20 months!

Well, today is Cade's 20 month birthday. What a great 20 months it's been, and it just seems to keep getting better. Cade continues to grow and grow and learn and learn. I keep saying this, but it's so much fun to watch his mind develop. And I feel like in the last few months the relationship between Cade and me has developed quite a bit. I feel like he's really starting to be daddy's little boy and I love it. He's been playing more and more like a little boy and when he's in distress he no longer only calls for mommy. Every once in a while it's daddy that he wants now instead of mommy. I've read that sometime between 18 and 36 months is when most little boys really start psychologically developing a sense of being a boy and learning what it is to be a male as opposed to a female. It's at this point that a dad is very important, and I've been noticing him looking more to me lately than he did when he was much smaller. There's nothing like it.

These last couple weeks have been very eventful for Cade. Two weekends ago my sister Amy and her husband Paul came to visit. Cade affectionately refers to them as "Apple Paul" and "A - A - A - my!" (Auntie Amy). Here's a picture of him helping us clean up while getting ready for their visit. He just had to wear my sock hat.

He's all about putting stuff on his head. I think it's Apple Paul's influence. Here he's doing his best Johnny Appleseed impression.
Paul and Amy took Cade back to Colorado with them to spend a week at Nana and Grandpa's house. It was so tempting to run after Paul and Amy in the airport yelling something about our kidnapped son......but we didn't. Traveling with a small child is challenging enough, so we appreciate their efforts. :) My mom had all kinds of fun things planned for Cade over the week. Here's a picture of Cade on a play date with our friend Jan's granddaughter Sage.
In keeping with the theme of head-wear, Cade and my dad spent some time playing with hats while he was there.

One thing Cade loves is basketball, and he really LOVES actually going to a game. While in Colorado my parents took him to a game in the same gym where I played high school basketball. As you can tell by this picture, he wasn't bored.

Unfortunately I wasn't there to introduce Cade to old friends. Here's one of my favorite teachers, Miss Bruce. She's almost solely responsible for my mathematical aptitude. I think we'd have a lot more calculus lovers (or at least a better understanding of the subject) if everyone got to take calculus from her. She's also been keeping the official scorebook at CSCS basketball games since before I played there. What a great individual.

My mom's sister, Deb, is building a house near my parents' house. Cade took a trip to the jobsite and was able to see some horses in a field nearby. Cade loves all kinds of animals, and these horses obliged his curiousity.

It was my sister's birthday while Cade was in Colorado so he enjoyed the birthday celebration for A - A - A - my.

I think Cade impressed my dad by being able to say "hockey stick." He likes to look through my Sports Illustrated, so I've been teaching him the equipment for different sports that are pictured. My dad cut down one of his old sticks and they played in the basement.

When my mom brought Cade back to Owensboro we went down to a church in town and played in their gym. It was difficult to jump this high with Cade, but I really wanted him to know what it feels like to dunk so he can have something to shoot for.

It's not just hats that Cade likes to put on his head. He also likes to put small trash cans on his head and run around bumping into stuff. Here he's wearing a Lego bucket that VeeVee brought him when she came last weekend.

It was fun to have both grandmas here last weekend. My mom headed back out on Monday and VeeVee is taking care of Cade this week while I'm in Arkansas and Susie is in Indiana. Cade is so lucky to have grandmas that love him so much.

Cade isn't prejudice to basketball. He will play with any kind of ball. The other night he was holding his bat and we tossed a couple of balls his way. He hit the first two right on the screws and sent them flying across the room. We were pretty amazed (and proud). Subsequent tosses unfortunately proved the first two to be a fluke, but we'll keep working on it. Here's a picture of Cade working on his first step to the hole.

One last picture with Nana before she had to head to the airport. As you can tell she's a much better picture taker than Susie and I are, so thanks to her for many great pictures. It was hard to narrow down the pictures to post here. There were so many good ones. It's been a great couple of weeks with family. Cade's a lucky boy.

Snow!

We've had a couple of decent snow storms here lately. Luckily we aren't getting hit like the east coast. Both storms have given us around 4 inches, which is plenty to have fun in, but not too much to hamper a lot of daily activity. Susie got some new boots for Christmas, so she's been wearing them a lot this winter. A couple weeks ago Cade found them and decided he wanted to try them on. He pretty much got them on all by himself, so we had to take a picture. I'm amazed at how much he looks like a little boy now. Definitely not a baby anymore!

Here's a video of him walking around in the boots. I was just off camera and had picked him up and kind of dropped him into the boots. He was excited to be in the boots and gave an emphatic, "All right!" This is a phrase he likes to use; very cool in my opinion. Then he tries a little bit of a dance move. Dancing is something he still loves to do, both on his own and in Susie's or my arms. On the weekends we have a pretty standard routine when it's time for his afternoon nap. He'll ask to dance and we'll put something on in the kitchen. His favorite is the latest One Republic album. We'll dance around and he'll just fall asleep on my chest. I love it. Back to the video: after dancing Susie asks him who's boots those are. Cade has been staring to put adjectives with nouns lately. He'll identify possession (Chili's food) or describe something (orange ball). Like I've said before, it's really interesting to watch how his brain picks up on things. Lastly, he points out a frog on a book nearby. I don't know which he likes better, but dogs and frogs are his two favorite animals. I know it sounds like he's saying "poop," but I can assure you the noise he makes after pointing out the frog is his version of "ribbit."


After the first snow we were able to go sledding at one of the local golf course's driving range. At first Cade didn't like it. I think it was because of the snow that sprayed up into his face. But after a few runs we couldn't convince him it was time to leave. He was pretty upset when we strapped him into his car seat.


Since we don't usually get a lot of snow and because the kid grows so fast we haven't invested in proper snow attire for Cade. So we layered him up a few times and stuck his feet in some rubber Snoopy boots that I had when I was a kid. They were too small to leave his shoes on in the boots and too big for his feet with only socks on them. As a result they kept falling off. Apparently he was having so much fun that he didn't really seem to notice when one would fall off. He would just keep walking on the snow in his socks.

On a different note, I had some work travel that took me to Orlando and Merritt Island a couple weeks ago. I recently got back in touch with an old college baseball buddy that lives in a condo right on Cocoa Beach. So I stayed with Susie's brother Dustin half the week and with my friend David half the week. I was able to run on Cocoa Beach before the sun came up, walk upstairs to get cleaned up, then watch the sunrise from the condo balcony. It was a very therapeutic way to start each morning.


And last but not least, here's a video of Cade singing his ABC's. He's been ending his song with Rockies for quite some time now. Sigh.....I guess eventually he'll learn it the right way, but we always laugh at "q, r, Rockies!" so it's probably getting reinforced. Oh well. I love how his nose scrunches up when he says Rockies. It does the same thing when he says Mommy or Daddy.


We're pretty excited for the next couple weeks. This Friday my sister and her husband are coming out for the weekend. Cade loves Amy and Paul. The last few times he's seen Paul in a picture he says "Apple Paul." I guess that's close to "uncle." Then Amy and Paul will take Cade back to Colorado for a week at my parents' house. The following weekend my mom will bring him back to us. Then the next week Susie's mom is coming to take care of Cade for the week. What a lucky kid. Susie and I definitely agree that we are getting a lot more visits with our family now that Cade is here. Not a bad deal. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.