Is Spring Here Yet?

I'm ready for spring and I'm guessing Cade is too. He has another cold and didn't sleep well last night so Mommy and Daddy are both a little tired today. I hope he gets alot of rest tonight and gets over this cold quickly. Last weekend, we all got our hair cut and had dinner with Andy, Jill and Phillip. Phillip is growing like a weed and now is taller than Cade. They both spent the afternoon and evening running around and opening and closing doors. Who needs toys when you have doors? The other news around here is that we finally figured out what is going on with Belle. I have wondered for awhile because it seemed like she kept getting skinnier. At first, I just thought that she was getting alot more exercise at the house versus the townhouse. But, lately, she's become really skinny. It turns out that she has a hyperactive thyroid. Both Sean and I were happy with the diagnosis because it's treatable and she is very healthy otherwise. One way to treat it is with a radioactive iodine injection that kills the tumor that is producing too much thyroid hormone. I guess it works really well and the vet recommended it over treating her with pills. So, now we need to get an appointment set up and find out the final cost. Hopefully, Belle will be on the mend soon.

Cade continues to work on developing his vocabulary. Here's a list of his new words:
31. All done
32. Brr
33. Thigh (ty) - Sean taught him this one and he says it instead of leg
34. Belle (baa-ow)
35. Foot (fo)
36. Rub - Sean taught him that you rub your hands when you have lotion on them - rub, rub
37. Water (wa wa)
38. Shop - maybe we do too much shopping? but, when we went to the mall yesterday I told Cade we were going shopping and he said "shop"
39. Down (dow)
40. Baa -as in the sheep says baa.
41. Hop Hop - as in the bunny in his book goes hop, hop. He said this one on his own one day when I turned the page to the bunny. Surprised the heck out of me. He also said "lana" yesterday when we were talking about a picture of a banana. But, he hasn't repeated it so it's not officially part of the list.
42. Toothbrush (boomba) - for awhile, he has done a gesture for brushing his teeth but now he asks for his toothbrush.
43. Sean (sha!) - he yells this when he wants to get our attention and we are pretty sure he's copying me yelling for Sean. This morning we were talking about daddy and he yelled "Sa!" so I think we're right.

He is also working on putting 2 words together. His favorite 2 word sentence is, "Santa off." He knows that Santa has to be turned off before we go upstairs. Santa is still out at our house because Cade asks for him when he gets up and talks about him all day. Even when he's going to bed, he keeps saying, "Santa off." Santa gets carried all over the basement and even rocks in Cade's rocking chair with him. Cade put him in the chair all by himself and then climbed up himself.

21 months

Cade turned 21 months yesterday. He is so quickly approaching 2 that it's hard for me to believe. On Sunday, we watched the Vikings game and went to Noah's birthday party. I thought it would be a good idea to put Cade in something football related and had a tough time finding something in his closet with a football on it since I am biased towards the soccer gear. But, I did find one sweatshirt that fit the bill. Here's some pictures of him cheering on the Vikings to their win. Well, to be honest, I had to work hard to get these pictures since Cade doesn't really watch the game with me. But, it does look like he's cheering.Yesterday, since Sean had the day off, we went to Edinborough Park. They have a 40 foot tall kids play park that has climbing and slides. They also have a toddler area that I figured Cade would play in but he didn't want to have anything to do with it. He wanted to play with the big kids. So, with our help, he climbed up about halfway and went down a bunch of different slides. He loved the slides but was always on one of our laps. He surprised me by climbing through a tunnel that had criss-crossed straps for a portion of the tube. The tunnel was probably 20 feet off the floor but he just crawled right through. In fact, he was leading the way without any problems with the holes.Today, I attempted to take a picture of him with the same preemie outfit that I used last year for a comparison. Well, he didn't want to hold the sleeper in front of him so I pinned it on his shirt. I think that if the shoulders of the sleeper were actually at his shoulders, it would only go to about his waist. It's so tiny that it almost brought tears to my eyes just looking at it. If you want to see the pic that I took last year to compare, click here.

Breakfast with Cade

Can you guess what Cade's favorite way to eat his yogurt is? Yes, that's right, he likes to drink it and with every slurp, he cracks himself up. He does actually know how to use a spoon but has decided that it's too slow or just not quite as fun. I also love the bed-head that he had that morning :)

Who does Cade look like?

