Seventeen months old

Well...I guess I forgot to add pictures and publish this, so here is 17 months.  18 months and pictures to come tomorrow...


Calvin has been up to a lot of fun this month.  He's finally, completely made the transition to one nap and is taking a nice long early afternoon nap each day.  He's been tortured by his molars and has had quite a few crabby days, but no teeth popping through yet.  He got to go back to the dentist this month for some bruising on his gums which was either caused by another fall, or the new teeth coming through.  That could be contributing to his mouth pain as well.  Fortunately for him (and us), he's sleeping great.  The pain doesn't seem to bother him once he gets to sleep.  We bought an amber teething necklace to see if that would help provide any relief, but no such luck.  He won't wear it at all. We've tried on his neck, wrist, and ankle, and he just pulls on it until we take it off.

He's trying a few more words, but for the most part, communicates using a series of uh-ha's.  He will say: mom, dad, go, all done, night-night, and that's about it.  Hoping a few more words come along soon.

He's a rockstar on his scooter.  He made it to the block behind us before his legs got too tired!

He's undecided about swimming and playing in water.  He likes to play and splash, but doesn't like his clothes to be wet and doesn't like the cold water.  The actual pool he had a lot of fun sitting on the edge, but quickly got out when I put him in.  The pool in the back yard (much warmer), he did get in for a while after Caleb and his friend were out and the splashing was done.  For the most part, he stands on the side and scoops cups of water...and drinks it!

Calvin tasted his first worm this month.  I really wish I was kidding.  He found a worm outside and was carrying it around.  Well Caleb told him to eat the worm, so of course he did! He did spit it out before eating it though.

Books are still a huge interest.  He won't sit that well for Caleb's books, but he will read multiple board books in a row.  Hopefully at some point the two of them will enjoy the same books, but if nothing else they are learning to share and take turns.

Sixteen months old

Racing their cars

Loves to climb

Found a new helmet at the garage sales.

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They were so excited to be able to hold hands in the car

Calvin's biggest interest this month has been books.  He will walk around the house holding a book until someone sits down and reads it to him on repeat for the next 10-15 minutes.  If you try to get a different book, he will whine and point to the one you've already read five times.  His favorites include: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," "Moo, Baa, La, La, La," and "8 Silly Monkeys."  He does like others, but these are the favorites.  He does not like it if Caleb takes the book and "reads" it to him instead.

We've finally had to completely ditch the morning nap, which is hard when he will stand by his crib signing please and saying "nigh-night."  The problem is that even if his morning nap is over by 9:30 and was only 40 minutes, he still will not take an afternoon nap and this led to some really crabby afternoons/evenings.  His afternoon nap is a pretty consistent 1.5-2 hours, so he's getting lots of good sleep.  For some reason taking away his morning nap has meant he's up earlier in the morning (6:15-6:30), so hopefully he goes back to his normal 7:00-7:30 wake up time.  We usually let the boys stay up a bit longer in the summer since it's so beautiful out, so I'd like to push bedtime back to 8:00ish again.  It has gotten closer to 7:30 this winter.

Calvin has gotten so good on the scooter that we've had to enforce a helmet wearing policy.  He not only rides the scooter, but he likes to show off and do tricks while riding it.  He was not happy about having to wear a helmet, but after 35 minutes of crying each time I told him no scooter without it, he finally gave in, got the helmet and rode it.  Hopefully he doesn't put up a fight each day over it.

And as a welcome to his 16th month of life, Calvin fell pretty hard today and chipped his tooth pretty good. He's got a bloody/fat lip and part of his tooth missing.  He seems totally fine, but we will have it looked at soon.

You can kind of see his chipped tooth here.

