A Moment to Remember

My little guy has been a bit of a turkey this past week and I am afraid is going through the "terrible 2's." I swore that would NEVER happen to my sweet little boy. I secretly thought that I would be able to teach him better than that. But to no avail, he has some how learned how to hit things other than a baseball, kick things than his soccer ball and that teeth do not always need to be used for eating food. We have been working and working this past week on being soft and being obedient. So much so that I find myself sick of saying, "we only hit balls," "we only bite food," " we only spit when brushing our teeth," "we only kick soccer balls." ::sigh:: Once upon a time I had the perfect child. The one that loved little babies, loved to share, never hit, didn't even know the word "no," and only had a couple teeth and therefore the thought of biting never even crossed his mind. Don't get me wrong, I love my little Cade and all in all he is a good boy but I thought I would take a moment and reminisce about the "good ole' days" of babyhood.

2 weeks old ---------------------------- 2 months old
Cade was so little when we brought him home. I remember being shocked at how tiny he was in the car seat. For some reason I just figured he would look like a "baby" in the car seat and not an infant. Typical "new mom" naivety I guess. I also remember love putting shoes on him, for some reason I guess it made me feel like he looked like a little man. My favorite shoes were little blue tennis shoes (picture on the left).

4 months old
Cade loved to look at himself in the mirror. He would sit for hours and just giggle at himself. He was always so amazed that there was someone staring back at him. I loved to watch him and found myself cleaning the mirrors of finger prints and slobber kisses constantly. He also loved his teddy bear. I was so excited to get the bear for him and remember worrying that it would be too big, which it was for a while. But now I am amazed that he is the one that looks gigantic next to it, I thought that day would never come.

5 months old
Cade was Jared's "little circus baby." I honestly think that Jared's favorite part of being a daddy is showing off his child. The poor kid started training from moment one but in all reality, LOVED it!! They would do superman, a balancing trick (above), flips, and tosses. Moms would stress out and cover their eyes while dads would say, "woah, that is awesome. Your wife really lets you do that with him?" I think that I feel the worst for all of the people we were around. The first thing Jared would say to people was, "have you seen Cades tricks?" and before they could answer (the answer usually being yes) he would say, "well let me show you" and would start right in with the acrobatics. My boys, too funny, but they both loved the attention.

7 months old
Cade loved his hat. I always wanted a boy that loved to wear hats and so had purchased this hat before he was even born. You can only imagine my excitement when he actually wanted to wear it and would keep it on. I loved it and put it on him everywhere we went partly because I thought it was cute and partly because it took him FOREVER to get any hair. We had that trusty old hat until we made our first trip to Disneyland. I was so sad to discover that we had lost it as we were leaving the park to go home. We searched all of the lost and founds and left our information so it could be sent to us if found. It was never found and Cade has never kept a hat on since. Bummer!

7 months old
As you can see Cade has always loved to be naked and I have always loved to dress him up. The strange things that bring up happiness.

8 months old---------------------------10 months old
I loved the little Mickey Mouse ears that we got for him in Disneyland. He played with them for months. I would try and put them on him and he would pull them off to chew on the ears. It was a fun little game we would play over and over. He has also always loved the tubby. He loves to splash and play and would every day until he turned into a raisin if I would let him. Now a days he takes 2 tubs a day partly because he gets so dirty and partly for the entertainment value.

13 months
I love this little man. He is such a good boy and really does have a tender heart. He is so much like his daddy and has such a passion for life and people. He loves to love, he loves to wrestle, he loves to play sports, he loves to be loud, but most of all he loves life. I have felt so honored to watch him grow and learn. It has been such a journey to walk next to this little one as he has discovered life and learning, fun and excitement, disappointment and frustration, love and tenderness. Growing up can be hard some times but there is so much joy, if we, mostly I, can just stop and enjoy the smiles, giggles, and even the messes, oh what a joy and excitement motherhood can be.