Finally, a weekend at home!

This week has been a relatively low-key one. Caden has continued to perfect his ability to sit up, and can now (provided he doesn't lunge to one side or the other) sit for quite a while. We like to surround him with pillows, give him a pile of toys to grab at, and watch him work on his balance. It sometimes seems like he enjoys falling more than he likes to sit, though, and a tumble onto the pillows is often followed by a squeal of laughter. Caden is also joining us sitting at the dinner table in his high chair. He enjoys the new perspective, and we really like seeing his smiling face across from us at the table.

Caden's other "milestone" this week was his official graduation from his Graco Snugride infant carseat (the one he rode home from the hospital in on April 5th) to a cushy Britax convertable seat:

April 5th

September 23rd


What a comfy new seat!


















Mommy's half marathon

Early this past summer, Mommy and our friend Anne decided to walk a half marathon together. After months of training, this past Saturday was the big day. We headed down to China Camp State Park, east of San Rafael, for their 13-mile race, which followed trails through the park. They set off just after 9am, and Mark, Daddy, and Caden played in the park for 3 hours, 40 minutes, and 10 seconds while they were walking. The guys found a nice spot under some trees, spread out a blanket, played with Caden's favorite toy octopus (see below) and showed Mark how Caden can sit and roll. Caden was most interested, however, in getting to the edge of his blanket so he could grab dry leaves and try (unsuccessfully, thanks to Daddy's blocking moves) to stuff them in his mouth. Mommy and Anne finished their walk at 12:45, and we all headed out to lunch for a well-deserved (especially on the women's part) celebration. Then Mommy, Daddy, and Caden headed over to Babies 'R' Us to buy the above-mentioned carseat, a safety gate, and other important supplies for our growing boy.





A new game

This afternoon, Caden figured out a fun new game. It's called throw the rattle on the ground and get Mommy to swing him over so he can grab it again. It's particularly amusing in double-time, and be sure to turn your volume up for the soundtrack:

Massachusetts meanderings

We spent this past week in Massachusetts, exploring the area we'll move to in a year. We flew into Boston on the 10th, spent two nights in the city, then spent the remainder of the week on the North Shore, where we'll be living. Daddy will be working at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center, which is in Nahant, about 15 miles north of Boston.

This was Caden's first plane ride, and he was such a good little boy! We had two 3.5-hour flights (plus delays) each way, with layovers in Dallas, which made for some long travel days. As we noted last week, Caden is very interested in cups. Whenever we were served beverages on the plane (that's all they serve you unless you pay extra...), he would grab at them. Furthermore, he would start making annoyed noises if we didn't let him play with our cups. So, we gave Caden an empty cup to play with, and it became one of his favorite toys.

We spent two nights in Boston, so Daddy could talk to people at Northeastern's main campus in the city. While we were there, Elisa, a friend of Mommy's from high school, who is now in a PhD program at Brown, drove up to visit and to meet Caden. On the morning of the 12th, we piled into our rented Chevy HHR (don't drive one unless you absolutely have to) and headed north. We stopped at the marine lab to say "hello" to people, then went to our B&B in Marblehead. We then reconvened with folks from the lab for a tasty dinner overlooking the water in Swampscott.

On Wednesday morning, we headed back to the lab to explore the local rocky shore at low tide. This was our first east-coast intertidal experience, and it was fun to start looking at the animals and seaweeds that we'll soon be studying. Caden especially enjoyed touching and pulling on the Ascophyllum.

One of our main reasons for the trip was to look at possible places to live, and we spent most of Wednesday afternoon talking with a realtor about housing possibilities in the area. We then headed back to the B&B to regroup, then into Marblehead's old town to find a quick dinner to take back to the B&B. We found some yummy salads, a fantastic garlic-dill chevre, and a GIANT brownie at Crosby's market. Mmmmm... Then Caden had a bath in the sink at the B&B. He actually filled the entire sink (see picture), making for a silly, wet, and slippery experience.

On Thursday morning, we looked at a couple of houses for sale in Swampscott. Don't worry folks, we're not going to buy anything yet; we only checked them out to get a sense for what's on the market. Next, we headed back to Marblehead for a delicious lunch with one of our new colleagues and his family. After that, it was time to head over to the lab for Daddy's seminar on rocky-shore ecology. We then went out for pizza with folks from the lab, including a bunch of students enrolled in Northeastern's Three Seas Program.

Friday, we spent the morning at the lab with a friend from Bodega/Davis who is finishing her Master's in phycology at URI. We had a great walk up the hill from the lab along a trail overlooking the ocean. After that, we headed north to explore the Cape Ann coastline, including the town of Gloucester, the nation's oldest fishing port. We stopped for dinner in Marblehead on the way back to the B&B, and enjoyed window shopping, checking out the old buildings (many of which date from the 1700s), and exploring the waterfront. And, of course, we had to get another of those GIANT brownies for dessert.

Saturday, we got up early and were pleasantly surprised that we made it to the airport, returned our rental car, checked in, and were through security in just over an hour. Two jet rides, one car ride, and one very tired little boy later, we arrived back in Sebastopol, happy to be home.

Glad to be home!

Looking across the bay toward Little Nahant.

Nahant from the air. The "island" is in the center of the photo, joined to the mainland by a causeway. The headland to the north is Marblehead.

Five months old!

Today, Caden reached his five-month milestone. He spent most of the day with Daddy (Mommy was at the lab). On one of our walks, we went to the Post Office, and Daddy set Caden on the scale to see how much he weighed. It was hard to tell, since Caden was wearing a cozy outfit for our morning walk, but it looks like he weighs about 17 pounds now. According to the information on the scale, that means it would cost about $13 to mail Caden to Corvallis and about $20 to mail him to Petersburg. Reminds us of a certain John McCutcheon song...

Austin Creek Picnic

On Saturday, our friends Mark and Anne drove up from Oakland to spend the day with us. We started the day at Hard Core Organic, a funky coffeeshop, then went to the flea market where we found Caden some new socks. We then packed a picnic lunch and headed for Austin Creek, where we hoped to find some swimmable pools. We found a good, shady spot for a picnic, then tried--somewhat desparately--to find a place to swim. Matt and Mark found a small, but sufficiently deep hole under a bridge, though it was more of a plunge pool. Caden enjoyed dipping his toes in the water.

Weekly update

This week, little Caden has been doing a lot more sitting up (see the photo above), and he rolled over from his back to his tummy while we were snuggling in bed one morning. He has also become increasingly interested in Mommy and Daddy's food. For example, one afternoon, Daddy was drinking a ginger ale, and Caden decided that he wanted to share:

"Daddy, may I have some?"

"Yum! I like drinking from a cup."

"And it tastes good, too."