Cade Hits the Gym

We signed Cade up for Gymboree class last week and he really seems to love it!  His favorite things at the gym are the parachute, the bubbles, and staring at all of the other babies.  I'm sure he'll enjoy it even more once he can crawl around and use the equipment a little more....which won't be too long now I'm sure!  He made a little friend today and they had lots of fun smiling at each other and reaching for one another.  So cute!

Tonight we met up with the Fladger family and had dinner at Chick-Fil-A.  They were having a Spirit Night in honor of Lauryn's Run coming up on Saturday.  Lauryn is our friend who had a bone marrow transplant a couple of months ago.  She's doing great now and has been cured of sickle-cell anemia.  Truly amazing!  Cade was such a good baby and happily went from lap to lap.  Taylor and Kennedy had lots of fun feeding him dinner.  Future babysitters???  I think so! 

Check out my outfit that's a size too small.  I pooped all over my clothes in the car on the way to gym class....AGAIN...and it's all Mommy had.  Better than nothing I suppose!  :) 

7 Months Old

Today, Baby Cade, you are 7 months old!  You're at such a fun age right now and your little personality is starting to emerge.  For the most part, you are still a very happy, smiley baby which makes this whole parenting thing quite a bit easier.  You definitely want what you want when you want it and will fuss and cry if we take something from you that you're really enjoying (a wet wash cloth or a plastic spoon during a meal, for example).  You are, without a doubt, the light of our lives and we are so blessed to be your parents.  Here's a little more about you at 7 months.

• At six months, you weighed 19lbs., 10oz. (80th %tile).  You were 28.25 inches long (92nd %tile) and your head was in the 95th %tile.  This is not a check-up month, so we can assume you're just a little bigger than that!  
• You wear size 3 diapers and size 9-12 and 12 month clothing.   
• You are sleeping about 8 hours in one stretch, then back down for 2-3 hours after a feeding.  You take about 3 naps a day and go to bed around 7:45.


• You are nursing every 3-4 hours.  You also eat oatmeal in the mornings and fruits/veggies around 6:30 in the evenings.  So far you've had peas, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, squash, and carrots.  You don't care for peas or bananas too much, but you eat anything we give you.  I sure hope that continues! 
• You can sit up all by yourself, roll over both ways, and stand up while holding on to something. 
• Sometimes you're very vocal and other times you're pretty quiet.  Your favorite noises to make are spitting sounds, squealing, and da-da-da. 
• You love to jump, listen to Mommy sing, bounce in our laps, and play with your toys.  Right now, your favorite toy is a box of plastic shapes with a lid that you can take off.  GJ gave it to you!  You love to take the top off and dump out all of the shapes.  You are also VERY into TV remotes and cell phones. 
• Lately, you've been hanging your little tongue out of your lips in a resting position...if that makes any sense.  :)
• You're ticklish, especially on the back of your neck and you like to suck on your feet. 
• We think you might be a surgeon as you are very good with your hands!  You can pick up and grab anything withiin your reach and will make it a point to do so.  You pull Mommy's hair like crazy and grab the glasses off our faces with the ultimate death grip. 
• You seem to be a very social baby.  You stare and smile at other people whenever they're around and you love to watch all the other babies/kids play at Gymboree and at the park. 
• You might be the most lovable baby on the planet.  We love you Baby Cade! 

This picture makes me happy!



Playing with your favorite toy...



Love that hair!

Summer!...and lots more

Well today is the first full day of summer and we had lunch with Carrie, Kim, Daniel and Caroline to celebrate.  While today marks the official start of summer, I've been on summer vacation for almost a month now.  I've noticed so many amazing changes in Cade in the short amount of time I've been home with him.   Watching him learn new things so rapidly has been really fun to see!  During his 6th month, Cade has learned how to sit up without support, roll over both ways with ease, babble to include vowels and consonants (ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, etc.), and stand up while holding onto something.  He's at a super fun stage right now and there are so many precious things about him that I want to remember forever.  Anyone who knows me knows I can be quite forgetful, so I thought I'd better write a few things down.  However, I'm sure there are lots of things I'm forgetting to include.  :)

