically side to side. he’ll babble away and his arms will just be flailing all over the place. occasionally he’ll raise one hand out above his head and put his head down. it’s funny and it’s weird. and it’s totally talan.
he loves to dance, he loves to push buttons…especially on the tv, he loves to turn the phone on speaker phone and just look at me and smile as soon as the recording comes on telling you to hang up. he loves baths. he loves to wave to people, especially when they walk in or out of the door. he loves hayden and the cat. in fact, the other day, a cat was on tv and i swear he was saying “meow”. he absolutely LOVES soft things. his blanket is one of the softest materials in the world and he’ll just bury his face in it, wiggle around and say “awww.” he loves to chew on things and put things in his mouth. the other day at the dr. he crawled over to the door and he tried chewing on the hinge. he loves to smash the food on his highchair tray or fling his hand across it making all of the food fly off.
he’s still not a fan of getting changed. he hates when you wipe his nose or do anything to his face, really. he hates having to sit still for his breathing treatments…or sit still in general i guess. He’s getting worse about crying when he sees me leave a room. he just doesn’t want to be left behind. there really aren’t many things he dislikes all that much. he’s just too easygoing.
we have had an amazing first year with him and i can’t wait for the year to come. he has changed so much in so many ways, but he has remained that sweet, happy, chill baby that we brought home 1 year ago.
it seems like talan has always been here, a part of our family. but then in so many ways it feels like it was yesterday that he came to join us.
as much as i’m not a baby lover, i am going to miss him being a baby as we move into the toddler years. but i’m excited to see him grow and learn and to see his personality develop even more.
we love you so much, talan cash. i'm not sure i remember what life was even like before you and i know i don’t want to remember. you have brought so much love and joy and happiness into this family and we are so grateful you are ours.
enjoy your first birthday and this next year ahead. just as i tell hayden almost every day, you will ALWAYS be my baby.
happy birthday talan cash!!!!

one week from today

talan turns one, a week from today. wow did that year fly.

(thanks for the picture, jenn. it was too good not to steal)

first hair cut

last nite, jessica came over to give talan his very first hair cut. i had thought about waiting until after his first birthday, but after seeing some pictures i realized it needed to be done NOW!!! i would have posted these last nite, but the trauma from hayden's big hair cut had me emotionally drained (he still loves it and i still am crying and don't even recognize him).
anyway. talan doesn't like to sit still so it wasn't an easy job for jessica. not to mention the fact that it was past his bedtime and he was exhausted! he did pretty well, though, and the job got done. he can see again! and tina will be oh so happy.


before:

get those things out of my face:
calming down a bit:



the end is near:


PLEASE stop!:
after:

crazy hair

talan woke up the other morning with insane hair. we weren't going anywhere so i didn't do anything about it. i figured when he went down for his nap it'd have to straighten out a bit. but it didn't. it stayed this way the entire day. and boy was it funny.

