Winter update

Here are the happenings around here.

Caiden's vocabulary has gotten significantly better over the past month. Well, it's been steadily improving over the last few months, but it recently struck us how much better he is. He's gone from 2-3 word sentences to more complete ones. But despite his increased ability to express his needs/wants, he seems to forget all verbal skills when he hits meltdown mode.

Speaking of meltdowns, this made Dan and I laugh pretty hard: http://jasongood.net/365/2012/12/46-reasons-why-my-three-year-old-might-be-freaking-out/

Caiden is super curious and is always asking questions. Who's that? What's that? What's in it? Where is xyz?  What's that for? He hasn't gotten too big into asking "why" just yet, but I'm sure we'll get there soon.

A slightly questionable thing Caiden is into are bad guys. He always seems to enjoy the villain characters in the movies he sees/books he reads. His favorite Toy Story scenes? The ones with evil emperor Zurg in them. His favorite monster from Monsters Inc? Sneaky Randall. The most discussed character from Finding Nemo? Bruce the Shark. His favorite song? One where an alligator eats a monkey.

In January we went to a party at Caiden's old daycare. I don't think he remembered a thing from his time there, but he had fun exploring the whole building. He had no interest whatsoever in the organized activities though. It was nice at least for me to see his old teachers and friends.

Caiden and I had a serious cold this month. This is how you know Caiden isn't feeling well:

Finally, we had a sleepover visit from Ian and family last weekend. It was great fun! Caiden and Ian played SO well together. I was very impressed. It was funny to hear them talking together in the other room. Lots of "Right Caiden?" from Ian and "YEAH!" from Caiden. It was the easiest parenting experience I've had at home in a long time. Caiden was completely entertained. The adults could spend some quality time catching up.

Dave Mak came too and brought some great books for the kiddos. They are counting books with lots of animals. Big hit with both of them. They wanted to read them over and over. Caiden can recite numbers up to twenty, but he's not so good with actually counting things. He would count 9 boats and Ian would gently correct him: "it's 5".

Caiden also loved spending time with Jane the puppy!

Next up... blizzard Nemo!

Cheeky Monkey

Caiden has never been big into singing songs or listening to music, but he came home on Friday singing a song over and over again. I love hearing him sing!

It's not one I am familiar with, so I looked it up. The lyrics are some variation of this::
5 little monkeys swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr Alligator "Can't catch me!"
Along came Mr Alligator quiet as can be
And SNAPS that monkey right out of the tree

I make a goofy face

Here are some photos and a video of Caiden's ever present "goofy face." It's the face that he gives you when  you tell him to say cheese or smile for a photo. Silly kid. Lots of silly photos.

Waterlogged

We just got back from a great vacation to Puerto Rico- our first vacation just the three of us. We were a little nervous about Caiden's first plane ride, but he did great. He was very excited about going on an airplane, but I think the highlight was seeing all the planes the airport. Once we were actually on the plane it was much less exciting.

We had gotten him some new travel toys- toy story figures. That kept him entertained for a while, then we moved on to movie watching. Not a squawk from this kiddo for the 4 hour flight.

The first day we did a lot of exploring. We stayed at a resort type place on the beach, and there was a lot to explore inside and out. And we explored it all! Up those stairs, down that ramp, around the little pool, over to the big pool, out by the ocean, over to the next door park. And there was lots of pigeon chasing too!

This is what pigeon chasing looks like. Just imagine him yelling "PIGEON!!" while running

We tested out the pool... just a little

 We also explored the Old Town neighborhood of San Juan. Caiden did a lot of walking (well, running really). He kept us moving right along!

Finishing our afternoon in Old Town with Ice Cream!

By the second day, Caiden had gotten the lay of the land and was more comfortable hanging out. We spent a lot of time in and around the pool.

Just checking our email!

And by the end of the trip Caiden was really into vacation mode! Breakfast by the pool, days outside, dinner out... and movie time before bed. What a lucky boy. And what lucky parents we are. He was such a great travel baby and we had a lot of fun with him.

One funny thing- we did a lot of back and forth from our room to various activities, which meant multiple elevator trips a day. Caiden loved elevator trips. It was the first thing he asked to do in the morning. He would hit the necessary buttons, and once inside he would assume his elevator position: back of the center tile, in ready to run pose. When the doors opened he would "JUMP!" over the gap at the door and he'd be off and running. Made us laugh every time.

Our return trip was just as easy- despite having woken up at 3am to catch the plane. We are sad vacation is over but it's always great to come home.

Aunt Margaret Day

Last Friday Caiden got a whole day with his Aunt Margaret. He was very excited. He was a little cranky that morning and it was tough getting him downstairs. It was right around the time Margaret was supposed to come over, so I asked if we should go see if Aunt Markie was here yet. He said "yeah!", headed right downstairs, and wanted to wait for her by the window. He was very excited to see her drive in!

They went to the Boston Children's Museum and had a fun time. It was great that they did that- it's been close to a year since we last went, but it gets so bonkers on the weekends that its not very enjoyable, even for Caiden.

Thanks Aunt Margaret for the fun day! After she left, Caiden kept asking "Where Markie go?"

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!