Good Behavior Board

Cade has had some terrible twos sass lately. We've been doing time-out and verbal scolding but it just wasn't seeming to work. So about a month or so ago we implemented the good behavior board. He gets a sticker for every day that he 1) does not hit 2) does not throw food and 3) shares nicely.

The first board, which was five days, took three weeks to complete. The second took two weeks. We've been on the third with zero stickers so far. But admittedly, I'm also getting stricter. Today he didn't hit or throw food but he was SASSY. No sticker.

But back to the good stuff. On Wednesday, after being given an final thumbs up from my biz trip by Nana and Dad, Cade got sticker #5 on that Good Behavior Board. His reward: a Dumbo book!

We've read it every day. He is totally in love. And I am in love with my kid being in love with books.

My baby, my parrot

New things my kid tried and managed to say at least fairly well today

"ohie dohie"
As in "We're going to go to the store and then out for ice cream. Okie dokie?" "ohie dohie"

"Im-nas-ics cass"
As in this morning he went to "im-nas-ics cass" with Mama at the rec center.

"Orrie Char-yee"
As in "five minutes is up, sorry Charlie." "Orrie Char-yee"

"Best boy"
As in "I'd love to read that book to my best boy." "I best boy"

And now for my absolute favorite! Drum roll please...

"Ih-ah-yee"
As in "What's dat?" points to picture of the Colosseum above the stairs. "That's in Italy." "Ih-ah-yee"

Animal (School) House

It was a zoo at school! Really - a petting zoo! Here are a few pictures Cade's teachers took when the petting zoo turned school into an animal house.

Rainy Day Adventure to the Thinkery

It was gross and rainy in Austin today. Even though it cleared up around lunchtime, everything was muddy. Not a play outside day.

But I have a toddler and for a split second our house is clean. I really didn't want to screw that up with mud and I didn't want him to tear the walls down going stir crazy (ditto about me). So we hit the town toddler style - a field trip to the Thinkery!

The Thinkery is the relatively new (and renamed) children's museum. It's about 25 minutes from us and this was our first time to check it out.

We started in the baby/toddler space, then moved on to the farmers market area, then the room of water tables, then snack time, then the innovation space, then glass wall painting and finally the train set. Cade loved the baby/toddler space, water tables and painting. Though really there didn't seem to be anything he didn't like. It was a win all around!

Doodlebug!

So I'm a little behind in blogging (among other things) and baby boy's graduation to toddler class went completely un-blogged about. Mommy blogger fail.



But here it is! Cade walking into his first full day as a Doodlebug last week! His class is 1.5-3 years old and is the class where they will focus on one of the most important life skills: potty training. Can I get a HECK YEAH.

I'm really pleased with the way his school does transitions. He literally spent a whole week easing into it. First with just an hour or so in the new class, then a half day and so on. Last Friday, October 3 was his first full day in the new class. The first time we did drop off there and he stayed all day long.

By all accounts he is doing well. We managed to sneak some pacifier weaning into the mix too. Pacis just are simply not part of naptime in his new class. Woohoo! We're still working on it at home but I definitely take this as a step in the right direction.

I'm noticing goodbyes are less dramatic in the morning too. I think that's because there is so much going on in his class, so much moving and activity that he's just ready to get into it too. (Or maybe we're just having a good week; who knows.) He's taking longer naps at school too which I think definitely speaks to the increased level of activity. And as we've been seeing so much this fall, his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. I'm sure being around a group of bigger and chattier kids is only going to keep encouraging that.

Development milestones aside, he's also just one cute cute cute little Doodlebug.

Cade-tionary

Cade's vocab is growing by leaps and bounds (which oddly enough are the things he does when not talking). Here are the interpretations on some of the lesser known words

• Yeh-yee: Lexi
• Yack: Grandpa Jack
• Ugh: Hug
• Rowey: Rowan
• Mill: Milk
• Bo: No
• Pees: Please
• A-boo: as in peek-a-boo
• Aw-un: All done
• Eee: Eat

And a few that do not require interpretations

• Bubble
• Dada
• Mama
• More
• Yeah
• Whoa
• Wow
• Book

He's pretty good at answering yes-or-no questions even if he can't say all the words to tell you the full sentence. He knows several signs too. One of the most impressive has been tonight when he signed and said "eee more pees." And then true to his word, he ate a full three course dinner. Not too shabby, baby, not too shabby.

