4 months!

Today is Cade's 4 month birthday. I have new pictures on the camera, but I'm on the road and don't have the cable to upload them with me. So here are a couple to show you how far he's come (the second one is from a couple weeks ago). Thanks for all the prayers for our little guy. He's truly a blessing to us. I'll get more pictures up this weekend hopefully!

Sleepy Saturday

It's been a long time since I've been able to sleep in. I didn't feel that great today, but getting to sleep in really helped. Susie was spying on us and took this picture with her cell phone.

15 weeks

Today Cade is 15 weeks old. I am still amazed whenever I look at him at how good God is. We are loving the time we have with him. It's something to watch him grow and see how much he has changed even in this short amount of time in the world. He is getting bigger and filling out great. He still eats a ton. We think he's up over 14 pounds now. He's been sleeping a lot better now too. He'll usually go to be around 8 or 9 and sometimes sleeps up to 6 or 7 hours. So a lot of nights he'll get up around 3 or 4 am and then sleep the rest of the night. The fact that he only gets up once most nights is huge. That allows one of us to sleep through the night and the other doesn't feel like a zombie the next day. I'm still extremely biased, but I think he's one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. It had been a while since we've had a picture session, so here are a few pictures we took yesterday (and one from a week ago sporting his Rockies gear which is unfortunately seeing little use this postseason).

That's right Cade, C IS for Colorado Rockies. You'll grow into that hat and we'll get you another uniform that fits you when you do.

Within the last week or two he's started to figure out he can clasp his hands together. It's pretty cute. He's been doing the tongue thing for at least a month and a half. But the hand thing makes him look like a scheming baby.
He smiles a lot more now too. It's really a great feeling to walk into the room and see him smile at me when he notices I'm there.
All I can think of when I see this picture is Cartman singing "O Holy Night."
Pre to mid-sneeze. Post-sneeze. Bless you!

That sneeze felt GOOD!

He had just FILLED his shorts in this picture. The bombs he drops have been getting larger and larger. I am convinced Pampers Swaddlers are a gift from God. Diapers are truly a product where you get what you pay for. Leaking is bad. Containment is good. Containment produces smiles all around.

I think he looks less and less like a wrinkly infant all the time. Compare this picture with one from right after birth and it doesn't even look like the same child. It's kind of hard to see in this smaller picture, but he has beautiful blue eyes just like his mommy.

My baby and my baby.

Here are a couple smiley pictures. He has a drool-covered lower lip more now. We wonder if he's starting to cut teeth a little bit.

These last couple pictures were taken last Wednesday at youth. Our kids did a great job and wrapped between 80 and 90 shoeboxes in preparation for our church to fill them for Operation Christmas Child. I wasn't sure how the church would respond, but we had over 200 total boxes (wrapped and unwrapped) and on Sunday only a few were left over after people came and took what they wanted to fill. I was blown away with the support of our congregation. This is a great ministry that helps kids all over the world experience the joy of a Christmas gift. Please take the time to fill a shoebox or 40 and find a place to drop them off sometime before collection week (which is November 17-24). The website has all the details you need like what to put in the boxes, what not to put in the boxes, and where to take them.

We sang "God of Justice" by Tim Hughes during the service on Sunday. This song has great lyrics about acting out God's love instead of just providing lip service. The lyrics in the bridge say, "Fill us up and send us out." I know he's referring to people, but I kept looking at the boxes on the stage. Pretty cool.

Here's a video where Cade shows you about 80 different expressions in about 30 seconds while kicking his legs like a crazy person. He finishes up with a little smile. He also shows off his newfound hobby of grabbing his hands.

3 Months!

Happy 3 month birthday Cade! It's hard to believe we've had a baby around for three months. We have truly been blessed by our son. I've never had a kid before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I have to say that Cade seems like a fairly easy baby (not wanting to jinx it either) :). He is usually in a great mood. He smiles and laughs a lot. He really doesn't cry unless he is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper. And he seems to be a fairly patient baby too - he starts out with a little pouty talking and gives us a little time to get him changed/fed/soothed before he really starts wailing. I really appreciate that, because early on he screamed at the drop of a hat when he wanted something. I don't know if he's developing a sense of trust in us or a little patience or both, but he really is pleasant to be around a lot of the time.

