"Since it's My Birthday"

Yesterday we celebrated my sweet Cadeson Glen's 3rd birthday. Wow! It feels like yesterday I was walking around my neighborhood trying to go into labor with him. And jumping on the Slaters' trampoline, and bouncing on my exercise ball, and all the other things I did to try to induce labor, hehe.

Yesterday morning when Cade woke up (as usual, he was the first one), we presented him with his first present: a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch:) He was pretty excited and proceeded to eat several bowls for his breakfast. I had to teach Cole's preschool from 9-12 so poor Cade didn't get much birthday attention for those hours. He did join in the preschool fun a little...and distracted us all a lot. At a couple of points, he tackled Cole and they wrestled on the floor for a bit. I think he just wanted Mom to remember whose birthday it was:) He liked the soft pretzels we made into the letter "x" for snacktime and then when preschool was over we had Ramen noodles for lunch.

After lunch, I pulled out some cakes I had made & frozen last week and proceeded to make a very amateur-looking race track cake. The perfectionist in me lasted about a second, especially when I was halfway through frosting and decided my frosting was too thick (too late now) and when I couldn't find the tip I wanted to use for piping the stripes and when I chose not to use the blender for the Oreo race track (never wake a sleeping child) and couldn't figure out another good way to crush them. Oh well. Cade was very excited for his cake and that is definitely all that matters to me.

When Jeff got home, we ate homemade mac & cheese and edamame for dinner (this kid is pretty easy to please) and talked about the reasons why we all love Cade. Maddie said that she loves him because he is a good brother and because he makes her laugh. Cole said that he is a good brother and he plays with him...sometimes. Lane plead the fifth. I said that Cade is a good basketball player, is smart, and gives the best hugs around. Jeff said "That's what I was going to say." He said other things too but I can't remember what they were - sorry honey. We also talked about the day Cade was born - how we had to drive to Grandma's house kind of early in the morning and how Mom was "squealing" in the front seat (quote from Maddie - I promise you, I did not squeal. I barely made a sound. Even when we made it to the hospital & it was discovered that I was VERY far progressed, nobody could have guessed it). How Maddie came up with the name Cade (in her mind, yes...in reality, no:) ) and how we didn't know he was a boy or a girl until he was born, and how he was a big baby, 9 lbs. 4 oz. How much we loved him and were so excited to have him in our family, and how good of a baby he was.

Cade then opened his presents and when he got a plastic bowling set, his eyes got wide and he exclaimed in his cute high-pitched voice, "Oh! I love this!" He said the same thing when he saw the picture my mom had drawn of him playing basketball. "Oh! I love it!" It was the darlingest thing. I know that's not a word but I'm a mom here, not the grammar police.

Cade spent some of the evening watching part of the movie "Cars". "Mom, I told you that we had it!" - again in his cute high-pitched voice. (Ours got lost and we just recorded it on TV the other night and surprised him with getting to watch it for his birthday).

Cade's 3rd birthday ended with him watching country music videos on the computer with his daddy (one of which I heard him singing this morning - "blow, blow, Seminole wind") and then lying down next to him and getting tickles to lull him into dreamland. What a lucky boy. And what a special dad.

I love my Cade boy. He is so smart, funny, sweet, creative, cuddly, athletic, and good-hearted. With just a dash of mischievous and feisty thrown in for good measure. I'm so happy he decided to join our family 3 years ago; he was definitely worth the wait*.



*For those who don't know, my labor with Cade is the only one for me that was not induced...but it was 9 days past his due date. Those were some of the most agonizing & excruciating days of my life. But I think his labor story is my favorite because it was so super exciting to finally be experiencing labor on my own. And the sweet baby I got at the end of it all was the icing on the cake.