Fifteen months old

Well Calvin definitely kept us on our toes this month!   He's not letting his youngest child status get him overlooked. Here is what he's been up to this month
- stealth mode strep throat.  No fever, no weird behavior, just a disgusting rash that overtook his body very quickly.  He tried really hard to share this one with his brother, but somehow Caleb escaped.  They both got two new toothbrushes out of the deal since Calvin kept sneaking Caleb's into his mouth
- lots of new words.  He babbles all the time and most of it is not English, but he does say quite a few actual words (ok, maybe context is still needed to understand him, but these are the ones he's consistent with how they sound): ball, night-night, mom, dad, all done, bye, hi, book, more or milk (I can't really tell which he's saying, but he means he wants more milk)
- use of sing language!!!  He's signing more, please, and help.  Please is his favorite because he thinks he can use that to get whatever he wants.
- throwing random things into the hamper.  Last month, he would throw anything away that I told him wasn't food, well now that we lock the trash can, he's taken to throwing anything and everything in the hamper.  This month the list included: clean clothes as I was folding them, pistachio shells, Caleb's slippers, Caleb's snow boots, pistachio shells, bathtub toys, and I'm sure other things I can't remember
- climbing....he can now get only the kitchen chairs without any help.  I've found him up there finishing up Caleb's left over breakfast on more than one occasion.



Calvin's biggest interests each day revolve around his big brother.  He's always trying to do whatever big brother is doing...ride his scooter, play with his legos, climb into his loft bed, etc, etc.  He also really likes anything involving throwing a ball, reading, and is starting to show some interest in puzzles.  He likes to have a book in his bed and occasionally sits and looks at it before going to bed, but mostly he just lays down and goes right to sleep when put in his bed.

Such a goofy boy

Always has to do what his brother does. 

Eating the bread instead of feeding the ducks

Rash on his face

Rash on his arm

Getting pretty good on his bike

Fourteen months old

Not a lot of huge developments in Calvin's life, but here is what this past month brought:
- two more teeth - up to 8 total now
- attempting to run.  He's getting faster, but not as fast as he thinks he should be!
- jumping -- well he thinks he's jumping, but it's really more of a squat
- babbling, but not really any new words. He can say mama, dada, all done, and uh hu.  He refuses to do sign language and usually just kind of whines/points.
- he's completely weaned and somehow was super easy about this.  We were gone for four nights and he refused a bottle that entire time.  When I got back, I just didn't offer and he didn't ask.
- going to bed like he's the easiest baby in the world.  For naps and bed time, we read a couple of board books, turn out the light, and lay him in his bed with his pacifier.  He lays there and goes to sleep.  I'm scared to ever take away his pacifier since he's so easy with bedtime/nap time.  Maybe I'll work up the courage to try sometime in the near future, but probably not.  He leaves his pacifiers in bed, so what's the rush?
- started his first swim lessons.  He likes the water for the most part and we are not delusional enough to think he will actually learn to swim, but we felt bad for him sitting on the side watching big brother swim, so we signed him up for the parent and tot class.

Smiley boy

For about two days, he walked around with this on his head...no idea why. 

Loves the craft table.  He loves to craft and climb on the chairs!

Sometimes he can't get the food to his mouth last enough and he needs a fork and spoon!

Looks like such a big boy in his stroller now. 

He's pretty proud every time he gets into this chair. 

Loves his new bike!

Thirteen months old

So glad to be done doing the weekly posts!  Hoping I can keep the monthly ones up until he's two.  Boy oh boy do we have our hands full with this little daredevil now.  He's realized he can use the art table chairs to help him get into things.  We're working on not standing on them, and he's doing better, but not perfect.  He still stands on them some and I've caught him standing on the art table and using them to climb onto the kitchen table.  Other things Calvin's been up to this month include:
- preferring to walk over crawl.  He usually still walks with his hands by his face for balance, but crawling is done.  He even will walk with things in his hands now too.
- allergy testing.  He's allergic to peanut and egg, but not dairy like we thought.
- waving - it's a small little wave, but he's getting the hang of it
- sleeping through the night!!!!  Only took us 12.5 months with this kiddo, which is one month less than our previous record.
- cutting teething like crazy
- climbing, climbing, climbing.  His music table...sure.  Caleb's stool in the bathroom...absolutely.  The ladder to Caleb's bed...not even a challenge.
- Climbing up and down stairs. He's a pro going up the stairs but may give me a heart attack going down. He waits until the last possible second to turn around when going down them.  He does pretty well going down them on his belly, but refuses to back into them and instead gets himself sitting right at the top of them. He hasn't tumbled yet, but I also don't let him get near them alone!

