Walking, Rocking, and Carl

Well, not quite walking yet, but kinda. He's taking up to five or so steps at a time, still very wobbly, and still not real consistently, but he seems to be showing more enthusiasm for it. Today he actually walked a few steps to me, fell down, stood back up (without help), walked a couple more, fell down, and then decided to just crawl. And then later this evening he was standing by the bed in his room and wanted the blanket out of his crib so he walked the few steps to get it instead of crawling over there. Hopefully we can get a video of it soon so you all can see it. It's pretty amazing to watch him learn new things, and it blows my mind at just how much little babies' brains develop and pick up at this age.

This video is of Cade in his rocking chair. This chair was a very special birthday present from Susie's parents. This rocking chair belonged to Susie's great grandfather. Susie's dad refinished the rocking chair and then they had the webbing replaced so it's as good as new. Cade is still a little small for it, and for the most part he's ignored it until just recently. Susie got a good video of his newest trick, which is how he likes to climb into it and rock.

Here's a bonus outtake:

I wonder if any other parents out there fight the getting dressed battle like we do. Every night we follow pretty much the same routine. When Cade starts getting tired we get him in the bath. We'll do a small snack with some milk either before or after the bath. After bath/snack, we brush his little teeth (all ten of them!). Then we read a book or two together. Then we say our prayers and it's off to bed. He's generally very compliant throughout the whole process, probably because we're pretty consistent with it and he knows what's coming. But.....at least 9 out of 10 nights it's a major struggle to get his pj's on him after his bath. I wonder if he thinks if he fusses enough that one glorious night we'll let him sleep in his birthday suit. I don't know why he gets cranky with us, but once his pj's are on him crab Cade goes away and sweet Cade returns from wherever he was hiding.

Cade is constantly adding to his vocabulary, and it's not always the words we expect. A friend and coworker sent a book for Cade called "Good Dog, Carl" (thanks Kate!). It's a story about a lady who leaves her baby under the dutiful watch of the family rottweiler, Carl. While she's gone, the dog gets the baby out of the crib and they have tons of fun dancing to music from the stereo, raiding the fridge, playing dress up, sliding down the laundry chute, and jumping on the bed. Before the lady comes home Carl puts the baby back in the crib and cleans up their messes. When the lady returns she's pleased to see the baby sleeping in the crib and tells the dog, "Good dog, Carl." It's a fun book because other than the initial instructions and the final words of praise, there is no text, so we can make up the story as we go. Well, tonight Cade grabbed that book and handed it to me. I said "Good Dog, Carl!" and Cade looked me in the eye and repeated "Carl." Then he kept saying it. Hilarious. He hears the words "good" and "dog" way more frequently than "Carl," but he chose to say "Carl." I shot a quick video on my phone, so the quality's not super, and the lighting was poor, but hopefully you can catch it. (And yes, he's sitting in his toy box. I'm not sure why, but he just climbed in it, which made me laugh.)

July

Wow, it's really been almost a month since I posted last. July was a fairly busy month for us. We had a little travel, I finished up my summer class, Susie is still teaching and taking summer classes, and we've just been generally busy. But that's no excuse for this long layoff. I apologize, but hopefully you'll forgive me when you see the smorgasbord of pictures and videos I have for you.

Cade is still not walking across the room, but he's starting to stand very well on his own, and he's doing a good job of walking a step or two towards something he wants. But in the end I think he just feels more comfortable with crawling and knows he can crawl faster than he can walk. So usually he'll take about a half a step or two and then plop down and crawl wherever he wants to go. Eventually I think it'll click in his head and he'll just start to prefer a walk to a crawl.

One week in July I traveled to our plant near Indianapolis so Susie, Cade, and Chili took the opportunity to head off to Alabama. I know Susie's family appreciated having them around, and Susie appreciated the chance to get some extra work done while spending time with her family. I went down that following weekend and we all had a great time.

Here's Cade just chillin' at VeeVee and Granddaddy's.

Cade loved to eat the fresh-picked blackberries and blueberries. We have a place near Owensboro where Susie has picked blueberries many times this summer. She also got to pick some in Alabama. I don't know if it has to do with the soil or the climate or what, but the blueberries here in Kentucky have to be some of the sweetest, best-tasting blueberries I've ever had. Cade loves them too. Overall he's turned into a fruit eating machine. Despite his rocky start with bananas (detailed in this post), I think they've turned into his favorite fruit to eat. He can almost say "banana," but the "n's" come out more like "d's."

Susie has also been firing the bread machine up quite a bit this summer. She's becoming a master with that thing. She's made many different kinds of wheat breads, but I've really been digging the sourdough loaves she's been cooking lately. Cade loves it too. He gets all excited when you plop momma's bread down in front of him.

