Spring

Spring is finally here! Cade is loving the fact that he can play outside.

Happy St. Patrick's Day (Cade is 1/8 Irish)

Walking down the street

Loving his car
On the big slide

The look we got when we told him we were taking him to the park. He didn't want to get out of the car.
I guess the park isn't so bad
Singing the bubble song

The list of words seems to be growing by about one or 2 a day now.
71. Go - usually go, go, go
72. Kick - I was trying to teach him to kick a ball but he likes to kick me and the dogs. Not a good thing.
73. Swim - This is part of the bubble song
74. Belt
75. Snort - from "Are you my mother?"
76. Clip - He loves to work on clips (his high chair, car seat, Sophie's muzzle)
77. Ring - He always wants me to take my ring off. Grandma let him play with her rings once and now he's hooked.
78. Ball
79. Bowl
80. Sock
81. Shirt
82. Shoe - He even tries to put on the shoes in his book (lifts his foot up to the page, "shoe on")
83. Mole - He points out the moles on my face
84. Dip - Loves dip for veggies but just uses the carrots for a spoon
85. Chip
86. Bra - He's very interested in whether I have my bra on or not. He even pulled my shirt down in our class and said, "bra on." Luckily, no one was paying attention to us. He has also pointed out a woman in Target that had her bra straps showing, "bra on."
87. Snack - he actually makes the "sn" sound very well
88. Dust - I pulled out the Pledge the other day to dust and he just said dust. Sometimes it sounds like shust.
89. Gum - Sean had some gum in his mouth and told Cade what it was. Now, anytime I'm chewing on something he asks if it's gum.
90. Bad - He likes to tell the dogs that they are bad when they are not. Anytime they nibble on his fingers when he's giving them food, they are bad. I think he picked this up when Lucy nipped him a couple of weeks ago.
91. Collar - He knows the dogs and even dogs in books have collars on.
92. Car - He loves his cozy coupe.
93. Soap - Loves to eat it.
94. Eat - sounds more like "et"
95. Fall - He fell off our bed this week while he was playing. Today I warned him not to fall. Now he says, "no, no fall."
96. Home - "Dadda home"
97. Cereal - He loves his Cheerios
98. Lola - My sister's dog was over this weekend and her name is Lola. Now, both Kira and Lola are Lola.
99. Donut - We had donuts today.

March of Dimes Walk

As part of the NICU reunion this year, Children's-MSP is sponsoring a team in the March of Dimes Walk on April 25th. Sean, Cade and I will be walking and attending the reunion. If you would like to sponsor us, there is a link on the sidebar of the blog.

Talking, talking

It's been about 3 weeks since my last post and Cade's vocabulary keeps growing. Lately, it seems like there's a new word every day. Here's the growing list:
59. Fart - I can thank Sean for this one. I didn't really want our not-even-2 year old to say fart but he picked it up and now if you let one anywhere near him, he lets you know he heard it.
60. All gone - He is working on the difference between all done and all gone.
61. Eye - This is usually said while touching his eyeball or someone elses. We're still working on not touching eyes.
62. Dinner - He usually makes it almost into 2 words din - ner
63. Pop - This comes from a song from ECFE that we sing multiple times a day.
64. Fan - This popped out of his mouth while we were at Subway looking at the ceiling fans. He has always loved fans so I'm actually a little surprised that it took this long to say the word.
65. Phone (phono) - Sean got a new phone and I think Cade is in love. Well, they both are I think. There's no doubt that Cade is Sean's son. They are both techno geeks :). The other day he was holding the cordless phone and saying "dada". I asked him if he was talking to dada and he gave me a big nod and a "uh-huh".
66. Boom - Uncle Andy taught him this one during a pillow fight. However, when Cade "boomed" Phillip he was not impressed.
67. More - He usually says "more, more, more" and also signs in case I didn't get it.
68. Help - He uses our made up sign for help and then says help. He was whiny yesterday because he wanted me to do something for him. So, I told him to say "Help, mama." He did and he also said "Help, mama" to Sean :)
69. Poop - Cade and I were having a conversation on Sunday. He said, "Dada, boot on." I said, "Yep, Dada's boots are on because he's picking up trash in the backyard." Cade gave me his "ish" sound for trash. Then, I said, "Well, actually, dada is picking up poop from the dogs." Cade said, "poop." It's fun when we have a semi-conversation.
70. Burp - I guess he's truly a boy when burp and fart make the list of the first words.

