When the Dream Never Dies: 23 month update

I'm a little behind on the blog update. Caden turned 23 months old just before our beach vacation, so the blog post got put on hold. If you ask him how old he is, he'll say, "2 May!" He's already practicing. It will be here before we know it. Three new teeth are working their way in, finally! His lowers molars and his other upper cuspid are part of the way through. He can say all his numbers from 1-10 except 7. Now we're just working on getting them in the right order. He'll repeat the letters in the alphabet and can say all but 4 of the letters. The "k" sound is tricky for him to say, so words involving that sound get substituted with a new sound of his choice. It's pretty funny, because it's different in each word. Last month I counted the words he could say but I can't keep track anymore. He says so many new words all the time. He says, "oh, sheesh" and it cracks me up. I also like how he says, "ummm" while he's thinking and he says, "nope, yep, and yes" all the time. He sound so grown up. It's nice that he can communicate more. For the first time he was able to tell me when something was hurting him. He'd been kind of crying in his sleep and when I asked him about it the next morning, he pointed to his tooth and said it was owie.

I can't believe how closely he pays attention when we're driving around. I'm pretty sure he could direct you to both of his granparent's houses. When we take walks, he likes to walk now and when we get to an intersection, he likes to pick if we will go straight, left or right. He still loves to sing and dance. The 2 new songs he likes are "Ain't No Sunshine" and sings along when it repeats, "I know, I know, I know..." and a Need to Breathe song that has some "ohs" in the chorus that he sings. If you even start whistling that song, he'll recognize it and start singing. I love that he loves music and can't wait to sing more songs with him. He has a lot of his books memorized and when I pause he fills in the words. We have been spending lots of time outside. He still watches the school buses each morning and afternoon and loves it when the bus goes by his house.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month.

My boys were checking the oil and putting gas in both of their mowers.

The day before Easter Caden took part in his first Easter egg hunt at Judson. He wasn't sure what to think and kept saying there was trash in the yard. He seemed to get the hang of it by the end of the hunt. His cousins were hunting with him, too.

A few hours later he went on his 2nd egg hunt at Hancock's. There was no competition here, all the eggs were his on this hunt. After that, we got to hunt our eggs with Mike & Aimee. Aimee & I changed into our running shoes and got lined up to hunt. We are a little competitive :) There's money in our eggs, so of course we mean business!

Helping Uncle Mike count his eggs

Easter morning we worshipped at our church, Fellowship West. What an exciting day to celebrate the hope that we have in Jesus!

Snuggling with the little lamb he got at church from Miss Reba.

He looked so handsome in his Easter outfit.

So cute in their matching vests and pants.

Here he is hunting eggs on his 3rd and final hunt of the weekend. We went to dinner at Grandma Mary Lu's with my family and Aunt Sally. Caden & Owen hunted some eggs in the house since it cooled off that evening.

Caden and I started working on packing the week before the trip. Well, I was packing and just as quickly he was unpacking. :)

The circle on his tray is where he puts the food he doesn't want :) He used to throw the food on the floor if he didn't want it, so this is our compromise.