The Cub's Hobbies

A few months ago, we had to do an "All About Me" poster for Cub's day care.  It felt a little odd, like writing a personals ad for someone else.  But we did it, and I may have gone a teeny bit overboard with the photos and descriptions, as compensation for not documenting his every move on this blog.

The poster came back a few weeks ago, and I'm glad I went overboard.  It's hanging in the boys room, and we all like looking at it a bit.   Without the benefit of all the photos, here's the summary of our 20.5 month son!

"Hi!  My name is Sam.  I was born in Hershey, PA.  This is my family (immediate and grands only, as there's over 20 people if we start counting uncles and aunts and cousins).  I love my big brother.  I like to climb and hide.  I like playing football, going outside and listening or dancing to music."

In the few months since that happened, I realized we could add another hobby to the list:  coloring.  It's more accurate to say "scribbling", and probably the MOST accurate to say "graffiti" since he writes over EVERYTHING.  Really.  Kaden's homework, cards people have sent us, newspapers, books, tables, the floor, the walls.  Yes, plural: walls.  While he will write/scribble/graffiti will any writing instrument he can find, he tends to prefer colored Sharpies.  Yes, the permanent ones.

It's a bit disheartening to have a new masterpiece pop up before we're finished cleaning the last one off the wall.  We have already moved all the pens and markers and crayons out of reach, but somehow there's always one escapee.  Or perhaps his climbing comes in handy?

Also- in the few weeks since we wrote the post about his words, his vocab has exploded this past week.  He's not quite stringing together sentences, even the 2 word kind, but he is great at understanding what we mean (go get the blue shirt).  He's decent at making his wants known, if he's not in a meltdown that is, too.  He likes to put on his shoes and point to the door, "Go?  Go?"

He's also a great little parrot, repeating (or trying to) almost everything we say.  Unless we're in church, when he just wants to talk loudly or cry.  But that's another post.   It's funny that he will also parrot animals (woof, woof) or other people we pass by (hello, baby).  He's on the verge of all the fun preschool exploring, and it's good to see him growing in wonder and starting to master skills.

Vo-ka-BU-larry

The babe is getting older...and bigger... and more talkative.

This week, I was talking emphatically.

He stood next to me and imitated my tone and hand motion exactly.

Sigh.

A few weeks ago, I was lamenting his 'lack' of vocabulary.  Then I started listing his words.  They're not pronounced perfectly, but still.  We got a decent list down, and then... it was like he knew I was counting!  Because it just exploded.  He can mimic almost any word (when he feels like it) but here's his most consistently used palabras:

Hi

Bye

Mama 

Mooooommmmm

Dada

Bruh-bruh (brother)

Nana

Pop

Gran-ma

Kah-DEN (Kaden)

Yesh.

Go.

GO, GO, GO, GO!!

Peas (please)

Piz (peace) (at Mass)

Uh oh.

Done.

More

TA- DA !

Mini Kaden Stories

Kaden was trying to climb onto the chair I was occupying. "Move over" he says, "You're in the way." ME? I asked, "You're the one being incorrigible." He reached the top, stood up straight and yelled "INNNCORRRRIBBBLLLEEE"

***
Since he misbehaved at dinner, he didn't get a third helping of peaches. I wasn't worried, since it was his THIRD helping. A little over an hour later, I hear the kitchen gate close and little feet walking across the tile. Then the pantry door open, a little rustling. Then nothing. I peek over the counter to see our boy sitting in the middle of the floor, eating cereal out of the box. Happily... and quietly. Guess he needed the third serving after all.

***
Whilst I was busy in the bathroom, Kaden (fully dressed) walked into the shower, closed the door and starting singing at the top of his lungs "I NEED A HERO..." Hey, I asked, is that Dad in the shower? Kaden opened the door and laughed "No, Mama, it's me" I faked a suprised look and said "Oh, it's Kaden acting like Daddy in the shower." He laughed again, closed the door, and resumed singing at the top of his lungs "It's KAAADENNNN, acting like DAAAADDY, singing about a HEEEEERO in the SHOOOOOWWWER"

***
When asked, he loves to water plants. Only he gets about a third of it on the plant, a third of it on the cement, and a third of it on himself. All on purpose.

***
He also loves to cook. Mostly this involves filling pots with water and mixing ingredients, with more care than the plants get. There's lots of smiling and "YUM, this looks GOOD" type of comments.

***
Kaden was telling me something that happened at school, and absentmindedly I said "Really?" to which he replied, "Really, REALLY"

Other current favorite phrases:
What happened?
Oh, that's my ____ (whatever he's looking at)
Hello!
I love YOU more.
That's funny.

***
With the exception of the phrases, which have been around a bit, everything else in this post happened within the last 48 hours. I left out the numerous time outs because, really really, they aren't that fun. But otherwise, the weather is beautiful and life is good! We love YOU more!

and he's not yet TWO!

So today when I come home, I'm led to the bathroom. No, this isn't about that.

Kade shuts the door and says DARK. I'm impressed because I didn't realize he knew that word. Then Nana says, "Good, and what do we do when it's dark?" Kade finds his step stool, picks it up and places it near the sink counter. I'm still not adjusted to the dark. He climbs up, says LIGHT, and turns on the light.


