Christmas by Kade

Christmas. Is. Awesome!  I got so many toys and books and clothes, my head is spinning!  Not to mention all the fun parties we went to!  I don't know why Mom and Dad scheduled my 4 month appointment right before Christmas but I didn't let it get me down.  When I got home from the appointment Grandma Randi, Grandpa Ranger (Ranger is my mom's nickname for Grandpa.  She says it's because he knows everything and even if he doesn't, he'll make something up.  She tells me if I ever get lost in the woods I'd want Grandpa Ranger with me) and Uncle Jeremy were at my house waiting to open gifts.  I showed them how good of a jumper I am in my Jumperoo and then I went to bed.  I let Mom open my presents for me this year but next year I'll be opening my own!

Then, on Christmas Eve, we went to Grandpa Bill and Grandma Melody's house.  Aunt Erin and Uncle Boy (that's Michael's nickname, Dad gave it to him when Michael was young and now that's what everyone calls him!) were there too.  I think Uncle Boy is pretty funny!  I was sitting on Dad's lap and I looked over at Boy and I about fell over laughing.  Nobody could figure out what I thought was so funny so that made me laugh even harder!  Then everyone started laughing because I was laughing and that scared me so I cried.  But not for long because once I realized I had no reason to cry I started laughing again!  I like to keep people on their toes.  I missed opening presents again though!  This darn baby-sleeps-a-lot thing is starting to get annoying!

On Christmas Day I found some presents that some old guy named Santa brought me.  I've never met him before but he seems pretty cool!  Then we went to Grandpa Ranger's and Grandma Randi's for more fun with the family.  This time there were a lot more people and I had so much fun watching my cousin's, Zach and Lauren!  But...you guessed it...I slept through present opening AGAIN!!

Finally, on Sunday, we went to Great Uncle Kevin and Great Aunt Connie's (Dad's uncle and aunt) house for more family fun time.  Geez, big people sure do eat a lot at Christmas time!  Me, I just stuck to my bottle.  I'm gaining enough weight as it is, I don't need cookies to speed up the process!  By Sunday I was just plain tired and I let everyone know by being a little grumpy.  The twins, Paige and Carter, were there too but they were just as tired as I was.  Whew!  The holidays are exhausting!!

I was awake for one present opening! Dad and Mom just got me one gift and put some money in a savings account for me.  They said I could use it when I'm big for something called college.  I don't know what that is but it sounds interesting!



That old guy I was telling you about-Santa, he brought me this cool hat!  Dad says I can wear it to a game this summer!



Mom says boys look cute when they wear their hats backwards.  But Mom tells me I'm cute all the time so I don't think it matters how I wear my hat!



Here I am showing off my roll over skills for Aunt Erin.  I don't know how my stinky socks ended up right by my face!  Look at Carter in the background, I've never seen him lay down before!  The holidays must have been tiring for him too!
 



Just hangin' out, suckin' on a toy.  I wonder if anyone will move those stinky socks for me?  If I could crawl away, I would!

   Dad and Mom asked me what my New Year's Resolution is.  I think it's to learn how to crawl.  This morning I was laying on my belly (which I still hate!) but I discovered that if I put my butt in the air and bring my knees up it's not so bad.  Happy New Year!!! 

4 Month Appointment Stats

Just a quick update on Kade's stats.  He had his 4 month appt. yesterday.  He's 17 pounds (75th percentile), 2 ft. 2 in. (75 percentile).  His head circumference took a pretty big leap from the 50th percentile back at the 2 month appt. to the 90th percentile at the 4 month.  The doctor says it all depends on who is measuring and where they take the measurement.  I like to think it's because he's got a big brain and he's EXTREMELY smart :-) 

He did really well with the shots, he was easily comforted and then he was all smiles.  He's healthy and meeting all of the milestones! 

I hope Santa is good to everyone this year!  Merry Christmas!

ADOPTION DAY!!!

Kade's adoption was finalized in the court today!! What an amazing Christmas present for us! I wasn't really sure what to expect, I've never been in a court room before today. I was picturing Judge Judy but our judge was more like a Fairy Godmother. She was soooo nice and excited for us! It was very quick, relaxed and she seemed more excited to take pictures than anything. We began our adventure of starting a family 6 years ago, almost to the week! Today capped off a long journey filled with many ups and downs but the end result is the most perfect baby boy! Kade is our dream come true and he was well worth the wait!



He started out the day in his shirt, tie and vest that he wore for baptism.  But ended up in the courtroom in a t-shirt, bib and no socks.  He got a little warm during the wait.

The judge said he looked like Santa with his rosy red cheeks!

Grandpa's and Grandma's from both sides were able to take off work to join us.  We're lucky to have such loving, supportive parents. 

