MOVING!

I decided it was time to have a blog that was totally for our family and start fresh with a new address and all.

So, flip on over to http://thetappfam.blogspot.com because the Blog of Kimness is closing its doors!

4th of July

I took Caden out to the cemetery this morning to visit mom's grave. Can't believe it's been 3 years since her final earthly breath. How she would have loved her 3 grandchildren!

Such a big boy - sitting up better & better each day! He was sitting up in a tripod position (leaning forward on his arms), but just this weekend he started coming off his hands & sitting up straighter for a little bit at a time.

Love this bench, donated by the family of a little girl named Hope, who died of cancer. Mom is buried right next to her & this bench is in the trees a few feet away.

My sweet baby & my sweet mommy.

Cutest little patriot I've ever seen :).

4 months & counting

My deepest apologies for my blog neglect... I always seem to put stuff on Facebook & then never make it any farther than that! Our sweet boy is growing, growing, growing, and getting cuter by the day. He'll be FIVE months next week - holy cow.

He is sitting & standing if you hold his hands, grabbing toys & stuffed animals, putting things in his mouth, rolling over, eating solid food, and it probably won't be too long before he's crawling! He loves his mama - and will not let anyone else put him to bed - no sir.

I'm still breastfeeding 5-6 times a day, but he's also tried sweet potatoes, rice cereal, applesauce, mangoes, green beans & peaches so far. He's getting the hang of the spoon & swallowing food, and has eventually liked most everything I've given him. He goes to bed between 8-9 p.m., sleeps til sometime between 5-7 a.m., and usually goes back to sleep again after nursing until 8-9 a.m. He still doesn't have a definitive nap schedule, but that might be coming soon.

At his 4-month check-up, he weighed 17 lbs and was 27.25 inches tall - still off the chart for height. He's wearing mostly 9-month clothes (anywhere from 6-12 months), and I just put a size 2 shoe on him the other day and it just barely fit. He wears size 3 diapers, and diaper blowouts or leaks are almost a daily occurrence - giving my Shout Stain Stick a workout.

He still takes a paci well (which is a lifesaver for me), and also likes to hold his lovey(ies) in his carseat. We've dropped the swaddle at night, and he often rolls onto his side to sleep (like his mommy). Aunt Hillary has been keeping him a couple of the days I work, and Grandma Joli the other day, but now Wade will be taking over Hillary's days while he's off for the summer (since my new niece Riley is due any day!).

Life is tough when you're dealing with crazy parents like us.

He was baptized on May 22, the day he turned 4 months old. A good number of our family came to celebrate Caden becoming a member of the covenant family! He even wore Wade's baptism outfit :).

He does this open-mouth grin/laugh all the time & it's so cute.

I think he's getting my hair color/texture, and it is slowly growing back in after a slight baby hair loss period.

We got him this exersaucer for $15 at a yard sale, and it is great for him to learn to balance & hold himself up. He won't play in it for hours or anything, but it's a good diversion for a few minutes when I need to do things in the kitchen.

2.5 months!

It is obviously beyond time for me to update this blog, considering Caden is going on 11 weeks now. He is getting a lot more fun, as he smiles and sortof laughs, kicks on his playmat & in his bouncy seat, and doesn't cry quite so often! He's been wearing 3-6 month clothes since he was 6 weeks, and he has a really long torso, so a lot of onesies are just too short & wide. At his 2-month checkup he was 14 lbs, 5 oz, and 26 inches long (95th percentile for weight & off the chart for height).

He's sleeping 8-9 hour stretches at night (one time 10!), which usually means going down between 8:00 and 9:00, waking up around 4:30-5:30 to eat, and then going back down until 8 or 8:30. It is definitely nice to be getting pretty good sleep again!

Sleeping in the bouncy seat... this usually happens in the morning after we get up, I feed him & put him in the seat while I eat breakfast & do other kitchen things. He'll kick & play for a while and then fall asleep.

This was a nap one day... love those little feet curled up under that cute bottom!

Many people say all he does is sleep, and it probably seems like it from my pictures too! We're just now getting to the point where I can take decent pictures of him awake. Before now, if he was awake, he was generally eating or crying.

