Sharing Shoes & Other Fun Pictures

Caed's usually the one to try on daddy's shoes, but in a rare moment after dinner last week, Brad decided to try Caedmon's shoe on ... so cute! Caed thought it was very funny.

I decided to take Caed to the Museum of Natural Sciences last week to get out of the house and do something fun in the midst of the rain. With Caed's love for birds, he was right at home. While there weren't any real birds there, he still enjoyed pointing and looking at the stuffed ones. What a little enthusiast! The picture below is of Caed in a mock dinosaur footprint. He thought it was so neat to climb up into it and sit (not something he was suppose to do since there was a sign that read, "No climbing," just beside him.) In my mind, he was content and wasn't causing any damage, so it was fine by me :).

The next picture is of Caedmon and his favorite little, red friend -- Elmo. We're not sure how he came to like him so much ... he doesn't even watch TV for more than a minute or two at a time ... maybe it was the Elmo Manners book ... but either way, he's quite a fan. Grandma Helen and Grandpa got him the stuffed animal for Christmas and he's been sleeping with it ever since. One other thing to note about this picture is the excessive drool streaming from Caed's mouth. It seems like he's been teething for over a month now. Three canine teeth are coming in at once, but thankfully the pain hasn't been too terrible and Caed has been a great sport about it!

The last picture was taken after dinner one night when Brad thought it would be cute to have Caed try on his glasses. So cute! We have a similar picture from when he was 7 months old and another from about two weeks old ... my how he's grown!

Kangaroos & Blue Birds

If I haven't told you before now, Caed does quite a good kangaroo "jump" and is quite the bird enthusiast. Brad thinks he'll be the youngest member of the Audubon Society, thanks to GG's instruction. Take a look at the video and you'll see why!



If you're wondering about the kangaroo jump, it all started as we were reading Caed's Sesame Street alphabet book, and I was trying to explain what a kangaroo was. So, I showed him how it jumps and he seemed to think that was pretty fun. Now every time we talk about a kangaroo, he takes a big no-air-leap, thrusts his shoulders back, and laughs ... priceless!















I'll have to capture his hyena impression on video next ... it's great!

Visiting the Airport

My friend Erika had a great idea to go to the airport observation area today and let our boys watch the airplanes take off and land. It was a little chillier than we expected and the sun certainly didn't shine as bright as we had hoped, but we had a lot of fun ... and I'm sure the boys did too! We packed a lunch and enjoyed our morning/early afternoon with airplanes overhead and captivated little boys.

As soon as we arrived, Caed headed for the stairs of the observation deck, so that was our first stop. The wind was a bit brisk up there, but the boys got to see several planes take off and land right away. Caed has never been too interested in airplanes, but when face to face with them, he was quite intrigued. As each plane would begin to take off down the runway or come to a quick halt to land, he was pretty quick to stop what he was doing, look at the airplane and point. He does a good job at his beginning attempt to say airplane, and I'd like to give you an idea of what that sounds like, but putting it into letters right now would not due his attempt justice, so I'll just have to leave it at that .... Very cute, all the same! (Mason's word for airplane is pretty recognizable so hopefully Caed will catch on soon.)

The boys eventually made there way down the ramp and into the play area, where Mason immediately invited himself to play with another family's shovel and bucket set, and Caed attempted to climb the ladder to playground equipment that is much too advanced for him. Once he realized that he wasn't going to get too far with that attempt, he joined Mason in the sand and the boys carefully scooped sand into the bucket and actually played pretty nicely with the other little boys. They're growing up so quickly!

Our picnic lunch was pretty fun .... Mason ate in his stroller and Caed sat next to me on the picnic bench. For being one who enjoys walking around and eating, he did very well sitting next to me without a booster seat. (I just love it!) And we shared our lunch together ... thanks to Erika for making an extra sandwich for Caed! I made a complete lunch for both of us, in addition to the one that we were going to drop off for Brad, but Brad accidentally picked up our joint lunch instead of the one I made for him. We were left with 1 sandwich, a banana and a piece of pound cake. Brad on the other hand had his choice of a ham sandwich or PBJ cut up into 12 little pieces, a large bag of goldfish and thin slices of apple. But I guess that's better than the day that I had to give him Caed's lunch (intentionally) b/c we were out running errands and I realized that I forgot to make him lunch, so instead of heading back home to make him a lunch, I just dropped Caed's lunch off with him and put something different together for Caed later. (He was able to enjoy a PBJ, apple and alphabet cookies with his fellow staffers that day :).