Summer Vacation, Day 6

Full speed ahead!

More summer vacation!

Cade better be having the time of his baby life because we're pullin' out all the stops. This morning he and Ross fed the ducks again, went to the park and then the grocery store (OK so that last part isn't super wow, just regular life. But still.). They were go-go-go all morning and Ross said Cade had a blast. Then it was a French lunch of bread, cheese and grapes. Yum. The life of a baby.

After nap and snack, Cade and I went to the library to run around. I don't think running laps is exactly what the children's section is for but we got away with it.

Then we went to a toddler arts & crafts class where we sang songs, drew pictures of fireworks and...wait for it, wait for it...the best part...played with hundreds of bubbles from the bubble machine! It totally made his year.

This was the second activity we did at BabyEarth (the first didn't go so well). I think what made this way more successful was 1) the organized activities and 2) the kids were much closer in age. Cade was a toddler tornado per the usual...but so were all the other kids. And bubbles are universally awe inspiring for the under 3 crowd so that helped too.

Also...though unplanned, our whole family wore football shirts today. We didn't realize it until almost 3p. I guess you could say we are ready for football season. (And of course per the usual, though we were all in football shirts, Cade was the best dressed. He literally matched all the way down to the stitching on his sneakers.)

On tap for tomorrow: morning work out and evening wedding!

Swimmin' swimmin' in the swimmin' pool

Swimmin' swimmin' in the swimmin' pool,
When days are hot
When days are cold
In the swimmin' pool
Breaststroke, sidestroke
Fancy diving too
Now dontcha wish that you had nothing else to do but...

Meg and Nancy joined us for swim class today. Yay! Cade definitely turned on the charm and was hamming it up for them. But I mean what else can you do when people clap every time you splash? Smile and splash more obviously!

It was also nice to have them there because now we actually have a picture of us together in swim class. ...And then I went a little crazy with the effects in Photoshop. But whatever. I can't do this kinda of silly stuff professionally so its fun to do here on the mommy blog.

The Last 20

Here it is, my last birthday as a 20-something. Or, more accurately, my first 29th birthday.

Today I celebrated with a slew of simple, yet good in life, activities.

Playing with my little boy, the gym and walking Lexi in the morning. Then Ross and I had an early lunch together outside at a Japanese steakhouse and sushi place (they have a really tasty cooked roll called the Round Rock Roll that I was craving). We spent lunch talking about our perfect child, our awesome Europe trip two years ago and daydreaming about future vacations. I told him again that I'd like to go back to Europe for our 10th wedding anniversary and he told me (again) that yes, that sounds like a good idea. The debate is now do we go to Germany/Switzerland or Spain/Portugal. I vote for the latter but we have 5 more years to decide so no worries.

Then it was on to a fancy schmancy spa pedicure. The day spa I went to served wine and had a crystal chandelier. FANCY. It was a lovely long pedicure and a great birthday treat.

While enjoying my pedi and wine, the weekly newsletter from Cade's school arrived in my email. Per the usual it was very cute. However this week it had an extra special inclusion. It said "After our viewing of the chrysalises [caterpillar cocoons], our youngest Sweet Pea [Cade] quickly moved to our library and chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar and began to look at it. What a remarkable cognitive connection!" Not that there was any doubt before, but clearly my child is a genius. Seriously though, I was so proud of him I almost injured myself grinning. I forwarded the newsletter to Ross, grandparents and Auntie Meg immediately. All agreed that he is an incredibly gifted and intelligent child.

