Bouncing off the Walls in Bend

In May we went down to Bend to cheer on our friends, Luke and Molly, who were doing the Pole, Peddle, Paddle. It was fun to reminisce back to our dating days when Chris and I headed down with our Pole, Peddle, Paddle team. I was on cross country and Chris did the downhill. This time, we opted to be cheer leaders and hope that we can do a tandem team in the next few years as it is a really fun event.

The other reason we came down to Bend was to celebrate our niece Gracie's 4th birthday. Here she is above while we're waiting to be seated at Pastini for lunch.

We had a fun time hanging out with Kim, Jake and the girls in their beautiful home in Bend. We got Gracie a slip and slide for her birthday on this very warm weekend, and it was definitely a hit! Gracie celebrated with her little friends at this place called "Bouncin off the walls". We were so glad we were able to celebrate with her! It was a huge warehouse filled with inflatables as well as a bunch of scooters. Cade was loving it!

Gracie the Birthday girl, sitting in the birthday chair. Cade cozies up with his cousin.

Me and Cade hanging out on the birthday chair

Cade is loving the birthday cake

Gracie, super excited about her cake

Yummy pizza

Exploring one of the many inflatables

Cade says "this place is FUN!"

Cade and cousin Millie splashing around at Bathtime

Cade loves Home Depot. Here we were looking for patio furniture and glad to be in AC

do they have mini kid size patio furniture?

Hey! There's a doggie in here!

Cade loves to play with the balls at Target

This or That - Cade's 14 month update

Cade loves playing with sticks and stones outside

Cade - playing chase with me and Daddy

"Baby He-Man" lifts a 5 lb dumbell...pound for pound he is proportionately as strong as his Dad! Must be all that rice :)

It's fun to hear Cade "talk". In previous monthly updates I've mentioned several of his favorite words, but there are a few words that he is now using very frequently as he's learned that we can understand what he means with just a few simple words. For example, when he's sitting in the high chair and wants more of a certain food, he simply points from his high chair and says "that!.....that!". If we still dont get it, he signs "more". "that!" means anything that he wants or prefers. At night when he knows we're getting ready for bed, he says 'book! book!"

Me: "Cade? which book...this one? or that one?"
Cade: "Dis!!! (he points gleefully).....oh dat (shrugging his shoulders slightly)!" translation: "this!....or that."

When he does something he KNOWS he is not supposed to do...i.e. throwing his sippy cup on the ground from his high chair:

Me: "Cade! DON'T do that!"
Cade: (shaking his finger and frowning) "Dat!.....Dont do dat!....Dat!"
Me: "Yes, Cade, DON'T do that!'
Cade: (now shaking both his finger and his head) "Dat!...Dont do!"
Cade: (blowing kisses a dozen times...which means "I'm sorry mama").
Me: "It's okay Cade, just don't do that, okay?"
Cade: (now blowing kisses with both left and right hand....which means "I'm REALLY sorry mama"

Oh, my sweet and sensitive boy. If he knows i'm a little down, or not feeling well Cade is very empathetic. He shows how he cares by stroking my face very gently (which I can see he's working hard to control, because otherwise he would slap my face like his toy drum!) Then he hugs me and gives me many open mouth kisses followed by several blow kisses.

In addition to the words I've mentioned in other posts, here are some of his more frequently used words this month:

dis = this
dat = that
dare = there

(the above three words have started to replace some words he used to say, probably because they are easier to say) He seems to like "b" words and "d" words especially.

park
bus
shoes
up
out
done (while shaking his head "no")
cah = car
nana = banana
woof = doggie
duck
dada
mmmom
cat
battt = bath
bott = bottle

and my favorite....

No no no (oh man)

Cade is also asserting his independence more and more. When he is playing and doesn't want to leave, he is now curling up into a ball and his little arms are totally spaghetti limp. To further escalate the situation, he lets out a high pitched squeal of frustration, followed by a very stern look in the eye with ever the shaking finger! Oh my. Yesterday we were at Wizers and I was trying to get Cade to leave the store and the only way it was happening was for me to lure him out of there with donut samples. Sigh. The battle of wills has begun!

I will sign off with my favorite memory of his 14th month. The other day my mom and I were looking at his baby Nikes. They were meant for a 3-6 month old and alas, they no longer fit his chubby little feet. I was in Cade's nursery, holding his shoes and showing my mom and said to her "gosh its too bad they're too small! They are a little bit adjustable with the velcro but they still wouldn't be long enough!" So Cade runs to the master bedroom closet, grabs one of Chris' wooden shoe tree stretchers, and brings it to me and Apu back in his room. He then takes his baby shoe and attempts to "stretch" out his shoes with the shoe tree! OMG. He is just starting to learn how certain shapes "fit" into puzzles. In fact, puzzle is another new word for him. He can't say puzzle, but he instead says "puzzzzz, puzzzz" So i guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but I have to say, i have to give him props for creativity and love that he attempted to problem solve! Here's a pic of the shoe tree and his little shoes.


We love you Cade! You are such a sweet guy and your grin lights up our hearts. We love your curious nature, and how you can stay outside for hours playing with sticks and stones. You esp love your turtle pool, and running out your energy at the park. We love playing horsey horsey with you , and hide and seek. We also love your newest iteration of Peek a boo. We call it 'downward dog" version when you peek at us upside down and through your legs.


We also love that you're such a good eater. I wont forget the time i made banana flaxseed mini muffins and you ate 5 in a row. You are also starting to enjoy Sushi! Lucky for us :)

love you little bear,

Mmmom and Da-Da

Cade meeting a puppy in Bend

Cade wrestling with Daddy

Cade trying to stuff a ball in Chris' mouth.

Cade with cousin Julia

Cade's First Haircut and Trip to Farmington Gardens

This is a bit belated, but since we are using our blog as our family journal I wanted to share a few photos of Cade's first haircut. The week before Cade turned one Chris and I brought him into Little Clippers. What a fun place! Cade really enjoyed playing with all the fun toys in the waiting area. We got to pick a video for him to watch and he got his hair cut in this stylin baby hummer.

Cade did much better than expected. Alyssa, his stylist, was just great. She kept bringing out different toys and you could tell that she's worked with a lot of kids. As he looked around the salon, Alyssa, swiftly clipped his baby locks, and sent us home with a requisite "my first haircut" certificate and taped a little ziplock bag that contained one of his sweet baby locks.

looking a little unsure about this smock

"Hey! What's going on back there!"

"I KNOW you guys are up to something!! What's happening?!!"

"Umm? Excuse me? Do you know what you're doing with those scissors?"

"hey! she's kind of cute. I think I like this gal!"

"don't worry mommy....i loved you first...she can't buy my love with a lollipop once this is over!"

Cade, with his freshly shorn hair. I don't think he even recognizes himself in the mirror

After a little encouragement, and cheering on from mom, Cade is pleased with his new do.

Especially enhanced by his super studly wheels....."helllllloooo LADIES! : )"

It's Good bye baby locks. Hello little man.

Earlier that day, I had come down with a serious case of spring fever and decided to take my boys out to Farmington Gardens to pick out some flowers to plant. Cade was a great helper, as you can see from this video. We came home with lots of pretty flowers and it was very satisfying to see instant color in our yard! Here are a few pics of this fun day in the plant nursery.