12 Months Old

1 year, 12 months, 365 days... WOW! Where has the time gone and when did my tiny baby change into a little boy? This last year has been amazing and we have had more fun than we ever imagined possible!

Here are a few things about Cade from this month:

- He has started walking! He is still cruising around the furniture barely holding on but took his first couple of solo steps on October 22 while we were in Decatur with my parents. Now he is up to taking about 10 steps on his own before falling down!

- He is still nursing and eating every 5-6 hours. I only feed him in the early morning, before I go to work, and 1 or 2 times in the evenings (depending on when I get home) and he takes a breast milk bottle the other times during the day. Side Note: I am so proud of our family for breastfeeding for 1 entire year and LOVE being able to say that Cade never got even 1 drop of formula!!! This was something that was very important to both Gregg and I before we had Cade and we have had to work very hard over the last year to get to this point. (Gregg was an amazing support person and bottle/ pump part washer during the times that I was so exhausted I couldn't see straight!) I will be giving up pumping at work now that he is one (Praise the Lord!) but will still continue to breastfeed in the morning and at night for a while longer!

- He has 4 teeth now and is getting so much better at eating "real" food. We have introduced quesidillas, chicken nuggets, pasta, pancakes, mandarin oranges, goldfish and graham crackers over the last month and he is doing great with them! We have also switched him over from the sippy cup with handles to a sippy cup without handles and haven't had any problems. (Here is to hoping that starting whole milk next week goes as smoothly!)

- He is primarily wearing size 3 diapers and size 12 month clothes.

- He is no longer crying in the mornings when I drop him off at daycare! He will now go straight to his teacher or onto the ground to play. He is interacting with the other kids a lot more now and is becoming much more outgoing and talkative. He has learned how to scream at daycare and now loves to do that if Gregg or I are not paying him enough attention!

- He is still loving all his cars and trucks and anything else that lights up and makes noise. He has become very fascinated with climbing over the last month and will climb up onto or over anything that he can. (He seems to have no fear while doing this which is a little frightening for this Mama!!!)

- He LOVES giving kisses- BIG, sloppy, slobbery kisses! The kind that just make you giggle to get them and then he just gives more because he enjoys the giggles! They are the best things in the world and just make my day!!!

Cade, We love you so much sweet boy and have enjoyed watching you grow and change over the last year. You have been an amazing blessing for us and have brought so much joy and light into our lives. I know that God has many great things in store for you and I promise that your Daddy and I will be right there beside you every step of the way cheering you on!

Halloween Fun!

We had such a fun Halloween evening! Our downtown area has "Boo on Ballard" every year where all the store owners set up a booth and pass out candy. They have a "Trunk or Treat" section, food vendors, music, and LOTS of candy. We haven't ever been before but decided that it would be a fun thing to do this year since Cade isn't quite able to Trick or Treat yet.

Our precious Little Monster

We went with some of our other neighbors that have young kids which made the evening more entertaining! Both of the other little girls are a little older than Cade and already walking/ running. Chasing them around was a lot of fun!

Attempting to get Cade and Kenlee to hold hands

Cade, Lina, and Kenlee

We had such a great evening with our neighbors celebrating Cade's 1st Halloween! I LOVE Halloween and look forward to many more fun nights full of dressing up and Trick or Treating!!!

Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival at School

We took our little pumpkin to his first pumpkin patch this afternoon! We have been wanting to do this for quite sometime now but the weather has been too hot to put on our fall clothes and I refuse to have pumpkin pictures in shorts! Today was beautiful and cool enough for jeans and long sleeves but still sunny enough for good pictures. Gregg and Cade met me at a church that is not too far from our house after I got off work. Cade was way more interested in people watching than he was in having his picture made but we managed to get a couple of decent ones.

Oh, how I love this face!!!

watching the other kids run around

(please excuse my crazy hair!)

This is Cade's new face that he makes whenever he is unsure about something!

After supper tonight we went to Cade's daycare for their Fall Festival. The kids were all invited to dress up and they had all the classrooms open and were playing different games. There was even a petting zoo! We had a good time watching all the bigger kids play and look forward to watching Cade play more next year.

our little monster!

Cade and his favorite teacher

Trying to catch up

I am once again behind on my blogging but am trying to get all caught up! I have 4 or 5 different posts in progress right now so please bear with me as I try to get them all posted and in the correct order.

Things are busy, busy around our house right now mainly because I have been really busy at work recently which has made for some long days for me. Hopefully things will slow down at the hospital soon!

Here is a little glimpse into some of what Cade has been up to recently.

Going to play with new friends at daycare

Cuddling with Momma more while being sick

Practicing taking naps for daycare

playing with no clothes on!

FINALLY sleeping all night long again!!!

helping out in the kitchen

Cheering on the Red Raiders

Cheering on the Rangers!!!

playing in his jammies!

and just being all around adorable!

