Caiden's 3rd birthday

We had such a fun day on his BIRTHDAY! We started the morning off with bacon and pancakes...and of course he wanted sprinkles on his pancakes.

At 11am we had a birthday party for him at TRC Gymnastics. I did a Curious George theme and he loved it. He was so excited when he walked in and saw everything. The balloons are always a favorite.

Everyone (adults included) all played for about an hour.

Then we ate lunch and sang Happy Birthday.

Then we played again for 30 minutes before going home.

After the party we went home and Caiden took a nap. When he woke up he opened all his presents. Sadly, this is the only picture I took. Some of the highlights is a Buzz doll from Aunt Sara and Uncle Dustin (to go with Woody they got him last year). He also got some additional Thomas trains that he's having fun with and we got him a Rudy jumping horse. Our entire first floor looks like a toy store but it's great because it keeps him occupied whenever we're home. Thanks everyone for making it a special day!

Caiden: 3-years

Caiden Max is in full on toddler mode! He loves to talk and tell you what he knows. He seriously talks through everything in his life. I think this is normal...but boy does he remind me of Marc! He's very curious and loves to ask question after question. If you put some effort into the answer he's usually pretty satisfied. If you half ass the answer he will continue to ask you. I swear, kids these age should be sales people -they do not give up until they get what they want. On the other hand, he responds to no very well. If you have a good answer as to why he can't do or have something he will completely listen to you and not create a tantrum.

His second week of summer camp was a breeze. He still doesn't say he had fun and when you ask if he wants to go back he says no. But still, every day the second week he would say bye and wave and off he went. He would always remind us though, "Dada will drop me off. And mama will come back and get me." He reassured himself and us of that every single day that second week. I finally started telling him that I will always come back for him and that's when he started to feel better about it. It was the best feeling when he would run to me and give me a big hug when I would pick him up. He starts twice a week in September.

He still loves Curious George and Mickey Mouse. Both of which he asks to watch on a daily basis. He loves the Mickey theme songs and could listen to them over and over again. He's really into playing with Lego's, cars, trains and his Woody and Buzz dolls right now. There have been a few times where he has played with Lego's for over an hour without getting sidetracked on something else. It was awesome!

He is such a great eater. His favorites are Chipotle, marshmallows, bananas and saffron chicken. He's still allergic to dairy, eggs, nuts and shellfish and he's so smart about knowing what he's eating. If it's something new he will ask, "Does this have dairy in it?". We tell him to never take food from anyone except for mom and dad. He is so good about turning down food when someone wants to give him something. We were at a birthday party last month and of course it was pizza for the food. One of the parents was handing out slices and asked Caiden if he wanted one and he just looked at the guy and shook his head and said no. The guy was confused (because what kid turns down pizza) so he asked him again and he again said no. That's when I walked up and explained to the other parent. But I was so proud of him for knowing to say no.

He is potty trained! It was so much easier than I thought it would be. He was hesitant the first few days and had a couple accidents but it's been smooth sailing ever since. He even wakes up from the majority of his naps and in the morning with a completely dry diaper. I love not buying diapers and using 10 wipes to clean poop off his butt! The only downfall is that sometimes in the middle of the night he'll wake up and need to go to the bathroom and he doesn't want to go in his diaper so he will cry until one of goes in there to help him. He is still in his crib, and we don't want to take him out of it yet so we'll just deal with this minor hiccup.

He is doing pretty good with Grace, I think. There's really no jealousy we are just getting to the stage where she wants to touch everything and that is not limited to everything he is playing with. He will get mad at her and tell her to go away or tell me to come get her because "she's messing up my toys". I feel like a broken record telling him that he needs to share and that she's just a baby and she doesn't understand. Then other times he will be so nice and give her hugs and kisses and share everything with her. I love watching them interact for the first time in the morning. She jumps up from whatever she is doing and sequels when he runs up to her to give her a hug and a kiss. It melts my heart.

He sleeps with his 'night night', polar bear and he's been on a kick of wanting four blankets in his bed. They are all blankets that were made for him when he was born. He sleeps about 11 hours at night and then takes a 2-3 hour nap during the day. There have been a handful of times where he has not taken a nap and just plays in his crib for an hour and half before I get him out (those days are usually when he can hear Grace and he knows there is something going on without him).

It's been a lot of fun watching him grow and seeing his personality come out more and more. It's even cooler when you see yourself or other family members in him. I can't believe it's been THREE years. We say almost every day how time needs to go slower. Happy Birthday, Caiden Max!

