To Calvin, on his first birthday

You are the sun, the music, the bright spot in our lives, and today we celebrate the day of your arrival.  We remember it like yesterday - the anticipation, the excitement, the exact moment we first saw your beautiful face.  But today a sweet poignancy brings awareness of the slippage of time, a truth that is driven home as we watch you chase a pet while signing dog, practically running down the hallway past the picture of you at only 1 week old.  Oh the things that have happened since then!  In the past month alone you have started stacking blocks, and putting your toys away all on your own;  you started dancing to the music you have always loved;  your walking has improved enough that you actually spend part of our evening walks out of the stroller; and you are eating more and more foods, and beginning to learn to drink out of a glass. 

What has really amazed us, though, is your developing ability to communicate.   You have started to use baby sign language!  You sign "more" while you are eating, and have a tentative version of "eat" as well.  You also sign "dog" and can sign "cat," although it looks suspiciously like clapping or the sign for the "more," and you sign "duck" and "nurse" as well.  You watch us carefully now when we sign to you and we see the dawning of understanding on your face and know that it won't be long before you have more signs.   And even beyond the signs you are working very hard to communicate, using varying sounds (some more pleasant than others), expressions, and even hands motions, like pointing.  It is becoming clear that you understand a lot about the world in which you live, and we are simply amazed by you.  Happy birthday Calvin.  We thank you for coming into our lives, turning them upside down and inside out, and brining us the beautiful light of hope.  We cannot wait to find out what the next year has in store for the three of us!

 

Duck nurse more cat dog

Those are the baby  signs that Calvin seems to have finally started using.  We've been throwing signs at him consistently since he was a newborn, but he just showed no interest in mimicking them at all, though he did seem to understand when he saw them.  But the last week or so seems to have been a language explosion for Calvin.  The first sign we noticed him mimicking was duck, not surprising since he goes to the neighborhood duck pond at least once a day, and though it started out as merely mimicking after only a day or two he was performing the sign without parental preface.  And it wasn't more than a day or so later that he started doing the signs for both nurse and more. Of course the way he does them the signs for duck and nurse are pretty much the same thing, but context makes the meanings pretty clear.  And what's amazing to us is that he didn't just start showing the signs, he seems to fully understand when and how to use them.  Well, for the most part.  His only downfall is that he finds it so exciting to be able to communicate that he will stop nursing just to make the sign before going back to it, and he will ignore the food on his tray just to sign for more.  We've had to adapt by giving him just 2 or 3 pieces at a time so that he has more chances to use his new skill.  Life with Calvin is surely a riot.

To Calvin, who is 11 months old today,

Unbelievable:  Almost a year has gone by since you were born!  And you have really made the most of your time here so far.   You started your eleventh month with only two teeth, but now have six, yes six!  There are four on top, and two on the bottom, making for a very adorable lopsided grin.  You also started the month taking a few steps here and there, but now you can walk clear across the room without assistance, and are able to stand straight up right in the middle of the floor - no more crawling over to tall objects to pull yourself up anymore!  This has given you a new sense of freedom, and the smile that decorates your face when you totter around the house is brilliant and endearing!  When we see you doing that we can't help but laugh ourselves.  In fact, we spend a lot more time laughing with you these days.  Your fine motor skills have also advanced and you now use your toys in the more intricate ways in which they were intended to be used.  We love watching you sort shapes, your face showing your deep concentration then breaking into a giggling smile as each of the shapes goes in, just to start over again.

But you aren't the only one learning:  your parents sure have come a long way in the past month, too.  Just a week ago we decided that we could embark on our first family vacation and we loaded up the car and headed to Holland, Michigan, to introduce you to the tulip festival there.  That trip taught us that you are a wonderfully well natured child and a miraculously good sleeper, and that the stuff we pack for you takes up way more space than the stuff we pack for ourselves!  A couple of weeks ago you spiked your first real fever - all the way up to 102.5 - and we were really scared, until a quick call reassured us that the doctors aren't really concerned until 105 degrees.  Yes, we still have a lot to learn about lightening up, but we are working on it, especially in the food department.  Before April you had tried chicken, several standard fruits and green veggies, and a few cereal grains.  Over the past month we have added pork and beef, several new fruits and veggies, and even new spices to your repertoire.  You especially loved the curried chicken, and  also seem to enjoy garlic and cinnamon.  You like flavor, and you like he eating.  You are just full of life and you bring great joy to our days.

