It was only 2 and 1/2 years ago that Caden was born. He is truly a gift from God. It's been a while since I've done an update. Here's a few recent things going on with Caden.
Caden is potty trained!!! I know, I can hardly believe it. But he is doing wonderful! We started on Thanksgiving and he rarely has any accidents. He started off doing really well too. I know there will still be an occasional accident but overall he has done marvelous! When we go out, he does great, of course part of that is I think he wants to check out every bathroom everywhere we go. Sometimes multiple times too. He's especially interested in hand dryers and toilets that flush automatically or clean themselves (which they have in Germany). Hand dryers still frighten him some, but that doesn't seem to stop him from being a little obsessed with them. Both wanting to see it and talking about it. He still wears a diaper at night but surprisingly has lately been waking up dry and waiting to go to the bathroom. The first morning he did that I was in utter shock! Usually his diaper is soaked. We went through a time period where we'd change his diaper before we went to bed just so he wouldn't wake up at night wet, which then he'd wake us up. He is back in his crib but will be moving to a big boy bed again once we move back to Texas. Right before he turned two we bought him a cool car bed. He slept in it a while but then wanted to sleep in his crib. I had left his crib in his room because my friend was pregnant and I knew I would need to watch her son and I wasn't sure for how long. After going months without Caden sleeping in his car bed, we sold it.
Gab, gab, gab! There is constant chatter coming from Caden. We love it! Not sure if he takes after his mom or dad more on that one. Ha! He comes up with the funniest phrases. It's getting hard for me to remember the infant days when he would just coo and cry. Now he has opinions and is getting very good at expressing himself. Which also leads to some frustration sometimes. Especially when he can't think of the word he wants to use. Or he gets excited and starts blabbing and it becomes a mix of English, German, and Cadenish. He clearly knows what he is talking about and sure thinks we do too!
Good Health. Praise God, Caden is doing so much better! He has not thrown up in over 2 months. We have less than a week left of his medication. His iron levels are up and he seems to have even more energy and is constantly on the move. Jumping, running, galloping, climbing, you name it, he's into it. We have also been blessed to miss a few viruses that have passed through many of our friends. I feel certain God is watching over us.
A few newer things. Not sure when he started doing some of these things but I don't think I've written about this.
- He can wash and dry his hands.
- He enjoys taking his clothes off, especially pants. If he could run around naked all day, I think he would. But it is way too cold for that.
- He loves to sing, this isn't new but the number of songs he knows has greatly increased. The other day he sung all the words to "Jingle Bells." Collin and I looked at each other and asked who taught him that. We seriously have maybe sung it with him 3 times. Caden loves all music but especially Christmas music right now.
- He knows his mom's name is Marisa and his dad's name is Collin. A few weekends ago we were driving and he said, "there is Marisa and Collin. They are my parents." That was probably the most shocking thing I've heard him say recently. I asked Collin who told him that. Collin said he talks to him about that sometimes.
- He can spell our last name. Early on he could spell his first name and now he can spell his last.
- Caden is starting to recognize more words. Some words such as his name, mom, cat, dog, and zoo he easily knows, but he's also starting to piece words together and sound them out.
- He still rarely takes a nap and when he does it becomes a late night for us. So typically his bedtime is from 7-7:30pm and he wakes up between 7 and 8am. On average he sleeps about 12 hours but sometimes 11.5-13. It just depends on how tired he is.
- He loves other kids. After MOPS or church he'll tell me, "I had fun playing with the kids. They are cool. We played with a ball" or whatever they did. I love getting to know what he does when he's away from me. It makes me feel a little better about leaving him in someone else's care when he can tell me about it.
- He knows where Texas and Germany are on the map. His placemat at the table is a world map. He talks about getting in an airplane and flying to see his grandparents and points and says, "there's Germany and there's Texas. We are going to fly to Texas."
- He likes playing the piano. I look forward to him learning to play. He seems to have good rhythm and I know anything he sets his mind to he'll be able to achieve.
- He loves candy, thanks to Halloween when he got his first piece. He no longer plays with a sucker and pretends it's a drum. Oh no, he wants it open so he can eat it. Germans are very generous with handing out candy to kids, especially chocolate and gummy bears. Caden's favorite candy is gummy bears which he calls, gummy bearies.
Favorite Toys
- Marbles and pom poms. We have a wooden marble set and he LOVES it! Everyday he wants to play it. Several months ago I bought some pom poms (little cotton ball type things) and have him sort them by color. We also make letters with them. He loves playing with those too.
- Tools. Any tool that looks like Dad's he loves. He'd prefer Collin's tools over the toy ones. He loves to pretend to fix things.
- Coloring. He loves writing and drawing pictures.
- Play-Doh, who doesn't love it?!
What he wishes were toys
Batteries - this is a constant battle. He can easily remove batteries from remote controls, keyboards, and anything that does not require a screw. I finally figured out why he'd play his toys that made noise and walk away. He wanted to run down the batteries so we would open them and replace them. He started bringing us something that needed new batteries. He'll say, "this toy needs new batteries. You need to take off the screws and put new batteries in." Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It depends on the toy.
Caden, you bring so much joy to our life. You constantly bring smiles and laughter to our home. We love you and very much enjoy getting to watch you learn and grow.
Love,
Mom and Dad
