Caden really likes teaching Sadie things: "Can you say 'bear' Sadie? Say Bear... great job."
His favorite question right now is "And what would they say?" He asks it for just about any situation imaginable. For example, I'll tell him he has to hold my hand in the parking lot so he doesn't get hit by a car and he says, "What would you say?", meaning what would I do if he got hit by a car.
Sadie loves to sing. One of her favorite songs right now is "Dear Prudence" by the Beatles, which we taught her because her stuffed owl's name is Prudence. We have that, "Life is a Highway" from the Cars soundtrack and another song about cars on a CD in the car and the kids ask for all of them by name. Car rides have also gotten a lot better know that we've turned Sadie forward facing.
Sadie's also very polite - says "thanks" and "thank you Mama" all the time. The other day I asked her how we ask for things and expected her to say "please" but instead she came out with "Can I have it, please" in perfect parrot of how Caden says it.
Another of Caden's idiosyncratic idioms right now is "God Lord". Casey says "good Lord" sometimes when he's joking around with the kids and Caden turned it into God Lord... we can only hope he doesn't say it at his Christian preschool.
We're finally getting some decent weather and the kids love playing outside together either in the sand box, going back and forth collecting and dumping rocks with their play dump truck, or Caden zooming around like crazy on his balance bike and Sadie maneuvering her monster trike. They literally swim in the sandbox and end up filthy, which wouldn't be a big deal except Sadie is back to hating baths again. Actually last week she screamed every time she needed to be changed, take a bath, or go to sleep. Improvements are being made, after screaming on the way in, she played in the bath for 30-40 minutes with Caden last weekend (never did sit fully down in the tub though)... A week and a half later and she LOVES taking baths, asks for one every single afternoon.
Sadie can count all the way to 4. (I think she learned it because Caden gives her 5 kisses, and counts them each out, every night and naptime. He does it in her crib right after we all do Yoga together. The kids favorite part of that is putting their little hands together and saying "Namaste".) She's also very proud of the fact that she can take off her own sweatshirt, get her own milk out of the fridge, and buckle the straps to her booster seat.
Caden has become really self-sufficient lately too. He can take his clothes off, put them in the laundry, throw away his pull-up, clear the table, pick out his new clothes and get dressed. Last weekend he spent ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday outside helping Casey pull up a bunch of trees by the driveway and hauling them to the dump. He was in charge of hooking the chain to the back of the truck and he took his duties very seriously.
