10-Month-Old Little Speedster

Hello, neglected blog.  Sorry long time no post.  Life has just been SO busy lately.  Work is just bananas these days, and unfortunately evenings and weekends just zip by.  But I do my best to cherish and enjoy the time I get with Calvin.  

Anyway, Cal is 10 months old today!  Double digits... it's crazy.  He's gotten so big recently.  He absolutely loves kisses, cuddles and playing with his toys.  Cal loves music and dancing, playing ride the horsey (bouncing him on my knee in time to a little tune), animals, especially our cats, and laughing at daddy's silly antics.  He's still completely enthralled with water, and he loves "walking" while holding onto our hands.  

thoroughly enjoying a "ride the horsey" rendition

We transferred him to a new daycare facility this past week, and things are going incredibly well there.  It's a new place just a few minutes from our house, and they have a wonderful educational enrichment curriculum that really spoke to us in terms of what we want for Cal while we're away at work.  He transitioned beautifully, and though the people at his old place took good care of him, we knew it was time for Calvin to be in a more structured environment, with more "intentional" learning.  His new place also has wonderful enrichment opportunities as well, like cooking, gardening, music and art programs, dancing and yoga.  They make all their food on-site (which Calvin is given appropriately scaled portions of) and his teachers send me pictures via text of him throughout the day, just to keep me informed of how he's doing.  Amazing!  

near the ball pit at school, minus 1 shoe

outside getting some fresh air at school

Oh, and earlier today we had a photo shoot with the delightful Joanne of Canonico Photography - she actually had a contest to win a free session, and I came up as the lucky winner!  We shot at the beautiful Goodale Park, and it couldn't have been a nicer day.  Calvin was an angel throughout the session, and I can't wait to see the photos!

Moving on, Calvin has really come into his own with crawling lately.  He's not army-crawling anymore; he's always up on his hands and knees.  And boy can he move!  It is SO cute watching him just motor along.  I can definitely tell he revels in his rather newfound locomotive freedom.  He especially loves chasing the cats.  They aren't so crazy about it, haha.  And I'm not crazy about how he makes a beeline for the cat food bowl, so he can grab some and fling it everywhere.  But I am more than happy to chase after him as he explores his world.  It's just fascinating to watch him grow and develop right before my eyes!  LOVE this kid.  :)

our little speedster

Til next time...

West Virginia; 9 Months

This past weekend we trekked down to West Virginia (with my mom and middle sister in tow) to visit my oldest sister, Diana, and her family, who live in Fairmont (near WVU).  Calvin was a bit of a challenge in the car, only because I think he was upset that the two people sitting in back with him wouldn't take him out of his seat.  But we made it through ok, though it was certainly a welcome relief to finally get to Diana's (a 3.5 hour drive).  

We had a wonderful time!  Diana was thrilled to see Calvin after not having seen him since late June.  We girls had so much fun that first night having an impromptu clothing party (Di has recently lost a bunch of weight, so she had a lot of too-big clothing to give away), and staying up far too late, as usual.

The next morning, Calvin was up "early" (7:30), which of course meant Brian and I were up too.  I took the opportunity to head outside that beautiful morning for a little "photo walk."  The light was just so pretty, and there were so many lovely landscapes and little details just steps from her house that I wanted to capture.  It felt wonderful, like I was feeding my soul.  At the end of this post are some of my favorite shots from that walk.

The rest of the Saturday was spent doing some shopping (Cal got a few new clothing items and toys!) and then swimming in their backyard pool.  The weather was perfect the whole weekend, thankfully.  And we both had our first outdoor shower!  Oh yes.  Diana's husband, Paul, built it just off their deck in the back, and it is marvelous!  The water is heated by propane, and it's decked out with hooks, shelving and a fun shower curtain.  :)  It felt so peaceful showering while the sun shone on me and I looked up at the deep blue sky.  Amazing. 

We then had a delicious pasta and meatballs dinner (with Diana's delicious homemade sauce and my homemade meatballs, of course).  After it got dark, we (meaning Paul) made a bonfire and we sat under the stars roasting s'mores.  Calvin was very excited about the fire, before he fell asleep.  ;)

The following day was a little lazier... We just relaxed and eventually ate breakfast (after I made about 100 pancakes, haha) and we headed back to the pool for more swimming.  Calvin continues to love the water.  :)  We headed home a little later in the afternoon - Cal did much better on the trip home, thankfully.  

All in all it was a really great visit.  Diana is just head over heels for Calvin - she'd keep him if she could!  I only wish they lived a lot closer so we could all see each other more often.

And speaking of Cal, he turned 9 months old this past Wednesday!  He's getting so big!  His upcoming appointment is on Sept. 6 (coincidentally also Brian's birthday!), so we'll find out exactly how big.  I can't believe how quickly the time has passed (even though I knew it would).  As always, I'm doing my best to really cherish and enjoy this time with my sweet baby.  I hold him close and relish how perfectly our two bodies fit when he rests his head on my shoulder to sleep.  His amazingly infectious laugh.  How he army-crawls now (but just isn't quite up on those knees yet).  How he'll always let me hug and kiss him.  How he reaches his hand up for kisses from me while he nurses.  Oh, I could go on and on.  He's just extraordinary, and I'm loving (most) every moment of parenting my brilliant little boy.

