Ho Ho Ho!

What a great Christmas!! On the morning of Christmas Eve Caiden and I spent some time with Nana Nan. Dan was in New Hampshire the previous night to attend a friend's engagement party, and he returned later on Christmas Eve with his parents, who stayed with us for a few nights. We had a nice evening at home with them. Caiden loved playing with his new chair, a gift from his grandparents!

On Christmas morning, we did presents.Santa didn't visit this year, but Caiden got lots of wonderful gifts from our families. We tried to entice him to come over and open a present, but he just came over to grab the bow off of the gift and then ran back to his toys. He still doesn't get the gift thing (which is fine by us!!). We even got away with leaving a few toys in their boxes.We'll bring them out later when he needs a change of scenery.

He mostly did this while we opened his presents

We hosted an afternoon Christmas dinner at our house with Grandma Judy, Grandpa Hank, Grandpa Jack, Grandma Madeline, Great Grandma Esther, Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Margaret & Doug. It was a delicious meal! We were hoping that Caiden would be napping while we ate, but just this weekend he stopped taking two naps at home. He now takes one midday nap and of course woke up just as we were sitting down to eat. He did very well though, he ate a little bit and spent the rest of the time playing with his new toys and running around the table giving out hugs and  interacting with everyone.

These stacking boxes from Grandpa Jack were a big hit, he loves knocking them down.

What a great day!! We all hit the sack early... in our new matching PJs!!

Check out this great movie that Aunt Elizabeth made. She did such a fabulous job... it was my favorite gift!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLDGjev4IIQ&feature=youtu.be

What does a fish say?

If you ask Caiden that question, here is what you get!

What goes in

When I said that Caiden was making up for lost time  in the food department, I wasn't kidding. This kid is eating us out of house and home. And since what goes in must go out, well... you get what I'm saying.

We have found that Caiden really enjoys eating food whole these days. We used to give him food all chopped up, but now he prefers to take the bites himself. And as long as we give it to him whole, he will power down all kinds of stuff that we couldn't get him to eat before. Very handy for vegetables.

14 months

It took a while to think up what is new with Caiden this month because it seems like the dominant theme was sickness. On top of croup and pneumonia over the last 3 weeks, Caiden caught a stomach bug. Poor kiddo. His cough is clearing up, but he is still occasionally wheezy. We give him the nebulizer when that happens and it clears right up.

Soaking up Barney time while being nebulized

Other than that, Caiden loves to be outside. He will point out the window or to the door if he wants to go out. Sometimes he even brings us one of his shoes to get us moving. He is big on putting things in containers and taking them out (and repeat...). He also likes to see what happens when he throws things up and down the stairs, an activity that always results in an "Uh, oh". He loves dancing and has apparently been showing his moves off at daycare. He is practicing animal sounds, however most animals apparently sound like lions.

Helping mom clean up

Keeping Caiden hydrated was a concern while he was sick. He is not really big on fluids to begin with, so we had to use a few tricks. The one that works best is switching up the drinking vessel- we switched between my water bottle, sippy cups with straws, sippy cups with handls, and regular cups.

 He his appetite was off and on depending on how he was feeling this month, and so he lost a little bit of weight. He is making up for lost time now though.

Now where did I put that piece of pear?

I am not sure if it is related to feeling icky a lot, but Caiden has been somewhat clingy and shy recently. The upside to this is that he is snuggly and gives lots of hugs. The downside is that it can be pretty hard to make dinner with him clinging to my legs! It can take him a while to warm up when we are in new places too. Caiden insisted on being carried the first half of a trip to Drumlin Farms last weekend, even though we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Sleep is good. He gets off track easily (sickness or teething), but we know how to get him back on track now. He sometimes "talks" in his sleep which is funny. Caiden has now spent a couple of nights over at Nanna's house, which is great!!

Like a kid in a candy store

I'm talking about me, here! Almost every day, the toddler teachers sends us parents a "What in the World Happened Today" email. It's a fun little flier that shows pictures and tells stories from the day. I usually get it in the late afternoon, and boy do I get so excited to read it. It's so nice having this insight into Caiden's day, and of course I especially love when they include a picture of him.

Check back in a day or two for Caiden's 14 month post. He just hit that milestone yesterday!

Down but not out

Illness strikes again! Caiden has had a lingering cough after being diagnosed with croup 2 weeks ago, but on Monday he seemed to be getting worse. He was wheezing, taking rapid breaths, had a high fever, and a more persistent cough. So to the doctor we went. Well, not we. Poor Dan handled this doctors visit on his own while I was at work. The doctor immediately suspected pneumonia and sent them to get a chest x-ray. Anyone who has spent a few minutes with Caiden knows that he doesn't like staying still for more than 5 seconds and definitely doesn't like to be constricted at all. Add in an ill-timed diarrhea catastrophe and you have an idea of how Dan's morning went.

Caiden is now on antibiotics and nebulizer treatment to keep his oxygen levels up. I was at home with him today, but he should fine to return to daycare tomorrow.

All things considered, Caiden is doing great. He is in great spirits and after one day on medication is almost sleeping normally again. Getting him to stay still for the 15 minutes it takes to run the nebulizer is no easy task however (especially when it must be done every 4 hours). We have to pull out the big guns... Barney. TV is a treat for this little man and he is eating it up.

We made the most out of this sick day and had lots of QT. If you didn't hear the coughing or see the runny nose, you'd never know this guy was sick.

He is in a big taking things out and putting them back in phase

Excuse the blueberry dribble :)

Selecting a "toy" from the Christmas tree

Uh oh!

Caiden's first phrase! Sometimes he uses "uh oh" appropriately, like after dropping something on the floor. But he also just seems to like hearing himself say it. Either way, it's cute!

Trip to the museum

Here are some photos from a recent trip to the Acton Discovery Museum!

Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday and this year didn't disappoint! Delicious food and great company, how can you go wrong? Great Grandma Ruth (GG) came up from Pennsylvania and we spent Thanksgiving at the Keery household in Weston. We had a great time! Unfortunately Caiden had come down with croup the night before, and we had spent the night at the hospital (he had been doing a lot of wheezing and had trouble breathing during coughing fits). So we were all a little tired, but it was still a great day.

Aquarium!

On Saturday Dan had plans in the city, so Caiden and I dropped him off and spent the afternoon at the aquarium! Lucky for us Aunt Margaret was able to meet us there. Caiden loves fish (or "fffff" as he calls them), and gets very excited when he sees fish tanks, so I thought the aquarium would be a hit. He seemed to like it, but I think he was a little overwhelmed with all of the people and wanted to be held most of the time. My arms are still sore!

We saw lots of fish, jellyfish, sting rays, turtles, and even sharks in all of the tanks

Caiden is not quite tall enough for the touch tanks, but they lent us a hermit crab to check out

We went outside to check out the seals, but he just wanted to climb!

After the aquarium we were all hungry so we went to Bertucci's nearby. It was the first time I have taken Caiden out to a restaurant in months, and I was quickly reminded why. Let's just say that we had the fastest lunch ever! Caiden did love his meal though... chicken and eggplant! Margaret and I were both at work cutting up food for him and we couldn't keep up.

By the end of lunch Caiden was ready to blow off some steam so we let him loose in Faneuil Hall. He was very intrigued by these balloons, which he of course thought were balls.

He was thoroughly worn out and was asleep in his car seat before we even got out of the parking garage. Fun day! Caiden got to spend that night with Nanna Nan. What a treat!

The next day was so nice, we spent lots of time outside!

Silly guy has discovered how much fun it is to put things on his head. Bowls, buckets, and tupperware all work!

13 months

Another month in the books! I wrote this post a few days ago, but we are lacking in photos this month. We took a bunch tonight though!

The past several months were about movement, and although Caiden continues to improve in that area, this month seemed to be all about learning. He can turn on all of his toys that have buttons and do cool things. He can usually operate a light switch. He knows what door knobs do, he just can't reach them yet. I can ask him where's my (nose, ear, etc) and he will point to it. He is learning rules and is usually patient with them (shoes are put on to go outside, hands are washed before/after eating, etc). He is such a fun little guy and makes us laugh constantly. He even cracks himself up! He has a stubborn streak for sure though, and let's us know when he is upset!

Turning on his twilight turtle

Reading books

Activities: Caiden loves chasing games, hide and seek, and jumping on people who are lying on the floor. He also likes to help out. If he gets mad about something, all I need to do is ask for him to help. For example: he might be upset about coming inside after playing in the yard, but as soon as I ask "can you close the door?" he snaps out of it and happily obliges.

Skills: More of the same in the movement department- walking, kicking/bouncing balls. He is adding climbing in though... he has been attempting to climb more things which is a little scary! His vocabulary is starting to expand, a sample of the new words we have heard: book (boo), truck (tuc), tree (tee), duck. He tries to say fish but all that comes out is 'ffffff'. Very cute.

New discovery: splashing water. He loves bath time so much more now that he knows how to splash!!

Ignore my nose rub in the background!

Food: Some days Caiden is a rockstar and eats everything we give him down to the last pea. Some days he even wants seconds (and thirds). Other days, he will throw everything on the floor without even trying it- even if it is the same stuff that he gobbled up the day before. We tried introducing him to regular milk this month, but he is just not interested. We have tried everything, but he just pushes it away.

Sleep: Two steps forward, one step back. We did a pretty serious round of sleep training this month. It was TOUGH, but as a result sleep has been going really well save for a few days this week. Some new teeth coming in made for crummy sleep those nights!