I LOVE my new kitchen!

Ok, it seems weird to me that I'm writing a post specifically about my kitchen. It's obviously a room that I frequent a lot, but on most occasions I'm not sure it deserves to stand on a pedestal. I have done a decent amount of cooking in it since we moved in Christmas week, but I haven't had the chance to prep and cook a big meal in it or have a nice baking session in it ... until today.

Caed's been taking a good, solid 3-hour nap each afternoon, so it gives me a nice window to get quite a bit done around the house. Today, that means prepping for my first Beef Burgandy and baking my Grandma Courtney's Cut-Out cookies, heart-shaped for Valentine's Day. The really great thing about the kitchen, for baking especially, is the granite countertop! I have always struggled to keep the dough from sticking to my baking sheet or cutting board (maybe I should have always rolled the dough straight on the countertop, I don't know), but I tried it today and it worked like a charm. No sticking! Hooray! Hopefully, this milestone will encourage me to do more baking from here on out, but I suppose it's all about time and I can't say that I can sacrifice my daily 3-hour window for baking every day.

Now that I'm raving about my kitchen, I should probably mention that the size is also an important factor. When we originally had the plans drawn up for it, it didn't seem like it would be that big, but with the layout and experiencing the size in 'action' per say, it's definitely a great-sized kitchen and one that opens up many opportunities for our family to enjoy it together (Brad and I can cook together again and Caed can enjoy playing as I cook or clean), as well as invite others to enjoy it with us.

And can I also say that having a dishwasher is absolutely fantastic ... and an oven that heats to the appropriate temperature is also a huge plus!

I'm thrilled that the kitchen turned out the way that it did and I hope to use it to its fullest potential! I'm very grateful!

Long-Awaited Photos

Sorry that it's taken so long to post new photos. But, here they are ... enjoy!

THE 909 HOUSE BEFORE














THE 909 HOUSE NOW
(during our big snow a few weeks ago)














OUR BEDROOM VIEW OF DOWNTOWN
(sunrise)














CAED @ CHRISTMAS














JUST THE 3 OF US
(at my birthday celebration)

Home Sweet Home

Hello Blog, it's been about a month since I've seen you. Durng my absence, I am excited to announce that we have officially moved into our 909 House and that despite several hiccups along the way (clogged sewage pipe, which led to frozen pipes and no water), we are gradually settling in and making the 909 House our home. It's so wonderful to spread out these days and have more than 900 sq. ft. for the 4 of us (including the cat) to move around in. Aslan thorough enjoys his freedom, and is hopefully on the road to his 2010 weight-loss program (stairs and the like). Caedmon couldn't be doing better either ... he now has the space to play a lot more independently and move around and this has thankfully resulted in a new 3-hour nap time (he only took 1.5- to 2-hour naps before) and also to very pleasant night sleeps. You know your child is getting good rest when he wakes up happy instead of crying and enjoys time in the crib before he calls out "Ma, Ma." What a huge blessing! Brad and I also enjoy the house ... we still have a slew of projects to finish and begin as time goes on, but it's just nice to be in the house and enjoy the fruits of our labors over the past 2 years.

We still don't have Interest yet, so my ability to share news frequently isn't there yet, but once we do, I'll be sure to post pictures and the like.

It's Really Happening ...

We've been MIA on Hodgson Tales for a few weeks now, but we're back with good news! We're packing up our duplex as I write and we're planning to move into the 909 House tomorrow! (This is obviously dependent on the work that gets done today: Grouting the tile, final polyurethane coat on the floors, drywall patching and a final cleaning.) But everything is on schedule now, so we hope to bring back good news in a few days to let you know that we've successfully moved in! Or, whenever we have Internet again.

Please keep us in your prayers ... that we're able to get everything that needs to be done in good time and that the work crews that are in and out of the house will do the same. Pray for good weather tomorrow as we move.

Hope to bring good news on!