Cade at 3.5ish years

It's official, my oldest child is now closer to being a 4 year old than a 3 year old.  How is this even possible?  I will be honest and say that 3 has been ROUGH, behavior wise.  There have been many days where I didn't know if we'd ever make it.  However, as a dear friend encouraged me, as we are rounding the corner towards 4 the fits are slowly getting fewer and we are slowly learning better ways to communicate during the rough patches.  

I can't believe how fast he's growing and losing that toddler look!  He's gotten much taller and thinned up a bit in just the past few months.  It's just crazy.  

Here's a peek into life with Cade at 3 and a half(plus a few months)....

First off, Cade hardly ever wears clothes when we are at home.  There's always a trail of clothes from the back door when we come home.  Thankfully he can now dress/undress himself without assistance which makes the clothing process much simpler.  He is also quite particular with his outfit choices.  Most of the time I just roll with it, but there are many days I must step in and explain that just because a shirt and pants are both blue doesn't necessarily mean they match.

Cade is still into all things construction and city workers(policeman, firefighters, trash truck, etc).  He loves to play with legos and blocks and make his own little construction zones.  His imagination is in incredible.  I love watching him play and make up his own games.  Dress up is a big hit in his book and he normally comes out a different character after rest time each afternoon.  He still loves to be outside in his construction site when the weather is nice and still can't resist good digging dirt.   Puzzles and books are still a big favorite for Cade.  He loves library day and we have to sit down and read all the books as soon as we get home.  This kid is definitely my little bookworm.  This fall I've started reading the Magic Tree House chapter series aloud to him and we've both really enjoyed it!!

Cade is my little kitchen helper!  He loves to help me cook or bake and he's actually quite helpful.  Its a fun activity that we can do together and I love that time with him.   We definitely prefer to bake things in the cookie genre but anything is fair game for us!  This kid can make a mean little personal pizza. 

Preschool has been going for 2 months now and Cade is thriving!  He absolutely loves it.  His teachers are Ms Brooklyn and Ms Chio and they are great.  They were shocked he had never been in any sort of school before. I think this has been a great experience for him.  His favorite part about school would definitely be art with Miss Natalie and music time.  He's learned lots of new songs and sings them constantly.  Cade, being the socialite he is, has made lots of new friends and gives us daily updates on them all.  We are very excited about all the holiday class parties coming in the next couple of months.

Sleep has been the single most challenging thing with Cade since about April.  It is definitely a million times better but he still rarely stays in his bed all night.  Most nights he ends up sleeping on the floor in our room.  We hardly even notice anymore and he just comes in and lays down on his pallet.  After the bad storm we had in April he just hasn't been the same sleep wise.  For about a 2 month period after the storm he couldn't even go to sleep without someone laying next to him and then would wake 3 to 4 times a night.  Those were a rough couple of months! Thankfully we've moved past that and even moved past having to sit outside his door every night.  So I know eventually he will move past needing to come sleep in our room.  For now I'll enjoy the fact that he still needs me and having him wake me by touching my face sweetly each morning.  I have a feeling once there's another little one in our room waking every few hours he won't think its so fun to sleep in there anymore:) He's also given up napping every day.  I still have him do rest time everyday where he plays quietly in his room for an hour to give us both a little break.  Every so often he will actually fall asleep but usually only once or twice a week.

Cade, we love you so much sweet boy!  You are the best big brother and Carter loves you more than anything.  I can't wait to see you with a little sister!  We are so thankful to have a front row seat in watching you discover and learn new things.  You surprise and impress me daily with the things you do and say.  We can't wait to see what God has in store for you and how he's going to use you for his kingdom!

Love you forever!