3 and 9

I'm a little late in posting this one... better late than never I suppose!!

Cade turned 3 in May, here's a few of his 3-year-old stats and facts:

Height: 37.5 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 36 lbs 8 oz (90th percentile)

Favorite food: Cookies

Favorite person: Coleman

Favorite phrases: "That's mine!" and "No, me try mommy!" (we're going through an independent phase!)

Favorite toy: any and all of his one million matchbox cars

Favorite activity: Riding the bus to preschool

Coleman turned 9 months in May, here's some of his stats and facts:

Height: 28.5 inches (45th percentile)

Weight: 21 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile)
Coleman started crawling at 9 1/2 months. He is a champ at sleeping through the night. He has started pulling up on furniture, and now (at 10 months) is just starting to try to cruise. He's doing better at keeping his hearing aids in, as long as I keep his hat on and tied *quite* tight! He's vocalizing more and very attentive. He's still a happy-go-lucky baby. He seems to understand a few signs (more and all done), and has mimicked my signs a few times, but isn't consistent with them yet. He likes to listen to me sing, play games, read books, and watch Cade.

These two are sweet boys that keep me ON. MY. TOES. Our house is always a party. A loud, crazy, messy party but still a party!

The Perks of Being a 3 Year Old

Being 3 is *tough*. You have an oppinion about everything, but mom's oppinion always seems to matter more. You have enough energy to run to China and back, but you have to keep it contained to the backyard. You could wrestle a bear... and probably win... but you get in trouble everytime you try to practice on your baby brother. Yes, my friends, it is not easy to be three. Even though being three usually means 5000 trips to time out each day, there are a few upsides.

For instance...

School is still cool. Very cool. You can be juming-up-and-down excited about going, and never get made fun of.

All of your teachers love you when you're three.

You get to hold hands with your bus driver, and you're the coolest kid on the block when it pulls up in front of your house.

You get a Toy Story backpack..... *with wheels*.

You're finally strong enough to squeeze the hose thing.

And most importantly... you can drive the car cart at Lowes.

Maybe three isn't as bad as people make it out to be afterall.

Let's Race

I ran in a 10K a week ago. Russ and the kids were waiting for me about 50' in front of the finish line. When Cade saw me running, he ran out to hug me. He held my hand and we ran the last little bit of the race together. He was so excited!! The race photographer took this picture. My facial expression is a little crazy, but Cade's is priceless. I think it's hilarious that both of his feet are off of the ground too. When we finished the race, Cade said, "moe wace, mommy? moe wace?" Love that kid.

Cade's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe Cade-o is 3. He has grown sooo much over the past six months. We've been working really hard with his teachers, and he has made tons of progress. His vocabulary has exploded, and his articulation is getting better and better. He is such a sweet brother to Coleman and is getting the hang of how to be gentle with him. He is a very special little boy and we love him to pieces.

We celebrated Cade's birthday by having a party with friends. Since firetrucks are the love of Cade's life right now, we centered the celebration around them. I think Cade's favorite part of his entire birthday was the balloon bouquet...

I think Coleman might have just as much fun on Cade's birthday as Cade did. He got to eat a cupcake for the first time, and loved loved loved the games and toys...

The boys also got to have Nana in town for the weekend, which is the best kind of birthday present!

It was also fun to be able to share the day with friends. We're lucky to live so close to so many amazing people.

We had lots and lots of firetruck paraphernalia!!

I thought that Cade would be really excited about a firetruck shirt, so I made a felt applique and embroidered his name on it... he really couldn't have cared less though. Oh well... it was fun to make!

YES; I still consider myself to be a novice in the cake-decorating department. It must have looked pretty scary... Cade gagged when I put it in front of him to blow out his candles!!

The presents were a hit. He loved unwrapping them piece-by-piece.

It was a fun and crazy day!!

Cade, we love watching you learn and grow! You make us be better people, and we're so blessed to have you as a part of our family. We love you, little buddy!!

Easter

Cade really liked coloring the eggs this year...

The world's most beautiful Easter eggs...

Easter morning...

Our best attempt at Easter pictures...

Yummy Easter dinner...

Egg hunt!

Coleman 8 Months

Coleman has grown so much this month. He has started to say "dada" in his babbling, which is a huge for us since he has hearing loss. He is sooo close to crawling. He's eating anything and everything. He also got his two bottom teeth this month.

"Me Bob"

Cade is all about Bob the Builder these days. He runs around the house with his hard hat and tools and says "me Bob, mommy." A week or so ago, he closed the dishwasher and it didn't click when it closed. He said "Uh oh! Me fix. Need tools." He ran to his room and got his trusty hard hat and saw. He came back and sawed the dishwasher for awhile and then said, "All done!" He put his hat and saw on the counter and went about his business.

Cade thinks that his dad is pretty cool. Whenever Russ is doing something, Cade has to be a part of it. Russ changed my brake pads yesterday, and Cade was in second heaven sitting next to him and watching...
Before church yesterday, I told Cade to stand by the car while I got Coleman in his carseat. 10 seconds later, I heard, "help mom! help!" Cade had gotten into Russell's tool bench, got a wrench, crawled under the car and started to "fix" it.

Game On

Cade had his first t-ball practice yesterday. He did GREAT at everything... except recognizing or following any of the rules of the game :) Russell's first love was baseball, so he is obviously thrilled that Cade is finally old enough to play (well, he's really not... but Russ talked to the commissioner and got an exception). Russ is coaching, and everyone on the team is from our neighborhood, so I'm sure we'll have lots of fun.

Coleman provided great support from the duggout...

Cade insisted on pulling the hemet down over his eyes, and peeking out through the little hole on the brim of the helmet. Anytime someone tried to help him fix it, he would scream, "No! Me do it!"... and then he would pull it back down over his eyes. He hit the ball, ran the bases, and played the outfield like this. Good thing they don't keep score at this age.