Back to the zoo!

It was 75 degrees and sunny today, and all who know us also know what that means - it was a zoo day!  The first of the year, actually, and the difference between this trip and our last is that we spent much less time watching the animals and much more time watching Calvin watch the animals, or not watch the animals as it may be.  He did seem to be interested in some of the creatures, especially the larger or faster moving ones.  He watched the rhino boys closely, even performing his "so big" for the, although their lack of interest was disappointing to him.  The zebras also caught his eye, as did the prairie dogs.  Other than that, he was mostly interested in watching the other baby who was with us (we went with college friends of ours, John and Ashley, and their 15 month old son, Noah), and in the inanimate wonders of the zoo, like the ropes in the walkabout and the watery walls of the polar bear tunnel.  He was interested in getting out of the stroller and walking a lot, and wanted to touch and poke at everything nearby.  As for us, we were fascinated by how very much like a little boy he is beginning to look.  Where did our baby go?

Understanding toys.

Before the baby we all read up and stock up on the best toys to be found.  We also swarm to garage sales and hit up friends who are done having kids to build our toy stashes.  Then the baby arrives and we look at this little slug of a thing, and then at the toys, and then at the slug, then the toys, the slug, the toys - why did we buy all these toys?  No worries, as parents of newborns we entertain ourselves during tummy time (the baby's not ours) by fittings shapes in holes, assembling wooden puzzles, and setting off every toy in the room that plays a song or sound of some kind to see if we can time them just right and hit a rhythm. Then the baby starts rolling over/sitting up/crawling and now he or she is suddenly very aware of the toys in the room.  Wow, this is it, the moment we've been waiting for!  Now all the time, effort, and money will be worth something!  And with fascination you watch, day in and day out, as the baby moves from one toy to another, grabbing it up, sticking it in his or her mouth, taking a bite or a lick, then throwing it aside to move on to the next unsuspecting toy.  Well, okay.  It's not what we'd had in mind when we spent all those hours researching every company's promise for development stimulation, but at least they're being used, right?  At least they're being used.

The good news is, there is yet another step in toy usage, and Calvin reached that step over the past couple of months.  He's been removing the rings from the peg for months now, in order to put them in his mouth of course, but when he finally put a ring back on the peg, now that was exciting!  And even that was nothing in comparison to the moment that he stopped filling the hollow circle with drool and started fitting it into the circle indentation on his learning home - wow, we're really making headway now!  But today takes the cake, because today he moved from understanding what hole to put the circle in, to knowing where to put the star.  The moment seemed to be just as big for Calvin as it was for his parents, he is even learning to clap (only for himself, of course).  And so, today we celebrate the validation of toy ownership.

It's Easter again!

At least in our photo galleries it is.  Just this morning we finally got the digital copies of Calvin's 10 month portrait sitting, which we also consider to be his Easter pictures because they were taken the day after Easter, on April 9.  There are 9 pictures in total, but you'll have to visit the 10 month portraits photo album to see the rest.

 

 

A new way to view the world

Or at least a new way to capture our view.  The combination of an increasingly slow camera and an increasingly mobile child finally wore down our patience today.  Turning the camera on takes six seconds alone, then five seconds for it to focus, and another five for it to save the picture to the card before you can start another five seconds of re-focusing to take a second picture.  By this time the kid is gone:  he's walking, remember?  And we are trying to capture the event so we can put it in our scrapbook, but all we get is a burry shot here and there.  So today we spent Jon's lunch hour at the local camera store and came home with a DSLR.  Now, instead of 11 seconds between photos, we can get 2.5 frames taken per second!  That will increase our picture taking over 20 fold!  Watch for results coming soon...

Old camera (that blur is our son...)

New camera...

The three toothed walking wonder

Super Calvin has two new super powers under his belt.  The first is an additional tooth (his top right, and the top left isn't far behind).  Don't ask us why that's a new super power, we just figure that it must be that important because he is walking around showing it off with every chance he gets.  And that brings us to the second new super power - walking.  He's been cruising since before he could crawl, and a couple of weeks ago he started to take a few steps here and there with our encouragement, but he has now entered an entirely new field of motion as he will embark on a journey clear across the room, putting one foot in front of the other very slowly and a little unsteadily, without any encouragement from us at all.  He only walks about a quarter of the time right now - crawling is still the usual mode of transportation - but we figure that it is only a matter of time before it is replaced and our little four legger will join the rest of our species of upright walkers.