All Dressed Up and Quite Pleased

I keep referring to Jack as a "beast"....in the most endearing way possible. At just 3 months old, he is fitting into 6 month clothes. That said, his personality is the opposite of beastly! Jack is sleeping like a champ, and he is so easy-going when awake. He loves to look in our faces with his trusting blue eyes and smile. He's even started reaching for the features on our faces! So, this sweet cow costume seemed fitting for our little beast of a buddy, Jack.

Calvin was none too excited about wearing his bat costume until he saw himself in the mirror. This is the little smirk he gave to show his satisfaction.

I think Calvin liked the ears and eyes on the top of his head the best. Though he was a bat, he kept calling himself a, "tep." I guess it is close enough! True to form, for Calvin and a bat, our little man hung out mostly by himself while at our Halloween party. He spent a lot of time watching from the outskirts, wandering around the pool, and scavenging for potato chips.

I thought his costume could be made a bit witty by having him carry a ball. That was pretty easy.....why be a bat when you can be a bat and ball?

In the spirit of Halloween, we went to the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. By "we" I mean Calvin, Jack, and me. Calvin had a lot of fun because pumpkin patch was, well, a whole field of orange balls! Here Calvin is pointing that out:

Jack seemed to have a fine time himself as he slept in the carrier. I, on the other hand, felt a little frazzled by the end. For some reason thought I needed to capture the experience, but that was a little too difficult with Calvin running from one pumpkin to the next while trying to keep him from getting lost in the crowd of people. This picture kind of sums up the whole experience for me!

Shalom Saturday

Pastor Chuck, from our church in Ann Arbor, used to always talk about "Shalom" as being the way "it" is supposed to be, the way God intended it to be. At the end of stretches where Dan has worked a lot, I can feel the "wrongness." I am exhausted and just feel emotionally fragile. Dan responds to the workload by becoming discouraged about the long road he's on as a resident.

Then, when Dan is home for a whole weekend, it just feels right. I think the boys can feel this, too. Calvin is generally a happy, content, and independent little guy, but when Dan is home, he takes it to a new level. His smiles are even brighter, his chatter is non-stop, and the pace of his walk becomes almost a run. Jack sleeps well and seems to kick and smile more while he is awake. I just feel more relaxed.

Dan was off this past weekend, and it was a little taste of shalom for all of us.

We went on a long morning walk to an office park near our house on Saturday. Jack slept the whole time while I pushed him in the stroller while Calvin walked with Daddy.

Calvin's little legs carried him for two miles next to Dan. Through the grass, over the bridge, around the lake, and down the paved trail. Everywhere he went, he found "balls." Anything round qualifies...rocks, light bulbs, pine cones, etc.

Cal claimed that the geese were "A Buddy's!" That means he likes them. We'll have to change that =)! Here he was watching one of the geese fly away. We've noticed that even when his eye is patched, he is able to see things like this from far away!

Calvin wore his new running shoes that he LOVES. He frequently points to them saying "dada" and "Bop-pa." I think he likes having shoes that look like Daddy's and Grandpa's. The only downside to these shoes is that they have laces. Hence, the stops to re-tie them.

When it was time to cross a street or walk through a parking lot, Calvin gave Dan the stick he was holding in his left hand to reach up to take Dan's hand. When back on the sidewalk, Cal waited for Dan to give him his stick back before taking off on his own.

That evening, we headed to the Duke Gardens to have a picnic together. We made burritos for the occasion, and Calvin surprised us by actually eating his. He sat on the blanket to have his burrito, occasionally interjecting a "dada" and pointing to Dan. I think he was excited to be doing and eating the same thing as Daddy.

Jack and I played on the blanket while Calvin and Dan did a little exploring after dinner.

Little Voices

Our house is becoming quite noisy in a good way! Jack is quite a little talker. He loves to coo, ooh, and goo, sometimes with "raspberries" like this if we're lucky!

Jack didn't want to talk here, but I'll take his sweet smiles!

You can hear some of Cal's whining in the background. This is the soundtrack at our house for at least 15 minutes after Calvin wakes up from his nap each day. I much prefer this soundtrack of Calvin happily singing, which he just started a week ago! He likes it when we dance along (more like head-bob along). I had to video from behind so he wouldn't stop.

Calvin tries out new words like crazy now! It is pretty fun to watch. I've been meaning to compile a list of his words, so here goes:

A Buddy (This is how he refers to himself)

A Buddy's? (This is how he says "mine" or "Can I have it?")

Mama

Da

"Ga!" (Jack)

ahha (hot)

co (cold)

off (also means out)

uh-oh!

no

ey-yas (yes)

a-po (apple)

chee (cheese)

ssss (shhh)

ca-cu (cracker)

toa (toast)

ray-ree (raisin)

baw (ball)

foe-baw (football)

sue (shoe)

ahh (mouth)

eyeezz (eye)

no (nose)

toes

Leh-yos (Legos)

puh (push)

more

di-puh (diaper)

hi

bye-bye (always while waving)

dis (this)

bus

door

dir-dir (dirty)

woah!

moo (moon)

Bapa (Grandpa)

Bi-buh (Bible)

sounds:

vrrr (car)

woof

ish (general for sounds he can't really imitate)

Moo

grr

Mwwah (kisses)

Here is Calvin talking giving Jack kisses:

And naming his body parts:

And saying hi, no, and diaper:

Sharing

The concept of sharing has taken our life by storm over the last 3 months. Calvin prefers to be in control of the situation when he chooses to actively share (i.e. give something away). Jack always "gives" things back, so Calvin enjoys sharing with him. Not so much with other people.

Calvin has shared some very valuable items with his little brother. Some of my favorites: a whole Lego house, which I found balanced on Jack's chest, the Metlife blimp and a golf ball,

A whole library of books,

Daddy,

And Jack's blanket. Calvin hurriedly sits on this blanket to claim his place before I've fully settled it on the ground for Jack.

Jack is so easy-going that not even the Lego house or having to lay half-off his blanket phases him. Sweet buddy.

Dan and I have been practicing our sharing skills as well. While Calvin is very good at not taking his friend's toys, he loves taking all of our stuff and imitating everything we do. He loves using our Kleenex to wipe his mouth and dust the furniture. He's taken clean laundry from the basket to "kill" flies against the widows as he's seen us do with towels. And just today he took a cloth wipe to pretend to wipe his bottom.

Calvin's been pretending to talk on the phone a lot lately. I like how he tilts his head a bit...guess we must do that!

Calvin has had a fascination with our shoes this week. Calvin seriously asks for mommy's and daddy's shoes instead of his own. After being out of the room for a few minutes yesterday, I found that Cal had taken these shoes out of my closet to create this display on the bathroom rug.