Catching up with Caden

This post is just going to be a random collection of pictures and videos of Caden that were taken or recorded in the last few months. Enjoy.

 Yes. I know I'm adorable.

 Okay. Bye now.

All-purpose energy dance.

 I can fit a whole car in my mouth. Can you fit a whole car in your mouth?

We take our puddle slapping seriously in this household.

I'm studying!

Went to the local library for story time and found a dinosaur instead. 

That doesn't happen every day.

I'm just trying on my new shoes.

You had to take a picture of this?

 This is not Caden. This is a firefly.
Just sayin'.

 Rearranging the tupperware for mommy.

If he pays the phone bill he can talk as long as he wants.

 Wow, how did those socks get there?

 Are the mysterious socks amusing or concerning?

 Mom, look! Socks!

 These socks are awesome. 

I wonder if anyone else knows how awesome socks are?

Mom, I would like to wear one of my new shoes, but just the right one. And I want to wear it right now! NOT THE LEFT ONE! If you try to put the left one on I'll pitch a fit. 

I'm sorry you don't understand, mom, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Rest in Pieces

Well, I said I would explain Caden's ability to wreak havoc, didn't I? Gather 'round children and I will tell you a very sad tale.

Once upon a time there was a collection of four very special tea mugs. They were taller than average mugs, and could hold quite a lot of good hot tea in them. Two of the tea mugs were dark in hue, with a visage of the noble moose painted upon their side. The other pair were in the pleasant shape of men of snow, smiling, with little blue scarves drawn around their frosty necks.

These mugs were much beloved and often used by the husband and wife who owned them, and had owned them for nearly ten years. The good wife treated the mugs properly, and washed them with care whenever they needed it. The mugs in return, kept the the tea in their ceramic bellies nice and hot for the loving couple. These poor innocents never supposed that one day this happy arrangement might come to an untimely end.

Then one day disaster struck! The child of the husband and wife, who was curious and precocial in nature, was wandering at liberty in the kitchen when he saw the corner of a brightly colored dish towel draped over the edge of the counter. Upon that towel were three of the four mugs together with a drinking glass, newly washed and drying at their leisure. Up went the child's little hand and his clever fingers tightly pinched the corner of that colorful dish towel. Down came the towel and down came the mugs! One moose mug, seeing that the end was nigh as it flew off the counter top, took it upon itself to seek some small bit of revenge upon the child, and bonked him upon his little nose before plummeting to the floor; the rest were too surprised at having both the literal and figurative rug suddenly pulled out from beneath them, and simply fell like lemmings off the cliff.

The child was shocked and frightened for approximately five seconds, but quickly overcame these unpleasant emotions when, with fascination, he was, from the safety of the highchair that he had been immediately exiled to, able to watch Mommy both sweep and vacuum the kitchen in rapid order.

The moral of this story? Life happens.

Rest in pieces, my sweet little tea mugs.

Caden's First Birthday

This post is more of a filler at the moment. My computer ate the pictures I took of Caden's birthday. Fortunately, there's another copy of those birthday pics. I just have to find a way to get them.

Christmas Letter 2012 (i.e. the lazy way to catch up)

We sure have had some big years lately, but this one tops them all! We’ve been blessed in so many ways that it will be hard to fit it all into one Christmas letter. Fortunately, though, it’s quite easy to know where to start: 10:46 pm on March 19^th. 

 

That’s when our son, Caden Allen Long, was born. He was 7 lbs., 13 oz. and 19 ½ inches long—just a little tyke!  

 From that moment he has filled our lives with excitement and wonder. It’s amazing to watch him develop his abilities and his curiosity about the world around him. And he’s already seen so much of that world, too. We have taken him with us to Oregon, northern Idaho, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Washington DC. 

In a car or a plane he is a great little traveler, and recently, at eight and a half months, he started crawling all over the house, so he’s doing some traveling of his own now, too!

Sadly, we spent our last summer at the Starkey Experimental Forest outside of La Grande, Oregon this year. It was the final field season of Ryan’s Ph.D. project, and what a great field season it was. Having the baby with us made our little cabin a much more attractive vacation destination, and nearly all of our family visited at some point. As a bonus, Ryan’s dad got to help capture several elk calves during his visit, and Kathleen’s Aunt and Uncle were able to visit from Mississippi. 

 Baby Saw-whet Owl

In addition to all the cool stuff we always get to see and experience there, we also had a few extras this year: a fledgling northern saw-whet owl, a goshawk, and a mountain lion. Unfortunately, the mountain lion was the only thing we weren’t able to get a picture of.   

 

All in all though, it was another very successful (Ryan was able to radio-collar 19 more elk calves) and enjoyable summer in the Blue Mountains with our new little boy. We’re going to miss it there. 

That said, our next big adventure is now before us, and although it’s still a bit surreal, we’re extremely excited about it! The question of what comes next for us when Ryan finishes his Ph.D. this spring was answered in the early fall, when Ryan accepted a 3-year position as a post-doctoral research scientist at Princeton University. A post-doc position like this is the final career step prior to a full-time faculty job, and this particular position is better than anything we could have hoped for. During our time there Ryan will be fulfilling a life-long dream by taking the lead on a major large mammal research project in Africa! So, early next summer the three of us will be moving to the east coast, and then for 6 months each in 2014 and 2015 we’ll be living at a research station in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique (www.gorongosa.org/), where Ryan will be conducting research on several species of African antelope. It’s destined to be an experience we’ll never forget, and we’re both very grateful to have been blessed with such an amazing opportunity.  

The 2012 hunting season was also one for the record books, and included a couple of unprecedented accomplishments. 

