Persistence and Preference

I have never seen such persistence as this. Cal climbs the stairs (like all 13 of them) just struggling to get one big toe up around his hips to grip the step and then pulling the rest of his body up. Sorry the video is so dark...hopefully you can see enough.

Calvin seems to really like "helping" with laundry. He particularly enjoys picking diapers out of the basket and scampering off with them. When I tell him to "bring it back!", he just turns, smiles, drops it, and comes himself. I'm okay with that!

Cal has been taking his books off the shelf and "reading." It is sweet to watch him turn the pages (...and chew on them).

Though the beloved golfball takes certainly takes preference over the books:

And, here is a sweet video of Cal laughing while Dan gives him raspberries.

Victory and Defeat

I feel like life is happening so quickly lately! Here are some of our latest victories and defeats.

Victory #1: The Vacuum Intervention

Calvin has been terrified of the vacuum lately, so I have just waited to vacuum until he is either asleep or away.....which means that the chore is rarely accomplished. I decided last week that this needed to change, so we had a little intervention.

Calvin is leary of the vacuum's quiet presence.

Day 1: After putting Cal in the baby carrier facing me, I started singing with one arm pulling him near to my chest. After turning on the vacuum, he screamed, so I walked away and continued singing until he calmed down...the vacuum humming in the distance. Eventually, I walked back to the vacuum and swept. Calvin survived.

Day 2: Calvin still in the carrier, I sang at the beginning, but was then able to stop after a little bit. I also didn't have to keep my arm around Cal's back. Yeah, 2-handed vacuuming!

Day 3: Calvin in the carrier, I didn't have to sing, but Calvin still cuddled under my chin in the carrier. After vacuuming like this, I put Cal in another room and vacuumed by myself in another room. He did fine.

Day 4: Calvin hung out with Daddy while I vacuumed. He did fine playing on the floor.

Success. Now I don't have an excuse for dirty floors.

Defeat #1: Sharing

Calvin has just started "playing" more with other babies since he is mobile. He suddenly cares when someone takes a toy from him, and he pilfers toys that his friends are playing with, too. How do you deal with this at such a young age? I'm at a loss. Some pictures of Cal with his friends Lucy and Mac. Mac is usually the victim of Cal's stealing. Lucy and Calvin take each others toys equally. =)

Victory #2 Seeking:

This is the face that pops around the corner to when I've hidden and Calvin finally sees me. We've been playing hide-and-seek for a couple of days now, and I still can't decided if the best part is this sweet face or his enthusiastic panting while he's scampering to find me. I love it all!

Defeat #2: Sick

Calvin has never been sick like this before, so the last 18 hours have been new to me. I think it's only a cold, but Cal can't seem to sleep. He just keeps sitting up in his crib and crying with snot dripping down his face. I'm sure laying down just feels terrible. I pick him up, and he immediately puts his head on my should and drifts off. I put him in his crib, and we repeat the process. Poor guy. I hope this doesn't last too long!

Victory #3: Walking!

Dan and I have been passing Calvin back and forth for a few days now. He is pretty much walking between us now. He loves it and so do we!

Defeat (for Dan) #4: Washers and Boggle

Dan is on an ENT rotation this month, and it has been great. He's been working lots of hours since he goes in so early, but he's been coming home unexpectedly early some days. We've had some time to play together. Lately we've been playing games. Dan often beats me at things, but I have recently celebrated two monumental come-from-behind wins. One was at Boggle. We played to 200. Dan was in the lead for the whole game until the last couple of rounds where I snatched the victory 207 to 201.

The other game is Washers. Washers is a yard game (kind of like horseshoes or Cornhole) that Dan always beats me at. You try to throw the washers into the box (1 point) or PVC pipe (3 points), and the first to 21 wins. In this particular game, Dan was ahead something ridiculous like 18-4, and I came back to win 21 to 18! Here is the final round! I was so excited that I took a picture.

Peek-A-Boo!

Racehorse Rummy was my favorite game. Now it is peek-a-boo.

"Toys"

Calvin is into EVERYTHING these days! Leaving Cal alone to play is a thing of the past. Somehow he sniffs out danger and gets his little paws into it constantly. Here's how he's been spending his time lately.

How do you put away every cord? Do people just do away with lamps with little guys crawling around? The philosophy thus far has been that he needs to learn how to control himself by obeying when I say "no." Hmmm....how's that going? Anyone not believe in original sin? I don't think anyone taught him to smile while repeating the same offense over and over.

If there is something to be under, that is where you will find Calvin. His favorite spot lately is under the dining room table. Up to this point, this has just been cute. However, he is starting to try to pull himself up on the chairs surrounding the table. Because they slide on the floor, he just scoots the chairs around. I'm afraid he's going to pull one over on himself. This morning, he did this with the bar stools. Again, do people just nail things that can fall over to the floor?

Of course Calvin's favorite piece of clothing is shoes...the dirtiest! He loves to gnaw on his own and ours when we are not looking. Here are some other things that Calvin has been getting into instead of playing with the toys I've chosen for him =):

The blinds-Pretty cute actually. He can barely reach, but his little paws just reach up and pat around for them. I don't even know why he cares because he can't even really reach them. He must know that they are off-limits.

The second book shelf- I've set aside the bottom shelf for stuff he can play with....thinking that defining the limits would keep him there and not to the higher shelves with our stuff on them. Hmmm...any suggestions about how to enforce "no" with a 10 month old? He definitely knows what it means, but chooses to interpret it his own way.

With all of these exciting "toys" to explore in Cal's newly mobile environment, Calvin's favorite thing to play with is still his daddy!

Mr. Distractible

Mr. Distractible

This is often the scene when Cal is in his highchair..he's not very interested in eating. Apparently there are other things to look at and do, and he's having a hard time getting the calories that he needs. We've had three appointments in the last 2 days....here's the rundown.

Pediatrician-10 month weight check: 16 pounds 11 ounces

This is an improved rate of growth, but still under the chart compared to his peers. Blood tests came back normal, so no leads about why he's not gaining weight there. What to do? See the endocrinologist and her nutritionist.

Endocrinologist and nutritionist- Get him to eat more calories.

They seemed pretty convinced that there is not some underlying condition happening that is affecting his vision and weight gain (yeah!). Instead, they think we need to just focus on getting Calvin more calorically dense foods since he's not interested in quantity (getting around 600-700ish calories a day instead of the 1,200 or so that he should be getting). We are going to start putting oil, butter, and whipping cream in his foods and give him 6 feedings with solids instead of 3.

Ophthalmologist- Left eye vision improving!

Last month we were a little discouraged to find that the vision in Calvin's left eye was not improving after pretty intense patching. The chart that was plotting his vision development had his right eye in normal range and his left eye below the chart. This time, the test showed that the discrepancy between the two eyes was cut in half! That is a huge improvement! We have known that he acts like he can see with his left eye, but it is really encouraging to have that affirmation from the doctor.

Dr. Wallace says that Calvin will need to have surgery again to correct the alignment issue with the eyes when his left eye has gained about as much vision as it will given the limiting nature of his retina. He thinks that could be anywhere from a couple months to a year. We are so thankful that he is gaining vision in his left eye!

Just a boy and a daddy....dressed like jail birds.