WOW, I say, and high five him. Then he points at a candle. I say to Nana, if he knows *that* word, I'm falling down. Kaden smiles and says CANDLE. I fake falling down. Nana asks him what color it is. He looks over and says GREEN. So then I ask him if he's going to Notre Dame for college. He laughs and says YES. Gosh I hope they have full tuition scholarships...

Hi Thomas Door VannaClap Monkey Amen!

Well, hello there! It's been a while, hasn't it? We've been here, and doing normal things. Except for perhaps, being awfully reticent in most communicative forms. But you're not here for an essay on our responsibility to chat with our siblings, so let's get to the little guy, shall we?

Kade's personality is SO. MUCH. FUN. He is, as aptly put in a recent motherly poem, "22 pounds of pure joy." (Except he's officially only 20.5 lbs, but you get the idea.) (and yes, I actually met that deadline!) The wee world traveller is back at home, and not really in any routine, as he thinks perhaps one nap a day is plenty, but the parental units are refusing to consider this possibility. Hence the 7pm-nap-for-an-hour-then-wake-and-bath-and-sing-and-bedtime NEW routine happening this week...

What's really a lot of fun, though, is seeing and hearing him express himself verbally. We had worked on baby signs (oh so long ago) and the only thing that stuck so far is "more". It's used mostly for food. The kid takes after Jim's dad on this account, as he does not like others to eat alone. So it doesn't matter, for instance, if he ate his dinner at 5pm and JimDad sits down to eat at 6pm, there's Kaden with his "more" sign. If Nana or Ma try to take a bite or two of a little nightly fortification (aka 8pm brownies), he's there- putting one finger in the other palm: MORE. Was this the same babe we were worried wasn't eating enough? Good lord, what will the teenage years be like?

He has also started to RESPOND. To people, to toys, to the TV, to the windows... So a soundtrack of the last week would be something like this:

Kade walks into a room "HI" and flashes a big smile

... pushes a button on a Thomas book, listens to the train noise, then puts it down on the floor and yells "some-toddler-words-his-mom-can't-translate"

...bangs on the door when someone is, ah, "occupied" and yells NA! DA! MA! until he gets an answer

...when Wheel of Fortune is on, he pauses to watch, shouts out one or two syllables (BA), then claps with the crowd

... finds his birthday monkey, Bananas, and pushes its arm to hear "we love you kaden" and a bunch of his cousins' names. sometimes he just smiles, other times he repeats a name.

... when his "prayer bear" finishes its "now I lay me down to sleep", he echos the AMEN and then nods his head yes.

All this with mostly nonstop motion, as he loves to walk around and put things (like the remote) into other things (like the toliet). Or his sippy cup into the trash.... What will the next week bring?

9th Month, 1st Words, 0 Teeth

Well, Kade has certainly hit a growth spurt lately and is, ah, very active! You can tell by the following series of photos, which were to be his "9 month" shots, but instead show how it's suddenly hard to get him to "sit and smile" like before.



There's toys to explore, after all. And just who is this dog?

The remote seemed like a good bribe, as he's usually not allowed to fling, chew, hammer, or otherwise touch it. Check out his "Michael Jordan" look as he slam dunks the remote to the floor!

Also, this past week, he had his first word... first uttered amid a bunch of other syllables and sounds, so we weren't sure he knew what he was saying. The next day, he gives the awake signal from his crib-- when Jim goes up and says "Good Morning Buddy!", Kaden broke into a huge smile and said "DA". Of course.

However, within two days we heard "MA" and then "mmmmmaaaammmmmm" (with some tears) when I left the room. He's actually got the first sounds to a few words, like "buh" for bye or sometimes book or even bird. "Duck" comes out fairly clearly in the bath. According to his Nana, he's also got down "NAAAAAAN" (when he doesn't want to nap).... a variation of "fish" and FFFFFF for frog, "baba" for bottle, and something like "guh" for good. So it's a definte 3 or 4, and maybe even a dozen(!). Guess it's a growth spurt after all :)

Weekend Update

Last weekend, we had the good fortune to spend a lot of time "brunching" with some friends. Kaden was fascinated:



He kept chasing the dog around. Fortunately for Casey, she was quicker than the determined army-crawler, so if he got too close, she just trotted to the other side of the room and sat down. The funny part was once or twice, it looked like Kaden was sneaking up on her... and then she'd turn around and he'd back up really quick! We'll see how he does later this week with THREE dogs to, uh, TRY to pet.

As you can see from the annoying date stamp I keep forgetting to turn off, here's Kaden about a month ago. He looks pretty much the same these days, though the cheeks are slightly less red without the chill weather. Oh right, that's starting up again today. And we're visiting PA later this week...

"Ma, give ME the camera!"

You know that's what he's saying. Even if it comes out like "SQUEEE" or "GEE" or even "BUH". No, wait- that last one is bye. Or ball. Or bottle. Or, you know, whichever he's leaning toward at that moment....

For the next few weeks friends, I'll be updating on Sunday nights only. More on that later... In the meantime, Happy Lent!