Fingerpainting is not for sissies

We had some great pictures taken of Calvin yesterday (thanks, Lamaze, for the certificate for a free sitting and newborn package!), and we had this great idea that we would get prints from his feet and hands to put into a collage with the photos.  Right.  We naively shopped for non-toxic paints and mixed them to get the color we wanted.  Then we carefully set up the kitchen table with damp paper towels, a bowl of warm water, and the special paper we planned to print on.  Again we say...right.  Though the foot printing went okay, it never occurred to us that the reason no one has hand prints from their newborn is that newborns don't open their hands.  Needless to say, if we go solely by the hand prints we got everyone would think we had an alien baby.  In the end we were rewarded with some great looking footprints and one ornery baby.  Luckily he enjoys taking a nice warm bath.

Becoming parents

We decided to take advantage of Calvin's easy going nature and 3 week old portability by going to Top of the Park tonight.  The weather was fantastic and we really enjoyed the evening out, as well as the all too fattening food.   We thought that would be the interesting part of our evening but, while it was fun, it was not the highlight.  Instead we came home and topped off the evening by exploring our own collection of folk music.  The trip through our music player quickly became a vocal exercise, and Jon even played some of it on the piano.  Though Calvin slept through the performance we sang to him for hours, even video taping some of the fun.  We both remember the wonderful gift of music and song that our parents gave each of us and we want to share that with our own son.  Of course it may be too early for Calvin to enjoy it, or for him to recognize the nostalgia that was thick in the room, but somehow we feel that it brought us that much closer to being parents in the sense that we understand.

Baby wearing and ice cream

Not necessarily in that order.  The ice cream came first.  It was a beautiful day and  Jon did not have plans to come home for lunch so Calvin and Cortney decided to meet him at the church (a midway point between work and home) and go for a lunch time walk.  So today marked Calvin's second visit to campus for ice cream.  After all, we had forgotten the camera the first time and needed to re-enact the visit for the purpose of age enduring photography.  You can see the results here.  And the baby wearing came after dinner when we were finally able to try Calvin in the Baby Bjorn front carrier (he had to make 8 lbs first).  We enjoyed a wonderful trek around the neighborhood with Calvin safely ensconced in said front carrier and plan to use it again soon!  We see a zoo trip in our near future.

 

Showers all around

Evidently Calvin is aware that his tag has fallen off and he can no longer be returned, because he chose this evening to pee on his mother for the first time.  Granted that we completely blame Cortney for this fiasco.  We have both avoided baby boy showers thus far by always performing a quick exchange between diaper and washcloth so that he was always covered, but tonight Cortney chose to change him while he was in the process of peeing, so no covering swap could have been quick enough.  And since Cortney had to suffer being showered, and since Calvin had not entirely missed himself with said shower, and since his tag is off, we decided it was time for a shower of another sort - Calvin's first real bath.  Though we were prepared for the worst, Calvin actually seemed to settle down and enjoy the warm water fun.  Plus, now we know why we replaced the kitchen faucet - that extendable hand held  sprayer with the shower function is absolutely key to a clean baby!

A day of returns

Today marked our return to church following Calvin's birth, which means it also marked Calvin's first day at church.  We were very excited about introducing our son to our church family - all throughout Cortney's pregnancy the different arms of the church were arguing about who held more claim to the Ophoff baby - the office staff?  The deacons?  The choir?  To us they are all one big family, and today Calvin got to meet many of them.  It was a successful return, too.  While Jon played for the 8:00 service, Cortney and Calvin parked themselves in the lobby area and got to greet a lot of choir members and ministers as they came in the door.  During the 9:30 service we sat in the very back, which made it easy to step outside to feed the little guy when he got hungry and then back in again when we were done.  And Calvin was a big hit during coffee hour, too.  In fact, it just so happened that today was Calvin's introduction day, so he was announced in the bulletin and greeted by a red rosebud on the organ as well.

Today was also a return on two family fronts.  On Calvin's maternal side because we stopped at Cortney's parents for what used to be a regular post-church brunch of scrambled eggs with hash browns and salami, toast with jam, and good coffee.  This was something we haven't done in a while, and something Calvin, of course, had never done, so it was also a wonderful return.  It was also a day of returns on Calvin's paternal side because Jon's parents had just returned from a trip to The Netherlands and got the chance to see Calvin for the first time since they visited him in the hospital.  So Calvin got to hear all about this other country and even got to see his aunt again while we were there for dinner.  Yes, it was definitely a day of returns for us and firsts again for Calvin.