After bath, stretching out.

Kicking on the play mat - one of his favorite things :).

Caden is here!

Eight days ago, our sweet Caden Mitchell Tapp joined us at 1:34 a.m., on January 22, 2011. He was 8 lbs, 9 oz, and 20.5 inches long. I was in labor for about 18 hours from the time I was induced Friday morning.

It was a very long day, and there were points where I wasn't making any progress and the nurses suggested I could just go home and come back another day. But I'm so glad my body finally kicked into gear and allowed Caden to come before I had to do that!

Caden had some trouble breathing at first, so they had to take him to the NICU, where they found a small pneumathorax (air bubble in the thoracic cavity outside the lungs). Luckily his was very small, and he only had to stay in the NICU for about 12 hours. It was pretty scary and emotional to have him whisked away so quickly, but we had great nurses, doctors & midwives who made the whole experience so much better.

We've been home for almost a week now - a hectic, crazy week - but things are starting to seem more manageable. God has been so good to us with this precious boy. We love him so much already!

40.5 weeks and ready for Caden!

Yeah, still ready. Still no baby.

36 weeks and ready for Caden!

I was officially 36 weeks on Friday, so I guess Caden could supposedly come anytime now. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for him to come early, but you never know :). We just need to get the car seats put in our cars & then we'll be all set. Oh, and I guess I should pack a hospital bag.

I feel like Caden is getting huge - he's definitely running out of room in there! Lots of feet or knees or a little butt poking me these days :).

Looking quite round :)

Christmas decorations!

Since we were about to move last Christmas, we didn't decorate the condo, so this is our first married-Christmas-decorating attempt. It mostly involves lights, because I really love Christmas lights.

I do love our stockings on the mantle though! I'm planning to buy one for Caden after Christmas if I can find a good one on sale. I hope I have better luck finding a "C" initial than a "W" - I never could find a W stocking, especially that I liked the stocking part of. So I need to figure out how to put a W on Wade's at some point.

Christmas lights on the banister

Christmas lights by the dining room table

Christmas lights in the sunroom!

And the Christmas tree! I love turning on all these lights every night and having them be the only lights that are on, unless something else is needed in whatever room we're in. It's just so cozy feeling (I would say warm & cozy, but since we're still keeping the thermostat at 63 until Caden comes & we have to bump it up a bit, it's not exactly warm in here :)).

So behind...

So, I guess I wasn't kidding when I titled my last post "beginning a busy fall" - it has definitely been just that so far! On October 9, my sister & Wade's sister threw my first shower. It was very fun and special. I neglected to get any pictures, except Danielle took like 50 of me opening gifts, so I'll spare you a ton of them & just post one :).

Wade & I went to his good friend Jonathan Jakes' wedding the next weekend (once again, no pictures), and then I went on our church's women's retreat the weekend after that (still too lazy to get pictures!). We had a low-key Halloween weekend, and then this past weekend we drove down to Kiawah Island, SC, for the wedding of a good friend of the Tapps' - a girl who is like Wade's sister.

Everything was gorgeous, including the beautiful sunset over the ocean at the golf club where they had the reception.

It was pretty chilly, so I was all bundled up all night. Not the best fashion that way, but I was glad I had brought my leggings & sweater in addition to my dress!

I'm vowing to take more pictures the next 2 weekends at my last 2 showers. Less than 10 weeks until due date :).

Beginning a busy fall

This first weekend of October kicked off a busy fall - so many fun things between now & Thanksgiving - I can't wait! I know it will make the time FLY before Caden gets here.

Yesterday I went up to Raleigh with some of my best friends for Diana's baby shower. She is 3 weeks ahead of me, due on Christmas Day, so we've been swapping belly photos & experiences all along. It is always SO good to see these ladies. God blessed me with really amazing friends from Carolina, that's for sure!

25 weeks

And after the shower, a few of us went to Chapel Hill for part of the UNC vs. ECU football game (thanks to some tickets Jess was given by a doctor she works with). It was fun & nostalgic to go to a football game again for the first time in forever... although our seats were on the sunny side and it was really hot in the sun! So, we stayed for most of the first half, then walked up to the Pit & Student Stores, and I got one belly pic for the road. Evidence of Caden's first trip to Chapel Hill!

23 weeks & we have a name!

I'm 23 weeks today... less than 4 months to go (let's hope)!

A couple weeks ago, we decided on a name for our little man. He's going to be Caden Mitchell Tapp. Caden is a name we just liked - it means "fighter." Mitchell is from Wade's great-grandfather, Ivey Mitchell Wade, whom Wade is named after as well. It means "who is like God?" Tapp means "oaf, clumsy person or simpleton." Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad :). Ha!

Here's me at 23 weeks!

Just this week, I started feeling like the belly was a little bit cumbersome. It started to actually be in the way of me tying my shoes or shaving. But it's still not bad, and I've been sleeping really well, so that's a blessing.

I went to the doctor on Monday and everything still looked good. At my next appointment I have to do the gestational diabetes test (yuck), and then after that I start going every 2 weeks! Crazy how this time is going to fly. I'm just ready for cooler weather - the highs in the 90s have got to stop!

Halfway through!

We've passed the 20-week mark - only another 4.5-ish months til we meet our little boy! I have not been feeling too huge... until I saw the belly pictures after Wade took them today... yikes! This is one of the better ones.

20.5 weeks

Here's the dresser & mirror we got for the nursery! I finished painting it gray, and put the varnish on last night... now our house reeks of varnish, so I hope I'm not causing brain damage to the baby just living here. (The drawers are a little open because the varnish is still drying.) The mirror may stay white, or it may get painted black - not sure yet. It will hang above the dresser, and we'll use the top for the changing table.

This is an incredibly special gift from my Aunt Dale (not a real aunt, but she was my mom's best friend when I was born - my middle name was after her). Mom had saved all different fabrics from the pajamas she made us when we were kids, so that we could have quilts for our children made out of them. So Dale made one for Madelyn, when she was born, out of Hillary's pajamas, and now this is mine from my pajamas! It is so sweet to have the memories of the things mom made and be able to wrap my baby boy up in her love and Dale's loving handiwork.

And Wade wanted me to include a picture of his new passion... he traded all his X-box games for a guitar earlier this summer, and he is teaching himself to play through YouTube videos and online tutorials. I think he has a lot of potential, and is certainly way better than I would be at this point (at any point).

So that's the update... I'm ready for the weather to get cooler - I think that will make everything start feeling closer. The fall will probably fly by - I can already see that our October & November weekends are almost completely booked, and then December will be full as well, and then it will be baby birthday month! We're still deciding on a name - will post it when we know :).

It's a boy!

We went for our 19-week ultrasound yesterday and found out we're having a boy! Wade is over the moon, and I am excited too - a little nervous of how well I'll know how to parent a boy, but then again, how well do I know how to parent anyone? I know Wade will be an awesome boy-dad, and I can't wait to observe lots of father-son moments over the years!



You can see our shy little guy above - he kept putting his hands over his face and turning toward the back, but we did get one shot of his profile. I think he's so cute already :). They said he has long legs (no surprise) and I think he has big hands in these pictures too, so he's all set to be daddy's little basketball player.

They also said I'm measuring a week ahead - I don't think that changes the due date, but maybe it's just because he's tall. We've also made a little more progress on the nursery - finding a great dresser & mirror last weekend for a total of $115! I'm going to paint the dresser a distressed gray, so I'll post pictures when that's done. And my awesome friend Erin is going to sew some curtains - I just need to pick out & mail her some fabric!

Yay - almost halfway through! After seeing these ultrasound pictures, it is so much harder to wait until January to meet our little guy... but hopefully the fall will fly by, and we have plenty to do in the meantime!

15 weeks!

I was 15 weeks yesterday... Wednesday I went to the doctor & heard the heartbeat again - so fun :). The baby had hiccups (the midwife said) while she was listening to the heartbeat. So far everything is going really well. I feel good, Wade's home from grad school and gearing up for CDS to start.

The glider & the crib came in, so the nursery is even starting to take shape!

