Balloons

We are now completely healed and healthy as a household. Calvin's first day in his new semester of swimming lessons went by without a hitch (he missed the actual first day because of his absorbable stitches) and all of our household schedules and planned events are back underway. Right about now we are finally ready to greet the new year, how about you?

Oh. And balloons are fun.

The bus in our living room

PB & J

For a boy who's not seen a speck of TV, he has a pretty convincing 2-year-old's imitation of Brian as a banana (this is for the Family Guy fans out there. I lovingly blame his father.)

The Milkman Cometh

Tuesday is now officially delivery day at the Ophoff household.  For well over a year now we've been enjoying fresh, organic, mostly local fruits and vegetables delivered right to our door every Tuesday afternoon.  The produce has always been phenomenal and comes in at prices far less than what we would be paying at places like Whole Paycheck Foods (if your curiosity has been triggered you can look up Door to Door Organics to see if they have a hub in your area).  Now Tuesdays will be seeing a second delivery man at our door - the milkman.  I've always gotten a kick out of my father sometimes talking about the milkman coming to his house when he was just a boy, but now Calvin will be able to do the same.  Far from being a milkman, of course, he will bring with him, according to our order, a wide variety of dairy products, all of which are organic, Michigan made (visit Calder Dairy for info), and, again, at a price below what we would pay in the store.  The milk is even delivered in glass jars and a wire basket, and to top it all off, the milkman is very friendly.

A Jumper by any other name...

We had this doorway jumper for Calvin which, after hearing how other kids his age were enjoying theirs, we finally put up.  We sort of figured that it would be an extensive installation, but in all actuality it was very simple.  In fact, the hardest part about the assembly and installation was having to use a screwdriver to open the battery case.  Battery case you might ask?  For what?  Well, they don't make jumpers like they used to.  The one we had came with an activity tray and removeable electronic toy console (better known as a whatchamawhoozit) that made Calvin cry every time the music played when he spun the shiny wheel in the middle.  This was an extremely unfortunate circumstance because Calvin's new love in life is spinning things (and someone in the commercial baby world knew that was coming because every toy we have has a spinny majiger on it).  And aside from the fact that the toy made him cry, the jumper was basically useless.  The tray set the whole seat off balance, the result of which was Calvin's obstinate refusal to do anything but lean back.  And spin the spinny do-da. And cry.  This was a major disappointment to both of us, Jon specifically, since he loved his own doorway jumper at that age (and remembers it so well, really). 

The moral of this story?  Sometimes less is more.  After three days with this failure of a jumpy seat, we decided to exchange it for Johnny, the good ol' boy.  You know, Johnny Jumpup?  He may be wearing a new suit, a sage green one with bugs all over it, but he's still the most reliable old pal on the block.  And it may look boring by comparison, but man is it fun!  And it sure gets Calvin moving.  We see a video in the future, possibly set to "I feel like dancing."