Thursday, May 31, 2012

Happy day -end of May!

Hope you all had a good long weekend. Callan and I braved a connecting flight up to Montreal on our own (he did great) on Friday to visit Huge's family. Huge came and joined us on Saturday after his adventures in Colombia and although it was super busy and went by way too quickly, it was a great trip. I always feel like I could use a few more days like that.


Callan has been on a good number of flights by this point, but I was kind of nervous about this set of flights because this is the first time he's been fully mobile on a plane and I wasn't sure if he'd be willing to sit still when necessary. I let him run around the airport terminal as much as he wanted to try to burn off some energy before boarding and then armed myself with some toys, books and lots of snacks. A big hit on the plane was the empty tupperware container I brought. He could spend lots of time putting the cover on and off, putting stuff in, taking it out and shaking it. 


We survived and now we're back. Yesterday Adelia took the boys to the park and she snapped these pictures. He was in an exceptionally good mood yesterday!



Seriously, could he look any happier?


These swings sure are fun



Time for a snack


Friday, May 25, 2012

Dance, Dance Revolution

I've talked before about Callan's dance moves and I've been trying for awhile now to catch them on video. Unfortunately, as soon as you whip out the camera, the crazy kid wants it (and stops doing whatever it is that you're trying to film). So I finally was able to do it on the sly -so sorry for the weird side angle, but it's worth a watch. The kid's got moves and what he lacks technically, he makes up for in heart.


For Callan's birthday, his nana and papa got him music classes at Old Town 
School of Music. They have a wiggle worms program geared at kids his age, where they sing, dance and play musical instruments. Callan is one of the few walkers in his group, but he loves it. He tends to be a little shy at the beginning, but by the end of class, he's up dancing and playing with some of the other kids. It's hilarious and he's definitely having a lot of fun. It's a shorter program for the summer, but I'm thinking we'll do it again in the fall. It's been nice to have an activity that Callan enjoys that both Huge and I can be a part of. I can take Callan on my own, when Huge is out of town, but when he's here we both like to go and the other kids/parents have all been great too. Now I just need to work up the nerve to see if any of the parents would be up for a play date!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Summer?

We had an unseasonably warm day last week and Adelia took the boys for a walk. Even though the park near our house is closed, there is still space where they can go run around and burn off some energy. It was probably in the low to mid 80's (it had previously been in the 60s) and I guess the boys weren't too impressed with the weather as they were kind of grumpy and as Adelia said, didn't do too well in the heat. This could make for a long summer!

Hmm... it's warm. 


Ooh, thank goodness, we're back inside with the a/c

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Breakfast with Monkey

Don't mind me, just eating a little breakfast.

You want me to look at the camera?

Oh, ok.

Uh oh, she caught me...


Guess that banana does fit in my mouth! Silly monkey.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Purple Monkey Playroom v.3.0

Wednesdays are Callan's alone days with Adelia. I was always jealous that Luke and his mommy got a day together, but I'm also glad that Callan gets that day with Adelia. I think Callan misses having a playmate on those days, but it give Adelia an opportunity to take Callan places that would be extra difficult to do with two. They don't do something special every week, but this week she decided to take them to the Purple Monkey Playroom. She had been there before with him (and I took him once on a play date) and it's a perfect space to let him run around, interact with some kids and play with new toys.

Such a big boy walking to the playroom.

Hm, some farm animals -I wonder how many I can shove in my mouth

For some reason I am obsessed with the bumbo again. I can spend 20 minutes climbing in and out of it. I also like putting other objects in the bumbo and then seeing if I can sit on them.

Ah, hard day at play. Time for a snack!

What a perfect day of fun.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mothers Day

I am very behind in posting --same excuses, work is crazy, life is crazy and I just don't have time, but if I don't write them down, I will forget and that would be worse. So this past weekend was Mothers day (hope you all remembered to call your moms! And is it Mothers Day or Mother's Day? I always want to spell it with an apostrophe, but I think that wrong...) and we had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, Huge and I went to dinner at Ria, which was absolutely amazing.  I told Huge that it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. Not only was the food was fabulous, but the service was stellar and so attentive (and Huge is treated like a minor celebrity there since he's done a lot of work for them and knows the chef, manager, sommelier). It definitely brought me back to a time when eating out was an occasion. I would definitely recommend going there (although, it's not cheap, so go for a special occasion or when you have some extra cash to spend!).
Saturday was a busy day with Wiggle worms (more on that later) and Luke's 1st birthday party (again, another post to come later) in the suburbs, so we spent the afternoon in the 'burbs hitting up Ikea and running other assorted errands.

Sunday was Mothers Day and I woke up to a nice surprise. Callan had gotten me a present! He decorated a balloon and gift bag with his hand prints (they're jumbo!) and then framed a picture of us. It was a great Mothers Day gift and I'm glad he remembered it :)




Before we give Huge too much credit, I should note that this was all Adelia's idea -and it's a good thing she did it because otherwise I don't think Callan/Huge would have gotten me anything! I love the picture, especially since we take a lot of pictures together (thanks Huge), but so rarely print them and the hand print bag is something I'll save. I guess Adelia took the kids on the balcony to make the bags and the boys were more interested in throwing things over the edge... guess that water table we wanted to get Callan will have to wait - I can't have them pitching things over from 14 floors up!

