Here you go VeeVee!

"Here you go" is one of Cade's recently learned and oft quoted phrases. It sounds more like "hee-go!" I think he picks things up to hand to you just to say that. But this post is for VeeVee who recently reminded me that I haven't put any pictures up in a while. Granddaddy is on a trip and so we figured she's probably lonely since Uncle Billy is gone too: off on his climbing adventure in West Virginia. But she's right. It's been quite a while since I've posted anything except for tweets. It's been so long that I'm going to need two posts to get it all in.

We're currently in Colorado, but the last month has seen us all over the southeast. Cade got to spend a couple weeks in Alabama with VeeVee and Granddaddy, and he had a blast there. So here's the first post of pictures. I hope to get another one up shortly.

Before we left for Alabama we decided to make some cookies. Cade really likes helping no matter if you're cooking, cleaning up, working in the yard, feeding Chili, etc. And lately we've noticed that for the most part he likes to be a pretty tidy little guy. If he spills something he'll try to wipe it up or ask someone else to wipe it up. If he sneezes he'll say, "boogie," to let you know you need to get a kleenex out and wipe his face. And he doesn't normally like a lot of stuff on his hands; he'll ask for a napkin. This next picture is the exact opposite of what I just described. He's trying to help clean up the mixer after making the cookie dough, but I don't think he cares too much that it's also getting all over his face.
Here we are in at the Fort Payne High School graduation for Susie's youngest brother. Congratulations Billy!

Cade was a big partier that night. It was fun to have the whole Brown family together for a couple days to hang out.

Susie's Aunt Fran, Uncle Cliff, cousin Jon, and Jon's son Jacob also came up for the graduation weekend. Jacob and Cade had fun playing together.

VeeVee got a pinata and we had a sort of early second birthday celebration for Cade. If you ever need a storm cellar or bomb shelter, make sure you buy it from the guy who made Cade's pinata. It took Billy and Jon quite a few big swings to break it open.

Cade and I took a hike up through the woods near VeeVee's house. We found a tree that grew up and then took a right turn so it was parallel with the ground. Cade had fun sitting up high. He didn't really want to get down, even when we heard thunder and needed to get back to the house.

He's inspecting something on the ground. Probably a bug. I saw this picture and it reminded me that I no longer have a baby. He looks so much more like a little boy now.

Billy had a graduation party thrown for him by his girlfriend's family out at their lake house. Of course, Chili had the most fun out of all of us. He wasn't quite as fast as Daisy, the resident doggie, but he sure loved being in the water.

This was Cade's first boat ride. He loved it. Susie and I were riding around on a wave runner and he thought it was funny when we'd ride up next to the boat and wave at him.

While in Alabama, VeeVee arranged for Cade to have swimming lessons at the gym where she works. Cade did very well, learning how to kick and jump in.

After his lesson I got to jump in and swim with him. Lately we've been working on holding our breath in the hot tub. In the pool Cade kept asking to "go unnahwatah." He'd say "holdabreath!" Then we'd count to three and bob under for a second or two. What cracked me up was the fact that he'd keep his eyes and mouth open under the water. I guess he figured out how to hold his breath with his mouth open, because he never really came back up hacking or spitting up water.

You can go back to some of my earliest posts and even back then I mentioned how much Cade loved to swing. He still does, and he's so over baby swings. Don't even try to put him in one. This is one of those pictures where I just think about how I thought I had a baby, but he's really a little boy now. He'll be two next week. Wow.

I'll try to get rest of the pictures up in a few days. We've had a lot of fun over the last few weeks so there is a lot to post. I think we're headed to Chuck E Cheese a little later. Cade's never been, so I hope he enjoys it. I know I will. :)

Stay tuned for part 2!

Springtime Fun

Life is never boring in the Gronseth household! The last month has been super busy with traveling, running, and finishing semesters. But before we get to the pictures, let me say a big "Happy Mother's Day" to all you moms out there, especially to my lovely wife, her mother, and to my mom as well. Because of these three wonderful ladies, Cade has a nurturing, loving, and positive environment to grow up in. Even though Nana and VeeVee don't live in the same town as us, they make sure to let Cade know that he is loved and he looks forward to seeing them as much as possible. And Susie is the most unselfish, loving, caring mother I could ever have picked for Cade. I'm actually pretty humbled that I get to be a part of her family and that I get to be a part of bringing Cade up with her.

