Tidbits: Kaeden is 2!

On November 2, my Kaeden turned 2. Since his birthday fell on a Friday this year, we were excited to celebrate with our play group friends that morning, as well as an additional celebration the next day with my parents and brother who were in town for the weekend (plus Auntie, Uncle Bret, and Atticus, of course!). He was one very celebrated little boy!

When we first asked Kaeden what kind of birthday he wanted, we had a hard time getting an answer out of him. We asked about all of his favorite things... trucks, cars, dogs, farm animals, etc. but he said no to every one. Finally, Mason said, "vacuum?" and Kaeden replied, "yes!" Well, while Mason was thrilled by the idea of a vacuum birthday, I was not so sure about putting that together. So, I continued to ask over the next couple of weeks and we finally agreed on a tractor-themed birthday... a little easier to pull off than the vacuum idea!

Play Group Friends

The hat didn't last long

Cupcakes for the play group party

Excited anticipation of his cupcake!

Blowing out the candle was his favorite part of his birthday celebrations. Even with the leftover cake/cupcakes, he insisted on lighting & blowing out his candle each time.

He loved the cards that his friends made for him!

Kaeden's tractor cake for our family party

Kaeden was surprisingly relaxed about opening presents. He would open one and then want to play with it for a while before opening another. It ended up taking all day to get through his gifts. This was a great challenge to his older brother, who couldn't understand why he wouldn't want to open them all as quickly as possible.

This boy loves to clean!

Reading his big brother book

Kaeden continues to be his own little person, full of life and energy. He is such a joy to be around, because he lives every moment of every day so fully. He continues to have a mischievous streak to him, but he's actually fallen into a better pattern of rule-following.

Ryan has been in preschool 4 mornings a week this fall, which has given Kaeden & I plenty of quality time together. It has been the best thing for us. Being able to focus on him and his needs has allowed me to figure him out a bit more and understand the best ways to relate to him. For example, when Ryan was 2 and threw a fit, the best thing I could do was to sit face-to-face with him and explain the situation to him. With Kaeden, he typically needs to just get out his frustration, so I've learned to just let him be and have his fit and then talk to him when he's done. It's a constant learning process parenting two very different personalities!

All this time together has also turned Kaeden into a full-on mama's boy. He is all about mom. It is not uncommon for him to run up to me over and over and say, "Hi, Mama!" and give me a hug - even if he just did so a few minutes (or seconds!) earlier. We've had to start taking turns letting the boys choose who puts them to bed, and every night when we start to head upstairs, Kaeden yells, "MAMA down night night!" The great thing is that in spite of all of this, he usually doesn't have a problem being left with others, whether in the church nursery or spending the morning with Daddy or whoever else. I think it's a healthy attachment, and I certainly don't mind all of the snuggles and love, though it could make things rather interesting when baby #3 arrives!

One fun thing that we've been able to do this fall with Ryan in preschool is start a kindermusik class. We've been going with Auntie & Atticus, and the boys have so much fun! Kaeden has always loved music, and he's embraced the class format better than I expected. One of his favorite parts is helping to clean up the instruments when we're done with them. He seems to like order as much as he likes mischief... he's a tricky one to figure out!

Even before we moved Kaeden into his big boy room, he had started to give up his nap. This made it a little easier to risk the transition, but it has been a little challenging to have a 2-year-old who has already given up a nap. Now, he typically naps once or twice a week but stays awake the other days. It didn't take him long to figure out that he could get out of bed and play in his big boy room during naptime, which is fine with me. The first week or so was interesting, as he quickly learned how to take apart the child lock on his door, discovered the wipes in his room and took them all out of the container, etc. He likes to explore... that's for sure! But we now have things pretty well figured out, and he's good about staying in his room for an hour or so and just playing when he doesn't nap.

Sleeping in his big boy bed

The day he appeared downstairs holding the child lock for his doorknob.

And the day he decided that he was tired after all and fell asleep on the floor.

His eating is slowly improving. He's not as picky as he used to be, but it can still be a struggle to get him to eat healthy. For example, I had to use toothpicks to convince him to eat peas, and now he still insists on using them rather than a fork or spoon. I did discover that he will drink 2% milk most of the time, where he never would drink whole milk... so at least he gets milk now, though he would still prefer water.

Similar to his brother, Kaeden has been slow to talk... or at least to talk clearly. Mason asked me recently, "Do you think our boys have speech problems because you understand them too well?" - I don't think so, but it is funny how spending all day every day with them allows me to understand what, to most people, sounds nothing like English! Still, his vocabulary continues to increase, and he continues to get better at communicating verbally, so I don't worry.

Some of Kaeden's favorite things to do right now are: puzzles, dancing, baking, pretend play (he spent 30 minutes outside the other day pretending that a stick was a leaf-blower/chainsaw), marble towers, and swinging on the swingset. He loves toy kitchens and plays with them all the time at church and friends' houses, but he doesn't have one at home (yet). He still likes cars, trucks, trains, etc. and anything that makes noise. He frequently plays with the vacuum that he got for his birthday, and he especially likes using the real vacuum when I let him :) The paper shredder is another favorite supervised "toy".

He still adores his big brother, Ryan, and wants to do everything that he does. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to conflict these days. Ryan's pretty sensitive to Kaeden "messing up" his things, and Kaeden seems to enjoy the reaction that he gets out of Ryan when he does so. Still, they are good buds and love to play together, and I am so thankful that they have each other!