Here's what we've been up to for the last 3 weeks. Cade and I went to pick up Belle from the vet after she had been gone for 10 days. There were 4 cats getting "discharged" that day and Cade wanted to look in all the empty kennels to find the cats. After our instructions from the vet, we finally got Belle. Cade and I were very happy and excited to see her. She has been back for almost 3 weeks and is doing really well and looks so much healthier.
Phil came down that same weekend and we went to brunch with him on Sunday and then to MOA. Cade was happy to spend some time with Grandpa Phil. Andy, Jill and Phillip met us at the mall too and we went to Underwater World. Cade likes the fish and especially likes getting to walk/run around by himself and splash in the water at the "petting zoo" part of the aquarium. I've taken Cade there a few times since we have a pass.

Look at that smile

Happy Belle is home

Then, 2 weeks ago, we took care of Phillip on Saturday while Jill worked and Andy was on his way home from a business trip. It's fun to have the boys together. Phillip is busy learning how to talk too. He's got quite a few words already.

Last Thursday, my parents came down just because they missed Cade. Cade was excited to have bama and papa Reg here. He asked to be picked up by them quite a few times. In fact, my mom thought she was going to hurt her arm in Sam's club because Cade wanted to be carried everywhere. "Upadae bama." She was loving it, of course. Both grandma and grandpa had a good time playing with Cade. On Friday night, auntie Marcy and JR came over for dinner and some time with Cade. When Marcy told JR that my parents were coming because they missed Cade, he said he missed Cade too. :) I think Marcy has a good guy. My parents went home on Saturday and we headed up to the salon to get our hair cut. After Sean and Cade got their hair cut, they went to play with Phillip and Andy while I got my hair cut and colored. It works out really well that the girls get a chance to talk and the boys get a chance to play. We stayed for dinner and Andy cooked a wonderful Thai dish. Getting my hair done and having someone else make dinner is a great day for me.

Taking a walk with Mom

Climbing

How I found him one day after running upstairs for a minute

Neuro news

Today, Cade and I went to Children's to get a CT and and then to the neuro office to find out if his shunt pressure setting could be changed. When we were in about 6 1/2 months ago, the CT showed that he was "over shunted" which meant that there was not as much fluid in his brain as they would like. So, they changed the pressure setting from 130 to 150. The CT that was done today showed no change in the amount of fluid. So, we decided to increase the setting to 170. The max setting is 200 and at that setting the shunt is basically shut off and the brain drains at it's normal rate. It's unbelievable that Cade may not even need the shunt. We saw a new guy at the neuro office and he was amazed at how well Cade was doing based on his rough beginning. It was great for me to hear that from a medical professional that hasn't known Cade from the beginning.

In other news, his vocabulary continues to grow. He's also really working on putting 2 words together.
44. Uh oh - when he drops things and when he throws things
45. Out
46. Sit - he uses this on the dogs
47. Ow
48. Sock
49. Soft
50. Boot
51. Shut
52. Door
53. Shower - he took a shower with Sean this weekend and loved it, he stayed in there until Sean was done with his shower and had to have the water shut off before he would get out
54. Shh - this is part of his "Pajama Time" book
55. La la la - this is part of a book too and he surprised me one day by saying it on the right page
56. Bump - maybe he bumps his head too much but this one came out of his mouth today after hitting his head. He also found the permanent bump on his head and kept pointing it out. I told him that we like that bump.
57. Snow
58. Roar

The 2 word sentences are: hot cocoa, shut door, sharp ow, nice dada, bye bye Santa, sit down

Here's some pictures too.

Kira (my parents dog) begging from Cade

Happy Valentine's Day

P.S. I think I fixed the cocoa video that is in the post below this one

Cocoa!

Cade and I went outside for awhile when Sean was clearing the snow from the driveway. He actually did alot better than last time outside. At first he fell down after every couple of steps but eventually he got used to walking in his new boots and the snow. We went up and down the driveway a few times in sled and sat in the backyard. Then, it was time to go in and warm up. I think the total time outside was less than the time it took me to get Cade ready in all of his snow gear. Well, I figured after playing outside Cade deserved some hot cocoa. So, I made him a little and made sure it was lukewarm and handed him the big mug. He loved it.