A couple weeks ago we got a couple baseball tattoos in the mail. I was surprised to see Cade sit so still while I helped him apply a tattoo to each arm, especially since he really didn't know what was going on at first. But after we peeled the paper back and he saw baseballs on his arms he was the proudest kid in Owensboro! A day later when we dropped him off at his babysitter in Bloomington he wanted to walk in without his shirt on to show off his tattoos. He was so funny to watch as he stood there while all the other boys flocked around him and ooohed and aaahed over the his baseball tattoos.

Two weekends ago we were able to spend some time in Colorado. Susie had a conference in Denver, so Cade and I tagged along. Susie and I were able to stay in Lodo and spend some time together over the weekend while Cade stayed with Nana and Grandpa. I forgot how much I love spending time in the downtown Denver area. After this trip we would definitely recommend 1515 (as a date place) and Appaloosa Grill (for a more relaxed tasty dinner) if you're headed to Denver anytime soon.

Even before we left for Colorado Cade was talking about seeing Maggie (my parents' dog) and Bella (my sister's dog). Maggie is getting up there in years, so I think she's the most tolerant of Cade climbing all over her out of her, Bella, and Chili. She's a cuddly dog, so I think she enjoyed Cade nestling in all the time.

Here's a picture of Cade with Maggie and my mom. Maggie's lips were caught on her teeth so it looks like she's giving a big cheesy grin, a la Chili here.

My mom took Cade out to the construction site of her sister's house, and Cade was super excited to see the big tractor! He loves pointing out tractors when we see any kind of construction equipment on the roadways, so it was super cool for him to get to see one up close.

My parents came up to Denver when Susie's conference was over. While we waited for her final session to end we walked down the 16th St Mall and Cade wanted to ride the "blue cow."

After the blue cow ride we went to the Denver Museum where we met up with my mom's two brothers and their families. Susie and I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit, which happened to be located there when we went. It was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend the experience if the exhibit travels to a town near you. Here is a picture of Cade with my three cousins. From the left are Nolan, Bodhi, and Mairin. He had a blast running around with them and looking at the dinosaurs and other animals.

We returned to my parents' house in Monument to find two inches of snow! My dad had set up a basketball hoop for Cade and all Cade wanted to do was "shoot!" So they went out in the snow and shot baskets.

I don't know if Cade had ever eaten snow before this trip, but he certainly ate his share this time. I guess as long as it's not yellow.....

Here's another first: Cade's first time shoveling. He was a big help for Grandpa.

We also went to a Colorado Springs Sky Sox game (Triple AAA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies). I grew up going to see the Sky Sox, so it was fun for me to go back to that ball park. Cade was in love right as we walked up because of the huge baseballs out front.

He grew futher enamored when he saw the team's mascot, Sox the Fox (pronounced "Soxy Fox" by Cade). Uncle Paul took him over to get his picture taken with Sox. Sometimes it was hard to tell if he was watching the game or Sox more intently.

He loved the carmel apple, but he wasn't interested in the slices of apple with carmel on them. He preferred to eat the core, from the bottom up.

For all the fun we'd had, the crowning moment of the night came when a foul ball landed near Grandpa. He scooped it up and handed it to Cade. He was pretty excited to have a real game ball. We'll be back in Colorado in June, and we're definitely going to head down to see another Sky Sox game (when the temperature is above 50).

Last weekend I was able to run in the 500 Festival Half Marathon in Indianapolis. I was a little nervous about it since I've been having some IT band problems with me left knee that kept me out of quite a bit of training. Despite the wind, it was a blast running that race with ~35,000 others. Check out the link above and there should be a picture of the start. It was a pretty amazing logistical feat. The highlights of the run were running a lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and setting a new PR. We stayed in a hotel three blocks from the start line and so the night before Cade wanted to try on all the swag I got in my race packet. It was all too big for him, but he still looked pretty good.

It was a real treat to have Susie and Cade there to greet me at the finish line. Cade was especially excited to try the chocolate milk they were handing out to finishers. He also liked wearing the finisher's medal. That medal got a lot more comments when he was wearing it than when I was. :) Next up, the Georgetown to Idaho Springs race in August with my high school buddy Matty. Anyone want to join us?