• Your hair is C-R-A-Z-Y!!  Some days you get these little corkscrew curls on each side of your head.  I call them your hair horns.  Also, your hair gets in little knots and the only way to get them out is to cut them out.  I probably cut out 4-5 a week!
• You are a serious hair puller.  You've pulled out handfuls of my hair!  If my hair is within your reach, you're grabbing it and pulling....HARD!
• You like to sleep on your side and you turn yourself in your crib so that you're laying widthwise instead of lengthwise. 
• Your bottom two teeth are the cutest!!  Your top two teeth are coming in and you have a ridiculous amount of drool in your mouth all the time.  :) 
• You like to spit (make wet razz sounds) and squeal and babble a lot!
• You like to put your toes in your mouth.  Actually, you like to put everything in your mouth. 
• You're still quite a ham and smile at people when they talk to you out in public. 
• You are very chilled out when we're out, but at home you are incredibly active - always moving, pushing, rolling...ALWAYS!  At times, I want nothing more than to sit and cuddle with you, but you won't have it...not even for a few minutes.  :) 
• You've started trying to feed yourself.  You grab the spoon and put it in your mouth. 
• You smile really big and kick your feet really fast when you get excited/happy. 
• You love remotes, Solo cups, my cell phone, and chewing on the tags on your toys. 

Ahhh....okay, this entry has turned into a total ramblefest so I'd better stop here although I could go on for pages.  We love everything about you Baby Cade!

Daniel and Cade

Big Boy at Ms. Debbie's (Cade went there on Wednesday so I could go to a couple of appointments).



You love to play with anything that's not really a toy.  And you can kind of see your hair horns in this picture. 



I found you sleeping on your tummy this morning.  This was the first time you rolled all the way over on your tummy in your crib. 



Here are some of the knots I cut out of your hair today.  How weird is it that I took a picture of this?  And even weirder that I posted it.  yeah....



Myrtle Beach

We just got home from a trip to Myrtle Beach with GJ and Randall Pop.  We had a great time!  I was a little worried about how Cade would adjust to being away from home and off his schedule.  He was a little fussier than usual, but overall he did great!  He got decent sleep and handled the change up in routine pretty well.  He had lots of fun spending time with GJ and Randall Pop, splashing around in the pool, taking in the new scenery and being on the beach.  Todd morphed into professional photographer and took lots and lots of great shots of our sweet baby.  Funny story - funny now, not then - we put Cade down on a towel to take a few pictures of his first time on the beach.  He's been sitting up without support very well lately so I plopped him down on the towel and backed away.  Within a few seconds he fell over face first in the sand.  I FREAKED out!  Obviously, he was fine...but falling face first into hot sand can't be fun for anyone.  Poor guy!  Here are a few of our favorite shots:

GJ and Randall Pop

Right after the face plant...yikes!

Big Boy Bed

As you can imagine, I was ecstatic for summer break to begin to have all day to spend with sweet baby Cade!  There was, however, one thing about summer's arrival that I was absolutely dreading!  For the past 6 months, Cade has slept in a basinet next to our bed.  He was happy there, we were happy to have him there and he slept so well.  We knew, however, that he would have to transition to his crib sooner than later and I had decided that as soon as school was out we would tackle this very scary thing....well, scary for Mommy anyhow.  We had tried a couple of months ago and Cade did not like it one bit so I was so worried about the transition.  But, again, our amazing baby did so great!  The first night in his bed he slept for about 9 hours straight.  I couldn't believe it!  The next night was great also.  The third was a little off, but since then he's been a pretty happy guy in his crib.  He seems to love the extra room he has to stretch out and he loves to sleep on his side.  Next, I decided it was time for him to learn how to put himself to sleep.  Up until now, I had nursed him or rocked him to sleep at night and for every nap.  I had written off the cry it out method a while back because frankly, the thought of it seemed so wrong, but with no where else to turn we decided to give it a try.  The first few days were awful to say the least, but he slowly got into the swing of this as well.  We are so pleased with Cade's transition to his bed and learning how to fall asleep on his own.  We are proud of you Baby Cade!  What a weight off our shoulders! 

A few other cute pictures from this week: