Big-boy bed! 12.20.08

After realizing he could probably sommersault out of his crib should he lean too far over the rail, we decided we'd better get Cade in a toddler bed. We spoke excitedly of this to him for weeks hoping to make the transition an easy one. Having only shortly overcome waking every evening screaming, we had reason for concern.

Enter toddler bed. I must say, it is adorable; a bed made just for a boy his size. We set it up, made a big deal about it, gave him a real pillow, a blanket, and then....installed the stair gate inside his room. T.J. & I went back and forth on this, and I lost. I totally understand the necessity, but it's a distasteful one. Night one went something like this:

Standard hemming & hawing about going to bed. Gently coerce the boy upstairs for brushing of teeth. Enter room. "I don't want to sleep in big-boy bed." "But honey, you are a big boy now. This is special! You have daddy's old pillow & pillow case, a blanket, and your own bed." He's not convinced. We proceed with prayers & kisses, and then we begin to leave the room. "No leave me! Stay here!" repeat...repeat... We exit nonetheless and the hysterics begin. Screaming, crying, gasping, more screaming. I revisit the room and try to calm him down. More screaming, crying, gasping. We wait longer this time - about 15 minutes. I visit again. Rinse & repeat. Finally...at long last...silence.

"God bless him. He finally got himself to sleep in his big-boy bed. I wanna peak in on him and witness this serene and blissful sleep in his new bed." Nope. He'd cried himself to sleep in his rocking chair! How pitiful!

Lest you be concerned, things have improved from this night. However, he still screams every evening for 10 or more minutes hoping we'll come back and snuggle with him or stay in the room. I'm trying to instill a concept of God being with him all the time even though he can't see him - just like when dad & mom are downstairs when he's in his bed. Don't know if it's 'getting through', but I know it will eventually!

Supernatural understanding

I am not writing this in anything but sheer joy for the mystery of God at the center of each of our souls. Last week Cade was 'helping me cook'. After our task was done as he was still on his stool, I took his face between my hands, looked him in the eyes and said, "Cade, you are a very special boy. You are fun, creative and a joy to be around." And he responded without hesitation, "God created me."

If that is not proof that we all know at the very depths of our souls Who it is that loves us most, gives us all good things, and creates the best in us, then I don't know what is.

Bowling or pitching?

So i guess two and a half is a little early to try out bowling, even bumper bowling. Not that Cade wasn't interested, but he really couldn't get the 'put it between your legs and then shove it down the alley'. He was more interested in side-arming it with an alarming 'CHUNK' onto the alley and then watching it slowly, slowly, ever so slowly roll down the alley. And he really wasn't all that interested in that. I believe he had the most fun rolling the bowling balls back and forth on the 'bowling ball wall', or whatever you call that thing that they store the balls on for you to find one.

Of course we have lots of video and pics of this event...as we do vacation...and none of it has yet made it to the computer to do anything with. When it's progressed suitably, we'll put it on YouTube, and I'll put the link out here.

Past month highlights

Has it really been over a month since my last post?! Here are some things Cade has been up to:

• sang mom "Happy Birthday" minus a few words here and there of course
• spontaneously told mom "Thank you for cooking me dinner, mom." Whoa. That one blew my mind.
• has to brush teeth by himself now
• I interrupted him praying outside the other day. We were getting ready to go somewhere, and I was packing up the car. I called to him to come over to get in, but he didn't respond. I went over to him, and his eyes were closed. I touched him, and he just kinda looked at me then closed his eyes again. Then he quickly opened them back up, and I asked "were you praying?" and he said yes! I know it was a leading question, but in the moment I just sensed that was what he was doing.
• will unprompted say 'I love you' (not regularly, but happening now!)
  
• can use the touch-pad mouse on the laptop & the hand mouse on the home pc to play computer games
• is developing 'friendships' with certain boys & girls at school
• picks up Calamity like a sack of potatoes and carries her around

There's more, I'm sure, but these are the top-of-mind awareness things.

1st trip to the dentist

So it's a tad late (should have been at 2 years old), but not too late. Totally didn't know what to expect out of Cade. When we arrived and found that they had a big TV playing "Cars" in the waiting area, we knew we'd be OK. The worst part of the whole thing was pulling him away from the movie!

The Dental Hygenist Melaine was great! Wonderful personality, and she easily made Cade feel comfortable. She looked in his mouth and counted his teeth, and then told us that typically they don't do a cleaning the first time; it's more of an 'intro to the dentist' for a toddler. But she also said that if we wanted it and if we thought he'd tolerate it, she would try. Well, Cade was doing great, highly amused with rubber gloves and seemingly unaffected by everything, so we told her to give it a try. She introduced him to the polisher by turning it on and letting it 'tickle' his finger. He loved it. Then she showed him 'Mr. Thirsty' (the thing that sucks all the liquid out of your mouth) and let HIM hold it in his mouth. Next thing we know, he's mouth-wide-open having his teeth cleaned. Rinse. Kiss Mr. Thirsty. It's done. He's all smiles.

