He is 33 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds , according to my calculations. He is wearing 24 month clothes and a few 2T. His vocabulary continues to expand! He has started saying his grandparent's names and this makes them just a little bit happy :) He repeats them over and over, which makes me just a little bit crazy :) He also says the names of several of his aunts, uncles and cousins. He asks to go see them daily and if he can't go see them, he wants to look at their pictures. He has developed a love for toast and gets quite excited, screaming, "TOAST" when he gets to eat it with butter. We have continued to work foods back into his diet that he didn't use to be able to tolerate. Little by little, his digestion continues to improve and we love that he can eat wheat now. It opens up a lot more options for him. Mitch and I have done a lot of reading and research about foods since we had Caden. We were wanting to find the best foods for him to eat, figuring out what needed to be organic and foods that would be easy for his digestion. In doing all that, we were more educated and convicted to make some changes in our own eating habits. Last year we started trying to eliminate highly processed foods from our diet and eat more "real foods." In January, we tried to take that to the next level and cut out a few more things. It's been difficult and we still allow ourselves several cheats :) Sometimes you just can't resist an Auntie Anne's pretzel while shopping at the Legends, or going out to dinner, etc. We're just trying to eat better, when we're at home. This means a little more work in the kitchen since we make a lot of things from scratch now. Good thing I like to cook!
We booked a trip to go to Orange Beach, Alabama in April with my family and are looking forward to that. Hopefully Caden does well on the flights! I'm excited to see how he reacts to so many new things he's never seen before. I ordered him some new swim trunks this week. Yes, I'm ready for winter to be over! Although, I was happy it snowed this week, because he hadn't been able to go out and play in the snow at all this winter. It was pretty fun to see him play in it. I'll post pictures below, of course.
He continues to love music, dancing, reading books and watching out the window each morning and afternoon when the school buses come by while yelling, "bus!" For some reason, he's started waking up earlier and earlier in the mornings and taking shorter naps. No matter what time we put him to bed he wakes up in the 6 o'clock hour. We invested in an "Ok to wake" clock this week to see if it helps. When he falls asleep he likes to be holding a domino and the mailman from the Little People set. He loves to hide and will hide most anywhere. Most of the day he makes messes, but every once in a while he's helpful. He helps me move clothes from the washer to the dryer, puts the clean socks away, gets a towel and cleans the floor if he spills his water and helps me make our bed. He loves to throw things in the trash. Most of the time he understands what's trash and what isn't, but we keep a pretty close eye when he takes off running while yelling, "trash" to make sure we agree!
We went to Basehor Library for story time a couple times this month. He starts off really shy then is up participating by the end. We've also gone to a couple of Upward Basketball games to watch friends play. I was surprised by how much he loved it. He actually sits still and watches and has been trying to dribble ever since. When the cheerleaders came out he started yelling, "ball!" Something tells me he won't always prefer the game over the cheerleaders.
He understands about praying before meal time now and it's so sweet to watch him bow his head and hold our hands while we pray. When I ask if he wants to sing before bed, he'll start singing, "Bible, Bible" in a sweet little voice meaning he wants to sing, "Jesus Loves Me." He also loves to sing, "Wheels on the Bus" and do all the actions. He learned to whisper this month and has been working on his numbers.
Here are some of my favorites from the last month...
Looking sharp for church in his sports coat
Aunt Aimee's Birthday
He loves to hide behind the curtains
He convinced Daddy to get in his house with him. That took a little maneuvering!
He's pretty excited that I let him start using a fork. I was afraid of what he'd stab!
We went to Paulo and Bill's for Valentine's Day while Caden stayed with my parents
What's not to Love?
Watching Upward Basketball on Valentine's Day with Aunt Shannon and GiGi
Then we stopped by "Mimi and Mike's" cause he'd been asking to see them :)
Opening the Valentine treats from us
All bundled up and ready to play in the snow!
He wanted to get his mower out. I guess it's like a snow blower?
He loves to sit behind the rocker in his room and read to his bear, Dodo.
We built a fort in the living room to help keep us entertained on these cold winter days.
We had the privilege of attending Pastor Steve's retirement and 25th anniversary celebration on Caden's 21 month birthday. What a blessing Pastor Steve has been to our family!
Happy 21 months, Caden!!
