Happy Boopy to Caden!

For weeks before, and now after, his 2nd birthday, Caden has been singing his birthday song: “Happy boopy to you!” He often includes other family members in his song, so he has been celebrating not only his own birthday, but also Mama’s, Dada’s, Ama’s, Adad’s, Nana’s, and Boopa’s. On April 3rd, we celebrated Caden’s birthday eve with our traditional breakfast dinner, just like we had two years previously on the evening before he was born. And on his birthday, Dada made a seastar pizza and chocolate treat. Between that cake and the seastar cake the following day, we had enough treats to keep celebrating Caden’s birthday every night for a week!

On the 5th, we invited six of Caden’s friends—and their parents—over for a birthday brunch. It was really fun in a crazy toddler sort of way, with lots of running around, playing, eating goodies, reading books, and singing songs.

In the week or so leading up to his birthday, we asked Caden what he wanted to do on his birthday weekend, and his response was, invariably, “Ride choo-choo Boston!” so on Sunday the 6th, we rode the T into Boston. Caden will happily tell you that he rode the blue train, the orange train, and the red train to go to the museum. We had a good time playing with bubbles, diggers, and slides at the Boston Childrens’ Museum. We headed home via the toy store, where we picked up a couple more special birthday gifts, including a really nice trike from Ama and Adad. Dada put the trike together a couple of days later, and Caden now says that he’s a “big kid” because he rides a bicycle.

Caden also says that he’s a big kid because he can open doors. Specifically, all of the doors in our hotel room in Providence, where we went for the annual Benthic Ecology Meeting, were lever knobs, which are easily opened by little guys like Caden. We spent four nights in Providence. Highlights included elevators; escalators; a great view of school busses, cars, and trucks on I-95; a tasty dinner with Heather, Jeremy, and Isaac; fun in the pool with Mae and Summer; and a new Thomas the Train set—a deliberately delayed birthday present—from Mama and Dada.

A seastar pizza

Birthday balloons

Blow out the candles on your cake, and make a wish

Birthday cuties

Toy tools

Drivin' a digger

A new train

Freeway view

Ten days in the sun

A week ago, we returned from a cross-country jaunt to escape chilly New England and maintain our experiments (for Mama and Dada) and play with Ama and Adad (for Caden) in California. Like all trips, near or far, Caden looked forward to this one for weeks and couldn’t wait to walk down the jetway in Boston. We flew from Boston to Minneapolis to Sacramento and spent Easter Eve at the hotel right across the street from the baggage claim.

The next morning was Easter! The Easter bunny postponed its visit until we reached our “California House”—the duplex at the marine lab—but we stopped in Davis for church and an Easter egg hunt. It was a gorgeous day (70 degrees was amazing, coming from here), and we enjoyed our drive over to Sonoma County. We tried to make a number of stops in Santa Rosa, but everything was closed for the holiday. Thank goodness our favorite Sebastopol market was open, so we were able to stock up on groceries.

Ama and Adad arrived the following day, and it was wonderful to have their help and company during our visit. Mama and Dada were able to get their research done while Caden played and cuddled, and, despite being sequentially sick during our time there, we all enjoyed chatting, hiking, antiquing, and sharing meals. Ama and Adad drove their truck and trailer back up to Oregon on Friday, and by Sunday we were all feeling much better. Before driving back to Sacramento on Sunday, we had fun playing on the beach with Randall and James and having treats with Tessa and Cormac.

Stay tuned for an update on Caden’s birthday weekend!

Easter egg hunt!

With Shelly, Caden's California nanny

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A chin-up with Dada
Running with James

Counting and singing

Caden has been hamming it up for the camera lately. The clips below show him counting butterflies in his Pooh Loves You book and singing two of his favorite songs: "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

Winter escapes

Getting away

A week ago, we embraced the wintry weather and drove up to the Mt. Washington Valley in New Hampshire. Despite our respective illnesses, we were all really excited about going; Caden has figured out that New Hampshire is a fun place to visit, and not just a novel rodent. In fact we had a tough time getting him to bed on the evening of the 21st because he wanted to go so badly.

We scooted out on Friday morning, soon after the flakes started falling on the North Shore. The main roads were clear, and we managed to find the Mt. Washington Valley Children’s Museum in North Conway without too much trouble. We spent a fun couple of hours there, watching the snow accumulate outside and waiting until we were able to check into our room at the Village House B&B in nearby Jackson. Highlights of the museum included a kid-friendly version of a logging cable skidder and a panel with lighted buttons that played some of Caden’s favorite songs (e.g., “Baa, baa, black sheep” and “The itsy-bitsy spider”).

We spent a couple of enjoyable nights at the Village House, which is a dog-friendly (all of the other folks staying there had doggies, much to Caden’s delight) and kid-friendly B&B, located right on one of the many groomed cross-country ski trails that cris-cross the landscape around Jackson. The innkeepers brought out lots of toys for Caden to play with, and they even watched him for a few hours on Saturday so that Mama and Dada could go skiing together.

We had a great time, but were all still feeling a bit under the weather during and after the trip. In fact, Caden developed a fever on Saturday, which wouldn’t go away. That, plus his worsening cough, sent us to the doctor on Tuesday – he missed a couple of days of school – where the poor little guy was diagnosed with a double ear infection and pneumonia. He’s on antibiotics now, and is back to his cheerful self. He’s been a real trooper this winter.

Summer fun in mid-winter

On Saturday, we cranked the heat, put Jimmy Buffett on the CD player, dug out our warm-weather party gear, and invited friends from the lab over for a tropical potluck. We'd originally planned the party for Mama's birthday, but the flu intervened, so we extended the birthday celebration for another week. Everyone brought something to eat or drink that was inspired by warmer weather, and we feasted on Indonesian rice salad, fresh pineapple, coconut potatoes, salsa, and rum drinks.

Caden’s friends Mae and Summer came over for the evening, and the three of them had a great time playing. The girls started off in swimsuits, but Summer soon ended up running around clad only in a diaper. We are all looking forward to winter’s end, and it was fun to pretend – for a few hours – that summer was here.

"We want to watch YouTube!"
Boxed in

Valentines and sunshine

Caden had lots of fun getting ready for Valentine’s Day. Mama got out sheets of paper and let him finger paint all over them, then we cut them into Valentines for classmates and family members. Last week, Caden’s classroom hosted a Valentine’s Day brunch, and it was fun to meet some of his classmates—he talks about them incessantly, and it was nice to put faces to names—and their parents. When we walked in the door, Caden headed straight for the craft table and started pasting foam hearts onto a big sheet of red paper. Then Dada read some stories to Caden and a friend of his.

On Friday, we had Sal, Liza, Mae, and Summer over for “breakfast dinner.” Dada made lots of waffles, and we had a good time hanging out together before Sal’s departure for a month in Moorea this week. Mae and Caden discovered that racing the wagon across the living room - Caden riding and Mae pushing - was tons of fun.

This past weekend, it warmed up for a day - the outside temperature (61º) almost equaled the inside temperature! - and we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the back porch. The snow melted off of the flower beds, and we did a bit of yard clean-up. Caden was a great helper, and he really enjoyed body surfing on the leaf pile.

Today is Mama's birthday - "Happy boopy, Mamaaa!" - and we're preparing for a skiing trip to New Hampshire this weekend. We've all been sick this week (Mama and Dada moreso than Caden), so we had to postpone the real birthday party. However, Caden enjoyed helping Mama open her presents this evening before he went to sleep.

Pasting hearts
Colors and stickers
Enjoying the warm weather

Dinner with Mae

Old and new friends

February started off with a trip to the New England Aquarium to meet up with Heather, Jeremy, and their little guy, Isaac. Caden, who loves trains and all things aquatic, had a great time (we all did) and still can’t stop talking about it. And Isaac seems to have left a lasting, positive impression: this morning at breakfast, Caden announced, “Isaac. Caden’s house. Pizza!”

After hanging out with the big sharks, turtles, jellies, and seastars for a while, we wandered across the street to Legal Seafoods for a tasty lunch. The waiter entertained the boys by bringing by a huge lobster. The weather was good, so we walked over to Mike’s Pastry for tasty treats, then back to the waterfront to enjoy our desserts in the sunshine.

The following day, we wandered up the hill behind our house for a walk on the trail in the trees, then went to a fun lab get-together to watch the Super Bowl. Caden was cheerful, mischievous, and silly, and he had a great time playing and making friends with the grad students.

On Tuesday, Dada took Caden with him to vote in the primary election. After school and work, we hiked up the trail to the middle school, where our precinct votes. Dada explained that we were going to vote, and Caden kept confusing it with “boat.” He was very excited because he thought we were going to see boats in the water. Dada tried to talk about what voting meant, but we ended up walking down the trail, singing “Row, row, row your boat.” Or was that “Row, row, row your vote”?

Last month, we met a couple with a 16-month-old boy in the playground by our house. We invited them over for brunch today and had fun getting to know the three of them better while chasing the boys around the house.

A 9-pound lobster at Legal Seafoods

Watching the Super Bowl

Lunch for Caden: bananas, peas, and snow