Caedon is 3!!

Caedon is 3 years old!!

Right now Daddy and Caedon are playing Legos that he got for Christmas.

We have had a busy week - beginning with family activities both Christmas Eve (Monday) and Christmas Day (Tuesday), work (Wednesday), two birthday parties for Caedon (Thursday and Friday), another family Christmas on Saturday, and a trip to see the musical Wicked in St. Louis with Roger and Vicky today (Sunday). \We are looking forward to January 1st to reorganize our messy post-party house with all the new presents.

I sent Caedon to daycare with some (#24, way too many!) confetti cupcakes with blue icing and colorful sprinkles on his birthday.  I actually had the day off work but needed to prepare for the parties.  Plus, he always came home talking about the other kids at daycare having birthdays so I thought he would really enjoy having some fun there.  Susie had Gavin Burgess at Schiller's make a special delivery to Caedon - a balloon!

Caedon's birthday parties were themed Thomas the Train.  He had some friends over - Peter and Johnny Seyb, Evelyn Adkins, and Owen Burgess.  They all wore train hats and blew train whistles (luckily not loud ones!). Caedon did a great job blowing out his three candles at our family party but struggled a bit with the #3 candle at his friend party.  He also beat me in "Pin-the-#1-on-Thomas" but I'm pretty sure (ok really really sure) that he cheated by peeking!!  None of his friends wanted to be blindfolded, but he thought it was fun!  We brought his train table up from downstairs and all the kids enjoyed playing with the engines.

The day after his birthday Caedon woke up and came into our bed in the morning.  I opened my eyes to see him looking at me inquisitively, "Am I still 3, Mommy?"  He is so darling!

The past few weeks, Caedon has been very concerned with our emotions.  If he gets in trouble, he will apologize and then ask us, "Are you happy now?"  And he really really wants us to be happy. One of the first times he said it it came across as an unruly teenager sighing and complaining, "THERE, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?!?!"  Grandpa Newton, Daddy, and Mommy had a good laugh at that one.  Now Caedon will just ask us out of the blue, "Are you happy?"  or "Why aren't you happy, Mommy?"  Well Caedon, you were being mean to your brother. "Oh, you're disappointed  Mommy?"  Yes Caedon, I am disappointed.  He will also ask, "Are you mad?"  A month or so ago he had a preschool section on emotions, so perhaps that is playing into these questions?

One of Caedon's favorite Christmas presents is his new orange camera.  For a little while he was calling it his video camera, and while it does do a little bit of that too, he has no idea how to work that part of it!  Anyway, at our family Christmas parties later that day, Caedon had so much fun going around the room taking pictures of people and things.  He took pictures of the Christmas trees and enjoyed telling people to say 'Cheese' or 'Pickles!"  It holds about 1000 pictures and I can't wait to see what he comes up with.  A sneak peak showed me there were a lot of eyes/foreheads or chins instead of entire faces.

The other day, Caedon was talking about something and then out of the blue said, "He's a cheeky fellow!"  I was like, "What?! Where did that come from?" But Chase informed me later that day that Thomas the Train says that.  He often gets to watch Thomas DVDs at Grandma and Grandpa Newton's house while he waits for us to get off work.  Anyway, since that time he has referred to several people as "cheeky fellows."

Caedon is apparently afraid of bugs. My mom tells me this is a learned behavior.  Hmmm, I wonder where he gets that from!  Although I swear I try really hard not to get freaked out about bugs in front of him.  Everyone else doesn't believe that I can control this though!  Anyway for his birthday his Great Aunt Lynne gave him a container full of corn flour and plastic bugs to play with and Caedon would NOT touch them. In fact, he had fear in his eyes and yelped when I tried to make him put his hand in there!  I guess it is something we both have to work on....

Caedon also does not like being dirty.  If he gets the littlest mess on his hands he MUST go wash them.  We even try to encourage him to wait until he is completely done with whatever is making him messy before he washes up, but he won't have it. Could this be a learned behavior?  If so, it is probably from my dad!

So, I have to admit that in the days prior to Caedon's birthday I was getting pretty sentimental.  Several times I shed a few tears because I loved age two for him!  He was so SMART and fun and loving and I don't want him to change from that cute little two year old.  But of course, I do want him to change, and it's not like I can do anything to stop it anyway!  If you are reading this years down the road, Caedon, I just want you to know that we love you so much and really enjoyed getting to know your new little personality this year.  Thanks for the hugs and kisses and "I love you Mommy" moments. You are a shining light in our lives and we are so proud of you already! Ok, here I go tearing up again....

Just a few notes about Drake -
He is sitting up pretty well these days.  He tried his first food (oatmeal) on Christmas Day, then rice three days later.  He does not like either of them and will NOT open his mouth for them.  A lot of times he will make a face like, "that is SO disgusting!!" after just tasting it (not even trying to swallow it).  Maybe he will like fruits and veggies instead???  Drake has started to scoot a tiny tiny bit every now and then.  He is mostly a roller, which is something Caedon never was (too chubby?).  He has also started jibber jabbering quite a bit and blows lots of bubbles.  He gets transfixed with us running on the treadmill.  Drake still gets up every three hours to eat and usually doesn't 'go to bed' until about 11:30 or midnight.  And lastly, he still smiles all the time, especially at Caedon.