'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!

Zoo Sunday

We made a trip to the Providence Zoo this morning. It was a little further of a drive than the others, but it was the only one that opened at 9am. I wanted to have a nice long morning visit before nap time. Caiden had a great time. I guided him from animal to animal, but the place was empty so he had free reign to run around.

His favorite thing were the seals. The first time we visited them he got scared- they literally swim right at the glass and turn at the last minute. But we passed them later in the day (a few times) and he soaked it up.

He also got a kick out o the penguins. He got the giggles watching them flip around in the water. We had a PB&J snack watching them. What more can you want?

The moon bear was pretty exciting too

We also spent a surprisingly long time in the elephant barn watching them get bathed.

Back to the seals again!

The zoo has a cool jack o lantern display during the month of October. 5000 pumpkins! I'm hoping to get back for an evening visit- it will look incredible all lit up.

Post note- I forgot to mention that Caiden said goodbye to each animal when he was ready to move on. "Bye bye el-phant." Too cute!

Paparazzi

The lovely women who did the photography for our wedding were offering "mini sessions" this weekend, so we took Caiden to get his picture taken. It was super easy and convenient, and the rain even held off for us. Caiden was very well behaved, not very smiley but he did just about everything the photographer asked of him. He listened to her so well we even asked if she wanted to come live with us. We're looking forward to getting the photos back!

The session was in Watertown, after we were done we let Caiden run around Arsenal Park. He had a lot of fun! We took a few camera phone pictures to hold us over until the real ones are ready.

Apple Picking 2

A week ago we made another apple picking trip, this time with Grace, Tony, and Ian. Grace found a great chemical free orchard in Groton. It had gorgeous views and the apples were delicious! Just ask Caiden, he had an apple in his mouth just about the whole time we were there.

Caiden was pretty quiet while we were apple picking, but whenever Ian got out of his sight, Caiden would remove his apple and ask "eeen?". We had fun and rounded the afternoon off with a stop for ice cream and Kimballs Farm. Yumm...

Thanks Grace for the photos!

Almost 2 update

Here are some updates on Caiden now that he is approaching the big TWO.

-We just switched him to be facing forward in the car. He has been doing pretty well in the car recently, but he was running out of leg room back there so we flipped him. He seems to really like the change. On the way to daycare yesterday he was pointing out dogs, trucks, etc.

-He is speaking a lot! He strings together up to three words. It can be hard to decipher new words though.

-He loves to play the night night game. He will say "ni ni" and pull me (or whoever else is around) down to lay down on the floor. If you are not in the same room and he wants to play with you, he will come push your legs in the direction of where he wants to go.

-We have found that giving Caiden options is a great way to avoid a struggle. One example... if we let him choose which shirt to wear, he won't resist getting dressed as much. He also understands bargaining a little bit. For example... if I tell him we can go play in the basement after he has a few bites of chicken, he will often oblige.

-The highchair is a thing of the past. He will only sit in big boy chairs, or eat in his learning tower. Booster seats are not acceptable either.

-He often declares his stuffed animals hungry: "monhee hunry" (monkey hungry). He will attempt to give his hungry animal a taste of his food (complete with om-nom-nom noises), although I usually put a stop to that. No one wants a stuffed animal with peanut butter all over it.

-We've been encountering more bedtime problems than usual recently. He used to go to bed super easy, but it's been a struggle the last few weeks. It might be coincidence, but we have been redecorating upstairs and that involved moving him into a new, much more fun room. He just wants to play when he is in there! He fakes us out with serious crying, but when we go check on him he smiles and says "play?" Nice try, buddy! It seems to be slowly getting better though, and making sure to get him to bed on time helps too.

-My turn! This is something Caiden must have learned at school. We hear lots of "Caiden's turn" or "my turn". Sometimes he wants me to do something for him, then it's "mom's turn".

-Finally, a few pictures from an afternoon of lacrosse with Dad!