50 weeks old

Calvin really seemed to enjoy his first Christmas. In fact, he refused to take his morning nap five out of the past seven days.  I'm still trying most days, but if he sleeps in, then I don't even try.  The last two nights he's slept in quite a bit, so he's still getting his 14-15 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.  Now, don't anyone read this as he is sleeping through the night, that of course is not the case.  I've told him one more week and we're going to work on not doing night time feedings.  Once we return from celebrating Christmas with my family, night weaning is the goal.

It's been a pretty busy week overall for Calvin. He's really working on walking.  He learned to stand up on his own unassisted from the ground.  He's done it a handful of times, but tries it a lot!  He took a series of 8-10 steps and keeps trying to take more.

Such a happy little guy. 

49 weeks old

This week could be titled..."anything can be a walker."  Calvin spent this week turning anything and everything in the house into something he could walk behind.  This included (but was not limited to): exercise ball, laundry basket, music table, tackling dummy, tubs of toys, kitchen chairs, and the list goes on and on.  He will often turn away from whatever he is using and attempt to walk to us, but he mostly takes one step and leans really far and falls over.  He's got a great attitude about it and gets up and tries again.

Calvin's got a top tooth coming through.  It looks so big!  It's barely broken through the gums and he's handling it pretty well.  Hopefully it doesn't cause him too much discomfort as we travel for Christmas.  We celebrated as a family yesterday and Calvin loved the boxes, wrapping paper, and the prime rib!

Loves his new car

Pretty excited about big brother's Legos.  Doesn't realize this means he's officially banned from his brother's room. 

48 weeks old

At 11 months old, here is what Calvin is up to:
- saying Mom and Dad!  Love hearing that sweet little sound.  Oh wait, not such a sweet little sound as he only yells it at us!  He's trying out some other words too and Caleb is a little upset that he hasn't said "Caleb" yet.
- cruising along furniture.  He's taken one step without holding on, but he's too scared to do more.
- climbing over everything.  He loves it when the couch cushions are on the floor so he can climb up and down over and over.  He also really likes to climb over the top of us, or up the stairs, or the ladder in his brother's room, or really anything.  I caught him in the dishwasher on Thursday.
-  trying some almond milk in his sippy cup with meals.  He's been a master at the straw cup for quite a while, but has taken to blowing bubbles and spitting it out, so we're trying out a sippy.  He's hysterical to watch as he tilts his head almost too far, but he's getting the hang of it.


Likes:
- his brother's toys
- pulling all the books off the shelf
- taking baths, or playing in water wherever he can find it



Dislikes:
- having his nose wiped
- holding still to get dressed
- getting wiped up after a meal

Working hard to get the sticker off

Investigating the sticker

Not a fan of Santa

Hanging out with Pops

Happy boy at supper

46 & 47 weeks old

Just as we suspected, Calvin thoroughly enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!  He loved all the food.  If I had to say a favorite, I would say turkey and dressing.  He slept pretty good while we were gone and loved playing with his cousin Sarah.  Calvin is a big fan of babies, especially ones he can get to so quickly!  We are trying to teach him how to touch gently and not pull hair.

Along the food lines, he is still a good eater, but we're having to be a bit sneakier with his plate.  For example, if he can see there is fruit to be had, he will whine for it and throw his other food around.  If he can't see the fruit, he will happily eat the food in front of him.  We've also started letting him drink some almond milk with dinner.

Sleep...we're getting there.  He's still up more than once a night most nights, but will go back to bed pretty quickly without nursing most of the time.  I do still nurse him once in the night.  And he's made good progress sleeping later!  This had led to a few days with only one nap, but thankfully on those days it's a pretty long nap.  A couple of days he even slept until almost 8 AM.  

He's discovered the Christmas tree, but is really doing a nice job of leaving it alone.  We even have presents under it that he hasn't touched!  Hope he will keep that up. 

He's getting steadier on his feet and can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time.  He has some interest in trying to walk, but he's pretty fast at crawling, so he's not in too big of a hurry to give up crawling.

Touch past couple of weeks for spills, tumbles, and bumps.  Calvin dove head first into an empty bath tub twice this past week.  Fortunately he wasn't hurt at all either time.  Maybe he's part cat as he landed on all fours both time.  He also fell and bit into his top lip twice this week, and if that wasn't enough blood, he got smacked in the face with a fire truck and got a bloody nose!  He's pretty tough and a few minutes of snuggling was all he needed to calm down and be able to play again.

Excited to be all bundled up!

Brothers! 

Playing with Sarah

Not too excited to be outside all bundled up!

Playing with Liz

Tried some outside pictures for the Christmas card.  Didn't work out too well since he was so distracted by the snow.