His typical daily schedule goes like this:
7:00-7:30 - wake up, immediately eat breakfast
8:30 - nurse
9:30 - some type of outing/errands
10:00 - snack
11:30 - lunch
12:30 - nurse/nap
2:30 - wake up
3:00 - snack
4:30-5:00 - cup of milk/snack while I cook dinner
5:30 - dinner
7:30 - snack, nurse, bedtime

Do you see a trend....this kid eats all the time!  He easily eats as much as Caleb at every meal and snack, and often more.  I took the kiddos to the children's museum and ordered three meals (two kids portions and one adult).  We ate it all and no one was stuffed.  When the whole family goes out to eat, we can still get by with three meals because Caleb often picks from the adult part of the menu and between the three of our meals, Calvin has some of all and is happy.  I made stuffed chicken last week and made four chicken breasts thinking the boys and I would eat the leftovers for lunch.  There wasn't even half a chicken breast left over.   We're nursing about three times a day, unless I'm gone for one of them and then he usually skips it and refuses the bottle.  I'm feeling about ready to be done, or at least ready to just do before bed.  I hit a wall when Caleb was almost 15 months old and just couldn't do it another second and just quit that day.  I think that's going to be the case for Calvin soon too.  We made it over a year and I'm happy with that, so no guilt for me if I suddenly decide one day soon that it's been long enough.  I don't think he will starve!

All ready for the Super Bowl

Climbing...

Just a little drawing

So happy to grabbed the pencils

Teeth brushing time

First trip to the children's museum

Painting

All smiles!

One year old!

And just like that, our little baby boy is one years old!  Here is what he's up to:

Teeth - 4
Weight and Height -- official stats from dr. will be in on Friday
Clothing size - 12-18 month
Nightly sleep - 1-2 wake-ups usually.  He did sleep through the night once this past week, so hopefully that is in our future!
Consecutive steps taken -- 10, but usually only 3-4
Favorite toys -- ring stacker, farm, remote
Favorite activities -- bath time, wrestling with big bro, eating
Words: mom, dad, all done
Favorite food:  Eats about anything, but loves fruit!

We are just so in love with this little boy and love learning more about his personality each day.  He is a pretty content little guy and happily plays alone when he's in familiar situations.  He's always been pretty overwhelmed in large groups of people and his first defense was to sleep.  The holidays and his birthday showed us his new defense is to cling to Mom like crazy.  He's such a happy, goofy little guy and has lots of smiles to share.  He cheeses pretty good for the camera (and the ladies behind us at church).

If I remember correctly, year 1-2 was one of my favorite stages with Caleb, so I'm really looking forward to this year with Calvin.  I remember it being such a year of discovery and curiosity.  I am a little fearful as climbing began this week and this little guy appears to be a bit of a daredevil!!!

51 weeks old

Someone has actually been cuddly this week. 

Well try as we might, Calvin has no interest in getting any better at walking.  He hasn't really taken any more stars and seems to get annoyed when I try to get him to, so I'm just going to leave him alone for a bit.

Calvin enjoyed Christmas with my side of the family this week and had a blast playing with his cousin Sarah.  He's a big fan of babies and was really gentle to her.

Working on some more teeth this week.  We had to give him Motrin last night to help him sleep.  He is NOT a fan of Motrin, so it was quite the feet to get it in him, but he did finally take it. Oh and by some teeth, I'm counting 4-6 trying to come through!  The top two front teeth for sure, but I'm pretty sure all four up top and two more on the bottom...

At the zoo checking out the dragons