Frigid family fun and a wonderful winter wedding

These past couple of weeks have been filled with celebrations, family, and new experiences. On the 18th, we flew to Missouri to attend Uncle Jerry and now-Auntie Misty's wedding in Lamar. We flew from there to Colorado, where we spent a couple of nights with Great Grandpa Ray, then returned to sunny, warm California on the 23rd. Little Caden was a great traveler, despite delayed flights and snowy conditions. He loved the snow (see the picture to the right) and played happily on jets, in airports, on hotel beds, and on the church floor during the wedding.

Congratulations, Uncle Jerry and Auntie Misty!

On Saturday, the 20th, Mommy's brother Jerry married Misty Moser in Lamar, Missouri. It was truly a beautiful winter wedding, with snow falling outside. Caden had fun looking at the stained glass windows with Auntie Sally, watching the ceremony from a front-row seat, blowing bubbles wih the ring-bearer and flower girl at the reception, snuggling with Grandma and Grandad, and dancing with Mommy and Daddy. And now, Caden has a new Auntie. Yay!

With Auntie Sally
Dancing with Daddy
Go, Golden Gophers!




Blowing bubbles at the reception

From Missouri, we headed a couple of states west to Colorado, giving Caden the chance to meet his Great Grandpa Ray, Great Aunt Barb, and Great-Great Aunt Eileen. Colorado was even snowier than Missouri, but we all stayed cozy and comfortable in Great Grandpa's house in Louisville. Thanks for the wonderful hospitality, Great Grandpa!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Daddy's birthday was on the 18th, and (with all of our traveling), we celebrated it for over a week: dinner in Kansas City, cake in Lamar, and pizza in Sebastopol. This past Friday, we gathered with friends (Randall, David, and sweet baby James; Brian and Owen) at Mary's Pizza Shack:

James and Randall

Owen and Caden

Clapping!

At pizza on Friday evening, Caden learned a new skill:

A fun and busy couple of weeks

With a birthday party, visitors, time with friends, a trip to the doctor, and preparing for upcoming trips, we've had a busy time these past couple of weeks. Caden's laughter and chatter brighten everyone's days, and he has been especially enjoying playing catch (we roll a ball back and forth), shaking his maracas in time with fun music, and petting kittens and chickens.




Happy Birthday, Owen!

On Saturday, January 6th, Caden's friend Owen turned one year old. We gathered with family and friends at the Union Hotel in Occidental for pizza, carrot cake, and celebration:

The birthday boy eats a cupcake

Yay! Birthday balloons
















A trip to the doctor

On Friday, we ventured over to Santa Rosa for Caden's 9-month checkup. All is well, though Caden wasn't too happy about his flu shot; we'd promised him that this would be a doctor's visit without any shots. Our little guy now weighs 19 pounds, 10 ounces and is 30 inches long. He has therefore gained 12 pounds, 14 ounces (almost tripled his weight) and grown 11.5 inches in the past nine months. Here are updated figures showing his growth trajectories:

Other fun stuff

Last week, our friend Amber, who knitted Caden's famous green cozy hat, came to visit. She has her own matching hat, so we had to take a picture of the two of them together.

Speaking of things that are green, in preparation for our trip to Missouri this week, we ordered a new (green!) folding stroller for the little bug. It is lightweight and will be much easier to travel with. We test-drove it around town this past weekend, and Caden seems to really enjoy his new wheels.

Other fun activities have included visiting Jarrett's house and his kittens, which Caden was quite interested in, and visiting Brian and Tessa's chickens. Caden has been eating a lot of egg yolks from those chickens recently, so we decided that it was important for him to know where his food was coming from:

Caden spends quite a bit of time playing with his books. We read lots of stories to him, and he will often mimic us by picking up a board book and "reading" it, which means that he turns the pages, looks at the pictures, and babbles and hums. Here, you can see him reading with his stuffed animal friends.

Mommy has been working on a lot of fun craft projects, including knitting a warm hat and making super-cute fancy leather booties for Caden to wear to Jerry and Misty's wedding this coming weekend in Missouri.

A blast from the past

We've been doing some early spring cleaning, going through our file drawers, and we recently found the order information for the photo that Caden had taken while we were in the hospital. We had forgotten to fill out the paperwork right after his birth, so Mommy emailed the company, and they uploaded his first portrait, taken when he was only one day old.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday was the 4th of January, making Caden nine months old. It's been amazing to watch him grow into the laughing, babbling, standing, Cheerio-eating, waving little guy he is today. We've all had a good week, returning to our routines after the holidays. Nana and Grandpa visited until New Year's Day, and Auntie Erika and Uncle Brad were in California from the 30th until the 1st to surprise Grandpa for an early 60th birthday party.



Sierra New Year

We all headed up to Nevada City, which is in the Sierra foothills northeast of Sacramento, to celebrate the New Year. Unbeknownst to Grandpa, we had rented a house there for his super-secret surprise 60th birthday celebration. After Auntie Erika and Uncle Brad arrived on the 30th, the birthday festivities began:

Gathered together to celebrate

The birthday boy

Time for cake!

Fun with Grandpa's birthday balloons

Nevada City and neighboring Grass Valley are old gold-mining towns, and we enjoyed checking out the Empire Mine State Historic Park. It was fun to get away from home for a few days, see some new places, and celebrate the New Year with family.

Way down in the mine

With Mommy on New Year's Eve

Cozy on New Year's Day

Merry 1st Christmas!

The highlight of this past week was celebrating Caden's first Christmas. At last Thursday's holiday party at the lab, he had the chance to talk to Santa for the 2nd time this season. Those of you who have been following this blog will know that Caden wasn't too happy during his first meeting with Santa. This time, perhaps because Santa had a real beard and a more cheerful demeanor, our little guy enjoyed his meeting with Kris Kringle, as you can see. Based on Caden's happy reaction to his stocking on Christmas morning, he and Santa hit it off quite well.

On Friday, Nana and Grandpa arrived from Alaska, and we've had a fun time enjoying the holiday together. We had a good hike along the Sonoma Coast on Christmas Eve, then returned home to prepare a tasty chowder with fresh, local crab. After dinner, we showed little Caden how to thank his red-suited friend by leaving a plate of cookies, a glass of milk, and a carrot for the reindeer.

Christmas Morning

Little Caden enjoyed every aspect of Christmas...

from opening his stocking, ...

to opening gifts, ...

to playing with his new toys.

Mommy made cinnamon rolls, and Daddy made scrambled eggs, and all of us had a relaxing Christmas morning. Daddy and Caden had fun trying out the new sling that Mommy made for them. It is soooo cozy, and the little guy really likes being carried around in it.

In the afternoon, we fortified ourselves with more crab chowder and wandered over to Ragle Ranch park to stretch our legs. And on Christmas night, once the cozy little guy went to bed, we enjoyed a tasty dinner of smoked black cod.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Holiday fun with friends

The approaching holidays have meant many good things this past week, including goodies to bake, share, and receive; friends to visit; and boxes to open and (in Caden's case) play in. We've had another relaxing post-orals week. Daddy enjoyed making rocky-road fudge and Mexican wedding cakes (a.k.a. pecan butter balls of goodness), and Mommy had fun not studying and spending more time with our cozy little boy. Days typically begin with Caden waving happily at the Christmas tree. The mornings have been frosty and bright, and we spend lots of time listening to carols and enjoying the glow of our tree--it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.


BML Baby Boys

Caden invited his friends Owen and James over on Saturday to celebrate their approaching first Christmases. The boys played together while their parents munched on goodies and chatted. We also did some fun crafts projects, including making hand and foot print ornaments and gift wrap. Caden was (and continues to be) especially excited about the fun new maracas from Owen, Amy, and Brian. His new trick is to throw things (he has a pretty good arm, though his aim is erratic), and the maracas make very satisfying noises when they land.

More fun with friends

There was a BML dress-up holiday cocktail party on Saturday evening, and Mommy, Daddy, and Caden had fun putting on seldom-worn clothes for the event. The highlight of the evening, for little Caden, was the papasan chair in the living room. What a comfy place to hang out and watch the pretty lights and the grownups in their fancy clothes!

On Sunday, we ventured down to Oakland for a super-tasty brunch with Mark and Anne. Caden was especially interested in their kitty, Lucy, though she wasn't so sure about him.

Preparing for the holidays

Mommy passed her Ph.D. candidacy exam last Thursday (yay, Mommy!), so we're finally able to relax a bit and prepare for the coming holidays. This week, we enjoyed post-exam celebrations with friends in Davis, a lab get-together at Suzanne and Keith's on Friday, and a Christmas-tree-finding expedition on Sunday. It was fun to spend time together as a family, clean the house, start decorating for Christmas, and, most of all, not study. Little Caden has been improving his balance, and happily stands while holding onto a chair, Mommy, or Daddy.

On Friday evening, Caden had fun playing with his friends James and Owen. Toward the end of the evening, when the little ones were getting tired of all of the adults talking, Caden and James were mesmerized by the slowly turning ceiling fan.

On Saturday morning, Mommy and Caden snuggled together on the couch and perused the gift catalogs for ideas.

Portraits!

On Sunday, we headed over to Santa Rosa for Caden's 8-month portraits. Yep, our cute little guy passed his 8-month milestone last Monday. It's hard to believe how fast the past 3/4 of a year have gone!

O, Christmas tree

The rain stopped for a few hours on Sunday afternoon, and we took advantage of the break in the weather to take Caden on his first Christmas tree cutting expedition. He had a great time riding in the backpack in the sunshine and touching the different types of trees at the farm, including scaly cedars, prickly spruces, and soft firs. After a bit of searching, we found a really nice tree: