Calvin at 17 Months and Pregnancy at 32 Weeks

Little sweetie pie! Calvin is 17 months old and just couldn't be cuter. This was on a particularly snowy day when we decided to venture into the backyard. He has a love/hate relationship with the snow. He will fuss sometimes when he's in it, like he's scared, but cry when he has to go back inside. It's pretty funny, really. :) 

What's wrong, buddy? What's all this white stuff? I think Calvin is just hesitant with anything that's new. He's pretty cautious and likes to take his time before diving into things.

Calvin is doing quite well this month. His naps have evened out and are pretty consistently 2-3 hours in length. He still sometimes takes a shorter nap on days he has been really over-stimulated, like right after church when he's been in nursery for two hours. Speaking of nursery, he is in there full-time now and does really well. The leaders say they hardly know he is there! He just quietly does his own thing and doesn't cause a fuss. It's nice to know he's not screaming for me the whole time, but I'm not ruling out separation anxiety yet. I am waiting for it to hit around 18 months or when the new baby comes. I will cross my fingers he continues to be easygoing though. 

He loves to explore and get out of the house. Every day, we have an activity we do together. Mondays are for grocery shopping (as long as I've done all my coupon clipping and price-matching ahead of time). Tuesdays we have play group at the church with our ward friends. Wednesdays we have Mandy and her cute son Logan come over for a little playdate at my house. Thursdays are for story time at the library. Fridays are "funtivity" days where we may just stay at home or do an errand or play at an indoor play area somewhere. It's nice to have things going on during the week! Calvin seems to enjoy it and I always like getting out. Plus, I want to take advantage of getting out of the house while I can, because I know I'll probably be pretty home-bound with the new baby. 

Calvin has started throwing distinct tantrums and I want to laugh every time. They are short tantrums, just a few seconds in length, and he doesn't do it very often, but it's clear when he's very upset about something. He'll rub his hand against his mouth and flail his arms and legs around. This may sound strange, and I know I'll probably regret this as tantrums increase in length and volume over time, but these outbursts do not bother me in the least. At the store, at the library, wherever - I just don't care. I see tantrums as awesome learning opportunities. My mindset is, "Go ahead and scream and flail, it will not get my attention and it will not get you what you want." We will see how things progress, though! I may need to read up some more on handling toddler tantrums the right way. In the meantime, it feels right to me to tell him that's not how we get what we want and just ignore him until he calms down. 

He is such a sweet little boy. He smiles, he giggles, he loves to explore and look at new things. He is Curious George personified. He just wants to see and touch and hear everything that is going on. Nothing gets by this kid. He is generally bored with his toys and needs lots of new stimulation all the time. He will play with his blocks and puzzles, but only for a short time. He'd much rather follow me around the house and open/close every drawer he sees. He loves to cuddle up after his naps and watch "Baby Signing Time" with me. We watch one episode every day (they're about 20 minutes long) and practice all the signs together. A neighbor loaned them to me and I must say they are fabulous. Calvin LOVES to watch and practice signs. I didn't think he'd learn anything, but he's picked up on so many signs I can hardly believe it. He's also had a huge leap in communication and is saying lots of words, something I was worried about a month ago. He can sign:

Baby

More

Water

Eat

Thank you

Please

All done

Cracker (this one is his favorite - he even signed it without prompting when we walked down the cracker aisle at Walmart! Haha)

Bath

Sorry

Potty

Diaper

Doggy

Bye

Hat

Socks (sometimes)

Banana (this one is off and on)

Sleep

Milk

Brush teeth

Wash hands

He signs some better and more frequently than others. It's really fun to have him communicate with me. I can ask him, "What do you want?" when he whines, and he'll usually tell me! He'll mostly sign that he wants food or water or crackers. If he ever sees my water bottle in the vicinity, he will sign for it until he gets some. It's so cute. I posted a video toward the end of this blog post that shows him signing - I have to get him in the right mood to sign for a video because he can be stubborn and not want to sign for no purpose :) I'm a big believer in signing now. He says a lot of the words along with the signs as well, so he's beginning to pick up on speech. He will say "da-der" for cracker, "ba" for bath, "bish" for brush teeth, "et" for eat, "a dah" for all done, "de de" for baby, "da de" for daddy, "mih" for milk, etc. I'm really proud of my little signing baby! I can't even take the credit. While we do practice all the signs at home, the videos have really helped Calvin make the connections needed for communication.

Dad put Calvin in this little towel and it's pretty much the cutest thing that ever happened on planet earth.

I decided to try to decorate and be crafty for the new baby's room. We will be converting our office into a nursery and I think it'll be really cute in the end. I saw this frog on Pinterest and decided to try to make it myself. I think it turned out pretty cute! I am going to make three more animals in a similar style to line up above the crib. I am excited to see how it turns out. :)

MiLinh!!! One of my very favorite people on the entire planet. She's been such a wonderful friend to me over the years. When she visits, Calvin gets so excited! I love her with all my heart. Truly one of the sweetest people I've ever met.

Tantrum time! He wanted my food but it was all gone. A very upsetting, traumatic event for him. :)

Calvin got to hang out with this cute girl a few weeks ago. I babysat for a friend in the ward (hoping to build up some good karma in case I need to use her in the future) and her daughter was so cute. I think Calvin had a small crush. :)

Here I am at 32 weeks. I have been feeling pretty well! Sleep has been surprisingly good lately. Nausea has crept up on me again, which hasn't been very fun. My back and lower abdomen ache from time to time, usually after I take my walk/jog with Calvin. I don't feel too uncomfortable during the day and seem to not have any swelling yet. Nothing to really complain about this month. I can't believe I have less than 2 months to go... what?? I am so not ready. 

I send a video to TJ each day while he's at work because he misses us. I decided to include a few in this blog because I'm bad about taking pictures. 

This is Calvin signing cracker. Adorable!

Calvin will sing the "cleanup" song with me after independent playtime. :) He plays in his room for about 45-50 minutes every day and loves it. When I come in, he knows it means cleanup time, so he'll start to sing "hee-na, hee-na" along with me. It's just so cute!

(The video would not upload :( I'll have to try again later.)

Calvin is showing off some of his signs here. Just a portion of what he knows. I still can't believe he's picked up on so much. Thanks, Baby Signing Time! :)