 After the court hearing, Erik and I took Kade to the mall to put a gift under the Sharing Tree.  I want to make it a tradition that each year Kade picks out a toy that he'd want and then give it to a child less fortunate.  Then, if he's a good boy, maybe Santa will bring him that same toy.  *wink, wink*  This year we gave a child a book by Dr. Seuss.  We were going to visit Santa as well but the line was a bit long and Kade wasn't really feeling the wait.  Maybe next year we'll get to meet the Jolly Old Elf. 


Kade was more interested in his fingers but I think he felt the spirit of giving :-)

We asked a nice, elderly lady to take our picture.  She might have had a bit of poor vision because I mentioned that we are hard to photograph due to our extreme height difference and usually Erik's head gets cut off.  She was so excited because she thought she took such a good picture of us .  We didn't want to ask her to take another one because she lost her original seat when she got up to take the pic and had just found a new one.  Plus, we didn't want to hurt her feelings because she was so proud of herself for getting all of Erik in the picture.  At least you can see his eyes!

This picture has nothing to do with today's post.  It's just a cute picture of the Kade Man.

Now, Erik and I are going to crack open the bottle of wine that Lady A and S gave us.  Merry Christmas!

What a Week!

Big week for the Kade Man!  On Wednesday, the 8th, he rolled over for the first time!  Back-to-stomach.  Although now we have a problem because Kade hates being on his stomach!  I keep telling him has to learn how to roll back but so far he hasn't listened to me.  I guess that's something I should get used to though!  Our getting dressed routine has changed immensely.  What was once a 2 minute process has lengthened considerably.  Now it goes a little something like this:  Kade's on his back, hold him down, remove article of clothing, look away, Kade's on his belly, Kade cries because he's on his belly, roll him back, Kade laughs, hold him down, put article of clothing on, look away, Kade's on his belly, etc. etc.

Even bigger news is Lady A and her mom S came to visit for the first time!!  We'd planned this weekend back in September and even had back up dates just in case it snowed.  Erik and I both said, "What are the chances of bad weather happening that weekend?!"  Apparently Mother Nature has quite the sense of humor since she sent us the biggest snowstorm since '91!  Luckily they were able to make it out on Sunday instead.  They must have kidnapped Santa along the way because they came bearing lots of fabulous gifts!  Kade is one lucky little guy!  It was a wonderful, special day filled with many emotions and I know they'll be back soon.  Kade is definitely surrounded by love!

Lastly, Erik gave me my Christmas present early.  A bloggie (a video camera the size of a cell phone)!  Hopefully I can get that figured out soon so I can get some videos put on here as well.  In the mean time we'll just have to stick to "old fashioned" pictures.


Playing with Johnny Tractor, a gift from Lady A.




Every month we take a growth picture.  Erik had about 1 second, after I pulled my hands away, to snap the picture before it looked like this:



Grandma K

This post is more for me but I've been wanting to do it for awhile now and decided this is the perfect time of year for it.  My grandma K LOVED Christmas.  I know most people LOVE Christmas but she really enjoyed it.  She loved presents (or as she called them, "packages").  She loved giving them but I think she loved getting them more.  She was like a small child on Christmas morning.  Seriously.  On my mom's side, my cousin has two kids and that's it for children in the family (Kade makes 3 now).  Of course they would dive into the presents without waiting to watch other people open theirs but they are kids--it's expected.  My grandma would dive in at the same time as them!  One time we decided to let each person take a turn and we'd all watch what they opened and boy, was she unhappy!  There's is only 13 people in the family it wasn't like we were talking hours of opening gifts!  But she did not want to wait! 

She also believed in quantity over quality of gifts so most of our gifts came from the dollar store.  Not that I didn't appreciate the thought but my brother and I used to laugh at each other when we saw what the other got from Grandma.  One year she gave all the guys "Santa Pants".  Which were underwear, women's bikinis actually, that glowed in the dark.  We still re-gift those every year to one lucky member of the family and we still laugh hysterically every time.

Grandma K was SO excited about Kade.  She couldn't wait to meet him, hold him and buy him gifts too.  I only wish I could've seen what she would've picked out for him for Christmas.  She passed away this year, 2 weeks after Kade was born.  I feel so blessed that she did get to meet him and hold him one time and we were able to get pictures of them together.  Kade won't remember her but he will get some entertaining stories about her for years to come.  I'm sure he'll soon be the recipient of the Santa Pants as well. 

Kade was only a few days old in this picture.

Grandma was so sick but so excited to meet and hold Kade.  Everyone was tearing up watching her interact with him.

