Cayden - 16 Months

Cayden turned 16 months on November 26th and I haven't written a post about him in a while so today is about him!  We had his 15 month appointment on November 13th (with Adalyn's 3 year appointment) and he was such a good boy. He had to get a few shots and he took them like a champ. He never seemed phased that night or the next day. He acted perfectly normal.

Waiting for the doctor:

Here are his stats:
Height: 30 1/2" (25-50%)
Weight: 24 lbs 12 oz (75-90%)
Head: 17 1/4" (2-5%)

Yes, as normal with our children, his head is super small! His feet are small too! He's only a size 3 for his shoes and all of his baby socks from last winter still fit him. My problem is that the baby socks don't have grips on the bottom for walking so I've got to get him some new socks but the grip socks are all too big.

As for walking...it's not happening. Cayden does pull up now (as of 14 months) but does not stand up unassisted. Recently we have noticed a couple times where he has been distracted (like trying to use both hands to eat something) and has stood unassisted but as soon as he realizes it he grabs back on. He can walk behind push toys but he isn't really interested in it. He has developed an interesting way of getting around. On his knees. It's almost like a crawl but without using his hands so he can carry stuff around. Along with "walking" like this, he also hops like he has little springs in his knees and he gets all around that way. And he's super fast! So I guess he figures why walk when he can get everywhere on his knees. Here are a couple videos of him doing his "Cayden walk".

The doctor isn't worried about him not walking at this point. She said she could send us to physical therapy if we felt we needed to go but she said his muscles look just fine. And as you can see, his legs work well crawling up our steps! So we honestly think he's just laid back (ahem...lazy). Both my mom and my brother were second born children and both of them walked super late so we're just going to say it's in his genes. He was late crawling and pulling up so I'm pretty sure that walking will just come late too. Honestly it's kind of  nice that he's not crazy active and running around. It's nice having a laid back boy who loves to watch his surroundings.

He has recently started using Adalyn's old YBike and it seems to really help him with the whole walking thing. Jonathan got a video of him using his "scooter" (as Adalyn calls it) and Adalyn on her big girl scooter. He's always trying to keep up with his sister.

Cayden has 12 teeth now. All 4 of his molars have come in now so he has the ability to eat all kinds of food. But honestly he isn't interested in most table foods. He will eat just about any fruit you put in front of him, but no veggies or meats. We've reverted to veggie pouches for him to get his daily veggies. And here and there he has eaten a bite of chicken but he usually refuses any and all foods from our plates. This boy also loves starchy foods and will eat his weight in breakfast items (plain dry waffles, pancakes, nutri-grain bars, muffins, bananas, etc...) He has also recently discovered raisins and those are his favorite thing right now. Neither of our kids have access to junk food on any routine basis so our kids act like raisins are a fruit snack. :)

Cayden does not talk all the time and babble like his sister did at his age. But he does say some words and he understands, repeats and interacts well. He loves saying "dada" (all the time!) and anytime you hand him something or give him food he says "thank you" but it comes out more like "ta tu". It is precious! He also says "please" and "baba" for his cup. He can say "sissy" and "mama" but those aren't quite as often. His sitter said that the other day he said "excuse me" as clear as day and another parent heard it and couldn't believe it. He was repeating her and then said it over and over. She agreed that he doesn't babble, but what he does say is almost always understandable. He waives bye bye, blows kisses, gives "real" kisses (with the sound effect too), claps with music, dances, and loves to play Adalyn's band instruments including the piano, drums and harmonica. He is also really into taking lids off of things and putting them back on. He's always digging under my bathroom sink and getting hair product out and taking the lids off and on.

He is an absolute joy and always full of smiles. He smiles from the moment I wake him up in the morning till I put him down at night. And this boy loves sleeping! It's wonderful:) He squealed when he saw all the Christmas decorations and lights. When we were putting the tree up, he wanted to "help" like Adalyn was and he kept crawling to the tree to yank ornaments off. After that initial time, he has completely left the tree alone (and I didn't move any of the ornaments out of his reach). Adalyn was never bad about the tree ornaments so hopefully Cayden won't be either. It was like he wanted to touch and once he did, now they aren't intriguing anymore.

In the last couple days, it has been super cold so I pulled all of the fleecy hats out that I had in storage from the girl that we buy most of Cayden's clothes from. (It's been perfect. Her son is exactly 2 years older than Cayden and all of the seasons of clothes have fit him perfectly. I'm pretty sure we're using all the hats a year later than she did though!) Anyway, Cayden has taken a liking to the hats and will crawl over and get a hat out of the basket by the door and ask us to put it on him. Then he plays in it until we finally convince him to take it off. (He already has hair issues...just imagine after he's had a fleece hat on for a while. There is no hope.) It's so funny so I've gotten a couple pictures.

 Poor thing. This was his hair this morning before he asked for his hat. And yes, I had tried to get it to lay flat. He got his hair (and cowlicks) from his daddy. I think daddy's going to have to teach him how to use pommade at an early age...

 If only I could have gotten a 360* picture to show the full extent of this hair. 

You can see a penguin in that last picture. Cayden's grammy gave that to him recently and he has taken a liking too it. He is now all about his lovie that Adalyn gave him when he was born (also a recent obsession). Both items have to come out of his bed in the morning and get carted all around with him. Pretty cute.

I can't believe he's almost a year and a half. He and Adalyn play so nicely together and it makes me so happy. The other day he accidentally hit her in the head with a toy and she let him know that he hurt her. I stood back and watched as he gently touched her head and then gave her a kiss to say sorry. It was absolutely precious. I just love his little heart! (Wish I had my camera out to get a video of that!)