After my pedi (and the most awesome preschool newsletter of all time) I headed up to the Round Rock outlets for some focused shopping time. I had five items I really wanted to buy during my birthday shopping spree: small-ish purse, nude shoes, black blazer, white button-down and a dress for Margeaux and Ryan's wedding. My shopping trip resulted in 2/5 and a slew of other items. At one point I was in Banana Republic and had to finally ask for a dressing room because I could not humanly carry any more clothes.

At the end of my shopping adventure I took home 2 dresses (including 1 for the wedding), a t-shirt, 3 tank tops (2 for working out), jeans (from Banana Republic that fit like a charm and were 60% off!), a cardigan, nude heels (actually purchased yesterday), a work blouse, pants for Cade (for Margeaux and Ryan's wedding) and a polo for Ross. It was a good shopping trip by all accounts. The highlight was probably the dress for the wedding which I sent a picture of to Nichole and she congratulated me on my purchase. That's right, my friend with a fashion degree congratulated me on a trendy purchase. She and I were both very proud.

Then I met Brittany for happy hour at a local wine bar. Mmmm, it was divine. Wine and delicious happy hour appetizers. Tasty!

I made it home just in time to snuggle Cade and put him to bed (Ross definitely had it covered but kept Cade up 5 minutes late so I could see him and say good night).

And so completes my birthday celebration. A great day indeed with lots of relaxation and some very much enjoyed indulgences.

Genius. Clearly.

We knew Cade was a baby genius but now we have proof.

He can use sign language to ask for more food!

And yes, it is no surprise that the first bit of sign language my kid mastered is for more food. Since he has not one but two hollow legs. Please enjoy the baby sign language video but ignore the mildly distressed face. I had to pause the applesauce feeding in order to make the video.



In other Cade related milestones, he has become a champion hug-giver. Sometimes when I drop him off at school I get five hugs before I leave. (Last week these hugs were accompanied by tears twice but his teacher said the tears lasted literally 90 seconds. Like finished before I even made it to my car. Thank God.) He gives us hugs all the time all day long. It is pretty wonderful. The funniest hugs I've seen him give though were to his classmate Natalie. She had a toy Cade wanted to play with. After being told no, that's Natalie's toy right now, he gave her a hug and then sat and waited for her to share the toy. No dice. Ever the persistent young lad, he did it twice more. Natalie is a smart girl though and wasn't swayed by cute boy hugs. Good girl Natalie, that self-confidence will serve you well in life.

During some morning hugging and playing before school today, Cade started growling. It was hilarious. The best was when he growled and hugged me. Clearly this is the epitome of a bear hug. We deemed it such.

"Recess" with Mom & Dad at a
new (to us) park after school

He's also starting to pick up his toys. Not all the time of course. There are still many evenings when he pulls his books off the shelf as quickly as I put them there. (I can't even get mad or frustrated though because hello, they are books. My kid loves books and wants to stay up late to read. Awesome! Usually this earns him a few more minutes of awake time so we can read one more book...or the same book again.) But if I am cleaning up, hand him a toy and ask him to put it away, he'll enthusiastically toss it in its cubby. So that's a good start.

Finally on a similar note, he now chunks his paci into his crib in the morning. Because as we all know "your paci lives in the crib for sleep time." Monkey also lives in the crib for sleep time but is returned to the crib much more gently than the paci.

Unrelated to development milestones, we have family pictures in the morning! In all my mom wisdom, I did not think to see if Cade's clothes, upon which all three of our outfits have been planned, fit until today. So we did a little test run before bed and - whew- they fit! There would have been some serious evening closet raiding and shopping tonight had that not gone so well. Now just cross your fingers and pray to the Clean Toddler Gods that Cade, Ross and I can stay relatively clean until 9:30a tomorrow. 

Today's School Report

So as you may remember from previous posts, every day we receive a report on Cade's school day. Most of it is basic "he napped from X to X" and "had dirty diapers at X and X." Not exciting but good to know as the parent.

