November

The learning curve of our toddler - November 2008
I don't know really what Kaden should or shouldn't be capable of at this stage of his life. I have been told he has an excellent vocabulary and is quite chatty. Regardless, I am constantly amazed at the growing mind of our toddler. He can parrot almost anything we say. He does not say everything exactly right, but he sure is pretty close. Not only can he parrot words (and actions), but he remembers and uses them without prompting at a later date. Just to give you an example, after reading Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop, the second last page says "My father can read big words too, like Constantinople and Timbuktu". Kaden can often be heard saying "Consapinople and Timbuktu"!

Even more amazing then that though is his knowledge of numbers. Sure, Kaden has been able to count to 10 for quite some time. Obviously a case can be made that he doesn't really understand what counting is, but that he has a good memory. Not any more. Kaden has two new ways to show off his skills with counting and numbers. Previously, if you put a few tangible objects in front of Kaden and counted with him, he would carry on beyond the last object and continue counting to 10. Now, he will count what is in front of him and (9 times out of 10) stop when he has reached the end of the objects to be counted. Cool. Even more astounding to me though is his recognition of numbers. We thought it was a random occurrence that Kaden pointed to a clock on his world floor mat and said "four". However, the next day while standing beside Craig's bedside table he looked at the clock radio, which said 9:07, and said "sev-uh". Since then he can pretty much pick out any number between 1 and 10 and tell you what it is. We have a dining room chair turned over on its side to block the doors of the hutch. Kaden has turned this into an elevator (of course) and when inside we heard him say "push free" and "push sev-uh". Sure enough, on closer inspection, we saw a sticker on the chair with the number 37!

Freedom to roam - November 30, 2008
With Ali at Grandma and Grandpa's, I took down the gate that blocked off the kitchen. Ali's crate is gone and the stroller is being stored in the car so there's plenty of new space to play! Kaden hasn't had direct access to the kitchen since the summer and since that time he has had to contend with a wet nose. Other than a few 'incidents' with the blinds, it has been fun to watch Kaden enjoying running around and using his expanded space. He loves reading...more precisely he loves being read too. Although Kaden will happily sit in the living room and flip through his books he has been known to sit just outside the gate while I'm working in the kitchen to try to get me to read to him. Now he has new places to sit a little closer to the action... Apparently the fish have been missing out on some prime reading as well.

Helping to de-dog the house... - November 29, 2008
Craig and Ali left for Toronto today. Very sad. To help lift our spirits I pulled out the trusty vacuum cleaner. I took a turn (plugged in) followed by Kaden (unplugged). I think he enjoyed it more that me!

Other fun things that day included "moving the chair"!
Not the nicest of sounds mind you, but Kaden obviously didn't care.

"Keam-uh nose" - November 28, 2008
It started after Kaden's last cold this fall. He nose was raw from kleenex so I put a little cream on his nose. Kaden obviously thought this was the best thing since sliced bread! He asks to have cream on his nose daily...which we oblige after his morning face wash and after his bath. Beyond that he often pretends to put cream on his nose. He has found Nanna's cream in the bathroom upstairs. He can't open it, but he takes it out several times a day to apply cream to himself or anyone else around. He will also pretend with any random object...my thumb drive doubled as an excellent cream dispenser the other day! When all else fails he pretends to use one of his fingers as the cream container. Many a friend has had  their nose 'creamed' by Kaden as well. Here you can see that the fascination with cream on his nose went a bit awry. I noticed the other day that Kaden figured out how to open a zipper on a diaper tote we keep in the bottom of the stroller. He found my chapstick and pretended it was a bottle of cream. No big deal. Then I saw he was able to get the cap off. I watched him touch the top of the waxy surface and rub "cream" on his nose...and cheeks...I think he was actually putting on "make up" as he sees me do in the morning. So I put it all away, but not out of reach. While I was in the basement the other day sending a quick email to work, I noticed it was suspiciously quiet upstairs. I suspected that he was back in the diaper tote so I went up to see. Not only had Kaden opened the chapstick, but this time he was mining for "cream". Of course, chapstick is not as absorbent as one might hope. He had already moved on from the empty chapstick container, but he couldn't hide the evidence!

Good fences make good neighbours - November 27, 2008
Kaden gets a kick out of Ali. He says good morning to her every day and laughs when she sniffs his toes when he's in his highchair. When they're both on the ground in close quarters he is still a little hesitant as she gets quite excited to see him and she feels about the size of a horse in comparison to him! However, for some reason, when separated by the gate, Ali will sit or lie day calmly (almost submissively) so that Kaden will come and pet her. He loves it. For now, it's a good compromise to keep the two of them getting use to each other, but soon enough they'll both have free reign of the house!

And I thought they were supposed to be Pisces! - November 27, 2008
Apparently fish aren't as fun as bulls. Daddy has found yet another game to make Kaden squeal with delight. I think my favourite thing about this is watching Kaden try to mimic Craig to get him to do it again. Too cute.

Brrr...it's getting cold outside! - November 26, 2008
I say that with a slight smirk as I know we are about to move to much colder country! However, for the time being, 3^o is a wee bit chilly to us softies on the West Coast. We did have snow here last November so I picked up a new "snowsuit", hat, mitts and boots for Kaden while we were shopping the other day. I don't think any of the items are rated for Ontario winters, but they'll do the trick for our remaining months out here! We didn't need the matching pants today, but I suited Kaden up in the rest of his new gear to take a pre-dinner walk up to the Choices Market in search of milk (a frequent outing of ours...it seems we go through 4L of 1% and 3.5% about every 2-3 days)!

