Cade Michael - 1 Year!!!!

A year ago today, Cade and I were probably ome from the hospital. Though thrilled to have a healthy baby in my arms, I have to admit again that it wasn't the easiest\most joyful time in our lives. The healing from the birthing process was extremely painful for the first week or so and Cade wasn't happy for the first couple of months...which made us not very happy. Screaming baby + serious sleep deprivation = unhappy household. My what a difference a year makes! Cade is now a thriving, smiling, joyous little guy who sleeps quite well and I've come a long way in returning to my pre baby body (still a ways to go but I'm continually heading in the right direction). Now, let's talk about Cade and his developments.

Last month I reported that Cade was standing solo and cruising like a champ but wouldn't let us grab his hands to practice walking. Once he figured out what us holding his hands entailed, he got over his "don't touch my hands" preference and wants to walk with us all the time! And boy can he go for long distances and long periods of times. Our backs get quite sore from leaning over all the time. We do get the occasional break when he uses his walking toys to get around some. He will also stand solo for long periods of time playing with toys in his hands without holding onto anything. There have been a few times he's taken a half step to fall into our laps from the standing position too. It will really be any day now that Cade will decide to try to take some true first steps!

Cade loves hanging out and playing with his older brother and they're pretty cute together. Dylan played a "game" a lot for a week or so where he was looking for some sort of monster in the house. He'd make a loop around the house, going through rooms and doorways, looking for it. After Cade learned to love hand walking with us, Cade would walk behind him and look for the monster with Dylan. However, there have also been times when we were busy that Cade would play the game with Dylan crawling after him. It was pretty cute. Also on the play front, Cade loves knocking things down. Dylan will build a tower and Cade will knock it down. The true test of the game is trying to build the tower in full before Cade attacks. Putting things in and out of containers is also tons of fun for Cade. It always amazes me how long he can be happy just putting an object in, taking it out and repeating. Today he kept himself happy for about 10 minutes taking the jar of baby Advil in and out of it's box. Another activity that has been occupying his attention for a while is a ball tower he got for Christmas. He'll spend chunks of time putting a ball at the top, watching it roll down the levels, coming out on the floor and repeating.

Mealtimes are always chaotic at our house. It's important to us to have family dinners every night. However, between getting food on the table first for the kids and getting it cut up, grabbing napkins or a forgotten drink, picking up utensils off the floor, cleaning up messes and keeping everyone happy, it's rare that all 4 of us are sitting at the table at once. I see it slowly getting slightly less chaotic as Cade learns to sit with us more (or as we find things to entertain him while we're still sitting). Dinner has also gotten more "advanced" for Cade as he's become fascinated with using forks and spoons. He's gotten pretty decent with spearing food and eating it. The spoon is a good bit more messy but he really loves using both. And, towards the end of dinner, they magically transform from dinner tool to toy. Amazing!

This boy has developed leaps and bounds over the last few months in the sleep department. Not only is it extremely rare to have a middle of the night awakening, but he now very often puts himself to sleep. Whether nap time or at night, he always goes in the crib awake. Sometimes he'll play happily in the crib for a few minutes while other times he'll fuss for a while before catching some shut eye. In both cases though, it's obvious by us watching him on the monitor that he's doing what needs to be done and doesn't need our help doing it. What a big boy! In the mornings, he often will wake at an early hour (say 5am) stand up and yell for me only to lay down a few minutes later and sleep until 6:30 or 7.

Like most kids, Cade loves music. He likes to be the conductor. When he "plays" music by pushing buttons on his toys, he'll start waving his hand like he's leading the symphony\band. He also likes to "dance" by shaking his head back and forth. He thinks he's pretty funny....I agree but also think he's quite adorable. At night when he's getting cranky, we'll sometimes sing and dance with him in our arms. No matter his mood, that always seems to make him pretty happy. Here are a couple of videos of Cade and his music

Cade has also become quite the explorer. By far, his favorite thing to explore is drawers and cabinets. Due to how and where we hang out in our house, we have a lot more child proofing going on than we ever did with Dylan. We lock up the necessary cabinets but let him explore the others that are safe for him. Since we use the area under our sink for recycling and need easy access, we've removed the chemicals for now. That cabinet is by far Cade's favorite. He likes to open it up, climb in and out and just hang out inside for periods of time.

Cade Michael - 1 Year

See My Teeth?

My Big Boy

At his 1 year wellness check up yesterday, the poor guy had to get 4 shots and a finger prick. Poor guy! He didn't seem to mind the finger prick but he was definitely not too keen on the shots. It was fairly chaotic for one nurse to be administering all of those and trying to get him band aided up...especially when he was gushing from a couple of spots (must take after me). But he recovered very quickly once Mom was able to scoop him up and hug him. Dylan, Mike and I all agreed that he was a very brave boy. Here are his stats:
19 pounds 6 oz - 19% (Beefed up from 8% at his 9 month appointment)
29.5 inches long - 35%
18.31 inch head circumference - 62%
Interestingly, I compared against Dylan at a year and they're pretty darned similar in all measurements.

This year has held an unbelievable amount of changes for Cade and I know he won't be slowing down in any way for many years to come. Mike and I very much look forward to watching all that happen and loving him even more (though I don't know how that might be possible)!