19 month old Kaden

Kaden is now 19months old. He's been going to nursery the whole time by himself without really missing us, until its over. He's a total social butterfly. (He gets that from both his grandmas!) It's nice not to have to worry about chasing him for those 2 hours of Church. As tired as we sometimes get running after him, we miss it. Any stress, loss of energy, or long day with him is definitely all worth it. We love our Kiddie Kade! He is the bonus joy in our lives!

Kaden's current favorites:
Food-
--chicken smothered in any sauce
--pasta
--fruit snacks
--bananas, apples
--bread, tortillas, rolls, and especially BAGELS
--milK (he likes to emphasize the "k" sound)
--cookies

--chocolate (thanks to daddy)

He actually slept like this during a nap

Obsessions-
-- watching movies. As soon as he wakes up he starts saying "TV", until he watches his movies: Baby Einstein, Pinocchio, Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Book)
--light switches, buttons, zippers, levers, cords... mechanisms that do stuff!
--binky: (we weaned him off it, which was tough. But when he was bad sick we gave it back to him to comfort him. Now he asks for one at night ...practically begging. That makes it hard.)
--blankie: because its cold, he wants it to come with him all over the house. (I don't blame him with how chilly it is in our place every morning) He grabs it when I take him out of the crib in the morning and says in a happy almost relieved sigh, "blankie." Its really quite cute. :)
--vacuum: he loves to play with it and watch us vacuum the house.
--balloons

Watching "Pooh Bear" while wearing daddy's ear warmer

Activities-
--using the VCR by himself
--helping mommy clean
--brushing his own teeth
--must feed himself with a spoon or fork, or won't eat.
--using the faucet to wash hands... to play with the water, really
--reading books: Hop on Pop, Nice Catch, Dinos to Go, and still Dr. Seuss's ABC's
--building block (or any other object that is stackable) towers
--playing make believe: makes fake soup and feeds us; acts like a puppy; plays Jedi-Knights (thanks to his big pals Britton & Larson)
--super cuddly boy! He gives us spontaneous kisses and hugs with an added sweet sigh
--he recognizes locations. When we drive near his friend Jackson's house, he shouts, "Jackie!" And again when we walk towards the Smiths house he yells, "Britt-in, Larsy, Bon-wyn!"
--tantrums (our least favorite); hitting too. (We've actually gotten him to stop hitting, thank goodness)



Speaking-
--talking and mimicking mommy & daddy, the radio, and movies
--pretends to talk on his toy phone and says, "Hi, was SUP?"
--learning to say names of people in his life. Our family, friends, etc.
--learning colors & points them out to us: red, yellow, purple, black, pink, brown
--learning ABC's and saying them out loud wherever he sees them. Letters he knows well: A, B, C, D, E, F, K, L, O, S, W (he calls it "double-dee-doo) and Z.
--learning shapes: heart, star, flower, circle
--he loves to point out things he knows wherever we are: light, squirrel, balloon, lady, car, etc... just in case we didn't know what they were :)
At church 2 weeks ago, he pointed to a girls beret and repeated over & over, "bagel, bagel, bagel!"
--counting 1, 2, 3. He likes to sit in his high chair and look out the window. When he sees animals he points them out to me. When there is one dog, he says, "doggie" More than one dog, he says, "doggies". Today he pointed to a man walking a beige dog and a black dog. Kaden told me, "doggies, 2, black!" I was amazed!! Its great when you spend so much time teaching him things, and wondering if he's getting it, or if he's too young to understand... and then he says something as genius as "doggies, 2, black". I'm enrolling him in Princeton tomorrow!