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?