Anyway, this was technically my second Mothers Day, but the first one we really celebrated. I don't usually make a big deal over holidays or my birthday, but I really did enjoy having the day that was all about me (and Callan). Thanks Huge, Adelia and Callan for making Mothers Day so memorable.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

12 month appointment

Last week we went to the doctor for Callan's 12 month appointment and like usual, he grew... A LOT!
His head stayed in the 70th percentile, but he grew another almost TWO inches! Ridiculous -he is still off the charts at almost 33 inches and I was also convinced he would be over 25 lbs, but he was just 24 lbs 4 ounces.

For reference:
9 months
31 inches, 22 lbs 10 ounces

6 months
29 inches, 21 lbs

4 months
27.5 inches, 18 lbs 2 ounces

2 months
26 inches, 15 lbs 14 ounces

Birth
21 inches, 8 lbs 2 ounces

So as you can see, he is a GIANT! A perfectly happy giant. We were given the green light to incorporate milk into his diet as well as honey, although they did mention holding off a little bit more on some of the high allergen foods, like shellfish and nuts. However, although Callan hasn't had these things directly, he has had things things that have touched them, so we think his allergy potential is low. So we'll proceed with caution, but aren't too concerned. 

The one thing that is concerning is his sleep! Where has our great sleeper gone... sigh. One day he'll sleep through the night again. (I think). And we need to get him off the bottle. He's down to 1 or 2 a day, so I don't think it will be too hard, but Callan is stubborn and will only do it when he's good an ready. Welcome to life with a toddler!


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Field Trip!

Callan took a little field trip today and went to the Children's Museum for the first time. The pictures Adelia took were amazingly cute and they both had a great time. The adventure started as soon as they left the house on the bus when Adelia texted to tell me that Callan kicked a lady on the bus. Thankfully the lady laughed about it, but Callan was stone faced serious... guess he thought she was talking too loudly!


Anyway, here are the pictures from the museum today and after seeing them, it just reinforced what I wrote earlier about how he's a complete toddler. 




Pushing the ice cream cart (probably trying to steal some)

And then he had to stop to dance!




Adelia said he sat down to listen to the display!




Oh my, what big teeth you have...

He also insisted on pushing the stroller around.

Asian driver




Gone fishing

Overall, they had a great day and these field trips seem like so much fun for both of them. I guess it was so much fun that Callan didn't want to leave and when he was told it was time to go, was not too happy and then tried to distract her by dancing! But seriously, the terrible twos don't start until after they turn two, right? And tell me they're not that bad, please?

12 month update/review

I feel a little behind in my posting (I still have to update about Callan's first birthday party) and there definitely is a lot to update, but for some reason I've been dragging my feet on doing it. I can blame it on work and being busy, but I know it's more than that... maybe it's because once I post it becomes real and an indelible mark in history (however trite that might sound). But then it's almost like if you don't say it happened, and you don't remember, did it really happen? And since I have a terrible memory, this blog comes in handy to recall those little details.

Anyway, Callan is one. Yes, I realize he has been for over a week now, but I think it's only now sinking in. He's firmly entrenched in the toddler category and no longer teetering on the edge between baby and toddler. Although he still has dimples-for-knuckles, that may be one of the last pieces of babyhood he has (on a side note -I might cry a little when I wake up one day and find those gone) and he really is all toddler. He's starting to communicate more, and understands simple things we ask/tell him. And he knows what he wants, when he wants and is not afraid to let us know when something has displeased him. I like to say he's "willful" because he's so smart and knows what's going on, but honestly it is kind of just a pleasant way of saying when he's being b-r-a-t-t-y. I'm hoping that as he understands more and is able to communicate more, this will get better, but only time will tell. Speaking of communication, in the last month he has really picked it up a notch. Since he was little, we have used (somewhat inconsistently) a few signs with Callan and this past month, he has started to actually uses them to communicate with us. We started with the basic signs; more, eat, water. milk and all done, and now we're adding please, thank you, help, cheese, cracker and book.  His favorite sign is more, since it usually is food related, but he'll also do it to signify again or to signal he wants more of whatever you have. He's also shaking his head no and pointing (and grunting) at things. It's amazing to see how his communication skills are improving and developing every day and although we can't really credit him with any real words, it seems like he's on the cusp of that too.

Callan has been walking for a little while, but all of a sudden, he seems like a real kid walking, and not just a baby learning how to walk. He loves moving around, climbing, and most of all dancing. I wish I could get a good video, because it may be one of the funnies, most adorable things ever. He's recently taken to dancing with his arms up, and he looks like he's ready for the clubs. His dance moves involve a lot of squats and bouncing, with an occasional twist thrown in. Callan is so entertaining and I love just watching him and interacting with him. I wish I had pictures and video of everything, because I know eventually I'm going to forget all these things and it's these small things that are so wonderful... like how he knows some of his body parts, but instead of pointing to his eyes, he'll squeeze them shut really tight and stick out tongue to show you, or how he'll put things in your hands when he wants you to open them or will take your finger and rub it on the books that teach babies about different textures, or how he'll take your hands and put them under his armpits when he wants to be picked up even though he's supposed to be lying down and sleeping, or how he likes to brush his hair or everything can be turned into a telephone and he'll just walk in circles while talking on the "phone"... There are a million of these little things that are so entertaining, but in and of themselves, unimportant, but things I don't ever want to forget.

Clearly we've had fun over the last year and I'm looking forward to the upcoming one to see what changes, challenges and adventures will come. I was hoping to have my video montage of the past year done by now, but I'm a little lazy, and getting photos from Huge proved to be more challenging than I thought. So instead I made a mini one with the pictures I had, which consisted of mostly iPhone pics... so it might not be the best, but it'll have to do (for now).



I still can't believe you're one... how the heck did that happen?