I made a promise to myself that I'd do twice as many 5k's this year as I did last year. Since I only did the Turkey Trot last year, I'm already half way to achieving my goal! :)
Matt has done the St. Patty's Day Dash for a number of years now and this year I decided to take a stab at it as well. With most of our regular babysitters unavailable at the moment, Cade got to join us as well. She was quite content in the Bob wrapped up in a blanket with her giraffe and a bink. She was so comfortable that she slept a majority of the run.
Our wave started at 850 and we had just enough time to park, walk around for a few, and hit the starting line. We ended up running into some people we knew so that was fun given that there were several thousand people who came out in full costumes to run. Our favorite costume was the guy dressed up as a hot tub with bubbles.... I'm not sure how Irish that is, but it was pretty cool.
The weather didn't exactly cooperate, it was raining for most of the run and as we were wrapping up it started to snow. In the end, we were cold and wet but had fun.
This past week we travelled to Sunriver, Oregon for some winter activities. Although our recent adventures have gone from exotic to family friendly, they're still a blast and definitely full of memories. This trip was no exception. Sunriver, Oregon is a resort town near Bend where we visited during the summer and enjoyed bike riding and swimming. Winter brought a far different atmosphere and a far different toddler than the baby we brought in the summer. We braved the roads for a very long 7 hour car ride with only 2 stops on the way to Oregon. With an opinioned and vocal toddler, we knew it'd be an interesting ride and I caved and let Cadence watch Baby Einstein on my car's DVD system. We have wireless headsets for DVD audio but Cade wasn't interested in them so she just watched her movies in between snacks and very very short naps. She did remarkably well for the most part.
We were lucky enough to have our friends, Nathan and Laura, join us for our week of skiing and such. Not only did they provide great company for Matt and I, but Cadence absolutely adores Nathan ("Na-nuh") and they were kind enough to put up with the toddler in the house and even offer to babysit on multiple occasions. Score!
Our week started off a bit bumpy and had some ups and downs, quite literally! On our first attempt taking Cade inner-tubing, we had some issues. Cade has never been a fan of the snow or being cold. She tolerates her snow suit but refuses to wear mittens or have her hands covered. To top it off, she is adamant about not wearing a hat. We didn't really have a recipe for success when we put the unhappy toddler in her snow suit, with hands covered, and tears streaming down her face. I truly thought she'd enjoy innertubing with us since it provides a slide like sensation and she loves the slide. Little did I know our snow fun would come crashing to the ground....or I would. We had rented snow tubes from a local sport's shop in the Sunriver Village and had been having a good time taking turns going down the sledding hill. Matt decided to take a turn and as I held Cade and was snapping pictures, we had a little accident. I knew Matt was flying down the hill but as I continued playing photographer, I was sure that Matt would go to my side and instead he literally crashed into me and knocked me on my face, dropping both the camera and Cade. It took me a moment to get off the ground and try to tend to my screaming infant while I myself was still seeing stars. We eventually calmed Cade down, who sustained a goose egg from the fall (I can see the parent of the year award now) and inner tubing as we knew it was over.
"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands..."
Seconds before the crash
Cade's bruise
My eye day 2
We had enjoyed some mellow and lay low days after the horrific fall. Matt and I skied and had an awesome time. While my parents both exposed me to skiing, I didn't really go up on my own much nor own my own equipment so definitely needed a refresher course on skiing, particularly because the last time I was on a mountain, I attempted to snowboard, failed miserably, and concussed myself.
Matt was a very patient instructor and we had a blast skiing not once but twice. I do have some bad habits to kick, such has holding my poles too far back but in the twice we hit the slopes, I did improve drastically, and only yard saled once. :)
Matt got lucky and skied the back country with Laura and Nathan on a particularly sunny and clear day while Cade and I hit the outlet stores.
With some very willing friends, we decided to innertube again and the second attempt was far better than the first. While Cade still wasn't a huge fan of the cold, she let Nathan take her down the hill more times than she let us. (What is it about kids being better for people other than their parents?!)
Happily letting Nate put her in her snowsuit, which she hates....
Nathan and Cade innertubing.
Nathan, Cade, and Matt tubing.
We of course hit the hot tub to warm up!
Day 4. I married a cougar but here my eye resembles the Huskies. Purple and Gold, anyone?
As one of our last activities, we thought we'd go ice skating. Having rollerbladed as a kid, I assumed that I could at least not fall down, which is easier said than done. I may have stayed close to the wall and not skated fast but I didn't fall. I've had a fear of falling and getting hurt for a long time and this trip simply proved that my fear is quite legitimate. Cade's feet were too small for the smallest kid's ice skates but we let her try them on. Even being held while skating or watching skating proved to be too much for Cade since she doesn't like the cold (she must be a beach baby!!!) . The poor thing wouldn't keep her hat and gloves on and got very cold and repeatedly said AND signed "all done! all done!" even throwing in "please". (Cade says "Baaaaaaa" for please).