Then on Mother's Day we were able to participate in the baby dedication at church. We are so fortunate and thankful to be a part of such a great community at Bridgepointe Church here. And I know it was something extra special for Susie to do on Mother's Day as well.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to post more frequently in the next month or so since I'm between semesters.

Zombies & Toyotas

It's so good to be home! I got stuck at the Atlanta airport last night on my way back into town from Charleston. It was initially a big bummer, but I was able to stay with my high school buddy Matt and spend some time catching up with him. He was gracious enough to pick me up at the MARTA station and offer me his guest room for the short night. I think the trouble and unfriendly employees were Delta's ways of getting back at me for taking this shot via Twitter on Tuesday about how much it sucks flying through the delay-plagued Atlanta airport. No worries now, though. I'm home and with my family.

The weather has been beautiful these last couple weeks. During one of those nice days we were outside working on the yard. Susie gave Cade a grape popsicle since it was pretty warm out. I was bent over a garden working and I heard Cade come walking over and then fall down in the garden near me. As I looked up I saw what looked like a dirty bloody little zombie (opinion probably influenced by my recent viewing of "Zombieland"). So here are a couple pictures of our little living dead (another one here). The pictures definitely don't do the makeup trailer any justice.

This afternoon we went down to a small carnival that had set up at Kentucky Wesleyan College. We took Cade on the carousel. He's been on carousels before, so he was pretty excited to ride it as you can tell in this picture.

After Susie rode with him it was my turn. As we walked on the ride I asked Cade which one he wanted to ride on. He looked at me and said, "Ride on rooster!" I had no idea he even knew that word. About halfway through the ride he wanted to switch over to the "piggie." I told him no due to the piggie's sharp teeth. He seemed ok with that answer and agreed that pigs with sharp teeth should be avoided. (Somehow four-foot-tall roosters aren't cause for any concern though...)

We picked up a pizza on the way home and Cade got to play the car racing game at the restaurant. If you've seen other posts, you know that he loves racing car games, so we're not covering any new ground here. The only reason I'm posting this picture is because I let Cade pick out our vehicle. Notice he picked out the Toyota truck. Now that's a kid with great taste. The game turned out to be kind of a dud. We didn't have any sticky accelerator issues. Rather, the shift knob in my right hand didn't exactly work, and it's hard to win any races when you're stuck in first gear. Cade asked me why the transmission was faulty. He said he was confused because he hadn't chosen the Dodge. ;) I just told him it was an unrealistic simulation.

Thanks for reading. We hope you are enjoying spring as much as we are!

I love you little buddy

Here are a few reasons why I love you Cade:
* I love the way you say "Good Moming Daddy!"
* I love the way you are always looking to make a joke. Like this morning, when you usually say "Good Moming Daddy." Over and over I said "Good Morning Cade," and over and over you looked at me with a glimmer in your eyes and said with a half straight face: "Good Moming Mommy!"
* I love how you want to dance with your daddy. I especially love it how sometimes when you dance with daddy you fall asleep on his chest.
* I love how you love your mommy.
* I love how even at a young age you are showing a love for Jesus. You always want us to pause to say "blessing" before every meal and you love saying "Amen!" at the end of any prayer. And every night you ask us to sing "Jesus" as you fall asleep. These are very simple things, but they indicate a beginning knowledge and love.
* I love how you are curious and love to explore the world around you. Sometimes this results in "bo-bo's," but that doesn't slow you down, and that brings me to my next one:
* I love how you know where to come for comfort from bo-bo's, hurting gums, and other problems. Please know that you can always come to Mommy and Daddy when things don't seem right.
* I love how your interests are seemingly broad. You love to watch and play basketball as well as all kinds of other games with balls and bats. You love to listen to and play music. You love to play with Chili. You love to read books. I don't know where your interests will take you and what you will eventually gravitate towards as you grow, but I can't wait to watch.
* I love how you are outgoing and friendly. You haven't met anyone you don't like; you'll go up to anyone and say "Hi!," which reminds me a lot of my Grandpa. You would have loved him.
* I love your assertiveness. You know what you want. Even though it creates tension at times, and probably will continue to create tension in the future, I believe this quality will serve you well as you grow up.
* I love how much you look like your mommy.
* I love how much you look like me.