It's kind of early, but he's demonstrated a few signs of teething already. He drools a ton now and every once in a while he gets a little fussy for no apparent reason. He seems to like to chew a little more on his bottle and a "chew toy" that we can put in the fridge to keep cool (thanks Wendy!). And yes, we know we need to keep Chili's chew toys segregated from Cade's chew toys. :)

My mom came in last week from last Monday through yesterday. I have to say that Susie and I are blessed to have two of the most helpful individuals as moms. It was great to see her and I know she appreciated all the time she was able to spend with her grandson. I posted a couple pictures and a goofy video from last week below. As you'll see, he now loves to bounce. No matter how mad he gets, you can usually get a smile out of him with a few bounces. It's a good arm/shoulder workout for Mom and Dad too since he usually wants hundreds of bounces in a session.

We are so thankful for three months. He has already grown and developed so much in such a short time. We can't wait to see him grow and change in the coming months and years. We love you so much Cade!


Check out THIS outfit. I honestly can't remember who gave this to us (sorry), but you know you are, and thank you! He's got dogs on his dogs. Pants with footies crack me up. I wish they made them my size.

Sorry

I know it's been a while. I've been told it's time to get something besides Pikes Peak up on the blog. So here we go. I'm going to recap a little since I just got my mom's pictures from when we were out in Colorado. But there are a few new ones.


A lot has happened in the last few weeks. After coming home from Colorado we went to the doctor and found out that Cade was 10 lbs, 15 oz! He's growing a ton! He should be; he eats all the time. That was a few weeks ago, so we think he's probably getting up over 12 lbs now. He got his two-month shots during that doctor's trip, and he was very brave! He got two shots in one leg and one in the other. We weren't sure how he'd react, but each time he gave a little cry and then calmed down.


During Susie's first week of school I ended up heading up to Bloomington when she went temporarily out of commission with a kidney stone. I've heard people say that a kidney stone is as close as a guy will ever get to knowing the pain of giving birth. Well, now we have a resident expert! Susie's opinion is that the pain is very comparable, but you don't get a kid out of the kidney stone deal. So now you know and you heard it here first!


Well, here are some of my mom's pictures from our CO trip, and then some newer ones. Enjoy!



Cade and Grandpa during boys night.

He's starting to smile a lot more now, which is great. It totally makes my day when he looks at me and gives a big smile and a laugh. It might be because he thinks I look funny but I don't care. One thing that's cool is that lately he's been showing that he recognizes Susie and me. He usually has this exploratory look in his eyes when he looks out at the world. But lately when he sees Susie and me you can see that his eyes soften and he gets this look of recognition. I love that.


This is Susie doing her best Cade impression.

Making sure no home run balls come in contact with his grandson's head.

His attention span doesn't quite last a whole nine innings yet.

Pround Auntie Amy and her little nephew baby burrito.

No caption needed. Isn't this about the cutest picture you've ever seen?


Uncle Paul and Cade.

This was the "going home" outfit we had ready for Cade. We couldn't find an Elway jersey, so this was the next best thing. But since he was so early he didn't come close to fitting into it. It fits great now, and just in time for the football season.

Every man needs a good pair of shoes.

Taking a nap in the big bed. They grow up so fast. :)

Here's Cade after getting his shots. One Band-Aid on each leg. He was such a trooper. He has his mom's pain tolerance.

When he was first born we'd lose him in the bassinet because it was so big and he was so small. We'd search for him under the heartbeat bear and down in the crack around the pad. Sometimes even the pacifier would obscure our view of him. But now he takes up most of it. No problems finding Cade in this picture.

Not Cade related, but here's a picture of our upstairs bathroom. The toilet started leaking and we'd been talking about revamping this room anyways, so now it's down to the subfloor and plaster walls. I was midway through the teardown when I realized I didn't have a good "before" picture. More to come as the work progresses.

I will try to do better with more frequent updates in the future. My mom is in town this week and we'll have some pictures to share from that. Thanks for sticking with the blog!

Pikes Peak

I know this blog is about Cade, but I wanted to post about this experience from last Friday. I grew up mostly in Colorado Springs, but I never got around to hiking up Pikes Peak. I hiked down it when I was a lot younger, but never climbed it. That's something that's always been in the back of my mind, so last Friday I got together with my brother-in-law, Paul, and we did it. (Cade will make an appearance later on, so bear with me.) I'm in Union City, TN, this week and my family is in Bloomington, IN, so I've got some extra time to write two blogs in one night.

