Disc golf anyone?

It was another beautiful day for the zoo... that we had to pass up.  Our littlest dog, Moose, had rather extensive oral surgery (read: removal of 20, yes 20, infected teeth.  He doesn't want to talk about it) and we thought we'd better stay close to home, and we opted for another afternoon hike instead.  So today was our first visit to Rolling Hills County Park.  Actually, we'd both been there prior to today's visit but that was 15 or so years ago during our oh so cool middle school experience that each of us would rather forget, so for the sake of our current coolness status (don't laugh) we are pretending that this was our first visit.  Calvin might have been just as happy to skip the hike and spend the afternoon exploring the play structure, but we wanted some exercise, too, and let's face it - the static nature of the kiddie slides just doesn't cut it, so we suited up and headed out on the trails for some beginner style hiking.  The only problem was that we didn't have a map of the wooded trails and continuously found ourselves in the middle of the disc golf course, and sometimes some disc golfers.  We had no idea how serious the sport was - some of these people were stretching between tees, had official disc golf bags and water bottles, and carried with them a plethora of discs (I think I'll use the 9 disc for this hole...), so the experience was definitely an eye opening one at the very least.

A new way to ride, a new taste, a new sign...

Sometimes it seems as if life moves in fits and starts. The weeks following Calvin's first birthday were all routine.  But nearly 2 weeks of status quo was broken today by a spurt of growth and change. Calvin's toy car made its way back into the toy rotation today (from the back of Jon's closet), and it did so in a new form: today it made its transformation from useless walker to toy car and won its way back into Calvin's heart.  And while he was busy learning to drive his new car, the UPS man stopped by to deliver his new carseat, a birthday gift from his parents and grandparents.  Of course we had to try it out, so after dinner we headed out for ice cream where Calvin got his first taste of vanilla frozen yogurt. So how was the trip? Well, the new taste was a hit (though not as much of a hit as playing with the other kids who were there), and as for the new car seat, though we have been sold on the benefits of extended rear facing and won't be facing him forward for at least another year, Calvin is very happy with his new big boy seat in any direction, making car trips more enjoyable for all!   And, as though he knew that today was the day for exciting and new things, Calvin surprised us and made us smile when he started signing "rabbit" after spotting one on the path in front of us. His excited "rabbit" sign was quickly followed by "all done," in this case meaning "let me out of the stroller so I can chase the rabbit" which we did. The rabbit got away, of course, but it was a good day nonetheless, and he should sleep well tonight!

Holiday Weekend

Everyone needs holiday weekends in their lives in order to bring some spice to the monotony of everyday schedules.  Of course, when you're a baby there is nothing monotonous about your every day - sure the naps are a regularly attended event, but there is so much to discover in the world that all other moments are already peppered with variety and change.  So even though Friday might have been a day of new discovery for Calvin, who found out that day how much fun it is to kick a ball around the house (do we have a soccer player?), Jon was more than happy to arrive home with the news that he'd been given Monday off - what a special treat!  And what did we plan?  Spring cleaning.  But the weather threw a wrench in our plans (the weather is another thing that knows nothing of monotony, especially in Michigan), so we spring cleaned all day Saturday while it rained and went about our usual church and music lesson schedule on Sunday, and moved our planned trip to the Detroit Zoo with Jon's parents and sister to Monday instead.  What a great choice!  Rain is perfect for spring cleaning, but not so perfect for the zoo, and vice versa with the sun that showered us with brilliantly warm rays come Memorial day.  Of course, between the good weather and the national holiday, the zoo was packed, but another bonus point for the Detroit Zoo over both Toledo and Binder is the amount of space - wide walkways and a plethora of exhibits really know how to spread out a crowd and the six of us had a great time, complete with a picnic lunch.  Calvin loved talking to, and showing off for, his aunt and grandparents.  And to our delight his interest in the animals grows with every zoo trip we take (which means that at this rate by the end of the summer he'll be trying to climb into their enclosures).  It was a great zoo trip, and we finished of our Memorial Day with a traditional summer meal - grilled hamburgers (Calvin had his mini-burger without a bun) corn on the cob, and watermelon (which Calvin LOVED), followed by a little swimming and a lot of bubbles.  Boy is it hard to return to the monotony of Tuesday.

Adding spice to our lives

Or at least to Calvin's.  We got tired of always feeding him just plain pureed fruits and vegetables, so we started adding some natural spices for him to try.  We started this afternoon with cinnamon in the applesauce and, though we were nervous about this transition, the introduction went pretty well.  Actually, we aren't at all certain that he cared one bit about the new flavor - he showed no real preference over bites either with or without the spice in them.  Oh well.  In general he seems awfully distracted these days when we are inside, but who can blame him?  Now that he's had a taste of playing outside in the yard and going to watch the ducks at the pond (which he invariably laughs at), why on earth would he want to play inside?  Seriously, the last few days it has really felt like spring, possibly even summer, finally arrived.  Of course, we can't really say "finally arrived," because it's still March and this is still Michigan.  Heck, around here spring can't really be considered late until June, so the recent days of sunny and seventy have been a wonderful treat.  Unfortunately, it looks like we will be saying goodbye to summer and hello to spring over the next week or so, but that was to be expected.  Calvin will just have to go back to being happy with his indoor play.

Calvin's trip to the big lake

Well, last weekend was Calvin's trip to the northern lands of relaxation, a.k.a. Cortney's childhood summer destination, and this week we bring you Calvin's trip to the western lands of beach fun, a.k.a. Jon's childhood summer destination on Lake Michigan in Holland.  On the way there we made a quick stop in Grand Rapids at our friend Sue's house - just long enough to feed the little man and get back on the road.  Then Calvin was a big hit at the cottage gathering in Holland, but was the cottage gathering a big hit with Calvin?  He really seemed to like the sand and the water.  Of course it's not like we threw him into the surf, but we did dangle his toes in the waves and press them into the waterlogged sand, an activity which really made Calvin go into deep thought mode.  But we figure that he enjoyed it because it triggered a 20 minute run of smiles and cooing that the whole family enjoyed - you can fool some of the people all of the time...
In any case, the day on the lake was enjoyable for all of us and there are lots of pictures in the "Calvin's ninth week album."