Cade Daniel:: 20 months

Oh, my sweet baby Cade. You are almost 20 months old and I have yet to post about you turning 18 months old. This still holds as one of my favorite phases in a toddler's life. You, my dear, might make it a little more challenging than your brother did, but more to come on that in a bit ;). 

If I could use one phrase to describe you, it would be full of personality. You make us laugh on a daily basis and the next second your daddy and I are talking about how you are going to be trouble. You might only be 20 months old, but in your mind you are just as old as your big brother. Speaking of you and your big brother, I will start off with that. 

You and Connor: Oh my goodness, seeing you two together makes me so happy. Y'all are going to be thick as thieves, I can already tell! You think everything he does is hilarious and the greatest thing ever...unless it gets in your way. You think you can do everything he does, too, which is probably the reason you have had about 4 nosebleeds in the last 3 months. You will be our ER child, I have no doubt. Y'all love to wrestle and you grit those teeth so hard that they grind together as you run to tackle. We joke all the time that you are going to be our rough one. Gentle is just not in you yet. No one can make you laugh like your brother does, and I can already see the adoration in your eyes. Your favorite thing to do when you first see someone is to point to Connor and (very enthusiastically) say, "BUBBA!" You are proud he is yours. I pray that your relationship will always be this close!

Dipping your bread in a lemon??? You make me laugh! 

Stats: You are right down the middle for everything, but people are always commenting on how big you are. We get asked all the time if you and Connor are twins! Especially when you are dressed alike :) 

Talking and other milestones: You are a little late to the game with this one, which is to be expected with a big brother that a)talks ALL THE TIME and b) knows everything! With that said, we did get your hearing tested and have to go back in next week to get one ear re checked. So, we'll see! You have just recently started saying "bubba, mama, ah-dee (for daddy), ou-down (touch down) bu-ball(football), uh-oh, ah-pple, yes, will shake head no, but don't say anything for it yet, unny (funny), anks (thanks), e-a-boo (peek a boo) e-pie (peep eye), hiiiiii, buy-buy (bye) bop (stop), and atch (catch). You can mimic more, but don't use them consistently. You can point out members of our extended and immediate family, and I know they are some that are ready for those names to come next! I really feel like you are going to explode with your vocabulary soon, but am still so thankful we have a dr willing to look further into it a little early! Even though there might not be much in the form of actual words coming out of that mouth, you understand EVERYTHING we say. You can make the noises for elephants and anything that growls. You love to growl (hand motion included). You also do the batman sounds while flying him around. Car and airplane noises are also a fav. You roll your Rs all.the.time. I have no idea where you learned it, but you love to do it! You can point out your head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, toes and hands. 

 Motor skills: You have been able to stack up to 8 blocks for a while now and have such concentration while doing it. Really, you love anything using your fine motor skills. Those little hands are pretty steady and you can just see the wheels turning in your eyes. Your papa is making you one of those boards with locks and trinkets on it to play with for Christmas and you are going to LOVE it!  You have been feeding yourself with a fork and spoon for probably 6 months now and prefer that over being helped. You try your hardest to jump like Connor does and you just know you are as fast as him. You race up and down the hall with him, making sure to count off at each end before you go. 

LOVE your pucker!  Puts everything into that kiss

Loves: You have your favorite books and will read them over and over again. Pat the Bunny and Brown Bear are in the top two. Along with the box of mini books Aunt Rachel got you. Anything having to do with balls is also a favorite. You LOVE to watch football on TV and will run around the house throwing up your arms and saying your version of touchdown. If we hear you say, "atch", we know we have about 5 seconds to catch whatever ball you are throwing at us. You are able to stand in place and kick a soccer ball and you get so mad if Connor runs to kick your ball before you do. I have a feeling that sports are going to get interesting with you two when you get older! You are going to be a competitive little guy! You love to wrestle and we can always get the best laughs out of you doing it. Your absolute favorite thing is being outside, though. You throw the biggest fit when we come inside. Limp body and all. It doesn't matter how cold it is, you want to be out there. One afternoon after coming back from school Connor and I played Candy Land on the kitchen table while you pushed a lawn mower on the back porch. It was so cold that your nose started running and you would come up and knock on the door when you needed me to wipe it. Such a mess! You love baths, playing with cars and being around big kids, any form of apple technology (it is CRAZY how good he is at it) and eating. Oh, me, you love to eat! The only thing I have found you don't like is Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and I give you everything we eat. You'll eat brussel sprouts, but no PB&J. 

Dislikes: being told no, Connor taking something away from you and you aren't really a huge fan of being tickled. You will laugh for the first bit and then you are done. It's not too hard to figure out what you want or don't want as your high pitch scream tells everyone within a 50 ft radius. 