I've been meaning to do this post for along time. Here's a picture of Sean at 18 months and I think I'm about 18 months as well. So, this is a good time to compare Cade to us as toddlers. I've had many people tell me that Cade looks like me and many who say that he looks like Sean. Most who think he looks like me, knew me as a child and most who think he looks like Sean, knew him as a child. I'm just curious what people think once they see what each of us looked like. There is a poll set up on the right hand side of the blog. Please vote to satisfy my curiosity.

(Sean's Input)
Personally, I think Jill's baby pic looks like Andy in a dress (Bro, I am not trying to rip on you here I just see your face when I see Jill's baby picture). So, I guess what I am trying to say is that if Jill thinks that Cade looks like her, I think that she looks like Andy. So, Cade=Andy=Jill at a young age.

PS. Son, if you are reading this umteen years down the line, I think that your mom is a good looking lady and your uncle is a handsome man. So, don't think that what I am writing here is that you look like a girl or something of that nature. It is no secret that I think that you are one of the cutest (Sorry, at this age you are very "cute".) little guys to ever grace the planet (I am a bit biased too.). Nevertheless, you are cute, smart, and funny all wrapped into one.

Bubba-dae,

Dad

Jill's extra input:

First, I need to say that all of the Bober boys/men are handsome. So, Cade comes by his good looks from both sides :) But, he does not look like Andy. At least, not more than he looks like Sean or I. Sean says it's just this particular baby picture of me that reminds him of Andy. I went through the album that I have of the Bober boys and found a pic of Andy at around the same age. So, you can be the judge. However, I can't update the poll since there is already a vote. Also, sorry Andy but the only pic I had of you alone was the one in your diaper (still a very cute pic).

The Reason for the Horse

I was going through some old pictures and came across this one. This is the reason Cade got a horse for Christmas. Although, the one I had looks alot smaller than his!

Santa!

Now that Christmas is over and the decorations are put away, Cade keeps asking for Santa. We have a dancing Santa that he loves and I think he's missing it. Of course, he never uttered the word Santa during the holiday season. But, now I hear it about 50 times a day. I got sick (again) on Thursday and ended up taking out Santa just to try to entertain Cade while I sat on the couch. He was very excited when he saw the box and wanted me to turn Santa on and off multiple times. The only problem now is I'm not sure when I will be able to put Santa away again. At least, he's not asking for the tree!

Before Christmas, mesmerized by Santa.

Cade's vocabulary continues to expand. His new words are:
19. Sharp (shawpa) - used when referring to teeth, forks and knives mostly
20. On (onna) - please turn this on, also used for I want that
21. Off - this one scared Sean because he started with just the f sound
22. Arm (arma)
23. Uh huh - means yes with a little head bob (I think this is probably the cutest word he says)
24. No (na) - usually accompanied by pushing away whatever you were going to give him
Generally, when he tells you no or yes, he means it and doesn't confuse the two. However, there are a few times when no means yes and yes means no.
25. Rock (rock, rock) - used while he is in his rocking chair or someone else is in a rocking chair and he is rocking them. He likes to rock his big stuffed bear.
26. Papa - means Grandpa
27. Bama - means Grandma
On Wed morning, he woke up and kept saying, "papa, bama, bye bye". It took me a minute to get what he was saying but he must have been missing my mom and dad since he spent alot of time with them over the holidays.
28. Snap (sna) - He picked up on this while we were talking about his snap on his pants. All of a sudden, he said "sna" in a very nasally voice. I tried to get him to say it and record it but it didn't work.
29. Cocoa (caco) - I was drinking cocoa while I was sick on Thursday. Since he always wants whatever we are having, I was explaining that it was mama's cocoa. Then, he just said cocoa. When Sean was putting him to bed, he kept asking for cocoa so I had to make him some of his own and he had a couple little tastes before bed.
30. Santa

Another thing that we have been working on is learning body parts. Cade knows the following:
1. Head
2. Hair
3. Eyes
4. Ears
5. Nose
6. Mouth
7. Teeth
8. Tongue
9. Foot
10. Toes
11. Arm
12. Tummy
13. Belly button


Playing with Belle


Riding his horse


When ECSE was here this week, the PT recommended that we could try walking upstairs holding Cade's hands. He started walking up like a big boy right away. I expected that he would put 2 feet on each stair and then step up but he walks up like we do, one foot in front of the other.

