19 Months Old and counting..

My parents home is about twice the size of our apartment in Korea, so it's been harder to blog or find any computer time these days with a little explorer on the loose!

Caden turned 19 months old on Feb 5th. His vocabulary is increasing everyday, mostly because he tries to copy everything we say...but a special toddler dictionary is required to decipher most of what he says! He apparently really likes the letter/sound "g" (hard g as in dog) because he uses it a LOT! Some, but not all, of his recent words include: apple (ahble), banana (pronounced na at first and now nana), wash, yes (yesh), doggie, nonnie (my mom), just to name a few... He also has some new things he recognizes and points to but doesn't say... just points to the correct thing if we ask him where it is including sky, grass, garden, etc.... Those are just a few!

One of our favorite new things is that Caden has started praying with us a dinner, and at some point during each meal he decides we need to pray again, so we all do. It's so cute! When we're finished praying he yells out "Amen!"

His favorite activities these days include walking down the sidewalk with Nonnie and/or Grandaddy, playing with the dogs, going outside and playing in the yard, watching Grandaddy in his garden and begging to get in it, eating blueberries, giving kisses, asking for movies (vee), singing and dancing, playing with telephones, playing in his room (which now houses ALL of his toys and is baby proofed), scolding the dogs (pointing and wagging his finger saying "no, no, no") and getting in to everything! :)

He's cutting his one year molars (the ones on top first, and now the ones on the bottom). He loves to climb... and will climb on anything. On the furniture, the fireplace, stairs, the little hills in the back yard... anything that can be climbed on he will try to conquer.

We've always noticed that Caden is very "mechanically minded," but it is becoming more and more apparent that this fascination with how things work is not going away. There are certain things that after a little intervention and discipline he will leave alone, but the things with buttons or that control something (telephones, remote controls, computers, etc) he never gives up on. It has become quite a battle actually because as soon as we are out of the room or our backs are turned he is always trying to get them. We've always felt that those things are not developmentally appropriate for him and that a time will come when we will teach him to use them the proper way, but for now they are off limits. So, for now we fight the daily battle of "put that back" or "give the phone to Mommy, please"... Usually we don't have to tell him. As soon as he sees us he runs up to us and hands it to us and says "This" as if he's helping us out by bringing it to us.

He is such a joy and is so much fun to watch. My dad (Grandaddy to Caden) says that Caden is more entertaining than anything on TV. :)