Caedmon

Parenting can have the highest highs and the lowest lows. On Sunday Caedmon decided he didn't want to go to his Sunday School class for seemingly no reason. It turned into the biggest parenting challenge/showdown Jason and I have faced yet. Without going into detail, we were befuddled and at our wits' end. Even after discipline and follow-up, we were unsure whether we did the best by him.


All this to say, I have been hyper aware of who he is these days; and I realized that he has grown up in a lot of ways since I last noticed. He is obviously not perfect, but he is a good kid, and he does a lot of things right. He will be 4 in a couple weeks, and I was thinking, he has matured exponentially since this time last year.


Today we were at an open gym at a gymnastics facility. Caedmon was one of the biggest kids there; and within a few minutes, he had a whole string of kids following his every move, jumping on trampolines, jumping into the foam block pit, going on balance beams, racing across the floor. Jonas was in the ranks, of course; he is used to obeying his brother.


This was the first time I have ever seen Caedmon take initiative in an unfamiliar environment like that. Usually he is definitely on the shy/cautious side of things. He doesn't have to be a leader, but I was glad/sad to see him pull away from some apron strings.


Another example: I had told Caedmon not to play with this glitter we have, but to put it away in the other room. Apparentely he couldn't handle himself and opened it on his way to the other room. I wouldn't have found the mess for awhile, but he came up to me and said, "I'm sorry, Mom. I was wrong. I'll clean it up!" YES!


We were at a busy playplace the other day. We have worked very hard on being content and grateful when it's time to leave special places instead of whiny. As we were walking out, WITHOUT prompting, Caedmon loudly said, "Thank you, Mom! That was really fun!" My heart melted with pride.


Caedmon is really excited to go to Carney next weekend for Thanksgiving. Today he said, "I love to go to Carney for pancakes on vacation. Carney is a REALLY good place to eat pancakes!" (Grandma serves pancakes every Saturday and we love the tradition-and the pancakes!)


Every morning we brainstorm 3 people/requests we can pray for. The boys each choose one and I take the leftover. For several weeks now the boys always want to pray for (fight over) Grandpa's go-cart with a broken chain. I suggested maybe Caedmon could pray for a person, so now he says, "Dear God, help Grandpa to go get a chain for the go-cart. I love you, God. Amen."


He is learning to tell time, sort of. He has been good with the o'clocks and the :30's, but Jason was trying to teach him "quarter past" and "quarter to." Now he says, "It's quarterback 3!" Must be football season. His new catch phrase for everything is, "that's crazy!" Love this guy.