I tried so hard to get a cute picture of Kade and Molly together for the Christmas card.  Unfortunately we had 2 extremely unhappy "Santa's Little Helpers".  This picture pretty much sums up the photo shoot!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving, for my side of the family, was at our house this year so my mom (Randi) and my aunt (Rozie) came over on Wednesday to do the cooking.  Well, Rozie did pretty much all of the cooking although Randi managed to whip up the green bean casserole.  They, along with my 10 year old cousin Lauren, stayed overnight in order to prepare the food in the morning as well.  I'm pretty sure Kade loved every minute of it!  I say that because he refused to take any naps or go to bed that night but he never got too fussy from lack of sleep!  I think he thought if he was a good boy he could stay up so he wouldn't  miss out on all the fun!  He also loved to watch Lauren, whenever she talked he would find her in the room and stare at her. 

Friday I had to work so Erik and Kade had some guy time together, although Kade spent most of the day catching up on his sleep.  I thought I would come home to a clean house and supper ready but Erik quickly realized it's next to impossible to get anything done!  And he thought being a stay-at-home parent would be easy.  Ha! 

Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Erik's family.  Erik's cousin has a 5 year old and 9 month old twins so dinner was a bit chaotic this year.  Whoever got done eating first grabbed a baby so the next round could eat.  I don't think anybody actually stayed in their same chair for the entire meal so keeping track of your silverware was a bit tricky at times.  The twins are long awaited blessings as well so everybody was pretty excited for "Holiday Baby Chaos".  It was fantastic!  Unfortunately Reed (the 5 yr. old) had to go home early because he didn't feel well.  Normally he spends his time entertaining the 3 babies so it was up to us "old folks" to keep them all occupied.  Whew!  That's tough work especially when you have a belly full of food!  Luckily Kade isn't moving much but next year we might have to start training in August in order to be ready to chase 3 toddlers around.  I can't wait!

By Monday Kade was officially pooped.  He slept most of the day at daycare and went to bed at 7:00 that night.  This weekend was definitely a good warm up for Christmas.  Bring on the Holidays!!

Hanging out after a bath.  Gotta clean up for the company!



Lauren and Kade, the morning of Thanksgiving.



In between all the Thanksgiving meals we devoured, we managed to get a Christmas tree!



Of course no weekend is complete without watching some football with dad!  Check out Kade's shiny new basketball shoes!  Looks like someone needs a basketball hoop for Christmas!

Carter and Kade--The Next Generation



Mommy's Little Helper.  This year we're putting the ornaments on the tree.  I have a feeling that next year he'll be taking them off.



Music to my ears...

I love to sing!  I can't carry a tune to save my life but I still belt it out at the top of my lungs anyway, much to Erik's dismay (and anyone else who is near enough to hear me).  In my mind, I sound like Celine Dion but in actuality I probably sound like a cross between Miss Piggy and a dying cat. 

I also love music.  More specifically, I love Christmas music.  I try to hold out until the day after Thanksgiving to start playing it but I have to admit I've been secretly listening to it much earlier this year.  Included in our cable package is a whole bunch of music stations.  One of them, called "The Sounds of the Season", plays just that--seasonal music.  For the beginning of my maternity leave it played that weird New Age stuff you'd hear in a massage parlor or an acupuncturists office (I know, because I tried acupuncture to get pregnant--it didn't work and the music sucked).  Apparently New Age music is seasonal for summer?  Then, once fall came, it started playing Halloween music.  I didn't even know there was Halloween music!  FYI, it isn't just spooky, it's down right creepy.  As in "old-van-with-no-windows" creepy.  However, the day after Halloween the channel started playing Christmas music!  It was probably about 60 degrees on November 1st but I had Christmas music on!  Erik came home that day from work, shook his head, grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.  Kade and I were right in the middle of singing along to, "Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland".  Even I'll admit it was a bit early for that.

I want Kade to love music as much as I do so I always have something playing.  I'm also curious about the whole "nature vs. nurture" thing.  Lady A had mentioned that she likes to sing and was in the choir.  So, that must mean, unlike me, she's good at it.  I figure if I nurture Kade's musical abilities then maybe his natural musical talent will shine.  I hope so anyway!  I also want Kade to take guitar lessons because then we can sing duets with an accompaniment!  Besides, what could be cuter than a little boy playing a guitar??

Happy Thanksgiving!!  And let the Christmas music begin!!!

Of course, no post is complete without a couple of pictures of the Kade Man:


He's not a huge fan of this chair yet but he looks so darn cute in it I had to post the picture!



Good morning, Sunshine!!



Love those blue eyes!!

That's my boy!

Kade is a "man" on a schedule.  You can pretty much set your watch by his naps.  Whenever he wakes up I make a mental note of the time because exactly 1 1/2 hours later he'll be ready to go back down.  If it's any later than that we'll have one unhappy baby on our hands for the rest of the day, and maybe even the next day!  At exactly 5pm he's ready for a 20 minute nap in the swing.  Try to put him anywhere else and he'll scream but once he's in the swing he'll calm right down and his eyes will slowly go shut.

