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

Texas - The Photo Shoot

It's a tradition for each grandkid to get a picture in the antique tub. You can see Dylan's picture, taken when he was 9 months old here. On our last day in Dallas, it was time for Cade to have his tub photo shoot. I don't know which one my Mom has chosen to hang on the wall in her house with the others. I personally think there are too many cute ones to narrow down to one. So, here are my favorites:

Wearing the Same Hat Dylan Did in His Tub Pic

Quick break from tub picture to see one of the behind the camera
guys. Dylan did a great job helping us get Cade's attention.

Dylan wanted to take a few with Cade too.

Rub A Dub Dub

Two Cute Boys in a Tub

Gosh my boys are cute! Good luck to my Mom in picking out just one.

Well, that wraps up our Texas trip. And, I got all the posts up within only 2 months of my trip. After more than a little anxiety about flying with 2 boys, it went pretty well. On the way home, Cade napped in the middle of the flight and was pretty chill when he was up. Dylan was very entertained by the iPad and was also introduced to the joys of Looney Tunes thanks to Jet Blue tv. All in all, a great success. In fact, it went so well we're attempting flying with them again VERY soon. It's one of my big motivations to get caught up on current events here as there will soon be another trip to blog about.

Texas - The In Between

After our Monday in Waco, we spent the next day playing with Mimaw and Pipaw. Also, since this was our last day in Dallas, we packed. It had been a great trip. Tiring but great. Even though I loved spending time with my parents, it was definitely time to get home.

Dylan and Cade really loved their time with Mimaw and Pipaw too. In fact, any time we went somewhere without them for some amount of time, Dylan always wanted to go back to Mimaw and Pipaw's house. Here are some of the things we did in the in between of all the other activities I've blogged about for this trip.

Boys Took Their First Tubby Together

Played With Halloween Things

Dylan Helped Mimaw Decorate With Her Punkin Collection

Played Piano (Both Boys Loved This)

Smiled

Partied With a Cornucopia

Cause We're Cool Like That

Played With Ginger (Though she's not actually seen here.)

Bonded With Grandparents

Destroyed Some of Mimaw and Pipaw's House

Waited and Watched for the Cuckoo Clock
Dylan was seriously obsessed with the thing.

The other thing we did was a traditional photo shoot with the boys. Since there are far too many cute shots to add to this post, it shall have a post all of its own!

Texas, Day 6 - Waco

After a Sunday day of rest, we hit the road again on Monday. This time, we headed south. Since getting to Austin just wasn't going to happen this trip, we made arrangements to meet with my good friend Amy in the middle....in none other than Waco, Texas!

Waco was often a refueling stop on my way to and from school back in the college days. After 100 miles, I would usually be ready for a road break, a drink and a bathroom. And, folks that have never been there usually know of the whole Branch Davidian thing. That situation gave Waco the little nickname "Wack-o." And, funny enough, our new Apple GPS also called it Wacko (which gave Mike and I some great chuckles). However, family activities were not on my Waco knowledge list. A little research and some referrals from locals gave us our itinerary for the day.

First, we met Amy for breakfast at Taco Cabana. It's on Mike's Texas must do list. Saying he's a big fan of their breakfast tacos is a serious understatement. That boy can eat a dozen of them in one sitting. No seriously, I'm not exaggerating. That's how many he orders and eats when we go there. It's unreal.

With full bellies (very full in Mike's case), we then headed to the Mayborn Museum on Baylor campus. It's a mix of a children's and natural history museum....basically awesome. The boys had a great time and Amy loved getting to see what a little boy Dylan's become (she hadn't seen him since he was in her wedding a year and a half ago) and finally getting to meet Cade.

Amy, Cade, Me and Dylan

Cutest Chauffeur Ever!

Ever!

One of the coolest parts of the museum is the mammoth dig sight. I didn't get a chance to really read about it (chasing after kids doesn't allow a lot of personal education time at museums) but I think the museum is built over the actual dig sight. Or, if it's not, then they made it look that way. There's a ramp up to a room with a glass floor where you can see the casts of the mammoth remains. Cade thought it seriously awesome to crawl around on the glass floor. Dylan...not really sure about it. He tiptoed very carefully expecting to fall through at any moment and was certainly more comfortable when he was holding Mom's hand and walking over it.

There was a small incident on the way out of the room. Cade was crawling down the wood ramp and his hands slipped out from under him. He got a pretty good busted lip that bled profusely...enough that it made me really unhappy to see so good ol' Dad swooped in and took him away to get calmed down. Definitely his worst bump to date. First of what I'm sure will be many. He was ok after a while but kind of had a duck lip the rest of the day. Poor guy.

We had a lot of fun in the bubble room later that day. Dylan and Mike both successfully had body bubbles. Fun!

Dylan Body Bubble

Pop!

Big Body Bubble!

With all the play we did at the museum, breakfast was a distant memory so we went in search of lunch. We settled on Panera. On the way there, Cade fell asleep so Mike stayed with him in the car while Amy, Dylan and I had lunch together. I was a little apprehensive as to how a very tired Dylan was but he was awesome. Not only did he eat (which is rare) but he played nicely at the table with a few toys and Amy and I were able to actually have a nice long conversation.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Amy and let her start her trek home. Mike got a break from the car and shopped in the stores nearby. I fed Cade and Dylan played games on the iPad for a bit. I talked to Dylan  about how after I finished feeding Cade, we would drive home and he would need to take a nap.

When we were all settled in to make the trip home, Dylan quickly and voluntarily set down the iPad (before we had a chance to ask for it), turned to Cade and said "Please don't wake me up, Cade, I have to take a nap now." It was really cute and yet another indication of how tired that poor kid was. The ride home was drama free. Even after 3 hours in the car an another day trip under our belts, the day was not over yet.

You see, it was Mike and my 6th anniversary! With free babysitters in the house, we took advantage and planned a night out. Nothing crazy, but a nice dinner at a restaurant that was suggested to us by a friend of my parents. It was a really, really nice night. The food was phenomenal and Mike and I really enjoyed our time to sit, talk about all the craziness that had been going on during the week (the pace of our travels wasn't allowing a lot of one on one conversations between us) and also just acknowledge such a big and great day to celebrate. A lot has changed in 6 years and we've weathered it pretty well - both good and bad. A big ol' "CHEERS" to us!

Texas Day 5 - A Day of (Kind Of) Rest)

With the Thanksgiving turkey (and potatoes, cookies, mac & cheese, cheesecake, etc) still digesting, it's time to sit for a bit and try to catch up on the ol' blog. Before we break out the Christmas decor, I want to try and get Texas finished, and quickly document our Thanksgiving festivities before Christmas and another vacation come around.

Compared to most days on our Texas trip, this one was fairly tame. We went to church with my parents and after lunch at home, my Mom and I snuck out during a much needed regular nap time for the kids to get pedicures. Relaxing, sure. But, more importantly, it was Mother\Daughter bonding time!

That afternoon, my Aunt Pam came back and brought her mother in law, Blanche to see the boys. It was great to see Blanche. She's always a fun lady to catch up with. She is one of my few blog fans, so she watches the boys grow up through my posts. I know that she enjoys getting to spend some time with them in person. And, this was the first time she got to meet Cade. Since she had a fun necklace, they were fast friends.

It was a very nice change of pace to have some down time. The past several days were wearing on us all so catching up on a little R&R was rejuvenating. Just in time to ramp up the pace again the next day.