This list could go on and on. Notice that nowhere on this list do I tell you that I love you because of anything that you can or cannot do. I think that you're handsome and you're smart and you're fun to be around, but these aren't the reasons I love you. My love for you is not based on any condition or any expectation we have of you. No matter what you do and no matter who you choose to become your mommy and I will always love you because of the most important reason on this list:
* You are our son and you are a gift from God.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We hope you were able to spend Easter with people that are important to you and that your day gave you time to reflect on the importance of Jesus' resurrection. We weren't able to spend this Easter with any of our biological family, but that doesn't mean we didn't have a great weekend.

Yesterday one of Cade's buddies from church, Elizabeth, came over to help decorate eggs and do an egg hunt. As I mentioned in the last post, Cade loves stickers so I think his favorite part of decorating was putting stickers on the eggs after they were colored.

I got to hide eggs for the first time ever, so that was kind of fun. It was a little different being on this side of the game, and it was so fun to see Cade getting a kick out of looking for the eggs. I wondered if he would get into it, but once he figured out the idea of the game he was like a little blond-headed bloodhound out there. If you can remember, next time you see me ask me about a story from my childhood involving an Easter egg hunt, my cousins, and some doggie dookie.

I'm going to just take this platform and say that our friends Jeff and Denise are outstanding people. They invited us and another couple our age from our church over for an Easter meal today. They knew we didn't have any family in the area so they filled in just great! They are a selfless couple that have sacrificed for us before and love playing with Cade. They have a grandson a little older than Cade so they had tons of cool toys for Cade to play with.

When I was a kid I always wanted a Power Wheels but never got one. Well, Jeff and Denise had one and Cade wasn't so sure what to do at first. He's a big fan of the racing games at the arcade. Also, whenever we get home from going somewhere he likes to climb into my lap before I get out of the car and pretend like he is driving. This truck was a little big for him; he had to stretch to reach the gas pedal. I don't know if giving a one-year-old control of a motorized vehicle is really that prudent, but the look on his face when he realized what he had in his hands was sooooo worth it. This picture is as close as we came to capturing that look. We showed him the pedal and demonstrated it for him and then kind of let him sit in it. After a while he figured it out and his expression was a combination of a big smile, complete wonder, total surprise, and anticipation.

Another cool toy Jeff brought out was a kite. Again, not sure how he'd react, but he ended up loving it. I love this picture. That kid is smiling with his whole face.

We had round two of the egg hunt. I think Cade is telling us that he sees an airplane and where it is located in case we also wanted to view the airplane.

Out back they had a trampoline. Cade had never been on one before and it shouldn't be any surprise that he loved it. I bounced him all over and he was pretty bummed out when it was time to get off and do something else. I don't know if I'll ever be able to convince Susie to get one of these if we ever have a yard with a place for one. (Another toy I wanted as a kid but never got. Looking back on today I may have had more fun than Cade.)

Here's a video of Cade in the truck. He's not doing too bad considering he still has over 14 years to go before he can legally operate a vehicle. Shortly after this take he ran into a tree, so maybe it's a good thing he has over 14 years...

Sorry if you see multiple typos or grammar errors. I just learned Wilco was on Austin City Limits last night so I'm skipping proofreading and heading over to the PBS website to watch the show. Have a great night!

Let's have a spelling contest!

My favorite movie ever made through all these years remains Tombstone. Nothing made since then has come close to unseating it in my mind. And one of the best lines in that movie is when Doc Holliday was taking Ike Clanton's money at the poker table. Ike clearly insinuates Doc's cheating, to which Doc replies: "Maybe poker's just not your game, Ike. I know, let's have a spelling contest!"

