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I’ve officially decided that I need time to slow down! This year is flying by and it is so crazy (and kind of sad) to think that in less than four weeks my sweet baby is going to be a toddler! It’s such a weird phenomenon of mixed emotions. I have truly LOVED every stage that Cade has gone through, but at the same time I miss things that he doesn’t do anymore. Like snuggling. They boy doesn’t sit still long enough to snuggle. Sometimes I find myself wishing he were immobile again just so I can snuggle him! He truly is growing up too fast!

In addition to wanting time to slow down, I also find myself wishing for warmer weather. Cade and I feel  trapped  in the house. With the constant congestion that he has had and the fact that the heat doesn’t work in my car, we have spent more time than I would like at home. We are both ready for Spring and the ability to play outside again!

This month Cade has started asserting his opinion about lots of things. Having his diaper changed, what food he eats, whether or not he wants me to cook dinner, etc. 🙂 Changing his diaper is similar to wrestling a crying alligator. Seriously. He hates it. I think I’ve determined that he doesn’t like the fact the he has to sit still. He has recently starting wanting to eat whatever is on my plate. This month we started eating more “real” food and are really starting to limit baby food all together. My goal is to get him eating whatever Trey and I have for dinner and we are slowly making progress there.

At 11 months Cade has four teeth – three on the bottom and one on the top and several more on the way. It seems like the poor guy is constantly looking for something to chew on! He had an appointment a few days after her turned 11 months and he now weighs 19lb 7oz, which is great! He’s put on a good bit of weight since our 9 month appointment when he was down a bit. His favorite foods right now are bananas (which he has learned to eat whole), sweet potatoes, peanut butter, and any kind of meat. He’s still not a fan of green vegetables, but I’ve decided it’s a texture problem – we’ll keep working on it! He has taken up a new habit of spitting things on the floor that he doesn’t like. We are certainly going to have to work on that one! 🙂

The funniest thing that Cade does now is he giggles at me when I wipe things off. With three dogs in the house, I am constantly wiping dog hair off of the furniture. He thinks it is so funny and just starts giggling when I do it. I have no idea why he thinks it’s so great. Too funny!

I was really terrible about taking pictures this month. I’m going to try to improve between now and his birthday!

At 11 months, Cade’s favorite things are…

Taking a bath. As long as we don’t let him get overtired and miss our window of opportunity, bath time is a hit. He crawls around, blows bubbles, tries to drink water. It’s hilarious. He is having trouble learning to not stand up in the tub and we constantly say “on your bottom.”

Looking in the mirror. I could watch him do this all day! It’s so funny. He laughs and smiles and bangs the his hands on the mirror. One of those moments where I would love to know what he’s thinking.

While Daddy certainly still has his moments (and activities that Cade prefers) I’d like to think that I’ve moved up in the ranks. He has certainly been a momma’s boy lately and wants me and only me when I’m around. This is both cute and a bit consuming 🙂 I’ll take it though, because soon enough, he won’t want me to hold him. I just need to work on him letting me rock him as opposed to carrying him around all the time!

Opening and closing drawers and cabinets. This has resulted in smashing lots of fingers, but it hasn’t stopped him yet!

His lamb and tiger. Cade has these soft lovies that he has become pretty attached to. We refer to them as “lamb” and “tiger” (very creative, I know) and he loves to hold them when he’s sleeping. Recently, he’s been trying to take them out of his room as well. We may need to buy some replacements and store them in the closet for a later date!

Still favorites are playing with anything (he is seriously so into toys), listening to Trey play the guitar, and going to the store (or anywhere) to people watch. The boy is so extroverted!

At 11 months, Cade learned how to…

Yep, he discovered toilet paper. Any opportunity that he gets, he seizes.

I’m calling this advanced container play. Cade has figured out how to park his walker inside his box fort. Pretty funny, and pretty innovative.

11 months didn’t bring any huge developmental milestones; however, we continue to see improvement in his motor skills. Everyone keeps asking me if he’s walking yet, but he is more that happy to crawl all over the place at rapid speed.

Cade had a couple of fun first moments for the month

Spaghetti. He LOVED it! This meal choice is certainly not for the parent who doesn’t like messes. We went straight to the bath!

We also tried peanut butter this month and it was a huge hit! He LOVES peanut butter and jelly sandwiches now and even likes peanut butter and banana.

