Caiden's first Friendship soup

Caiden had his first visitors to preschool this week. They had a Thanksgiving celebration called Friendship soup and family was invited to come and enjoy the soup that they prepared and listen to them sing songs. It was pretty darling. When Grace and I arrived they were singing songs and when Caiden saw us he immediately came over to give us hugs. Then he went back on the mat to sing and Grace was freaking out because she wanted down to go see Caiden so I put her down and she ran over to him, leaned down and started hugging and kissing him. A few of the other parents were "oohing" and "ahhhing" over how cute it was.

After another quick song we all sat around their little tables and ate soup and chatted. He sat next to a buddy named Micah and his mom told me that he talks about Caiden at home and that they play together. Caiden also talks about Micah at home...although I never really get more information other than he played with so and so today. Maybe he'll say he played with a fire truck with Micah but that's it.

After soup the kids went back to the mat to sing a few more songs. Caiden was right in front doing all the dances and singing out loud, it so was fun seeing him engaging with the teachers and kids.

It was also a pretty hilarious event. A lot of chaos and just craziness. Imagine 15 three year olds running around in one room.

Grace: 15-months

Ahhhh, our sweet Gracie girl. She really is very sweet. She throws herself at you when she wants a hug and opens her mouth to give big juicy kisses.

She has seven teeth.
Top: Three in the center and two molars.
Bottom: Two in the center.

She loves books. If I haven't heard from her in awhile and she's being really quiet you can almost guarantee she is shuffling through books. I even make her a little book nook in the play room with a pillow and books all set up for her at night so it's ready in the morning. And all day long she's grabbing a book and bringing it to you. She loves to turn around and sit on your lap while she's handing you the book. She really loves books more than Caiden did at this age.

She loves her little blankie as much as Caiden does. She even "requires" having it most of the time when she's walking around right after her nap or in the morning. She won't leave it in her bed like Caiden does. After she's been up for a bit I'll need to somehow swipe it from her when she's not paying attention and take it back up to her bed.

She sleeps pretty well. We are still switching between one and two naps a day depending on how she's feeling and/or what our plans are. At night she's sleeping from 7:30pm to anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30am...it's totally a crap shoot on what time she gets up. I can tell you 5:30am comes way too early every morning.

She says mama, more, eye, flower 'fowaa', water 'wawa', puppy, moon 'moo', bye 'baa' and ball. She's talking more and more everyday -most of which I have no idea what she's saying. She is very selective in trying out new words and won't just repeat anything you ask her to like Caiden did. The cutest is when she tries her voice at singing. She sways from side to side and sings, 'lalamamamememwawawa'.

She hates being in her carseat. She doesn't cry she is just constantly thrusting her pelvis forward like she's trying to get out and looks so uncomfortable doing it. She's been doing this for three or four months now and we thought she'd get over it by now. You can hear her grunting the entire car ride and you'd think she'd get tired.

She is a pretty good eater. She definitely is particular, sometimes she'll eat anything and then the next day she won't touch it. Some of her favorites are strawberries, cheese and goldfish. She's still only drinking breastmilk but my pumped stash is almost running out and I think we'll be introducing dairy milk in about a month.

She loves to give hugs and kisses. It's very different from when Caiden was this age. She will almost always give you kisses if you ask and she gives unsolicited hugs all the time. She loves to give kisses when we FaceTime with our parents or cousin Theo and will rub her cheek on the phone as a hug. And when Marc leaves in the morning she gives him three kisses and always waves goodbye. He says it's his favorite part of the morning.

She can run like lightening. She is so fast. Everyone is so surprised when they see how fast she is because she's pretty tiny but also she's been walking for four months so she's got it down.

She does NOT like it when you tell her 'no'. She will cry and throw a mini-fit for a few seconds. I call it a mini-fit because I'm sure it's nothing in comparison to what will come in a few years.

She loves to put shoes on and if she sees you putting shoes on she runs over and grabs hers and hands them to you. Then she'll walk around and look at them and then look at you to make sure you are acknowledging that you see her pretty shoes.

She can be such a girly girl but also follows in Caiden's footsteps and pushes cars and trucks around the house. She's pretty great!

This is how she signs 'more' -so dainty. 

