22 months! (by kelli)
Caden has grown leaps and bounds in the past few months. He has also gone through one major life transition and has a few more huge ones coming up, so we hopes he handles them with ease. After selling our beloved first home, we have moved into a temporary sublet home. We were fortunate to fine a wonderful new house, but will not be able to move in until soon after Caden’s baby sister is born in a few weeks. It is tough living out of boxes, but we have tried to ease Caden into the transition, and it seems like so far, so good. Sleep was one of our major concerns, as Caden has never been the best sleeper, but he has been doing okay at our sublet. Some early wake-ups (5:30-6am) and some short naps (1 hour or less), but not too bad considering.
Although Caden’s vocabulary has been expanding like crazy, we are sure he doesn’t understand what all these changes are about. And he has no idea how his life will be turned upside down on May 26th (the date of my scheduled c-section). I wish there was a way we could prepare him more. We have a couple books about becoming a big brother and my mom bought a doll for Caden… to try to teach him just a little about “babies”. Unfortunately the last two times (recently) I have held a tiny baby in front of Caden, he became so upset- crying almost instantly and saying “no baby” or “all done baby”. Needless to say I am very worried about his acceptance of his sister. Caden is such a Mama’s boy right now and is not a very independent player. I hear after a couple months toddlers don’t even remember what life was like before the new sibling, but we are prepared (sorta) for some rough times. I know I will miss being able to give so much individual attention to Caden. He is such a sweetheart and so much fun to play with, but I know won’t be able to focus solely on him very soon. I am trying to take advantage of our alone time now, but also trying to encourage him to play more independently and with other people. It is a tough balance.
Regarding Caden’s development- his vocabulary has just taken off so much in the past few months. He can count to twenty, recite the alphabet, sing some songs, and knows many colors and shapes. He repeats so much that we say (we need to be careful now) and he formulates some of his own full sentences. Just in the past two weeks he has begun greeting some other kids by name unprompted. He even went running off toward his friend, Joaquin at the park last week after I started running and encouraged him with, “Let’s go get Joaquin!” They ended up running past each other, but it was still adorable.
Since the weather has been nice (off and on) Caden has become so obsessed with going outside. He loves to explore nature and just loves to be out in the fresh air. The past few days have been rainy which has lead to a few tantrums when we try to redirect him after his insistent “go outside, go outside…” Because we are in a sublet we don’t have all of his toys easily available, so being inside is causing us to be a bit stir-crazy. Often playdough and (unfortunately) videos are two things that can help re-direct him and keep him happy while cooped up inside. He also enjoys his blue tunnel, which we currently have inside as a “toy.”
At the rate that we update this blog, I am guessing the next post will have quite a bit of new news about our addition and the changes in our lives. I just hope I can find a moment to type something up in a month or two…. I am not even there yet, but I am already in awe of all moms of 2 or more. I am not sure how I will juggle it all. Hope I have a chance to blog again soon. 