Two and a half :)

Caden turned 2 1/2 on Saturday the 21st. .  He weighs approximately 30 pounds and is  36 1/2 inches tall.  He is wearing 2T/3T clothes and size 8 1/2 shoes.  We started working on potty training earlier in the month.  It has been going well for the most part.  Sometimes he'd just rather play than stop to take a bathroom break and he tells me that!  He is completely in love with all things CHRISTMAS! This is why our house has been all decorated for Christmas for 2 weeks already.  He wouldn't stop asking to put the tree up and decorate.  So we figured why not? We've read the Charlie Brown Christmas book nearly everyday for the last couple weeks.  On the last page they sing, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and he can sing the whole song.  He loves to sing and has recently figured out about making his voice go up and down.  It's pretty cute.  He sings several songs, but Christmas songs and Happy Birthday are the favorites right now.  The last couple weeks he's really been interested in building towers with blocks. He has quite the imagination and I love to listen to him as he plays.  We're still working on the letters at the end of the alphabet and when he counts past 10 it usually sounds something like, 11, 12, 14, 16, 14 :)  He's interested in how to spell things and we practice his name.  He said it one time last week while riding in the car, but I haven't gotten him to say it again.  He does know how to spell banana and asks how to spell all his family members names a lot.  We try to work on "preschool time" on the days he shows interest.  He has a couple of workbooks and has learned to draw a circle around objects, find ones that match, draw a line between 2 matching objects and trace shapes.

Just because we are already gearing up for Christmas doesn't mean we aren't focusing on Thanksgiving.  We have checked out lots of books from the library about Thanksgiving and in Sunday School they have been talking about what they are thankful for.  I ask him when he wakes up in the morning what he's thankful for and I love to hear his answers.  So sweet!  Most of the time he'll say the name of a friend or family member, and sometimes it's the simple things like, "blankets to make you cozy!"  We've been working memorizing Bible verses and he can quote 3 of them now.  Proverbs 3:5, Psalm 33:9 and Psalm 107:1. He loves to make funny face, talk in silly voices and make up words.

Here are some of the highlights of the last 3 months.

This is one of my favorites! We went to the park and I had to take a picture during the prayer before lunch.  So sweet!

 The boys found bandanas in the hall closet :)

 Fun play dates at the park with friends!

 We took a short trip to Omaha at the end of September.  

Caden loved the Zoo! 

 We spent the day in Weston with friends and family.  Looks like he enjoyed jumping on the hay bales!

All the kiddos:)

 Family pic in the pumpkins

 We love fall and tried to enjoy as many fall activities as possible.  This was taken at the Cider Hill Orchard.  We picked apples and enjoyed a hayride. 

 We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday at Lamborn Farm with a catered dinner in the barn and fun in the pumpkin patch.

Mitch's company offered him a ticket to watch the Royals play Game 5 of the ALDS.  At the last minute one of his coworkers got sick and couldn't go.  So, he called Shannon and she went with him.  

October 22nd Mitch & I celebrated 10 years of marriage.  I surprised him with an overnight stay in Weston at the Saint George Inn.  We had a fun time exploring downtown Weston and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

 Mahaffie Farmstead Trick or Treating

Dinner at Fritz's

We had the privilege of attending Game 1 of the World Series with some friends who'd gotten tickets from work.  It was such an awesome experience and even better since they won.  It took them 14 innings to do it, but what a fun night!

 We went to Hancock's for pumpkin carving and Uncle Mike's birthday lunch on Halloween.  We decided to stick with the Mickey Mouse theme for our pumpkin, too!

 Caden happened to wake up while we were watching Game 5 of the World Series about 3 minutes before the win.  I got him up and carried him out to watch it.  He was pretty confused, but we've waited 30 years for this, we figured he might as well see it :)  Then he went right back to sleep.  He really got into the Royals the last month.  It was fun to watch him enjoy the games and start to understand the game of baseball.  He can tell you several of the players and has been imitating their pitching. He throws a pretty awesome fast ball!

 We had a Halloween party with friends and with this many kids, this kind of group picture is as good as it gets :)

We found these in one of the boxes of Christmas decorations.  He was so excited this shirt still fit him.  It was his favorite last Christmas.  The sunglasses complete the outfit!

 One of his many tower creations

Celebrating Memo's birthday with lunch at the Webster House.  She was the last of the grandparents to turn 60:)

 We celebrated Papa's birthday at Longhorn then dessert at our house. 

Decorating the tree.  He had a favorite section of the tree which got most of the ornaments.  

 Caden's Christmas corner in his room

 Packing the shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

 Picking up leaves and sticks.  The reindeer glasses were a needed accessory!

We always have Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  This is a picture of all the cousins in Caden's generation.  

Happy 30 months, Caden!

2 years and 3 months

I decided to do a quarterly update this year.

