Poop

Well friends, it has finally happened.  I feel that I'm FINALLY firmly entrenched in parenthood with our most recent baby adventure/learning experience.  Poop has achieved rock-star status in our home. This is due to Calvin's recent lack of bowl movements.  Has he pooped yet? What consistency was it? What color?  How bad did it smell?  You see, ever since we started feeding Calvin rice cereal he has been a little stopped up.  I never thought I would want someone to poop so much! When I say a little stopped up, I mean that our baby hasn't had any sort of meaningful movement in about two weeks.  It's obvious that he's uncomfortable and that makes us sad.  Additionally, he's getting up 3x as many times a night as he normally does, which also makes us sad and tired.  The other unsettling piece of this whole ordeal is that I KNOW when Calvin's little body finally finds the wherewithal to void itself of it's carefully collected and compacted waste, it will be terrible...and glorious.  We'll have to have to do something symbolic and meaningful when it finally happens.  If any of you drive by our house and see a little flag at half-mast or a brown ribbon tied around a tree, smile and know that we will sleep well that night.

5 Months

Calvin is 5 months already? What happened to the tiny little infant baby boy we just met a few months ago? Calvin is already showing signs of being more precocious than we had prepared for.  He's forming opinions on just about everything and lets us know when something is out of pattern.  He especially has a favorite book he wants read to him for bed time and a particular blanket he wants to sleep with. Calvin also recently starting to laugh socially and it's hilarious. Jesse and I will be laughing about something and he'll start laughing too.  He also laughs when we make scary faces at him which, if you're lucky, will turn into nervous cries.  He will wrap his arms around my neck and give me a big hug, in the process however, he will also grab two big handfuls of my hair.  It takes quite a bit of convincing to get him to let go.  He LOVES his daddy.  When Jesse gets home from work Calvin will get a big smile on his face and will watch him until Jesse comes and picks him up.  Rolling has become a way of life for Calvin as well.  The new-found mobility is a double-edged sword - I will hear him crying in the morning only to find he rolled over onto his tummy and got stuck against the side of his crib.  I'm really, really hoping that he stays in this less-mobile stage for a bit longer as I'm not ready to baby proof the everything up to 3 ft in my house quite yet. :)

California

Last week we went to California with one of our best friend couples. The have an adorable little boy about Calvin's age and John used to live there so he showed us around a bit as well. Our hotel was about two miles away from Disneyland (unfortunately we didn't go) but after we got settled in we went out to the best taco shop "Chronic Taco" to have dinner and we took a stroll down the pier at Huntington Beach. It was super dark out and there were about 10 surfers out. Surfing is already one of my biggest fears and in the dark... well that's just crazy. But there were some really big waves and it was fun to watch them not kill themselves.

We were all exhausted from the trip so we called it a night and crashed at the hotel. The next morning we woke up and went to the Newport Temple.  I guess it's not a super busy temple like the Mesa Temple because they didn't have a lot of different sessions going a regular intervals so we initiatories instead. It was one of the smallest Temples I've been in, but it was so beautiful inside. I love going to the Temple, it is always so refreshing and peaceful. After I come out I feel like I can take on the world, like nothing could mess up my day. I needed that because the day was very very rainy and I was supposed to have a photo shoot for the family that we came with at the beach that day.  It didn't work out to say the least. It was cold and rainy and kinda miserable to be outside. Later that evening the rain had stopped, well mostly so Jesse, the boy, and I decided to hit up Downtown Disney we had a little rain bubble to put over Calvin's stroller so he didn't get hit by any rain or wind. He was a pretty happy boy.

Us at the Lego store- our favorite Darth Vader

 We went to the beach the next morning when it was nice and sunny to have a family photo shoot for our friends.  We snagged a couple of our little family while we were there, the boy was angry most of the time. I guess I'm supposed to feed him. Oh yeah, that's my job.  So he wasn't the happiest but I think he has a cute cry face anyways. 

 We were sad because we found out that one of museums had a Star Wars exhibit starting a week after we left.  If any of you know how big of a nerd my husband is, you would know that it would be a terrible loss to miss this. It's going on till April so it looks like we'll be heading back out there in March for Jesse's birthday. It was a fun short trip, but it is always nice to be home.

Halloween

 The holidays are so different when you have kids. We didn't go to a bunch of parties or stay out late every night, we went to our ward Trunk or Treat but I had an allergy attack about 30 min in and so we went home early.  I feel like we are old people.  Jesse and I are home by 8pm and hopefully in bed by 9pm. This mostly has to do because he has to get up at a ridiculous hour for work, but it means he's home in the early afternoon and he can spend more time with his family.  So long story short we are old. But all the same Halloween was fun we did stay out till the ungodly hour of 11pm one night to go to one of our friends parties and we had so much fun. Calvin was a little pumpkin, I was dirt, and Jesse was pumpkin seeds. That's how it happened.

4 months

 My little handsome is 4 months!  Seriously best baby ever.  He is 15 lbs. and 27 inches long. He is really tall for his age and he just keeps growing! We've started putting him on rice cereal, he loves it. It was a bit awkward at first but now he likes it a lot. He tries to grab the spoon to feed himself and fusses when we are all finished.  Since we started feeding him cereal he's stopped spitting up so much so that makes me happy.  He has discovered his feet and he grabs them and puts them in his mouth at any given opportunity.  He is social and loves to be around people.  This month I introduced him to "mirror baby".  He smiles and laughs at that cute little baby in the mirror it's a lot of fun to see him stare at himself for a good minute. He is also learning to grad for toys and putting them in his mouth, such a smartie! He is still sleeping through the night and he's just a perfect little boy!