The dr. came in, poked at each tooth with the metal pokey thing (anyone know the real name for that?!), and then swabbed on a fluoride treatment. OK, why can't they use fluoride toothpaste until they know how to spit, but the dr. can put on a fluoride treatment?! Anyway, he was the model of calm, cool, and collected (Cade, that is). We are so proud! And he's been mostly excited about brushing his teeth since, which is good, since it's morning and evening now.

The fun video (catch the words to the background song if you can...a hoot!) is below.

When you know you're doing something right

Yesterday was a milestone that indicates we're on the right track with Cade. Ok, in advance, I recognize that this is but a small thing. But it melted my heart completely, and gives me such eager anticipation for the future building blocks....

Last night, at dinner, Cade spontaneously busted out with 'Jesus Loves Me', and this time he made it all the way through the song...strong arms and all. Now to hear a two-year-old sing Jesus Loves Me, you have to know first what he's singing, then it's easy to follow along. Words are missing, tone isn't exactly right, but he's got it. This is a special day. And he's interested in 'The B-I-B-L-E' song as well, although for him it's a B-I-B-I-E. And somehow he's associated the 'two fingers standing on the other hand' sign motion with the 'ME' in 'that's the book for me' instead of 'standing on the Word of God'. But hey, he's two.

I can only envision how God will wrap this all up into a beautiful, loving relationship with Him someday. And T.J. & I are honored to instill the values, teach the love of God, and model what living life with Jesus day-by-day is really like. What an honor!

From the mouth of a babe

My husband's 30th b-day is Sunday, and I have a number of surprises prepared. I took Cade with me to the party store to get a balloon bouquet, 30th plates, etc. etc. Then off to the grocery store for a cake with an 'edible image'. How cool is this...you give them a picture, they put it on a cake. I chose the one of my husband and son fishing during our last camping trip, which is posted right next to this blog. Cade is totally jazzed about cake, so I have to explain to him that it's a surprise for Daddy. Big mistake.

Dinner..."surprise Daddy!" "Huh?" my husband says. "Surprise Daddy!" Oh boy. Now what do I do. I attempt to hush our beautiful boy, but he now continues with "Surprise Daddy cake." Fortunately over that dinner, Daddy wasn't translating toddlerese very well, and only got the 'surprise part'.

Then this evening it all comes out. We're driving home and out of no where, Cade says "Surprise Daddy cake.", but this time clear as day. Daddy says....oh, a birthday cake....OK, not much of a surprise there. Then Cade says 'daddy, me, picture'. I kid you not. Daddy got the picture part, started giving him an inquisition, and ultimately figured out that the cake has a pick of him & Cade on it.

Now this doesn't really ruin a big surprise, b/c he still doesn't know the event at which he'll see the cake, which is the surprise. But still, I never thought I couldn't trust my two year old with helping with a surprise party for his Daddy.

Camping trip: boom and bust

A much-awaited overnight family camping trip finally happened! We were trying to leave by 10am Friday morning, but after finding our cooler MIA (did we loan it out?! throw it out?! where is it?!) and being rusty at this whole camping thing, we left about 3 hours late. Nonetheless, we made it there with plenty of day left to enjoy. First order of business was to put up the tent and make lunch! Cade did really well during all of it. He spent most of his time either shuffling between mom & dad or picking stuff up off the ground and bringing it to us to see. Lunch was standard 'hearty' camp fare: jalapeno venison sausage, smoked sausage, burgers, potato salad, cole slaw etc. Cade particulary liked the sausages and didn't want much to do with anything else (including the kidney beans I'd brought just for him.)

From lunch to the lake. It was GREAT! The water was warmish, and we were sweltering. Cade didn't take long to adjust, and had a fantastic time playing 'race to the aqua sock'. We took one of his aqua socks off, and he'd throw it. Then he (propelled by mommy) would race daddy to the sock. This went on for a good half an hour, with Cade belly laughing most of the time. He was also fascinated with the boats and the 'baby boats', which I finally convinced him were jet skis. He'd say "Run, baby boat!", as we watched a jet ski following a water skiing boat.

From there it was 3 hours of fishing. And can you believe Cade was patient the whole time?! He even helped daddy reel in the line a few times. But when a fish actually appeared, he really didn't want to get any too close. I think I actually heard him say 'sorry' to the fish.

Back at camp, Cade was most definitely tired. He wanted to stay up for dinner, but was just too done. I took him to the tent, and we laid down for a while. After he'd finally asked to go into his pack-n-play, he heard daddy taking the food off the grill and 'Need eat! need eat!' was all he could say. We trapsed over, he had a few bites of meat, then wanted to go back to bed. T.J. & I were then able to enjoy a few hours alone looking at the stars and chatting.

When we entered the tent to climb into bed, Cade awoke. He was somewhat crying, and I asked him what was wrong. He said 'scared'. As I was consoling him, he proceeded to vomit...all over his sleeping mat in the pack-n-play. Blech! Cleaned all that up, he was out in an instant, and T.J. & I drifted off to sleep. For about, oh, 40 minutes. Then round two. This was the mother-load. Fortunately, my mom-reflexes kicked in and after the first wretch I was able to get a tshirt under his mouth to 'catch' rather than clean-up. Repeat this two more times. Seriously. Then throw in one more awakening just for grins - screaming loudly b/c he's afraid. To cap it all off, he decides at 6:45am that he's done sleeping for the night. T.J. & I have had probably 4 hours sleep total at this point. Praise God for a serving husband, because he got Cade up and took him fishing and let me sleep 3 more hours. I think T.J.'s still recuperating.

