My sweet baby boy,
You are 26 months old right now and are loving life! And we are loving every minute with you. Here are some funny things you do and some of your accomplishments:
- Every morning when we get you out of your crib we immediately change your diaper and then bring you to the living room. You let us rock you in the chair while you watch a TV show and drink “Caden’s Coffee” as you call it. Caden’s coffee is a special treat we still do each morning. We give you a sippy cup full of warm milk. You love it and guzzle it down.
- You sing so many songs now, and sing them well! You know every word to the ABC song, including the “now I know my abcs next time won’t you sing with me” part.
- When you sing Jesus Loves Me you clasp your hands together like you are praying.
- When you sing the Wheels on the bus song, you only sing about the wheels as they do all the actions (The wheels on the bus go swish, swish, swish all through the town- and then shh, waaa, bump, etc).
- When we read your lift the flap books you often pretend they are a jack in the box and pretend that you are turning a knob on top of the flap while you sing “All around the cobb-a-lers bench the monkey chased the WEASEL (emphasis)” and when you sing “Pop!” you open the flap.
- You like to try and read the books to Dad and I now. In one of your books there are pictures on the side panel for you to find on the main page and you like to point to a small picture in the panel (like the dog) and say “Where is it on the page” and you make giant circles over the page with your finger. Obviously the sentence you say above isn't crystal clear, but we can understand enough of it with your hand motions to figure out what you mean. :D
- You never eat breakfast anymore….
- “This?” is a word we hear often! Sometimes it’s used to learn the name of an object (or a speck you see somewhere, lol), but most often it’s used for people. You want to know the name of everyone! On your Praise Baby movies there are images of children playing and you always want to know their names, asking “This?” Also in your books, you often want to know the names of all the characters (and in most toddler books the characters don’t have names).
- Will is your best friend. You adore him and the two of you have so much fun together. It has been fun watching you boys go from just watching each other play or playing side by side, to really playing together and laughing your heads off all the while! You call his mama “Ashley” and his daddy “Mitter Don.” And boy you know exactly how to get to his house, too, often asking us to go there when we pass that part of town.
- Speaking of knowing where Will lives, you also know where Nonnie and G-daddy live. When we drive like we’re going to their house, but make a detour to go somewhere else instead you realize it and start crying and asking for the dogs “lucy and charli.” I’m not talking about us being just one turn from their house either, you really know your way around town! Dad and I often wonder if we dropped you off a few miles away from home if you could find your way back, although we’d obviously never do that.
- You speak in phrases and sentences now. Some of your sentences amaze me! They are growing longer and more complex everyday! And your words, sometimes you say things I had no idea you knew! You’re still such a little sponge!
- This one is just a silly story, but it was just too cute not to document. Last night we took you to open house at your preschool and we were outside walking to the car at 7pm and it was already dark outside. You looked up at the sky and asked Daddy, “Where did the sky go?” You haven’t seen a dark sky since you were a very little baby. It made us laugh so hard.
- Since you’ve turned two you’ve really been testing your limits with us, often being defiant. We have good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks. We love you so much and hope you outgrow this little phase quickly.
- Your favorite snack is now “Chocolate Goldfish”- I love it when you ask for it because it’s such a big phrase and you say it so precisely. You also adore “eggs” (yogurt raisins, you named them yourself and we loved the cute nickname so we’ve adopted it) and fruit snacks are another favorite.
- When your answer to one of our questions is ‘no’ you often say, “no way.”
- You love, love, love to hide something and then ask “Where did the___ go? I don’t know…. There it is!!!” And sometimes you’ll hide behind something and say “I see you!” It’s funny when you talk like this because you sound like such a little grown up!
- You have become a TV watcher. If I leave the tv on when one of your favorite shows is playing, you are glued to it. So now I have to be careful not to leave the tv on too much. Your favorite shows include: Special Agent Oso, Little Einsteins (DeeDines), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Barney. Can you tell we watch a lot of the Disney Channel now? Sprout used to be our chanel of choice, but they changed their morning program line up and you didn’t get in to the Wiggles (thankfully). You’ve also figured out that most of the shows you ask to watch are “On Demand” and you can watch them whenever you ask so I’ve had to start telling you that Mickey Mouse is sleeping when it’s a time of day that I don’t want you watching tv. A few nights ago before bed I did that very thing and the FIRST thing out of your mouth the next morning when you walked into the living room and saw Mickey Mouse on Tv was, “Mickey Mouse no more sleeping!!”
- You are an expert now at eating with a spoon/fork. We hardly ever use a bib anymore, except for when it’s something drippy like yogurt or applesauce, and you usually ask for your bib in those cases (you don’t like to get messy) but still rarely need it even then.
- You love straws. And you are also excellent at drinking out of a cup without a lid/straw/etc… just a plain old “big boy” cup.
- You started Mother’s Morning Out (MMO) at a local church (the preschool program MMO falls under is called WEE- Weekday Early Education). You love school and are the only kid in the class that probably runs from their parents when I come to pick you up! And you run straight in the room in the morning ready to go. You sometimes talk about your lunch and what your friend Will was eating, and I’ve heard you sing a few new songs I’m pretty sure you are learning from school.
- You can now not only throw a ball like a champ, but you can catch them in the air, too! You are so proud when you do!
- You rarely hold onto the railing (or hands unless we insist) when you walk up and down stairs now.
- You’ve been opening and closing (and locking and unlocking) the doors in our house for months now…. It won’t be long and you’ll have those safety knobs figured out, too.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the little glimpse into your life as a 26 month old. You are so much fun and keep us laughing all the time, and you keep us on our toes as well!
Love,
Mom
When it comes time for a diaper change, Caden always insists on holding onto whatever he was playing with, even if it's a huge, duct taped together shopping cart.... 
Caden drug that step stool half way across the children's department at Barnes and Noble so he'd have a place to sit at the train table. We love visiting B&N, but I really don't understand why they put all the "breakable books" (the ones with buttons that sing nd levers that move) by the train table. Caden spends very little time at the train these days and most of his time trying to take the wrapping off the puzzles and push all the buttons on the books that sing songs and make noises... 
Here is my little man trying to be like Mommy and Daddy. He struggled to get this phone to stay propped up on his shoulder. He was so proud pretending to talk in my old cell phone. 
Standing in great room taking picture toward kitchen and brekfast room.
The great room
The dining room
