Our little monkey is 1!

On Saturday our little Cade turned 1. He was so excited for his party ....playing with the balloons and watching me bake his cake. He LOVED when we sang Happy Birthday to him and gave us periodic squeals of delight throughout the day. Chris had tried to put together a slideshow of Cade's first year of life to roll on our tv screen during the party and looking at all the pictures reminded me of what a tremendous year this has been for all of us...how far we'd come....how much we'd grown as a family. How much CADE has grown! Watching him change and grow over this year has been the most amazing experience of our lives. This time last year I was getting ready to bring Cade home from the hospital. All 6 lbs and a few oz of him....stressing about the car seat, about nursing, about changing the dressing on his circumcision. I was soooo tired...living on the starbucks my awesome husband would bring me, and basically living on the 24 hour / every 2 hour feeding schedule. SO glad those days are behind us now. Every day Cade becomes more independent. The walking has made the biggest difference and he can't be stopped now. This past week, Cade has been learning different ways of communicating such as:

1) Whenever he wants to go outside, he brings his shoes to us and says...."shush...shush"
2) When he's hungry, he walks to our kitchen cabinet, pulls out an empty bottle and shows it to me to fill it up
3) When he wants us to give him a new word, he points at something. Like, when we are outside he'll point to different things and wait for me to say the word (i.e. flower). Then he'll point at other flowers, and wait for me to say the word again. Then he'll move onto something new...like moss. I truly think he has entered the sponge stage. Pointing is his latest way of communicating. It's a trip to see him learn new things each day. I mean...how is it that this little guy who just last year was a helpless little 6 pound peanut is now figuring out how to get what he wants with a combination of signs, sounds, and signals? That's crazy!

I can say Cade...where is my nose? he'll point to my nose.
where is the moon? he'll point to the moon in the book
he'll point to the picture of the ball in the book and i'll say, "where is YOUR ball?"....he'll look all around the room, walkover to the ball and bring it to me saying "mmmboll! boll!"

I think that he has a Filipino accent. Is that because he's with my mom so much? or because that's just his baby way of saying things? Either way, he's starting to imitate in so many ways.

My favorite example this week, is that he will take little napkins and scrub various surfaces - his high chair tray, the floor, you name it. Probably because he sees us cleaning all the time. He just thinks its great. But don't be fooled into thinking he enjoys being clean all the time. He also enjoys touching all kinds of dirt outside, and lately is enjoying throwing little rocks when we are out on our walks. He's not too keen on the stroller now and most times he will insist on getting out of the stroller and stretching his squatty legs, going "off road" to scramble over big rocks and uneven terrain. He won't let me pick him up or hold his hand hardly anymore.

I will close with my favorite story of this week. He is learning what "no no" means. The other day i was in the front yard planting pansies and Cade ran to the end of our cul de sac and I called out to him..."Cade... no no!" and I walked over to the road, pointed to it and shook my finger "no no" to Cade. He looked up at me and started shaking his little finger back at me. I said "that's right! no no cade!" The next day Apu was watching Cade. Cade brings his shoes to her and starts knocking on the door (signaling to her "let's go!!"). Cade takes off down the stairs and out to the end of the cul de sac. Apu calls out to him "Cade...where are you going? Apu can't catch you Cade! You have to wait!". Cade slows down till he reaches where the cul de sac meets the road and stopped. He looked at my mom, and pointed to the road, then looked up at my mom very earnestly and started shaking his finger "no no!" He's learning new things everyday and its just so fun to watch him change and grow. Wow! What a year.

Here are pics of Cade's Monkey theme birthday party:

Adam, Sarah, and Cade's little buddy Parker

Here's another good looking family! Erin, Andy, and their cutie pie Wesley
Evan brought his little Mickey Mouse car and the kiddo's were loving it!

Beep beep!!

Parker!Cute little baby tushies. Cade and Evan are friends for LIFE

The Details

Homemade Choc Chip Banana Bread Mix for the Mommies

Each favor bag was personalized for each child, and included fun pictures of Cade with his little pals over the year. I thought since his pals are mostly all too small to read that the pictures would be better labels for the treats. It also included banana chips, banana lollipops, and a "Funky Monkey Music Mix", including some of Cade's favorites: "No More Monkeys", "Old MacDonald", "Three Birds". And also some songs about his favorite food, bananas! We had Jack Johnson's "Banana pancakes" song, Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song", and more.

Two of my beautiful nieces, Lauren and Gracie, wondering when they can have a cupcake

Cade's like 'Why is everyone looking at me?"

Erin and the Wes

Me and my cute little sister Kathy

The spread. Gracie was loving the banana runts. As you can see, she had parked herself next to the bowls of candy :)

The cake table. Monkey Cake, Cupcakes, and Mini-Cupcakes. Anybody that knows me well, knows that I am not much of a baker. Remember Lucy Liu in Charlies Angels with the rock hard muffins? That's me in real life :) But because he is my SUN, and this is his FIRST birthday...I felt obliged to at least try to be Carol Brady for the day (but even she had Alice?)

My attempt at Martha Stewart's Monkey Cake

Made with lots of momma love !!

Party Aftermath. Here I am relaxing with some wine. Like my little music table/drink holder? Classy right ? :)
here is cade at 1 year and 1 day. hanging with his stuffed monkeys that he got from his aunties and friends!

"Mmmmama!!...Nana!"

