All I got for Christmas...

...was my two bottom teeth!  And a few toys.  Well, maybe a lot of toys.  But the two bottom teeth are really cool!  They're not all the way in yet, and I wish they'd hurry!  But you'll never guess what I've been eating with those teeth!  In the last week I tried sweet potato, then oatmeal, and tonight I tried acorn squash.  I like all of those better than the green beans, which have a funny texture if you ask me, but I do like my peas pretty well.

He does exist!

Santa does exist!  It may have been years since either of us was visited by the big man in red, but we know he exists because he was in our house last night and he left a bounty of gifts for little Calvin!  He graced our sitting room with the evidence of his visit in the tradition of the Hiller family - a full stocking and a handful of special gifts left unwrapped by the tree.  The stocking itself was a big hit with Calvin, who thought emptying it was more fun than the trinkets he pulled out from inside (including, his own soft cell phone and camera so he can be just like mommy and daddy).  He did get a kick out of the learning home (read: door with lots of kiddy gadgets) that Santa left, though, and his parents really enjoyed that one, too. 

And after a quick overview of Santa's drop, we headed to the Hiller household for a Christmas morning including stockings, great food, and gifts all around.  We had a wonderful time and Calvin was on his very best behavior - he just loved all the activity and all the interesting boxes and toys (even the ones that didn't belong to him).  The best gift we got that morning?  Calvin took both of his normal naps (9-11 and 1-3) while we were there without any difficulties - yay!

We finished off the day with a Christmas evening at the Ophoff household, including a beautiful dinner and dessert.  We had a wonderful time opening gifts in front of the fire there and, again, Calvin was really on his best behavior.  The best gift we got that evening?  Calvin took his normal evening nap without trouble - yay (do you see a pattern here?)!  We had started the holiday expecting to deal with the stresses of a long and grueling day away from home, and the consequences of a fussy and over tired baby, and we were pleasantly surprised and pleased to return home with a very happy infant.  Calvin really revelled in the attention and the stimulation of the day and that is more than we could have every hoped for, and his happiness was the best gift we could have asked for.  It was a true Christmas miracle!

It's easy being green

We moved on to peas today!  And by "we" we mean Calvin, of course, although it was a family affair.  We started with fresh frozen (we can get into the validity of that supermarket lingo later) peas, which looked appetizing enough to us and steamed them.  Post steam treatment they were still looking pretty yummy.  Then we transferred said peas to a blender and "liquefied" them (a process that is not as simple as the"liquefy"button on your blender will have you believe).  Then, as if liquefying was not inhumane enough, we mixed the now pasty peas with some of the water they were steamed in and a bit of breast milk.  At this point the peas had passed into a food state that only one out of three of us could even possibly find appealing and, with fingers crossed, we let him try them.  The good news is, he seemed to enjoy them.  The bad news is, he enjoyed them enough to share with his bib, his clothing, his highchair...

family dinner

Our favorite new advancement is by far Calvin's new peek-a-boo playing skill, but there are two other fun ones now, too.  At his checkup on Monday, Calvin's doctor told us to go ahead and increase the number of times he got solids during the day, so now he eats when we eat, and that makes for a fun family dinner.  We are even starting to get smiles out of him while he eats, though most of the time he seems to think it's a very serious undertaking.

The second new trick of which we spoke is one that strikes fear in our hearts - he is now able to get up on all fours, and thus is that much closer to crawling!  Thankfully it is still likely that he will wait until the Christmas tree is gone, but that still means we have a lot of child proofing to do, since we have naively been putting it off.  Check out this week's (his 27th week) photos to see the sequence of pictures showing how he gets into this crawling position - it's not via the traditional tummy time lift, it's Calvin's own personal way of doing things (the doctor did describe him as willful). 

6 month pediatrician appointment

Calvin had his 6 month visit with the doctor today and came home with a clean bill of health!  He is still struggling a bit to make up the weight he lost when he had the reflux trouble several weeks ago.  In fact, he weighed no more today than he did two months ago at the four mnth checkup - 17.25 lbs.  He is longer, though, now measuring just over 27 inches.  The doctor was not worried about his lack of weight gain - between his recent trouble with the reflux and his more active state it is not surprising.  The doctor was very impressed with Calvin's motor skill development, though, and told us that Calvin is doing the things that a normal 9 month old should be doing!  He was particularly impressed with Calvin's peek-a-boo skills, which is our favorite advancement, too.  There was really only one surprise about today, and that is the fact that Calvin seemed to have no reaction to the vaccines at all!  Even though he actually got one more vaccine than in previous appointments (the flu shot being teh new addition), he was just like himself all afternoon! 

And there is one more update to share:  On Saturday we tried again to introduce Calvin to cereal.  It went much better this time around.  He opened his mouth every time he saw the spoon come out of the dish, and he finished the whole thing.  Later this week we will try introducing him to veggies and see how that goes!