Cade Michael - 8 Months

On Thursday, my little baby turned 8 months old. As usual, we sang Happy Birthday to him and, as usual, this disturbed his brother. I thought it odd that the song triggers some uncomfortableness in Dylan, but I've recently found out that it's common for kids.

Cade's had a huge month. Just after turning 7 months old, he started working on crawling. He's a definitely crawler now. For a few weeks, he was content to just move a few feet to a toy or over to where Mike and I were sitting but over the last week or so, he's gotten much more adventurous. Not only does he go through rooms to get to us, but he also is fascinated by the cat food and will make his way over there when possible. As he gets faster and faster, we're going to be on our toes more about the food situation. And, very soon, our house will be sportin' the high style of the baby gates on the stairs. I should also note that Cade is not a "traditional" crawler. While he sometimes moves on hands and knees alone, it's much more common to see him on 2 hands, 1 knee and 1 foot or 2 hands and 2 feet in a kind of crab crawl. Those moves are pretty entertaining for us but more frustrating for him when he's wearing footy pajamas or socks....darned hard wood floors are slippery!

However, Cade was not content to just get crawling down this month. At 7.5 months old, that boy pulled to stand! He's quick on this mobility milestone thing. I'm a little in awe of his quick progress through these steps. Very soon he'll be a cruiser and I don't even want to think about how soon we'll have a walker on our hands.

I mentioned on his 7 month post that he loves other kids and babies. That has definitely continued. One of my favorite things to witness is Cade "reading" the Sleep book. It's a baby book that stays in our bathroom because it is very entertaining to him and keeps him enthralled while we're getting ready in the morning. It consists of pictures of babies in the different stages of getting ready for bed. He'll look at the pictures, grin and then start giggling. It's seriously the cutest thing ever.

Cade With Our Friend Elsa

He's So Happy To Be Hanging With Her

While we struggle to get Dylan to eat anything other than graham crackers, we're blissfully reminded daily that babies are eager to eat. With Cade, he'll eat just about anything. Before this month, we mostly stuck to pureed baby food, but we've been giving him more and more "real" food and he's been gobbling it up. Of the mush variety, he's been introduced to chicken, beef and corn. While we've been eating, we've shared real food with him including tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, broccoli and bread. He really likes to feed himself and has been working hard on perfecting his pincer grip. Still not really consistent with it, but he is good enough to have fed himself puffs (baby snack), whole peas and black beans.

Cade is enjoying the world of toys that make noise. He's figured out how to make music by pushing the buttons on a couple of baby toys and loves to push the buttons on Dylan's computer. One of his other favorite toys at the moment is a kid's size frying pan that makes all kinds of fun noises when he bangs it on stuff. Cade might turn into a tech guy like his Daddy because one of the things he crawls quickly too is the receiver for the tv. We have to make sure the glass doors are shut on the tv stand all the time. And he loves the remotes. We took the batteries out of one so he could play with it because he just loves the feel of the buttons.

And finally, sleep. For once, I didn't feel the need to put it at the top of the post because even though it's only been a small amount of time, he's finally consistent with it. He went through about a week of getting up at 5am (which was awful) but his sleeping hours are primarily 8 to 6 or 6:30 am. While I still am not getting much more than 6-7 hours a night consistently, I'm definitely feeling more rested than I have in a while. Having said that, the dark circles under my eyes seem to have taken up permanent residence and (as Mike can attest) I always seem tired. I remember not feeling like I was really getting enough sleep until Dylan was about 15 months old so I guess I'm in a normal "having a baby" position right now.  

Cade Michael - 8 Months

"Hey Guys, Watch This!"

My New Trick

Cool Huh?!?

"I Think It's Pretty Fun"

Ecotarium

It was a Friday a couple of weeks ago and we were all up and getting ready....me for work and the boys a day with their cousins. We were talking about what the day would hold and Mike revealed to me his plans to meet with his cousin's wife, Jessie, and kids at a place I've been trying to go to with the boys for some time, the Ecotarium. So insanely jealous of their plans, I called in a vacation day last minute and joined them.

According to Jessie, back when she was a child, it was known as the New England Science Center which we saw evidence of on the train track for the small train that circles the property. Now, it's still a science center and was a pretty great place for kids our ages to enjoy. The boys had a great time exploring and playing.

"Playing" Chess
Justin, Ryan and Dylan

Animal Encounter - Chinchilla!
We learned that boys are generally smaller than girls.
This little guy was much smaller than our Smokey.

Hockey. Or, as Dylan called it "hokey."

The special exhibit there was Grossology The Impolite Science of the Human Body. Pretty much the perfect thing for young boys to explore\enjoy.

Burping Guy

The Snot Guy
Dylan's Favorite
(Uncle Jody, aren't you proud?)

His Belch Surprised Cade and I

Dylan's love of skeletons continues so he really lovedthis exhibit where you could touch several different kinds of skeletons.

After exploring the inside, we went out to explore the grounds. Just outside the museum doors out back was a bubble exhibit. We had some fun with that before heading over to catch the train ride.

