Sandman

As I've mentioned before, Caedmon loves to be outside, and one of his favorite things to do outside is to play in the dirt. He's never been picky about the type of dirt, where it is, if it's muddy or dry, etc. But that was before he experienced sand. He has a sandbox at his Gramma and Grandpa Dude's house, which has provided much entertainment for him. On a recent visit, his Gramma brought him a bucket of sand with some smaller buckets to fill and empty - oh, the possibilities! He puts sand in little cups, scoops it with his shovel, flings it into the air, pours it into his sandals, makes piles and then scatters them, and just generally has a grand time. We hope to get a real sandbox for him soon, but until then he seems to be completely happy with his bucket!



Our little Sandman has also been amazing us with his transition to sleeping in a big-boy bed. It's been two weeks since we first put a twin sized bed in his room, and although he slept in it the first night (we think he wasn't certain how to get out) he had gotten up every night since then until we finally put him in his crib. This past Tuesday, however, we put him in his bed, told him goodnight, and went into the living room to wait for him. A minute passed, then two...then ten...and we realized that although we could still hear him "talking," he was not getting up. Since then he's slept in his bed every night and for most of his naps. Wow! Such a grown-up little guy. I can't get a good photo of him sleeping because I'm afraid the loud camera shutter will wake him, but I did snap this one from the door - what nap would be complete without a duck, blanket, and good book?


It's so hard to leave him at bedtime - even though by that time we're generally exhausted too - he's such a little character! After his bath we read books together, then he climbs up into bed to say prayers. We pray and tuck him in, then he looks up and says insistently, "Je-ja!" which means he wants us to sing "Jesus Loves Me." We comply, then the rest of our conversation sounds something like this:
Us: "Caedmon, it's time to sleep in your bed now."
C: "By-y-e!" (said with somewhat of a Southern drawl - and about three syllables)
Us: "We love you."
C: (makes kiss sound)
Us: "Night night."
C: "Nigh nigh."
Us: "Sleep good. We'll see you in the morning."
C: "By-y-e."

Most of this is punctuated by him sucking his thumb, and occasionally re-requesting "Je-ja." It's so hard to stop talking to him - his responses are so precious!

We are also practicing self-feeding. While we generally make a fork and spoon available and encourage him to use them, Caedmon still generally finds it much more convenient to eat most foods with hands. However, as he demonstrated for me with his yogurt at breakfast one morning this week, he's actually quite adept with a spoon. He ate almost the entire bowl by himself, hardly dripping any yogurt at all!