Happy Thanksgiving!

This was Calvin's first major holiday and it was beautiful and exciting!  We filled the day with traditions that we can't wait to teach him about.  We lazed about in our pajamas, reading the fancy ad inserts and watching the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade.  At the end of the parade we got dressed in our Thanksgiving best and headed to Cortney's parents' house for a dinner of traditional favorites - turkey smoked on the outdoor smoker, squash, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, stuffing (with sausage - mmmm!), wine, coffee, pie, and ice cream.  Calvin even had his own seat at the table!  After dinner we watched football and worked on a puzzle.  It felt like a very special day and we are very Thankful for Calvin, for each other, for our family, and our friends.

To Calvin, who is four months old today

Oh, Calvin, you just never cease to amaze us. You are growing and changing at lightning speed, and it is hard to keep up with you!  The days roll into weeks, weeks into months, and here you are, already a quarter of a year old! We have spent the past month introducing you to Michigan football on the weekends, and you can tailgate with the best of them!  You also enjoy fall walks, and meeting the neighbors.
There are many people there who love you very much, as do so many others aside from your parents.  You are a very beautiful and very loveable baby.
In our quieter moments at home you continue to baffle us with your strength; last week you (re)started rolling over, something you did a lot your first month but this was the first time since, then two weeks ago you sat up from a reclining position all by yourself, and since then you refuse to lay back to play.  Even when you are riding in your swing you insist on leaning forward to sit up, which ultimately balances out the weight of the swing so that it is no longer swinging.  You think its funny when we then rush over to restart the motion and make you sit back.  This is just one example of how much more involved you have become with the world around you, as you begin to understand cause and effect, and sequences of events.  As you work to gain control over your arms and hands you are beginning to purposefully bash your hands down on buttons, or pull on hanging toys, in order to make them play sounds or flash lights, then you squeal in response.  And you can tell that nap time has come around again as soon as your mother shuts the nursery door and turns off the light, and that is when you begin to cry.  You have begun to develop individual tastes:  you love African rhythm music, massages, and being sung to, and will now sit through three books at a time, as opposed to just one a month ago.  And now that you are learning to control you hands you have begun to put everything in your mouth, even things that don't fit, which makes your parents laugh.  We could not ask for more.  You continue to spoil us with restful nights and days full of smiles, gurgles, and coos, and this month you added the beauty of your own individual laugh.  It's a funny and joyous sound, more like a grunt than a chuckle, and it makes us laugh aloud with happiness.

Beautiful weekend for celebrations

On Saturday we received two "prank" phone messages, one on Cortney's cell phone and one on our answering machine.  We're not talking heavy breathing here.  Worse, they were, quite simply, the Michigan State Fight Song.  We overcame the horror of said messages quickly, or at least by 5:00pm.  We won't dwell too long on the victory, just long enough to rub it in for the State fans that LOST on Saturday.  Now, if the State players had even a touch of the athletic talent that Calvin displays here, it might have been a different story...

Sunday was an all together different kind of celebration.  For months our church has been planning an "all church supper" to celebrate the beginning of a new season and a new stewardship kickoff.  We have to admit that when we heard they were planning said supper to be held in the great out of doors in the middle of a Michigan October we were skeptical.  We were, however, pleasantly surprised by the Indian Summer weather, with sun and 70 degree weather.  This was a celebration not only for the church as a whole, but for Cortney and her committee, which was in charge of planning and putting on the event, and her fellow deacons, who were challenged to bring in and host at least 300 of the church's almost 2,000 members.  Well, the event, complete with meals served at the tables and a live band, went off without a hitch, and over 500 members attended!  Cortney hosted 14 people at her table alone, and Jon found himself acting as part of the entertainment - not with a piano, with Calvin.  Most people cannot resist cooing at a cuddly baby!  As our pastor noted to us over supper, many people have begun to refer to Calvin as the church's baby.

And what is celebration without cake?  Since Jon's birthday is October 10th we also took advantage of the beautiful weekend to sneak in double birthday celebrations.  On Saturday night we celebrated with Jon's parents, and enjoyed a wonderful post-game tailgate style dinner (mmm...) and a fantastic homemade carrot cake (Jon's favorite).  On Sunday night we celebrated with Cortney's family, where Jon shared the candles on a yummy chocolate ice cream cake with Curtis, who shares the same birthday.  So we have a wonderful football team (shh...don't burst our bubble just yet), a wonderful church, and wonderful families - that was a lot to celebrate.

Special visits - two of them

Two months old and still more special people to meet!  This afternoon Cortney's cousin Kate (Calvin's first cousin once removed) and her husband Alerk came for a special visit all the way from the Netherlands.  This was the first time we'd seen them since their beautiful wedding last summer and it was wonderful that they had time to meet Calvin during their short Ann Arbor stay (for a weekend wedding).  We rendezvoused at the Hiller household in order to maximize cathing-up-with-family time for all involved, and we had a great time hearing about their new life abroad (especially the strange toilets that are designed so as to allow the "user" to "inspect" their "deposits").  Calvin was even, for the most part, on pretty good behavior, smiling while awake and purring while asleep with a fairly minimal amount of fussing between.  And it must be an odd thing to be a baby, because when he fell asleep Kate and Alerk were sitting in front of the window, but when he woke up they were gone and another new person was in their place (or perhaps they had just morphed into a single female form...a baby can never be sure).  This baby confusion was brought on by the arrival of Karen, who has worked with Cortney's dad and been a family friend for over 29 years.  Just to prove both this and the fact that Cortney was, in fact, a baby at one time, we have included here the picture of Karen holding a very tiny Cortney in the same rocking chair back in 1977.  Clearly Calvin, seen here in the middle of a big open mouthed smile complete with laugh, is less camera shy than his mother was.

Looking into the Future

Tonight we enjoyed a rare treat - a visit with Cortney's cousin, Marshall, and his family. This was a rare and special treat because Marshall and Jenny live in San Diego and had not been back to Ann Arbor since their daughter, Iris, was born in January (on Cortney's birthday, the 24th, to be exact) so we had not yet been able to meet her. We had a wonderful time for lots of reasons. It was, first of all, just plain great to see them, although we can't say we did a lot of catching up because most of the talk focused around the babies. It was also great to connect with another couple with an infant and to gab a bit about routines, toys, and gear. Additionally, it was great for Calvin to connect with another baby - it is absolutely true that babies love other babies. It was very interesting to watch the two second cousins interact! Even more interesting than that, though, was watching Iris do all the things that she can do now as a seven month old, knowing that it is a little like a sneak preview. She was just a riot: she rolls around and sits by herself; she grabs toys, puts them in her mouth, and throws them; she plays peak-a-boo; and she makes a wonderful and endearing squealing noise that we just loved! What was crazier than that, though, was watching Jenny's sister's son (can you keep that straight?) who is eleven months old - now that's scary! He was walking around, pushing chairs, and babbling. We even got to observe his solid food eating habits - something we hope Calvin did not witness and commit to memory - all we have to say is: the tarp under the high chair was necessary.