41 weeks old

Well, night time sleep is still not going well.  On the upside, we made some progress.  He will go to sleep pretty well most of the time on his own, and is still napping well.  Talk to us in a few years and hopefully we've slept more than a handful of hours in a row.

Some things Calvin's up to:
- taking his socks off all the time.  We still haven't ever successfully put shoes on him and I don't see it happening anytime soon.
- only using his pacifier at bed time.  With both kids, I've aimed for less pacifier use around six months and taking it away at awake time at nine months.  Calvin's mostly there.  I do let him keep it when he goes to the gym daycare as he's still not a huge fan of that and on longer car rides, but for the most part, it stays in the crib.  I don't even take it with us when running errands or going to play dates anymore.  Can't believe in about three months we will be trying to take it away completely!
- his first Pumpkin Palooza!   Liz and Calvin hung out with the moms while the dads and older kids played outside.  Not a lot of pumpkin carving took place, but we sure had a great time.
- eating, eating, eating.  We went out to dinner and he helped us finish all three meals we ordered, plus a pouch of baby food.  And I don't even want to discuss the things he eats that aren't food...leaves, wood chips, play dough, play foam, cardboard, paper, etc.  Or what about the way he chases the broom around looking for scraps or the way he crawls around the kitchen looking for scraps, or probably his worst habit...taking the tray off the Swiffer and foraging for food.  If I had to pick right now, I'd say apples are his favorite foods and grapes are his least favorite.  He won't even touch a grape.
- using the toilet to pull himself up.  It was easier to keep the bathroom door shut when only grown-ups and a baby lived here.  Oh and Travis may or may not have found him splashing in the toilet today!
- short baths.  He still loves the bath, but I can only make him sit back down so many times before he gets upset and just has to get out.  He thinks the tub is the perfect place to stand up.
- figuring out a straw cup.  I don't know how to get a baby to use a sippy cup.  Caleb struggled to tip it far enough to get anything and we are having the same struggle with Calvin.  But man does this little guy love to drink water with a straw cup!

Cute boy in blue jeans

Playing outside.  We are loving the nice weather well into October!

Big week ahead...Halloween!  Calvin is going as a monster, which is fitting because I refer to him as "monster man."

40 weeks old

Well this week can officially be known as "the week of no sleep."  Seriously, Calvin slept worse this week then when he was a newborn.  Beginning Wednesday he was up every 2 hours in the night...I take that back, he did sleep one three hour stretch.  The worst part was he didn't even know what he wanted. Usually when he wakes up, he wants to nurse and then lays back down and goes to sleep.  Now, it was anyone's guess what he wanted.  He didn't want to be rocked, he didn't want to lay down, it was unclear if teething tablets helped, he only needed a diaper change once, etc, etc.  I think the issue is he still can't figure out how to lay himself down from standing up.  He immediately pops up when laid down and then cries and cries, but gets super upset if we come lay him back down. He's never been a baby who liked to rock to sleep, so try as we might, he would fight that for an hour before finally just passing out in our arms.  Sunday night was better, so hopefully we are turning a corner on this.  I'm taking any and all suggestions on how to teach your child to lay back down.  He can't figure out how to sit down or lay down once he's standing up other than by falling over.

And I'm pretty certain I went 7 days without taking a picture of him!

Nine months old!

The best news from this week is it appears Calvin is not allergic to corn!!!  Who knows what the rash was caused by last time, but he's had corn three days this week and nothing.  Now that our little monkey man is nine months old, here is what he's up to:

- pulling up on everything
- climbing the stairs...I left him at the bottom of the stairs while I ran up to grab something.  I came back to find him on the third step.
- crawling all over (still army crawling)
- dancing - loves to dance along to music
- eating - man does this little guy love to eat!  If I had to pick a favorite food for him, I'd say apples.  Just take a couple of bites out of one and hand it to him and he will go to town on it.
- babbling and making noise.  He has a very, very loud babble and it's often hard to tell if he's happy or sad when he's babbling.
- thinking about cruising along the furniture.  He will move a couple of steps and then forgets to move his feet and just leans for whatever he's trying to get to.
- standing up in his crib all the time which is leading to some rough nights of sleep.  I'm convinced he does it in his sleep and then wakes up mad that he's standing up.
- finally made the move to his convertible car seat.  He's still rear facing, but seems to love the extra room.

Showing off crawling on his knees. 

Ha ha Mom, I'm not going to let taking my picture be easy

Just a boy and a bowl of apples. 

Loves his new seat!

Cozy shirts for a fall morning. 

Baptism pics

As promised, here are some pictures from Calvin's baptism.  Hopefully our kids realize how loved they are!

 

Week 38

This week Calvin decided baby food is for babies, and he is not a baby.  He will only let us feed him his pureed baby food if that is the first thing he gets.  Once the finger food is out, game over on the purees.  Oh well, guess that means I don't have to keep making baby food!  For breakfast this week, he had an entire waffle with either a banana or clementine. He's getting better at pulling himself up and was even found standing in his crib.  He enjoyed his first USD football game and he even caught a nap at half time.  We didn't make the brunch or parade on account of a long and late morning nap, but it was worth it to have a happy baby with us for the game.

Sleeping at the game.  Held my hand tight over his ear to block out the noise.  He slept close to an hour like this. 

Investigating his food. 

Crazy boys getting dressed for church

Lunch, and no, this wasn't enough food for him. 

Did someone say they were cooking, I'll be right in. 

Reaching for the last few bites of banana

Week 36 and 37

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.

Thirty-four and thirty-five weeks old

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.

This was when I took him in...it got a bit worst after that, but is looking better now.  

Very serious boys on the trolley

If I smile really big, can I stay up for the game?

Loves my phone!