Cade is talking more and more and it is cracking me and Chris up. This kid is seriously a chatty one, and I am not joking. He gets more and more fun and Chris and I are cherishing this ever so special time with our young son.
Here are some of my favorite "conversations" with Cade this past month....
- We were at the zoo looking at the giraffe in the distance. I said to Cade..."what do you say Cade? what does the giraffe say?" immediately i realized that i have no idea what a giraffe says! umm, hello!? Cade puts his head between the bars of the gate and bellows to the giraffe...'whasssupp?!' (For my parents that are reading this blog entry, that would be "what's up?" :) Pretty dope :)
- Coming back from europe we discovered that Cade literally grew a couple of inches, including his shoe size (7.5). Chris' mom was in fits over his shoes being too small (and she of course was right) so she marched this kid straight out to Nordstrom to get fitted for some new shoes, which was just so nice of her to do. The next morning I said to Cade..."hey cade! let's go to the park! can you find your shoes?" He runs to his room, grabs his shoes, brings them to me and says with excitement and delight, "Shoes!....NEW shoes!!!" I have to admit, I too get excited when I get a new pair of shoes, so I say the apple does not fall far from tree in that regard :)
- We were in the toy section at Target. Cade ran across a baby doll that says "mama" every time you touch its tummy. I think Cade thought it was a real life baby because he carried the doll very carefully to me and was stroking its head nice and gentle. After the doll said "mama" about a dozen times, Cade, wanted to teach the doll a thing or two. Every time the doll said "mama", Cade frowned at the doll and wagging his little finger at her, he says "Da-da!". The doll again said "mama"...he gets more adamant, and says "DA DA!!" This continued for about 2 minutes. Just the perfect amount of time I needed to scan the toy section and pick a gift out for one of his little friends! I'll take it! (It's about the the little snippets of time that we can capture throughout the day, am i right mama-friends?)
- My most favorite conversation with Cade demonstrates how quickly he is learning to manipulate me (it starts early...i had no idea!). So Cade is a little bit (okay alot) obsessed with Sesame Street - The Musical Adventure. Simply known by Cade as "Sessss" in our house. He busts out his baby drum and enjoys drumming along with drummers, and playing his xylophone along with the music. In fact, I should note, since this is his journal after all, that his first singalong EVER was to the "Batty Bat" song. I will sing the beginning of each phrase and he completes it with a very satisfied and toothy little grin. No kidding. I will never forget how excited he was to be part of his first Burdick family singalong, right on the changing table! So, the Cookie monster comes out and sings his song. Cade scampers into the kitchen where I was baking muffins and looks up at me saying very earnestly..."CooKEY, CooKEY!" I said..."Cade, its too early for a cookie!" But me being the weakest mom ever, caves in. He opens up the pantry and points to the container of Nila wafers. I open it, letting out the super vanilla-y aroma and inhale deeply (to entertain my son as he for some reason, finds the ritual very humorous I've found) I then proceed to give him his one cookie. He smiles and scampers away. When he was finished he returned to kitchen, pointed at the cooky jar again saying , "CooKEY, CooKEY!!" Then he says AND signs (double communication people, because this was a VERY important message he needed to give me apparently)...."mama??... moooorrrre?....peassss?"
His eyes were earnest and hopeful. Seriously? Did he really just link his first three words together? Apparently so, and of course, it was kind of a bribe because food was involved. Sigh. Bad mommy is starting bad habits...rewarding him with food! Clearly, Cade understands how marketing works...you need all different kinds of messaging media to get your point across!
- Watching Sesame Street and singing along (loves the batty bat song)
- Stripping off all his clothes and thinking its HYSTERICAL to be all nudie (still)
- Bellowing from the top or bottom of the stairs...usually "Da da? Da????? Ma ma? Ma MAAAA?"
- Waking up from a nap and immediately pointing at everything he can name (usually SKY! da BOAT! da BUS! da BOTT (bottle)....(quickly followed by ...) Ma-Maaa???)
- Helping mom and dad throw away garbage and wipe down various surfaces including his high chair and his face (I'm going to continue to work on this with him and we're encouraging his independence every chance we get!:) We cheer him on as he walks to the garbage can to throw away things ....saying things like "MESS!!!! DIRRRRT!!! MESS!!!" ...followed by "no no!"...followed by clapping long and hard for himself! OMG!
- Speaking of clapping....and much like his father, Cade is an encourager. He shows it by clapping. Anytime ANYONE sings a song he will CLAP vigorously at the end. On tune or not, live or off the stereo...he will CLAP after and in between songs. He also rocks out to music (and is partial to hip hop and salsa...of course, right?)
- Collecting things - i.e. when we're outside he will gather all the pinecones and stack in a pile, or all the train cars and place in a box with compartments...close it...push the box around...and then take all the train blocks out one by one...and do this OVER and OVER again.
- Pointing at various things and asking us..."what DIS??" or sometimes..."what DAT?? dat???" I'm looking forward to the day he starts asking me "why?" but we're a long way from those deeper questions of life (or so it seems). For now, its strictly identification and he is getting better at parroting words out of his word book. He's learning alot under the collective tutelage of both sets of grandparents, his aunties and mom and dad. It really does take a village and its fun for all of us to teach him new things. (my mom for example taught him to say A, B,C,D and 1, 2, 3 this month. She also taught Cade how to clear his throat and cough to get our attention from his high chair or anywhere!....Chris' dad is teaching Cade all about different kinds of boats. When he was first learning how to walk Chris' mom taught Cade how to go down the stairs backwards. She also takes him on lots of walks, and to the library every Tuesday as well as the water fountain, and taught him what a school bus was, what ducks are and what they say, and how fun it is to eat corn off the cob! It such a blessing to have so many people around him that love him and want to teach him cool new things. They could not possibly love this kid any more!
- Sitting in small places - i.e. boxes from Costco are his favorite. He enjoys sitting and taking a chill-lax in his box, maybe reading his book about "Cars, Trucks, and Trains". Speaking of which...his favorite word themes this month (and last) have centered on: TRANSPORTATION: i.e. Bus, Boat, Bike, Dump Truck (dump-teh), Cars (cah?), Lift Trucks (Liff-tuh), Trains (choo choooo!), Planes (pane...vroom!) ANIMALS (thank you Baby Einstein): Cow (mooo), Dog (dog! woof woof), Duck (quuuuack), Sheep (Baa), Elephant (oooh!! with arm up), Bee (bee! bzzzzzz bzzz!), Tiger and Lion (grrrowll!), Cat (mow!), Monkey (oo oo ee ee) BODY PARTS: He loves showing me his tummy, his "stinky" feet, his head, eyes, nose, mouth and ears... and of course, FOOD i.e. among his latest favorites App-pull (apple), Muff (muffin), and when I pointed to a picture of an ice cream cone in his word book, he simply says "Numm numm!!!!"
- Telling us when he's gone "poo POO!" My question is, if he can tell us when he's gone...can he tell us when he needs to go? If we were only that fortunate. Until then I have no problem changing his dirty diapers, and all of the other not so fun parts about motherhood (the body that will never be the same, the spit up, the diaper blow outs, the tantrums) because I can say from the bottom of my heart, that there is no greater privilege for me than to be the mama of this precious boy. He could not possibly be loved any more by his mama or his dada. We are so very blessed!
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