Snowshoeing!

We had the opportunity to go snowshoeing for the first time last weekend! We went with a couple of Garrett's coworkers to the Snoqualmie area.

If you've never seen or heard of snowshoes, the really old looking ones looked like wooden tennis rackets on your feet. Now they're a little more modern!

We bundled Cade up and even found him a pair of baby goggles! Aren't they cute! He wore them the entire time!

Cade was so warm and cozy, that he fell asleep during our hike! I'll have to download the video of him later; he was snoring! Garrett says he looks like a little piggy in this picture, because his cheeks are all red!

We have been having some nice, sunny days in WA. We took advantage of one this weekend and went on a walk along the Tacoma waterfront. If you look closely, you can see Mt. Rainier in the background, on the right.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cade has been getting much stronger and is able to sit very well on his own. He has started taking tub baths! Notice the hairy legs of Daddy sitting in the tub with him! :) I promised Garrett I wouldn't post the pictures of him, even though they're completely G-rated; he said his legs are too white!

Cade loves to play with his binkies. He takes them out and chews on both ends.


Uncle Kyle bought Aunty Trisha this stuffed turtle. They both thought it looked like Cade, so we had to compare!

crawling update...

Cade's new favorite toy is this penguin he got for Christmas, but didn't bring out until now. He loves hitting it and watching it spring back at him! What a ham!

Cade is practicing getting ready to crawl soon! Agh! We need to baby-proof the house!

Cade's 6 month pictures...

Yep, it's another update brought to you by the Yamada family! I couldn't resist posting these pics. We had been pondering whether or not to have pictures of Cade done professionally. We initially wanted to have pictures taken when he was a newborn. But, time, work and play consumed our life and before we realized it, Cade is half a year old! I am fortunate to have a very talented co-worker, who did an amazing job at capturing Cade's smile!

Don't let all the smiles above fool you! This is really how Cade felt! He was uncharacteristically fussy the day of the photo shoot, so I was a little worried we wouldn't get any cute pictures!

yamada family picture (even sporty looks like he's smiling!)

January videos...

This video is from the end of December. Cade started rolling over both ways and trying to scoot!

Cade giggling (sorry it's upside down and didn't have time to figure out how to change it)

January in review...

I've been politely reminded by many that our blog has not been updated in quite some time! (Nearly a month!) Don't sweat, everything is ok in the Yamada house, we've just been a little busy. So, here's a quick review of some of the things we've done in January and how fast Cade is growing! (He's 6 months old already!)

Cade loves sweet potatoes and cereal mixed together, just like his Aunty Lisa! He LOVES to play and bite the spoon all the time!

We noticed a second tooth sprouting in mid December, and it has grown a lot since! As of Friday when he had his 6 month well baby check-up, he now has a third tooth popping out! Last weekend we rode the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island; it's a very short ride- 20 minutes tops. We went with the regular gang to watch and participate in a mochitsuki event.
I learned a little bit of history; Bainbridge Island was a Japanese internment site during WWII.

Pounding the mochi to make it soft and pliable (usually done by the men, but there were some women who did it!). Anyone could step up to pound; we tried to get our "men" (Kyle, Shawn and Garrett) to do it, but they didn't want to.

The Seattle skyline as we rode the ferry back. We took the picture quickly, not only because it was COLD up on deck. But also because the seagulls were hoving over us! Luckily, Garrett didn't get pooped on this time!

Uncle Derek and Aunty Steph stopped in to visit us, TWICE! The first was right after New Years, on their way back from Whistler. Then again this weekend! We got to spend a lot of time talking, catching up, and reminiscing about the good 'ole Pacific days. Cade LOVES when Aunty Steph plays peek-a-boo. He even started leaning over sideways to see where she had disappeared to! Our big boy!

Finally, we were able to attend Garrett's work Winter Gala, which was originally scheduled for December. Because of the heavy snow we received one weekend, the event was rescheduled to this weekend. Cade had a great time with Aunty Abbie, Uncle Cyrus and their lab, Roscoe. Abbie reported that Cade got a kick out of Roscoe chasing after his toy; Cade giggled hysterically as he watched Roscoe run back and forth!

Cade is now 16.7 lbs. (double his birth weight, which is good!) and about 25.5 inches long.

He is in the 25th percentile for weight, length and head circumference. He's petite, but proportionate.

Christmas Trip to Hawaii...

Our Christmas trip home to Hawaii started off a little snowy! Our initial plans were that Garrett and Cade were going to fly out Thursday (yes, by themselves!) and Lynn would join them Friday or Saturday. However, plans changed when Lynn's school was cancelled because of the winter blizzard. Fortunately, we flew out right before the airports closed down and all of the travel chaos began. We were lucky!

Seatac Airport snowy! We were about an hour delayed out of Seattle because of the snow and they had to de-ice our plane. Friends and family all advised us that we needed to feed Cade as we took off and landed. We tried our best, but the delay screwed us up! Our happy baby only likes warm milk, so luckily sucked on the binkie as we took off. Cade did a good job flying to Maui. We were surprised to see a baby changing table in the lavatory on the newer Hawaiian airplanes! Cade didn't want to be put down in the spare seat between Garrett and I nor did he want to be carried by Garrett. But, I enjoyed the time with him because I knew once we got to Maui, he would be carried by everyone else non-stop!
Cade meeting his great grandma Yoshie and great grandpa Nobu.
First fishing trip! Cade hung out in the tent all day, so he didn't get any sunburn! Here he's watching Daddy fish. No big catches that day, but had a lot of fun with family and friends.
The hike into the fishing spot took us about 45 minutes.

Family fishing picture: Cade fell asleep on the walk back to the car.

We escaped to the Westin Kaanapali Villas for a night of luxury! It was amazingly beautiful! We had our own kitchen and living room, along with a private hot tub in the bathroom. I think we need to remodel our house to look like this!

Cade's Santa picture at the mall. He didn't smile- too many distractions! At least he didn't cry!

Cade has had many visitors come up to WA already, but still had a lot more family to meet on Maui. Here's his 2nd cousins, Caitlyn, Courtney, and Lindsey.

More family! Lynn's 2nd cousins- Micah, Michael, Tina, Wesley, Allicia, and Stephanie.

All of the great-grandkids! Garrett's cousin's babies: Rysee, Lia, Shaina, Natyana and Chaz.

Sadly, back on the plane to WA. Again, fortunate to be on an empty flight, so Cade got to sleep on his own seat! He was so pooped from all the fun he had that he slept for 3 out of the 5 hour plane ride! WOW!

Bundled back up for the cold weather! We spent 9 wonderful days on Maui, which was too little! Cade didn't get to play in the sand or at the beach because we were so busy visiting family and friends! Next trip definitely!

This is the blizzard we were missing in WA! Poor Kyle and Sporty!