Apple picking 1

Wow am I behind on blogging! Stay tuned for a few posts over the next few days. They may not be sequential, but that's okay.

First up, Caiden and I went apple picking labor day weekend. We headed to Shelburne Farms, which is very close to our house and has fun things like a haystack maze/climbing pile, animals, and a riding toy area.

Caiden loved seeing the horses and tractors, and pretty much walked around the orchard exclaiming "apple!" every time he passed one on the ground. He had fun helping me put all the apples in the bag too.

We spent a lot of time playing in the tractor!

Language explosion

The past few weeks have been a language explosion for Caiden. Every day he is saying new words, although sometimes it takes a while to figure out what he is saying.

The most frequent words we hear have to do with flying things. Pane(plane), Fwy (fly), barn (he loves when dan flies a plane through the barn in the flight simulator), and copcah (helicopter). Of course we still hear "no" a lot. Usually with quite a bit of anguish behind it.

I'm not sure if yellow is just his favorite color or he is just colorblind, but if you ask him what color something is he always answers "lellow". He also loves talking about his best friend Ryder. It took us a really long time to figure this one out, it sounds like "rahrrahr". Speaking of Ryder, these two are hilarious together. It's amazing that kids so young can have best friends (what exactly draws two together at this age?), but they are inseparable at daycare. They start laughing hysterically when they see each other in the morning.

Back to speaking. He occasionally strings one or two words together. One day when I took his pacifier away he said "no momma bimi!" Translated that means mom, don't take my binkie.

Caiden likes to practice counting. He even does it on his own- he will line his bath toys up on the edge of the tub, counting as he puts them up there. However he does not count accurately. Sometimes everything is "wuh" (one). Other times he gets to two and starts over again ("wuh, too, wuh, too, wuh, too"). Other times he starts at "fee" (three).

He also gets very hung up on events. A few weeks ago, Dan got a ball stuck in a tree outside. They eventually got it down with a lacrosse stick. I can't tell you how many times we talked about it. It would go like this:
Caiden, pointing outside towards the tree in question: "uh oh! uh oh! ball!"
Me: "what happened? Did a ball get stuck?
Caiden: "tuk!" (stuck)
Me: "how did we get it out?"
Caiden: "tik!!"  (stick)

Caiden meets Heritage

Caiden and I spent Sunday afternoon at a Heritage reunion. Heritage is a pool in Concord where my sisters and I spent many summers growing up. We spent our days there doing swim lessons, swim team, tennis lessons, and eventually life guarding and coaching. Lots of good memories, and I was glad to have the opportunity to introduce Caiden to the pool. We didn't get to mingle too much (Caiden makes that hard!), but we had fun visiting with Aunt Elizabeth and splashing around in the baby pool.

His favorite thing there was the water fountain

But we had fun in the pool too.

Moss tries his signature "pull my finger" move on Caiden. Caiden did not fall for it.

Thanks Elizabeth for the photos!

Bolton Fair

We made a trip to the Bolton Fair this weekend. What a great kid destination. They had all kinds of things. Farm animals, including plenty of petting opportunities, a tiger show, farm equipment, lumberjack show, fire trucks, monster truck stuff, racing, dog shows, regular carnival rides, the list goes on. Next year we'll have to time our visit a little better- we missed the dog show which I think Caiden would have loved.

Watching tractor racing

Off to pet some sheep

 Driving my tractor down a bumpy road

Taking a shady ice cream break

More farm equipment

Petting baby goats. Caiden even got a chance to feed him.

Summer fun

A week or two ago we went to an Acton Family Network (AFN) event, which was great. Caiden had a great time splashing in water table, and I found out about the AFN babysitting co-op. We have been matched with a group which has several families with kids around the same age. After we meet everyone we'll be able to start participating. I think it will be a great way to get to know some families around here.

And this past weekend we made a trip to visit Grace, Tony, and Ian. We all had a great time!

Playing with new puppy Jane

Popsicles with Ian. Caiden had never had a popsicle, and he loved it. These were homemade by Grace, out of just Kefir and  frozen fruit. It took the kid about a half hour to eat (which is awesome, he kept quiet and still while he ate), and it snapped him out of a somewhat crabby mood. We'll be making these at home.

want a yick?

We had a not so fun summer day last week- 30 minutes after I got to work on Thursday I got a phone call that Caiden was throwing up. We had a couch potato day... a treat for Caiden. I think to him it was worth it. Dan and I appreciated it a little less. Lots of throw up and, well, other stuff that needed to be cleaned up. There was a middle of the night bath involved.

Climbing problem

Caiden has gotten quite good at climbing. He can get up on his learning tower, a kitchen chair, the sofa, etc all on his own. That would be great, except he doesn't stop there. Once in his tower, he gets up onto the kitchen counter. From a kitchen chair, onto the table. From the couch, up to the arm rests. And he doesn't just stand when he reaches the top- he dances. We have frequent discussions with him that couches/chairs are just for sitting on. The message doesn't seem to be sinking in.

Shy guy

Caiden is turning into a shy guy. I wouldn't say he has ever been particularly outgoing, but these days he turns into a clingy, hide-behind-mom's-legs kid when introduced to new people.

Here are some photos from early July when he was at Nanna Nan's house and met Aunt Elizabeth's good friend Meg and Meg's niece Annabelle, who is the same age as Caiden.

Is it safe to come out?

He warms up eventually though. He seems to be intimidated by older kids, so it takes a little longer for him to get comfortable.