The glider is so comfortable, and I picked this gray color so it would be neutral (boy or girl) and also could go in another room of our house someday after we don't need a nursery. The crib is a little taller than most of the others I saw, which I figured would be good for tall parents :). It was really easy to put together too.

Me at 15 weeks... whoa, starting to pop out.

Even from the front.

So, August 18 is the big day for the ultrasound and finding out if we're having a boy or girl! I can't believe it's so soon - can't wait!

The belly begins

I'm 12 weeks pregnant today, the baby is just over 2 inches long (so I've read), and this week the belly has begun to show itself! I went shopping for some maternity clothes last weekend, partly out of boredom, but it ended up being just in time, because they've been sooo comfortable this week.

Gotta put my hand there or else it looks like one large blob :). It's a little difficult to hold our huge camera and take a self-portrait... probably would be easier with a little pocket size camera, but oh well.

Not showing too much from the front yet, but you can see it some.

Maternity jeans! Love them! It's kinda weird that I probably won't be wearing any pants with buttons or zippers for the next 6.5 months.

So far, I have been so blessed to not have terrible morning sickness or really strong symptoms of any kind. I definitely have some of most of the symptoms, but totally bearable thus far. I haven't wanted vegetables at all though, which probably needs to change soon so I can get all the right nutrients! And also the whole exercise thing has not been happening because I've gotten completely out of the habit since, um, October, but I know I've got to start doing that again as well. I'm going to try to go for a walk most days (here's hoping the 90+ degree heat will stay away for a while).

Wade went with me to the doctor before he left for grad school, and we got to hear the heartbeat! So cool. We'll go back next when I'm about 15 weeks, and then the NEXT time after that will be the gender reveal appointment! So exciting. That will probably be in mid-August I'd guess.

In the last couple weeks I also ordered a glider and crib! It felt rather early to do that, but I got good deals on both I think. The glider was still a pretty big splurge, but it's sooo comfortable and I know I'll spend many hours of the day and night in it. The crib was on clearance and was the only one that seemed tall enough for Wade & me. Now to find a relatively inexpensive dresser we can fix up and paint - the baby dressers they sell at baby stores are crazy expensive!

Tiny Tapp is on the way!

Well, blog world, we have a new addition on the way to the Tapp household! "Tiny Tapp" is due in mid-January... making me 8.5 weeks pregnant now. We had our first ultrasound last week, so here's the little gummy bear, measuring a tall 1.62 cm.

We are so excited about this little one! It's still very surreal and hard to connect this picture with a living thing actually inside my body, but we are so thankful that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with a new life and pray He will be preparing us for parenthood over the next 7ish months.

I haven't been feeling too bad yet. At this point I think it's a boy, but I don't know what that's based on :). I'll be very surprised (but excited too) if it's a girl. I guess we'll find that out in mid-late August. Our next scheduled appointment will be to hear the heartbeat (they couldn't get the sound to work at the first ultrasound) when I'm 11 weeks, before Wade leaves for grad school.

Yippee!

One year!

On Sunday, we celebrated our one-year anniversary! Everyone has asked "whether it feels like it's been a year" - which I don't know how to answer, because I don't know how long a year is supposed to feel like. But, it's been a busy year, with lots of new things, so I guess it does feel at least that long!

The country club made us an anniversary cake just like our wedding cake, which we nibbled on while watching our wedding video Sunday night :). We're going to a conference this weekend, which will be kindof like a "weekend away" anniversary trip... it's all the way in exotic Concord, NC - but hey, it's a free stay in a nice hotel with all our meals paid for. And there's nothing more romantic to me than free & cheap things :).

Jess & Beau got hitched!

We had a blast this past weekend watching one of my best friends, Jessica Simmons, marry her beau Beau Mack!

Aren't they adorable! Jess looked so beautiful and both Friday and Saturday were perfect, gorgeous days :).

These lovely ladies were there... 2 of my faves, I must say!

Oh and I danced with this guy. He is my VERY fave!


Aaaaand the wheelbarrow made an appearance! Hilarity ensued. Gotta love that Clint Beaver's antics never get old.

Congratulations Jess & Beau! Hope y'all are enjoying Hawaii :).