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!

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!