Bober Christmas

Here's the pics that Jill took with her new camera. I nabbed them off facebook so I could post them here.

Cade and Grandpa Phil

All dressed up with mommy

Classic family pic in front of the Christmas tree
Cade actually was interested in a present
Matching PJs

Christmas in Pictures (mostly)

Here's the updates from the last month since I have been busy living life and not blogging about it.

Cade went to see Santa this year. We skipped last year since taking the risk of getting sick was too high for me. Cade was his usual social self. He warmed up to Santa quite quickly and even gave the big man a kiss! I didn't take any pics with my camera because I was just enjoying the moment so I purchased a couple of my favorites. As you can see, in the second one, they are both laughing. It's really fun and easy for me since Cade is so easy going and truly loves people.



Our Christmas plans got slightly modified due to the storm. We did make it to Andy and Jill's on Christmas Eve and Phil brought grandma down the day before to miss the storm. The evening was a little chaotic with 2 toddlers but it was alot of fun. Both Cade and Phillip were running around and playing. They aren't quite old enough to play together but they were busy. Cade wasn't into opening presents. He was helping Andy and Jill clean their house with the swiffer. Jill took a bunch of pictures with her new camera so maybe once I get them there will be another post. The boys even had matching pjs but I didn't get pics.

Handsome boy in front of our tree

Hard at work cleaning

Phillip is helping

We made it home that night but weren't able to drive up north on Christmas day. Travel between Hinckley and Duluth was not recommended. So, we got a chance to have our little family Christmas. We missed all of my extended family on my dad's side but decided that it was best to not travel. Santa visited our house and brought a horse that was much bigger than Cade. At first he was scared of it but now he asks to get up and actually rides his horse. He can reach the handles but he has to wrap his feet around the horse's belly to stay on. He got a tent an tunnel from us and found those to be much more fun. Actually, Belle loved the tunnel even more than Cade. She became a kitten again, flying through the tunnel at top speed. In the afternoon, my aunt and uncle stopped by to wish us a Merry Christmas so we quickly changed from our pjs to some clothes. We were being really lazy and it felt so good. I was nice to see Susan and Jerry though. After they left, we all went outside to play. I pulled Cade around in his sled. He wasn't totally sure that he was having a good time. So then I threw him into the snow bank and that was fun until he realized that he was laying in the snow. Once the weather gets warmer, we will have to try outside play again.

This horse is huge and a little scary

The tunnel is fun

Hey dad, I'm in the tent with mom.

Belle says, "This is the best Christmas ever."
I look so cute in my winter gear but I'm not having fun

On Saturday, we drove up to Proctor but the roads were so icy I think that Friday would have been a better day to drive. We did make it in about 4 hours with a stop for lunch and my mom, dad, sister and her boyfriend were happy to see us. They postponed Christmas until we arrived. So, we opened gifts after settling in. Cade still wasn't into opening gifts so I opened them for him. He did love his new rocking chair though. Grandma and Grandpa made a great purchase. We stayed until Monday and the whole visit was very low key. We were going to take Cade to Bentleyville to see all the lights but he had some issues with sleeping so he was napping when we wanted to go. Oh well, hopefully it will work out next year. Sean and I got out of the house for a couple of hours after Cade went to sleep and met up with Kathy and Eric. It was so nice to have a solid 2 hours of laughs with friends.

I may not look like it but I do love my rocking chair

Mom and Dad are opening presents

Breakfast with Grandpa Reg like a big boy

Grandpa Reg, Grandma Linda and Cade

My parents came down on New Year's eve because we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family on New Year's day. Sean and I got a chance to go out to a movie to celebrate New Year's eve. We went to Avatar and both really enjoyed it. It took me awhile to get used to the 3D but eventually my eyes adjusted. Totally worth the disorientation though. On New Year's day we went over to my aunt and uncle's house and celebrated with my cousins and their husbands and kids.

Cade and I took a second to get a pic

Cade's second cousin Elli trying to "feed" him his water

Blowing out the electric candle with great-auntie Susan
Rocking in his chair: he says "rock, rock"