This Little Monkey is TWO!

Cade turned 2 last month on December 8th! I can't believe how fast he is growing up (can't think about that too much to prevent the water works from coming). We had a crazy month of December so we didn't get to celebrate Cade's birthday until a week and a half later and combined celebrating his and my brother Matt's birthdays at the same time. I didn't even attempt at a cake this year since I was feeling horrible and we were incredibly busy. So boring, not cutsied looking cupcakes it was! At least they had a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling in the center.

He looks just like my baby pictures right here.



Good Job Madison!

Now, I love, love, love my baby. He is the cutest kid on the planet. I know every mother feels that way about their kid, as I believe every mother should. So I am not holding anything back as I brag about him incessantly because as every other mother, that is my right. After all, he is my whole world.

Cade is the sweetest, and I mean SWEETEST, boy. He is so happy, so friendly, and SO loving. He tells me "I lu you" all the time (I'm sure it helps that I tell him that literally 50 times a day). All day long he will climb up to me, get in my face and say "Mommy, kiss" and give me a kiss. He says "please" and "thank you, Momma" for EVERYTHING. He has to say "hi" (really loud, I might add) to everyone we pass. He knows no stranger. He gets very upset when we get upset with him. He immediately cries and wants to kiss and hug for like 5 minutes to make it better. It breaks my heart that he feels like he's disappointing us, but I do love that he wants everything to always be good between us. He has a lot of compassion for other people. I am so glad he has this trait. If you are crying, he's all over you. He gets in your face- "Mommy, crying" as he scrunches up his face pretty pitifully and tries to love me back to happiness. One day at the playground, an older kid about 8 or so was yelling across to his brother. Cade thought he was hurt or upset and ran right over to him and asked him what was wrong. The other day we had the show Wipeout on tv. The first girl started the obstical course and she got smacked really hard with something and fell in the water. Cade immediately started crying (really hard) and going somewhat balistic. It was very obvious that he thought she was hurt. Everytime that girl fell or hit real hard or anything (which was actually really funny, might I add), Cade just got worse. We just had to change the channel. The list of these instances goes on and on.

He is very easy to reason with, for just about anything. We can almost always get him to calm down by just talking and explaining things to him. For example, he knows he has to eat bites of all his food at dinner. He will whine about it, but we tell him he has to eat however many bites of each thing and then he's all done. He says a whiny "ok" and eats. It works for just about everything else he starts pitching a fit about (it wasn't always this way might I add, but we always stand our ground and he knows it so he learned quickly and is easier to cooperate. It also got a lot better when he started communicating really well). We always tell him "no crying, no whining, be happy" and he repeats each one and will give us a kiss and calm down. He is such a good kid.

He always wants to say the prayer when we eat. We have to help him of course, but he has the "name of Jesus Christ, Amen" part down pat. He has known all of his letters since he was 17 months and quickly after that, learned how to count to 14, forwards and backwards. Kudos to Sesame Street for that one. I don't know where he got those genes from, but he is extremely intelligent.

Cade loves most vegetables. Chase and I have debated whether his favorite food is broccoli or green beans. Here he is chowing down on raw broccoli as he watches a show.

Cade's Christmas Jammies.

All of our Christmas Jammies this year.

Papa sporting them a little better in this pic.

Cade loves Sef.

I go into the bathroom and this is what I find. Cade looks up and says "Mommy, potty. Wiping."

Cade has the worldest greatest Daddy. Really. We had to get a new water heater, and Chase made the box into a train for Cade. Cade is really obsessed with trains.

Wearing Sef's pimpin hat that Jordan sent him for Christmas from Switzerland.

It snowed 6-8 inches in Huntsville last night and today! We spent hours playing outside and had a blast. Cade cried everytime we went inside.

Mommy, Cade, and creepy snowman

Another greatest Daddy moment. It's a snow fort!

Entrance

Going in the entrance

Inside

Daddy and Cade

Hanging in his long-john's, eating a grilled cheese at lunch time.

Grandma and Grandpa took us sledding in their neighborhood later that day.

Cade going down with Grandpa.