Gobble, gobble, who is that?

A week ago, we returned home from the annual Godard family Thanksgiving feast in Oregon. This was the 15th year that the family has convened at Camp Magruder, and there were 22 of us gathered around the table. We flew from Boston to Portland on the 19th and spent just over a week there. We were met at the airport by Uncle Don in Great Grandad Burrell's big blue car, and Caden is still talking about Don and the blue car. Somehow, our white Corolla isn't quite so cool.

We spent a couple of fun days in Corvallis, visiting with family and friends and making the necessary trip to American Dream Pizza, before heading to the coast. At Grandma and Grandad's house, Caden had a great time playing with toys, sleeping snugly in the new Pack 'n' Play, and being cozy with Grandma, Grandad, Great Gma Jean, and Auntie Sally. He also enjoyed exploring the neighborhood playgrounds and playing in the classrooms at the preschool that Grandma directs.

Reading "I Spy" with Great Gma Jean
Playing with Fiona

Camp Magruder

On Thursday morning, we--Auntie Sally, Caden, Mama, and Dada--piled into the blue car and headed for the coast. Along the way, we entertained Caden by singing, "Gobble, gobble, who is that..." at least 20 times. It's pretty hard to get too sick of a song when it's end is greeted by an enthusiastic "Yay! More gobble gobble!" Dinner was, of course, wonderful, and we all enjoyed several days of spending time with family, walking on the frosty beach, swinging on the rope swing, and exploring at Cape Meares.

Highlights of Caden's time at Magruder this year were getting to visit the donkeys, playing with the ice on the beach, spending time with the kids--Sandy and Juliana--who he continues to talk about daily, and visiting the Tillamook cheese factory. Caden loved the donkeys so much that he woke Dada up in the middle of the night, saying: "Dada, pet donkeys, hee haw!"

On the way back to Corvallis, we drove through Newport, where we stopped for lunch at Mo's Annex and took Caden to see the sea lions at the pier. He wanted desparately to "pet seals," and he still says "seals... ar-ar-ar-ar" several times a day.

With Gma Jo on the beach
Petting the donkeys

"Upstairs, make cheese," says Caden

Captain Fishblood's treasure

Ice on the beach

With cousins Sandy and Juliana

Watching the sea lions in Newport

The view from Cape Meares

At Cape Meares light

Walking with Dada
















Santa sighting!

Before heading back to Massachusetts, we spent a night near Portland with Aunt Erika and Uncle Brad. Because Caden loves trains, we all took the Max light rail downtown to visit Santa at Macy's. Caden had fun exploring Santaland and playing on the sky train from the old Meyer and Frank store. He even tolerated a brief meeting with Santa. Caden likes Santa's "big boots."

Exploring Santaland
What do you want for Christmas?

Riding the Max

Changing seasons

We've been looking through the past month's pictures, and these two nicely show the transition from Indian summer to fall here in New England. Warm October days (notice Caden wearing a short-sleeved shirt on the 21st of October) have been replaced with chilly November ones, which require warm jackets and cozy hats.

On the first Sunday in November, right after Nana and Boopa left, we drove up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a beautiful day, and the leaves along I-95 were gorgeous! Portsmouth is a really neat town, and we all had a great time eating lunch at a cafe, window shopping, admiring the historic buildings, and, especially, exploring the Childrens' Museum. Caden's favorite exhibits were the yellow submarine, the castle throne room, the handprint pegboard (see below), and the huge Thomas the Train set. The submarine featured a one-storey-high, super-fast slide that Caden and Dada probably went down 20 times. As soon as he got to the bottom, Caden said, emphatically, "More, more!"

Making handprints...
... like these, at the Childrens' Museum

"Building" a stained-glass window

Caden's vocabulary continues to amaze us. His "big" words include such tongue-twisters as "alligator" and "helicopter," and he's starting to string words together to make more elaborate statements and to tell stories. Often, his stories consist of a series of nouns. For example, "slide ... beach ... digger ... big boats!" would describe a recent trip to Devereaux Beach on Marblehead Neck, where we played on the slide, walked down to the ocean, saw some construction equipment used for repairing rip-rap, and passed some boats wrapped up for the winter. He and Dada took the bus and the T to the New England Aquarium on the 12th, and Caden still can't stop talking about the bus, choo-choo, big sharks, big turtles, fish, seastars, and seals. Because they're much more tangible, especially to the son of two marine biologists, every five-pointed object is a seastar, not a generic star. Caden has also started saying nice things like "please," "thank you," and "I love you," which is really sweet.

Caden has started "helping" with chores around the house, including dusting, which is a favorite activity of his. We keep a dusting towel where he can reach it, and he will often announce, "dust, dust," walk over to the towel, and start dusting various pieces of furniture. Caden is also starting to really enjoy going to school, and he often comes home covered with paint, telling us about all of the fun things he did.

Dusting the piano
Balancing at the Y

Halloween with Nana and Boopa

Fall weather has definitely arrived in New England, and we can see winter approaching. It may even snow a bit later this week. Nana and "Boopa"--Caden's name for Grandpa--were here last week for their traditional Halloween visit, and we had lots of fun playing, going to a pumpkin patch, and decorating Halloween cookies.

Caden had a great time this Halloween, probably because of the many parties and snacks involved. Because his first word was "kitty," Caden dressed as a little black cat this year. He went trick-or-treating ("tick-teet!" "Hoween!") up and down our street, which gave us a great excuse to meet many of our neighbors. In fact, he enjoyed trick-or-treating so much that on the night of November 1st, just before bedtime, Caden demanded to go outside. Daddy carried him down the stairs, then Caden made a beeline for the neighbors', saying "tick-teet, Hoween!" Mommy had to put some snacks in a bowl, so that when Caden knocked on the door, he could trick-or-treat at our house.

Caden wore his kitty costume at several Halloween parties this year. On Sunday, the youth group at the UU church up the street hosted a Halloween fundraiser for UNICEF, and Caden had fun playing the games they had set up in the church hall. We had the Marine Science Center kids over for a party on the 30th, and everyone had fun romping around in their costumes, munching on pizza, and decorating cookies. Caden's friend Chelsea was also a black cat, and the sight of the two of them playing was pretty darned cute. On Halloween morning, we all headed over to Caden's child care center, where we had fun watching the kids sing songs (e.g., "Oh my doctor, Frankenstein" to the tune of "Oh my darlin', Clementine"), parade in their costumes, paint pumpkins, and munch on Halloween snacks.

Drivin' a tractor at the pumpkin patch

Cookie decorating

Halloween dinner: mac, cheese, and peas!

Two black cats

With Nana in the costume parade

Mmm... Cookies

Climbing

Caden has decided that climbing things--chairs, stairs, and the side of his crib--is great fun.

Exploring and building

It's been really fun to watch Caden learning and talking about his world over the past few weeks. His running commentary of babbles has been replaced with comments on all of the things he is seeing or has seen recently. Today's favorites included blocks, the bus, trains, our friend Mark, seastars, and the Y. That about sums up the past couple of weeks!

Two weekends ago was the annual Marine Science Center open house, and Caden had a great time exploring the beach, splashing in the water, playing with the seastars and hermit crabs, and seeing the huge fin whale skeleton in the Museum of Vertebrate Studies. Caden's comment: "Whale... all done." Several of Caden's friends were there, and he had fun playing with Chelsea, Summer, and Mae.

We joined the local YMCA a couple of weeks ago. Caden goes to the YMCA preschool and needs to be a member anyway, so we got a family membership. That means that Mommy and Daddy are finally working out again. Caden looks forward to going to the Y because they have lots of books and fun toys there. Caden starts repeating "Y ... book, book, toyeee" over and over as soon as he hears that we're headed that way. He also often asks for "peeta," since a family membership also gets us free entry to kids' night on Fridays, including free pizza and access to the gymnastics facility. We met our friends Chelsea and Heidi there on Friday, and Caden had a great time climbing on the mats and other gymnastics equipment.

On Saturday, our friends Mark and Anne drove over from Vermont. We had fun walking along the Swampscott and Lynn waterfront, playing games, eating good food, and venturing into Boston on Sunday. Caden won a family membership to the New England Aquarium at the MSC open house, so our first stop after arriving downtown was at the aquarium to validate our membership and visit the harbor seals. Before heading inside, we went across the street for a tasty lunch at Legal Seafoods, where Caden slurped up a good bit of Daddy's clam chowdah. Caden loved the big fish tank at the aquarium. He said "whoa!" when the big sharks and tarpon swam by, "whee" as the smaller fish zipped past, and kept up a running commentary that went something like "turtle ... shark, shark ... seastar ... fish, fish ... wow!"

With Heidi and Chelsea at the MSC

Playing on the beach

More block stacking!

Revisiting California

Mommy and Daddy had to do research in California, so we all flew out for a week at the end of last month. It was a really fun trip! We spent time with friends (Caden had a great time playing with Cormac, James, and Owen), explored favorite spots, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Caden even got to spend a couple of afternoons with his nanny, Shelly, who he calls "Yelly," while Mommy and Daddy worked on their experiments.

Highlights of the trip included a fun picnic in the park with Tessa and Cormac, Union pizza on Tuesday night, carrot soup and a good game of "Killer Bunnies," a super-tasty lasagna dinner at Amy and Brian's, de-stressing in the duplex (our lodging at the BML), and having an extra seat in our row on the red-eye flight back.

Swinging with Cormac

Dinner with James

BML boys boppin' balls

Caden makes mischief in the kitchen

Moonrise over Bodega Harbor

Back home

Since our return, we've been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather (locals keep complaining that fall hasn't arrived yet--but it will, this week...) and trying to return to our routines. Caden has had some really good days at daycare, and we're decorating our offices with the art projects he brings home with him. His favorite books are "Goodnight Moon" and "Goodnight Cape Cod," which he calls "oon" and "ape cod," respectively.

Swampscott borders the city of Salem, with it's witchy legacy, so Halloween is a major holiday around here. In fact, the entire month of October is an extended Halloween celebration in Salem. The festivities kicked off with the annual Haunted Happenings parade on Thursday night, and we joined friends from the lab to watch the floats and costumes. Caden liked the bands, the fire trucks, and especially the Ghostbusters, whose car spewed forth thousands and thousands of bubbles.

Cheering on the witches
"Who ya gonna call?"

Who says you can't eat a pepper like an apple?