sniderkin

In the next week and a half Cavan will turn 10 months old! I can’t believe how fast time is flying by, and how fast he’s growing. To answer Auntie Jen’s question - we’re not officially saying he’s talking yet, though he does say “mama” when he’s upset and crawling toward me. We’ve been trying to figure out if he’s actually saying mama because it gets me to come, or because it’s just some syllables he likes to put together. He doesn’t use it in his general chatter though, language is such a tricky thing!

Cavan stands pretty well now, he can hold his balance for a full minute before he sits down. He also prefers to walk around (but he can’t do this on his own yet, he needs our fingers for balance.) If there’s a table, wall, or anything else he can hold onto he likes to stand and walk along it.

A few of Cavan’s favorite activities are:
Riding in the laundry basket as Mommy pushes it around the apartment.
Driving potatoes on the kitchen floor as Mommy cooks.
Emptying out the cabinets as Mommy tries to cook/clean in the kitchen.
Unraveling Mommy’s ball of yarn that she’s using to make Cavan a scarf.
Holding onto the back of Mommy’s jeans as she tries to walk around. Nowadays, I feel like I’m always the lead in a konga line, except with more drool.

Cavan is also really into textures and noises. He loves to poke at things with interesting textures and one of his current favorite books is “feely bugs,” a book of texturized bugs. Anything he can bang around is also a favorite. We were walking in the pedway (underground sidewalks) a few weeks ago and Cavan decided it was absolutely hilarious to yell and make monster noises all the way through it. I’m not sure other people found it as amusing as he did…

For his first Thanksgiving, Cavan tried some ham, green bean casserole, and candied yams. Not surprisingly, he loved the candied yams and mini marshmallows. That’s the most sugar we’ve ever let him have, and now we think he’s pretty well convinced himself that everything we eat tastes better than what he eats.

Yesterday we were walking down Michigan Avenue and there was a street band playing. There was a guy rocking out the clarinet, a guitar player, and a couple drummers. Cavan absolutely loved them. As we were walking away he was trying to see around Daddy to keep watching them. The boy really is a fan of music! When his favorite show comes on (Jack’s Big Music Show) he sits and smiles and claps along with it and dances if he’s standing, that’s pretty much the only thing that will get him to hold still for any amount of time.

I’m sure there’s more I’ll add later, but for now that’s all I can think of!

Last week Shannon met Cavan and I after he got off work. We went to Gymboree and took some pictures during the open play time. Cavan was a little tired, which I think is reflected in his pictures, but he was still quite happy to play!

Down the slide!

I spotted a new friend!

Mommy, what are you doing in there?!

I’m coming to get you!

These balls are so much fun!

I like to bang them on things!

See Daddy, isn’t this fun?

What Mommy? I’m busy playing!

Here’s the plan: you teeter, I’ll totter.

This was fun, lets do it again!

As promised, here are some pictures of Cavan and his pumpkin! The coloring is a bit off, but getting them up is enough of a struggle without having to correct them too! As I type this he is hanging on my leg…

What a marvelous new toy!

What’s this thing on top?

I shall taste it and see…

Mommy cut a hole in my new toy!

and all these slimy little things spilled out…

They feel funny between my fingers!

What Daddy? I’m just playing…

Squish! Squish! Squish!

Let’s see how they taste…

No Mommy, it’s mine! Find your own!

Dangit woman, you always ruin my fun…

Cavan is now officially 9 months old, where did the time go?! He has 3 teeth on the bottom with 1 cutting through, 1 on the top, and the second top one just cut through. One of his teeth seems to be bothering him, but we’ve been giving him teething pellets and those seem to help him a lot. His latest entertainment is growling his way around, he’s been making a deep throat noise and kind of going “rawr rawr” all over the place. He also bounces to music now, stands up on his own (still needs to hold something for balance though he does let go often and can manage to balance for a minute before he falls). If we let him hold our fingers he walks all around and thinks that it’s great fun. He eats pretty much everything now, and insists on trying whatever we’re eating. He loves fruit leather (the 100% compressed fruit roll ups you can buy at health food stores), maple teddy bear puffs (they taste best off the floor), toast and jam, and bananas.

I have some pictures of pumpkin carving that I’ll try to put up soon. Also, we should be taking some pictures of him in Gymboree tonight so I’ll try to get those up as well.

The weather here has been getting really cold and windy. I ordered a sleeping bag type thing to go over his stroller (I hope it fits), but I still haven’t found a wind-blocker that will fit.

Cavan’s great-grandma was in town so he got to chase her dog around. He really loves dogs so having one in the apartment with him was a super-bonus! However, I don’t think the dog appreciated it nearly as much as Cavan did.

Cavan got to pet a horse last week. There are carriages that give rides all around and we stopped to look at one of the horses. This horse in particular was very interested in Cavan (or in trying to find cheerios in Cavan’s stroller as her driver told us). Cavan thought it was pretty funny to have a horse sniffing him, and he got to pet her nose. And, for the record, I don’t think the poor horse found even one cheerio - Cavan’s pretty good at hoovering them up!