Strawberry Picking Outing

Raring to go!  We pretty much had the field to ourselves, and it was overcast.  Perfect.

 Caeden was none too excited about being in the carrier.  He was much happier when we took him out and let him walk around.

 Boys + dirt + fresh snack = happiness

No telling how many strawberries Caeden ate...including the dirt all over his hands and several of the green stems we didn't have a chance to pick off!

Micaiah must have said 100 times, "We pickin tawberries!!"  He'd pick one and then say, "OH!  That a GOOD one!" and toss it in the bucket. 

5 gallons later, we have been having our fill of strawberries this past week!

We Don't Always See the Fruit

At least not right away.  In this journey of motherhood with young children, so often the seeds we sow do not bear fruit for many many years.  We pour and pour out of ourselves praying that God will use our teaching, modeling, and even mistakes for good in our children's lives.  We pray that one day all of the seeds we have sown will bear fruit. 

But sometimes we do see fruit right away and in the moment.  These times can encourage us to continue on with perseverance. 

Scott and I really want for prayer to be a normal often done thing for our kids.  We don't want it to be any big deal for them to hear us praying out loud for them.  We want them to learn to readily pray for each other.  We know that for this to be normal when they are older, then we need to be doing that from the get go. 

So anyway, the other day Caeden slipped in the bathtub and busted his lip.  Scott and I whisked Caeden out of the bathroom to get some ice.  We happened to go back in just in time to hear Micaiah praying for his brother.  Unprompted and on his own.  Because Caeden needed it.  Because he knew it was important.  It makes me tear up right now just thinking about it.

I'm not trying to bragg on my child.  I just want to remember this sweet moment being that it was the first time he has ever done this on his own.  I also just want to remind everyone to persevere and keep on teaching your kiddos; there will be fruit.  If not today, then tomorrow, or the next.  But it will come.

  Loving on each other

Favorite pastime of a one year old

One of Caeden's very favorite things to do for the last few weeks is to sit in baskets and things while he plays.

Tidbits

Life has been busy and full lately. Not busy in a bad way. Things are going well!

The boys are growing like weeds. Micaiah has grown about an inch in the last month alone. Caeden is trying to get the hang of both walking and talking. He'll walk 5 or 6 steps at a time now before flopping down to crawl. Micaiah is loving this nice weather we've been having. All he wants to do is play outside. Too bad we only have one small patch of grass outside our front door to run around on. Soon and very soon, we're hoping to have a house and a yard for our little darlings.

Micaiah likes putting on his daddy's shoes. I'm not really sure what the thing on Micaiah's knee is called, all I know is that Scott wears it on his knee when he plays basketball. Speaking of, we found out that Scott has a torn meniscus in his right knee. He thinks his left one is torn too, but that one hasn't been diagnosed. He'll either need to tough it out and not be able to run or play sports anymore, or have surgery and then take it easy with running and playing sports from then on. The surgery would be a 20 minute, simple procedure. We just need to talk about it some more and decide the best thing to do and the best timing for it.

Scott celebrated his 32nd birthday last week. Too bad he wasn't feeling 100% as he had the beginnings of the virus that ran through our household. Caeden came down with hand foot mouth disease a few days before his birthday. It wasn't until the day of his party that we realized that's what he had. The day of the party Micaiah had the high mystery fever that starts off the virus. He then passed it on to Scott who got the fever on his own birthday the day after Caeden's. Caeden just had a few blisters on his feet, a few on the outside of his mouth and some inside his mouth. Micaiah had them all over. One day he complained of having dirt between his toes. It was a viable complaint seeing as how I was just about to sweep the kitchen floor where dirt has been tracked inside. However after cleaning the few specks of dirt he had on his feet, he was not satisfied. Come to find out, the poor boy had blisters all between his toes. :( Scott only had the sores in his mouth. And thankfully I didn't get the virus at all! Whew!

Caeden Elijah - 12 months

Look at him now! 12 months ago our little Caeden boy was born. I know it's a blurry picture, but I sure do love this scrunchy nose smile he has.

Weight: 21 pounds

Height: We find out at his 12 month appointment on Monday

--Sorry, can't figure out how to turn this picture around. Our old computer did it for me.-- This is when Caeden snuck into the cabinet to get some goldfish, which he attempts often. I really didn't want to egg him on by taking a picture, because he knows that he disobeyed (although you wouldn't think so by the smile on his face!) I just couldn't pass it up. This particular day Micaiah had run into the living room saying "Caeden getting a tack! Caeden getting a tack!" We found him like this with the goldfish all strewn about, hand in the cup. No denying that one, little boy. :)

Nursing: This past month he rather quickly weaned himself down from 4 feedings a day to only 1. It happened over about 2 weeks. Now he just nurses once first thing in the morning. I plan to keep that up as long as he wants (within reason...I'll not be nursing 5 year old, please!) In all honesty, I imagine that he will give it up very quickly. Yesterday he was too distracted by Micaiah to eat (Scott was sick, so I was getting both boys up by myself, which would be no big deal except that Caeden can't have anyone else around while he nurses) and this morning he nursed for just very short time. All he wants to do first thing in the morning is play with Micaiah.

Solids: Eating it all and loving most of it. He is funny to watch eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He always feels the need to open the sandwich before diving in. Still not a big fan of meat or avocado. But give him some cottage cheese on toast or a banana and you'll think we never feed him by how fast he shoves it in!

Sleeping: He's still going strong with 1.5-2 hours in the morning and 2+ hours in the afternoon. 11.5 ish hours at night. He fell asleep in my arms once or twice this month due to different reasons. That is always just so sweet to me, and I totally ate up the moment.

Roomtime: 45 minutes to an hour, just depending on the day. He truly loves his roomtime. We select some toys and books for him and put them in the pack and play and he just goes to town. We transitioned Micaiah to having roomtime in his entire room somewhere around 20 months old. We'll do the same for Caeden, although a lot of that will depend on where we're living at that point. With the boys sharing a room I would have to do their roomtimes at different times, which would be a pain for multiple reasons. We'll see what happens. For now, he's still happy as a lark in a small space!

New discoveries and other notes:

*He learned how to give a 5 this month

*He will now blow kisses, but he thinks he has to put his hand over the other person's mouth instead of his own. Very cute.

*He is the climber of the family. There isn't a toy, piece of furniture, or person that is too big for Caeden to barrel over. He will get what he wants no matter how he has to get there.

*He has developed a love for climbing into various baskets (a separate post on that to come!). He'll dump stuff out, climb in, and just sit there and play for awhile.

*He now says "Mama" a lot in addition to dada, ball (ba), book (buh), sheep (shh), yes (yeh), and bye bye. He very surprisngly has strung two words together. He will often say "bye dada."

*He very frequently will bring us his shoes...meaning he wants to go outside.

Favorite toys: Little People-- he still has a sweet spot in his heart for the sheep, touch and feel books, the cookies from our Cookie Monster toy (thanks, Kimberly!), the little kitchen (specifically the hot dog and the chicken leg). Funny thing, Scott and I laugh at how the hot dog shows up all over the place. We try to keep the kitchen toys in the kitchen, and Micaiah is pretty good about it, but Caeden travels with that hot dog and leaves it places unknown to the rest of us. We never know where we'll find it next! He also loves push toys and cars/trucks.

He is very close to walking full time now! Just in the last week he has started taking multiple steps to some outstretched arms....or a toy he wants. It won't be long before he just takes off across the room. He is so, so close.

**Updated to add:  I can't believe I forgot to mention about Caeden's disdain for the vacuum cleaner!  He does not even like to look at the closet where we keep it.  He doesn't typically cry when we pull it out, he will just stare it down.  However when we turn it on, he goes screaming in the other direction.  He's ok if I'm holding him, but as anyone who has held a child in one arm while vacuuming with the other knows...it isn't easy!  So I generally only vacuum when Scott is home to occupy Caeden or vice versa while the job gets done!

We have had many, many instances to pray for the Lord to fight for Caeden in this past year. God has been faithful to do just that! With how much we see Caeden fight for what he wants now, we really can see how we'll have an opportunity to teach him that God will fight for him as he grows and he won't need to try to fight on his own. Coincidence that that is his name...I think not!

What a wonderful year we've had with our little Caeden E E! (for some reason, that's one of my many names for him)

Birthday post with pictures coming next!

Caeden Elijah - 11 months

Weight: 20 pounds

Height: TBD

Eating: All is still well with nursing. I can tell he is taking in less milk and is becoming increasingly less interested in nursing. Sometimes I think that I would not be totally surprised if he weaned himself sometime before a year. But then other times I think that I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to continue to nurse beyond a year. I guess time will tell! :) He nurses the most first thing in the morning, about 10 minutes, and the least right before bed, about 3 minutes. The middle two feeds of the day are hit or miss whether he really wants them or not. He nurses at 7:30/11:30 or 12:00/4:15 or 4:45/before bed at 7:30.

Solids: Still loving food. This child loves bread products. I'm not sure if he likes bread more than Micaiah used to or if he is just more vocal about it. I can't put bread in front of him at the table or else he will fuss...loudly...and try to get out of his highchair to get at it until he gets some on his tray. Thankfully, with homemade bread and freshly ground flour, it's actually good for him so I don't mind if he eats it! Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes are his favorite fruits; carrots and sweet potatoes are his favorite veggies. He knows the cabinet where I keep the goldfish, and he will get them out if I'm not watching.

Waketimes: First waketime is 2.5 hours and the second is 2.75-3 hours. On some days he starts getting really fussy and wanting to sleep after 2.5 hours for the second waketime, so he goes down early those days. There is anywhere from 2.5-3 hours before bed depending on when he wakes from his afternoon nap.

Sleeping: Most days he only sleeps 1.5 hours for his morning nap, but 2 or 3 days a week he will sleep closer to 2 hours (or more on occasion) He then sleeps anywhere from 2-2.75 hours for his afternoon nap. He sleeps 11.5 to 12 hours at night. The boys have been sharing a room for probably a little over a month now, and it has been going really well. Sometimes Micaiah wakes first and sometimes Caeden wakes first, but they typically stay quiet until after 7:00. After 7:00 we will start to hear them laughing together. It is so fun to watch them on the monitor (because we don't get them out until 7:30 unless there are lots of tears, which is rare) with Micaiah reaching through the crib slats to his brother. Of course, we've also witnessed on the video monitor in the mornings and had to intervene on our share of a few minor issues with Micaiah taking Caeden's owl ("Whoo whoo") away from him. Or pushing him down when Caeden tries to stand up. Needless to say, Micaiah is still learning how to be gentle with Caeden as he enters this new stage of realizing he has the capacity to push him down or knock him over.

Roomtime: He's generally does roomtime for 30-45 minutes right now just depending on how the morning is playing out. I haven't added in a second session yet, and probably won't, because as his routine works right now, he is waking up from his nap anywhere from 4:30-5ish and that is usually his daddy playtime while I cook dinner. I'm satisfied with just one roomtime a day since he usually already does more han 30 minutes. He loves it and usually dives right into the pack and play from my arms. Today was actually the first day that he fussed some during roomtime, and it was because he threw most of his toys out. Micaiah went through a phase of doing that around this same age and then screamed for the rest of the time. It took about week before he wised up that he needed to keep his toys with him....it was not a fun week for me in that regard listening to all of that fussing!

This is the classic "Caeden face" he makes right before breaking into a smile.

New discoveries and other notes: Still pulling up on everything. He lets go all the time now, and will stand for sometimes 20 seconds or so at a time. It's especially cute when he stands alone and claps for himself. :) He has taken a step on two different occasions that we know of.

*He is still very much a cuddler. I love, love, love how he will just lay his head on my shoulder when he is sleepy before his nap. Micaiah never did, and still doesn't, really do that, so I've been eating it up with Caeden.

*He gets excited and vocal about books.

*He had his first ear infection this month.

*He is a very noisy eater.

*He still only says Dada and, very rarely, Mama. He learned what clapping is this past month and that we usually do it when someone says "yaaaay." He will wave bye, often unpromted but still within context. He signs more, all done, and light. We just started working with him on eat and drink. Oooooh how there is a need for him to learn to sign drink. He "asks" for his cup the same way he "asks" for bread....very loudly and insistently and trying to climb out of his seat to get it. Please and thank you will probably come after that.

*He understands simple directions (like, "go find sheep!" he will promptly go to the barn and pick out the sheep)

*He loooves to dance.

*We've noticed as he gets older that Caeden is slower to warm up to people than Micaiah is. Whereas Micaiah would break into a smile as soon as anyone in the grocery store would give him a bit of attention, Caeden needs a minute to feel them out and assess the situation.

Favorite toys: Push toys, anything that shakes or makes noise, Little People (specifically the sheep), the dog guitar, and the little kitchen. Oh how he loves playing in the little kitchen. The first thing he always does is knock the basket of pots and pans off. They are made of blue painted wood, and I've had to clean many a blue scuff mark off the floor thanks to our littlest buddy. :) He also loves touch and feel books and Sandra Boynton books.

Caeden Elijah - 10 months

Our littlest buddy reading his favorite book, "Pat the Bunny"

Weight: 19 pounds --I said last month that he was 21 pounds; I'm not sure if I just had that wrong or if he's lost 2 pounds. Either way, he's 19 pounds as of the doctor scale last week. He's so tiny (yet longer) compared to baby Micaiah. He was a round chunk and a half. I love how they're so different, yet so alike in other ways.

Height: TBD

Eating: Nursing is mostly going well. Whereas the bulk of the biting was a phase, turns out he does still do it on occasion. The funny (or actually not-so-funny) thing is though is that he knows exactly what he's doing. You should see the look on his face when he does it. It's like he's thinking, "Watch how easy it is for me to get a rise out of Mama!"

Solids: Still eating pretty much everything. He will now eat broccoli. I just figured out that he prefers it cut up really small. He is still putting things he doesn't want in the cupholder section of the tray. It's so funny especially because he puts it in there with drama! We stopped the baby oatmeal. There's no need for baby cereal and it's expensive and he does NOT like homemade baby oatmeal. Regular oatmeal he'll eat all day long, but try to powder it in a blender and serve it to him, and he is not a fan!

Waketimes: Still pretty much the same. The first waketime is 2 hours and 15 minutes, and the second is 2 hours and 20-30 minutes.

Sleeping: He has begun sleeping less than 2 hours for his first nap the majority of the time over the last week. It's fine with me because it was around this age that I had to begin waking Micaiah early from his morning nap in order to preserve the afternoon nap. Caeden seems to be doing that on his own. However, he's also had a rough time sleeping for his afternoon nap. I mean, he goes right to sleep, but he wakes early crying, which is the sign of a bad nap. Maybe it's a phase. I thought one day it was because he was cold and today I thought it was because he was hot. Maybe he needs a longer waketime before his morning nap and that's why he's not sleeping for 2 hours in the morning and so therefore with a short morning nap he's becoming overtired by the time his afternoon nap rolls around. Hmmmm...I haven't thought through this until now, and that sounds like a very viable option! I'll be experimenting to see what I can figure out. See, people are so misinformed about babies and routines. SO many people think a routine is all about the parents and that you just can't fit a baby into a routine and make them sleep when you want them to sleep. It's true, you can't make a baby sleep whenever you want the baby to sleep. That's why the routine has very little to do with me. I work it based on what fits HIM, how long he can happily stay awake and still take a good nap. I could so easily get on a soapbox here, but that's not what this post is about. :)

Independent playtime: We started this with Micaiah at 19 weeks, and at 1o months we added a second session, so he was doing 30 minutes of alone play twice a day. If you don't know, the whole thing with independent playtime (or roomtime as well call it now that Micaiah is older and plays in his entire room instead of just the Pack-n-Play) is that most kids will play by themselves, but will they do it when Mama tells them to and for an extended period of time? Maybe they will, but this is something we've chosen to train our boys in. It helps with their attention span as they only have select toys to play with, self play adeptness, creativity, and other things. Anyway, with Micaiah we started early, but with Caeden we really just now got consistent with it this month. Right now, he does 30 minutes. There was absolutely no adjustment for him in learning to like it. He just dove right in and plays happily until the timer goes off and we go to get him. Though he loves his brother, I think he's probably relieved to have a little bit of time to play by himself without Micaiah being around! I am planning to add a second session this month in the afternoon while Micaiah is also doing roomtime, and I'll do dinner prep during that time.

New discoveries and other notes: This boy will be walking before too much longer. He pulls up on EVERYTHING. He can climb a full flight of stairs by himself. On occasion he will let go and freely stand alone for a second before plopping down. When he is standing between the couch and the ottoman that is in front of the couch, he will let go to turn from one to the other. He says "Dada" often. He will say "Mama," but usually only when he's wanting to be picked up and I don't seem to be hearing his whines the first, second, and third times. Then he will break out the big guns and say Mama, at which point I scoop him right up since it's still so rare! He will sign "more" and "all done". His versions of the signs are very similar, so it's often hard to tell the difference. He has just begun waving bye bye. Every day after nap we drop his owl back into his bed and we wave bye to him. I think he's yet to wave bye to a person, so most people don't believe that he actually does it, but he waves bye to "Whoo Whoo" all the time! :) One other thing we've noticed this month is that when we get Caeden alone without Micaiah he is extremely chatty. Either he feels like he can babble more without Micaiah around hogging the spotlight OR I just notice it more when Micaiah's not around hogging the spotlight. :)

Favorite toys: The walker toy that he can hold onto and walk behind, anything that shakes or makes noise, Little People, and the dog guitar. The most exciting new toy this month is that he finally enjoys sitting and listening to books. We've been reading before nap here and there for a few months now (not near as much as with Micaiah--poor second child!). One of the main reasons I haven't done it regularly is because he just didn't appreciate it yet. But now he will happily sit with me in the glider and read. It's such a sweet time with just me and my littlest buddy. 2 books is about his max at this age though, and even that is sometimes a stretch! He LOVES "Pat the Bunny."

Micaiah-isms and other cute stuff

Just a quick little post to share what we're laughing about lately. There are a few words that Micaiah has been saying that I think are super cute. I had a video to post, but it didn't work. I'll try again later.

Ga-la-la (gorilla)

Rinosis (rhinoceros)

neckeness (necklace)

by ya-fef (by yourself) Picture with me for a moment a boy who snuck out of his room during naptime and got into the Vaporub, rubbing it all over his nose and mouth. When I caught him in the act he said, "You do it by ya-fef" with the Vaporub all over his lips. I had to contain laughter!

Update: here are a few more that I couldn't think of when I was in a hurry the other day.

uh oh kebalo (uh oh spaghetti-o)

lahb lahb (library)

katackted (distracted) He can't be around when Caeden is nursing because Caeden gets so distracted. Micaiah has heard me tell him this on numerous occasions, so now he says that Caeden is katackted.

boo-red (bread) He really does say it in two separate syllables/words like that. He's too funny!

Muck (milk)

Caeden does some super cute stuff too. We don't want to leave him out! One of them is that when playing with the Little People barn, he lately always goes straight for the sheep. We call him a little shepherd. It's his favorite. He can even be summoned to the barn by pressing the "baaa" button.

Caeden is working on learning the stairs!

This is what happens when I accidentally leave fingerpaint in the reach of a crafty two year old during his roomtime. Thanks to Crayola, it is extremely washable and comes out of carpet without too much trouble! Lesson learned.

Caeden Elijah - 9 months

So can you believe that Caeden is already 9 months old?!?! Only 3 more months and we'll be having a birthday party. It seriously seems like I JUST had him...well, kind of.

Weight: 21 pounds

Height: 28 3/4 inches


Eating: Nursing is going well. The biting indeed was a phase, and he has stopped. The last week and a half or so he has been nursing really, really quickly. Like 4 minutes kind of quickly. I don't know if he just isn't wanting as much milk right now, or if he's getting it out quicker. He nurses at 7:30/11:30/4:00/before bed around 6:30 or 7:00.

Solids: Caeden eats almost anything and everything. He does not love green beans and he does not love broccoli. He puts them in the cupholder section of his highchair tray. :) He still gets the baby oatmeal usually once a day just because he loves it. I told Scott though that I think the box we have right now may be our last box of it because it's expensive for what it is.



Waketimes: Same as it has been for the last two months (which is really strange to me!)--the first waketime is 2 hours, and the second is 2 hours and 15-30 minutes. I've noticed that he can handle about 45 minutes of extra flex with those times. If you put him down much beyond 45 extra minutes, the nap will likely not go well. But it is nice to have some cushion time. Much more than Micaiah ever did. He had to be a lot more specific with his naptimes until he was several months older.

Sleeping: 2- 2+ hour naps. 12-13 hours at night (depending on whether he needs to go to bed early for various reasons).


New discoveries and other notes: He is pulling up on anything that he can grab hold enough to do so. It's not necessarily that he likes to get up in order to do something that he can't do on the floor, he just likes to stand. He has had many falls, bumps, and bruises, but he presses on. He says "Dada", loves to dance and do musical things, and he also gives kisses. He kisses just like how he signs....only if he wants to. He is not about to be cajooled into doing something he doesn't want to do at the time. Separation anxiety is getting slightly better, but still there. He has started "sharing" toys with us. If you are holding him while he is chewing on a toy, for example, he might offer it to you for a chew. So sweet.

Can you see who he is looking at in the background? He loves him so much.

Caeden is actually an American name that means "fighter." We did prayerfully mesh that with the meaning of Elijah to come up with the meaning of his full name, "The LORD my God fights for me." However it is interesting to note that he seems to really fulfill the original meaning of Caeden. He is a little fighter. One example is that ever since he has been able to roll over he has fought having his diaper or clothes changed. I don't necessarily dread changing him, but I don't look forward to it either because he is so squigilly and rolls the second you let up on him. Scott called him tough but tender. He's not going to be a push over, but he's also not going to push over other people either. That seems to fit his little personality to a tee.

