Spring weather

We're getting some great spring weather around here. Lots of outside time! I recently read a post on a local mother's forum, a mother of a child around the same age as Caiden was asking for advice on what kinds of toys she should get to encourage her kid to spend more time outside. I got a chuckle out of that... all we need are rocks, sticks, and a puddle and Caiden could literally be outside all day long. A soccer ball doesn't hurt either.

Pondering life over a Lara Bar

We're starting to get back into our old Saturday morning gym routine. I go to class at 7:30, Dan and Caiden meet me there afterwards, and then Caiden and I hang around and play outside while Dan works out with the 8:30 class. We found a marsh behind the gym, and a pile of rocks not too far away. Caiden spent a half hour straight walking back and forth, picking up rocks, throwing them in the marsh. Splash, laugh, repeat. He learned that he could throw the smaller rocks further, so any big rocks were handed over to me for "Mom's turn"

When Dan is done, we get to goof around on the exercise equipment

 Happy that Dan is done!

This picture shows Caiden's preferred hugging style- cheek to cheek. If my hair is in the way, he will brush it out of the way to make room for direct cheek to cheek contact.

Easter bunny

We had a great Easter. It started with an Easter basket. It was just a few toys, but Caiden had a great time playing with them all morning.

Then we headed over to Nana's for brunch. He wasn't much in the mood for eating, but he did spend some time at the table being goofy. He is in a big goofy mode recently.

After nap, we headed outside for an Easter egg hunt. It was such a beautiful day!

He had his first taste of candy. He well remembered that candy is "for eating" and that he found it in the yellow easter egg.

We played outside a little longer and then headed back home. A fun day!

Quick Trip

Caiden and I made a quick trip to Vermont last weekend. Dan had a college buddies trip to Lehigh, so I thought a mother-son weekend was in order. We left at naptime on Friday. He did great in the car- played happily for an hour or so and then fell asleep for almost the rest of the drive. During the portions of the trip he was awake, he did a lot of narrating about what he saw. At one point he noted that trucks passing by were too loud, and he asked me to turn them off.

We spent Friday afternoon/evening wandering around Burlington and grabbing dinner. He always loves exploring new places.

We had a rocky night on Friday- our room was directly above the lobby bar area in the hotel, where they had a live band. We were both awake until the wee hours of the morning.

Despite limited sleep we had a fun morning in Burlington. We went to the Skinny Pancake for crepes, then over to the aquarium for some fun.

I must remember to always bring a spare pair of pants with us to this place. He most of the time there playing with the boats in the waterway and ends up pretty wet. He did also enjoy seeing the turtles and big fish, though.

We ended up driving home Saturday, as we were both pretty tired and the weather was pretty raw up there. He conked out as soon as we hit the highway. It was a short trip, but great quality time. I'm looking forward to going back when it's warmer.

Mini update

Caiden is so much fun these days. The more he can communicate, the happier he is. A happy Caiden is a fun Caiden. Over the last week he started with the "why" questions. So funny.

Lately Caiden has been testing us a little more than usual. It seems like his days of epic meltdowns are fading (we still get them occasionally, but they are much easier to manage), but he tests our resolve with defiant behavior more often. It's a trade off I can handle.

who me?

We had our first parent "teacher" conference last week. It went pretty well, although his teachers expressed concern over his fine motor skills and communication. We don't agree, he can do things like draw, assemble legos, operate utensils, remove stickers from their paper, etc. And they said they'd like to hear more 5-7 word sentences from him more often. We hear tons of 10+ sentence words from him at home. They aren't grammatically perfect, but he is on target for his age. Caiden loves his teachers and friends at school, but this just added to our list of frustrations with this place. But all is good- Caiden will be starting a new school in September, maybe a little earlier. I can't wait.

Sleep has been really, really good lately. He is still in his crib. There have been several occasions where I caught him with one foot up on the railing, but I tell him he would get a big boo boo if he tried that- and he gives up. He is definitely physically capable of climbing out,  so we're sure to keep the gate at the top of the stairs closed anytime he is in there.

Aunt Elizabeth recently brought Caiden a new book of all the Pixar characters. He hasn't seen all the Pixar movies, but the ones he has seen are his favorites- toy story, cars, bugs life, finding nemo, monsters inc. To say he enjoys this book would be an understatement.

Caiden and his guys

Caiden loves toting his guys all over the house. It's not always the same guys, just whoever is around or whoever his current favorites are. But moving them around the house can keep him entertained for quite a while. Here he is having breakfast with the guys of the hour.

Bedtime can get crowded as his collection grows. I often go in after he falls asleep and remove some of his friends.

He has taken to helping himself to tupperware to store his smaller guys in. I keep finding random tubs and lids all over the place.

Caiden and the grapefruit

I was surprised to find out a few weeks ago that Caiden likes grapefruit!

Sometimes it is tricky digging out the sections!

I broke the mustang!

Dan got Caiden a little model airplane a few weeks ago. A P-51 Mustang. Right away Caiden (accidentally) broke of 2/3 of the propellor blades. Yesterday he broke off part of the tail. He asked me to fix it, and I gave him the usual "we need Dad for that" speech. As Dan was due home any minute, Caiden went to wait for him by the window. He stood there waiting for Dad, yelling out the window about the broken Mustang and needing glue and whatnot. I got the camera out and caught a minute of it:

And also caught him showing Dan the issue through the window... when Dan was pulling in the driveway.