However my favorite part is the "What I enjoyed at school today" section. And here's what he did today

Cade was interested in the art project today; he came over and watched then sat in a chair and waited patiently for his turn. :) When it was his turn he put the glue on the cat shape with a brush and felt it with his hands. When yarn was presented he grabbed it and plopped it on the cat then patted it on his own just as he saw his friends do!

Such a polite little artist!

Montessori Week One

Dear Montessori, enjoy day 2 of the plaid shorts fashion show.
Many, many more to come.

Cade's first week at Montessori is officially in the books! Overall, it went very well.

Thankfully he's pretty OK (knock on wood) with being dropped off. I think this in large part has to do with the afternoons he spent at Erin's for the past 9 months. Mommy leaving and him playing with another grown up and babies is old hat at this point.

Moving to one nap has been a little bit more of a challenge but still, not terrible. He's napped 1-1.5 hours at school each day. Ideally he'd nap for more like 2 hours. However, until that gets sorted out, "short nap" just translates into "early bedtime."

We also suspect he might be getting his top teeth so the shorter-than-ideal naps may have less to do with school and more to do with that. Who knows. Every time he is cranky and not napping/sleeping well, I think it has to be teeth. So far I've only been right once.

Of the many things I like about his Montessori school so far, the weekly class update is high on the list. We received it as an email this afternoon highlighting three things the kids have been working on. And Cade was even featured* in a picture! Obviously this was immediately forwarded to grandparents and his Dad.

And in non-Cade news (who even knew there was such a thing), there's some serious spring cleaning happening around this house. For the past year, deep cleaning has not been a priority; feeding, clothing, bathing and loving our kiddo has been. But we're taking advantage of these first few weeks of our new schedule to whip this place into shape. Between the two of us today we got new tires for the truck, mulched the trees out back, pulled weeds, folded 3 loads of laundry, vacuumed and cleaned out the (huge under-the-stairs) coat closet. I'm sure these levels of productivity won't last for long but we better make the most of them while we can.

*The class only has 6 kiddos so I think every kid was in at least 1 picture.

Cade's First Day of Montessori School!

That's right! Today Cade had his first day of Montessori school.

He's a little guy still so it is kinda pre-pre-school. His class at Sunrise Montessori, called the Sweet Peas, is 12-20 month olds and lucky us, there are only 6 kiddos in the class with 2 teachers. Talk about a great ratio!

Ross and I took him to school at 8:30a this morning and walked him into his classroom. We unloaded all his stuff (diapers, wipes, lunch, blanket, etc) into his cubby and chatted with his teacher Miss Lori. Slightly unusual for Cade was that he did not want me to put his puppy lovey into his cubby. He wanted to hold it. And could not have been more clear. So though toys from home aren't the norm, his teacher said it might be a good first day crutch so we went with it. That made him much happier.

And then he was off. As in walking/crawling straight to the toys, see-ya-later-Mom-and-Dad style. I took a few pictures and then, well, he was ready to play without us. So we hugged him goodbye and left. No tears from anyone.

The teachers and school directors said we could call as many times as we wanted to check on him. We restrained ourselves to just one call around 10a. He was doing great. A little bit of sadness when he had to put away the classroom toys to go to recess but I figure if that is your biggest problem in life, you are doing A-OK.

We picked him up from school at 2:30, right after nap time. We were given a glowing first day report. He ate his snack and his lunch, took an hour nap, only used his paci at nap time and really enjoyed the music and movement part of class. In fact to quote the take-home report:

Cade had an awesome first day! He was busy exploring all parts of the room. He enjoyed playing the musical instruments during music & movement. He especially liked the jingle bells.

If that isn't a successful first day of school report, I don't know what is.

Yay new school!

First Swim Lesson

Yesterday Cade had his very first swim lesson! We are enrolled in an 8-lesson mom(or dad)-and-me course for little guys like him at the Round Rock Rec.


At first he was a little bewildered. He looked at me like "what is this giant bathtub and why are there so many babies here?". He continued to be baffled through the scoop-water-on-to-you-and-baby and hokey pokey sections. But when we got to the sit on the side of the pool and kick part, he quickly took to it. It was like a lightbulb went off that splashing was not only acceptable, but encouraged. AWESOME.

He also really enjoyed playing with the beach balls in the pool and eventually being on his tummy and back in the water.

As I told the instructor, our one and only goal for this course is to learn to blow bubbles. He really likes to stick his face in the bathtub water but since he currently doesn't know how to blow bubbles, it gets a little un-fun pretty quickly. And he's drinking more soapy water than I'm enthusiastic about.

Ross plans to attend at least one of the upcoming lessons so hopefully we'll get a few pictures then.

The Life of Cade

What does the life of an almost 11-month old Cade look like?

Well first, there is some blended learning...that is watching a bit of the Very Hungry Caterpillar cartoon and reading the book before nap time.



There are pretty messy meals (self-feeding ain't easy y'all) that now require a bib with a catcher.

We went, we looked, we're enrolling

On Friday morning, Ross, Cade and I visited Sunrise Montessori School. We met with the director, Lauren, and toured the facility. We learned about the kids' schedule, curriculum, eating/napping arrangements, parent-teacher communication and more.

Their class for teeny tiny guys, known as Sweet Peas, starts at 12 months old and walking. There is a 5:1 kid:teacher ratio for that classroom and the kids range from 12-20ish months. Every day they send home a daily report (eating, diapers, naps, etc) and every week there is a curriculum report. Mornings are work time with curriculum, then lunch, then nap and then free play time. There is outside play time in the morning and afternoon.

We asked a bunch of questions, checked everything out and when we piled into the car to go home, chatted about it more. After our in person visit and extensive online stalking, we've decided it is a go!

I'm filling out the admission form and will send it in this week. Cade will start Montessori school in August!

We've been really happy and lucky to have Erin watch him since I went back to work this summer. And I am very happy she will be watching him until he starts school. I think new school year will be the perfect time for him (and us) to take the leap.

Now - should he have a hungry caterpillar lunch box or Curious George? Oh the decisions!

College Man

Already a college man at just 7 months old.

Thanks Dr. Jane!

Going Away for College

Looks like this weekend is a college blogging kick for me. I just read this NY Times article for work and as someone who really went away for college, I found it very interesting.

How far do you think you have to go to "go away for college"?

Maybe all this Cubs/Bears gear will turn into
a University of Chicago decision. I'd support that.

I don't think there is a magic distance. It's not like the difference between 49 and 50 miles suddenly means you've moved away. I'd say it is more of a psychological difference. How for does each individual student need to go to feel a little more of a push to do things on their own? For me it was roughly 1800 miles. But for other kids, I bet 50 or 60 does it.

We're a few years away from Cade going to college but at this point, I hope he truly goes "away." As in outside of Central Texas. Not in Travis, Williamson, Hays or Bastrop counties (unless Bastrop County develops a higher ed institution soon this one at least will be easy). And really I'd say not even the Temple or Waco areas either. We'll see how I feel in 17.5 years but at least right now, I hope he goes to San Antonio (about 100 miles away) or further. Somewhere where it is in no way convenient to come home and ask me to do his laundry.

Rest assured though, even if he goes to Texas State Round Rock, about 7 miles from our house, I will not be doing his laundry.

Drop Out?

I'm watching The Voice and the contestant on stage dropped out of college to pursue music.

What would you do if your kid called home wanting to drop out to pursue their passion?

Sleep Training, Day 4

Early morning diaper-only play time

Last night went well! I laid Cade in his crib at 9:30p and we didn't hear a peep from him til 9:45p. Even then it was less than a minute of crying/hollering. We didn't even check on him (the rule was 4 minutes of crying before checking). Then a few minutes after 10p, he alerted us with another few minutes of crying. This time he did hit the 4 minute mark so Ross went in to check on him but by the time he got close to the crib, Cade was quieting down and his eyes were starting to droop. Ross quietly backed out and baby boy went to dreamland.

He woke up around 2:30a to eat and then slept from 3a-7:30a like a champ.

I don't want to jinx us but it feels like maybe this sleep training is working!