Tell me you've seen a baby more talented than this:

Cade love frozen grapes. We cut them in half so they're less of a choking hazard, and they disappear faster than back copies of Michael Jackson CD's. Here are a couple pictures of his latest trick. He's been stacking them into pyramid and then applauding himself.

Just kidding. We built the pyramid of grapes for him. :) But he did enjoy watching us work. Just imagine how impressed you'd be if he really DID build it himself.

I think one of the more fun things lately has been watching his tiny vocabulary grow little by little. He's been saying "mama" and "dada" and "ug" for a while now, but more recently he's starting to expand his repertoire. Here are a few videos showing off three of his newer words. NOTE: To be considered for these videos, the word has to be repeated intentionally. He's starting to be more consistent in referring to specific objects with different sounds. Sometimes the sound is unintelligible, like when he refers to a light or a fan as "dah." It's consistent, but not a real word. Here are a couple real words he's learned.

You can imagine my pride when one of his first words is (this is his newest word he's learned):

He can also say "ball." He doesn't quite have the "l" sound down pat, so sometimes it sounds more like "baw," but he definitely knows what a "baw" is. He still loves to play with his Rockies bat and baw. (He speaks quietly in this video.)

And this is a fun one he's perfected over the last few weeks.

One of the reasons I've personally been busier lately is because I'm training for a half marathon in October. My buddy Jared and I will be running it together and we've been doing a lot of our longer runs on the weekends together. I've never been a super enthusiastic runner, but since Susie and I quit our gym at the start of the year (it had turned into a dump), I wanted to find a way to exercise for free. Running is free, so I slowly worked at increasing my mileage and Jared finally talked me into the half marathon.

Susie ran cross country in college, so I think she was a little jealous of me running while she was still in the nursing stage of baby-rearing. She had been getting back in shape by doing pilates and step classes, but hadn't been running. Well, when we were in Alabama she said she wanted to run with me on my long run that Saturday. So she dusted off her running shoes and did 7.5 miles with me like it was no big thing. I tell you, I'm more impressed with her all the time.

A few Saturdays ago I ran my first 10K. It was a night run, which was good because it was cooler than running during the day. I was so excited to see Susie, Cade, and Chili standing at the 4-mile marker. I still can't say I really like running, but it's been a great way to stay in shape, and it's growing on me. We're looking for a used running stroller so we can go as a family, so if you know of anyone trying to get rid of one let us know!

Thanks for being patient this month. I'll do my best to post more frequently as we head towards fall!

Cade's Cake Dive

Ok, it took too long to get this up here, but here it is! He just wanted to eat on the frosting at first, but after he got a taste of the cake itself he grabbed a bite that was too big for his mouth and just kept shoving it in.

We took Cade to his one-year checkup last week and he weighed in at 21 lb, 15 oz, which kept him in the 40th percentile. He was 30 1/4" tall, which is in the 75th percentile. He was a big stud when it came to getting his vaccinations. He cried a little, but was very brave and was ready to play that afternoon. I'm still on the fence on whether I really want my kid being vaccinated, but because we live in such a small town with zero opportunity for alternative medicine we've followed the recommended vaccination schedule so far (if you want a long explanation regarding my dissillusionment with modern standard medicine and drugs, ask me about it offline sometime, and get ready for a lengthy discussion). To this point, it seems that every time he's had a shot he comes down with some sort of crud. One vaccination, Rotateq, made its way through all three of us (literally, ugh) back in November. But so far he's done very well this time around, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm finding that he's becoming more of a "boy" in his play, at least around me, and it's awesome! He likes to wrestle around with daddy and he cracks up when I put him on my shoulders and run around the house (the high ceilings on our first floor are perfect for hot laps). One thing that makes him laugh is me throwing his foam blocks at him, and the harder I throw them the harder he laughs. Just this afternoon we played a new game where he'd crawl away from me and I'd drag him back to me by his ankles and tickle him all over. Then he'd try crawling away again. Every few times I'd let him get away to mommy, but that obviously wasn't as fun for him as getting caught. He'd turn around and crawl at me and head-butt me right in the forehead and then try to get away again. Hilarious.

Thanks for following along, and have a great day!

Birthday Boy!

Yesterday was Cade's first birthday and we celebrated all weekend in style! Both my parents and Susie's parents came out for the weekend and it was great to have the whole crew here. Cade is really lucky to have two great sets of grandparents. We had a party for him on Saturday night, and I figure we can get right to the pictures:

Susie went to Kroger to get some food on Friday, and she also got Cade a balloon. I think the balloon was his favorite part of the weekend. We tied it to the tray on his highchair and it became a source of entertainment at each meal.