Favorite toys: anything Micaiah is playing with, wheels--on strollers, big toy cars or push toys, etc., Little People, and anything that shakes or makes noise. He also really loves playing in the toy kitchen and digging around in the play food and containers.

On to the next month!

Caeden Elijah - 8 months

Weight: correction-- he's 19 pounds!

Height: TBD

Eating: With nursing, Caeden is a biter. Micaiah went through a biting phase, but it was mostly just when he was finished. Caeden bites randomly throughout the feed. Hopefully it's just a phase too. He is also at the super distractible phase of nursing. It takes forever for him to nurse if someone else is in the room because he keeps wanting to sit up and talk and interact. Even if no one else is in the room he likes to sit up periodically to look around the room. Even with that, he usually takes around 10 minutes total, which is fairly fast. He nurses at 7:30/11:30/4:00/7:00 or 7:15.

Solids: The kiwi that he slurped down so quickly last month is being left on his tray this month. Bananas are probably his most favorite food now. He will get excited and start to cry for one if he sees one in the fruit bowl and is even remotely hungry. I noticed about a week ago that he has perfected his pincer grasp. Now that he can pick them up, he actually likes peas!

Waketimes: Same as last month--the first waketime is 2 hours, and the second is 2 hours and 15-30 minutes.

Sleeping: 2- 2+ hour naps. You may remember that for the last two months Caeden was waking up between 5:30 and 6 in the mornings instead of 7. We always left him in the crib. Sometimes he would doze, sometimes he would talk to himself; sometimes both. Well we have finally had breakthrough! He is now consistently sleeping until about 7:30. That is what we were waiting for in order to put the boys in the same room. We're looking to move them within the next week or so. I'm excited, but I'm also a bit of a weenie about it, so it's easy to continue coming up with excuses as to why we should put it off.

New discoveries and other notes: Caeden spent his first night alone without mommy and daddy. Scott and I went on a little quiet overnight getaway in the mountains of South Carolina one night after Thanksgiving. The boys stayed with my parents, and aside from Caeden not wanting to take a bottle and taking awhile to settle down for the night, he did great.

He is army crawling like the best of them now. He and Micaiah have this little game where Micaiah goes to the kitchen and rustles the trashbag that hangs out of the trashcan to entice Caeden. Caeden crawls to him just as fast as he can, and then Micaiah runs back to the living room and waits for him to crawl to him again. Poor Caeden. At least he seems to enjoy the game.

He has 6 teeth! They all came in one right after the other pretty much. Micaiah had zero teeth at this age. It's so neat to me to watch how they are so different from things like teeth to personality differences.

Separation anxiety is huge. He is to the point where if he sees me walk by without picking him up he is not a happy camper. If I am in the room but sitting on the couch or in the kitchen, he is crawling to my feet and grabbing at my ankles to get up.

He pulled up for the first time the other day. I was in the kitchen and heard him whimpering. I found him standing up against the tv cabinet. He couldn't figure out how to get down. Maybe I should have investigated the few noises I heard that were our wireless router and digital converter box being pulled off the shelf.

I know this post is getting a little lengthy, but one other exciting thing to mention this month is that Caeden began signing back to us! He signs "more" but he only does it when he wants to, and lately that hasn't been very often. Once he started and we caught on that that was what he was doing, he did it consistently for about a week, and then he decided he'd just pick and choose when he wanted to do it.

Favorite toys: anything Micaiah is playing with. I also cannot describe to you how much he loves wheels. There is a little nook underneath the stairs where we keep our strollers. He will crawl over there and play with the wheels for the longst time. He likes to play Little People with Micaiah, and he lovesthe toy gumball machine.

Notice the lovely spit up on his chin. :)

Brotherly Love

There has been a new level of comraderie between the boys lately as Caeden gets older and older. I just love watching their relationship grow.

Micaiah offered Caeden one of his "gam tacks" aka graham crackers after nap one day this week. After I showed Micaiah how Caeden's cracker was all soggy, he said he wanted his to be soggy too.

Today after lunch Micaiah said, "Play Cain" which means, "I want to play with Caeden" (By the way, he's totally capable of pronouncing Caeden correctly...hopefully he will start doing that regularly soon!) They played Little People together for quite awhile while I worked on a project. Such sweet times.

Bath time is much better with a buddy! That is, until said buddy reaches a little too far for a floating toy and gets a faceful of water. The enjoyment goes downhill from there :)