You really do have the best little personality. You will go to just about anyone and wave at people all the time. You are not shy, that's for sure! You have more facial expressions than anyone I know and use them often. You do have a bit of what we like to call "the rage" and we are working on reigning that in. ;) We have had you in our little family for 20 months now and I still marvel at the fact that you are mine. I have a feeling I will still be doing that 20 years from now, too. I love you, boo boo!!!

all of these were taken within a minute. he is nuts!!!

Cade Daniel: twelve months!!!

Bless your little heart.. this past month of your life has been a sick one! I have had people say that the sicker they are when they are babies the less sick they will be when they get older. If that's the case, you might not ever get sick in the future!

We went to the dr on your birthday (boo for having to get shots on your birthday), so I actually have your stats! 

HT: 30 inches (50%)

WT: 21.10 (right below 50%) 

HC: 18 in (25%.. itty bitty head!)

You, my little man, have really started showing us your personality this month. You are going to be a strong little guy. You are..ahem..quick to share your opinion with a very loud scream and a facial expression that lets everyone know you are not happy about the outcome of whatever just happened. If you weren't so dadgum cute, I might be frustrated by it. But, alas, I laugh every time!

You also make the cutest face when you are upset. This is usually after someone tells you not to do something (unless it is your brother. Then you make the aforementioned scream and mad face).

I am constantly laughing at how different you are from your brother. While Connor is a bit more reserved, you are, well, not! You will usually go to just about anyone and will even seek people out. If they quite paying attention to you, you are quick to let them know you want their eyes back on you (remember that strong personality I was talking about???)

I am starting to get glimpses of what life is going to be like once you get fully mobile. My head is already spinning! I cannot turn my back on you for a second or you will, no doubt, be getting into something you aren't supposed to. I always know when you have been in a room if there is something completely destroyed. And let's not even talk about the bathroom. Let's just say we have to keep that door shut or it's a huge mess! You also LOVE to take my earrings out, bobby pins out or try and break my necklace while I am holding you. I had to start taking off all of my jewelry before feeding you or you would rip them all off.

With that said, you play so well by yourself. You have become so intentional with the things you do and it has been one of the biggest changes I have noticed in you. You like to put the top back on things if they have one, put things in buckets and take them out, bang two toys together. I can ask you to go get the ball, your milk, the remote, etc and you will go get it and bring it to me. I really don't get much done when you are playing because I can't help but watch you. I truly love watching you learn. 

You also take everything in. Connor has a drum set at Gammie's house and after watching him play once, you knew exactly what to do with those sticks after he got done. You were so proud of yourself, too! 

While you don't have any words, per se, you are still so vocal. There are times that you will look people right in their eyes and let a string of babble loose and I know you are having your own little conversation with us. 

You love to stand, but still aren't confident enough to do it on your own. You will do it for about 3 seconds before you slowly work your way back down. You laugh the whole time, which always makes me laugh. I am afraid that there might not even be any walking for you. You might just skip straight to running! 

You have started this terrible, awful, no good habit of spitting your food out if you don't like it. I have to disguise just about anything besides fruit and lunch meat (well, with the exception of a few veggies) in bread. I am a little stumped on what to do with this and it is probably one of my biggest frustrations. The crazy thing is you will eat grass, but spit out chicken? I don't understand that, mister!!! You are pretty much weaned except for nursing on one side in the morning. You love milk and have fully graduated to the sippy cup. 

I know from here on out that the changes are going to come so quickly. I love seeing you become your own little person and am so proud to say that I am your mommy. I love you, boo boo!


And, I just had to throw in the chubby baby foot.. LOVE!!!

Cade Daniel: eleven months

CADE! Only one month left until I am supposed to start telling people you are ONE. I can't believe it.

We went to the dr last week for a little stomach virus. This was your first time to throw up and I didn't even know you had gotten sick until I walked in the room to get you out of bed and I could smell it before I saw it. I felt horrible that I didn't hear you through the monitor, but after getting sick a few more times that day I realized that you did it and then went about your business without as much as a whimper! You weighed in at 21.6 lbs after 24 hours of eating basically nothing. You are about a month ahead of your big brother on the scale there, little bit!  I'll, of course, get more at your dr appt next month.

Your busyness hasn't slowed down much. If anything, I think it increased. You are oh so destructive. I think I might have one magazine with a cover on it.. and that is probably because I just got it in the mail. You will rip it into tiny little pieces. I love seeing that sweet pincer grasp!

You have to be doing whatever your big brother is doing at all times. He is your idol, which sometimes leads you to either a)forget you are little or b)get frustrated that you can't go like he does. 

He is also the one you will get the most mad at. You have taken to letting him know how you feel if he takes his toy away from you. You will let out the loudest and maddest scream and have even taken to swatting at him a few times. 

