9 Months!

Calvin's now been alive outside me for as long as he was inside me! A little weird and gross to think about, but I thought about it nonetheless. He had his doctor's appointment yesterday and this is how he's doing:

Height: 27" (10-25%)
Weight: 17lbs 4oz (5-10%)
Head: 45.4cm (50%)

So, he's a little scrawny, but he's got a big head (it's because everyone's always telling him how cute he is). He didn't get any shots, but they poked his toe and drew some blood. The doctor felt his iron was a little low, so they had us go to the lab and get his blood drawn to see if he should have some iron supplement for a while. We went to the lab and they full-on tourniqueted his arm and drew 2-test tubes worth of blood from his little elbow pit vein (which has got to be the equivalent of like 2 quarts of blood for a normal size person). He was an angel during the whole process! He never cried at all, and just stayed completely still, watching the 2 nurses as they coaxed his blood out of him. It was very cute and sad to me.

So, he needs iron supplement for the next 6 weeks. Which is strange to me because he really loves food and eats a ton of cereal and fruits and veggies of all kinds, but we'll see what happens.

He sneezed just as the spoonful of carrots got to his mouth.

Other than that, everything's is going really well. He can now climb our stairs (which is scary), continues to growl at us, and says "bababababa," "mamamamama," and now "dadadadada!" He is becoming so much more interactive. We crawl and chase each other around the house, play peek-a-boo, stack and destroy (only one of us does the stacking...), and other fun things. It just seems like in the past week or so, he really understands you when you interact with him! Oh, and he understands "no" now, but he'll pretend he didn't hear it. His initial reaction always gives himself away, though. It is too crazy how quickly kids develop their sense of reason!

Boy-with-a-secret

Stacking Cups

Our Christmas

The holidays were a time of magical insanity as usual, and I am just now getting the chance to sit down and blog. Unfortunately, I left our video camera in Tucson, so I don't have ANY pictures from Christmas except the 2 I have included. Can you believe it? I am a slacker mom.

Christmas was amazing, though. It is so much fun with a kid of your own! He loved the Christmas lights, Christmas trees, ornaments, presents, wrapping paper, aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins. Every day, he'd wake up to party and play with everyone who wanted to play with him and then pass out exhausted every hour and a half or so. He loved every minute of it, but by the end of the trip he was pretty partied out. He got sick the night before we left and was sniffly, achy, and feverish for a few days after we got back to Provo. He is back to normal now, though it looks like his two top front teeth are coming in quickly, so he is a little unhappy about that today. When those finish coming in, that will bring the count to 6 teeth! In one month! What a trooper he is.

Calvin learned so many new skills on the trip! My sisters and mom taught him to play catch! If you roll a ball to him, he will pick it up and throw it back. His throwing arm seems to be getting much stronger. At first he would just lift the ball up and flatten his palm, letting it roll onto the ground a few inches. Then he'd flap his arms crazily in excitement. Now, he actually has some power behind his throw. It is looking like he may be right handed...which is kind of a bummer. I was hoping to pass on my left-handed-coolness.

He also learned to get back into a sitting position after crawling. I actually got to witness him learning this, which was pretty neat. At Dave and Hilary's party, he was off on his own, and he would crawl one or two steps, and then push back trying to get his feet back under him. He just kept doing it over and over, trying to smooth out the sequence. It was really exciting. Now, he crawls all the way up on all fours, leans back to sit when he wants, pulls up to standing on absolutely everything, etc. It is really crazy how fast they learn.

We are doing well, settling back in with our Christmas goodies, and having a ton of fun together! More posts to come! Welcome to 2010!

Calvin with his Where the Wild Things Are doll he got! He really is Max now.