Caeden: 28 mos old

These are things Caeden was doing in December 2011, when he was 28 mos old:

EATING: He willingly prays before meals, and sometimes contributes his own prayer.  He was still acting picky about the food he likes.  His favorites are still macaroni and cheese, pizza, grapes,and Wheat Thins.  One thing we've been battling is him just not wanting to eat much dinner, ever...even if it's something he likes.  So I don't know - Maybe he's just not much of a dinner person...

SLEEPING: Caeden still sleeps well, and he did great with all the moving and traveling during the month of December.  Slept around 11ish hours at night and 1-1.5 hours at nap. He still stays in his toddler bed, which is great.  During this month, he discovered that he loves to sleep with his sock monkey Marvin.  And Marvin has a blankie too.  So in his bed are Caeden, Marvin, Caeden's blanket, and Marvin's blanket.  He won't lay still until all four are positioned just right. :)

PLAYING: Playtime is more & more fun since Caeden's getting more into pretend play.  We love to hear his imagination.  He loved to play with his baby Jesus manger this month, and LOVED reading Christmas books!   Some other favorite toys are his train table and basketball goal.  He's doing better about playing by himself, but would still rather have us playing with him a lot of the time.  I also have to mention here that he's remembering most of his friends names now.  I asked him one day who his friends are at school, and he named off 5-6 names.  Next week, when I was signing him in, I looked at the roster and they were actual "real" names in his class. :)  And if I tell him whose house we're going to play at, he knows who we're talking about.

LANGUAGE: He is having little conversations now, and can have miniature conversations on the telephone. And he's to the stage where most people can understand what he's saying - we don't have to translate as often. :)  It's funny to hear him and Ella playing, and having their own conversations!

CHRISTMASTIME: Obviously, we were busy with lots of activities in the month of December.  But he did great adjusting to later bedtimes, various naptimes, and just a different routine in general.  We had a fun month and enjoyed all the traditions we continue every year.

LEARNING: Honestly, we kinda slacked off on "formal" learning time this month.  Of course, Caeden was still learning during playtime with us, but not "formally."  However, we did Advent each night this month, and he LOVED it!  Every night at dinner, he'd say, "I wanna read Advent!"  By the end of the month, he could tell us most details in the story of Jesus' birth, and learned so much through it!  This is more important to me than any amount of academic learning anyway!

OUR SCHEDULE
So our schedule was way off this month!  I won't even attempt to post it.  The only thing that daily stayed the same was mealtimes and naptimes, which are below:
7:30 -- Wake up & Breakfast
12:00 -- Lunch
1:30 -- Nap
5:30 -- Dinner
8:00 -- Bedtime