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