Well, on his actual birthday, we decided to take him to a japanese steakhouse since he has newly acquired a taste for steak and likes the show they put on. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no pictures of the birthday dinner. It was funny though when the chef asked if anyone was celebrating anything special and we told him it was Caden's 2nd birthday...he smiled and asked us if he picked out the restaurant :).
For his birthday, I stayed up most of the night before and made cupcakes for his entire class. I saved a few for us to have after his birthday dinner. Unfortunately, he wasn't too big on the cupcake...
What I didn't get a picture of was when he threw the cupcake on the floor and Riley got to eat it...What kid doesn't like cake???So, then I stayed up late that night and made sugar cookies for his whole class, since I KNOW he loves sugar cookies. We get one every time we go to Publix.
Funny, by baking all of this stuff for his class, it made me feel like such a mommy!
We had his little party at a park near our house that Sunday. It was Disney Cars theme. Here's a picture of his fabulous cake made by none other than Sandy Stone (she did our wedding cake and his baseball cake last year)...amazing, but everything is edible!
Caden has developed a new love of pizza...which on one hand, we are thankful that he is expanding his food selection and then on the other hand...we wish it was something a little healthier for him than pizza...like broccoli or something. So, his wish was our command and we had pizza for his party...
Such a big boy drinking out of juice boxes...but he definitely still loves his sippy cups of milk.
Blowing out his birthday candles...or at least trying to...
We had so many friends come by to help us celebrate our big boy's birthday...Anniston...
Brooke and Gavin...
Bailey...
Swayze...
Caden was definitely more into the opening of presents this year...But then as soon as he opened them, he wanted them out of the box immediately so he could play with them!
Uncle Todd, Aunt Carly, Brody and Wade had to leave before the party since Wade was up all night with a fever, but they stopped by before they left to drop off Caden's present, roll some balls, and take some pictures with Mimi and Grammy...
And Nana sent up some clothes, toys and books for Caden's birthday...and here is what he wanted most out of the box...he kept taking them off, but wanted me to put them right back on him...
More pictures to come of some of his other favorite toys...a water table and an outdoor grilling playhouse from us...
Uncle Todd, Aunt Carly, Brody and Wade had to leave before the party since Wade was up all night with a fever, but they stopped by before they left to drop off Caden's present, roll some balls, and take some pictures with Mimi and Grammy...And Nana sent up some clothes, toys and books for Caden's birthday...and here is what he wanted most out of the box...he kept taking them off, but wanted me to put them right back on him...
More pictures to come of some of his other favorite toys...a water table and an outdoor grilling playhouse from us...
This was his favorite...
I foresee many trips to Chuckie Cheese in our future...despite my protest since all I can think about is germs while I'm there...I know, I know, I need to get over it.
I just love this face...both the one he is making and just his cute little face in general...
Grammy and Pops gave him his Easter present while we there (it was April 19th). It was a larger than life bunny. He took to it right away...
After we got home with his bunny, we had some periods of silence and I looked over to find Caden just laying on top of his bunny on the floor...unfortunately every time I went to get the camera, the little booger moved, so I never got a picture of it...but here is bargaining with Riley by giving him his duck, which Riley steals all of the time so that Riley stops trying to play with the bunny.
Wagon rides with his girlfriend, Anniston...he already likes them young :)
Caden with his new friend, Matt (mommy's friend), our friendly Seminole Booster CFO...
Always on the go at almost two years old...
Also, an update on his health...when we took him back to the doctor last week for his pneumonia re-check, his pediatrician thought it was time to start doing some tests to see why he seems to catch every respiratory virus and then those viruses seem to hang around longer than normal. So, he is doing tests for cystic fibrosis, immune deficiencies, and allergies. We had the cystic fibrosis test today, which had both mommy and daddy pretty worried, and it came back normal! We were thrilled with the great news. So, now we are going to have blood drawn and tested starting next week to see if there is any immune deficiencies going on, and then on to the allergist. His pediatrician is almost positive that it is allergies and asthma, but wants to turn over every rock and stone to make sure he is correct. He's also hoping that if it is asthma that Caden will grow out of it. So everyone please keep us in your prayers as we go through all of these tests! We are so blessed to have this little boy in our life and we just want him to be happy and healthy!
It's so nice to have friends in town that treat you like family! Caden and I had a few invitations for Easter Sunday (daddy was out of town for a bachelor party...), and we took our friend Cindy up on her offer and went over to celebrate Easter at her mother-in-laws house. We had a good time...actually Caden had a blast playing with all of the dogs and getting a ride on Miss Kathy's tractor! Unfortunately, I was so worried about him breaking something and chasing him that I didn't get any pictures....aahhh, the terrible twos!
The Easter Bunny brought him some sidewalk chalk shaped like Easter eggs...
But the highlight of his Easter Basket was the stacking cars...he LOVES to stack things even when they are not meant to stack...so these are great! Thanks, Easter Bunny.
Once our Easter festivities were over, poor Caden just wasn't into playing and had 102 degree fever. We took him to the doctor the next day and then to do chest x rays...and low and behold, Caden had pneumonia for the second time already in 2010. Ugh!
No smiles, but hey, we were dealing with a 2 year old, an almost 2 year old and two 19 month olds...From the left, Madeline, Wade, Grandmother, Brody, and Caden. We'll take it since no one is crying...although Brody and Caden look like they are about to.
Madeline and Caden playing with Grandmother's recliner...they both thought it was so great that the armrest had a secret hiding place they could put stuff in.
Then all of the guys and Madeline marched out to sing Happy Birthday to Grandmother (marching is a strong word, as it seemed more like chaos to me)...Alex even played a song on the ukelele while we all sung along. Hopefully Grandmother enjoyed our singing :).
Then, we were off to Anniston Milgrom's 1st birthday party that same day...it was a rainy, gloomy day, but everyone made the most out of it. Anniston's party was in her Aunt's backyard, which had so much room for Caden to run around, a great swingset, and even a see-saw! Here's Caden with Anniston's big sister, Aydan on the see-saw.
He loves to go down slides backwards...I guess that ensures that he doesn't land on his hiney ;)...
Then last weekend, we went over to Grammy and Pops' house to visit and Uncle Todd, Aunt Carly, and cousins Brody and Wade came over for the day too! So, we got to ride outside on the trikes! Here's Brody...
And Caden with his safari hat on...
So that was the short version of our last two and a half months. Other things going on in the Harrell household are that Caden is getting more adventurous and climbing on taller furniture and moving objects like his ride-in car. He loves to go outside and runs for the door whenever he thinks we are going outside and gets EXTREMELY upset if we don't go. Speaking of, he has developed quite the little temper, too..hmmm...I wonder where he gets that from :). He still loves to read books and his babysitters are now all well aware, he loves to change his shoes. He LOVES shoes, he has to have shoes on all of the time (even with his pajamas), and then he will pick them out in the morning by pointing to the pair he wants (although mommy tries to talk him into a pair that matches his outfit). Silly boy, he must get his love of shoes from his mommy, too... 
Oh one more thing that happened lately is that Mommy got her television debut...try to not to laugh too hard...