Calvin Tyler: September 2015

Busy, busy at our house again. These blog posts are taking back seat to grand-opening! In my defense, I did actually have a post drafted for week 36, but the pictures I wanted are on Travis' computer and I've been in bed before he's gotten home every night except two for the past three weeks...soon, I'll get up baptism pics.

Here is what Calvin is up to:
- A new tooth -- he has his second one on the bottom and it was not accompanied by the rash, so next week we will try corn again.

- A cold -- poor little boy was so stuffed up. He wanted to sleep well, but couldn't breathe with his pacifier in, so he was up a lot...like the longest he slept for seven days was three hours in a row. Couldn't this have waited until Mom and Dad weren't running around like crazy opening a new store? Oh well, he was at least napping like a champ (4-5 hours a day), so he wasn't crabby.

- pulling up -- we're convinced Calvin is going to be our "wild child." And true to that, he decided the best place to pull up for the first time would be the bath tub! He did it once in there and since has done it a couple of times in the living room. He doesn't have a lot of things that are the perfect height for him, but now that he's figuring out, I'm sure he'll try other objects! Caleb used our coffee table, but that has long since been moved out of the living room.

- He's sure getting faster at crawling and has even started to crawl around the yard. He prefers to be on his blanket when outside, but will do it some. He will crawl from the living room to come find us if we are in a different room. He's not very quiet and often giggles as he heads for Caleb's room.

- He hasn't started cruising around yet, in fact he doesn't move his legs at all and more of just leans and stretches if he wants to get to something else when standing.

- Playing peek-a-boo. I've never seen a baby love to play this so much! If he's upset in the car, I hand him a blanket and he starts it up and giggles come quickly.

And look, he can even reach in and grab the toys!

So proud of himself! He pulled up all by himself.

Loves wrapping paper!

Such a happy guy.

Absolute favorite toy right now

His shirt says "my mom's cool." Wonder if he'll feel that way in 13 years...

World's best teether!

Sad his big brother shut the gate in his face.

I'll try to post the actual baptism pictures next week...if I ever get to see Travis again! Or maybe I'll make him leave his computer behind if he has to head to the store after dinner.

Busy month in our house...trying the best to keep up on the posts, but fell a bit behind. Oh well!

I really try not to be one of "those moms." You know, the ones who obsess about their kids sleep habits and nap times, but lets face it, sleep of the youngest person in the family can determine the mood of the entire family. And let me tell you, the mood of our family this week, was excellent! Moving to two naps has been wonderful for all. Somehow Calvin is sleeping more during the day with two naps than with three. His morning nap has increase to 1-1.5 hours and his afternoon nap is pushing 2.5-3 hours. His nights are about the same as before...I've given him the six week warning before we address that. Bed between 7-8 depending on how tired he seems, up once in the night (somewhere between 1-4), up once early morning (5:30-6:30), and up for the day between 6:45-7:30.

It was a big week in Calvin's mouth this week as he got his first tooth! He hadn't been showing really any signs of teething and I just assumed it was a ways away still (Caleb was 11 months before his first). Wednesday night at swim lessons I put my finger in his mouth and got poked by a sharp tooth! He then got a bit feverish and you could tell he didn't feel the best. He slept pretty good, just needed a little bit more help getting to sleep.

Unfortunately, it appears we are heading down the allergy road again. This past Wednesday around 3:00 I changed his diaper and noticed his belly and legs were covered in a rash. It quickly spread to his entire body. I began to get nervous and started thinking of any new foods and corn was the only new one. He had it for the first time Tuesday night. Travis put the kids to bed that night while I was at book club and I remembered him saying Calvin threw up, but I didn't think too much of it. Well he had the corn Tuesday for dinner and again Wednesday for lunch. The rash faded a bit Wednesday and then darkened Thursday. By Friday morning looked really, really bad, so I took him to the clinic. They said yes, definitely an allergic reaction, and probably to the corn if that was the only new thing. He's on Claritin and a cream to help with the itching. In two-three weeks we will try corn again to see if the same thing happens.

Calvin is still mostly army crawling, although he does get his knees under him sometimes. He's getting stronger and willing to go longer distances. He still does use rolling to get around too. He's made it back to sitting once, so we went ahead and lowered his crib down this weekend. He's not pulling up yet, but we still had it up on the highest level!

He's also eight months old! Some of his favorite things include:
- eating -- eats anything and everything! Unfortunately it doesn't appear he has the same 6th sense as Caleb about eating foods he's allergic to. He especially loves to eat things he can feed himself. Peas have been a big hit lately.
- playing with Caleb's toys! Caleb is learning that some things have to be kept up, but he's also learning he has to share with his brother.
- bath time -- he splashes around and flips over to his belly and kicks all over. He does a pretty good job of keeping his head up, but still freaks me out a little!
- balls -- he loves to sit up and hit a ball over and over again. He's especially fond of a beach ball and spends a lot of time playing with that when we are outside.
- being outside -- this little guy is in for a rude awakening shortly when we can't be outside as much.