Cade Michael - 11 Months

As we prepare to reflect on the last year and celebrate the beginning of the next one, we also start to think of goals for the upcoming year. I usually have some resolution pertaining to being more organized or prompt in some aspect of my life. Not this year. This year I accept the fact that there are too many things to do and not enough time. My very limited time is dedicated and prioritized for my family. These kiddos are growing up too fast and Mike and I are trying to soak up every minute.

On the 27th, Cade officially turned 11 months old. That means that the next time I have a Cade update it will be for his first birthday. Yowzers! He had a very big month of firsts.

Although we have not yet gotten him a passport (I suppose that should be goal for 2013), he had his very first trip out of the country. It was also his (and Dylan's) first cruise. The trip was a lot of fun and next year I will get some posts up about it. They did really well sleeping in the closest quarters we've had and we have some great memories to cherish from our family trip. During the cruise, Cade learned a new trick - giving high 5's! Now when he does it, he usually follows up with a little applause for himself. It's good to be proud of your accomplishments!

Cade also experienced his first Christmas. Since his older brother hasn't quite perfected his sharing skills, it's nice that Cade now has some of his very own toys. Everything in the house up to this point had belonged to Dylan at some point and I've learned that "baby" toys are still very interesting to preschoolers. Ownership is also very important to preschoolers so it's been a delicate balance of toy sharing in the house. Now we can definitively tell Dylan that some toys are Cade's.

Last month, I reported that Cade was standing solo when letting go of objects he had used to stand up with (couch, chair, etc). Now though he stands up straight from the floor. Mike and I have witnessed him stand for periods of time - 5 to 10 seconds - before squatting back down. Being the very independent boy that he is and not really interested in letting people hold his hands, he doesn't really enjoy assisted walking with a grown up. I saw one of Dylan's old walking toys in the basement over the weekend that I'm going to get cleaned up for Cade. If he won't let us help him practice walking, maybe he'll enjoy the toy (if Dylan "lets" him use it that is).

The boys absolutely adore each other and often entertain each other. They make each other laugh and just enjoy playing in the same vicinity. However, life isn't all happy roses for these two, there's definitely sibling fighting happening more often. I have a feeling we have a lot of mediating to look forward to in the future. Cade's already getting pretty good at "telling" on his big brother. If Dylan takes something from his hands, Cade will yell and look our way. Often Dylan is in the wrong. However, he is a good big brother and just as often will alert us to Cade having something he shouldn't.

One thing I'm really looking forward to in 2013 is feeling more rested. I remember finally feeling like I was getting sufficient sleep around the time Dylan was 15 months old. While Cade is still a fairly consistent sleeper (I don't think we've had any middle of the night wakings in the last month), there have been more than a handful of days where he's waking too early. There was a fluke 4:30 day but 5 to 5:30 hasn't been uncommon. So, Mike and I find ourselves napping on the weekends when we can. That usually means not being able to attend to some planned chores or work outs. Sleep is still something we crave and I will be happy when day time hours aren't spent daydreaming about dreaming in our sleep.

Cade - 11 Months

He's a happy guy!

And a BIG Momma's Boy
If I'm around, he usually heads right towards me.

Have a happy and safe New Years Eve celebration everyone! We will be spending this eve with just the 4 of us and the odds are none of us will stay awake to midnight. As cute as he is, Cade is not really into the whole concept of sleeping in after a holiday. It would just be punishing myself to stay up late and without a lot of reason...2012 will end and 2013 will begin whether I see it happen or not.

Your Leaves Are So Unchanging

Christmas time has come and gone. It's definitely my favorite time of the year. Always has been but having these young kiddos definitely brings the magic and excitement of it back big time. However, with all the happiness of the holidays, there was also a lot on the to do list. We also added in a December family vacation so we had to pack all of the holiday to do madness into an even smaller span of time. And that vacation really put me into a vacation mode I have had a hard time snapping out of. Anything above and beyond what absolutely had to get done just hasn't. So bear with me while I try to find some motivation before the end of the year and start catching up on a little blogging.

Just over a week after hosting Thanksgiving, it was time to officially begin our Christmas. First up, a trip to the tree farm to pick out our tree. It was a family event as we met Mike's parents and his sister and her family there. While Dylan was excited the whole way there, he turned into an introvert once we got there and wouldn't talk to anyone and frankly didn't really seem to want to be there.

Unhappy But Still Cute Dylan

Emily and Cade

Cousins!
Cade, Emily, Patrick and Dylan

While everyone else found their trees rather quickly, it took us freakin' FOREVER to find the right tree. This was just the first event of a full day for everyone and we just didn't really have the luxury of time so it was getting pretty irritating that we couldn't find a decent tree for our space. We finally found one!

Me, Cade and our almost tree.

This was "our" tree until we found an even better one close by. Around this time, Dylan perked up and decided that stomping tree stumps was about the most fun thing ever to do.

Stomp!

Mike Vs. Tree

Dylan Watching

Mike Won (Of Course)

Maureen with Cade who is trying to sock Emily.

Giant Baby or Little Tree?

