Mother Necessity

Calvin's been chewing his crib to bits. We have bought a number of crib rail protectors, but none of them have worked. He either chews or peels them off or they don't fit. I wanted to just get a cloth one because I figured that would work, but the ones you can buy are expensive and ugly. Today, I decided to make my own out of some leftover fabric that I had from when Tyler's mom made a quilt for him. So I made one. I got a couple ideas online, but basically made it up as I went. I am pretty excited about it.

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.

A Warm Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always such a short trip that we feel like we don't get to see anyone for as long as we'd like to. It makes me look forward to Christmas and to the day that we may be able to live closer to our families. Even though it was short, we had a great time. I have started to really like Thanksgiving more and more over the years. I think it's because mostly everyone in this country celebrates it in some way or another. I don't have to wonder if I will offend anyone if I wish them a "Happy Thanksgiving!" The whole feeling is gratitude, just like Christmas, but since there are no gifts exchanged, you aren't really even tempted to be greedy or covetous about gifts you're receiving. I don't really like participating in the whole "black friday" insanity, but even fanatical shoppers at least have an attitude of "giving" in their motives. At least the idea is that you're out buying gifts for others instead of for yourself.

I also love Thanksgiving because of the focus on delicious food. Mmmmm.... Our Thanksgiving week meal highlights include:

One of the best turkeys I've ever had
Really good Candied Yams
Amazing Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
Sour Cream Apple Pie w/Struesel
Pumpkin Pie
Omelettes in a bag (you know, for kids!)
Shrimp Boil (or Fisherboat Scrap Surprise)
Fresh Tamales
Yummy Taco Salad
Sour Cream Enchiladas

We ate so deliciously (to englishize a Japanese phrase). Calvin had a ton of fun with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have included some pictures of him on the beach. The week was so relaxing even though there was a lot of driving. Calvin was so laid back wherever we went. And we witnessed miracles (one being the passport hand-off unassisted by cell phones outside Why, AZ and the second being the evasion from the 3 Policia with machine guns who stopped the car in front of us for speeding).

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

This last photo is just a little extra tidbit.
Calvin got his laundry hamper, pulled it down,
and crawled all the way inside it. He was being too cute.

Sniffing

Calvin's new thing is making this silly open-mouth face while crinkling his nose and sniffing. He does it when he's eating, happy, bored, frustrated, etc. Here are a couple videos. In the first, I was doing the face to him and it was cracking him up. In the second, he starts doing it too.

Pumpkin Smash

Halloween was just so great this year! That seems to be the general consensus anyway. Our Halloween was no less than really awesome. Friday, I spent the day frantically finishing costumes for our church party that night. I was buying accessories, cutting, sewing, and hot gluing like a maniac all day. We were also going to bring a chili to the chili cook-off that night so I also had to buy ingredients for that and make it while getting Cal and I dressed. I was so grateful that Carson came home in the middle of the flurry and could shred chicken hot off the George Foreman while I bustled and hustled to get out the door.

The party was so great! There were really good costumes this year- the highlights being Hagrid and Hermione (which was a little awkward when they were holding hands...), Cruella De Ville and Jasper, packages of Skittles, Mr and Mrs Pac-man, Princess Leia and the little Ewok Wicket, and others. Of course everyone's babies were so cute. We went as Wild Things with Calvin as Max, King of the Wild Things. I love his costume. It was really easy to make and I think it turned out great! (The hardest part was removing the giant embroidered Tigger thread by thread from the front of the sleeper. That took a couple weeks and couldn't have been done without help from Victoria.)

Tyler's pants took the longest.

Some people thought he was Shrek.
That'd be bad Shrek costume, but a pretty good Wild Thing.

Not only did we have fun, but we won, too! Calvin won best baby costume, and our chili won Best Chili. Both of these contests had very intense competition. But I think Calvin's costume is very cool, and since we used our friend Jennifer's amazing recipe, I was sorta hoping to win. Jennifer, your chili is amazing. We have already made it again since we didn't get to eat enough at the cook-off.

So that was Friday.

After Friday, I just wanted a fun, but not-too-intense Halloween. I spent the morning making an apron full of harvest colors to cook in later in the evening. I bought some fantastic orange Tulips when I went out for more ingredients for the evening festivity. It still felt like a pretty busy day, but I felt like I was living life so fully. Like really enjoying the finer things in life. That's a good feeling. We had fun as a family and then had our friends Dave and Kate over that night for Iron Chef: Pumpkin Battle. It was less of a battle actually, but no less delicious. It was maybe like if a couple of Iron Chefs got together some weekend with a theme ingredient for some sort of exhibition.

Tyler caramelizing the onions and pumpkin.

Here's the menu:
Hearty Bread with melted Gouda and a rich Pumpkin Spread
Pumpkin Sauce Penne
Japanese Kabocha Soup with Sesame Oil
Almond Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

Is your mouth watering yet? It was so delicious. It was everything I had envisioned for this pumpkin exhibition. The best part about it is it didn't leave me feeling pumpkin'd out. I would do it again this week. And I found a neat recipe for Pumpkin Gnocchi that I didn't even get to try yet. Man, do I love pumpkin.

Witches why I love Halloween.