This small piece of Daddy Gronseth trivia happens to be a perfect segway into the video you're about to see. Cade's been learning all kinds of things lately. Just last week we were in the car and he started spouting out months that he'd been learning at his babysitter (she does a great job of not only watching the boys, but having a school time everyday, which we appreciate a TON). He named most of them very well and in order and November (No-muh-muh-muh) came out sounding a lot like his version of cucumber (cu-muh-muh-muh). I mean, they kind of rhyme in real life, so I don't see a problem with them rhyming in Cade dialect. Well, tonight when Cade and Susie pulled in from Bloomington they hit me with this jewel. I had to get it on video (more than once, of course). His time at a major university must be rubbing off. Doc would be proud:

For the last few years Susie has been faithfully driving her 1995 Camry up to Bloomington and back. It has been a great car, and it was something she'd been driving since 1998 when she bought it with just under 40K miles on it. Now it has over 231K. We'd had a couple repairs over the last year that had made me more leery of her driving long distances with it, especially with Cade and especially since they were traveling some more or less deserted state roads between Owensboro and B-town. If we just were just using it around town I'd keep it until it ran into the ground; that thing still has a number of years of local driving left in it. But the travel Susie was doing with it (and me too, for business occasionally) got us thinking about something new. And since Toyota had a 0% incentive going on, we finally took the plunge. (I'm a pretty firm believer in paying for something instead of going into debt, but when someone offers you 0% financing anyone who's had any economics course that covers the time-value of money will tell you to take it. Just to cover my bases I called my good buddy Matt who has worked for Crown Financial Ministries for the last 9ish years and whose financial advice I greatly admire. He confirmed my thoughts so off we went!) We're sad to see "Tinkerbell" go, but Susie is definitely excited about her Rav4. We haven't lost faith in Toyota. Here she is, ready to drive off the lot.

If you give Cade a sticker he'll be your buddy forever (or at least until the sticky wears off). So last week when we got a new bunch of bananas he just HAD to get those stickers. He loves putting them on everything, including his own face.

My mom sent Cade a new treat: applesauce in a pouch. Well, it wasn't really applesauce, it was kind of like this apple and grape mush, which I guess is kind of like applesauce. It had a cool little spout like a straw and he downed it in no time. The only downfall was that it wasn't bigger. Cade is a big fan of apples (applesauce, apple pie, apple juice, apple slushies, etc.), so this was a good gift. I can't get over how big and tall he's getting and how much he looks like a boy instead of a baby. I guess this is good since baby to boy pretty much the natural progression for male humans (growing into a goat instead of a boy would raise some concern). He almost weighs 28 pounds now, which I think is right about the middle of the percentile range. We know this because he wanted to stand on the scale all by himself the other day. What a big boy!

Oh, and I almost forgot the story I promised in the last post. Like I mentioned, we're starting to try a little bit of low-pressure encouragement to go in the toilet. The genesis of that was noticing how much he would crack up at peeing in the bath. Right when he'd get in the bath, probably encouraged by the warm water, he'd start and stop his stream and just laugh at it the whole time saying, "pee-pee!" He was completely enamored at the discovery of his own personal little water gun. So we reasoned that if he's used to going at bathtime (one time he peed on the floor while we were filling the tub), we'd try and see if he'd pee in the toilet. So for about a week instead of going right to the tub we'd get him up on a stool in front of the toilet to see if he'd go. I know he wanted to. He'd stand there and say, "Pee-pee in the toilet!" and you could see him flexing his lower abdomen, but it never happened. We even tried having Daddy demonstrate (sorry if that was TMI), but no luck. The last couple times we tried, we'd wait for a while and then put him in the tub. However, he would be so frustrated that he'd just scream instead of enjoying bath time like normal. I'm pretty sure he understood the concept but just couldn't figure out how to make it happen. He was so focused on using the toilet and so frustrated that he couldn't do it that it would completely ruin the rest of the evening. So.... we put that idea back on the shelf. Maybe we'll come back to it, maybe not. I'm positive he's not ready, but we thought we'd give it a shot.

In slightly related news, he has figured out how to FLUSH the toilet, so I'm curious how much our water bill will go up.

Anyone still reading?

Well, if you're reading this and you're not an immediate member of Susie's or my family, I commend you. It's been over a month since I posted last, so I can understand casual bloggies dropping off the radar. I don't know about anyone else, but it just feels like it's been a very busy transition to spring. Between traveling for work, a pretty nasty flu bug, a disabled laptop, surgery, work, school, the beginnings of teething on the two-year molars, etc., it just feels like life has been busy. Not necessarily in a stressful overbearing way for the most part. Mostly good things going on. Just busy.