Once we got our tree loaded and made the long trip home, it was a frenzy of activity as we were just a couple of hours away from hosting our annual Hines\Lee cousins Christmas party. The plan was to have the tree decorated. But between kids napping, lots of cleaning, getting ready and getting food out, there just wasn't time. So our lovely, but naked, tree was up in the entry way.

After the party, it was time for bed so tree decorating didn't start until the next day. Dylan did a great job of hanging ornaments on the tree all by himself. Cade was pretty content to play with some of the ornaments on the floor.

While we made a good start that day, I we were trimming the tree almost everyday up to Christmas day. After we did group decorating time, I added some of the more fragile ornaments. Then Mike had to add some at the top of the tree. Then we added the ones we got on vacation and then the ones Dylan made at preschool. And on Christmas Eve, weeks after our tree went up and just barely making the Christmas deadline, I finally got the bow on the top of the tree and the skirt at the bottom. Then Dylan helped me move all the presents under it. That was definitely the longest tree trimming process I've ever been through! But, the result is worth it:

And speaking of Christmas trees, "Oh Christmas Tree" is one of the carols that Dylan likes to sing. He's never been much of a singer, but in the last month or so, thanks to the preschool influence, he's decided he loves to sing. He loves singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and some other song that Mike and I don't know (and Dylan doesn't do in completion so we have no idea what it is). Now that Christmas carols are everywhere, he now also sings "Jingle Bells." About a week ago, he started singing "Oh Christmas Tree oh Christmas Tree, you're leaves are so unchanging!" Apparently, thanks to the Charlie Brown Christmas book, he and Mike had been working on that song as well. Hearing that boy sing always brings a smile to my face.

Merry belated Christmas to all my loyal readers! I hope your time with your families and friends made many happy memories. I know my time did. I hope to be sharing more of those with you soon.

The November Stuffing

In addition to hosting Thanksgiving and a post Thanksgiving leftovers party, here are a few other things we did in November.

Dylan's preschool parade. It was supposed to be before Halloween but thanks to hurricane Sandy passing through, it was delayed until after. It consisted of the kiddos marching in costume down the block, through the bank and back. I'm not sure how much Dylan enjoyed it (since he doesn't love being the center of attention) but it was pretty cute for the parents to come watch.

Cade came and watched in costume too.

Snoopy Dylan
His buddy, the shark, is one of our neighbor's Chris.
Just behind him is cute pirate Libby and (not sure of the costume) Molly.
These are the only other kids we know in his class.

November was a tough month for us in a lot of ways. Saying goodbye to our dear Oliver shook us more than expected. Even when you know it's coming and think you're ready to let go, losing a beloved pet is really, really hard. It made me numb to a lot and going through the motions of life for a few weeks without doing much else. The weekend after he passed, I just couldn't be in the house. It didn't feel right without him there. We found ourselves making a lot of excuses to get out.

The day after, we did a little day trip to Drumlin Farms. On a recent membership drive, we bought a yearly family pass and finally used it for the first time. What a great place! I look forward to going back with the kids year round.

Wild Turkeys Hitting the Bird Feeder at the Farm Entrance

Baa Baa

By far the most exciting place for both of the kids was the chicken coop. Not for the many different kinds of cool chickens there or the great fun facts posted around, but for the wooden egg activity area there.

According to the scale in the pig barn,
Dylan weighs in as a piglet! Hehe!

Testing our "Horse Power"

Giddy Up

After exploring for a while, we bought some fresh eggs and headed back to our home. The next morning, I busted out my rare culinary skills to whip up great crustless quiche with the farm fresh eggs. Delicious!

Gobble Gobble

The holiday season is upon us and we have already hosted more than our share of parties. We love hosting and we love having the house filled with family and friends. However, it does make an already hectic life even more so. Throw in vacation planning and preparations, well, let's just say I'm so happy to have vacation days to use to extend the weekends. We've needed the time!

To kick off the holiday season, we hosted our 2nd Thanksgiving. Last year, when I was hugely pregnant, my parents flew here to celebrate with us and helped us host in our brand new home. I helped as much as I could but I wasn't good for much more than social hosting. I left the heavy cooking\cleaning to Mike and my parents. So, this year was our first year flying solo. And speaking of flying, it was our first year to cook the bird (my Dad took care of that last year). Mike did a smashing job with the turkey!

The morning started out by enjoying the pumpkin muffins Dylan had helped me cook the night before. Yum, yum!

Then it was time to start cooking. Mike and I actually had done a fair bit the night before but there was no lack of things to get done. It was a fast paced morning.

Entertained By The Breadmaker

Luckily, our guests are not timely. If they had been here at the time Mike said we were starting, there would have been no appetizers and missing one host since we were still getting ready. As everyone started showing up 45 minutes later than planned, we were just putting the cheese and veggie plates out to enjoy.