Understanding toys.

Before the baby we all read up and stock up on the best toys to be found.  We also swarm to garage sales and hit up friends who are done having kids to build our toy stashes.  Then the baby arrives and we look at this little slug of a thing, and then at the toys, and then at the slug, then the toys, the slug, the toys - why did we buy all these toys?  No worries, as parents of newborns we entertain ourselves during tummy time (the baby's not ours) by fittings shapes in holes, assembling wooden puzzles, and setting off every toy in the room that plays a song or sound of some kind to see if we can time them just right and hit a rhythm. Then the baby starts rolling over/sitting up/crawling and now he or she is suddenly very aware of the toys in the room.  Wow, this is it, the moment we've been waiting for!  Now all the time, effort, and money will be worth something!  And with fascination you watch, day in and day out, as the baby moves from one toy to another, grabbing it up, sticking it in his or her mouth, taking a bite or a lick, then throwing it aside to move on to the next unsuspecting toy.  Well, okay.  It's not what we'd had in mind when we spent all those hours researching every company's promise for development stimulation, but at least they're being used, right?  At least they're being used.

The good news is, there is yet another step in toy usage, and Calvin reached that step over the past couple of months.  He's been removing the rings from the peg for months now, in order to put them in his mouth of course, but when he finally put a ring back on the peg, now that was exciting!  And even that was nothing in comparison to the moment that he stopped filling the hollow circle with drool and started fitting it into the circle indentation on his learning home - wow, we're really making headway now!  But today takes the cake, because today he moved from understanding what hole to put the circle in, to knowing where to put the star.  The moment seemed to be just as big for Calvin as it was for his parents, he is even learning to clap (only for himself, of course).  And so, today we celebrate the validation of toy ownership.

To Calvin, who is ten months old (today)

Ten months old and moving fast!  This time last year we were washing newborn clothing, organizing the nursery, and going for daily walks.  Of course we are still doing those things, but the clothing is much bigger, the nursery much messier, and the walks a lot more fun!  When we had a sneak preview of spring at the beginning of March you really enjoyed spending time outside playing in the driveway, or going for walks and watching the ducks in the nearby pond.  It has been such a joy to watch you discover all these new things!  Everything that is worth talking about you refer to as dadada, except for food, which is more often not called banana.  But for all of this verbal expression you have resisted our attempts to teach you sign language and have only signed dog on rare occasions.  The books all say that you will be more likely to learn the signs for things you like, so it's not surprising that you've tried signing dog first, as you just love all of our pets, but the cat is really your favorite - when you see her you squeal with delight and take off after her as fast as your crawling legs will carry you, and luckily she is a willing participant because you are a quick mover!  It's likely that you won't be crawling that much longer, either.  Over the past month you have shown an eagerness to learn to walk, and we have encouraged you to take some steps while close to us, but in the past week you have started taking a few steps at a time without our presence and encouragement.  Your balance is still a little off, but it won't be long now.

The past month you have been very fun in so many different ways.  You are starting to play with your toys differently:  you know how to put the shapes in the shape sorter, the rings on the pole, and the blocks in a stack;  you will play "catch" by throwing the ball back and forth with mom or dad;  and you really like dropping things.  You have also started mimicking more often and will now do your own version of "sooo big" along wiht us.  You now enjoy being read to, and seem very excited to watch the words and pictures in the book while sitting in our laps.  You laugh and smile more than ever now, though the outside world might never know it—you are always so serious when taking in a new situation!  You are absolutely amazing to us, and we are thankful for you every day.