5 Months Old!

Caden turned 5 months old last Friday, the 20th. Time is quickly passing; Collin and I can hardly believe he is already 5 months old. We both feel truly blessed. We have the best baby anyone could ask for. He is a very happy child and loves to laugh, smile, and say "hi!" He first said "hi" to me when he was 4 weeks old. He has been saying "hi" a lot more regularly and responds with "hi" if you say "hi" to him first. Could we say it's his first word? We'll see how the rest of his first year turns out. Here are some of the milestones Caden reached this past month:

- Caden is now able to sit by himself. He can sit for several minutes at a time. The nurse that comes to our house once a month said he is doing really well and seems to be sitting better than many babies his age. He sits longer when he holds onto something.
- He discovered his feet and plays with them all the time. It's amazing how flexible babies are.
- He also has wanted to put everything he can get his hands on in his mouth.
- He's moving a little on his tummy, I wouldn't say he's crawling yet, but he's definitely trying to and moves some! When he does tummy time we'll put several toys in front of him and he'll reach for all of them. It's so cute and fun to watch!
- Caden hasn't grown much last month. He now weighs 19.2 lbs and is still about 27 inches long.

The biggest change since he turned 5 months old is we have now introduced solids to his diet. He tried organic brown rice cereal on Nov. 21st. I originally wanted to wait until he was 6 months old but decided based on his size and longing interest in our food to go ahead and let him try solids. He really seems to like it. All he has tried is the brown rice cereal. We mixed a bowl with breast milk and he gobbled it up and wanted more. So we put some in a bowl and added water. He ate it too. Granted I barely put any rice cereal in his bowl to begin with because I heard many babies just spit it out and won't eat it and I heard it was really messy. He was so cute; before he finished eating he grabbed his spoon and fed himself. He seems to catch onto things pretty quickly and he's been eying us as we eat. I look forward to letting him eat vegetables and later fruits.

Here are some pictures of our precious son.

Caden getting ready to try his first taste of solid food

First bite...and he swallows it!

Time for bite number 2


Caden has taken control, he is already wanting to feed himself.

One satisfied solid food eater

Caden sitting up before bed

Here he's exploring his gym sitting up. Yum, ladybug!
This was actually taken before he tried rice cereal.

2009 Family Portraits

On Halloween we had some family portraits made. We figured that was a good day to go since we were not planning on taking Caden trick-or-treating this year. We think they turned out really well!

Haircut in Portugal

While in Portugal I got a haircut. There was a salon next to one of the restaurants we ate at. Since having Cade I have not had a chance to get a haircut and really needed one. It's hard to make an appointment when Collin can be off to watch Cade. Collin went and asked how much it cost and they said 10 EUR. What a deal! So I told Collin I would just get it cut there. In Germany it costs 35 EUR + for a haircut and it's really a hit or miss kind of thing. This haircut included wash, cut, and style. It ended up costing 15 EUR because of my long hair (13 EUR plus we tipped 2 EUR) but still, I have yet to find that kind of deal in Germany. The lady who cut my hair barely spoke any English but ended up doing a great job. I told her I wanted some simple layers and about 4 inches cut off. One thing I found interesting was when she dried my hair she had me lean over with my hair upside down, the way I'd dry my hair at home. Usually at salons they don't make you do that. I didn't have a problem with it though, I just thought it was kind of funny. Collin thought it would be neat to take some pictures, so here are some before and after pictures of my Portuguese haircut.

Before, at the restaurant by the salon

Right before getting it cut

After the haircut

Paradise in Portugal

Early Monday morning (around 2 a.m.) we got back from a wonderful vacation in Portugal. Portugal is beautiful! We left early Wednesday morning to take a train the Frankfurt Airport for our flight. We arrived in the Algarve a little before 9 a.m. and spent the first day checking into our beautiful hotel in Albuferia, a city in the Algarve, walking and eating in the old town and strolling along the beach. Our hotel was a beautiful four star hotel with a private beach and our room had a balcony. We used the balcony more than any other hotel we have stayed at. Since Caden goes to bed early (around 7:30-8pm), we took our dinner to the room 2 nights and ate it on the balcony. When we didn't have dinner we sat outside and talked while enjoying the beautiful weather.

Collin was finally able to speak Portuguese in a country that speaks Portuguese. He studied the language for several years and it was really neat seeing him communicate so well with the locals. Hardly anyone guessed we were from the U.S. They thought we were from the U.K., Germany, Brazil, or Canada. Apparently neither one of us has a "Texan" accent either because people were very surprised that we were from Texas. I enjoyed talking English with the many tourists from the U.K. as well as the Portuguese who spoke English. The Algarve is a popular tourist destination for Germans and the British so many Portuguese speak Portuguese, English, and German.

We took two bus tours on our trip. Thursday we took a tour of the historical Algarve where we visited 5 pretty towns in the Algarve: Lagos, Silves, Sagres, Cape Saint Vincent, and the Sagres Fortress. At Cape Saint Vincent we saw where people used to believe the end of the world was.

Friday we took a bus tour to Lisbon. Lisbon was a really neat big city with lots of history and culture. We saw the "Queen of the Tagus River," took the bus over the 25th of April suspension bridge where we saw the majestic statue of Christ the King. With great misunderstanding between us and our tour guide (who was unfortunately pretty terrible both in her rudeness and guidance), we were dropped off at a subway stop at the edge of town with another couple. There we took the subway to see the Belem Tower and the Monument of the Discoveries. After walking around admiring the great monuments and exploring the Belem Tower we took a taxi to the center of Lisbon and ate a nice lunch and walked around the city.

Saturday we spent the day at the beach, Caden got his feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. This was his first trip to the beach and he loved putting his feet in the sand. He even went swimming for the first time in the hotel's heated indoor swimming pool. We had a great time. Caden is a great traveler and quite experienced as he has now traveled to 7 countries and is not quite 5 months old yet.

Sunday we took a tourist train around the city, ate lunch, packed, and came back to Germany. We road Tui Fly and the airline was awesome! I cannot say enough good things about this airline. We were served breakfast on the way and on the way back we were served dinner. Each person also gets a free bag to check and carry-on. They even provided a bassinet for Caden to sleep in and gave him a blow up Tui Fly beach ball. Hands down Tui Fly is superior to Ryan Air. We enjoyed our restful and wonderful vacation very much and look forward to traveling to Portugal again.

Here are some of the pictures from our vacation.

Beach in Albuferia, Portugal

At the end of the world - Cape St. Vincent, Portugal

Belem Tower - Lisbon, Portugal

Behind us is the 25th of April Bridge and the Monument of the Discoveries

Caden's first time to swim

Our hotel's private beach

Caden getting his feet wet in the Mediterranean

Caden's first time to put his feet in the sand

Marisa ate fish and chips every day!

Collin is more adventurous and ate foods such as sardines