Happy October!!!

We're ready...where's the candy???  Although summer is also fun, with the sun and warm weather, we also find ourselves loving the fall.  There's football and tailgating, plus the colorful leaves are really starting to come out now around here and that makes all three of us smile.  Well, actually, it seems to make Calvin drool, but that's because everything makes Calvin drool these days.  His doctor says it's not teething (thank you), baby salivary glands just kick into overdrive right now as they explore everything with their mouths.  Well, you've all seen how much Calvin enjoys this new activity.  We are entering this new season with two other new things for Calvin.  The separation anxiety you already know about, and the other is his ability to sit up.  This was a real surprise for Cortney, who had him propped up on his pillow watching the Aquarium "TV" when he sat himself up to better reach the buttons.  Equally surprising was the fact that he stayed in that position and played for several minutes.  These days he can sit completely unaided for about 30 seconds (not much, we know), but he can sit in his circle pillow and play for about 5-10 minutes, probably because the pillow helps keep him from tipping to either side and allows him to expend his energy on things other than balancing (like, for instance, grabbing the dog's tail and trying to eat it).  There are some pictures of him doing this in last week's album, his sixteenth week.  Happy October everyone!

"Warning: Never Leave..."

We attempted our second date night A.C. (after Calvin) tonight in honor of Jon's upcoming birthday, but Calvin had other plans. It seems he believes he is at the 7-month-old's separation anxiety mark well ahead of his time. We met at Macaroni Grill and managed to just receive our appetizer when we got the phone call that Calvin had been a screaming mess ever since Cortney left, and was inconsolable. Fortunately, Macaroni Grill is set up for to-go orders just as well, so Cortney raced back to her babysitting parents while Jon waited for the dinners. Sure enough, Calvin calmed down right away for Cortney, and remained calm the rest of the evening. And we can't help but note the irony that, as we sat eating our date-night dinners, Jon glanced over to where Calvin was cooing away in his umbrella stroller watching us, and all Jon could see of the stroller's warning label was: "Warning: Never leave..."

Everything, yes everything, goes in the mouth

If you peruse Calvin's 16th week photo album at all you might notice a recurring theme.  We don't want to spoil the surprise, so we'll just give you this hint - "no, Calvin, that will not fit in your mouth, but nice try."

 

 

 

Trying out segues. Ways.

Today we officially started the process of moving to a new house.  Of course moving to a new house would first require buying one, which first requires finding one and, more importantly, selling ours.  Anyone want a really cute 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch?  We didn't think so.  The good news is that we have at least four years before we need to be moved into the school district we want for Calvin, but we are looking to move in the next year or two, before our fixed rate mortgage is up (literally and figuratively).  The sad news is that moving means we have to say goodbye to our first house and our first neighborhood - both of which we have really loved right from the start.  Yes, moving can be difficult...

...but not with the Segway!  No, with the Segway moving is simply a matter of leaning - forward to go forward, backward to go backward (duh).  A perk to moving is our realtor, who is not only very fun, helpful, and caring, but who also happens to have a Segway at her office for clients to try out, and try it out we did.  There is no better non-calorie burning way to travel short distances for sure.  Cortney laughed so hard she almost fell off the thing...

...but we all got home safely just the same.  And, while our achievement for the evening was trying the Segway, Calvin's achievement was trying out books.  We read to him several times a day and lately he has been reaching for the pages while sitting on our laps during a book.  So tonight we gave him his soft bath book to try out.  He definitely got the hold right - grabbing it with both hands, one on each side - but aside from that his foray into literacy was less successful, as he mostly just shook it or stuffed it in his mouth.  Hey, everyone has to start somewhere...

Happy autumnal equinox

Or, in other words, welcome to the first day of fall.  We rang in the new season with style, or geeky fanaticism in lieu thereof (like mommy like baby, evidently).  We started the day with our usual pre-game tailgate, the only difference today being that Calvin was awake for the majority of it.  It would appear that as the days get shorter and shorter, Calvin's daily alert time gets longer and longer (or, more likely, it is due to the fact hat he is sleeping more at night).  Following the pregame party we headed home, again as usual, to watch the game on TV.  And, again, Calvin was awake for the majority it, allowing us to introduce him to the finer points of football, including singing cheering, how to tackle dad, and how to denote a key play (see photo).  The only question we have to ask is this:  what quarterback was wearing jersey number seven last week, and why did he give it back to Henne this week?  At least we won.  

But aside from the ending of summer, today marks another ending/beginning;  as of today Calvin has officially outgrown his bassinet.  And, try as we might to get used to the idea of him sleeping in the next room, we find ourselves incapable.  Mind you that this is purely a selfish situation - Calvin has no trouble sleeping alone in his crib in his nursery and does so for every nap, but we are very used to him being only an arm's reach away and are not ready to give up that feeling of safety and security.  Nonetheless, he has most definitely outgrown the bassinet, which comes with a weight limit of only 15lbs (in fact, he's been sleeping in there "illegally" for nearly two weeks now).  Today we racked our brains to come up with a solution to this self proclaimed crisis, and the answer presented itself in the form of a larger bassinet.  Not imaginative, we know, and, most definitely, not brave.  But we must choose our battles, and this is not a "man versus self" style battle that we choose to take on.  It's not worth it.  And besides, where's the fun in that?  So, at least for a few months longer, our family will continue to enjoy nightly sleepovers.