Happy Birthday, Cayson!

Today my little boy turns 2 years old. It is so hard to believe that his infancy is completely gone. He's a full-fledged toddler now. It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, scared to death and wondering how we were going to keep this little baby alive! We've seen him go through so many milestones and stages. Each one met with complete awe from us. And every stage has been my favorite! He has taught me so many things, without even realizing it. And he's learned a lot, too! It seems like he learns a new word every minute! And he's learning really important things, like how to pray and how to say "Thank you" and "Please" and "Yes Sir". (We're still working on "Yes Ma'am".) And most of the time he says these things without us having to tell him to. He's learned how to count to fifteen, and we're still working on the alphabet. His favorite color is blue...he thinks everything is blue! Although, he's added red and green to his vocabulary. He just doesn't always get them right. He knows all of his body parts and the names of a lot of animals...and what sounds they make. He loves to sing and dance! His favorite songs are "Zaccheaus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Jesus Loves Me", the Veggie Tales theme song, and "Lord I'm Amazed by You". He just loves to sing these songs and dance and just ham it up! He also loves to pretend to play different instruments, like the guitar, flute, saxophone, harmonica, piano, and drums. It's so cute because he'll "play" his instrument and pat his foot at the same time! I think his absolute favorite thing to do, though, is to play some sort of ball. Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, it doesn't matter. He loves them all. And, boy, does he have an arm! He loves to pitch a baseball to you and do the wind-up. In football, he loves to throw the ball to you and then tackle you after you catch it! And when he has the ball, he's learned how to stiff arm! He loves to say "Set, hut!"

We haven't started potty training yet; I didn't want to force the issue before the baby came. We'll start soon, though. I'm working with him right now to make sure he can pull his own pants up and down. He already tells us when he needs a diaper and if he's peed or pooped. Usually, anyway. I'm just waiting for a two week stretch that we don't have to go anywhere and we can hit it hard without having to worry about traveling.

He's sleeping most of the night in his big boy bed; he gets up around 5 and comes in our bed and goes back to sleep.

Behavior wise, he's mostly pretty good. Like every toddler, he has his meltdowns, but they usually don't last long and don't happen too often. He loves to help around the house and with Bryce. Especially throwing things in the trash, doing laundry, and loading the dishwasher. In fact, when he's having a meltdown, I can usually tell him I need help doing something and he will immediately cheer up. He does pretty well with Bryce, except for when he's wanting cuddle time with me. If Shaun's home and I'm nursing Bryce, Cayson will often tell me to "give Bryce [to] Daddy". He still loves to play with my hair. Now we'll be buying groceries and he'll start saying "hair, hair". I love that he still wants to cuddle with me.

I have so many great memories so far of Cayson's first 2 years. I'm looking forward to making many more!