I can't believe Calvin is almost a year old... The past 11 months have gone by both quickly and slowly. I'm always looking forward to Calvin's milestones and am constantly on the lookout for the next one. He is just too cute though, isn't he?? We had our professional family photos done this summer and I couldn't be happier with the results. We used the same photographer we had for our wedding and I knew she would do just as good of a job the second time around. She was in Utah for a week and carved out a half hour to take our pictures in Alpine.
Calvin is doing great! Here are a few updates about his growth and development.
- I still don't know his measurements, but I'll include them in his one year post after our doctor's checkup. He is still a pretty small kid, though. He fits in 6-9 month clothing and some 12 month clothing. He is a short little guy, but he works it!
- He is getting closer to walking but isn't quite there yet. He walks with a rolling walker and cruises everywhere. Sometimes he will hold on to something with just one hand and he balances great. I practice walking with him by holding just one of his hands and encouraging him forward. He gets a big kick out of each little step he takes. He's getting more and more mobile every day and can get into any cupboard, drawer, toilet, and garbage can in our house.
- He loves to explore. He will ignore his toys and just crawls everywhere and anywhere. He especially loves playing with our blinds, looking out the window, or sifting through our refrigerator. If the refrigerator is open at all, and he sees it, he will drop whatever he is doing and race toward it as fast as his chubby little hands and knees can carry him. It's really cute. Lately, we have been playing with a little tennis ball and have practiced rolling it back and forth to each other. He's not super coordinated with it yet, but he has fun trying. :) Most of the time, he gets it rolling back to me - he's just very creative about how he gets it there.
- You can't hide anything from him. He will find it. He's learning more and more object permanence every day and seems to have a better memory all the time.
- He's become more clingy with me lately, and to be honest I really like it. For so long, he showed no separation anxiety, and this made me nervous that he didn't really like me! Now, he is constantly crawling up to me and grabbing my pants, indicating he wants to be carried. Sometimes he just wants to check in with me for a second before going off to play again. At the grocery store, he doesn't want to be in the front baby seat and instead will whine and grab at my shirt until I carry him. I would be annoyed if I didn't find it so endearing.
- He knows when daddy is coming home and crawls at light speed to greet him! This is TJ's favorite part of the day. It's soooo cute! If TJ isn't home and I say, "Calvin, daddy's coming!" he will look around the room toward the garage door where TJ usually enters. He knows his daddy and he LOVES him. Who doesn't? :) He says "mamamama" when he is upset, and I think he knows it means he wants me. He says "babababa" when he wants his bottle or food.
- He is a human vacuum cleaner. This kid will find any scrap of food (or non-food) and eat it so fast I can barely catch him! He loves to eat normal foods. He eats three meals a day with three bottles. I've been working on weening the bottle from him and it's been a little rough. We have a couple sippys that he seems to like, but he will only take 1/5 of what he usually does with the bottle. Surprisingly, he seems to do best with just a cup and a straw! He is always seeing me drink out of my St. Mark's water bottle (best bottle ever!) and he would copy me and drink out of it when I wasn't looking. He became adept at drinking from a straw this way. He drank 3 oz of milk straight from a cup and straw today, way more than he's ever taken from a sippy cup. He doesn't like the sippy cups with a built in straw, though. I know - I don't get it either. I guess I'll just go with whatever works! His meals usually include the following foods: blueberries, string cheese, yogurt, raspberries, strawberries, peas, cherry tomatoes (though he doesn't seem crazy about them yet), avocados, shredded chicken, Cheerios, torn pieces of wheat bread, and a small portion of whatever meal I've made that day for dinner. He will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him! He wants to eat whatever TJ and I eat. If I give him something sweet or a little bit of junk food, he will scream until he gets another bite. One taste of ice cream led to a big tantrum later! I want him to have treats, because they were a fun part of my growing up, but I also don't want to deal with the tantrums. :)
- He is a more introverted child I think. I don't want to label him early, but my suspicion is he may be a little more on the shy side. I was a very painfully shy child (and teen... and adult :)), so I am not surprised at this. Maybe he will come out of his shell later, who knows! But for now, he seems to clam up a little around strangers or in different surroundings. He doesn't smile as much, he doesn't act as involved or active, and he mostly sits in my lap and observes what is going on. With just me and TJ, it's a whole different story - he's active, smiley, giggly, and more fussy at times. He's just more open in general. I love watching his little personality unfold more and more each day. He is and always has been such an alert and observant baby. From birth! This kid doesn't like to miss anything. He still loves people and isn't scared of being held by others, but he just seems quieter and more stone-faced when others are around.
- Our routine is still kind of shifting, and maybe once a week he will take just one nap, but he still mostly takes two naps a day. His nighttime sleep is really funny. If he goes to bed after 7 or 7:30, he will usually wake up around 5 am or 5:30. If he goes to bed between 6 and 6:30, he will sleep until 6:30 or 7 am. People often ask me why I put him to bed so early, and this is why. :) I want to squeeze as much sleep out of him as I can! His naps can be varied, though usually they are around 9am and 1:30 pm, but his nighttime sleep needs to be pretty set in stone. I'm not a fan of waking up earlier than I have to! Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child was probably the most helpful book I read when I was pregnant. I refer friends to it all the time. It has so much science behind its principles, and that helps the left brain in me.
We are doing great as a little family. I love my boys so much! Some days are hard, and sometimes I want to give up, but that's the thing with being a mom - you can't give up so you just do it! And each time I push through a hard moment, I get stronger. Most days, though, it's great and so fun. We have a lot of little adventures together, me and my little man! I can't wait to see him grow into a toddler.
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