Life in Texas: 3.5 Years!

Pretending to be Joseph holding baby Jesus at Pre-K

I meant to finish this post yesterday but Caden has the flu. He came home from school on Wednesday and didn't seem to be feeling well. We took his temperature and it was 102.7! He hasn't been sick in over a year. We gave him some Tylenol and it went down. The next morning I called the doctor. We went in first thing yesterday morning and she couldn't find anything wrong with him except maybe he had a virus or cold. She had the nurse come in and test for the flu. It came back positive. Bummer! Overall he is doing well. Sadly we have to miss seeing his first play at Casa Manana this morning, Twas the Night Before Christmas. Other than that, I'm hoping for a quick recovery. The doctor said thankfully since I came in so soon, he may not have it as bad as if I would have waited. With Christmas in a few days, I don't want to take any chances.

It's been too long since I did a Caden update. He is now officially 3.5 years old. My little baby boy is growing up so fast. Since we went to the doctor today, I have his stats. He now weighs 34 lbs and is 41.75 inches tall.

We have really been enjoying the 3s. Of course there are days when his energy and defiantness can wear on us. But overall he is such a joy that all difficulties are quickly forgotten.

One of the most fun things we've experienced over the last 6 months is seeing how much his imagination has expanded. He loves make believe and pretending things. For example, for about a month or so he's been pretending off and on that he's a cat. He also has nicknamed Collin, Lion, and me, Rooster. We tried getting him to change my name to Lioness but he insists on Rooster, I'm not going to emphasize that a Rooster is a male chicken or insist on being called a Hen or Chicken, so I've just gone with it. It's hilarious how he'll walk to breakfast like a cat, he sometimes answers questions with a meow, and other times insists that I call him Cat, not Caden. It's funny when he says something like, "no, Caden won't do that but the cat will do that." Then he proceeds to do what ever it is we asked him to do. This actually seems to work pretty well. Cat is very helpful and very good at picking up toys and helping Rooster.

His vocabulary and language development have really taken off. Collin loves watching this especially since he's such a language guy. Caden can now tell us the difference between English, Spanish, and German. In fact, he prefers, like his mom, to be spoken to in English.

Lately Caden has stopped calling me Mommy and calls me Mom. He also started calling Collin, Dad, instead of Daddy. The first few times it caught me off guard because I thought, who told you to call me that. I think he just started doing this naturally and is part of growing up.

Caden also has great problem solving skills. He wants to find solutions to problems and will give us an example of a problem and then ask us what the solution would be. Or he'll tell us that he knows the solution to the problem and tell us how to solve it. Collin and I have both been very impressed with this. For example, he loves eggs, especially hard boiled eggs. He'll say, "what is the problem with this raw egg? And what is the solution?" We'll ask him what is the problem and solution. He'll say, "the problem is this egg is raw and needs to cook. The solution is that it is cooked and needs to be cut and then we can put some mayonnaise on it to make it sweet." This is his explanation, not ours. Not sure where he got the idea that mayonnaise makes something sweet but it doesn't enhance the flavor of eggs.

Caden sometimes insists on reading to me instead of me reading to him. He knows a good number of words but I think he mainly reads from memory. We point to the words on some of his favorite stories and he says the word as he reads it but I'm not sure if he would read some of the words in a different setting. Although a good number of words he'll spell in a "spelling bee" type setting. I'll ask him to spell a word and he'll say it then spell it. We don't play this game that often because he seems to naturally pick up words and I don't want to push reading too early. Although I know he could easily read some simple books with three and four letter words. He sounds out his letters pretty well but also has an amazing memory and seems to just memorize words as well.

His favorite book right now is "The Story for Children" which is made up of lots of stories from the Bible. One of his favorite Bible stories is David and Goliath. I think because it's about a young boy who fights a giant and with God's help wins. Caden also loves to hear about Ruth and Boaz and Samson and talking about Samson knocking over all the pillars.

We're enjoying watching Caden's faith grow as well. He loves saying the prayer at meals, he even said the prayer for his class at their Thanksgiving Feast. He talks about how he's going to be a humble leader and knows a number of church songs. He has never wanted to go to children's worship, which is new to us since returning to the States. So we keep him with us during worship. When we take communion he'll say when he gets baptized he gets to have a chip. As you know, those are not chips but it's kind of funny. Overall he does really well in worship and likes to sing the songs he knows and at times has even kept singing when everyone else has stopped. :) Thankfully only the people directly around us can hear him since our church is pretty big.

Some of Caden's favorite toys haven't really changed but he plays with them differently or like an older child would. He still loves trains, cars, Lego's and blocks, and playing in the kitchen helping me cook. He loves his cooking toys and "cooking" for me and using his tools. He also still loves taking apart toys and unscrewing things to take the batteries out then putting it back together to fix them. He is very good at taking the tires off of his bike trailer and putting them back on. He also is quite the climber and seems to have no fear at times. He is full of energy and enthusiasm.

A few favorites at a glance:
Color: Blue! Blue is such a big hit that he even insists on having a blue straw everytime he has a drink!
Songs: He loves just about every church song, his favorite being "Bless The Lord." He also loves "This Old Man" and "The First Noel."
TV Show: "Peep," "Swiss Family Robertson," and "Hermie and Friends."
Food: Oatmeal, just about every kind of fruit, chocolate, waffles, any kind of candy if he can get his hands on it, chicken, pizza, broccoli, cheese, tomotoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, carrots, PJs sandwiches, beans, and rice.
Books: Every night he wants us to read one more more stories from The Story for Little Ones, George Shrinks, and Harrold and the Purple Crayon.
Activities: Going to church and preschool. Playing with other kids, going to the park, museum, zoo, and playing in the backyard. Climbing anything and everything. Helping Mom in the kitchen. Playing games with Mom and Dad. He also likes playing ball, Inside activities include playing play-doh, building awesome cities and things with train tracks, duplo legos, and building things with blocks. He also loves pretending to be different animals.
Best friends from preschool: Daphane, Quentin, and Dillon. Quentin goes to church with us. He typically gets along with just about everyone.

Collin and I love being parents and love Caden very much. He brings us so much joy and happiness. We love watching him grow and learn. Everyday I feel so blessed that my main job right now is being a Mom.

Here are some recent precious pictures.