Summer 2015 Week 4

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Day 20 – “Driving” at the gas station on the way to the beach. Not pictured – the meltdown when he had to get back in his car seat 🙁

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Day 21 – Cade discovers birds. He was particuarly fond of seagulls who like to eat his crumbs.

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Day 22 – Buddy gets his first oreo. Chocolate drool occurred for approximately one hour after he was done with the cookie.IMG_3585

Day 23 – Lining up with all of Cade’s favorite things (anything with buttons or anything that opens) he discovered a boom box. Hours of entertainment determining the true purpose of this machine.

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Day 24 – Little man was a great sport while mom and I went to the outlet malls. He discovered all of the toys that attract young children. He doesn’t know that they move and make noise if you put money in them. We will see how long it stays that way.

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Day 25 – Sharing a slushy with mommy on the beach.

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Day 26 – Celebrating the best daddy a little boy could ask for!

Dancing Man

One of Cade’s favorite things to do right now is dance. He knows that phones, tablets, computers, and speakers all play music and when he sees one he says “d” and starts moving his head to an imaginary beat. He’s clearly got some serious moves he’s working on.

Florida Roadtrip!

Aunt AJ, Cade and I took a roadtrip to Florida to spend some time with Leeman and Suzy (Cade’s greatgrandparents). Cade did a great job in the car and we had a fantastic visit! Cade decided that showing off at Leeman’s office would be a great time to take his first steps – we caused quite the disruption.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

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Little man’s roadtrip face…he doesn’t know what’s coming his way at this point!

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Cade got to watch his first movie on the trip down – Happy Feet. While it didn’t keep his full attention, it certainly made the ride more enjoyable.

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Looking at fish with Leeman while waiting on grandma at the airport

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Cade LOVED the pool. He didn’t however love the float or his life jacket. He was much happier playing on the steps and getting in and out of the water over and over again.

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And who doesn’t love to dump water in their face?

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His prized posession from the trip – his very own remote from Leeman and Suzy. He carried it everywhere!

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Checking out the ocean from the pier with grandma. He was very excited about the water.

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Cade didn’t like the fluffy sand on the gulf coast, but he was a big fan of the water!

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His first homeade chocolate chip cookie – he approves.

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At the top of Cade’s list of favorite things from Leeman and Suzy’s – the cabinets. They have lots of cabinets in the kitchen and den and Cade had a ball opening, closing, and climbing inside.

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Leeman let Cade have a ball he found at his house and it provided lots of entertainment on the drive home. Yes, he put it on his head and just left it there.

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And on the way home we got to see Aunt Lauren and Olive Sue!

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A great trip with great people!

 

 

 

 

Cade learns to walk!

Cade has decided that it is time to walk! That is literally what I think happened as he technically learned how to do it  a few weeks ago yet still decided that crawling was a sufficent means of travel. It took lots of encouragement to get him to do it on his own, but now he’s decided he’s a fan! Here’s a clip of his first real steps. AJ and I got him to walk for a cookie while we were visiting my grandparents 🙂

 

 

Summer 2015 Week 3

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Day 13 –  You know, just hanging with buddies. Who needs clothes?

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Day 14 – Gigi comes to play and brings Annie. Dogs are Cade’s favortie thing right now, so this was a perfect combination

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Day 15 – More fun with Gigi! So thankful for great parents who love on Cade!

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Day 16 – Cade discovers the most fantastic grocery cart on the planet. He said vroom vroom all through Kroger

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Day 17 – Cade gets a library card. Don’t let the picture fool you, he was far more excited about sitting in the small chairs than the books

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Day 18 – Cade “walks” Maddie.

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Day 19 – “Helping.” We’ve been doing a little DIY kitchen remodel and ended up with a leak in the sink. Cade was VERY excited to help daddy fix the problem.

Summer 2015 Week 2

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Day 6 – Cade meets the ocean. Water = win, Sand = not so much

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Day 7 – Cade discovers pickles. He loves them. I of course, can not stand them or the smell. Grandma had to give him a bath 🙂

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Day 8 – Discovering his love of cabinets. Leeman and Suzy have A LOT of cabinets and Cade thought they were awesome

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Day 9 – Go to work with mommy day and sit in a big boy chair! Hours of entertainment trying to put large pens in his cheerios.

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Day 10 – Happy National Doughnut Day (who comes up with these?) And yes, I gave him a chocolate one. Don’t judge.

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Day 11 – Front porch swinging with daddy

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Day 12 – Deck fun including sitting on steps (a new favorite skill) and playing with the water table.

 

 

 

Summer 2015 Week 1

Summer is here and the Boden house is pumped! Cade is home all summer with Trey and I. I am teaching one course at GSU and Trey will continue to work, but has some really great vacation time. Cade will be spending most of his days with me with some days with his amazing Aunts and grandparents.

I have a goal this summer to document our days. The idea is to take a snapshot each day to document what I think Cade’s highlight of the day is. After the first week, I have learned that what I hypothesize is not always accurate (See day 1 and 3). We will see how this little project goes!