But, he is also the one that you are searching for every single afternoon that you wake up. We walk into the living room and your whole body is swiveling around looking for him. 

You LOVE the bathroom. Love it. To the point that we have to keep the door shut. If not, you will be in that toilet just splashing away. Busy, I tell ya!

You are so good at playing by yourself. A few weekends ago, we just sat you on a quilt outside while we got some work done and you would just play and make funny faces at us when we looked at you. Of course, you would let me know that you preferred me to play with you if I got real close :)

You still haven't formed any words, but I do think bubba is going to be your first one. You start saying something that sounds like it when Connor is around, so that is the only thing I can imagine it would be. 

You had another little tooth pop in. This time it was a bottom one. I think those eye teeth might come through before the other bottom one does and I am SO ready for them to. You have taken to waking up a few nights a week and, brother. You aren't easy to get back down! Every single time I say I am not going to pick you up, just lay you down and pat your back, but you practically jump into my arms as soon as I get close to the crib. I think sometimes I keep you up from kissing you all over, but I just can't help it if you are near me. 

You have taken to crawling around (Oh, did I mention you are full fledge crawling now?) with something in your hand. I saw you coming down the hall with a ball and I had an instant flashback of your brother doing the same thing. 

They look NOTHING alike to me here!!

After cruising along furniture all month, you finally gathered the courage to start walking behind your push toys about 3 days before your 11 month birthday. You are pretty steady for this being your first time!!

I cannot believe that I am starting to plan your one year birthday party. It is unbelievable that it has been that long that you have been here! You keep us on our toes and keep us laughing and smiling baby boy! We love you the whole wide world and then some!!!

Cade Daniel: 10 Months

Oh, my sweet Cade. You are TEN MONTHS OLD. This past month flew by and I know time isn't going to slow down any time soon. I feel like a lot changed this month and so much more of your little personality came out. 

You really don't realize you are the little brother. You are right where Connor is at all times...unless you realize he isn't in his room and you have literally high tailed it in there numerous times LAUGHING while you go. It's like you are so excited to go play with his toys without him telling you no! 

You play so well. I love to see you sitting there holding both arms up with a toy in each hand. You will wave your arms up and down out of happiness and I just love it. I think it is because that is so sweet and baby-like and I know I am going to blink and you are going to be running around like your big brother. You also wave them when we are clapping and I'm not sure if you are trying to clap or if you are just excited. Either way, I eat it up!

We tried to do our nighttime reading as a family one night. Needless to say, you took over by crawling on top of the book and screeching at the pictures. You sure do make us laugh!

Your love for bath time hit an all time high. You will crawl in there and just stand at the tub talking and looking at all the toys. One night we were getting ready to actually take a bath and I realized we needed some wipes before I put you in. I walked out of the bathroom holding you and you yelled so loud that your daddy thought something terrible had happened! You were just letting me know that you were not happy that you weren't in that bathtub with your brother!

You are pulling up on everything and love to get to things you aren't supposed to have. One of your top faves? The computer. You just bang on those keys and babble away. 

Speaking of babble, you talk all the time. My FAVORITE that you do right now is say all your words in one syllable. Instead of mamama or dadada it is just "ma", "da", "ba", etc.. It is so cute and you love for people to mimic you.

You are working on your problem solving skills and it is so cute to see those wheels spinning. Today I put a couple of toys under a basket I had turned upside down and you spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how to lift that basket up and keep it up long enough to get your toys out. I love getting to watch you learn! 

I tried to get him to stay still by hiding a lens cap under his leg. That worked well, huh?

You have really gotten good at eating table food and love it. You laugh after bites and fuss at me if you run out of food on your tray. Now that you have had the good stuff like stuffed shells, sloppy joes and the like, plain ole chicken and veggies aren't as appealing to you right now. I'm hoping it is just a phase!

You are still mainly army crawling, but we found out that you will crawl normally without a shirt on. You don't like your belly on that cold floor! I'm really not sure you are ever going to full on crawl. 

You have started to slowly cruise around furniture and other objects, but still can't figure out how to get down every time (although I noticed today that you have figured it out. Each day is something new, baby boy!). I have seen you stand alone once while holding a toy, but it wasn't for very long.

One of my favorite things is seeing your face light up when you see me or hear me. The best is when I get you to feed you at school. The first thing you do when I pick you up is lean your little body around, get your face right in front of mine and give me a kiss right on my mouth. It makes my heart melt just thinking about it. 

I sure do love your love baby boy! 

Lastly, I had to add this in here. Tell us how you really feel about being 10 months, Cade!

and a comparison! I see some more similarities this month, for sure! 

