Funny boy!

Well, I am headed to Denver in the morning. I am going to a trade show, some client visits and a client lunch. I am back late on Thursday. Friday I have a client visit and then a walk through at our new house. We get the keys on Sunday! Yippee!

Caden has a towel that is a lion and I can never get a picture of him in it. last week I was able to.

Caden decided to put his easter basket on his head. Kind of funny.

Easter 2008

Easter was a family occasioin (last year it was just us in Phoenix). We woke up and gave Caden his basket. He didn't really understand what the basket with toys was, but he liked it. After that, we headed over to my sister's house for an egg hunt and brunch. I hid the plastic eggs filled with fish crackers and teddy grahams in the yard. My version of hiding the eggs is tossing the plastic eggs in the yard all over. My brother in law, Matt, hid the hardboiled eggs. some were in the fencepost. Caden wasn't too tough to beat. Charlie was really excited about the eggs. He ran all over the yard saying egg... hunt.. charlie... find... Pretty funny to hear how the mind of a 2 year old works.

After the hunt was over, we went inside. It actually started to snow!
Here is a picture of the Anda ladies and our offspring. My mom really wanted a picture of her grandkids, but there was no way we were going to get Caden and Charlie to sit with my mom and Annie, and get a picture. So Jeannette and I obligued.
Caden got a life jacket in his easter basket too. He is ready for a trip to deer lake, orcas and possibly a boat ride this summer with Granpa Rick. WE will see when we get there.

This video is of Caden with his new singing duck for easter. I don't know if I got it, but he will dance and bob along with the duck.

Packing

Well, the fun has begun. We started packing last weekend. Caden is not much help... Big surprise. So our packing consists of naptime and one of us holding him and directing and the other one packing. Lots of fun. Caden is wearing his pawsox shirt. He got it at the minor league baseball game last summer in Pawtuckett.

This is a video of him climbing (actually descending) the stairs. He prefers to go head first, but we have been working with him to go feet first on his belly.

St Patrick's day parade

We wanted to expose Caden to a parade, as well as his heritage. What better way than to go to the St Patrick's day parade. It was a chilly day, so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but we got the idea.

We saw some bagpipers - which apparently is a scottish thing, not irish. ( Caden's great grandpa used to play the "pipes".)
Saw a fire truck too. They had to detour and didn't go directly in front of us.
this is about when we left, when Caden got beads. He didn't have to flash anything to get them, just a smile.

On the way home, disaster struck. Caden had a blowout. There was poo everywhere. He went to the bath and then bed. Oh boy!

He falls and then gets back up

So this isn't really anything exciting, but you can see him walking. He likes to walk around with his juice in his mouth. (bad mom) You can also hear him grunt a little bit. He is one active boy!

A typical evening in the townhouse

A typical evening in the town house is pretty entertaining if you are a toddler. When we get home from daycare, usually around 6pm, we have dinner. After that, is when the fun begins. Dinner consists of milk and protein. Caden doesn't like veggies, so those usually get thrown somewhere. Once he is free, he starts to explore. This week's discovery is the cupboard. He has figured out how to open it, and take things out. My mom was on to him, so she removed all the glass items. All that is in there are pots and pans and rubbermaid/gladware.

Tonight he sat on the floor and looked at me and cried. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong. So I made him some juice. He was thirsty.

After all this fun, it's bathtime, then straight to bed. Oh yeah, after the bath, I have to get him in his jammies. It's tough to do when he wants to be chased.

Learning to eat is fun!

Well, this is what Caden looks like after feeding himself some spaghetti. A big mess! This was after we got back from the Tri-cities during the missing key episode.

I wasn't home for this, but he was all clean when I got home. Justin showed me these pictures. He even got it on his forehead and eyebrows. that is great! Being a kid is fun!

Annie Jane Ring is here!

I am an aunt for a second time now! Jeannette had her little baby girl this morning (around 8:30am). Her name is Annie Jane. She is 7 pounds 1 ounce. Mom and Baby are doing well. Matt got to cut the cord.

I figured this is the best way to get the info out to everyone who checks the blogs.

According to Jeannette, this birth experience was much different from Charlie. she is getting less pain medication, and Annie has stayed with them the whole time. Matt even gave her the 1st bath. When Charlie met Annie, he said "no". But when Jeannette gave Charlie his present from Annie, he said thanks. I guess Charlie spilled some water on his pants, so he was pants free for most of the pictures. I guess that is payback for when Jeannette and I were little and they brought home Pete, we were in our underoos. There are some great pictures of that too.

Tri Cities visit

Today we went to Pasco! We took a road trip to visit my brother Pete and wife Vanessa. It was so nice to see them, and they graciously accepted us, kids and all, for the afternoon. We called my sister before we left, and she is ill, so we took Charlie (her son) too! She let us use the minivan so we could all fit in style. I drove, my mom sat next to Charlie, and Justin & Caden were in the way back. It was similar to our trip last year, but instead of Charlie grunting for most of the trip, Caden hollered. He did not want to be confined in his carseat for 2 hours. (I don't know what will happen in June when we head to Seattle for the cruise!) I don't have any pics of the visit, I forgot my camera. We did go to the park for a little visit before we hit the road again. The Richland park has some great swing sets and play equipment. Caden really had fun on the swing and the slide. He figured out he likes to go head first down the slide. The bad part of our trip is that Justin lost his car keys. Wouldn't be so bad if we had a spare key to his car.... but we don't have one. He will be making some calls to Nissan tomorrow to get a key. Until then, he can take me to work, and luckily my mom is here, she will pick me up. Never a dull moment with the Finnegans. His keys could be anywhere! So far we have searched, but found nothing. Off to bed now, daylight savings is messing me up.

Caden loves pudding

This is a movie from last week. My mom made pudding and we let Caden feed himself. As you can see, he is working on using the utensils. He really just prefers to shove his fist in his mouth with the food. After we turned this off, the bowl went on his head. Sorry for the Hilary Clinton in the background. It's election season and she happened to be on during dinner.

We fed him Pizza tonight. He didn't really like it. He picked up the bites and threw them on the ground. It usually takes him a few tries before he wants to eat something.

Finnegan family update

Well, things are moving along with our new house. We made an offer that was accepted. We had the home inspection this last friday. Things are looking good. We made a request for them to fix the vents in the bathroom and the kitchen. We will see what the response is. The sellers have found a house and are closing on that house 3/28. That means that we will move our closing date up to 4/4. That means, we will be painting that weekend and plan to move the following weekend. Fingers crossed that plan will work.

Caden is a walker! He is now doing way more walking than crawling. My mom watched him this weekend so Justin and I could go to Seattle for Anne's bridal shower. She said that he has turned the corner and is becoming a walker. I let daycare know again yesterday, and then we had Caden demonstrate his walking skills for the director. She says he should start transitioning to the toddler room this week. Yippee!

Well, I am headed to the Melting Pot grand opening event. That's right, Spokane is getting it's own melting pot. Fondue restaurants are a hip thing, and Spokane is hip! Now all we need is a crate and barrel and Ikea.

Speaking of Ikea, we stopped there on Saturday. What a place! We stocked up on some essesntials for the new house.

We are ready, now we just need to move.

Pictures will be posted later tonight.