Happy Graduation Mom

This post is a little out of order because this took place on Cadel's birthday but before his party. If you missed the birthday party post it was the first post this month.

On May 22nd Mom took part in commencement ceremonies at the University of San Francisco. Cadel was a very good boy. He behaved himself through all the boring speeches and the many many people who walked across the stage before Mom finally had her name called.
Cadel and Dad sneaked all the way up to the side of the stage so we could be close to Mom just before she walked on stage. We had a great view and we were both very proud and cheered for Mom.

The picture above is from the nice lawn area just outside the ceremony. This is one of Dad's favorite pictures of his two roommates.

Next is our big trip to Israel. Hopefully no volcanoes decide to disrupt our trip again. The blog will be back as soon as we return from our trip.

My first year video

Here is a great video summary of Cadel's first year. Thanks for doing all the work Mom!

I'm One Year Old!!!!

May 22nd was Cadel's first birthday. To celebrate Mom and Dad invited a bunch of their friends, and their kids, over to have a party. We know eventually we'll have to invite his friends to his birthday so we are taking advantage while we can.
Cadel had a great time. We thought all the people might bother him a little since he has been having bouts of shyness lately. But even with everyone staring at him, while we sang happy birthday, he seemed more concerned with the candle and cupcake in front of him than all the people. Cadel was very good and did not even attempt to grab the candle. Smart boy we have there.

After the singing and blowing out the candle (with the help of dad) it was cake time.
Cadel seemed a little unsure. He slowly reached out with a finger and touched the frosting. Then he dabbed at the frosting a little more and took some on his finger. Ever so cautiously he moved the frosting towards his mouth and tasted it.
At that point a switch went on. Cadel did away with any hesitation and just started taking handfuls of frosting and chowing down. Dad then split the cupcake in half for him and he started in on the actual cake instead of just the frosting.

Once he had eaten half of the cup cake Mom decided it was time to save cadel from himself and took away the other half. It was for the best because he was a ll fired up for the rest of the day.

There is so much more to say but we have a couple more posts for May 22, 2009 coming. Cadel wants to say thank you to everyone for making his first birthday fantastic.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Cadel wanted to say happy Mother's Day to Mom, Safta, Oma and GG Lindheim and GG Biery. Thanks to all the moms in Cadel's life for sharing all their love!

Cadel Update:

Cadel has now learned how to climb up on lower ledges like the fireplace mantel. He can also now walk almost all the way across the house. In two weeks he went from walking eight feet to walking about 30 ft. Next up is running everywhere.

Israel Trip Postponed

Unfortunately the unpronoucable volcano in Iceland, that would be the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, that caused all the problems with European air travel put an end to our trip to Israel for now. Our second connection was through Frankfurt Germany. Germany started canceling flights the day before we were supposed to leave. By the time our trip was scheduled to fly all flights in and out of Germany had been canceled indefinitely.

We have rescheduled our trip for mid June. We lost our deposit on the first trip, it will be much hotter in June and it will cost a little more to stay there but we think it is important for Cadel to meet the Shitrit side of his family. For those of you who do not speak Hebrew I know Shitrit looks funny in English but it sounds just fine when pronounced properly.

All in all the situation could have been much worse. We could have been stuck in Germany with a ten month old and no where to stay and with no one who spoke German. That would have been terrible. Now if we were stuck in Israel I really wouldn't complain too much. Oh well. At least it is a good story for Cadel's first attempted trip to Israel.

We are in trouble now

We've been holding off writing this post but I think it is finally time to post it.

Cadel is now walking. His max distance is about seven feet but that is impressive for a 10 month old. He has been taking two to three steps for a couple weeks. But now he will cross most of a room to walk to you. He loves showing off his new skills. He always has a big smile on his face while a biped.

You can tell walking is a big effort for him because if he is tired he won't even try it. It is very cute to see him waddle about like a drunken sailor (no offense AJ).

We'll post a video as soon as we can. Our next post will be from Israel. We (Dad, Mom, Safta and Cadel) are off to Tel Aviv early Friday morning.

Talk to you next time.

Bath time fun

Just had to post this picture. Cadel loves to take baths. I was finally able to get a good picture of him. That's it. Just wanted everyone to see the cute picture.

Where have we been!?

I bet by now you thought we forgot about this blog. Nope... just took a short break. Since we have a lot to catch up on I'll just write 'mini-entries' for the highlights of the past month.

San Antonio

Cadel made another trip to San Antonio, Texas to visit great grandpa Charles and greatma Rosalyn (I hope I'm spelling that right). Cadel was great on the plane. It was quite a long trip out to Texas with a long layover at LAX in between San Francisco and San Antonio. Cadel had a great time and was even able to get just a little bit of time to herself at the gym while they were there. The gym had daycare. How nice is that?
(By the way this is all via Erin. I wasn't on the trip)

Nine Month Check up

Cadel had his nine month check up. He is now in the 4th percentile for weight, skinny guy, and the 62nd percentile for height. So we have a tall and lean kid so far. I don't think baby fat will ever set in on this kid. He has been eating like a champ lately so maybe he will finally break that 20 lbs. barrier. Unfortunately little Mr. Cadel also had his first serious sickness during this time. He was on amoxicillin for 10 days. That seemed to kick the real nasty stuff but he wasn't completely over the it for another week. He is better now. Back to his normal self.