Before I get too far, please allow me to throw out my three excuses for being a total wuss about this. Number one, since Cade was born two months ago I've not exercised any more than a few softball games. Number two, since Cade was born two months ago a night with five hours of sleep is cause for celebration (including the night before the hike). And number three, and probably most important, I was at sea level the day before (actually, I believe Google Earth puts our house at an elevation of 414 feet); the Pikes Peak summit stands 14,110 feet above sea level.

We got up fairly early and hit the trailhead of Barr trail at 6:40 AM. We had 13 miles and about 7-8,000 vertical feet between us and the summit. This first picture is a mile or two into it looking back at Manitou Springs (where the Barr trail trailhead is).


The first three miles are very steep switchbacks. It's a tough way to start the day, but after the switchbacks you come to a pretty nice stretch of trail. Here's a picture of our first glimpse of the peak.

Here's Paul. We're getting closer. Paul did this hike a couple weeks ago with a disabled gentleman from their church, so this is pretty much old hat for him (if hiking a fourteener can ever be old hat).

We're still getting closer. The scenery was incredible the entire day. About a mile or so before reaching Barr Camp I plugged into my iPod and motored in.

This is Barr Camp. It's seven miles into the hike, and is at an elevation of a little over 10,000 feet. There is a couple that lives here year round. You can stay in the cabin overnight or camp in the woods around the trail. They'll also cook for you. They were a pretty interesting couple to talk to. The wife told me to take however long it took to get to Barr Camp and add an hour and that would be how long it would take to reach the summit. It only took us three hours to cover the first seven miles. I knew the last six miles would be tough, but there was no way it would take four hours. (That last sentence was an example of the literary device known as foreshadowing.)

As we left Barr Camp, I was reminded that we "only" had six miles to go.


The trail out of Barr Camp was still pretty smooth sailing. I was still wondering how I'd fare with the altitude and when it would start to catch up with me. About two miles out of Barr Camp I could tell my strides were getting noticably shorter and I was getting short of breath easier. Here's the best picture of some of the wildlife. This chipmunk was just sitting there watching me go by. He must have been expecting something to eat because he held his ground.


This is where any semblance of fun ended. You reach timberline at three miles from the top. The trail is much more exposed and rocky and the air continues to get thinner.


Here's a self portrait with the summit in the background (over my left shoulder). My iPod was a saving grace that day. A combination of M.I.A., David Crowder Band, and Ben Folds encouraged me up the mountain. A weird combination, I know. But I think I may have gone mad without the small distraction that the music was to my brain. Also, I think that's a vulture over my left shoulder against the cloud. He must be watching me, recognizing me as someone that lives in a state that exists at a lower elevation, waiting for me to collapse.


Uh, oh. The clouds are rolling in. It's extremely important to keep an eye on the weather, especially when you're above timberline. The week before they'd run the Pikes Peak ascent and they had to turn back most of the 1,200 runners that competed that day because of snow and lightning above timberline. This included the ~70 they had to treat for hypothermia. (Let me pause for a minute to say that anyone who runs up this mountain is absolutely crazy.) The temperature drastically decreases with elevation. What was amazing for us was that out of the last few weeks this ended up being the best day to climb. The rest of the weekend the Peak was covered with clouds in the afternoon. We really got lucky. It was in the 50's and windy, but definitely managable for us; way better than snow and lightning.


This was where my I began to break down mentally. This sign marks two miles to the top. My mind was telling me that I'd been hiking for much more than a mile since the three mile mark. Suddenly realizing that I'd only gone a mile and still had two miles to go that would get increasingly difficult was hard to swallow at this point. I was definitely feeling the wear of the past eleven miles and the effects of the altitude.

Between the two and one mile points you make a long traverse across the south face of the peak. It's not a long traverse but my state of mind had me very, very discouraged. I felt like I was going to either puke or cry, and I wasn't sure which it was going to be. I really didn't realize how emotional I would feel in the last two miles. It's hard to describe the effects of altitude to someone who hasn't felt altitude themselves. Every muscle in your body screams for oxygen and your lungs scream for oxygen and you just can't get enough breaths in them to ever seem to satisfy it all. The fact that I came from sea level the day before played a huge role in this, but I know that everyone else on the peak that day was feeling it too to some degree. It really plays tricks on your brain and you start thinking irrationally. When I read mountaineering stories I wonder sometimes why people make the decisions they do, but really your mind is not as sharp when you're not acclimated. So at this point I was extremely discouraged and emotional and I received encouragement in two major ways. First, I got a text message from Cade (told you he'd make an appearance). Susie had been keeping up with our progress. Since cell coverage is fairly decent on the mountain I'd been sending Tweets out. My phone beeped and I saw the following picture with the message "You can do it Dad!" I almost choked up right there. I know it's cheesy, but at the time it was huge.