Cade really enjoys his meals but especially when he can share a meal with someone he loves. A recent example: he LOVES to feed me whatever is on his tray. He feeds me a cheerio, then he eats one, then he feeds me another, and he loves that. It works with crackers, cheese, grapes, whatever.

Today, I gave him his favorite: bananas. we were done with one baby banana, then he signed for more. So I went off to cut one up and he leans forward in his highchair and says:

"Mmmmama!!...Nana!"

Translation = Mama, more banana.

Then he erupted in to a giggle and smile fest.

Geez, this kid is obsessed with bananas. Hence, we are "going bananas" for Cade's first birthday this Saturday with a full-on monkey theme party! I am actually going to be in San Jose this week for work and not pulling into Portland till late Friday evening . As much as I would like to go homemade for this shin dig, I'm thinking it will be semi-homemade and mostly catered at best. Oh well. What's a working mama to do? I'm hoping to at least bake his little cake. Here's a preview of Cade this afternoon with his bananas and little party hat that stayed on for all of 10 seconds! Its hard for me to think that this time last year, he hadn't yet seen the light of day and was still tossing and turning in my tummy.

Baby Burdie says 11 months is for the BIRDS!

Cade loves to play with our blackberries.

So I'm about 3 weeks overdue for the monthly update but life is busy busy busy for the Burdicks and honestly, the weeks seem to be screaming by so quickly. I feel like I literally blinked and Cade aged another month! Here are a few of the fun and funnier moments with Cade in month 11.

* everything that is round is a BALL. (including round fruit)
* every animal (dog, cat, squirrel, bird) at the beginning of the month was a BIRD
* Cade's favorite activity is to look at BIRDS. Inside, or outside.
* Cade DREAMS about Birds. Seriously. A couple of times he has woken from a dead sleep and raised one arm pointing to the sky and says "BIIIRRRD" and falls back to sleep.
* Cade loves the outdoors the most. If he gets fussy, going outside seems to be the most relaxing thing for him.
* Some of his latest expressions include shaking his head quickly from side to side (much like Apu), saying "ohhh", waving at cars that pass our house and saying "cah! cah! oooooh!" and growling like a lion and tackling us to the ground.
* He eats everything....including this month, eggrolls, crackers, chicken nuggets, pizza, and grilled cheese. Oh, and chocolate chip pancakes rock his little world. His favorite food may now be a tie between bananas and cheese, and maybe chips.

* He is starting to have little tantrums ..stomping one angry foot when we take away things he shouldnt be playing with. Most recently, remote controls and blackberries are his faves.

WORDS
Here are the words he seems most fixated on this month:

- bird! (usually his first word in the morning, or after a nap. He enjoys putting his head out the window and listening for the chick a dees and crows outside. He will imitate the "caw" of the crow and will point every time he sees a bird fly by. )

- dog! (it used to be "drr" but now he can say "dog" and over the course of this month has learned that dogs are in fact NOT birds. He has not yet figured out that cats are not birds, nor are all the animals in his storybooks. He still looks at pictures of mice and calls them birds.

- ball! (he loves to play with balls of all sizes. he can roll it to you, push it toward you, and army crawl on his tummy to find one underneath the sofas. he also looks up longingly at basketball hoops but is still far too small . he can also kick it to you...and is very proud of himself and claps after a good kick.)

- squirrel! (oh boy does he get excited watching squirrels chase eachother in our yard)
- cracker (pronounced CWAC-Kuh)
- girl (he calls any baby with curly hair...girl. This includes little curly haired boys too)
- dada (i try to get him to say "mama" and he invariably replys back "Da-da!!")
- mama (on rare occasion....and also interchangeable with Milk)
- cheese (tchs, tchs)
- bottle
- and the most important...."mmmmmore" Oh how I wish I could have captured the look on his face when he was finally able to squeeze that word out.I had said it over and over...baiting him on with a spoonful of vanilla yogurt. His eyes were smiling and his eyebrows were raised with wonder. i think he even surprised himself! He said it again, followed by a delighted little monkey squeal and a wonder-filled..."ohhhh!"

Tricks
* He is starting to IMITATE...for example, I will cup his two cheeks with my two hands, and then he will move my hands to my cheeks, and then over to daddy's cheeks and back to his cheeks.

*When he touches the plant I shake my finger at him and say "no no"...and he will look back at me and point to the plant and then shake this finger. Its hysterical. He also remembers when I tell him no....like when he drops his sippy cup, he will shake his finger at whoever's watching.

* He is walking more and more confidently. He loves to push grocery carts.
* He loves the Kids Klub at the 24 hour fitness and playing with the balls and other kiddos
* He loves to dance and bounce, and flashes that jack-0-lantern grin. Speaking of which, he has 8 teeth.
* He is also really fascinated with shapes and is starting to figure out how to put things "inside" and outside



Here are some pics of this past month with Cade. We are so enjoying this little guy. He lights up our life.

Exploring the outdoors

He really dislikes baby swings :( but we'll try again!)

Just before his nap. Happy boy!

Army crawl to figure out where your ball is under the sofa

Wanna ride in my hoopty?

Mommy and Caden moment

Super Caden!! He says "G-doosh" when you ask him to flex his tiny muscles!

Daddy playtime with our medicine cabinet!
Growling like a lion and tackling dada!

Climbing into the drawer underneath our bed...just like the cartoon :)

Cade says he wants to sleep in here tonight please.

Cade is raising the roof...it's bathtime!!!
Caden sharing a banana and holding hands with his buddy Eden.