Solo with Grammy and Papa

As mentioned in a previous post, we left our sweet Caedmon to have a couple of days of Grammy and Papa time on his own at the end of our last visit. It was sure hard for this Mama to get in the car and leave our little guy but there was no doubt in my mind that he would have a wonderful time. Isaac helped lighten the mood as we drove away down the street by chiming in with his little "bye bye bye" and four or five little kissing sounds.

I'm not sure if there's anything a little boy could want to do that he didn't get to do - all in about 48 hours! After we left and he had a nap, Caedmon was back in action in the front yard with his Papa - running around, picking up sticks, and chasing their very patient and good natured kitty to put leaves on her back.

The next day, after making a pre-breakfast trip with Papa to see his mechanic and feeding the baby chicks (very carefully and intentionally sprinkling their feed around their little box) he ate waffles then the trio was off to the farm to check all the cows.

Caedmon got to stand in the bed of the pickup while Papa put cubes out for all the cows. He had a bucket of cubes, too, and had a terrific time throwing them out to the cows, and feeding any that came close by hand. Some of the cows are practically pets and happily accept handouts, which he thought was pretty exciting.

Almost every time he recalls feeding the cows (which is almost any time he sees a picture of a cow in a book, or a toy cow, or sometimes just randomly) he likes to reiterate that cows like to eat "cow cake" and that one licked his elbow, and Grammy's shoulder.

After a big morning of feeding the cows at the farm and stopping to throw rocks in the tank, Caedmon had lunch and a nap then they all went to the park for the afternoon. He did everything...slides, swings, tunnels, climbing toys, and riding toys...like this duck. What a smile! As if there was any doubt that he was having fun!

At the park is also a little creek which provided a great opportunity for exploring with Papa as well as more rock-throwing. As his Papa put it - there wasn't a rock left on their side of the creek by the time Caedmon was done!

The next morning, Papa asked Caedmon if he wanted to go home or go feed the cows. Not surprisingly, he was ready for more action at the farm, so they headed back out again. After more cube-throwing and cow-calling, they stopped one more time at a tank so our boy could throw more rocks in the water.

Caedmon was such a big boy and had so much fun visiting Grammy and Papa. We're pretty sure that he wasn't quite ready to come home yet and certain that his grandparents weren't ready either, but he had a Mama and Dada who were so glad to see him! Grammy made him a little album with photos from their adventures and he likes to go back through them at bedtime almost every night. He probably goes to bed and dreams about his next visit and all the fun they will have!

Catching up

How has it been over a month with no new blog posts? There have been so many things going on with these two boys - every day brings new things to learn and do.

Isaac is highly mobile now - not only crawling and pulling up on anything, but also climbing whenever possible. He has no problems getting himself up onto Caedmon's bed now and has a terrific time crawling all over it, and then off the other side. He has learned, thankfully, how to put his hands down first when coming off the bed, rather than just falling straight on his face on those occasions that I'm not there to catch him. Either way, he barely slows down, but laughs and just keeps going.

He's so close to walking! We follow him with our hands lightly supporting his belly and back, and he just loves to practice walking as much as possible. He's going to have to learn to contain his excitement and refrain from just diving when he gets close to his destination - but we fully expect him to take his first solo steps soon.

We are so amazed by what a big little boy Caedmon has grown into, seeming to lose a lot of his baby-ness in a hurry. His vocabulary continues to explode (he recently identified "dandy-lions" and daffodils in the yard!) and he's definitely become very vocal about what he does or does not want to do. Doug is learning a lot of new things, too, as he experiences just about everything Caedmon does - even helping push Caedmon's little mower a while back!

I was trying to get the boys ready for the day last week and had gotten the comb out of the bathroom. Caedmon saw this, and quickly jumped on the opportunity to help comb Isaac's hair. He did really well - even going to the bathroom to wet the comb - and was very gentle. Although Isaac's hair wasn't styled exactly like usual, it was so cute that I went ahead and left it that way.

My boys, apparently, are going to be very conscientious about their hygiene and appearance, as Isaac also started taking the comb out of my hands last week and would hold it up to the side of his head, as if ready to brush it all by himself. Then he would look at me with wide eyes that said, "Am I doing it right, Mama?"

We've been planning another trip to Hamilton for a while and were finally able to go two weekends ago. Caedmon has been honing his fishing skills for a while (Papa fixed up a rod and reel and we've been practicing in the backyard) and whenever we talk about visiting Grammy and Papa, he says "Want to go fishing with the wod and weel?" We did do some fishing, and Caedmon was able, finally, to reel in his first fish. Isaac even got in on the action and was in Grammy's arms while she brought in a big catfish. We also went along to feed the cows and check for new calves, and got to see a baby calf that was only a few hours old. Caedmon was excited to get to be a part of everything, and especially excited that he got to stay and play with Grammy and Papa while the rest of us went home!