Caden LOVES toast.  It's one of his favorite things to eat.  He continues to love food and some meals eats more that I do. Daddy says he needs to be potty trained so we can use the diaper money to pay for all the extra food he eats :)  We've been attempting to get him interested in potty training. At this point, he's still in size 5 diapers and wearing 2T clothes. He has 16 teeth now.  At his 2 year well child appointment they said he was 28 pounds and 34 1/2" tall.  He's grown since then because he can now open all of our doors and flip the light switches off and on.  They also heard a very faint heart murmur at his appointment and we've been back one time since then to check on it.  It was still present, but the Dr feels confident that it's an innocent murmur, so we'll wait a little while longer to re-check then decide if an echocardiogram should be done to confirm that it's all ok.

One of his new phrases is, "that's my favorite!" He talks all the time! He likes to make up words, followed by, "That's funny word!" I love when he uses big words.  His cousin, Owen, taught him the word "gorgeous."  Pretty cute! There are a few words that crack us up.  He's started calling the kitchen, the chicken.  He says this one in all seriousness.  He used to say kitchen, so I'm not sure why it's changed, but Mitch and I tend to call it that, too, since it's funny.  At night he also hears the "loocusts" outside his window. :) He keeps us laughing with that fun personality!

He's very interested in the alphabet and matching things that are the same.  I feel like we're already doing some preschool with all the time we spend doing his alphabet puzzle, his matching games and workbooks.  He's been enjoying coloring, also. He can count from 1-10, then goes straight to 14.  When he says  the alphabet he makes it to P, with L-P running all together.  Q throws him for a loop.  If you help him with Q he can usually make it to Z.  It's so fun watching him learn new things.

He promoted to the 2's and 3's Sunday School class at the beginning of June.  It's fun to pick him up and have him show me his craft and tell me about his lesson.  It looks like they aren't paying any attention at that age, but he's learning.  He continues to love reading. He has most of his books memorized and fills in the words as I read them.  Some books he has entire paragraphs memorized.  He also loves singing and can sing several songs.  I've sung him hymns before nap and bed basically every day since he was born and he can fill in several phrases of the hymns as well.  He requests "Tis So Sweet" most days.  I love that his favorite songs and books are the ones about Jesus.

We've done a lot of celebrating over the last 3 months.  Here are some of the pictures from those celebrations and a few that are just too cute to not post :)

Memorial Day at Grandma Mary Lu's.  We went earlier in the day to put flowers on the graves at Chapel Hill, then walked across the street after dinner to my grandparent's graves.  

 Memorial Day lunch at Hancock's. Having some fun with Uncle Mike & Aunt Aimee.

 First haircut :)

Owen's 3rd birthday!

 Reading bedtime stories with Baw-Baw.

 Family party for Daddy's birthday.

 Helping Daddy blow out his candles.

Reading books like a big boy on his new bed.

We took down the crib and got him a full size mattress that we're just keeping on the floor for now.  I rearranged his shelves with less baby decor and more little boy things.  A friend was updating his room and gave Caden all his automobile canveses.  They look great in his room!

The pack and play got moved back in his room for a contained time-out space.  He'll be glad to tell you he goes in time-out "because he not listen!"

Celebrating Papa & Memo's 40th Anniversary at Stroud's. 

Daddy's birthday celebration with the Whitneys.

I took Caden to his favorite store, Dollar General, and let him pick out some things for Daddy for Father's Day.  Bacon was the first thing he picked.  He knows what his Daddy likes!

Happy 25 months, Caden!!

He loves to eat corn on the cob and if we don't eat ours fast enough, he eats his then wants to eat ours!

4th of July fun at Hancock's.  He loved that ALL of his family was there!

Riding in Denny's golf cart with Daddy & Papa.

 

Aunt ShooShee

 

He is such a great laundry helper.  When he's on the stool he can reach to put the "laundrys" in, as he likes to say.

Celebrating Baw-Baw's 60th birthday!

 Margot's 1st birthday!

 Picnic at the Basehor Park

Caden loves story time at the library.  He participated in the Summer Reading Program and these were his prizes from Mr. Patrick.  

 Playing in his water table from Aunt Shannon.  He was carrying water to the empty flower pots and splashing in the mud.  Needless to say he was a dirty mess and got a bath before bed.  He also takes water to the bunny that hangs out in our gazebo.  Happy 26 months, Caden!

We had dinner at Trezo Mare to celebrate 10 years since Daddy asked Mommy to marry him!

 Family party for Baw-Baw, Aunt Megan and Grandma Mary Lu. 

 We went to Topeka for Mitch's cousins wedding.  

Daddy taught him to say, "I'm so handsome!"

 Trying out his new helmet at Papa & Memo's house.  Pretty cute! He loves to say, "watch out!"

 Wanted to wear his hat and sunglasses :)

 Helping Aunt LeeLee blow out her birthday candles.

 Swatting flies is something that make Caden laugh the hardest.  If he sees a fly he'll ask for the swatter and go after it.  Sometimes he carries my spatula around the house looking for flies, too.

 A very competitive game of Winnie the Pooh Uno was going on at

 our dining room table!

 He wanted to brush his teeth like Daddy :

 Hard at work on his new learning workbook!

Happy 27 months, Caden!