Happy Half Birthday to Cade!

My little Cade is growing and changing so much! He is over a month past his 2.5 b'day celebration and it's time for an update.

In just a little over a month he's going to start a 2 morning a week preschool program (at the same place Dylan has been going for 2 years now). I'm sure that will bring forth lots of developments in the upcoming months. BUT, it's not his first foray into classes. Due to the fact that he's a man of few words, we went ahead and got him involved in Early Intervention. We figured the resources were there for us to take so we did it. He's really loved it. He has a therapist come over every other week to the house and has "school" every Monday morning. It's a drop off play group that he's absolutely loved. The teacher adores him and gives great reports every week. On his part, he's always excited to go, carry his backpack into school, then drops it and runs to the toys without ever looking back. Only once have we had a report that he started looking for one of us before pick up time. So, going to preschool, I think, will be a breeze and a lot of fun for him.

At Good Harbor Beach

And as for his speech, he's progressing very well. He has new words every day, his enunciation has improved greatly and he "talks" all the time. We don't always understand what he has to say quite often, but that doesn't mean the boy doesn't have a lot to say. His comprehension is unbelievable so absolutely no concerns there. He loves playing the "where is" game (with body parts, finding things in pictures, etc) and pointing to what you ask for. He also very frequently calls us and then follows up with telling us something. He'll keep calling and repeating it until you correctly repeat what he is trying to say and then he will nod yes and move on. Though that scene may repeat itself a few moments later.

He loves to help. Some of his favorite things to "help" with is the laundry (he likes to help put the clothes in and push the button to start), picking up (doing this requires the right timing for you to ask and him to respond though), helping us off the couch or floor (always a fun game for him) and any other small chore he can pitch in on.

"Helping" Mom Fix Stuff in the Basement

As for potty training, we're still in the very beginning phases. He likes to occasionally sit on the potty and "push" the pee pee and poo poo out. It's pretty amusing and hard to keep a straight face when he's doing it. But, nothing's come of that yet. We tried a trial by fire potty training day to disastrous results (he helped with a lot of laundry that day) and realized he's just not quite there yet. We're fine with not pushing it since we're pretty sure he won't be going to college in diapers. Since he's generally gotten a lot more agreeable to diaper changes, they're much less excruciating than they used to be.

With His Dentist at His Very First Visit

He did such a great job following instructions and sitting still.

Cade adores his brother and mostly follows him around everywhere. Dylan loves being in charge for the most part. At this point, they definitely play together and interact well more than not. Of course, there are the occasional spats and differences over who should have a toy. But it makes a momma proud how they are there for each other, looking out for each other and are each other's best friends.

Optimus Prime\Buzz Lightyear Little Brother and Bumblebee Big Brother

In fact, Dylan loves helping Cade so much, he's taken to "helping" him get out bed in the morning. That has involved helping Cade transfer all his stuffed animals out of his crib and then waiting for an adult to come get Cade out. To my surprise one morning, I came in the room and Cade was already out of his crib!! With my jaw to the ground, Dylan proudly said, "I helped Cade out!" I tried to make him replay while I was in the room but that was a no go. So with my spying skills, I observed and caught on camera how this brotherly duo is making the crib escape together:

Cade really likes to sing. Now, given his limited vocabulary, this makes for really cute and amusing songs. For the most part he kind of just makes sounds similar to the song or fills in the words where he can (usually at the end of a line), but he watches your mouth closely when you're singing and he sings along whenever he can. One of his cutest and favorite songs for him to sing right now is this one:

We are having a super hero moment at our house. Batman and Spiderman are the current favorites of the boys....for this week at least.

So that's my Cade in a nutshell. He's still super cute, possibly even getting cuter by the day, tons of fun and full of surprises. Love my baby boy.