One of my excuses for not posting occurred right at the start of March. Cade had a stomach bug starting on the Thursday right at the end of February. I came home late from a work trip late Friday night, and Susie got back from B-town the next morning (Susie's mom was watching Cade at our house that week). We went to a some friends' house Saturday night for a baby shower and some of the people at that shower had been at a youth function at their church in a packed room all weekend. So we don't know if we/Cade passed it over to them or if they passed it to me, but two of our friends and I got very sick the next day/night. I missed half the gold medal hockey game, so you know it had to be bad. :)

Unfortunately, one of our friends that got sick was Carla, the person whose baby shower we had just attended. The flu caused her to go into labor about eight weeks early and she ended up in the hospital. Fortunately for her and her baby, they were able to stop the labor and she went home a couple days later. So far, the baby has stayed put, so we're thankful for that.

Back at our house, Susie was dishing out the Pedialyte to both Cade and I with alarming efficiency. Between bathroom sessions, I pulled out my laptop to catch up on some work and school emails. I set my laptop down near the bed and tried to sleep, but I suddenly felt the urge. In my dash to the bathroom I knocked the Pedialyte onto my laptop's ultimately too accepting keyboard: not good. This is a work laptop, and luckily our Helpless Desk was able to direct me straight to Dell. Dell fixed me up, I didn't lose any of my hard drive, but I was without my link to work and school for almost two weeks. I had a couple days of slowly coming back out of my cloud and then a week out in the field working on a compressor, so I didn't need it too much, but I found out how much I take technology for granted. So that's my excuse for roughly half the month.

I guess if I was going to make an excuse for the other half I'd cite Susie's knee surgery two Fridays ago. Her left knee had been bothering her for a few months so she had it checked out and it turns out she had a torn meniscus. Her surgery went very well and she only needed a few days on crutches, but it still slowed things down for us. Susie's mom came into town before the surgery and stayed a few days afterwards. We are so fortunate to have her and her servant heart and I know Cade enjoyed all the time he was able to spend with his VeeVee.

So between those two events and work and school, I haven't done a very good job of maintaining this blog. We haven't even been very good picture takers. But here are a few that we've taken over the last month.

Bloomington has some great parks, and now that the weather is warming up we've taken Cade out a few times. He loves sliding and swinging the best.
Last Saturday the weather was perfect: mid-sixties and sunny. I had a 10K race in the morning and was able to spend a lot of the rest of the day working outside in the yard. Cade came out and was a big help. It was the first time we'd been able to spend a decent amount of time cleaning the yard and gardens up after the winter. It's amazing how much the yard waste and leaves and sticks and dog turds build up over the winter. Cade really does like to be a help. He was actually very good at putting leaves and sticks in the yard trash bags and I didn't catch him putting even one small Chili bomb in his mouth! Another thing we determined that day is that Cade likes to hang out in the bed of the truck.
As you can see, he's figured out how to say "Cheese!"
We spent a lot of time in the TV room the last Thursday through Sunday evenings because once Cade learned there was going to be a lot of basketball on TV he wanted to watch all the time. He also wants to wear any clothing that has basketballs on it and he wants to shoot baskets all the time too. I guess it only makes sense since he's a Kentucky native and this is definitely a roundball state.
This is a picture of our everyday life. We try to keep the same bedtime routine every night and Cade usually responds pretty well to it. We give him a bath, then read stories while he drinks his milk. Then we brush his teeth, say our prayers, and it's off to bed. As you can see, Cade doesn't lack for books. He loves them all and can recite sizeable chunks out of quite a few of them. He's kind of funny because he hasn't really developed a snotty toddler "NO!" yet. And his communication skills are getting better and better. You can give him choices and options and he really comprehends a lot and responds pretty consistently. So sometimes when we're reading stories we'll pick one up and if he doesn't want to read that one he'll say a little "nope." Not "no" or "NO!" Just "nope." Pretty cute.

News Flash! I guess we may be at a developmental transition. As I was typing this, Susie just informed me that Cade climbed out of his crib while she was putting him to bed tonight. So we're looking at how to transform the crib into the toddler bed tomorrow. I guess if he knows how to get out I'd rather have him slide off the mattress instead of skydiving from the top rail. More updates to come on that, so hopefully we'll have good things to post sooner rather than later. We're also starting a little bit of the beginnings of potty training, so I'll save that story for a sooner post as well. Like I mentioned earlier, if you're still with us: Thanks!