First Thanksgiving

We had a big Thanksgiving at my Aunt Laura's house in Weston. In attendance was my mom, Grandmother, aunt, uncle, 5 cousins, 2 sisters, and significant others. A big crowd! And, unfortunately, a cranky Caiden.

A quick summary of the day:

Caiden hung out while his Mom and Dad got some work done around the house

Then we went to the Keery's where the guys played football

The gals played with the baby

Everyone ate a lot of food

Caiden watched the meal from a swing

He also got to spend time with his Gigi (Great Grandma)

And then Caiden slept for 8 hours in a row for the first time! What a great Thanksgiving!

Caiden Update

The move has seriously slowed down the blogging, sorry! Hopefully I'll be back on track now that we're getting settled (and have internet again!)

At Caiden's one month checkup, he weighed in at 11lbs 5oz and measured 21.75 inches. That put him at around the 80th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for length. I can't remember his head circumference, I'll try to get that next time! Once again the doctor seemed amused but impressed by Caiden's weight gain. I asked if it was too much (over 2 lbs since his 2 week appointment, geez!), but the doctor said no- he is "thriving". And when he heard that Caiden scarfs down his daily vitamin drops, the doctor was shocked. He said he never hears that. Usually parents can't get their babies to eat those drops, or the baby spits it up, or cries a lot. Not our baby... he laps that stuff up like it's candy. He loves to eat!

Caiden has become much more animated over the past week. As long as he is well rested and fed, it's pretty easy to get him to smile and chat. He is getting good at vowel sounds- lots of oooohs.

He still likes his wiggle time, and doesn't like to be hot or cold. He seems to get overwhelmed by crowds pretty easily. After a week or so where he would only sleep 2.5-4 hours at a time, Caiden has had two awesome nights. Last night, he slept from 10pm to 6am!! Wow. Now, I just need to learn how to sleep through the night again ;)

...And New Beginnings

We've moved! It's been a stressful process, but we're finally getting settled into our (awesome) new house in Acton. It really feels like home. We had new carpets put in upstairs, a new fridge brought in, new locks on the doors, and new paint in the master bedroom will be coming shortly.

Caiden is enjoying his new toys, which we are finally able to use. They've been in storage at Nana Nan's house until now.

He loves looking at himself in the mirror:

He even smiles and chats with himself:

The bouncy chair is pretty fun too:

End of an Era...

After 5 years in the city for me, 6 for Dan, we're moving out! I'll miss walking into Harvard Square and running on the river. I took a few pictures during our last walks on the river.

In Harvard Square:

On Memorial Drive, shut down for walking/running/cycling/skating on Sunday mornings:

Along the river path:

During the last few days on Arden street, Grandpa Jack and Grandma Madeline came to visit:

And Grandpa Hank and Grandma Judy came, thanks for the cute new outfit:

One Month Old

Unbelievable how fast time goes. Caiden is one month old today. We'll get his one month stats at his doctors appointment next week, but here is the rundown from us.

Personality: Caiden is generally an easy going baby, although recently he has had some cranky days. He can usually entertain himself pretty well, in fact sometimes when he is fussy the solution is to put him down and let him shake it out (wiggle time...).

Sleep: Caiden has been doing well in this department over the last week. He frequently will get a 5-6 hour stretch (pretty good for this age!!), followed by another 2-3 hours. Unfortunately, it can take a while after he eats for him to fall back asleep. And try as I might to move it earlier, his bedtime seems to be stuck at 10pm for now. And he is usually awake for the day between 7 and 8am. Naps are still all over the place, no schedule there. Some days he only takes a few cat naps but others it will seem like he has been sleeping all day.

Food: When he's awake, Caiden will eat just about every 2 hours. I am trying to stretch that out, but since he doesn't eat much at night I think it's okay that he is eating frequently.

Activity:  He is not a fan of tummy time, but we still try to get it in as much as possible. His neck strength is improving, this morning during a little tummy time he held his head steady at 90 degrees for a few seconds. He can focus on faces, and starting yesterday he will smile in response to a smile (with a lot of coaxing) . He also smiles quite a bit randomly, especially as he is falling asleep. He has rolled over once, stomach to back. We tried to get him to do it again so we could get it on camera, but no dice (he did get close though).

Size: We don't know an accurate weight, but using our scale it looks like he is in the 11 pound range. He's a big boy! Much bigger than most of the babies in our Mom's group, even though they are older! He doesn't fit in newborn clothes or diapers anymore, and even some of the 0-3 month clothes look like spandex on this little guy. I've started using some of the 3-6 month clothes already.

Well, it's 10am here and Caiden is already on his 3rd outfit of the day. Looks like it will be a laundry day...

Fun Friday

On Friday Caiden and I made the trip to Sharon to visit Grace and Ian. They moved from Somerville to Sharon a few weeks ago and are loving their new suburban life. Makes me excited for our move out to suburbia... one week to go!

Ian investigates the "bee" (baby)

Ian checks out his old car seat:

Grace and I took our boys out for a walk:

Later on Friday Dan and I got to go out for a date night! Yup, Margaret and Doug babysat for us while we went out to celebrate our 2 year anniversary a few days early. Thanks guys! We went to the Wine Cellar, a hole in the wall fondue place. Very nostalgic, we used to go there so often the owner knew us. But it has been years! And tonight we are going to Boston Triathlon Team's year end banquet while Nana Nan babysits. We are lucky to have so many willing babysitters around here!

Little helper

Helping Dad with his homework!