He's a Big Boy Now

On Saturday, Cade got his haircut for the first time. Right before my eyes, my baby became a little boy. He looks so grown up now. The actual cut went pretty well. Sean held him, I fed him cookie and Jill cut as fast as she could. We tried giving him a big tootsie roll pop but he wanted nothing to do with it so luckily Jill had a nice container filled with cookies for her clients. Once I started feeding him the cookie, the tears stopped and the haircut was completed.

My baby

The tears start
He realized that there was hair on his finger (hair is his favorite toy)
Mom took away his hair toy
Both boys with their new haircuts
The big boy

The Kissing Fool

Cade has become a kissing fool. He has started kissing anything and everything. Here's a list:
1. Momma
2. Dada
3. Belle
4. Sophie
5. Lucy
6. Grandma Linda
7. Grandpa Reg
8. Auntie Marcy
9. Cousin Phillip
10. The ECSE teacher
11. The stairs as he is climbing up
12. The wall
13. Momma's toes
14. Books
15. Sean's alligator head
16. Bubbles
I'm sure that there are many more things that I can't think of right now. Let's just say he is a very affectionate little boy. Today, when we went to the post office, every man, woman and child got a big smile.

He has also been expanding his vocabulary. Here's a list of his words:
1. Mama
2. Dada
3. Hi
4. Bye (bye bye da)
5. Up (up a da)
6. Quack (cack cack)
7. Meow (maow)
8. Neigh
9. Woof
10. Moo
11. Nice (nigh)
12. Apple (apo)
13. Hot
14. Hat
15. Wall
16. Bubble (baba)
17. Nose (na)
18. Da (which means what and that)

I think that's it. Not too shabby for 19 months (16 adjusted).

Posing in the sweater that he had to have for Thanksgiving. He looks so handsome :)

One of his favorite toys: the bubble wand

Bobers, Birthdays and the Zoo

Today, Cade and I are spending the day inside and missing a trip to MOA and Underwater World because Cade has a cold. We were suppose to meet some friends from ECFE but I decided it's not worth it to bring a sick little boy out to the mall. I hate is when I see sick little kids being dragged around the mall coughing and sneezing all over. I hate it for them and I hate it for me. They would be much happier at home relaxing and I would be much happier if they weren't coughing all over me! He got his cold last Thursday night and kept me up from 12:30 until 3:30 Friday morning. Every time I tried to put him down he would start screaming. It was not a fun night and kind of a disappointment because he has been doing so well at bedtime. He generally says "bye-bye" and goes to sleep within 10 minutes without any screaming. He has become such a better sleeper since he turned 18 months. I really didn't think that the day would come when he consistently slept through the night. But, after a year and a half of sleep deprivation, he has finally figured out how to sleep.

Playing in the rocking chair is as good as the mall right?

Taking a spin in the desk chair
Enjoying the quilt from great-auntie Diana

This past weekend, Cade has his first guys weekend. He and Sean went to Chisholm and dropped me off at my parent's house. Cade and Grandpa Phil got much needed bonding time and I got a weekend to spend with my mom and friends. I forgot to send the camera with Sean so I don't have any pictures of their adventures but I do know Cade destroyed one of the window blinds, got to go out to eat twice and had chocolate milk for dinner. I think the 3 generations of Bober men had a great time. I know I had a good time. I got to sleep in on Saturday and go shopping most of the day then finished the day with dinner with some of my best friends.

The weekend after Halloween was Sean's birthday. Friday night we had scrumptious takeout from Ciao Bella. Then, on Saturday, we took Cade to the zoo. It was such a beautiful day. Cade got to ride around in the backpack that we got from Andy and Jill. I am so glad that they weren't using it because Cade loves it. Sean and I like it too because your hands are free and there's no bumping the stroller into peoples heels. We spent most of our time at the playground at the zoo. Cade loved the slide but couldn't go down by himself because he kept grabbing the sides and stopping himself. Then on Saturday night, we had ravioli as Sean requested and homemade chocolate cake. I spent my Friday evening making Sean's birthday cake. I think I must love that man. In fact, I know I do and he totally deserved that cake. I've been continually reminded why God made me wait so long for the right man. It's because Sean is the one and all the others were just stepping stones to get to him. For those of you who were at our wedding, you know that we had "Bless the Broken Road" for our processional (instrumental) and our first dance. Here's a few lyrics:

"Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you"

These words perfectly describe how I feel about Sean. We have had our rough times like any other married couple but ultimately I know I will live the rest of my life loving him and have his love in return.

Loving the slide

Checking out the flora at the zoo

Cade saying hi to the bear
I love this pic. My little angel boy.

Well, I think I've been sappy enough. So, I'll tell you about my day with Phillip and Cade. On the Monday after Sean's birthday weekend, I took care of Phillip for the day. It is definitely entertaining to have two boys toddling around. Cade walked up to Phillip and patted his head, said hi and then kissed his head. How sweet is that? I wish I had had the camera out at that exact moment. I got lucky and both boys napped at the same time. So, after the morning nap, we had lunch and headed outside to take a walk. I'm sure we were quite the unusual site. I had Cade on my back, Phillip in the stroller and the 2 dogs pulling all of us along. Amazingly, both boys stayed happy the entire walk, the dogs were happy to get a walk and I was happy that all went well and I got some fresh air on a sunny day.

Phillip

Fighting over the cell phone
Saying hi to Belle

Little Monster

Halloween was a busy day for us. We headed to the salon for haircuts in the morning. While we were there Cade proved that he is definitely an extrovert. There was a mom and her 2 teenage daughters there and Cade needed to keep running over to talk to them. He is our little social butterfly. If he wasn't a little boy a butterfly would have been a great costume idea. Instead he was a little green monster. This is also fitting because he is in the stage of hitting and biting his parents. Usually he is so laid back but he also gets frustrated and his anger is unleashed as physical punishment for us. One one hand I hate to see him frustrated but I also can't let him think it's ok to hit me. We have been giving him 30sec-1 min timeouts for almost 2 weeks now and he still hits us. Eventually we're hoping it will stop since there's not much else we can do at this age.

After the salon we headed home to get Cade's costume on and went to MOA to check out the largest indoor trick-or-treating event. We were hoping that Andy, Jill and Phillip could've joined us but Phillip was still taking his afternoon nap while we were having dinner at the mall.

"Mom, I'm too sure about this costume"

Dad's phone is the best toy

Or maybe the best toy is a straw
Monster on the loose!Wow, we're really high.

Jack-o-lantern

Today, Cade had his first experience with a pumpkin. He had a good time playing with the seeds and the stringy part. He even decided that he would eat part of the pumpkin after I carved it.

New words

Here's a couple exchanges that Cade and I had today:

Me: What does the duck say?
Cade: Cack, Cack

Me: What does the horse say?
Cade: Neeiiigh

Me: What does Belle-belle say?
Cade: Maaaow

He also is now saying bye-bye in context. For example, he said bye-bye to Sean when he left for work on Thursday. He also waves while saying it. He says hi to anything and everything. Always waving enthusiastically.

His favorite gesture is the "I don't know". Alot of the times it is both hands but I only caught the one handed type. This gesture is used for "I don't know" and "Uh-oh".

He has also learned that you blow your nose in a kleenex. This is probably because he watches mommy do it many, many times per day. I hate allergies.

18 month stats

Today, Cade had his 18 month appointment. It seemed like he recognized his doctor when we saw him in the hallway. The appt went well and Cade even talked to the doc. Of course, nothing was understandable. His stats are:
Height: 31 inches, 15th percentile for 18 months
Weight: 20 lbs 3 oz, 1st percentile for 18 months (he's barely on the charts but he's finally made the 20 lb mark!)
Head circumference: 18.5 in, 27th percentile for 18 months

He was such a big boy. He didn't shed a tear when he got 3 shots. I was amazed but this was the first time that I held him during the shots instead of just holding him down. His upper lip quivered but not a peep out of him.

I think that there will be some crying in the near future though. The doc said that I should work on weaning Cade in the next 6 weeks. I don't think it's going to go well. I also asked about his obsession with hair. I'm not sure if I've written about it before but Cade loves playing with hair. Any type of hair, mine, Belle's, Sophie's, Lucy's. He will find it on the floor, pull it from my head and pull it out of the poor animals backs. When I told the doc, he agreed that it is a weird obsession but not something to be concerned about since there are no other signs that something is wrong. The doc also commented on the fact that Cade makes such great eye contact and is very interactive. He said that there are no signs of autism. He also checked for signs of cerebral palsy and said that Cade's reflexes were a little off but nothing to be concerned about. If there is CP, it is very mild but nothing diagnosable yet.