All Aboard!

From Back to Front:
Cade and I, Jessie and Ryan, Dylan and Justin

Cute Backs of Boys Heads

Then it was time to play on the playground. We thought there had been a skunk incident nearby but found out that the smell was actually coming from the foxes next door. They were very people friendly foxes and came right up to the fence to say hi to us.

Cade Had a Good Time Riding High

After a little walk with everyone, the heat was getting to us and nap time for Dylan was calling. Time to call it a day. However, on our way back to the car, Mike and I decided we just had to see the river otter exhibit on the other side of the parking lot. So glad we did because the otter was super cute and loved to play. He and Dylan had a great time playing chase!

Super fun place. It's on our list to go to again in the future. I'm also very glad I took off to play with the boys. It was well worth it.

More Pictures of Us

Before we went to NH for the Labor Day weekend, we went to take some family pictures. I want to have some professional pictures of Cade every 3 months for his first year of life. We got shots at 3 months and tried to get 6 month shots. Unfortunately try #1 for this photo session went horribly and we really didn't get any good pictures from it. Luckily, a week later, photo session #2 went a lot better. But, a week later, Cade was 7 months. Close enough. I sent a few to my Mom. Since she finally has her copies, I can share them with the rest of the world.

Love this shot of us.

With the Block and Quilt My Mom Made Him

Aren't my boys just the cutest?!?!

Me and My Boys

This one was too funny not to get!

Ahhh....Sweet Brothers

A few repeats below with the added artistic effect of black and white.

It is so ridiculously exhausting to do these shoots. I'm always glad when we have the finished product but somewhere around the middle of the session when we've spent hours getting everyone ready and to the shoot and the kids are melting down, I question my sanity. Luckily it's not every weekend we do this. Next time, we'll be doing pictures for our Christmas card. Crazy.

Cascade Path

It was Labor Day and the day after our Flume Fun adventure. The weather was perfect and the mountains were calling. We packed up the gang, found a trail in our book and set out for a hike. Mike was in charge of carrying the lightest child and I was in charge of carrying Dylan. I carried that boy all the way up the uphill section and all the way down the downhill section. However, he did walk a good portion of the "level" section all by his big boy self. According to my GPS watch, Dylan hiked about 1.33 miles over lots of rocks and tree roots. I was pretty impressed!

The big hiking find of the day was mushrooms. From the backpack and from the ground, Dylan helped us look for them. We saw all kinds of different shapes and colors. Of course, until writing this just now, I completely forgot that I was going to reference our handy dandy New England plant\animal guide to try and identify them. Maybe I'll remember to do that next time we go up. (Yeah right!) Dylan also helped us find the yellow markers on the trees to make sure we were staying on the trail. What a helpful little guy.

Dylan Pointing to Some Mushrooms

Mushroom CloseUp

Mike and Cade

Dylan Dubbed This Bridge "The Death Star"

Dylan borrowed one of my hiking poles and almost tripped over it about a dozen times. He wouldn't let us take it for a minute to try and shorten it until we stopped at our destination and had a snack. And our destination, as the title might have tipped you off, was a lovely cascade.

We went up to the top, plopped down on a rock and had a snack. Well, the kids and Mike had a snack. Somehow they all had food packed for them and I failed to pack something for myself. Oops! Oh well. Obviously I survived the trip so no long term harm done.

Our Snack Spot

Looking Down the Waterfall

See Mom, we had a safe distance away from the cliff.

Dylan had fun throwing rocks again.

Cade had fun hanging with me.

And trying to attack his brother.

I think these are the first post pregnancy pictures of myself where I didn't sneer in disgust.
Still a ways to go but I'm happy with the major progress I've made.

Dylan's Fishing Pole (aka hiking pole)

Dylan asked me to fish with him so I did.

Cool Orange Mushrooms

Gnarled Fallen Tree Roots

Pink Mushroom

Can you see Dylan?
This was his 20 minute pit stop. He wanted some privacy.

Cade was fine with the wait since he
was snoozing and didn't care.
Mike on the other hand doesn't seem so thrilled.

Back on the Trail
Dylan was very cute hiking with his shortened hiking pole.

Trees Growing Over Rocks
Always Cool

This Tree Lost It's Clothes!

The first\last part of the trail was along this mountain road.
Nice view of the mountains from here. 

After our 2 plus hour hike, the kids were all happy but Mike was cranky. It was longer than he had expected. I pointed out that it was only longer because Dylan wanted to walk and was having a great time which is a good reason for it to be too long.

We went back to the condo, packed up and set out to head home. It was such a beautiful day that I had Mike pull over before getting back on the highway so I could take a picture of one of my favorite views. This is what we see every time we come and go from our condo - Welch\Dickey peaks. Simply stunning.

I hope we're able to get back to NH for the fall since it's my favorite time of year there. However, we have an upcoming trip to Texas so I don't know if we'll make peak foliage time. Maybe we'll be able to squeeze it in somehow. I can't imagine missing a season of my mountains with the stunning autumn hues.