Kaden.
Life with Kaden is so good. And rewarding. And exhausting.
He's always done so amazingly well being home.
He has his days, of course, but all of us do.
He's learning right from wrong, and, like I mentioned in the last post, is our family's police man when it comes to "making good choices" and rescuing people. :)
And like any boy,
Kaden gets mad. He gets his feelings hurts, and he gets sad.
He has needs like other children his age, but his needs are often met differently than the average child.
He needs security, predictability, and love.
He needs those things in ways that other kids don't.
He needs time to pretend to be a baby, and experience the love and innocents that babies get.
He needs to know that we will always have food to eat, and that he will never go hungry.
He needs to be allowed to "save" some of his food for later, if he feels the need to do so.
While we let him do that, we also try to stress that fact that it is unnecessary.
He will always be able to eat when he is hungry.
And he needs love.
He needs to know that we will always love him.
Always. No matter what.
When he makes poor decisions, we love him.
When he has to be disciplined, we love him.
When he doesn't get his way and throws a fit, we love him.
Last night Kaden was crying.
He said that he thought I wouldn't "be his friend anymore", simply because he was acting up when it was time for bed.
Kaden, sweet Kaden, I will always love you.
You are my brother, and nothing you could do will make that love disappear.
And so, the "Melt my heart" part of this post:
I have special goggles I use when I swim.
Most goggles hurt my eyes, but these don't.
It just so happens that Kaden loves these goggles.
It also just so happens that Kaden breaks things very easily.
Because of these two factors, I try to keep said goggles out of sight in my room.
Today Kaden found them, and was playing rescue (his FAVORITE game) with them.
I sat down next to him and explained that those goggles could be easily broken and asked for them back.
Kaden gave them back easily, but got upset.
He started looking for his handcuffs, and when he couldn't find them, he got a rope and pretended to "put me in jail".
Bethany jumped to my rescue and ended up in "jail" (a closet) with me.
I thanked her for trying to rescue me and she said,
"It's ok. 'Cause youse is my favorite sister."
That sure melted my heart, but that's not even the best part yet.
Eventually we got out of "jail" and the little ones went down for their naps.
When Kaden woke up, he went downstairs to find me.
"Brittany," he said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, "I sorry for bein' mean to you."
Oh. My.
I quickly hugged him, told him I loved him, and ran up to tell my mom.
"He came in here first thing after he woke up," she said. "He told me that needed to go tell you he was sorry. He's probably been thinking about it all of rest time."
Even now my mind fails to grasp all of this.
His heart, his loving, trustful, sweet heart... Folks, my little brother is pretty awesome.
Though it's hard to see it some days, Kaden is simply mind blowing.
I need to try harder to step back and appreciate what a treasure we have in our little man.
et little boy! 