His first basketball game. Cade went with Aunt AJ and I to watch John and Marcus (two of my old students) play basketball. Cade loved the game and watched the people the whole time. He wasn’t sure what he thought about the boys, but I’m sure he will learn to love them.

First chick-fil-a icedream. The look on his face is incredible. We actually had to leave, because he was making so many screeching noises asking for more 🙂

To combat being stuck inside, we did Cade’s first art project (which lasted all of three minutes) for Valentine’s Day. Cade wasn’t as into it as I was, but he did like having his feet painted for the footprints. I think it tickled as he was giggling the whole time.

Giving daddy his art on Valentine’s Day

As Cade’s birthday is right around the corner, Trey and I dressed him up and had a photo shoot to make an invitation. We are having a “little man” party – the pictures are pretty hysterical 🙂 The best one is on his invitation, which I’ll post later. It’s amazing.

Now for some pictures from the month…

I have laughed so much at this photo! I can’t wait to show this to his first girlfriend 🙂

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Cade is becoming quite the “little man” these days. It is so fun to watch how much he learns from week to week and how his little personality is coming out more and more. Month ten brought our first holiday season with Cade, which was very special. We were able to spend two whole weeks together as a family and soaked up just being together. Cade is getting so much stronger everyday and is getting really good at standing up. For Christmas, Aunt Lyndsey got him a walker, which he has learned how to push around the room while taking steps behind it. Cade still loves to eat just about anything we will give him.  Puffs still rank at the top of his list of favorites. I have given up the dream that he will ever take a good nap at daycare and have resolved to just be okay with it. Poor little guy truly has a fear of missing out. As of late, he has decided that he is not interested in taking a bottle at daycare. We’re working on this one and I’m hoping that he will change his ways soon.

At 10 months, Cade learned how to

Actually feed himself. He was really resistant to feeding himself for a while and now all of a sudden he’s over me helping him. He has not figured out that the point of the spoon is to get the food into his mouth. This means that I may never again have a clean kitchen floor. Oh well! In the last picture if you look closely, you can see his sweet potato mohawk that he gave himself. Amazing.

Take steps – He has gotten so much more steady on his feet and is very into sidestepping his way across a room if he has something to hold on to.

Squat – Which makes getting toys so much easier 🙂

Give kisses. This is apparently a trick that he only saves for mommy as he hasn’t even shown Trey. I’ll take it 🙂

Play chase – Trey taught Cade this and it is so funny to watch. Trey will hide behind a piece of furniture and Cade will go find him. As soon as Trey pops out, Cade crawls the other way giggling. It’s hysterical!

At 10 months, Cade’s favorite things are

Riding on Daddy’s sholders

“Playing” the guitar with daddy. He LOVES music.

Opening cabinets and playing with anything he can find. He has recently taken to getting out all of my pots and pans which means I end up washing a lot more dishes.

His starfish bath toy. We have no idea why he loves it so much, but he thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Walking around with his walker

Cade had some pretty fun “firsts” this month…

Cade’s first fort. Compliments of daddy.

Cade’s first taste of icecream. Aunt AJ has been begging to give him icecream, so we gave it. He was a fan!

Cade’s first cookie. Every year, we decorate Christmas cookies with Oma. This year, Oma and Rob brought the party to our house and we gave Cade his first cookie. Clearly, he loved it. Notice the progression in which there is no more cookie. He looks longingly and then cries when he realizes there isn’t anymore.

Cade’s first trip to Chick-fil-a. While in St. Simons, we saw that the Chick-fil-a was having breakfast with the cow. We took Cade and gave him his first chicken minis (which he loved) and he even liked the cow.

Cade’s first trip to Waffle House. New Year’s Day we went to Waffle House as a family. Cade ate 3/4 of a waffle house waffle and I think he may have eaten more if we had given it to him. He loved the waffle and he loved flirting with all of the waitresses.

And now for some of my favorite pictures from the month …

As the holiday season approached, numerous people commented to me about how much fun Christmas would be this year since it was Cade’s first Christmas. I found these comments to be kind of funny since Cade had no clue it was Christmas. To him, it was just any other day in which he got to play with wrapping paper and cardboard boxes. And after our Thanksgiving experience, I certainly learned a lesson regarding parental expectations that holidays with a baby will be a glorious day where naps will be fantastic and there won’t be any crying. In all honesty, me not placing ridiculous expectations on Cade actually made the holiday season lovely. We were able to relax and enjoy each other without having to have a “perfect” day….and that really was perfect. Seriuosly though, it was absolutely a special season for our little family.

