Joining the choir

Though Calvin has drawn lots of oohs and aahs, kisses and hugs, and pets and pats from his loving choir family, up until now all of this doting activity has occurred while he was sleeping.  It's quite likely, in fact, that the choir was beginning to believe that he suffered from narcolepsy.  The truth of the matter is that they had only ever seen him on Sunday mornings at church and, thankfully, most mornings that has coincided nicely with his nap time.  Tonight was their chance to actually see that he has blue eyes, and that he is capable of interacting with his environment because tonight was the annual choir beginning of the season potluck.  Overall it was an uneventful event.  We got there just as the little man was waking up from a nap, and his daddy successfully fed him a bottle while standing in the middle of the festivities.  His mommy pulled off a discrete diaper change, and then he spent some awake time mingling.  The down side, of course, is that evening is his fussiest time, but, as previously noted, he pulled off a fairly uneventful evening.  And there was no shortage of loving arms to allow us a chance to get and eat our food.  Calvin may not be ready to sing in the bass section with his father just yet, but he sure is scoring points with the other singers!

Grabbing, swinging, chewing

Last weekend it was his thumb, today it was a rattling toy named Tiny.  To what do we refer?  Both the thumb and Tiny have now been forced into Calvin's slobbering mouth.  The thumb found its own way there, but we're not sure that Tiny would have chosen such a fate on his own (or maybe he would have - his package specifically listed grasping and chewing as his favorite activities).  But, whether Tiny enjoyed it or not, we were very excited to see Calvin grasp and swing, then pull the toy toward his mouth so we could mark another milestone on our calendar (we don't keep a calendar for our own events anymore...). We do admit that we helped him find Tiny by touching the toy to his flailing hand - try as he might, his wild batting isn't focused enough yet - but the grasping, swinging, and mouthing was all Calvin.

Special visits - two of them

Two months old and still more special people to meet!  This afternoon Cortney's cousin Kate (Calvin's first cousin once removed) and her husband Alerk came for a special visit all the way from the Netherlands.  This was the first time we'd seen them since their beautiful wedding last summer and it was wonderful that they had time to meet Calvin during their short Ann Arbor stay (for a weekend wedding).  We rendezvoused at the Hiller household in order to maximize cathing-up-with-family time for all involved, and we had a great time hearing about their new life abroad (especially the strange toilets that are designed so as to allow the "user" to "inspect" their "deposits").  Calvin was even, for the most part, on pretty good behavior, smiling while awake and purring while asleep with a fairly minimal amount of fussing between.  And it must be an odd thing to be a baby, because when he fell asleep Kate and Alerk were sitting in front of the window, but when he woke up they were gone and another new person was in their place (or perhaps they had just morphed into a single female form...a baby can never be sure).  This baby confusion was brought on by the arrival of Karen, who has worked with Cortney's dad and been a family friend for over 29 years.  Just to prove both this and the fact that Cortney was, in fact, a baby at one time, we have included here the picture of Karen holding a very tiny Cortney in the same rocking chair back in 1977.  Clearly Calvin, seen here in the middle of a big open mouthed smile complete with laugh, is less camera shy than his mother was.

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! 

Looking into the Future

Tonight we enjoyed a rare treat - a visit with Cortney's cousin, Marshall, and his family. This was a rare and special treat because Marshall and Jenny live in San Diego and had not been back to Ann Arbor since their daughter, Iris, was born in January (on Cortney's birthday, the 24th, to be exact) so we had not yet been able to meet her. We had a wonderful time for lots of reasons. It was, first of all, just plain great to see them, although we can't say we did a lot of catching up because most of the talk focused around the babies. It was also great to connect with another couple with an infant and to gab a bit about routines, toys, and gear. Additionally, it was great for Calvin to connect with another baby - it is absolutely true that babies love other babies. It was very interesting to watch the two second cousins interact! Even more interesting than that, though, was watching Iris do all the things that she can do now as a seven month old, knowing that it is a little like a sneak preview. She was just a riot: she rolls around and sits by herself; she grabs toys, puts them in her mouth, and throws them; she plays peak-a-boo; and she makes a wonderful and endearing squealing noise that we just loved! What was crazier than that, though, was watching Jenny's sister's son (can you keep that straight?) who is eleven months old - now that's scary! He was walking around, pushing chairs, and babbling. We even got to observe his solid food eating habits - something we hope Calvin did not witness and commit to memory - all we have to say is: the tarp under the high chair was necessary.