Caden’s responsibilities keep increasing and he’s had a lot of “big” milestones this month. Now that we are home for a while, we can actually work on things consistently. We’ve finally graduated Caden to big cups at meal time. We had been giving him his milk in a sippy cup since he isn’t too careful about it, but it was definitely time to upgrade. He’s doing really well with it, though I have to remind him to move it away from the edge of the table every. single. time. he takes a drink. =P He’ll get it! He is doing much better drinking carefully and rarely spills it. Sippy cups still live on for the kids’ waters, but their days are numbered too.
Caden is also responsible for clearing his spot at the table at the end of a meal. After asking to be excused (which still requires full eye contact, another work in progress), he moves his plate, fork, and cup to the kitchen as well as puts his napkin in the laundry. He’s such a big boy already!
Undies are now in full swing for Caden! He’s been able to use the potty consistently for several months now, but we are just starting to spend dedicated time in Big Boy Undies instead of using the potty only when we change his diaper. This is definitely a learning curve, since he’s never really gotten the concept of “holding it” until he’s sitting on the potty. He’s doing fairly well with it though … granted my laundry basket would disagree. It’s a good thing I have a tall stack of undies and a bunch of pants for him! He’ll get it — he is way ahead of Kamy on potty training since we didn’t really start working on it with her until she was almost three. Caden also can climb on to and off the “Big Potty” without help and so we’ve officially moved past the training potty.
Caden remains our super sweet little boy who just LOVES to give kisses. He’ll give them to you all over you face — eyes, ears, earrings, nose, chin, forehead, etc. The bedtime routine is not complete without a full round of kisses.
Speaking of noses, Caden loves to push on someone’s nose and say “Boop!” It’s even cuter when he does both yours and his back to back, saying “Boop and boop!”
Caden remains our gymnast and climber. He can officially climb in and out of his pack and play without any help. Climbing in is actually harder since it is elevated off the floor and he needs to get his foot another couple of inches higher. He’ll get creative too, by using a nearby windowsill or bed or anything else he can climb on. Fortunately he hasn’t seriously hurt himself climbing (and falling) off anything yet, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time. He is a boy after all!
Caden’s vocabulary and sentence structure have also been improving this month. He is getting more vocal and mimics so much of what we say every day. When I put him down for a nap, he asks his animals the same questions I ask him, word for word. His favorite new word is delicious, which Kamy learned last month, except he pronounces it “Bellicious!” It’s pretty funny because he’ll use it all the time at the table and say “Tastes bellicious Momma!” which is really sweet. I have to admit, I am less flattered when he is talking about his water, but I’ll take the compliment all the same. =) I love that sweet heart. He is also learning how to put phrases together into a sentence on his own and not just mimic what we said. Right now he’s locked on “Hi … Daddy,” or “Hi … Min.” There’s a huge pregnant pause in the middle there where he stops to think about what he is going to say.
We have been working through a little bit of Caden’s independent, two year old self lately. He is all about “I can do it!” right now, a phrase that is coming out of his mouth every five minutes. We are working on changing his phrasing to “I can do it, please,” and the intonation so it is a request and not a demand. With some consistency he is doing much better, though I’m prone to let things slip I shouldn’t. I guess that comes with the territory of a Momma’s boy and the second child. I’m trying!
Lastly, Caden’s been trying a new tactic to protest when he gets put in his room … beating on the door. We have hollow core doors, and his in particular doesn’t sit very tightly in the frame. Since it wiggles back and forth a bit, it makes a glorious loud racket when you beat on it. =P Caden’s preferred method is to lay on his back and kick the door with his heels. We were responding to the beating and scolding him for it, but since that wasn’t working we switched to the “just ignore it” tack. It took a week or two to iron that out, but he’s been doing it much less frequently. Good boy.