Traditionally, we go to an 11:00 PM service at Grace on Christmas Eve. For obvious reasons, that wasn’t going to work with Cade, so we went to a 4:00 PM service instead. It felt a little strange, but it was great. AJ and Amy joined us and then we headed back to our house for dinner. Cade got to have his first experience with pot roast and mashed potatoes which he was a huge fan of. We stayed up past bedtime and just enjoyed each other. Cade got to open a present from Aunt AJ early, which he loved.

Opening his Animals of the Nativity book from Aunt Amy

The first of many VERY COOL handmade presents from Aunt AJ

Cade woke up around 10:00 PM (which he never does). He got to watch a little TV with daddy and was very happy about it. He apparently knew something special was up.

Christmas morning, Trey, Cade and I spent time together just relaxing. We let Cade open a few small things that we had gotten for him and of course, his favorie was the paper. We still haven’t really landed on what we want to do about Santa, so for now, there were a few small unwrapped presents  under the tree for him. He was quite excited about the new pacifiers.

Hanging with Dad while mom made some breakfast

He spotted new stuff and of course, went for the pack of pacis

We are still in the stage where our way of “playing” really just means putting things in our mouth. That’s what magnets are for, right?

Opening presents with dad

Trey’s family came and joined us for a late lunch that was delicous. Aunt AJ and Amy came over as well.  We ate and then opened more presents.

GiGi gave Cade his stocking that she made for him, which was super special.

Another handmade present from Aunt AJ. ABC blocks in a handmade wagon. Super cool and super special.

On the 27th we headed down to St Simons Island to celebrate with the rest of my family. Leeman and Suzy always rent a house for the family and we spent four days enjoying each other in some amazing weather.

Cade opening presents from grandma in his “who needs santa when you have grandma” onesie.

Cade and Suzy

My Grandfather AKA Leeman turned 81 while we were at the beach. We celebrated at a great little Italian restaurant

Cade’s entertainment at dinner. Oh the  things you can do with a sippy cup lid.

Fun on the beach! He really wasn’t so sure what he thought about the sand.

While we had a blast, the trip wore Cade out! Poor boy was so tired when we got home. He went straight to sleep. When we went to wake him up, we found him like this. Play hard, sleep hard.

We had some family photos taken while at St. Simons. Here are a couple that turned out really well.

Better late than never, right? I’ve been in the throws of writing my dissertation so blogging has taken a bit of a back burner for a while. And yes, I should be writing now, but I decided that I deserve a little break.

Little man’s first Thanksgiving was interesting. It was certainly not one of his shinning moments in “mommy’s favorite memories of his first year.” In our family, we rotate  thanksgiving between our families. This year, we went to the mountains with the Boden clan. We hauled all of our gear and three basett hounds (yes, we have three and yes, we are crazy) to the mountains for four days of family time.

For whatever reason, Cade decided that Wednesday night he wasn’t intersted in sleeping and screaming was his preferred activity.  I realize that this is normal for a lot of babies in the first year, but this was the first night we have ever had with Cade in which this happened. And when you are use to sleeping all night without being interrupted I think it is almost harder to deal with when it happens. Of course, the up all night resulted in a very tired and cranky Cade and mommy on Thursday. Buddy was just not himself. In addition, he has been going through some serious mommy attachment and if I’m in the room and not with him, he cries. All that to say, Thanksgiving was rough. At one point, I just looked at him and said “first Thanksgiving fail.” It’s already pretty funny to look back on as his “fussy” really doesn’t hold a candle to what a fussy baby can be. We never did figure out what was wrong, but by the end of the trip he was better.

Despite our less than happy Thanksgiving day, we had a good time with family and Cade got to spend lots of quality time with King Daddy and Gigi. Aunt Lyndsey and Aunt AJ were there for a bit of the time as well and it was nice to get away and relax for a while.

A highlight of the week was certainly Clemson beating Carolina on Saturday. I would like to think that Cade’s vintage sweatshirt had something to do with the win.

Cade with King Daddy and Gigi

They boy is just like his granddaddy and daddy – he loves the guitar!