He's also never been a very independent baby.  What I mean by that is you can't just lay him on the floor for a minute or two while you go try to do something quick.  He likes to be held up by your shoulder so he can see what's going on.  Try to prop him up on a pillow on the floor and he gets mad, pick him up and he's immediately calm.

I've been excited for Kade to be able to hold his head up so he can start hanging out in toys that allow him to be sitting up and seeing the world.  He's been holding his head up for awhile now but his legs haven't been long enough to sit in his bouncy toy...until today!  And, ladies and gentleman, he LOVES it!  He can bounce, turn (with my help) and see everything that's going on.  Unfortunately for him, what's "going on" today is me doing dishes, sweeping and picking up the house but he seems entertained by it.  

He's a boy after my own heart--he loves schedules, I love schedules; he loves to be held, I love to hold him; he loves to watch me clean, I love to clean!  I think, with any luck, he may even be a list maker when he grows up!


I don't have the time imprint on this picture, but I'm willing to bet it's right around 5:00!



The cutest Little Cowboy I've ever seen.



The first time he could actually use this!  Granted, he can't really reach anything on it yet but he immediately figured out how to bounce!

 

Kade...the ladies man???

I'm officially back at work which means Kade is officially at daycare.  Normally, there's only one other kid there, a 4 year old girl.  However, on Kade's first day there was no school so the little girl's 6 year old sister was there too.  Apparently Kade is quite the little flirt!  I had no idea!  The girls would read to him and he'd just smile and giggle at them.  They would talk to the daycare provider and he'd smile and giggle.  Heck, they would just walk by him and he'd smile and giggle at them!  Erik and I got a couple updates that day from our daycare provider and we had no idea what baby she was talking about because we couldn't believe he was smiling and giggling that much!  Which made us wonder, now that we are parents have we officially become uncool and boring??



Kade wore his newest outfit, a gift from Aunt Jenna and Uncle Jay, to his first day of daycare!



Big smiles at 5am, how is that even possible?!?



He's practicing his wink for the ladies.





Chicks dig motorcycles, right?  Well, those daycare girls aren't going to be able to resist Kade when he pulls up on this...in 20 years! :-)

Kade did NOT get his "ladies man" skills from this guy!  Looks like Kade could probably teach his Uncle Jeremy a thing or two!



Baptism and Halloween

Kade was baptized this past Sunday which also happened to be Halloween so he did a lot of dressing up that day!  He was a champ during his baptism although he did let out a few good screams right into the Pastor's microphone.  He just wanted to make sure the congregation was awake and paying attention!  We were also lucky enough to have Erik's uncle and cousin, Warren and Caleb, sing a duet which made Kade's day that much more special.  After the service we had family over for lunch and of course, cake and ice cream.  According to Erik's family, it just isn't a party if there isn't cake and ice cream!

Then came the Halloween portion of the day.  I had gotten Kade a sleeper with pumpkins all over it and he got a "My 1st Halloween" bib as a gift, so we figured that was a good enough costume for a 3 month old.  My mom ended up finding a Pooh costume that was on clearance and I'm glad she did because we had so much fun dressing him up!  Of course, he couldn't have cared less and actually wasn't all that thrilled with it but Erik and I smiled and laughed so hard our cheeks hurt!  Especially when the neighbors came over, Michael was dressed as a spider so we plopped the babes down on the couch and had a photo shoot.  Then, Erik and I took Kade trick-or-treating to both sets of grandparents.  It was definitely more entertaining for us this year since we got to eat all of the candy as well :-)

Here's a bunch of pictures from the big day:



I made them dress alike!  Luckily, Erik played along but that probably won't happen again.





My brother, Jeremy, and Erik's sister, Erin, are Kade's Godparents.





I love this picture because Kade has the cutest frown ever!  We always say, "All he has to do is smile or frown and he'll get whatever he wants!".  It's hard to resist a face like that!  Maybe he's scared of spiders?? :-)



Vikings and Packers and Bears, Oh My!

I have about a million other things I should be doing right now, including eating breakfast, but these pictures are too cute not to get on the blog ASAP!

This blog is for my Wisconsin friends, my Chicago natives and residents (thank you, Amy and Michael, for the slippers!) and of course for those living in God's Country...Minnesota!!!

We went over to the neighbor's to watch the Viking/Packer game.  No worries, Michael's mom is a Vikings fan so there's still hope for him!



Very proud dads!  Looks like Michael was more interested in watching the game rather than posing for MORE pictures.



Who is this big boy??  And since when does he support any team but a Minnesota team??



My favorite picture!  I told Kade to smile and as if on command he gave me the biggest grin he's got!  I love this little man!