Hanging out with Daddy

The boys went out to Aurora on Wednesday to visit Gregg's best friend and his wife. Gregg keeps his 4 Wheeler out at Gary and Macy's house and it was needing some work. While Gregg and Gary worked, Cade played with Macy and Lilly. After I got off work we all met up at Red Robin to eat supper and watch the Rangers! Lilly and Cade brought me several pictures that they had made for me while playing. We love our time with The Lambert's and sure wish that we lived closer to each other so we could get together more often!

First time on the 4 wheeler
sweet Lilly Pie

Cruisin on the 4 wheeler with Daddy

11 Months Old

Well, I am a total slacker these days when it comes to blogging. I did take these pictures a couple of weeks ago and even wrote down part of this blog earlier this month but I just haven't been able to put it all together! And now we are less than 2 weeks a way from celebrating this sweet boys birthday!!! It just doesn't even seem real that we should be doing that. We are LOVING every moment and feel so blessed to be Cade's parents!

Here are a few things about Cade from this month:

- He is getting much better about cruising around the furniture and crossing from piece to piece. He is a speed demon when walking behind his walker and is starting to walk more flat footed instead of on his tippy toes. He will stand on his own for probably 15 seconds before falling down.

- He is still nursing and goes 5-6 hours during the day and 10-12 hours at night between feeds. He is eating stage 2 & 3 foods as well as lots of soft table foods. His favorites are all the fruits but he will eat most everything that we put in front of him.

- He has one tooth that has broken the surface and is working on 3 more. His right lower tooth should break through within the next few days and his top 2 teeth aren't too far behind.

- He is sleeping throughout the night again FINALLY!!! He usually goes to bed around 9pm and will sleep till between 6am-9am depending on when we have to wake him up. His favorite sleeping position is on his belly with his arms curled under him and his little hiney up in the air! He also really likes getting to sleep on one of Gregg's squishy pillows and loves mornings when we get to sleep in and he can come to our bed and cuddle.

- He is wearing size 2-3 diapers and size 9-12 month clothes. He weighed right around 21 pounds when he was sick and was at the doctor at the beginning of October.

- His favorite toys are still anything that has wheels as well as his bath time stacking cups. He has also become more into his books recently and enjoys getting to turn the pages and point to all the pictures.

- He started clapping this last month and now gets so excited when we will clap and he can join in!

- He is going to daycare 2 days each week when both Gregg and I have to work. He still cries when I drop him off and as soon as I walk in the room in the afternoon. He is in the 12-18 month room already so that he can get used to those kids and teachers. He is becoming more adventurous in his play and really seems to enjoy the interaction with the other kids.

- He is becoming more and more "talkative" (especially on days when he has been at daycare) but still only says "Dada" and "Mama".

- He has such a sweet disposition and really is happy most of the time. He loves to smile and giggle and usually only fusses when he is tired or hungry.

We love you so much sweet boy and look forward to watching you grow more over this next month!

"I would really rather play with my toes than take these pictures"
"Stop making me sit here. I want to go play!"
Not even the tractor can distract him!
All better now!

Poor sick baby

Cade had his first major sickness this last week- croup.

He started feeling bad on Tuesday and was kinda fussy and snotty. By Wednesday he had a fever and even though we were giving him Tylenol the fever was still over 102. Gregg took him to the doctor that afternoon and they said he was negative for strep and probably just had some kind of virus from daycare. (He had gone 3 days at this point.) Our pediatrician told Gregg to keep alternating Tylenol and Motrin and to bring him back the next day at 11am if his fever wasn't down. His fever broke sometime after midnight and so I got up and went to work on Thursday and Gregg cancelled the follow up appointment. His fever stayed down till after noon on Thursday but then it was back up to 103. He also had developed quite a cough so we figured we would be headed back to the doctor Friday morning. Even though his fever remained between 102 and 103 into the evening Thursday he was still eating and drinking really good and so I wasn't all that worried.

Gregg had to go pick his Mom and her friend up from the airport late Thursday night so he left the house around 10:30pm and I put Cade in his bed. I could hear him coughing on the monitor and it just broke my heart. He woke up about midnight because he was so stopped up so I brought him to bed with me and propped him up on pillows and we both went back to sleep. Gregg got home around 1am and woke me up by saying "Has his breathing been sounding like this and been so labored all night?" I immediately snapped out of my sleep fog and panicked when I listened to Cade and realized he had terrible stridor which he hadn't had at midnight when I brought him to our room.

I frantically started packing a diaper bag and we headed to Children's ER. We got there and he was retracting, coughing and really struggling whenever taking a breath. We went to the Children's in Plano (amazing) and luckily they weren't busy so we were triaged and sent to a room very quickly. The nurse and RT immediately came in and gave Cade some steroids and then started a breathing treatment.

Sweet baby

After the treatment the doctor came in to examine him and told us he had croup ad would probably be sick for a couple more weeks. We were kept for a couple of hours so they could monitor him and make sure the stridor didn't come back and then discharged home on a steroid prescription and instructions to follow up with our pedi and bring him back to the ED if the stridor or retractions returned.

We go back to the pedi tomorrow for a follow-up. He has been fever free since Friday night and other than the cough and snotty nose seems to be all better! He should finish his steroids tomorrow also and hopefully his cough will be gone in a week or so.