Moving Forward

Calvin has been "crawling" for a long time now.  Only thing is, until yesterday he could only move backward.  When Brian appeared at his classroom door to pick him up yesterday afternoon, Calvin crawled right over to him!  

little scamp

Well, apparently he crawled halfway, then flopped down on his belly and army-crawled the rest of the way.  To his credit, the room is quite spacious, so there was quite a bit of ground for the little guy to cover. 

fueling up to go, go, go!

But the fact is, he did it!  He actually moved his beautiful baby body FORWARD, not backward or in circles, which feels like a huge step (or crawl, as the case may be).

this little stinker is plotting his next move

I tried to encourage him to replicate it once I got home, and only got the army-crawl, but it was still awesome to see.  Though I'm a little bummed I didn't get to see his very first crawl, I'm thrilled that Brian did, and I'm so proud of my little boy for accomplishing this impressive first!  :)

gotta savor these moments before he gets too busy for me!  :)

Anniversary 9.0

On July 24, 2013 we celebrated 9 years of marriage.  9 years, wow.  We've been together over 14 years.  Bigger wow.  We were in Pensacola on the actual day; we spent the day with Calvin, then he got in some grandpa time with Brian's dad in the evening while we went to a special dinner.  All in all it was lovely.

A tradition we have for our anniversary is to go back to the park where our ceremony was held, the Park of Roses, then have dinner at the restaurant where we had our reception, La Scala Italian Bistro.

Both of our weekends after getting back from vacation were busy, but finally, yesterday, we made it happen.  What a beautiful day!  Sunny blue skies, white puffy clouds, quite warm but not uncomfortably hot.  And I couldn't believe how beautiful the park was!  It was quite obvious all the rain we've been getting this summer has made the roses flourish, because they were bigger and more vibrant that perhaps I've ever seen them.  

Since it was a Saturday, we saw a few wedded (or soon-to-be) couples and smiled at the happy memories of our own wonderful day there.

Brian's goofy smile was courtesy of some nearby bees he was nervous about

A lot of what we talked about during our stroll is how unbelievable and awesome it is that our beautiful son was finally there with us.  It was a moment we'd long awaited, and we were so happy to share it with him.

Then and now

Afterward, we had a delicious dinner at La Scala.  Again, we'd talked about how much we looked forward to the day, and finally he was there to share it with us.

Hi!

I'm so grateful to have Calvin here to share these special moments with us. As with everything, he makes it infinitely more meaningful.

Our First Family Vacation

At this moment, I'm cruising in the dark, in the passenger seat of our version of the family truckster - Brian's 2012 Dodge Charger Blacktop edition.  Our beautiful 8-months-old-today baby is sleeping in the back.  We're on our way home from our big summer vacation in Pensacola, Florida.  Of course, this phase of the trip is quite bittersweet - it's hard to leave sun-drenched days at the pool, the beach, antiquing, exploring, eating amazing food, and relaxing.  Days that were all our own, leisurely, full of freedom and possibility.

  

"Sharknado" may have entered the mix, a surprise late contender for Most Regrettable Vacation Decision 2013.  But that's the beauty of vacation - anything's fair game, and 'guilt' is thrown off of our borrowed 10th floor condo balcony (thanks so much, FIL).  You see, carpe diem only goes so far on vacation - for sure, I want to fully enjoy every day, and fit in plenty of fun activities, but perhaps just as important is the down time.  The relaxation, the kicking back.  One might say, why did I drive 12 hours to lounge on the couch (sort of) watching Sharknado?  And the answer to that is, because I CAN.  Because obviously.  Because I don't want to be completely exhausted by my vacation.  So that being said, I think we struck a very good balance of filling our days with activity and rest.  Especially with Calvin in tow now, we did take breaks now and then to catch our breath, even if only to figure out what we'd do next.

And oh, what fun we had!  We took our water baby to the pool and the beach several times (Calvin enjoyed the beach quite a bit for being so young), and tried to drink the water at both places.  We did some shopping, ate delicious food we couldn't get back home, we took pictures... The quality family time was through the roof.  Brian and I also had the pleasure of celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary with a movie and very special dinner date (thanks to the FIL for watching Calvin!).  We drank a heroic amount of beer, and I found a new affinity with a blueberry-flavored brew (thanks again FIL for watching Cal).  Meals were memorable - they were events.  I love that about vacation.

  

Something that definitely ranked way up there for me during our trip was watching Cal interact with the many people we encountered during our various adventures.  He definitely continued to be a little ham, eating up all the attention lavished on him.  Though he's still working on crawling forward (he can scoot backward with the best of them), Calvin did accomplish a few developmental milestones while we were on vacation.  Now and then, he'll, adorably, wave, and occasionally he'll give out high fives like it's his job.  It's so awesome.  And during our trip, he cut his second bottom tooth.  Pensacola claims it as its own.

All in all, it was an amazing vacation.  I feel incredibly grateful that we have the ability, the means and the opportunity to to make it happen, and for the hand Brian's dad had in making it possible and privileged for us.  It was truly wonderful.