Here's a cute video of Cade opening the door to wave hi to the dogs but then he closes the door and can't get it open again:

18 months

Cade is 18 months old today. He has been busy walking all over and he's almost running. Now, when he falls down he will get up and keep walking instead of crawling. Changing directions is really easy for him now too. He will carry his cup and drink while walking. Vocally, he has gotten very loud and is continually talking. He still says words that are recognizable and then we never hear them again. He has said light, up, potato, clock recently. Words that he knows are dada, mama, hi (with a wave), meow, belle (the cat). He really loves to give everyone kisses. Grandma and grandpa really enjoyed that part of toddlerhood this weekend. Grandpa took care of him all day Thursday while Sean was at work and grandma and I were shopping with Marcy, my aunt and 2 cousins. It was our annual trip to Albertville and we all had such a great time. Cade was even good for grandpa.

Museum Outing

This past Sunday we got a chance to meet Kristie, Tom, Ashley and Brooke at the Children's museum. We hadn't seen each other since Memorial day when we met up at the museum for the first time. This time Cade was running all over the place. It was too bad that we only had a couple of hours but that's what worked best with Cade's nap schedule. The kids all had a great time. I couldn't believe how much Cade wanted to run around. He played with Ashley and Brooke in the grocery store. When he tried to steal Brooke's grocery cart, Brooke wasn't too happy. The look on her face could have bored holes in him I think :) The water works part was his favorite. He bent over and tried to slurp up the water out of the tub part. I was so glad he wasn't tall enough to actually get any water. We also found some buttons to push. There's a video of him pushing the buttons and then going to kiss Sean through the glass. Too cute!

Hey, you didn't pay for that bread yet.

Brooke says, "Cade this is my cart!"

The construction worker running away without his hard hat.
Maybe he wants to be a tailor instead.
This is so cool!
Do you think I can drink this?
Playing nicely :)

I love these buttons but I love daddy more.

Favorite toys

Here are a couple videos of Cade playing with a couple of his favorite toys. Now neither of these are meant to be toys of course but they provide hours of entertainment.

The dog muzzle:



The electrical cord. Don't worry, it's not plugged into anything but still it apparently is one of the most entertaining things for a one year old. Well, at least our one year old. He has been fascinated with cords for as long as I can remember.

On, off, on, off

The title is referring to Cade's new favorite activity. He loves to turn the lights on and off. At 6:15 am, he got up and started flicking the light on and off since he can reach the switch. I guess it's a really good way of getting me out of bed. He also points at the lights and "asks" for us to pick him up to flip the switch. At times, he gets very upset if we don't let him. As I'm typing this, he's turning the computer on and off. This is probably not a good thing since it is connected to the TV and is our DVR. I missed a good chunk of Oprah the other day because he turned the computer off!
He continues to work on his walking and now walks just about 100% of the time. When he falls though he still prefers to crawl over to something that he can pull himself up on and then continues to walk. I've seen him stand up on his own but he must not feel totally comfortable doing that. We went outside earlier this week and he walked around the yard. He fell a few times but actually I was impressed by how well he handled the uneven terrain. He enjoyed exploring too.
Another thing that he has now learned is how to give kisses. It's very cute. He gets a determined look on his face and then leans in and gives his kiss. It's a real kiss and not his open mouth slobber to the face. Definitely a huge improvement over being slobbered on.
After two weeks, we finally have all of our new windows installed. Cade missed many naps due to the construction but I think we are starting to get back on track. The windows are wonderful. I can already tell a difference in the number of times the heat needs to come on. Now, Sean and I have the task of staining and varnishing all of the interior trim. It should be an interesting project since neither one of us is experienced in home improvement.

Phillip's 1st Birthday

Today is cousin Phillip's 1st birthday. Wow, that year went fast and I'm sure Andy and Jill feel the same way. We celebrated on Saturday since Phil and grandma came down for the weekend and it was the day that Sean and I visited the salon for haircuts. Jill made a wonderful cake from scratch. Chocolate with chocolate frosting. There should be no other type of cake. Yum!

Birthday boy

Playing in the cupboards

Playing in the new hand-me-down turtle that Phillip got from the neighbors

Cade enjoying Phillip's swing
Showing off his Gopher's jersey from Grandpa PhilCake

Cade continues to work on his walking and is now choosing to walk about 50-60% of the time. He continues to be our little miracle. Just over 17 months ago, he came into this world not breathing and now look at him :) We are blessed.