The weather indoors

We really enjoyed last Tuesday's beautiful snow storm and the white blanket of snow that covered everything last Wednesday in its aftermath.  Heck, we even enjoyed shoveling it.  But snow is really only enjoyable when it's frozen, because when it isn't frozen it's water and water just isn't as pretty, especially when it's dripping through your ceiling.  Yup.  Through the ceiling.  What started as beautiful, fluffy, white snow that blew through our roof vent and into our crawl space during last week's high wind snow storm has, during the course of the recent sunny and warmer days, become water, and that water has seeped into our insulation, and then through our recessed lighting and now right through the seem in the dry wall.  Somehow it just looked prettier as snow on our lawn than it does as water in the three strategically placed bowls in our hallway.  And how do we work Calvin into this blog entry, since he's the only reason most of you read it anyway?  Let's just say he's not the only thing that leaks in our house anymore.

To Calvin, who is eight months old today!

Holy moly! the past month just flew by!  Every time we think that you have learned all you can for the time being and must be ready to take some time off, you surprise us.   You finally learned to truly crawl, in a forward manner while up on all fours, when you were about seven and a half months old.  That same day you started sitting yourself up from a laying down position.  The following weeks were just full of progress for you.  Your crawling has become very smooth and purposeful and your favorite things to crawl after are, of course, the pets.  You have also gotten much better at cruising and can walk the entire distance of the house while pushing your red toy wagon in front of you.  You never miss a chance to pull yourself up and cruise along and you have gotten very good at getting both up and down.  We are so very proud of you!  With your newfound mobility some other changes have taken place in our household.  We finally had to move you out of your bassinet in our room and into your crib in your own room.  You were a very good sport about that change and you now sleep completely through the night. 

There have been some other changes as well.  We decided to start putting you to bed awake, both at night and for naps, and letting you put yourself to sleep, at which you have really proven to be a champion at bed time, but are more stubborn about during naps now that you prefer to cruise around your crib and play with your toys instead. And you now eat three meals a day, eating when we eat. We have added barley cereal, butternut squash, apple, and banana to your menu, and you are working on being able to pick up pieces of those foods and put them in your mouth.  Unfortunately, most of them are slippery and are very hard to get a-hold of!  And the last big change that we have made is the introduction of discipline to your day.  Now that you are so busy and so mobile we have had to start telling you "no" when you become interested in something you shouldn't have.  You don't like being told that you can't do something, but so far you have been very compliant.  You no longer even try to touch the stereo or the dogs' dishes, and we are very proud of you for being so smart and so easy to get along with!  This new stage in your life is a very fun one, for us and for you!

Cruise control

Calvin has been getting exponentially more comfortable with his physical movement. You might say he's advancing by leaps and bounds (or is that by crawls and cruises?). See for yourself!

Calvin's new smile

At least, we think it's a smile.  It started out looking like a smile when he did it while playing on his safari roller, but then at dinner it kind of looked like he was freaked out about something.  Smile...freaky scary face...whatever it is, it's kind of cute.  Or freaky.  One of the two.  He mostly does it between bites at the table, and we think it's his way of saying "hurry up with my next bite, will ya?"  And it goes along with his whole new found love of speech.  You know, baaa, daaa, maaa, naaa... whatever he's saying it sounds wonderful to us!  Except for the occasional deafening shriek, and the excessive crying that is now accompanying naps.  Last week he dropped his third nap and went to two, and immediately he went back to sleeping through the night - woo hoo!  But the nap time crying we could do without.  We've said this before and we'll say it again - why is it that the people who need the naps the most are the ones who want them the least?

A converstaion and a bit about the weather.

It has been a really weird winter.  Snow in October, temperatures in the forties and fifties throughout December and January...very weird.  And then, finally, winter hit with a vengeance in the form of a weekend ice storm that broke trees, downed power lines, and left our deck slippery enough to cause trouble for the poor dogs.  Monday saw many schools and businesses closed due to power outages and downed trees.  Even Jon got the day off because his office was one of those without power, and today his bosses moved operations to their institute location, as the power likely won't be restored until tomorrow or Thursday.  But, and this is easy for us to say since our power is on after only a brief interruption, everything sure is beautiful with a fine covering of shining ice, and the air seems so fresh when it is crisp and cold, with the sun shining brightly, albeit very coldly, all afternoon.

And Calvin must have really loved the day, too, because he and his mother had a long conversation about it at dinner:  Calvin "huh, huh, huh,"  (that was fun being out in the cold today) Cortney, "huh, huh, huh" (for you maybe, you were covered up), Calvin "mmmmm," (I like to watch the snow out the car window), Cortney, "mmmMmm" (you should have been sleeping instead), Calvin "aahmmm" (more squash please), Cortney "AAhmmM" (eat what's on your face first)...and so on.  You get the idea.  They conversed like that for upwards of two minutes, which had Jon laughing nearly to the point of tears.  This is the first time that Calvin has really seemed to talk to us, or to mimic in any way.  It was a beautiful conversation!