Week 1 was short as Wednesday was his first official day off –

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Day 1 – Who knew that heavy yard machinery was so much fun. Watching Coach aerate the yard was by far his favorite thing on his first day of summer. By his standards, way better than the pool. Funny boy.

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Day 2 – First time having cereal with milk. This quickly went from me feeding him happily to him holding the spoon and eating with his hands. He’s not ready for cereal with milk.

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Day 3 – He learned to climb into the bathtub. With a tape measurer. I’m not sure why we buy him toys.

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Day 4 – Roadtrip! This moment was a highlight…taking selfies with mommy and Aunt AJ. It quickly turned into a “why in the world am I still in this carseat” But he was a champ. To Leeman and Suzy’s we go!

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Day 5 – His very own remote from Leeman and Suzy. He carried it around ALL day and couldn’t be happier about it.  Currently it’s hanging out with Suzy’s pots and pans while he sleeps.

Because the hat is way cooler on him…

 

 

I’m finally done with school and it feels great! Graduation was a few weeks ago and since the ceremony started at 7:00 PM I decided it wasn’t worth trying to take Cade. Oma was amazing and took great care of him while the family went to the ceremony. Prior to leaving, we had an impromptu photo shoot in the front yard and the pictures are just too cute not to share. The hat looks ridiculous on me, but it’s pretty cool on the little man.

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If you need a good laugh –

Spring time with Cade

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Spring time with Cade has brought so many more fun activities! We are loving the warm weather and Cade’s absolute favorite thing right now is to be outside. Some of our  favorite activities include…

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Being outside! It doesn’t matter what we are doing, the boy just loves to be outside!

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Going to festivals with friends and family.

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Playing with the water table – Gigi and King Daddy gave Cade a water table for his birthday and shortly after we got it out to enjoy. Cade loves to drink the water out of the little shovels and gets completely soaked. It’s so fun to watch!

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Sitting on the front porch – Cade has learned how to say “hey” and he loves to sit out on the front porch or in the yard and say “hey” to all of the people and cars that go by.

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Going to the park – We’ve had several play dates at the park that have been a blast! Cade is all about standing and crawling on the equipment and watching all the people around him.

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Riding and pushing his tractor – Debbie Cakes and Pop gave Cade a tractor for his birthday. He loves to sit on it and push it all over the yard and the house.

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Because everyone pushes their sippy cups around, right?

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Swimming – Cade’s first swimming experience of the season was at the local YMCA. The Y has a great zero entry area for kids and Cade crawled all over the place. I think he would have stayed and played all day if we had the time. They have an outdoor area and we can’t wait until it opens! In the meantime, we have an outside pool that is so big we could put multiple toddlers and parents in it all at once. The best part is that it is the exact same pool that I had as a kid. So far, Cade isn’t so sure how he feels about the water being so cold.

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Spring also brought Cade’s first few days away from mom and dad. Trey and I went out west for several days to celebrate Trey’s 30th birthday and the completion of my Ph.D. Debbie Cakes came to stay with Cade and took great care of him.

At 14 months, Cade is understanding so much more that we say to him. He says mom, dad, hey, hi, and bye. He is also very close to saying an understandable dog and AJ. He’s still not walking and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to do so even though I’m pretty sure if he tried he could do it. He is all about scooting around while holding onto furniture, crawling, and recently bear crawling. The cutest thing that he learned to do recently is clap. If you ask him to do it, he will clap and get the best grin on his face like he is so proud of himself. Here he is clapping in the pool.

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His other newest tricks include patting his head and dancing. This boy LOVES to dance. It’s really cute to watch and he pretty much wants to do it all the time.

Other than being outside, Cade loves to play with his blocks, push anything that he can (cars, wagons, even coolers), and read books. His favorite books right now are any that have a flap. He has a copy of Brown Bear that has sliding flaps to reveal the animals – it’s a favorite.

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It is so fun to watch Cade discover new things in his world. This week, we were playing on the porch when it started raining. Cade ventured out a little and when he realized it was water he was so excited. It seems that he’s a big fan of puddles.

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Another recent discovery is climbing. He likes to climb stairs much to my dismay. Recently he has learned to climb into his wagon.

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Cade is still eating like a champ! Recently, we went to waffle house for breakfast and Cade ate an entire waffle. We took a before and after picture to document!

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“Helping” mommy plant some bushes. He may have consumed a fair amount of dirt.

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He has always liked the grocery store, but this cart has taken it to a whole new level!

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Lucky little guy got two Easter baskets. Gigi’s included peeps, which he decided were not yummy. I agree. Peeps are gross.

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First smoothie experience was a hit!

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This outfit is just too much cuteness to handle.

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Because most rock stars just need a break every once and a while.

We are currently counting down until summer break! Cade has three more days of school and then he is all mine for the summer. It’s going to be a blast!