 

First, Ryan and his dad both shot elk with their bows for the first time ever (a beautiful 6-point for Ryan and a really nice 5-point for his dad), so we have another year’s supply of lean healthy meat in the freezer. 

Second, Ryan also shot a small blacktail buck with his dad during Oregon’s late archery season, making it the first time he’s ever killed a deer and an elk in the same year. So, we’ve been blessed with more than enough meat this year to feed ourselves and share with others, which we’re extremely thankful for.  

Well, I think that’s about it. It has been a good year and God has blessed us very much! We hope you truly enjoy the holidays, and have a very happy New Year!

(Yes I realize I'm posting a Christmas Letter in April, but I've got a one-year-old to deal with. Take what you can get.)

Reno, Nevada

We were in Reno last week for the annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists, which was held this year in the Peppermill Hotel and Casino. It was very opulent, very flashy, and very full of cigarette smoke. Every time we went past the casino floor I told Caden to hold his breath while I practically jogged the distance as fast as I could. This is the first time ASM has held its meeting somewhere other than a college campus, and we’re not too sure how we feel about that. The meeting went well, though. At the final banquet and awards ceremony Ryan won some little something-or-other that put large mammal biologists on the ASM map and made his name known to all who attended, but the exciting event of the week was that Caden met a girl.

 

Our good friends Kevin and Sheila attended the meeting as well and brought along their daughter, Sierra, who is only two days older than Caden. He was a little shy at first since he’s never met a girl his own age before, but like any true son of a scientist he decided to educate himself and read up on the subject (with a little help from Dad).

 

He discovered that girls are found under “G” in the alphabet, and that they like things called “compliments.”

  

Talking to Sierra was so much easier than he had thought it would be. After all, they have so much in common: Tummy time, sitting on pillows, an obsession for fresh milk, lying on quilts and staring at Mom, lying on quilts and taking a nap (after fighting sleep for an hour), brightly colored books, talking in vowels only, etc.

 

Their fathers could see that the relationship was serious right from the start and had a little chat with them about it.

Kevin was very concerned about his daughter dating anyone before she turned 31, but since all their outings around Reno would be chaperoned by the moms (they would be in separate strollers, of course), he decided to allow it… for now. I was happy for them, but I think the attention of a girl may have gone to Caden’s head.

 

I might have to have a chat with that boy.

First Laugh

I would have posted this sooner but the internet is difficult to get to out in the field.

Caden had his first real laugh on June 3, which would make him 12 weeks old if I've counted correctly. The first laugh was such a shock. Then he did it again and I realized what it was. I just managed to catch the third and final laugh on video and I am so glad I did because he didn't laugh again all day.

He didn't laugh again but he sure did talk my ear off. He has a lot of serious opinions for a 3-month old. :)

Starkey Babies

Spring is here and we're seeing babies everywhere. First and foremost is our own little Caden, who turned two months old yesterday. They grow up so fast. :)

He reached a few developmental milestones in the last few weeks.

 He learned how to smile.

 He learned how to pose for a picture. Every parent's dream come true! I think he held this smile for ten whole seconds while I got the camera ready.

 This face is nothing new. He's been making it since birth, but I love it so I went ahead and uploaded it. :)

 And lastly, he learned that he has hands and that those hands are sooooo tasty! He's still not very coordinated, and actually getting them to his mouth when he wants to chew on them is quite an amusing process. Actually, it's only amusing for us. He gets so frustrated when he wants nothing more than to shove that fist into his mouth and he can't quite seem to make it work. Sometimes his face will turn one direction and his hand will go in the other, and sometimes he whacks himself in the face, which is a big part of the amusement for us. We parents are so mean. ;)

The other babies that we've been seeing are the kind that you might expect to find out at Starkey. They're of the furred and feathered variety. Here are two of the three little (Little? These guys are 20 - 30 pounds at birth!) elk calves that Ryan has found so far. His summer work is going well and we hope that he'll be able to collar many more of these buggers.

I guess at some point we all fall prey to the desire to save a baby animal. Ryan found this little owl on the road and brought him back to the cabin. After making a phone call to ODFW we learned that these little guys--either the young of a great gray or a great horned owl--often fall out of the nest before they can fend for themselves and that the parents take care of them anyway. So Ryan trekked back to the northern part of the forest and left little Herman (I named him Herman) in a tree close to where he found him. We hope he's still doing well and look forward to seeing him swoop around the forest someday after mice and juvenile ground squirrels.

 You know how the old saying goes: A bird in the hand...

is worth one in the hat?

 

 Too cute!

One Month Old

Caden is now one month old. Actually, he's a month and two weeks old, but he's still in the one-month time frame, so we're good. He has grown so much in his first four weeks! It's been amazing to watch him develop an interest in his surroundings. He's also started to notice us, which is thrilling!

Here are some of the exciting things that happened around the one month mark.

He tried on his very first cloth diaper. It didn't fit too well at that point but he's big enough to wear them now.

He discovered a love of modern art...kind of. 

 Note the intense level of concentration

 He had his first bath.

Then he recovered from his first bath.

There's a fluffy white towel folded up beneath him in the tub photo. It's the exact same color as the tub, unfortunately, so you can't see it too well. (In case anyone thought I just set him on the floor of the tub.)

Last, but not least, we were fortunate enough to have our first family photos taken by our good friends Chris and Jeannette. They did such a fantastic job! In addition to the pictures they took, they put together a wonderful surprise for us: a musical slideshow that was so sweet it had us both in tears!

First Baby Pictures

Caden Allen Long

Born on March 19, 2012

Weighed 7lbs. and 13oz.

19.5 inches long

 Sleepy boy. It's hard work being born.

First hiccups!

 Dad changing a diaper.

 First stroller ride.

Nap time.