A very birthday weekend

We had a great weekend. Lots of QT with Caiden to celebrate his birthday. On Saturday we went to the nearby Stow airport in hopes of watching some planes take off and land. Unfortunately it was a windy day and no one was out. We did get to look at the parked planes though, and saw a few planes in the sky.

I wonder where he gets this face from?

Using his incredible 6th sense "locate danger", Caiden discovered some mouth height, exposed electrical cables. Once he spotted them we had to play keep away and knew it was time to hit the road. We'll head back on a calmer day.

On Sunday, Grandma Judy and Grandpa Hank came down from New Hampshire. Nanna Nan, Bob, Aunt Margaret, and Doug joined us for lunch and presents. Caiden made out like a champ! Thanks everyone for all the food and gifts.

Very cool, personalized bike from Margaret and Doug

Fun push bike from Nanna

Caiden doesn't get the fun in opening gifts quite yet. He kept running off, and needed help with the unwrapping.

Train set from Grandma and Grandpa H

Winding down from a busy day with some helicopter time

12 months... Happy birthday Caiden!

I can't believe I am writing this post!! Happy birthday to my little man.

 Pajama day at daycare

Skills: he's a walking pro! It's so fun to see him improve by the day. As for words, "Bah" for ball is still the only one we hear regularly, and it is starting to sound more like "ball". Sometimes we think we hear "tuc" (truck), "boo" (book), or "tee" (tree), or other similar things but we could just be imagining that. He is getting pretty good at getting down (from the couch, steps, etc). He knows he has to turn around... a big improvement from a few months ago where he would crawl head first down the stairs.

Likes: BOOKS!! He loves books. He doesn't necessarily like to sit down and listen to me read, but he loves flipping through books, looking at pictures, pointing at familiar objects. He especially loves turning the pages. Books are the go-to toy if we need him to sit still (diaper changes, getting strapped into the carseat). He still loves balls too, he is getting really good at kicking them around and dribbling from a squatted position. Airplanes are another huge like. He can hear them coming before we even notice the sound. He can spot them in the sky too. He loves his toy airplanes too.

Playing with his birthday present from Dad

Dislikes: He still dislikes the carseat, getting changed, getting his nails trimmed. He pretty much doesn't like to be messed with or prevented from moving. He also really, really doesn't like to have anything taken away from him. Drama king!

Food: Caiden is funny at mealtime. Lots of noises, faces... it's fun to watch. It seems that he likes pretty much everything the first few times he gets it. But after he gets used to a food, he gets bored and wants to try something else. We're working hard on getting him into the sippy cup, but he's not too good at tipping it back.

Sleep: is still not great. He continues to be inconsistent. Do I sound like a broken record yet? There is usually one wake up, and it can happen anytime of the night. Sometimes we'll get a couple days in a row of no wake ups. The ear infection really threw sleep off for several days. Poor little guy.

Graduation: is coming up. Gradual transition to the young toddler room starts October 24. I'm dreading it, especially since he'll be forced to drop a nap. Ugh.

Caiden and the green drink

Over vacation Caiden got a taste of Dan's fruit-and-leafy-greens smoothie and couldn't get enough! He loves that stuff and we got a laugh watching him try to chug it.

Full time walking

Ever since he took those first steps, Caiden steadily improved his walking skills. He perfected them over vacation, and really is walking full time now. No more crawling. Well, occasionally he crawls, but it's rare.

As the walking increased, we went shoe hunting. He has never worn shoes, and went sockless all summer, so I was a bit intimidated by this task. This little man has blocks for feet, and it was challenging to find shoes that fit right. Shoes that we could jam his feet into were heavy and too long in the toe. He would take exaggerated steps, fall, then try to rip the shoes off his feet. We tried several stores and different varieties of shoes.

Enter the Croc. Lovely, lightweight, roomy, easy-to-put-on Crocs. There was a bit of an adjustment period when he first put them on, but soon he was walking like a pro. I'm not quite sure what we will do when it gets too cold to get away with them, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We might just have to find him some fuzzy Crocs.

Vacation Part Two

We are home from vacation part 2 in Chatham! We had a wonderful time. Our rental house was so, so great. The house was all set up for kids. There were baby gates in all the right places, a big basket of toys, a swing set, cribs, outlet covers, and more. And what a lucky man Caiden is to have so many adoring fans. Caiden has been very loved this whole vacation!

He had such a good time spending time with everyone

He loved going outside too! The house had a great big yard and a huge deck for Caiden to explore. Lots of flower beds for him to get into as well. He loves picking up mulch.

This house had some good room for Dan's airplane and helicopter, good entertainment for all!

Caiden took Poppa Bob for a walk. Caiden pointed to where he wanted to go, and Bob took him there. They went all over the yard, out into the street, around the neighborhood.

Two houses down was a tiny private beach for the street, with a nice view!

Unfortunately, Caiden got his first ear infection while we were in Chatham. He was great during the day, but we had some rough nights. He is on antibiotics now and hopefully will back to normal soon. We are sad to be back home, Dan and I really got used to having several extra people around to keep Caiden entertained.

Vacation part one

We are in the middle of a vacation! We were in Martha's Vineyard with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Hank for the last few days, and arrived in Chatham this afternoon to finish the week with the Harbison-MacSwan-Connor-Sherwood gang.

What a fun time Caiden had with his grandparents on the Vineyard. The house we stayed at had a great yard and Caiden loved all the outside time. He loved loved loved all the extra attention he got too.

Grandpa Hank and Dad spent a lot of time flying model airplanes and driving RC cars. Caiden couldn't get enough.

And he had some great time with Grandma Judy, he especially liked book time.

Caiden's first boat ride was the ferry to MV. I think he was most interested in another passenger's dog and all the cars on the boat.

Stay tuned for vacation part 2, the Chatham edition!

Another triathlon experience

Dan and Caiden were troopers and spent Saturday morning watching me race. It was a short triathlon, but it was a chilly morning!! Brr!

Spectators ready to cheer!

Caiden is pretending he doesn't know the weirdo in the rubber suit

Happy to be done!