11 months

we are deep in the planning process for talan's first birthday party and even still i just inadvertently titled this blog "9 months." i obviously can't believe he is already 11 months old.
it was a big month for him and i have a feeling that this one will be even bigger as just today he was doing all sort of new things.
he is now crawling normally on his hands and knees 100% of the time. i can't even remember the last time i saw him do his army stomach scoot. and he can crawl fast, too! if he sees that someone has mistakenly left the bathroom door open, he crawls at lightening speed to try to beat us to it.
he pulls himself up onto everything possible and now cruises with ease along the furniture. he still shows no other interest in walking when we hold his fingers, though. he'll simply put his legs straight out as if he were sitting in mid-air. even when he is in his jumper, he'll walk across the floor as far as the jumper will reach. but no way will he take steps while holding ontosomeone's hands!
he has really been picking up the baby sign language, although it seems he may not need it the way hayden could have benefited from it! talan is already saying (or at least attempting) several words and often tries to imitate what or how we are saying something. just today i would say "awww, teddy bear." and he would go over to the bear and say "awwww, eh ee ha." every time he does something like this i consider it a coincidence until he continues doing it to prove me wrong.
a couple of weeks ago at dinner hayden said that something was yucky and suddenly we all heard talan say loud and clear "yucky." we haven't heard him say that one since, but it was very obvious that nite.
he continues to mostly clap for the baby sign "more" but he now also says "more" while he does the sign. the "r" isn't there, but you can tell he is saying "more." he says "uh oh" and "wow", "woah" and an occasional "mama" when i ask him to.
he recently picked up the sign for "milk" as well. while we were in grand rapids for justin's show i saw talan doing the sign but thought he was waving. i couldn't figure out why he would be waving to the wall and when i looked down, i realized the diaper bag was sitting there and he could see the bottles. he knows what he wants, that's for sure.
it is almost impossible to change his diaper or clothes anymore. the second you put him on the changing table he starts rolling over and doing everything he can do to break away. i remember this phase withhayden and we'd have to change him on the floor with one of our legs laying on top of him so he couldn't move. i fear this will be happening withtalan soon.
something new he has gotten into this month is the rocking elephant in his room. he'll crawl right over to it and pull himself up and just wait for me to put him on it. he can stay on it for quite awhile before he starts falling off to one side and i have to slide him back up again. he'll just sit up there holding onto the handles and rocking himself across the room. the whole time with a huge smile on his face.
as with all previous months, he still loves to jump. however, it seems like he does much more spinning and swinging in his jumper these days than jumping. it could be because he's getting a little too big for his jumper, but i thinka lot of it just has to do with the fact that he simply likes to swing and spin.
he has discovered the buttons on the tv and now that he can easily pull himself up he will reach up and push them. just this morning we had a big lesson on the work "no." there hasn't been a whole lot of that with him, and this morning i had flashbacks ofhayden at this stage. mr. strong will himself. talan did a pretty good job in the strong will category himself today. i would tell him "no" and remove him. he would crawl back, pull back up and reach for the buttons. unlike hayden, several times he would cry when i removed him. but he would go right back over and try again.
after nap i realized he really was hayden's opposite when he crawled over to the tv, started pulling himself up, looked over at me and when i said "no" he dropped down to the ground. i had no idea what on earth to do with that. a kid that actually listens to me?! i clapped and told him "yeah...what a good boy you are." and then he proceeded to clap and say "yeah" and watch himself in the glass door of the entertainment center.
a couple of hours later, however, he must have forgotten the morning lesson as he once again started to push the buttons. and on the lesson went....
he continues to take 2 naps a day, most days at least. he goes to bed at 8, although there are some evenings, like tonite, that he is exhausted and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30. today the clocks changed so i'm sure hoping he doesn't wake up at 5am tomorrow morning! most nites he sleeps through the nite, but there are some evenings that he'll wake up and cry. it typically only lasts for a few seconds but there have been a couple of evenings where we've actually had to go in and calm him down. must have been dreaming abouthayden beating him again.
he is eating more and more people food these days. he usually does really well eating little bites of chicken. yesterday he at a ton of the chicken from my burrito. it's nice having one kid that will eat what we're having! his new favorite thing to eat are pretzel sticks and i think that he actually thinks pretzels are called "more." he'll typically sign and say "more" until he gets pretzels. he also loves club crackers...for whatever reason, it's the one cracker he doesn't smash into thousands of pieces and throw them all onto the kitchen floor. his other favorite food is yogurt. i usually feed him yogurt first at lunch and then when i go to feed him some of his other baby food, he won't eat it. i think from there he'll only eat more yogurt or pretzels. i thinki'll have to start saving the yogurt for last. the second you take it out of the fridge he starts whining and crying until the first spoonful goes into his mouth.
he LOVES baths. he still hasn't learned that he can't just lunge forward to grab a toy. i'm not sure how many times he needs his face to go under before he learns, but i hope it's soon. when he gets overly wiggly on the changing table, he tends to calm down a bit when i start singing to him. he loves really soft and furry things. he'll bury his head into it or bite it and just squeal. he loves getting into the bathroom and unrolling half of the roll of toilet paper. he loves banging blocks together. he loves going intohayden's room and playing with his toys. he doesn't flinch or get scared at loud noises, but we're not scared that he's deaf. he desperately wants to be able to crawl around the kitchen so that he can play in the cats water bowl. he has started taking a bit more interest in thetv and he regularly watches "my friends tigger and pooh" and smiles. he occasionally will sit through me reading a book to him, but it's still annoying because he's constantly trying to turn the pages beforei'm done. he loves when you making a "buzz" sound and thing say "sting!" as you tickle him under his chin. he'll start laughing and back away from you before you can even sting him. he loves the cat andhayden too. he'll play a baby version of "hide and seek" with him which gets he and hayden laughing hysterically.
he's way too heavy for his baby car seat and will be moving on up as soon as the winter is over. he still hates being wrestled into it, but is fine once he's in it. he had an amazing poop this evening that we aren't even sure how it was possible. it went ALL the way up his back but when i first started to change him, i didn't even notice as it appeared to have skipped the lower part of his back. he is pleasant almost always, even at times that he is completely exhausted. he probably could win a "strongest abs" competition. he needs a haircut soon, buti'm just waiting until i know he has enough to cut off that i can keep. he has the world's greatest laugh but an annoying cry (when he actually does cry). he still coughs like an 80 year old smoker but we're used to it by now.
i can't believe the next time i write one of these it will be for a one year old. i think we'll try setting our clocks back a little more than just an hour.
we love you, talan. happy 11 months!

uh oh

after getting home from our trip to grand rapids on tuesday, dave was helping to get the boys ready for bed. we were all in hayden's room while he was getting ready and dave was holding talan. talan suddenly dropped his binky, looked down at it and said "uh oh" as if he'd been saying it for years. we made such a big deal out of it that he kept dropping it and saying it, not as perfectly as the first time, but you could still tell it was an "uh oh."
so pretty much his first words are "wow" "woah" and "uh oh." so much for "mama."