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Month 8 was so much fun! Cade is starting to grow into his on little personality and is becoming more and more fun everyday. At this stage, it seems like Cade learns a new skill almost everyday. We were really busy this month with moving and traveling so it really flew by. One of the things that Cade learned to do this month was crawl! Yay little man! With learning to crawl, he is burning up all his energy which has helped tremendously with his daycare nap problem. Mommy is very happy that he has decided to participate in naps at daycare. At 8 months old, he is taking two full naps and a cat nap around dinner time. He is still sleeping 12 hours at night, which I greatly appreciate. He LOVES to eat and really will eat anything that you put in his mouth. We tried several new foods during month 8 including yogurt, which is his current favorite. Cade has started eating things other than purees and we are working towards eating what mommy and daddy eat. For now, he is happy to eat pieces of banana, avocados, puffs, and anything else that I will give him. He now has two teeth and is working on getting some on the top as well. Trey and I continue to be so thankful for this little guy!

I finally got  a picture of the teeth!

The 8 month hair – Trey and I are referring to it as a “racer stripe” or a “skunk.” It’s seriously growing in a stripe. I’m thinking that he needs some hair gel and  a mohawk.

At 8 months, Cade’s favorite things are…

His dogs. He has started watching the dogs more and more when they play around him. Bailey has taken up bringing him her toys and getting him to play tug of war with her. Pretty funny. He will sit and just laugh as they run around and bark at each other.

Yep, you guessed it. Daddy is still a favorite. I think I’ve decided that the “rough and tumble” of daddy is why. Who wouldn’t want to wrestle, right? As of late, he has been going through a little bit of an attachment phase in which he ONLY wants to be held by mommy or daddy. It’s kind of cute.

Grabbing as many toys as he can at once and putting them in his mouth. I captioned this photo as “redneck time with mommy.”

Crawling – Gone are the days of leaving him for a second to make a cup of coffee. We’ve installed the outlet plugs and cabinet locks and it’s all hands on deck! Cade has always been “busy,” but now that he can crawl, it’s game on. Of course (as I’m sure is the case with most babies) he loves cords, sharp edges, and all things that he shouldn’t play with. We are working on learning boundaries! He absolutely LOVES being able to get where he wants to go. New with learning to crawl, he will crawl to Trey or I and pull on our leg to be picked up. It’s precious.

He still loves all of his toys that make noise, but also is perfectly happy to take a piece of tupperware and bang it on the floor. During our last trip to my moms, he played with the cap to his sippy cup for an hour straight. This makes me wonder why we even buy kids toys.

During Month 8, Cade learned how to…

Crawl! This is by far our biggest accomplishment of the month. So proud of the little guy for learning how to get around!

In addition to crawling, Cade learned how to pull up to his knees, pass things from one hand to the other, and eat food that isn’t in puree form.

Cade’s first activities for the month included…

His first Halloween, which we spent in Nashville. His halloween outfit consisted of this cute little skeleton shirt that has candy in the belly. Too cute!

His first experience with fall leaves. I LOVE fall. It’s seriously is my favorite. So naturally I thought it would be fun to take Cade out and do a little phoot shoot in the leaves. It was a flop. I didn’t really get any smiles and for the most part, he stared at the neighbors house where some guys were taking down a tree with a chainsaw. Oh well!

His first fire. If he follows in the footsteps of his daddy and king daddy, he will love a good fire.

Cade’s first fort. Courtesy of King Daddy. He thought it was the greatest and it is still a current piece of furniture in our den.

Favorite pictures…

Lee Man and Suzy are Cade’s great grandparents. Cade has six great grandparents total and I am so thankful for the time that he gets to spend with each of them. Anytime that we have the opportunity to see some of them, we take it. We are hoping that this summer, we will get to do some traveling to get in some more quality time.

Lee Man and Suzy live in Florida and were traveling through South Carolina last weekend for a wedding. We made the trip to my mom’s house so that we could spend some time with them as they haven’t seen Cade since he was about 6 weeks old. We had a great time just hanging around the house and watching Cade exhibit his new crawling skills.

Cade loved seeing everyone and we can’t wait until we see them again for the holidays!

I’m several weeks late on this, but better late than never! Two weeks ago, Trey called me when I was on my way to teach an evening class to exclaim that Cade was crawling. I of course was so sad that I missed it, but Trey managed to film a little of it. By “crawling” Trey really meant he was doing like one crawl motion and then laying on his tummy to reach his toy. After about another week though he was off at full speed. Gone are the days of walking out of the room when he is awake! Here’s a funny clip I managed to catch shortly after he started crawling.