We had 19 folks at the house in total. Mike's parents, sisters and their families plus one of our friends and her family. Lots of kiddos that Dylan enjoyed playing with immensely. It was loud, it was rowdy and it was a lot of fun. We were having too much fun to remember to take many pictures. Here's what we did manage:

Ryan, Luke, Dylan and Corwin Playing

Maureen Reading to Ryan, Emily, Cade and Luke

Post Meal Hanging Out
Kristina, Jim, Betsy, Tom, Maureen's Reading Group

Kari and Jimmy

Family photo we thought of taking after Kristina's family had already left.
Top - Joe, Patrick, Tom and Mike
Bottom - Betsy, Emily, Dylan, Cade, Me and Maureen

After everyone had gone and a very tired Cade was in bed, Dylan and I took part in the age old tradition of breaking the wishbone.

Kiss For Luck

And in line with the old tradition, I lost yet again. That wishbone always gets away from me. Beaten by a 3 year old. At least it was a cute, sweet 3 year old!

We had SO much food leftover that late Thanksgiving night, we sent out an email to friends to host another party on Friday with all the food. And wouldn't you know it, almost every single person we invited was able to come. 24 folks, about half being young kids, flooded the house Friday afternoon. It was very casual. Tupperware was left out and paper plates and the microwave was provided. Of course, I didn't even think about taking pictures until after the party was long over. Guess that's a testament to how fun and chaotic the event was. And there was still food that we ate off of all week long!

Cade Michael - 10 Months

Yesterday, my baby turned 10 months old. It was a big month for the little guy. Let's talk about some of his major milestones.

He has become a really good sleeper. We've got a good bedtime routine going and he's generally asleep between 7:15 and 8pm. It's a very rare occurrence now for him to wake in the night. There was a few weeks where he was having some very early morning wake ups (between 4:30 and 5:30) and would be up for the day. However, for the most part Cade's settled into an approximate 6:30 wake up time which works out very well for our family get ready time. I feed him, then Dylan is up at 7, the whole family showers and dresses and we're downstairs for me to head out the door at 8:30. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the boys follow shortly thereafter to drop Dylan off at school.

As for nap times, Cade seems to be settling into a more regular pattern there too. His morning nap usually starts between 9 and 10 and his afternoon nap between 2:30 and 3. Each one is normally around an hour. Shorter than that is not uncommon. Last week he had a 2.5 hour morning nap which was just crazy long for him. It's really great for him to be a little more predictable when he sleeps. The challenge now is getting out of the house to get anything done. With Cade napping morning and afternoon and Dylan in the middle of the day, there is often no overlapping nap times (ie sanity time for Mike) and usually not much time during the day in which someone is not sleeping. However, I think I already see that his nap times are slowly morphing together. Someday they'll merge into 1 and I would hope that his preferred nap time would gel nicely with Dylan's.

Last week, Cade got to celebrate his first Thanksgiving. And since he's a big fan of eating, he enjoyed it immensely. In preparation for the big holiday, he cut 4 (yep, that's right, I said 4!) teeth this month. He went from 0 to 4 in just a couple of weeks. That might have had something to do with the early morning wakings since they ceased once the last one popped up. He also has been experimenting with utensils. He loves holding them and playing with them. After much concentration, he can pick up a piece of food with his fork. At this point though, he usually then grabs the food off the fork and puts it in his mouth. Not quite grasping the function of the whole thing but the process has started. One other note on the teeth. Cade is quite keen on exploring them. His tongue runs over them a lot (hence an uptick in tongue out of the mouth pictures) and he also likes grinding them together. It produces a ridiculously awful noise that is far worse than nails on a chalkboard. Mike and I both hope that exploration ends soon.

Cade is now an expert crawler. Not only is he fast, but he has decided that he can go far too. He's become quite the little explorer. This means that we now have baby gates on the stairs. Climbing has also become a favorite pastime. The hearth and dishwasher are regular favorite spots but, under supervision, he also attacks the stairs. I watched him climb all the way up to the top a few days ago to get to his brother

He's been standing for some time and we'd seen glimpses previous to the last month of him standing without support for seconds at a time. Now, though, standing solo happens very regularly. Normally it's when he lets go of the couch or whatever else he's currently using for support. However, I don't think coming from the floor level to stand solo is far behind. He will get up to a squat position and bounce up to almost stand...sometimes with a little pause. He's almost there. He will let go of the couch, turn and then put a hand on one of us sitting on the floor. His balance is definitely improving.

A few other things he's doing. Holding and drinking from his own sippy cup of water. This also means Dylan is keeping his milk cup under closer guard as Cade often goes for it too. You can also see the start to his understanding of language. When we tell him "no" or "sit down" (we're having to strap him in tightly to his chair now as he is always trying to climb out), he will stop, look at us, and sometimes reverse his action to do what we're asking him to. Pretty cool. Our arms are getting even more buff as Cade will often try and dive out of our arms. Sometimes he wants to get down on the floor. Other times when we do put him down, he'll cry to be picked up only to repeat the dive exercise. It can be very tiring and tough on our arms!

And without further ado, pictures of 10 month old cuteness. I was worried about taking this pictures as it was close to his bed time and I thought being put in his bed would make him upset. Not so. He thought playing in his crib was a smashing good time!

Cade - 10 Months

He's Coming After Me!

Hi Mom!

The Tongue

Even More of the Tongue

My Sweet Boy