Cade Daniel::9 Months

Oh, my sweet Cade. I realized the other night as I was rocking you that you had been out of my belly longer than you were in it. That is hard to imagine, but it is also hard to even remember what it was like around here without you. I didn't want to quit rocking or kissing your cheeks, which are frequented with kisses from everyone..especially your momma. You are so loved, little man. 

Your "vocabulary" has blown up this month and you are just babbling away. Mama and Dada are your favorites, but you also say buh buh, nigh nigh, guh guh. You love to talk and still love to shriek every once in a while. I think you know you are going to have to with your non stop talking big brother around. 

I could tell you have been wanting to pull up on things, but hadn't ventured out of pulling up on me. You changed that last week and started pulling up on your crib, which has led to some nap mishaps in the past few days. I am sad to lower your crib, as it is just a sure sign that you are growing up. 

One of Connor's favorite things to do is going with me to wake you up. I am always afraid that his loud crazy self is going to scare you, but it never fails that you laugh. The love you have for him (and him for you) melts me. I pray you always have that. 

You are still as mischievous as ever and into everything. Most of my magazines no longer have the cover to them, thanks to those sweet little hands. Our photo albums are next, I can already tell. 

You love, love, LOVE bath time. If Connor is in there without you, you are trying your hardest to climb into the tub with him. It is hard to keep you in your duck tub, because you want to be doing what he is. I have stopped you from going overboard {head first, mind you} so many times. 

 You love to eat and there really hasn't been anything you haven't liked thus far (besides apples, I guess). I just started giving you very small pieces of things to get you used to texture and I can tell every day is better than the day before. Your love for eating shows.. you are a healthy boy! We go to the dr next week, and I am excited to see how much you have grown! 

 12 month clothes are fitting you perfectly, which makes me wonder how much longer you will be able to wear them. You have the longest legs, but the thing that amazes me the most is how wide the span is of your hand when it is spread out. I think you are going to be a big boy!! 

You finally got your first tooth!!! Your top left gets the prize for coming in first and your right one is right behind it. No sign yet of your bottom teeth, which is so funny to me! 

You have taken a few legitimate crawls this month, but still do the army crawl the majority of the time. It doesn't slow you down, though. You are everywhere there is an open door. And it is a sure sign you are in a room when the door to that room shuts. You love shutting and opening them. 

 That sweet smile you have turns me into absolute mush! We sure are crazy about you sweet baby boy!!!

8 months old!

Oh goodness. I am going to blink and my baby is going to be a year old. 4 short months away. How did this happen? 

My sweet little Cade. That is probably the best way to describe you. You are just SO SWEET! You are a little lover and I love that about you! You will smother me in sweet kisses and are constantly crawling your way over to me so I can pick you up. If I am sitting on the floor with you and your brother, you love to try to pull up on me. You are probably my biggest fan right now. If I have been gone, as soon as I walk back in the door you get pretty excited and start speed crawling towards me. Makes me swoon, my boy! 

You still haven't mastered crawling with your stomach off the floor, but you use both your arms and legs to crawl. You will pull your knees up, but just haven't quite figured it out. You can get where you need to go this way, so you aren't too concerned with it, I guess! 

You are a mischievous little booger. Your newest love is finding the spider glue traps around the house and trying to chew on them. You are also obsessed with Connor's potty seat. Well, that and the tags on the Christmas presents. You KNOW you aren't supposed to go after them, because as soon as you see me coming for you, you start crawling faster and laughing! 

You have pulled up on me once, but haven't mastered pulling up on other things. You do love to stand, though, and will lock your legs when I try to sit you down on the floor. You lock those legs, push those heels against the floor and arch your back. You are so strong, too, that it takes me a few times to get you to bend your legs so I can sit you down! 

You can go from sitting to crawling with ease now, which made this little photo shoot interesting! You would crawl right off the bed had I let you! 

You have finally gotten back to your normal nap schedule for the most part. Unfortunately, you have picked up waking up once in the middle of the night. You aren't hungry, you just want to be held. You still don't have any teeth, but I'm not sure that is what is bothering you. I'm not too worried about it. You will go back eventually! 

You are constantly saying da da da. So much so, that Connor will finally say, "No, Cade. Daddy is not here. He is at work!" 

You are so intentional with your hands and have the strongest grip. You need to come with a warning label for when people hold you that says your favorite thing to do is grab noses, ears and mouths. As for toys, you LOVE Connor's tub of animals. You will sit there and take them out one by one. You take one out, give it a little chew, put it/drop it on the floor beside you and grab another one. You really don't have much interest in baby toys, much to your big brothers dismay ;). 

My sweet Cade, you have no idea how much joy you bring into our family. The light that shines through those big, beautiful eyes are just almost too much for me to handle. You are truly such a happy baby and I love you more than you know! 

And, of course, a comparison! They are soooo different to me!!!