My hypothesis is that the combination of rich foods, lots of juice (I was trying to motivate him to stay hydrated) and the heat was just too much for him to bear. We'll definitely do this again, but restrict his diet to more 'normal' fare. We've posted a video on You Tube if you'd like to witness some of our fun.

4th of July - boom and bust

Last year's 4th was a complete bust, with us purchasing a bunch of fireworks and about three into them having Cade freak out in terror never to be dragged outside again. We were intent on having a different result this year.

We went to fireworks at a community nearby on the 3rd. Lots of people and kids, and this was held at a golf course where the kids could run and run and run, collect golf balls, and generally work out a lot of energy. Cade had fabulous fun with the other kids in our group and couldn't wait for 'fewwyworks'. The fireworks show was really good, and Cade made a few happy, excited exclamations, went between daddy & mommy's laps, and only twice had to close his eyes. He didn't freak out though, and he could talk about nothing else that night and the next day.

So the next day, the 4th, we're super confident. We go over to a friend's house for dinner with them and their FOUR kids, who are all considerably older than Cade. Then there's the oldest kid of the bunch, my husband. At the point that we're about to shoot the purchased fireworks off in the street, it's also the point of Cade's bedtime. No pack and play. Hadn't thought about it b/c the night before he was fine. Worse yet, NO BLANKIE! [dun dun DUN!!!!] Mom rushes home for the blankie, and upon return finds that Cade is no where to be found. Enter the house to a crying Cade. OK, here's blankie, all is good, right? Not so much. "Let's go outside and watch fireworks, Cade.", says mom. Envision a leech clinging to its prey...every surface area of the leeches body is in contact with its host. Yah, that was Cade on me. I've never had him cling to me that tightly. He was terrified. After a few attempts of getting him to go to sleep on the couch while I lay down with him (yah, try that in a house with 4 excited kids), I gave up and took him home.

Cest la vie. Better luck next year.

Next America Idol?

We were watching some of Nelson Mandela's world-wide birthday party, and Queen comes on and begins with "We will, we will rock you" (OK, so I don't know the real title to that song). Next thing we hear is Cade singing clear as day, and I swear he was on key, "we will, we will rock you." This is not what you expect to hear from a two-year old's mouth. It was simply adorable.

This was on the heels of Blues on the Green with his Aunt Sally & cousin Parker. Cade & Parker boogied down to Marcia Ball. Parker has her own special groove that actually could be considered dancing, whereas Cade's more likely to be seen jumping up and down making gutteral noises of joy. Together they were a total riot. Here's a link to the video on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYbRvf2bm64

Lots of firsts

So much fun in so little time! Cade experienced two firsts yesterday...chewing gum and making 'big bubbles' all by himself. The video below is of his bubble experience plus some short bonus footage of him at the water park. Notice it still seems he's going to be a lefty.

Re: the gum, this was daddy's idea. I'm of the philosophy that you don't give a two-year-old gum, however I'm so used to hearing, to paraphrase, 'butt-out, this is daddy time' that I didn't signal an alarm. Cade had the pleasure of three different chewing occasions. The first two went without a hitch, with us constantly reminding him to chew and not swallow. The third time must've been pushing our luck, because the irresistible urge to swallow the gum like every other food item he puts in his mouth surpassed our caution of 'it'll give you a tummy ache'. GULP!

Ironically, the next morning (today), Cade awoke complaining of a tummy ache. After much mental gymnastics on my part about whether a two-year-old could really develop psychosomatic symptoms, he actually vomited, resting his case that he did, in fact, have a tummy ache. Prior to this, whilest believing we scared the tar out of him by telling him he was destined for a tummy ache since he swallowed the gum, I tried to easy his anxiety (did he really have any?!) by telling him next time he 'doodied', the gum would be expelled and thus any worry of tummy ache gone.

So for the second half of the day I was charmed with 'gum out tummy doodie' as he proudly proclaimed his accomplishment. I'm not sure who's the smarter one in this relationship.

Skype is cool!

We had very special friends move to Colorado last week. After much complaining to God on my part, I finally reconciled myself to joy for their opportunities and moved on to use my energy productively...like plying them with junk food and monopolizing their last moments here as much as possible.

Anyway, tonight was our first family Skype talk with them. It was great! It helped make them not feel quite so far away, and Cade was thrilled to see his Mattew, Tammy, Ackee, Banen, and Ben again. As a matter of fact, he wasn't quite satisfied with the Skype experience, and kept asking to visit them at 'home'. Nonetheless, it is amazing to me that we have the real chance of keeping this relationship vibrant and close through such online technology. Cade doesn't have to grow up without them, he'll just have to learn the new way of visiting with them.

We're going to have to figure out how to make Hot Wheels & tickles work via internet. That's going to require some creativity.