Here's Susie with Cade's cake before it was destroyed. Susie was a food preparing champ for his party. Pretty much everything was homemade and it all was delicious.
This cake never had a chance. At first he just kind of licked at the frosting. Then I gave him a piece of the cake itself. At that point he just chowed down. We have a pretty good video of the cake feeding frenzy; I'll get it in another post soon.

Leaning in for a picture. Cade took the opportunity to slime Mommy with cake frosting.

Cade with the four grandparents.
Three generations.
Opening presents.

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but Cade LOVES to swing. :)

Another thing he's taken to is the teeter-totter.

Since our anniversary was in the previous week, Nana and Grandpa watched Cade one night while Susie and I went out on a date. Cade took the opportunity to show off his operatic singing voice with a soapy fauxhawk.

When I look at this picture all I can see is "Dumb and Dumber." "You go talk to her and I'll just stand here and put out the vibe."

Cade already likes playing baseball! I knew he was an exceptional kid. :) Cade likes it when I help him hit, and we spent some time hitting last weekend. Not sure if he's a righty or a lefty yet so we're working both sides of the dish right now.
Here's a picture of a new game: jumping off the couch onto Daddy. And it's not just a roll off the couch; it's a swan dive.

We spend so much time building towers of blocks and he insists on knocking them over.

As mentioned, I have a pretty good video of Cade devouring the cake, and I'll publish that soon (I hope). Stay tuned!

In the meantime....

....here's a picture of Cade at an outing at the park for Bridgepointe Church's kids. Cade LOVES to swing at the park. Thanks to Jeff Estes for this great picture!

I know this blog has been stale for a couple weeks. Just wait! We have a birthday coming up with grandparents visiting; updates are imminent!

Bumps...

Hello everyone out there in blogland. Guess what? Cade continues to grow and develop and learn new things. Believe it or not, he has not settled down at all. He is a picture of perpetual motion. And just in the last couple weeks I think we're starting to see the presence of the sin nature that we're all stuck with. He's really started testing his limits on certain things. For example, he bites Susie and me and others occasionally. If you're holding him he'll sometimes try to bite you on the shoulder. Or other times he'll try to bite your finger or arm. We've started telling him "no" when he bites, and I know he knows what he's doing. The reason I know is because after I tell him "no" he'll take my hand or arm or whatever he was just biting, put his mouth on it (without biting), and look at me and give a sly smile. Or sometimes we'll notice him try to put things in his mouth that just don't belong there. So we'll take whatever it was out of his mouth and tell him "no" and give him something else to chew on or play with. If he can, he will go directly to what it was we took away from him, pick it up, and put it on his chin or cheek, look at us, and give that sly smile again. Sweet and innocent? Not all the time. But we still love him. We're just going to have to start talking more about how we want to handle disciplinary situations so we provide a consistent front. Did this have to come so quickly?

On a cuter note, he's also been a lot more playful lately as well. I just love getting to interact with him. His repertoire of noises and syllables continues to grow as well. And he's becoming more and more coordinated in his movements, especially pulling himself up on things and moving around. Walking probably isn't that far away. It's so much fun being a dad, especially a dad to this kid. I know you guys come to this site for the pictures, so here we go:

To start off, here are a few pictures from my sister Amy of when we met her and Paul in Fort Pierce, FL.

Contemplating life and just how stinkin' cool I look in a fauxhawk.

Cade has no fear. Not of heights, not of flipping around, not of being upside-down. He likes to ride on my shoulders and he especially likes it when I pretend like I'm dumping him off behind me.

This was the only one out of like seven where we were all looking at the camera, but it was a fun photo shoot.

During Memorial Day weekend the Keaton girls dropped by to say hi to Cade. He has more girls calling on him already than his dad ever did.

He definitely knows how to ham it up for the camera.Speaking of hamming it up, he definitely hasn't forgotten how to scrunch his nose up.

Last week we were fortunate enough to have my cousins Chris (on the right) and Brian stay a night with us on their way from SoCal to New York. I hadn't seen them for a few years, so it was great catching up. They hadn't met Cade, so he got some play time with his second cousins (Is that right? If they're my cousins does that make Cade their second cousin?). Chris and Brian's parents are moving to Colorado soon, so hopefully that means we'll be able to see them more often during the holidays.

Here's a random picture of Cade being helpful around the house.

Last Sunday afternoon was the annual church picnic, and here's a picture of Edie taking Cade down the slide. Cade digs slides, and I think he's pretty fond of Edie and her sister Allie too.

What's a picnic without some sort of messy food? Here he's getting all covered with baked beans (and other things I'm sure). He liked the barbecue fare and stuffed his face.