Grace: 11-months

She is so close to walking. I really thought she might be 100% walking by now but not just yet. Every day she takes a few more steps on her own but still prefers crawling.

She has learned to high five. She gets so happy when you ask her and slaps your hand over and over and giggles with excitement when you do it.

She is eating table food more and more everyday. She loves cheerios, cantaloupe, watermelon, guacamole, ribs, strawberries, steak, rice, chicken...she pretty much likes anything you give her.

She still only has those two bottom teeth -but her top two are so close. You can see them bulging under the skin and her gums are really red. And she's been doing this thing where she rubs the back of her hand on her gums. I almost feel like I can see one of them coming through but I can't be for sure. I'm really enjoying not having to brush her teeth yet, though.

She is repeating more words every day. She's now saying 'dada', and 'more' (as in give me more food, lady!)

Caiden's first week of preschool summer camp...while potty training

Caiden has his first week of summer camp under his belt. It was every day from 9-12 at the Solana Beach Presbyterian Preschool -where he will be starting school two days a week in the fall. I really wasn't sure how this was going to go down. One part of me thought he might cry a little but another part thought he may be totally cool and just run off and start playing. Well I was right, all of those things happened. We had been prepping him all weekend and he was actually excited and not nervous to talk about it so I was optimistic. Well this week has been rough, here's the low-down:

Day 1: He was all smiles as we walked into school and even into the classroom. He immediately left my side and started playing {In hindsight that is when I probably should have left but I hadn't said goodbye or anything} When I was finished signing him in, talking to his teachers about his allergies and learning the ropes myself I went over to him and said goodbye and gave him a kiss. That's when it all went downhill. He kept asking me to stay and finally when one of the teachers said that it is best if I just left he melted down. Started yelling for me and trying to get to me but I was already out the door. I waited to shed a couple of tears myself until I was out of sight.

When I picked him up he was nicely sitting in a circle singing songs with his back to me. When his teacher told him I was here he got up really quick and turned around and I could see he wanted to start crying but I immediately diverted his attention to using the bathroom and he was all good.

Day 2: The drop off didn't seem as bad. He cried for a minute but after I left I kept peeking through the window and I could see he was very sad and just standing by the door waiting for me to come back. After 5 minutes I had to leave because Grace was melting down.

I arrived about 10 minutes early to pick him up. They were outside playing and so I was peeking through the window watching. The teacher had to tell him three times to get in line. He was so clueless where to go, he just kept walking around until he finally figured out to go to the end of the line. He has so much to learn! One thing that makes me feel better is that he's one of the youngest in the class. He's not even three yet and this is a three year old class. Some of these kids are almost a year older than him since he only makes the cutoff for this class by about a month.

His teacher said it was a bad day for him. She had to hold him a lot and he cried on and off and was asking for me for the first two hours. When he saw me he immediately started crying and running to me. Saddest.thing.ever. She said there were a few other kids that were having trouble that morning too and she thinks they were all just feeding off each other.

Day 3: Marc took him to school this morning. He said he screamed and cried and they had to pry him off of his leg in order to leave. Sounded like a miserable time, I'm so glad I didn't have to go through that again.

When I picked him up he immediately started crying when he saw me but stopped after a couple of seconds and was happy after that. I ask him all the time if he has some new friends and he always says, "Momma, you're my friend." {melts my heart every time}

Day 4: In the morning he kept telling us that he didn't want to go to school. That he'll go tomorrow. Silly boy, you're going tomorrow, too! He even started crying while eating breakfast because he didn't want to go. Check out this sad face. At this point I was contemplating letting him stay home with me because it just doesn't seem worth the anxiety at this age. But we powered through...

The only way to even get him in the car was telling him he could watch Mickey on the drive there. Marc took him again today. He said today was a little better than yesterday. He cried for a couple minutes then stopped. Marc peeked in a few minutes later and a teacher and a little girl were talking to him.

When I picked him up he didn't cry! He was close but I just smiled really, really big and he was ok. He did run and give me and Grace a big hug. He even answered yes this time when I asked if he had fun.

Day 5: He was a completely different boy. I dropped him off today and as we walked into the classroom door he barely hesitated, waved and said, "Bye, Mama!" All three teachers gave me this look of,  'Oh my, WOW! Now get out of here before he changes his mind'. haha. I was so proud walking back to the car.

When I picked him up today he was so happy, no crying, just very happy. Unfortunately he had two potty accidents and had to wear their clothes home. We started potty training about four days before school started. I was really nervous that he would have multiple accidents while he was there so I guess I can't complain of just one day of accidents.

He has one more week of summer camp -hopefully next week goes off without a hitch!