Visits and ventures

Caden is loving his time at “school” lately. When we go to pick him up, he’s often sitting quietly, reading or playing. Today, Mama walked in and sat down beside him. He glanced up, smiled happily to acknowledge her presence, and went right back to playing. We had to promise fun toys and a yummy dinner to get him to agree to go home with us.

The last couple of weeks have featured birthday cakes and singing (Caden’s version is “Happy boopy too yoo! Yaay!”); a weekend visit from the “guys” – Dada’s college friends Mark and Steve – and their wives; and a day trip to Providence, Rhode Island, to meet up with Carol, Evan, and their soon-to-be baby at the Children’s Museum.

Caden is finally better (knock on wood), though he had a tough time shaking the persistent tummy bug and came home with another case of pink eye a week ago. The three of us celebrated Dada’s birthday on the 18th, then enjoyed cake again a day later with Mark, Anne, Steve, and Margaret. On the 20th, we took the T into Boston and across the Charles River to Cambridge, where we headed straight for Peet’s coffee to stave off the winter chill. All of us are transplants from the west coast, so Peet’s was a logical choice.

Since he’s been better, Caden has been increasingly silly, playful, and mischievous. One favorite game is to toss balls of various shapes and sizes up the stairs and watch them bounce down. This is especially fun when we use Caden’s giant globe beach ball. He carries it around – it’s as big as he is – and tries to throw it up the stairs, but usually Mama or Dada end up doing the throwing as he laughs and peers up the stairs from around the corner. Caden became very interested the other night when Mama was doing yoga. He even joined in for a while (see below) and now pulls out the yoga mat, unrolls it, and announces “exercise!” He also had a great time helping us bake a cake (“choclate treet!”) for the first time last Friday. Mama dug out a vegan (therefore eggless) chocolate cake recipe, so Caden helped mix and eat the batter.

On Sunday, we drove to Providence, where we visited with our Davis and Bodega friends Carol and Evan. They are expecting a new baby in just over a month, and we wanted to say “hello” before Baby’s arrival. We met up at yet another Children’s Museum – that’s three in just over a month – where Caden loved playing in the water room and sliding down the slide.

With Mama and Anne at Peets
Yoga!

Cozy reading

Where does this one go, Mama?
Balls and water at the Children's Museum

New Hamster? - New Hampshire!

Caden's been a bit under the weather for the past week, but he finally seems better. He picked up a tummy bug at school last week. It didn't slow him down too much, but meant that he couldn't go play with his friends at school for a couple of days.

Despite the bug, we all headed up to Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dada gave a talk at Dartmouth College. We explained to Caden that we were taking a trip to New Hampshire, but he became a bit confused (or he was playing games with us, which is equally likely) and thought we were talking about the new hamster that just arrived in his school classroom. When we'd mention New Hampshire, he'd say "New Hampshire, round and round," since the hamster spends a lot of time running on its wheel.

The folks at Dartmouth put us up in a cozy hotel with a swimming pool, which Caden got to spend time in both days we were there. A highlight of the trip for everyone was going to the Montshire Science Museum, which is just across the river from Hanover in Vermont. Neat exhibits included lots of ramps, stairs, and rolling balls; a crane that allowed kids to lift blocks into a truck; fish and baby turtles in aquaria; and a colony of leafcutter ants.

We returned home on Saturday and spent Sunday enjoying the sunny weather - including a trip to the big playground - and preparing for the predicted snowstorm. In the afternoon, as the daylight was fading, we put Caden in the backpack and went for a walk on the trail through the trees behind our house. The snow arrived, on schedule, early Monday morning. On Sunday, all of the snow had melted from the yard, with only a few patches left in the woods behind our house. Now it's all been reburied under a foot of snow.

Both Caden's school and the Marine Science Center were closed on Monday, which was just as well, since Caden's tummy bug decided to reassert itself. We spent the morning cozied up inside, reading journal articles, cleaning the house, doing crafts, and watching the snow fall. Then, as the snow lessened, we got out our little sled and took Caden on his first sledding expedition. It didn't last too long - Caden likes the idea of playing in the snow more than he actually likes playing in it - but he enjoyed the sled until it tipped over when we rumbled over a rough patch of snow.

Tonight, over dinner, Caden busted out with a new skill: he sat there in his high chair and counted, deliberately, all the way to ten. We've been playing number games a lot recently, and he'll often spontaneously count short sequences (i.e., shouting, for no apparent reason, "two - three - four!"), but this is the first time that he's gotten all the way from one to ten.

Playing with balls and ramps

Cleaning his kitchen

Dashing through the snow

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We headed west for the holidays on December 18th. Having recently returned home from our Thanksgiving travels, Caden was very excited to get back on a jet. Caden has been talking a lot about "tunnels" lately, which are any passageways that he passes through. These include, but are not limited to, actual tunnels, overpasses (or sometimes even signs), and, especially, jetways. He eventually learned to call them jetways, but Caden was quite excited about the tunnels he had to pass through to get onto planes. And Dada had to chase him down a few times to make sure he didn't head down the wrong tunnel.

We spent five days in Sonoma County, working on Mama and Dada's research and trying to cure a case of pink eye that Caden had--with impeccable timing--brought home from school the day before we departed. Although the little guys had to be isolated from each other in their respective high chairs due to the high probability of contagion, we had a fun dinner with Randall, David, and James at our old haunt, the Union Hotel in Occidental. A real highlight of Caden's time in California was explorations of the Bodega Harbor intertidal zone with Dada. What 1.5-year-old wouldn't be excited at the prospect of turning over a rock to expose hundreds of wriggling, running isopods? He keeps talking about "ice-pods," and even found a dead fly on the windowsill and brought it over to Dada, saying "Dada, ice-pod!" Caden is very disappointed that there are no isopods to be found on New England rocky shores this time of year.

From there, we headed north to Oregon, where we spent a fun evening and day with Amy, Brian, and Owen before joining Mama's family for the Christmas festivities. Caden and Owen had a great time taking baths, reading stories, and playing the marimba (at the Portland Children's Museum--see Owen's blog for more pictures and a video) together. It was really fun to see their new home in Portland! We then headed over to Mama's uncle's place for the Godard holiday gathering before getting in the big blue car and heading south to Corvallis for Christmas.

Caden had a wonderful time at Ama and Adad's house, playing with Auntie Sally's toy kitchen and the other toys that we brought up out of storage. And he loved Christmas, from leaving snacks for Santa and the reindeer to opening his (and Dada's) many presents. Cousins Sandy and Juliana even came by on the 27th to play!


Playing the marimba with Owen
Reading with Ama and (Great) Ama Jean

Tuckered out after lots of present opening

Back in New England

It kind of feels like we've experienced about three seasons over the past week, with a bit of snow, then temperatures in the 'teens late last week, and balmy weather in the 50s right now. We're still enjoying our holiday-decorated house, and Caden had fun (for a while, before he got cold) playing in the new snow last week.

Caden's first snow angel
Making a snowman

A snowman family

Caden's Christmas train...

...and his new kitchen

Happy New Year!

Caden's new kitchen

Mama and Dada finally tracked down Caden's Christmas present, a wooden play kitchen; it took us a while to find the perfect one. Thank goodness for Craigslist! Yesterday, while Caden was napping, we set it up in his play room. He woke up hungry and asking for crackers, but was easily distracted by his new toy.

The North Pole and Southern Railroad

When we returned from our holiday travels last week, there was a very special present waiting for Caden--a model train from Adad and Ama! On New Year's Eve Eve (that was the 30th), Dada and Mama set up the train so that it was waiting when Caden woke up in the morning. Here's his reaction:

Preparing for the holidays

Highlights of the time between our return home from Thanksgiving travels (the 27th of November) and our trip back to the west coast for work and holiday celebrations (the 18th of December) included a fun lab gathering; a trip to Vermont to visit with Mark, Anne, and their kitty Lucy; decorating our home for Christmas; and a couple of winter storms that carpeted the Boston area in over a foot of snow.

Caden enjoyed playing with his friends Mae, Summer, and Chelsea at the Marine Science Center chili feast over at Sal and Liza's place. He especially liked Mae and Summer's collection of Play-Doh colors and accessories and kept saying "Summer house Play-Doh" for days after. He also tore up the dance floor, bouncing and shaking his rump in time with the reggae beat, which the students loved. A few days later, while we decorated our Christmas tree, Caden learned a new word, "snow," as he watched the first flakes of the season fall.

The next weekend, we headed up to Vermont, where Mama and Anne were selling their crafts at the Mt. Hollyday Fair. The craft fair was a great excuse to visit our friends, and Caden - as usual - loved playing with Lucy the kitty. He even read stories to her! We made it back in time to avoid the storm that was predicted later that weekend (and which fizzled by the time it reached the coast), but two more storms hit the next week - the first while Dada was away in Santa Barbara - so that by Sunday the 16th, we had about 1.5 feet of snow on the ground. Thank goodness for our neighbor, who loaned Dada his snowblower to help clear our driveway and sidewalk!

That same neighbor invited the entire neighborhood over to his place for a holiday cocktail and dinner party the evening of the 15th. Caden has really "clicked" with a high schooler who works at his school, so we asked her to babysit for the evening, his first non-family babysitter since we moved to Massachusetts. When we headed across the street, he quickly said "bye, Mama, bye, Dada" as he raced, squealed, and "whee"-ed around the dining room table.

Checking out Summer's flower

Decorating our tree

At the Mt. Hollyday Craft Fair

Reading to Lucy

Blowing snow