This last picture is of a bruise Cade gave himself this morning. I was just walking out of the kitchen to go run when in rapid fire succession I heard: "Oh no!", Big Bump, the dreaded split second of silence that feels like an eternity, SCREAM. With his increased mobility and curiousity, he keeps putting himself in more situations where it's possible to fall and hit something. I mentioned that he's getting more coordinated, but he still takes a lot of falls. In this case he smacked his cheek on a shelf. I've been impressed with his toughness and pain tolerance, but it definitely took a few minutes to calm him down after this one. A couple of nights ago I was playing with him and he had pulled himself up on a window sill near where Chili was laying. He's become more adept at letting himself down from a standing position. He used to just fall, but now he can kind of hold on and start the descent before letting go so he lands a lot more softly. It's graceful compared to how he used to sit, but it's still not a picture of grace. This particular time he must have heard something right as he let go, so he kind of spun and arched his back as he fell backwards. I don't know if his head hit the window sill or if he landed weird on Chili's paw, but he came up crying with blood all over his mouth. It scared me at first until I could tell it was coming from his upper gums. He was a pretty tough little guy with that one. He was just about done crying by the time I got the blood wiped off his face.

I guess these instances are sort of a microcosm of what parents go through everyday on a broad scale. Can any other parents relate? On one hand, Susie and I want to shelter him and protect him from anything that could hurt him. I hate seeing him in pain. On the other hand, we want him to explore and experience things, even if it means a bump or bruise along the way. I guess there's a fine line somewhere in the middle that contains a healthy dose of protection along with a long enough leash to learn some things on his own. At this point, we're still feeling our way along that line and trying to figure it out as we go. I'm sure that line sits differently for every person, and maybe that line will change as Cade grows. He's already shown signs of being stubborn and strong willed, so maybe he needs to learn some things on his own. I don't know, and I'm sure we'll come to points all throughout his life where we have to decide how much leash to let him have. We've never done this before, but we're relying on God for the right wisdom at the right time.

11 months/FL trip part 2

I think I think this every month: "I can't believe it's been (fill in the blank) months since Cade was born! It seems like yesterday! He's getting old too quick!" So today was no different. 11 months! In 31 days he'll be a year old! Wow. He is still just so much fun, and he keeps learning new things and trying new things.

At this point he's getting very good at pulling himself up on anything. What he's not so good at is doing it in a graceful manner every time. He has become the master at finding an object his head has not yet met and flinging said head into it. And he can do it in the blink of an eye. He requires more vigilant watching now than he ever has. I'm sure when we're out in public people look at him and think we're either very neglectful parents or we enjoy smacking him around. And he doesn't ever fall on his arm or shoulder or chest or anything except for his head. Any other parents out there experience this or is Cade just that good at it?

The fact that he is incredibly active doesn't help his head out at all either. I don't know how many times he's almost wriggled free when I'm holding him. One thing he does well is climb the person that's holding him. He'll push himself away from your body, wedge his little feet up on your chest or stomach and start walking up your torso. It makes it very difficult to hold him, and he just laughs and laughs.

He's been pulling up for a while, but he's now advancing to being able to pull himself along the couch or something else and kind of shuffle along. I don't think it will be long now before he's starting to walk on his own.

We got back from Florida a week ago. My sister Amy is sending me the pictures from her camera (she has a much nicer camera and is a much better photographer than Susie or me), so I'll post some of them soon. We had a blast seeing Amy and Paul for dinner one night. The whole trip was great, but it was good to be back home too. We were ready to have a little more room, and Cade and I had come down with some kind of cold/flu. We weren't hanging out with any piggies, so I don't think it was the mass panic-inducing version we've been hearing too much about, but it slowed us down for a couple of days.

This last week we got new carpet in our upstairs. It has been thoroughly Cade-tested and Cade-approved. It feels like a completely new house upstairs.

Well, I know everyone comes for the pictures, so here are a few. Like I said, I'll post more from Amy's camera when I can. Thanks for stopping by!

We met Paul and Amy at a pretty cool tiki bar-style restaurant right on the Indian River in Ft. Pierce, FL, which was almost exactly halfway between Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale. Cade pleaded with us to let him work his hair up into a fauxhawk. So we relented.

This picture of Cade and Uncle Paul turned out pretty good.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Susie's brother, Dustin, has a friend who works in ticket sales for the Magic. So he got us a pair of media passes for Game 6 of the Magic/Celtics playoff series. We entered through the tunnel at one corner of the arena and had to walk around the court to get to our seats, which were at the top of the lower bowl. Kevin Garnett has been my favorite NBA player since his days in Minnesota; unfortunately the policeman shuffled us by the Celtics bench before I could take a picture, but our eyes briefly locked and I think he could feel the love. I did have my camera ready when we walked by the Magic bench though. It's good I didn't get a video because Van Gundy was letting loose a string of f-bombs due to the fact that the Magic weren't playing very well to start the game. Not very family friendly. But the Magic heeded his filthy words and ended up winning and Dustin and I had a great time.

Here's Cade showing off his ability to stand up the day we got back.