Dinner at the Pritchard's

Mom, Dad and Cadel headed over to Berkeley to have dinner with Jennifer, Will and little Caroline Pritchard. They have a fantastic house and we had a great dinner with them and another couple. Caroline is one week younger than Cadel so they were able to play. Caroline did let Cadel know who was boss right off the bat. After the initial rough play they got a long great. We'll definitely have to get the families together again soon. Baby play dates are lots of fun for the kids and the parents.

Teeth....

Cadel is like a little shark. We are up to six teeth with two more on the way. He is putting the teeth to good use. It is pretty funny to watch him eat a cracker now a days. He'll nibble on the edges until he gets bored then try to jam whatever is left in his mouth. Once he gets some back teeth in he'll be an eating machine.

Standing and Walking

Cadel isn't quite to walking on his own just yet but he sure is close. He has tried a couple time to take a step but hasn't figured out the balance yet. But with his walking toys he walks all over the house. You really have to keep an eye on him.
As for standing he will stand unassisted for up to 10 seconds now. He just hangs out standing there with a ball or a block in his hands. Sometimes he gets a little smirk on his face like he is saying 'look what I can do.'

I think that covers just about everything. Next up is our trip to Israel in about four weeks. I'll try to update before then. See you soon.

First trip to Tahoe and already hooked!

Last week Cadel made his first of, hopefully, many trips to Lake Tahoe. The Berringers (Todd, Jackie and Elizabeth) were nice enough to invite us up to their family condo just outside of South Lake Tahoe for the President's Day weekend.

Depending on your idea of good Tahoe weather it was either fantastic or kind of blah. The temperature was in the upper 40s to lower 50s both days. Everyone else thought this was great. Dad would have preferred 25 degrees and snowy but then again Dad was the only one hitting the slopes. Since the snow was rough, even the though you could go out in a t-shirt, dad only went out one day. A little resort boarding and a little backcountry hiking and boarding made for a solid day.

But I digress. Back to the main subject of this blog. Here are Cadel and Dad at the base of the Heavenly gondola. We took this picture right before the Lindheims and Berringers had dinner at Fire & Ice. Nice place if you haven't been but a little pricey.

Overall Cadel had a great weekend. Elizabeth was fantastic all weekend sharing her toys with Cadel and understanding he is still a baby and hasn't learned sharing yet. Cadel was alittle unsure about the cold. He was willing to put up with it for about 30 minutes before you had to get him back inside. Hopefully next time we head up we'll have some snow clothes for him so we can get some pictures of him in the snow.

Today Cadel returned from his second trip to San Antonio, Texas. Mom will get to update the blog for that trip since Dad had to stay home. Cadel is now half way through his four 2010 trips. Another trip to Lake Tahoe next month (north shore this time) then Israel in April.

Growing up fast

Cadel is off and running, almost literally, on his way to being a toddler. In the last post you saw how he can now pull himself up to a standing position. That is old news just four weeks later. Not only is he pulling himself up with ease he has learned how to balance himself against walls to stand up (meaning nothing to grab on to like a shelf, table or chair). Once he had that down he moved on to using objects to walk around. He has figured out how to move from the coffee table to couch by slowly shifting his weight towards the couch so he starts to lean over. Once he is just about to fall he swings his hands over and grabs the couch to stand against.

Not to sound like a broken record but he left that little trick in the dust and now uses his play table (I guess that is what you call it) to walk around the den. I'll try to get a video of this tonight and post it soon.

In other news Cadel's first tooth is completely in. One of his bottom front teeth is on display for all to see. Currently his two front teeth are coming in at the same time. This makes for some excitement around the house but also a very grumpy little boy. Hopefully the teeth come in before Mom heads to Texas to see Cadel's great grandparents in San Antonio later this month.

Cadel's travel itinerary has filled up fast. He is taking a trip to San Anontio and heading to South Lake Tahoe this month. Next month he is going to North Lake Tahoe and most likely Seattle/Redmond Washington for a weekend. After that it is off to Israel at the end of April to see Saba and all of his family there.

By the time this kid is one he will have traveled to three states outside of California (not counting a lay over in Chicago in April)and been to Israel and Germany (for about 10 hours). He is living the life for sure. Too bad he won't remember any of it. I guess that is why we have a Flip video camera and nice SLR camera.

Get Up Stand Up

Look at Cadel's new trick. He loves to show off how he can pull himself up almost anywhere. Of course this means Mom and Dad have to pay much more attention. Now that Cadel can pull himself up into a standing position he is determined to stand without any assistance. Every now and then he lets go with both hands to test the waters. He can only stand unassisted for a couple seconds right now. But it will not be long before he is standing on his own and walking. Yikes!

It is hard enough to keep track of him with all the crawling right now. Once he is walking he is going to be running which means a lot more exercise for Mom and Dad. No doubt about that.

Outside of that Cadel had an uneventful New Years. Oma was nice enough to watch Cadel so Mom and Dad could have an eventful New Years. When we got home Cadel was waiting up for us. Not so good for Oma but a nice way for us to start the New Year.