Caeden: 35 mos!!

This is so hard to believe, but Caeden is only one month away from being 3 years old!!!!  Here's an update on what he's been doing lately:

EATING
The beginning of this month was rough.  Caeden went through a very picky stage where he would hardly eat anything.  We also dealt with massive tantrums at every mealtime.  He decided that he could be the boss, and tell us what he would eat, when he would eat it, how he wanted it served, and where he wanted it on his plate.  This was too much, and was unacceptable in our eyes.  So, we decided he no longer had choices.  We decided what he had for every meal (including snacks), and didn't give him options.  This is what we used to do anyway - but as he got older we gave him more options at breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  We realized this was too much freedom for him.  Those first two weeks of not giving him food choices, were tear-filled (for all of us), and were extremely exhausting!  But we survived, and at the end of this month, he is now eating whatever we give him, whenever we feed him!  Thank you Jesus for giving us the strength to stick that out!!

PLAYING
Caeden's favorite toys right now are his Little People toys, cars, and the POOL!  We go swimming almost every day, whether it's in our neighborhood pool or small backyard pool.  He is loving to pretend with his Little People sets, and it's so fun watching his imagination!  He will make the characters talk to each other and everything. :)  He also loves to dig out his cars and push them throughout the house, race them in the kitchen, and race them down his race track!  He truly is a boy at heart!
Note: There is a few times this month Caeden was sighted with a baby doll.  We have two here for when I keep Ella.  Caeden is usually disinterested in them.  But a few times, he was pretending it was his baby sister and was taking such good care of her!  He has also started putting babies (and animals) in his belly and telling me there's a baby in his belly!  One time he said "I'm going to doctor and she will take her out!"  Wow!  That's a lot for an almost-three-year-old!

SLEEP
Caeden is still sleeping great!  He usually sleeps around 11 hours at night, and has been taking a 1.5 hour nap each day!  Being in the summer, there have been several nights that his beditme has been a little later, and he has been doing GREAT at adjusting to the schedule!

LANGUAGE
Caeden's language is great!  He speaks in complete sentences and is constantly adding to his vocabulary.  Today he was telling me he wouldn't take a certain toy in the water and he said, "I promise!!"  I'd never heard that one!  On Sunday, we were running by Walmart after church to get 2 things.  Reid & Caeden stayed in the car while I ran in.  I told Reid "Just drop me off at this door, and pick me up at the other one."  Caeden then said, "Mommy!  Why is Daddy going to drop you?"  Ha!  The mind of a little one!

SUMMER ACTIVITIES
As I mentioned earlier, our summer has been in full swing!  Caeden had a hard time transitioning at first, but is now doing great!  Reid is home every day, and we get to do lots of fun things as a family!  Caeden has had friends over, we've gone to the library, gone to the pool LOTS of times, had  surprise birthday party for Nana, celebrated the fourth of July, and had a garage sale!!  Caeden has been very involved in all of these activities and has done adjusting to our "new normal."

DISCIPLINE
Like I mentioned above, this was a rough month for Caeden as far as tantrums go.  He reached a peak at being "difficult."  Reid and I were both at the end of our ropes and were desperate.  He was pushing us both to lose our tempers, and end every day exhausted.  There were some fits that would literally last hours without stopping.  No discipline method was working...  We sought out counsel from several other "older" adults. And the best thing we did - recruit prayer warriors from our community group.  They started faithfully praying for Caeden (and us), we continued praying, and maintained our consistency.  A few weeks ago, we started to see improvement, and we thank Jesus - and give him all the glory!  Raising a child is HARD!  I knew it would be hard, but I never imagined some of what we had dealt with this past month.

We love Caeden so very much, and I feel tugs at my heart when I know he will be 3 years old in less than a month.  We love watching him turn from a toddler into a little boy!