So let me tell you about this photo. It's so wrong, but I think she needs to see it one day just for fun. I was getting ready one morning and she was running in and out of our closet to our room. I come from the bathroom to see a pair of my underwear (from my laundry basket) around her neck. I was laughing so hard and just couldn't resist taking a picture.

Grace's 15-month check-up

Grace weighed 20 lbs. 11 oz. (42nd percentile), 29.5 inches long (18th percentile) and her head is in the 45th percentile. She received three shots and they tested her iron levels again. This time they were even lower than before (9.4) so we are going to take her to an actual clinic to have her blood drawn instead of just a toe prick -which they say can sometimes be a little inaccurate (on the low side). If they are still low then they will add an iron supplement to her diet. 

Overall she did really well. She was a teeny bit shy when Dr. Roberts was talking to her and she definitely put on her serious face for him. But other than that it was pretty uneventful. We'll go back again at 18-months.

Caiden got a "big boy" haircut

I've been putting this off for so long and I'm not sure what got into me. I think part of it was that when Caiden starts sweating his head and neck would get so itchy -and he wouldn't let me put it in a ponytail ;)

So I just went for it. I almost started crying because I'm afraid now that we went this short we'll never go back to that fun, shaggy, Cali boy hair cut. And his hair is just so thick and beautiful that it feels wrong to cut hair like that. Truth is no one could give him a really good haircut with the longer hair. I think I would have needed to take him to a professional salon -not Pigtails & Crewcuts. It's pretty amateur hour in there...but it's only $25.

And this one just because it was such a beautiful day in La Jolla today!

Happy Halloween!

It was fun celebrating Halloween this year. Caiden was so into everything from pumpkins to his costume to trick or treating! We started last weekend with carving pumpkins. Which in hindsight was a bit too early because a few days before Halloween the detailed work of George and Woody were falling apart.

Caiden did not enjoy pulling the guts out by hand but he definitely wanted in on the action of using the spoon to get it out. "It's my turn now, It's my turn now!"

When Marc started cutting into the stencil we had on the pumpkin of Georges face Caiden yelled, "NOOOOO, HIS FACE!!!!". He had to stop and explain what was going to happen. So friggin cute.

We also painted a pumpkin teal and bought non-food treats for handing out on Halloween for the Teal Pumpkin Project. It's something that FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) created a few years back to support kids with food allergies on Halloween. Place a teal pumpkin at your door to indicate that you'll have toys as well as candy to give to kids who have food allergies. Caiden was really excited to have a blue pumpkin and he also knew what it represented. Such a great project and we will be sure to do it every year!

We did a test run of Grace's outfit on Thursday before we went to Marc's office for a pre-trick or treat bash. She was not a fan of the entire outfit. She cried for about 5 minutes until she finally got used to it.

They had a lady making balloon art and Caiden asked for a fishing pole with a fish on the end.

Halloween on a Saturday was so much fun! We tried getting a couple family photos but this is the best we got. Grace is a swan ferry, I'm a mermaid, Caiden is Curious George and Marc is the Man in the Yellow Hat. Caiden loved his and Marc's costume and was telling everyone he was George when they asked what his name was and always told them that his Dad was the Man in the Yellow Hat. His teachers at school even told me that he was talking a lot about their costumes.

So I had no costume planned for myself until about three hours before when Sara called and said she's going to be a mermaid. I said great -add me to your list of make-up and bring me an outfit! Thank you, Sis!

 Our neighbors had their annual Halloween party so we went to their house after getting ready and ate and hung out. When it got dark we started down the street. There were so many people out and about it's just so much fun. Caiden had a blast. After every house he'd say, "I want to go to the next house, too!". He even started cutting across the lawns at the end once he had the hang of it. He loved all the decorations and would always take the time to point them out.

I think this was the last house we went to and we let Grace out of the car we were pushing her in -she knew exactly what to do!

When we got home Caiden did what every single kid does on Halloween and I remember so vividly (and we didn't even have to tell him). He immediately dumped all his candy out on the floor and asked me what he can eat. I think there were three pieces that didn't have dairy or nuts in it. He ate a crap load of skittles, Mike & Ikes, sour patch kids and suckers. Needless to say he was up at 2am vomiting all over his bed. I think he ate a bit too much. Going from having a lollipop once a week to the amount of sugar he had that night was overload on his little body and it was not pretty. Lesson learned for next year. Up side -he says he doesn't want to eat any more candy because it will make his belly hurt. Happy Halloween everyone!