"All done!"
Please note we're all standing.
Matt "Brian Boitano" Anderson
That's what uncles are for! Ice cream!!
We had a great trip and look forward to heading back to Sunriver another time.
This week we had Cade's 15 month well baby check up with Dr. Ginsberg. Per normal, Cade's growing like a champ and in our eyes, excelling at everything she does. (First time parent syndrome, for sure!)
The last several months have been huge for Cade developmentally. She started walking just within the last week! We're in trouble! She still crawls when she lacks to motivation to pull herself to standing, but enjoys walking around the house and when we're out and about, often times preferring to hold Matt or my hand. Cade likes to mimic everything we do, including drinking from mugs or cups, writing, talking on or playing with cell phones, writing. At a restaurant recently, Cade was very happy to color with crayons on her palcemat. I got the idea to try Color Wonder markers and Cade really enjoys them, almost as much as I enjoy the lack of clean up! At meal time, Cade likes using small spoons and forks to feed herself but still requires assistance getting the food on the utensils. We still see Cade signing to us but we have decreased our signing to her in hopes of getting her to be more verbal. When prompted, she repeats things and still uses a fair amount of gibberish. Cade's words include: woof woof, read, rock, ni-night, milk, more, all done, animal sounds (meow, moo, sometimes quack quack) hi, bye-bye, Mama, Dada, Nana, Papa, Nick, Tom, Toot-Toot, Todd, Rob, Georgia, Michael, ball, yeah, and I love you. *Keeping in mind, most of these names we're used to hearing so to the person on the street, they might now know what the heck she's saying!
Cade has recently fallen in love with Baby Einstein videos and asks for them specifically, "baba ya-ya". She enjoys stacking the DVDs as much as watching them. She giggles incessantly when the caterpillar first scoots across the screen and when some of the puppets do silly things. She loves music, both in the DVDs, in Gymboree class, in singing silly songs, and loves my iPod. Her favorite song is Party Rock Anthem and she LOVES to dance to it and other upbeat songs. She'll walk into our room, point at the iPod, and fist pump in the air so we'll dance with her.
We're having a blast with our growing girl!
Cade walking
Playing ball and opening and closing doors, 2 favorites
I'm a project person. I like the idea behind having a vision for something, planning it out, spending time on it, and at some point, having a finished product. I loved the design aspect of creating Cade's room to be functional yet aesthetically pleasing, particularly her wall murals of butterflies, cherry blossoms and birds.
Prior to Cade's arrival, our spare bedroom in our condo was an office/junk room. Since babies have essentially small items, we kept the clutter to a minimum as best as we could for a while, still using her closet for our belongings, clothes that didn't fit in our closet, office gear, even a desktop computer that was not only obsolete, but hadn't been turned on in years.
Knowing that owning a house is a few years away, and having growing toddler who's toys are growing, in their size and quantity, we needed a better solution for storage space.
Enter DIY closet recon!
Prior to what I deemed to be an overly ambitious project, Cade's closet simply consisted of one hanging rack for clothes, with junk piled up above it, as well as junk on the floor. Matt assured me that closets were easy to design online and pieces were easy to put together. He was right. We took an evening trip to Home Depot to take a look at their closet selections and stocked up on necessities. We were able to find a simple yet user friendly design that can grow with Cadence to suit her clothing and storage needs.
I'm embarassed to say that I, the queen of pictures, didn't take a before picture, but here is Cade's new closet, in all its glory, begging to be filled! I don't anticipate any problems with that!
snOMG, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, in the last week, we've heard it all! The LA times even had the guts to call us "Snow Wimps", on my birthday no less!
The greater Seattle area is in the process of thawing out from the season's first "major" snow storm. Areas were hit with multiple inches of snow, which brought power outages to some, including my poor mom. We got lucky and our snow wasn't completely debilitatiing, however it was inconvenient and caused some cabin fever. Schools throughout Western Washington were shut down for the majority of the week as well. Some may say Seattle-ites lack coping skills, but I happily challenge them and say that we simply lack experience.
I happened to be heading home from a business trip in Vancouver, BC when the "big storm" was to hit and although I didn't encounter drastic climate changes on my train ride home, it turned ugly and Amtrak was eventually shut down, I was on one of the last trains that got through. Phew!
Per normal, we took the opportunity of snow at our house to get Cadence in her snowsuit and photo ready. Cade's been toddling well holding someone's hand or pant leg but up until recently, she hasn't been ready to go step on her own. Being confined to not only a snowsuit, but boots, and a new environment, I'd say she did quite well in her first real snow experience.
All bundled up and ready to go play!
A little unsure of her first snow angel....
snow slide!
Visiting the snowman! (no, we didn't make it!)
Hanging with Auntie! Boots and jammers, the next fashion craze!