10 months

today talan cash turns 10 months old. i can't believe that i'm already trying to get 1st birthday stuff together for him. how did it go so quickly?! he has been such a welcome addition to this family and loved from day one. we often wondered how hayden would do after having all of our attention for the past 4 years, but he welcomed him with open arms and when asked "are you glad talan came to live with us or do you want him to go back?" he has always answered "stay with us!" phew. it doesn't hurt that talan has been such a happy, laid back baby.
talan now has 7 teeth, 2 of which just broke through the gums this week. he really hasn't ever seemed to bothered by teeth coming in. he occasionally has had an explosive poop or a runny nose, but no real fussing goes along with it.
he eats like a champ but is a little less interested in real food most of the time. when we started introducing baby food he was slow to adjust. he much rathered his bottle. now, he doesn't take a whole lot of bottles but is slow to adjust to having to eat himself. i think he'd just rather someone do it all for him. he typically eats 8 ounces of formula in the morning, for lunch he'll eat a 6 oz. container of yogurt along with 2 or 3 containers of baby food and then will sit and eat some crackers or baby puffs. most days he'll drink another 6 ounces after his afternoon nap and then eat 4 more jars of baby food and some bits of pear or crackers or pasta...whatever is around that i think he might actually eat.
he is still taking 2 naps a day...yeahhhh 2 naps!!! he'll wake up sometime around 7am and then go down for his nap around 9:30. he wakes back up around 10:30 or 11 just in time to see hayden get home from school. he eats lunch around noon and then goes back down for another nap around 1 or 1:30. he typically wakes back up around 3, eats dinner around 6 and heads for bed around 8. many evenings he is tired before then so we've put him down earlier...that seems to work as he still wakes up at the same time in the morning.
he continues to mostly scoot on this stomach to crawl but he totally has the ability to crawl for real. i guess this kid just doesn't like change that much. within the past week he has been crawling on his knees more and more. most of the time he does it when he sees something that he wants to pull up on. so if he's across the room and knows that he's going to crawl to the couch to pull himself up, he'll crawl on his knees since he'll need to get up on them once he reaches it in order to pull himself up. this morning i was getting his bath ready while he was in his room and as soon as he heard the water going i heard him crawling right for the bathroom. he crawled on his knees from his bedroom to the bathroom door when he then decided to just scoot into the bathroom. but really, if you could slide yourself on your stomach, wouldn't you?!
this month he has grown to love pulling himself up onto things. the couch, the baby gates, the crib, my leg. the beginning of the month he would pull himself up and his feet would be way far from the object he had pulled up on. he really didn't like to take steps so he'd end up falling onto his face. by the end of the month he has realized it works out a lot better if he just takes a couple of steps closer to the object and then he won't fall over. he still won't really take steps if he's holding on to our hands or to walk himself across an object but he'll at least take those couple of steps so he doesn't fall onto his face.
he continues to babble more making all sorts of noises. "dadada's" and "mamama's" and dedede's" a bunch of things that don't make any sense. he also says "wow" and will sometimes say it back to us when we say it to him.
we have started teaching him some baby sign language. something i didn't do for hayden. i always thought that if you teach a kid that, they won't be that motivated to actually talk since they can communicate with you. i still kind of feel that way, but figure some communication is better than nothing. right now he mostly does the sign for "more" if prompted but it's basically him just clapping his hands. it's something though.
we have taught him "how big is talan" and when you say "SOOO big" he'll bring up both of his hands and cover his ears. i guess he realizes he's really not THAT big. maybe when he grows a little more he'll put the hands all the way up.
he seems to be quite efficient and should be able to multi-task extremely well later in life. if i pretend to call him on a phone and say "hello? hello talan" he'll simply move his head to the side and touch his ear to his shoulder. no hands. no reason to waste his hand by holding a phone when his ear and shoulder can do it.
he continues to love jumping. every morning before his nap he and i come to the basement so i can work out and he jumps in his jumper right along with me. if he's playing upstairs with his toys and starts to get fussy you usually can just put him in his exersaucer and he'll happy right up.
he loves to spit, as i posted pictures of just the other day. and he loves to have you move your finger up and down on his lips while he makes noises. the other day i guess he really wanted to do it so he started moving his mouth up and down on my leg while making his noises. i really have no other way to explain that....i'll just have to get it on video.
he hates to sit still which makes changing his diaper near impossible. he loves the cat, but the cat is usually not so thrilled about him. he's the best thing to come home to because the second you walk in the door he gives you a huge smile. he has the world's greatest laugh and he does it often, especially for hayden. he is way stronger than he should be. he loves to swing upside down. he loves to be thrown in the air. he still likes to eat fuzz. he loves to splash in the bath. he hates having to get his seatbelt on in his carseat, but once he's in it he's fine. he can play in his toy corner by himself for long extended periods of time. he is the greatest.
it will be interesting to see what this month holds but i want it all to slow down. we love you talan. happy 10 months!

he's a funny one

talan's new favorite thing to do is spit. not with his tongue, but just by pressing his lips together and blowing as hard as he can. he especially loves to do this as soon as you put a spoonful of food in his mouth. i have to admit, it is really funny, but it's getting a little annoying cleaning down the walls after every bite.
no video, but here are some pictures:



yeah, we all think it's pretty funny: