Walk away, Dad

Dan and Caiden were driving the orange car (one of Dan's RC toys) through the living room window. I caught Caiden on film taking over driving responsibilities. If you listen carefully, you will hear him saying "walk away, dad", followed by "walk... walk backwards"

Caiden likes to point out when things are moving backwards. We were watching Dan snow blow yesterday, and I asked what Dad was doing out there. "walking backwards" was Caiden's response. Fair enough, he was backing up at the time.

Christmas rounds 2 & 3

Shortly after we were done opening presents, family started arriving for Christmas brunch (and more presents!). Grandpa Jack and Grandma Madeline, Great Grandma Esther, Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Margaret and Uncle Doug joined us. Caiden made out like a bandit. By this time though he had turned into the present monster. He just kept wanting more.

Caiden was obsessed with Uncle Doug. Anytime Doug was out of sight, he asked "where Doug go?" or "what Doug doing?" or "Doug, where are you?" They had a great time playing with presents together.

We eventually had Christmas brunch. Caiden wasn't too interested in eating (theme of the weekend), but he sat with us for a little while before taking off to play with toys.

After brunch Dad and Madeline had to take Grandma Esther back to Connecticut. We had a great morning with them! The rest of us played all all afternoon, and Nana Nan joined us too. More presents ensued, and then dinner.

What a great and jam packed day! Thanks to everyone near and far for all the gifts!

Waiting for Santa

Christmas is over! I'd love to say that we had a wonderful weekend, but it was a tough one. Caiden came down with croup the Thursday before Christmas and was put on steroids to reduce thorat/lung swelling and help him breathe easier. The steroids made him a crazy man though. He was very clingy, irritable, violent, manic... just crazy. It was a tough couple of days leading up to Christmas. Our whole family was running on little sleep and it was near impossible to get anything done.

Throughout his sickness he still looked forward to Santa's visit. Such a lucky boy too- he even got an in person visit from Santa on Christmas Eve. He knew the visit was coming and was very excited. He wanted to wait in the front hall. He even asked "Santa, where are you??". Of course he was a little wary of Santa once he got here. Little did he know it was just Poppa Bob! Santa Bob brought a christmas eve present- legos. Dan and Caiden thoroughly enjoyed playing with legos for the rest of the evening.

Caiden seemed to get a new round of sickness on Christmas day. He had a fever and renewed cold symptoms. Luckily there was so much going on that it kept his mind off of it, and we did have a great day. We started the morning with Santa presents, stockings, and gifts mailed to us from family far away. It was a nice low key round of presents. He would open one and run off to play with it. We would usher him back to open the next one. It took a few hours to get through those presents and his stocking.

the long awaited toy story figurines

He didn't have much of an appetite, but we tried getting some breakfast in him. His new toy story friends joined him. 

Stay tuned for the rest of Christmas updates...

Swim lessons

We just finished another round of swim lessons. We did these much closer to home- at the Thoreau club. Maybe one day he'll be on the swim team there like I was :)

The first lesson was rocky. It had been probably 6 months since he had last been in a swim class, and the instructor started out a little aggressively. But after lots of tears that first session, he warmed right up and by the next week he was having a blast. He loved jumping off the edge, crab walking along the side, swimming with a noodle (he would exclaim "NOODOOLE!!!" when the instructor brought them out), and even blowing bubbles. By the last class he could climb out of the pool by himself.

Not his best attempt, but you get the idea.

The highlight of his swim experience though was showing off for Nanna Nan. Nanna works out at the gym at the Thoreau club, and would come down to the pool to watch. Caiden got extra perky whenever he spotted her coming in and would do his best to impress her.

We'll take a break from lessons, but I'd like to keep the momentum going and get him in another session starting in February.

Waiting for Santa

Caiden is excited for Christmas this year. We had a discussion about Santa a few days ago, and Caiden gets it. He's been muttering things about Santa, presents, and being a "good boy" ever since. It helps that he knows what a present is now, after his recent birthday. Last year he had no interest whatsoever in opening presents, other than playing with the packing materials. I asked him what kind of presents he wanted Santa to bring him, and he answered Woody and Buzz. Which is good, because I happen to know that Santa is bringing a whole collection of Toy Story action figures, among other things.

In other news, Caiden has been really into drawing recently. He concentrates so hard! His favorite thing to draw are airplanes.

Some other random/funny Caiden stories:
-He picked up the phrase "walk away, (insert name here)", presumably from daycare. He got frustrated with Dan the other day and said "walk away, dadda." We laughed out of surprise, so now he says it more for kicks than anything else.

-I was putting diaper creme on a diaper rash Caiden developed last week. Caiden wasn't thrilled, and wagged his finger and very authoritatively said "No finger! Go away, finger!"


-When we are driving to daycare, we pass by a parking lot where the CCHS buses go to wait between high school and middle school rounds. Caiden looks out for them, and if we pass this parking lot later in the day or on the weekends, he asks "where school buses go?"

-Caiden's list of commands from the backseat of the car now includes "No radio!" or "radio on!"

It's December!

I am overdue on a Caiden update. Here's what Caiden is like these days.

-He's mischievous. A few weeks ago I was decorating the Christmas tree and Caiden took advantage of my distraction. Before I knew it there was toilet paper all over the house.

-He remembers everything. Caiden always surprises us with his memory. He no longer forgets about something once it's out of sight. One example- despite the fact that Caiden has no less than 20 matchbox cars, he remembers them all and will ask for particular ones. "Orange car? No! Other orange car!"

-He loves being goofy. He is just so much fun these days. It's so easy to make him laugh

-But his meltdowns can still be epic. I haven't captured it on film yet, but he has a new pouty face that is hilarious.

-He's full of love and hugs. He never forgets to kiss me goodbye when I drop him at daycare. If I forget, he'll remind me: "Want kiss!". Then, it's see you later mom, leave me alone with my friends.

At least he's honest?

Last night Caiden and I were doing our normal dinner routine- me cooking dinner while he played with his cars at the kitchen counter. I was asking about his day at school, and we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: how was school today? what did you do?
Caiden: Several mumbled sentences, a mention of playing with Ryder, and then a coherent "kick Cafrene"
Me: You kicked Catherine?!
Caiden: Yeah
Me: Why did you do that, that's not nice behavior, yadda yadda yadda. What happened next?
Caiden: Time out. Hug Cafrene.

From there we launched into a discussion on consequences, appropriate treatment of friends, etc. I am sure it won't be the last time we discuss this topic. But, at least he fessed up this time.

Thanksgiving

This year we motored up to Hanover (NH) for Thanksgiving. It was a great holiday! Caiden loves going up to see Grammy Judy and Grandpa Hank. Several other family members came over for Thanksgiving dinner. They arrived just as Caiden was waking up from his nap, so he was pretty unsocial for a while. Eventually he warmed up and had a great time playing with Meghan and Henry (Dan's cousin's kids).

He was so enamored by them that he spent the next day demanding to look at their school pictures, which he spotted in the kitchen.

We stayed up in NH until mid-day on Saturday, then headed home for another Thanksgiving dinner with my mom and sisters. Caiden is a lucky little man to have so many doting family members.

Halloween

Caiden still doesn't understand Halloween, but we dressed him up anyway! He was the jolly green giant. The Saturday before Halloween I was helping to run the Acton Family Network (AFN) Halloween Party. Dan brought Caiden over for a little while. He had fun running around, but he was most captivated by his friends Pete and Charlie who were dressed up like Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. He talked about Woody! and Buzz! for the rest of the day. I've showed him this photo a few times, taken at the party, and he exclaims "Woody! Buzz!" whenever he sees it, even though they aren't in the photo. His memory is growing!

On actual Halloween, we dressed Caiden up but it didn't last long. He helped give candy to a few trick or treaters, but with a 7pm bedtime he missed most of the fun. I think next year he will get more into it.

Before the trick or treaters hit the street, we needed to fix our broken doorbell. Caiden "helped" by using the screwdriver all over the house.

Great Brook

We recently took a trip to Great Brook Park in Carlisle. They have a little farm, much smaller than Drumlin, but they let you feed the goats and sheep. Caiden loved it. He kept asking for more feed to give them. He enjoyed petting them too.

We indulged in a little ice cream treat too

We thought we might try walking around some of the trails, but Caiden spied water. Nothing beats throwing rocks and sticks into ponds.

'Keen

Margaret and Doug got Caiden a pretty cool birthday gift- a Lightening McQueen ('Keen, as Caiden calls him) power wheels! Needless to say, Caiden loves it. All he has to do is press a button on the steering wheel and it goes!

I wish I had filmed his first drive... his smile was priceless!

The next day at Nana's house, he got on a tricycle and looked around for a button to press to make it go. Sorry squirt, you've got to power that one with your feet :)

How old are you?

TWO!! It's been amazing to watch Caiden's development recently, especially his memory and language. He's getting new words and phrases every day. I think the longest sentence I've heard from him was 5 words: "turtle hiding in da bubbles!", speaking about his bath toys.

He did great at his 2 year checkup. Thumbs up from the doctor. No shots. His stats:
Weight: 30.8 lbs, 80%
Height: 2'11 (35 inches), 60%

He certainly has the 2 year old attitude down. With occasional exception (the mega meltdown), it's pretty easy to deal with. Giving him options, and letting him do things himself, make a world of difference. Wonder what a mega meltdown looks like? Here you go!

Some other updates...

Layers
Caiden hates, and I mean HATES, layers. Sweaters, jackets and vests are all equally despisable in his book. He even doesn't like when other people wear jackets. He'll try to take it off for you.

Bedtime
We're back to easy bedtime. We discovered that the time he gets into bed is critical. Not rocket science, I know, but even 10-15 minutes late will mean tears, difficulty falling asleep, and early waking. So we moved up the bedtime routine to make sure he gets into his crib at 7pm. Unless he is teething or sick (or gets stuffed animal fuzz in his mouth, as was the case last week), he'll sleep really well.

Backseat driver
Caiden attempts to direct my driving from his carseat. Our drives are full of: "That way! That way! Turn 'round! Turn 'round! No! Not dis way! Go back!" And sometimes even "Cars - careful! Train coming!"

Mom's turn!
For someone so full of energy, he sure can have a lazy streak sometimes. "Mom's turn" is code for "Mom, I want you to do that for me". An example: we were playing downstairs and Caiden asked about his "blue car". I told him it was upstairs and suggested we go get it. He said "Mom's turn!", gave me a gentle push towards the stairs, and even had the nerve to yell "Mater too". I don't think so, buddy.

Binkie
We are officially pacifier free except during naps and night time. Breaking the daytime habit wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. He occasionally still asks for it, but we tell him it's just for nighttime and he usually drops the subject. He tries to fake us out though- if we are upstairs he will turn off his bedroom light, go stand next to his crib, and say "night night". We fell for it the first time- thinking he was ready for bed early- but once in his crib he just grabbed his pacifier and then asked to get out and read books. Sneaky fella.

Dad where are you?

It's not terribly newsworthy, but Caiden does a cute thing where he calls out "Whereareyou?" when one of us leaves the room

Birthday Boy!

Caiden had a great birthday!

He spent the night before his birthday with Nana Nan and "the Bob." When he came home, we had banana pancakes and he opened his first present. He had fun unwrapping it (or helping anyway), but was very distraught when the wrapping paper came off. The match box cars were in a clear plastic box. He could see them but couldn't get at them!

By the time Caiden got up from his nap, Grammy Judy and Grandpa Hank had arrived! And shortly afterwards, more people started showing up for the party. Caiden loved seeing everyone, but was overwhelmed by all of "the people".

 He got some great presents though, that sure kept him happy!!

Doing wheelies with his motorcycle

It was a great day. We can't believe he is two! Thanks to everyone for coming!