I wanted to start this post by saying, "now that winter feels long gone around here" (I washed and put away our jackets a few weeks ago) but we got another quick dash of snow last week to remind us that spring is still subject to opinion. With the beautiful weather we've had the last few days though, I'm convinced spring is here to stay this time. In any case, lots of other stuff happened during this year's seemingly unendless winter and I've obviously not been great at blogging it. So, here's a quick recap on some other stuff that went on.
The cats seem to all be friends now. Despite a rough start, Luci and Pumpkin have (mostly) made peace. They've even been spotted snuggling from time to time. Only took about a year to get to that point.
Pumpkin, Luci and Cici
For those of you on facebook, you no doubt saw how seriously cute Dylan was in his ski gear. What you didn't really get to see was how hard he worked. He skied and\or took lessons on about 5 different occasions throughout the winter. He learned quite a bit and really worked hard (and pooped himself out) during his instruction time. He and I "skied" together a few times so that he could see how fun it is to go a little faster down a bigger hill. That consisted of me holding him tight from behind. A lot of work for me to show him the future fun he has in store but well worth it. I'm guessing by the end of the ski season next year, he'll be leaving me behind.
We have very much enjoyed our new NH place. Hard to believe that we've only owned it since September...it very much feels like home to us. We were happy to be able to have a couple of winter visitors up there to share in our fantastic view and our snowy fun. First we had the Hunt family up. Jess and I got to get some time away from the families for a jaunt on our snowshoes. Her boys got in some skiing and my boys got in some sledding\outdoor play time.
Snowy Snowshoeing - Jess and I
Pajama Boys
Sammy, Dylan, Max, Cade in Front
Obviously, something very mesmerizing was on the boob tube at the time.
Next up, we had a fun weekend at Loon mountain. I met a coworker who has a place up there. So not technically a visitor, but time with friends in the mountains. He and I did a guided snowshoeing trip on Loon Mountain while Dylan spent the day in ski school and Cade and Mike did some tot tubing.
I love this selfie of Dylan and I at the condo.
Cade Rockin the Headphones
Cade Tot Tubing
Views From Loon
Rodney and I
In Front of Loon Lake At the Top of Loon Mountain
Quick break from NH fun. I got a Mom's night out and did a paint party with some girls from work. We had a fun night and discovered our inner Picasso's.
Mike and I also threw an impromptu St. Patrick's Day party. Everyone brought some sort of green food and there was much ruckus with a million kids running around. Nothing like popping on Frozen to get them all to chill out for a little while.
Cade, Dylan, Wyatt, Mason, Hayden, Isabella, MacKenzie and Arden
(Only little one missing from this shot is Wyatt's little sister, Reagan.)
Back up to NH for our last winter weekend at the end of March, Mike's cousin, Erik, and his family joined us. As usual, we had a great time with them and the boys had a great time playing together.
Justin and Dylan Bonding Over IPad Time
Love this crazy boy!
Buzz Lightyear Loves Winter
Woohoo!
Cuties with Cute Smiles
Mike, Cade (have no idea why he is practically naked in this pic),
Jessie with Ryan, Justin and Erik
And to encourage Spring to come and stay around, I got a little haircut.
It Was Long....
And Now It's Not
Because it had been fairly long and I was ready for a change, I sucked it up and grew it out as much as I could to donate. I hate being wasteful and it's always good to do a good deed. That pony tail (actually a collection of 4 small ones) was mailed off for donation last week.
So, that's the rest of our winter in a nutshell. Spring is here and with it organization and construction projects. The next few weeks will be absolutely nutty with home projects. I am doing my best to do documentation along the way so that I can share the transformations.
Somehow, I don't think I got 1 picture of my parents at Cade's birthday party. But, as always, they made the trip up for the big event.
Dylan was getting over his cold when they arrived and Cade was just starting up on his. I think Dylan was decent company to them but Cade definitely was not. He pretty much wanted to be held by a parent most of their trip here. Kind of stinky.
They managed to squeeze in some good moments with the boys. Their trip coincided with Dylan's preschool's Father's breakfast so my Dad got to go to that. Unfortunately, Dylan being out the prior week and some of that week with illness, he didn't feel well practiced for the performance and, well, didn't perform. At least it looked like he enjoyed having Dad AND Pipaw at the breakfast with him.
I apparently stunk at taking pictures of the grandparents with their grandkids during the week so most of these are borrowed from my Mom's camera. It being the beginning of February in Boston, they stuck mostly to indoor activities.
Pipaw and Cade
(In one of the rare moments Cade would let him hold him. Look how sad and unenergetic his poor, sick eyes look.)
This picture is more reflective of Cade's stat of happiness most of that week.
Pipaw and Dylan
Not a lot of snowfall for our standards, but the Texans were impressed.
Other than the birthday party, the only other event we were able to do with all of us (I was working and doing party prep most of the time) was to visit the newly rehabbed aquarium. The huge center tank had gone under a major under haul and this seemed a good enough time as any to check it out.
Penguins
Good Ol' Myrtle the Turtle
Ginormous Fish
Look - Mimaw was there too!
Watching a Diver
Touch and Feel Tank
It was a nice jaunt down to see the fish. My parents usually come for a week. This time, they decided to make their visit "just 5" days and somehow it seemed much shorter than that amount of time. Of course, when you're fitting in handling sick kids, still settling back from a vacation, working full time and preparing for a birthday party, I suppose any amount of time would have seemed quick.
After finally getting a post up about my dear little Cade turning two, here's a post about his birthday celebrations. We got back late January 26th from Cali so his actually birthday, the 27th, we had some small celebrations that we crammed in before and after I went to work.
My Babies Have Beautiful Eyes!
Opening Presents
Playing With His Presents
A New Car (Kind of a cop out gift from us. A colleague actually gave this to our manager for Christmas as a joke. He passed it along to me since I had kids at the right age to actually use it. Freebie!) Cade likes it but doesn't quite have a handle on using the gas pedal.
He did a great job blowing out his candles!
Unfortunately, later in the week the poor little guy got sick. He felt so lousy that we very seriously considered canceling his party. Fortunately or unfortunately, we hadn't invited many kid friends and most of those were unable to come anyway. The older cousins and family weren't scared off by the cooties. Thankfully, the evening before his party, he perked up a bit and was feeling better to be able to enjoy his party the next day.
Of course, our parties always have a theme. Cade LOVES Buzz Lightyear, so that's what we went with for his big 2 year old bash.
Alien Gift Bags
The Craft Table The kids could make bracelets with star beads, decorate space themed magnets and find the alien in the goo. Finding the alien in the goo was hands down the most popular activity.
As usual, my Mom did a bang up job on the cake! Buzz with his rocket ship surrounded by alien cupcakes.
Marshmellow Exhaust
The Birthday Boy (Or is it Buzz Lightyear?)
The boys disappeared at some point and were find hanging out (reading a book I think) under the dining room table. Jacob, Cade, Dylan and Corwin
Playing with the Alien Goo
Cade Decorating His Star
Happy Birthday, Cade!
A Pro With the Candles
He finally got to take Buzz off the cake (he'd been wanting to do that since the cake's completion the day before).
He enjoyed opening up toy story and Octonaut gifts.
Buzz Hat
Fits Me Too
It's pretty much the saddest thing in the world to see your kiddo sick. This is really the first experience we had had with Cade feeling so yucky. I was incredibly glad that 1) he was able to enjoy his party and 2) he was mostly back to his energetic, happy self again. It ended up being a good day.
Hi Folks! It's been a while. What can I say, it's a busy life. Doing my best at balancing it all and never accomplishing as much as I'd like. Anyway, enough excuse talk, let's get to the meat of this post.
WAAAAY back at the end of January, our dear Cade turned 2. Seems like so long ago given how much has happened behaviorly with him since then. More on that later, for now, let's talk about what a fabulous little 2 year old he is.
Now every kid is different and it's not right to compare. However, being a mother of 2 boys, it's only natural to take your experience with the first and put it side by side with your experience of the 2nd. Not for good or bad, but just to observe. Dylan was an early and proficient talker. By the time he was 2, he could almost hold a conversation with an adult (really...only a slight exaggeration of his abilities then). Cade, on the other hand, has been on the later side of development in the verbal arena. He truly only had a handful of words and sounds he used before his birthday. While we were in California the week before then, something in him clicked. He picked up new words and started parroting us much more. He's still got a ways to go in that department but he's made big strides. You'll be interested to note that important words like "bellly button" and "spiderman" came before little inconsequential ones like "momma." Yep, you heard that right. It wasn't until just a couple of weeks ago that he finally spurt "Momma" out of his mouth. I felt as if the sky had parted and a heavenly chorus had erupted. I've only heard it once since but gosh darn it, I will have him calling my name non stop and annoying the bejesus out of me before long!
While Cade is behind the curve with verbal skills, he's definitely fairly advanced in fine motor skills. In fact, doing that comparison thing again, he can do things now that his 4.5 year old brother doesn't do as well. Things like unscrewing bottles (had to lock up our liquor cabinet long before the teenage years after he opened and dumped a bottle of vodka) and riding a scooter like a big boy.
Cade had been a pretty reliable and great sleeper until California travel and a return home to a nasty cold, then the time change kind of broke him. What was a pretty easy\straightforward bedtime routine became a try out new things to try and get him to sleep without screaming bloody murder for 10-15 minutes. It's truly heart wrenching to listen to. As recent as just the last couple of nights, we may have found the right combo of things that works. Hopefully, at least. Time will tell. He's also been fairly regularly waking up at night which was a new thing. That seems to be tapering off now too.
Now apparently, Cade got the memo that you're supposed to be terrible at 2. Because the second he turned 2, he did just that. We had an interesting couple of months of navigating his new attitude and tantrums. We have mostly figured out how to keep the peace....at least most of the time.
When he's not screaming and throwing tantrums, he is truly a joy to be around. He has lots of funny looks and faces he gives you, has a great sense of humor, loves to dance and has a stupendous laugh.
Cool Dude
And as he should, Cade adores his big brother Dylan. He loves to follow him around, do what Dylan tells him to do (we'll see how long that lasts), laugh with him, race with him and pretty much do whatever Dylan's doing. Of course, it's not always completely peaceful, but the majority of the time they get along great and are best friends.
Best Friends
Cade is also my favorite person to see when I get home from work. Not that I don't want to see the big and bigger boys too, but Cade gives me the best greeting. He runs at me full force with the biggest smile on his face and hugs me like he'd rather be no where else on earth. Pretty sweet.
So to summarize, Cade is an awesome kid. Definitely has some typical 2 year old challenges but brings an immense amount of joy and love to our family.