Like I mentioned earlier, the scenery is incredible. The second form of encouragement came from my iPod. I had sat down to take a break and saw something like the following picture. At that moment I heard David Crowder sing: "My eyes are small but they have seen the beauty of enormous things. Which leads me to believe there's light enough to see that, You make everything glorious." Talk about feeling small. I could identify with that, and I could definitely identify with both the beauty and enormity of my surroundings. It's hard not to praise God for his creation when you're smack in the middle of such a beautiful setting, no matter how crappy you feel. Something interesting to note in the picture: See the shadow from the smaller cloud in the distance in about the middle of the picture? If you look just past that shadow and to the right you can see where we first came up out of Manitou at the trailhead. One thing that makes this hike difficult is the distance you have to cover just to get to the base of the peak. You don't really see it when you're down in the Springs, but it's definitely in perspective when you're looking down from the peak.


I can't believe I had enough energy or enough positive thoughts to get this much of a smile out at this point.

This is my first view of the summit house. It's hard to see from this picture, but I had just finished the traverse across the south face of the peak (coming up from the right of the picture). You can see the corner of the house just sticking out to the left of the summit in the middle of the picture. That was encouraging.


Only one mile left! The last mile took me an hour to cover. I was stopping to rest and drink water or Gatorade probably every 50-100 feet. I would go until one of three things would cause me to stop and rest: my legs would burn too much to continue, my lungs couldn't get enough air, or I'd feel like I was about to throw up. At this point the idea of hiking 12 miles back down honesty didn't feel as tough as the last mile up.


This was a 1,500 foot cirque. It was a little inviting at that point (kidding......sort of).

The last stretch of the hike is the most grueling. It's called the Golden Staircase and you cover the last few hundred vertical feet in an almost vertical fashion over very steep switchbacks. I tried to count the 16 Golden Stairs but there was no way to concentrate enough to do it.

Thank goodness, it's my mom! She had driven to the top (more on driving to the top later) to pick us up. We used the excuse of needing to make it to the Rockies game that night to avoid hiking down but I honestly don't know if I'd have had the energy to do 13 miles back to the trailhead. My mom is in the middle waving at me. That was a major encouragement to do the last few stairs.


Here's the summit house staring me down. I made it! It was 2:30, just a little less than eight hours after I started. It took over four hours to cover the last six miles. That lady at Barr Camp was right. I guess that's why they let her live there.


The summit of Pikes Peak is unlike the summit of any other fourteener. I don't know of any other summit with a road AND a train to the top. And I'm pretty sure this is the only summit gift shop in the world. I guess I have to say the moutaintop experience was a little dampened by the gift shop. The following picture shows people bustling about walking past racks of personalized blinking keychains and pens that have nothing to do with Pikes Peak - just a chance to sell you something with your name on it. Just another tourist trap. The people getting out of their cars and off the train had no idea the energy just expended by the small number of hikers sitting in the gift shop cafeteria and outside on the benches. I was a little taken aback by the scene and the rudeness of the people hollering and pushing and shoving their way around while I was trying to recover. I felt terrible. I'd never experienced altitude sickness before that day, but when I entered the gift shop the smell of hot grease and people sent me straight to the bathroom to get rid of my last few bites of energy bar and gulps of Gatorade. The good thing about altitude sickness though is that it goes away when you decrease your elevation.

Here we are, after conquering the mountain! I guess this post has had a lot of negativity in it. It was definitely a difficult task; my entire body ached the next day. But I already threw out my three excuses for being a wuss, so cut me some slack! :) Overall it was a great experience. I wanted to test myself and see how I'd do, and I definitely found that at my current state of fitness I came close to my limit. I want to hike it again, and climb up and down, but I will definitely do some training first. There's really no way to train for altitude in Kentucky, but I can get my legs in shape a little better than I did before this ascent.

Thanks for reading this post. As you can probably tell, it was a pretty momentous occasion for me. Many thanks to Paul for sucking it up and going with me, thanks to my mom for picking us up, and thanks to those that sent me encouraging text messages along the way (especially Susie and Cade). I realize thousands of people complete this particular ascent every year, so it's really not that special in the grand scheme of things, but it's something that I'm proud of and look forward to doing again.