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.