Last weekend we headed to Nashville, TN for JDRF’s ride for a cure. Trey and I began our journey with the ride for a cure the year after I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. If you know me and my family well, you know that Type 1 is our struggle. My father and his brother both passed away from complications related to the disease. My brother lives with Type 1 and has since he was a little boy. Most recently, my step-brother’s little girl was diagnosed at the age of three. It’s a disease that there is no cure. And no, you don’t get it from eating too much sugar, despite popular belief (that might be a huge pet peeve of mine). My journey with Type 1 has been one of many ups and downs and I am hopeful that one day a cure will be found. I truly believe that it will happen through organizations like JDRF. It’s hard to imagine a day in which I won’t have to check my blood sugar, take insulin, and monitor every piece of food I put in my mouth – but it’s coming.

With little man’s arrival in the spring, we decided that Aunt AJ would ride with Trey this year. I knew that between being a mom and trying to finish school and work, it would be nearly impossible to train for 100 miles on a bike. Cade and I became cheerleaders for the event and I think we did a pretty amazing job. The real super stars; however, are Aunt AJ and Trey. They rode 100 miles in the freezing cold on a very difficult course. We couldn’t have been prouder!

Pre-ride sign making with Aunt Amy and mommy. Cade personalized his signs with his signature and a little drool.

Getting our photo op in before the race started.

Rest stop 1 – 12 miles in. Aunt AJ displays her favorite picture face.

Mile 23 – The silent mile in honor and memory of all those who have Type 1

Pulling out of rest stop 2 – 28 miles in. They were looking and feeling pretty good despite the weather  

After rest stop 2, we followed them for a bit and snagged these awesome shots. The course was absolutely beautiful.

Aunt Amy, John, Cade, and I volunteered at rest stop 4, which was the halfway (50 miles)/turn around point. Cade did great for the most part, but we did have to spend some time in the car warming up. Everyone who came through said that he was the best little cheerleader there. How could you not smile and that cute guy bundled up in his bear suit and tiger hat? He was very excited to see Aunt AJ and Trey when they got there for a little encouragement!

They decided to plow through rest stop 5 and head straight to 6. Amy, Cade, and I had volunteered to take some food all the way to the last rest stop and were going to come back and meet them at 6. When we passed them on the road, Amy and I both looked at Trey and thought “oh dear.” He looked pretty rough. We ended up pulling into rest stop 6 as they were pulling out…and that was a good  thing. Trey said if I had been there he would have gotten in the car. This ride was the hardest thing he has ever done. He got back on the bike and we saw them again at rest stop 7. At mile 88 this is the last stop before the finish line. At this point, they were so ready to be done, but still had smiles on their faces.

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Waiting at the finish line. Cade actually did really well with holding his sign. Precious.

And done! 100 miles conquered. It was an emotional finish for all involved. When I asked Trey how he finished and why he didn’t quit, he said “I just kept thinking about you. You can’t quit. You have to live with type 1.” Those words meant so much to me. I am so thankful for Trey and AJ and all the people who are fighting to make type 1 type none.

Looking back on my childhood I have tons of memories of time spent on the farm. Particularly during cotton season. One of my favorite things as a kid was to ride in the cotton wagon when it was full of cotton. We could have played for hours in there if dad had let us. Naturally, the farm is something that I want Cade to know and grow to love. Farm life is so far from the norm of living in Atlanta that I think it will bring something special to his childhood if he too is able to share in those memories.

When my brother took over the family farm we sort of began this tradition where every year I go and take pictures of his cotton crop. It’s become a special thing that I get to do for him and a way for us to connect. It also is pretty funny, because every year for Christmas he gets a collage of his cotton crop from the fall. He is starting to run out of places to put them, so I may need to rethink the display of the pictures. Now this year in particular was crazy timing. The cotton was ready for only a time window of about two weeks, which of course fell during the time that I was in Arizona for a conference and over the weekend that we were moving. Nevertheless, Munchkin and I made the trip. Uncle Rob ended up being out of town when we were able to go, which was very sad. Particularly as I had a planned photo shoot of he and Cade. In Rob’s words, I “dressed Cade like him.” Yes, I did that on purpose. Flannel shirt and overalls. Overwhelming cuteness.

Cade and Grandma

The outtake – He was not a fan initially of sitting in the field

Mommy making it better with a little superman action

The first of many trips that Cade will take to the farm. Next time we will work on his first tractor ride!

I got a little teary eyed when Cade brought his first piece of art work home from school. Yes, it’s on the fridge for display. Yes, it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.