Cameras are never ready when you need them...yes, it's the camera's fault.
Before the camera turned on Kaden was waving at himself saying "hi, how are you?" to his new mittens!
What you hear in this video is a lingering memory for Kaden, which obviously made an impression!

Tech-savvy tot - November 18, 2008
The world Kaden knows is so much more technologically advanced than the one in which we grew up. Granted, Craig came from a house where computers were the norm, but I didn't have my first computer until I went to university! Kaden knows what cell phones and iPods are and I'm sure he's just a breath away from asking to have his own Facebook page! Kaden loves to look at pictures and videos of himself. He doesn't yet watch TV, but he asks to see himself on Cremma when we're in the basement and ever since our flight to TO (where Craig loaded the iPod with pictures and videos to distract Kaden if needed) Kaden asks to see the iPod daily! Although he does make a valiant effort to push any/all buttons in sight, he's content to sit back and watch himself on the screen. I wonder if Kaden could say "narcissist"?!?

Dinos and more - November 15, 2008
Science World has a new exhibit about dinosaurs. After Kaden's Halloween adventure, he has more of an idea about what dinosaurs are. So we were off to Science World this morning to check it out as well as to play with his usual favourites. Unfortunately, the dinosaur exhibit was a little old for him - but Craig got a big kick out of it. We did manage to convince him that the elevator would still be there when we were done long enough for us to explore the dinos a little before heading back out to see what else we could play with. There was another new exhibit as well with interactive "noise machines"! Kaden thoroughly enjoyed banging, strumming, plucking and pounding!

Here we practice Kaden's parroting ability. We thought his cousin Ben might appreciate the effort!

And here's our little maestro in action.

When imagination and a love of elevators finally meet... - November 2008
We all know how much Kaden loves elevators. He relishes his time in them and he talks about them often when we are away from them. This was the first time he combined his imagination with his love of elevators and pretended to use an elevator (aka his mommy) in the house!

A whirlwind weekend in TO - November 7 - 11, 2008
Unlike our usual ways, we did not manage to get behind the camera very much on this trip...I think we were just too busy (4 days staying in 3 different places, a wedding, various family visits and a toddler explain it all)! We've put a request out to those that did take pictures to send them our way, but in the meantime you can check out a few that we did snap.

We were back in TO to attend a wedding for my dear friend Amy. She was married in London on November 8th. We brought Kaden to the city with us, but not the wedding. We were so grateful to have Grandma and Grandpa follow us down to babysit for the night. It was perfect - for all of us! We had a great time at the wedding and Kaden was a champ being fed dinner and put to bed by somebody other than his parents for the first time! Hooray for grandparents!!! I've attached a couple pictures of the gorgeous bride (mostly for my mom to see!) and for us to relish the memory of a night out sans kid! Amy is actually due with her first little girl just two weeks after we're due. Perhaps the two will grow up to be the best of friends like their moms!? We compared bellies, but I think Amy's dress does a much better job of hiding the bump!

Of course we got a chance to get the cousins together to 'play' as well.

A new toy for the tub - November 5, 2008
Kaden loves his bath. Kaden loves to colour. What could be better than combining the two?! I found some crayons that are meant for the bath and he loves them. Not only does he love to colour the walls, but he loves to help wipe it up when it's time to clean up! What more could we ask for?!

Picasso at work.
I love how he bends over and concentrates on getting just the right angle!
Warning...baby bum is exposed ;]

ABCD - November 4, 2008
As Kaden's memory and vocabulary continue to grow so does his participation in songs. He will often lead us in verse singing just in advance of the beat. This isn't his best version, but we were still mighty impressed to hear Kaden sing almost all of his alphabet with just a little prompting. The individual letters often get slurred into a single "word", but you can see where he's coming from!

Shake it if you got it! - November 4, 2008
I remembered that we had some bells in the house tucked away in one of my Brownie tubs. Kaden loves to play the bells at his Kindermusik class and talks about them between each session. When I brought the bells upstairs he just stood holding them at the top of the stairs in awe. I managed to get him into the living room, but for several minutes he just held them and beamed! It took some convincing, but he eventually started to shake them to his delight! For the next several days he would talk about them and stare excitedly at them in his toy basket, but it would take several minutes for him to get over his own jubilation to pick them up and play with them! Now he shakes them with reckless abandon!

You can see how excited about the bells before his first shake! He quickly learned how to give them a ring and turn them into a game!
       

Saturday morning fun! - November 1, 2008
After a lovely brunch with our neighbours and their kids, Kaden had some fun on his own. We just had our bassinette returned to us and it was up in the living room for one of the babes to snooze while we ate brunch. Kaden soon discovered he could climb in and out and we reminded him that he was once small enough to sleep in it! He got a big kick out of that. Kaden also discovered the pumpkins that were sitting in the front hall from the previous night's fun. He quickly found his shovel and pretended that he was scooping out the guts of the pumpkins again. He would take the lids on and off and pretend to scoop a pile of 'dirt' onto the floor. We love to watch his pretend-play develop!

Scoop and dump. A classic.