To Calvin, who is three months old today

It is hard to believe that another month has passed us by.  In the past month you have grown so much and in so many ways!  Physically you have gotten much bigger and stronger.  You are now just shy of fifteen pounds and twenty-five inches!  You regulary push yourself up on your hands while on your tummy now, can sit up with minimal assistance, and will pull yourself into a standing position while holding onto our hands.  But it is your mental growth that continues to catch us off guard and awe and amaze us.  Over the past month you have become far more involved with the world around you.  You no longer just stare at your toys, now you talk to them, bat at and grab them, and put them in your mouth.  You also have favorites, like the yellow giraffe, the blue elephant, Baby Whoozit, and, definitely, The Bear!  You also have favorite games that you like to play, like "fly Baby Calvin, fly!"  Of course, having favorites means that you are beginning to remember, and it has been a wonderful gift to see your face light up with the smiles of recognition!  Another delightful gift that you have given us has been the gift of your conversation.  Your coos and gurgles have become more varied and expressive, and you love to converse, not just with us but also with the dogs and with your toys.  It has been an exhausting month of amazing growth for all of us, so it's a good thing that you made one final accomplishment in the last two weeks - sleeping through the night!  We'll say it again (and probably again), we love you more every day.

 

And... we have a thumb sucker. (redux)

Last December (Dec 19) we were very excited to blog the news that "Rasberry," at fourteen weeks, was an avid thumb sucker.  We'd just had an ultrasound that clearly showed the-baby-we-now-know-as-Calvin contentedly sucking his thumb.  At the end of the entry we vowed to stock up on pacifiers early.  Funny thing about that - he does always want to suck  but he will rarely take a pacifier (although he enjoys gnawing on them if you hold them in his mouth).  But today he relearned the self-soothing technique that he so often enjoyed prior to his birth.  And he is just suddenly good at it again, too!

We also want to share with you his new bedroom upgrade.  Our friend, Amy, made him a really cool pillow rendering of his name.  She paid us a special visit last week to bring it to him and we finally got it upon the wall today.  It really makes his room look cool and it also adds a lot of love! 

A Saturday down on the farm...

The actually sleepless nights, the kind where we truly get NO sleep, don't come along very often, but last night was one of them.  We'd like to say that it was because we were out partying, but we'll have to blame it on the aftermath of the vaccines.  Calvin whimpered through a lot of the night and constantly wanted to nurse, mostly for comfort.  So much for his "big boy" status!
But this morning brought a bright, new, promising day - at 5:30.  Babies, probably children in general, have no respect for Saturdays as sleep in days.  So, with the weight of that realization upon us, we decided to take advantage of our early wakefulness by going...garage sale-ing.  Isn't  that what young parents do?  And Calvin got his 2 month old portraits taken before we headed home.  But it was the afternoon that was especially fun.  Earlier in the week we had passed a road side sign for U-pick blackberries and decided that would be a good activity, especially with this weekend's acceptably cool weather.  It reminded Cortney a little of picking raspberries when she was little on her Grammie's farm, and reminded Jon a little of looking for hay in a needle stack.  On the way home we stopped by the local farmer market and picked up Michigan grown dinner.  Michigan grown, yes, but dinner more closely resembled a southern farm meal - Barbecued pork, sweet corn, fried green tomatoes, and homemade blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Yum.  Once again, Calvin will have to enjoy it indirectly later.

Milking it (working title: You do the math)

We took Calvin to his 2 month well child appointment today where he proceeded to wow his pediatrician. When Calvin was born he was in the 20th percentile for weight, 25th for length, and 15th for head circumference. Today he weighed in at 12lbs 10oz and measured almost 24 inches long, placing him squarely in the 75th percentile for both, and the 40th percentile for head circ. The doctor was impressed with his curve on the growth chart and said that some kids remain within 5 degrees of their birth percentile for life. Not Calvin - he wanted to test our calculus by creating his own curve on the growth chart. In addition to his monster growth rate (not all that uncommon for breastfed babies, really, but we like to feel proud when we can) Calvin got a clean bill of health - no plagiocephaly (a.k.a. flat head), the baby acne is clearing up well, and he sounds and looks good (we already knew that!). We did talk to the pediatrician at length about our concerns regarding Calvin's seeming discomfort at feedings. The general feeling is that the trouble can be attributed either to a protein intolerance, which we will be testing for early next week, or to an overabundance of milk supply (either way we can blame it on Cortney). So, with some possible answers and remedies in hand we head into Calvin's third month! Oh, and as far as vaccines go, Calvin would like to say no thank you next time, but, of all his vocal achievements, today's sad "why am I hurting?" whimper cry has by far had the most effect on his parents. So far he has convinced them to allow extra nap time, feeding time, and bath time, and an entire evening of cuddles instead of being put to bed in his bassinet. We guess we had better harden our soft touches soon - or at least before he can drive.

To Calvin, who is two months old today

Your second month was equally as amazing as your first, if not more so. You have experienced many new things. In July you went on your first vacation when we took you to Harbor Springs and Petoskey, Michigan. Then in August we took you to Holland, Michigan, where you got your first feel of lake waves washing over your toes. Of course you also went to the Art Fair in Ann Arbor and enjoyed meeting lots of relatives on many occasions. These are just some of the things that we have been impatient to share with you since the day we knew about you, and there is so much more to come.
Your daily life continues to change, too. You've taught us a routine now: You start your mornings very early, playing with dad at the break of dawn; you spend your days with mom, eating, sleeping, and playing; in the evenings the three of us play together before we give you a bath and read you to sleep for the night. You always wake up at least once before morning, but usually go right back to sleep after eating. You continue to grow with a speed that awes us and you now weigh 12lbs, 10oz and are over 23 inches long. You are still a strong boy, able to push yourself forward and actually cover ground. We have to watch you every minute! Your mind is growing strong, too, and you have discovered many new things about yourself: You have begun to kick and swing at your toys in deliberate fashion; you will grab things that come into your path; perhaps the most amazing discovery to you is your voice, and the wonderful and loud new sounds it can make!
There is another side to growing, too, and though you are strong, healthy, and happy, you struggle with some discomforts that we are trying hard to name and fix. medicine has helped with the reflux disease that plagues you, and now we are trying to find the food in mom's diet that is causing you to be uncomfortable. Seeing you hurting and unhappy brings on terrible feelings of frustration and misery when we are unable to fix it, but we are trying so hard and, through it all, you are strong and brave and want to be a happy baby boy. You smile all the time and your giggling, gurgling, and cooing has an incredible way of making both your parents melt at any time, day or night. You are beautiful in every way.