To Calvin, who is five months old today

Wow!  Five months old!  To us it seems as though you only arrived just yesterday, and yet it is amazing how very different you are now than you were back in June.  Thankfully your physical growth has slowed way down.  You were growing so fast before it was amazing you had any energy left to do other things!  In the past month you have gained slightly more than a pound and slightly more than a half inch, which makes you 17.25 lbs and 26.75 inches.  What a big boy!  And while your growth curve has slowed, your learning curve has picked up the pace.  A month ago you had started to sit froggy style (leaning forward on your arms for balance) for short periods of time, but as of today you sit up straight like a big boy and can stay that way indefinitely (or at least until your next nap).  And next to sitting your new favorite way to play is standing!  Yes, you love to stand, using a table for support, to play with your toys.  That is why your new favorite toys are your doorway jumper and your exersaucer.  You have started turning the pages when we read to you, although never at the appropriate time!  You are vocalizing more and more, through cooing, laughing, gurgling, and lots and lots of raspberries, spit included.  And, most wonderfully, you have become a "settled" baby, showing confidence and comfort in your world.  This month marked your first real season change, and the cold weather brought your first colored leaves and your first snow, a little early this year!  Halloween was fun, mostly for you parents.  We took you to the pumpkin patch, where you loved the pumpkins, and to the old fashioned cider mill, where you loved the gourds, and for Halloween you were the cutest giraffe there ever was!  Calvin, you are our greatest joy!

Is that a laugh?

Calvin is working hard these days to gain control over his arms and hands, but he still has a long way to go. He can see those feet... but they are a lot harder to reach than he thought (use the force, Calvin, use the force!). The number of times that he hits his target (and is able to hold onto it) is only marginally greater than the number of times he misses. It's important to keep a sense of humor and be able to laugh at yourself during times like these. And if you can't laugh at yourself, at least laugh at green and blue plastic dog rattles...
Here is a video of Calvin's greatest accomplishment yet - his laugh (yes, it really is a laugh, not a frog in his throat), which he has been using increasingly over the past two or three weeks so that we finally caught it on tape.

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.

Happy October!!!

We're ready...where's the candy???  Although summer is also fun, with the sun and warm weather, we also find ourselves loving the fall.  There's football and tailgating, plus the colorful leaves are really starting to come out now around here and that makes all three of us smile.  Well, actually, it seems to make Calvin drool, but that's because everything makes Calvin drool these days.  His doctor says it's not teething (thank you), baby salivary glands just kick into overdrive right now as they explore everything with their mouths.  Well, you've all seen how much Calvin enjoys this new activity.  We are entering this new season with two other new things for Calvin.  The separation anxiety you already know about, and the other is his ability to sit up.  This was a real surprise for Cortney, who had him propped up on his pillow watching the Aquarium "TV" when he sat himself up to better reach the buttons.  Equally surprising was the fact that he stayed in that position and played for several minutes.  These days he can sit completely unaided for about 30 seconds (not much, we know), but he can sit in his circle pillow and play for about 5-10 minutes, probably because the pillow helps keep him from tipping to either side and allows him to expend his energy on things other than balancing (like, for instance, grabbing the dog's tail and trying to eat it).  There are some pictures of him doing this in last week's album, his sixteenth week.  Happy October everyone!

A milestone we wanted, and one we didn't

The good news first.  Calvin has always been a good sleeper, staying down for six to eight hours most nights, which the pediatric medical profession calls "sleeping through the night."  But let's face it - if he goes down at nine, six hours later it's still only thee AM!  Even eight hours later it's only five.  We consider three AND five AM to be part of "the night"  and we don't call that sleeping through.  For the past almost two weeks, though, Calvin has consistantly gone down at nine and gotten up at seven.  Now we're talking!

Now the bad news.  Calvin has his first cold.  We can't say we were surprised - Cortney had a sore throat and sniffles last week and, even though she washed her hands in hot hot water so often that they started to peel, we figure that if the antibodies she has didn't protect her they won't protect the little guy.  We could tell on Sunday that something wasn't right, but yesterday and today have really been the toughest.  We figure he has a sore throat, which, of course, he wouldn't understand, poor little guy, so he is uncomfortable while eating and doesn't want to talk as much.  And, of course, he is fussy all the time and does not want to be put down!  On the bright side, he is really tired all of the time so he is taking his naps really well!  And, just for a bit of mommy humor, Cortney dressed the ornery little bugger in a onesie with crabs on it;  if he's going to be crabby he might as well dress that way.