7 Months

I was at church the other day and I held a teenie tiny newborn.  She was so little! I thought for sure she had to be about 5 lbs. When I asked how much she weighed the mom said "oh she's about 8 lbs now."  What?! 8 lbs!? I remember when Calvin was 8 lbs and I thought he was huge! I can't believe that he was that little once!
I love my little handsome.  He is such a happy boy.  He has been kinda sick this month, but even when he is sick he is still so happy.  I feel so lucky to be his mom.  He has gained a little bit of weight since last month (luckily) he weighed in at a whopping 15.3 lbs. Still somewhat underweight but he is in the 75% for height he is 28 inches long. He's my little string bean. This month has been a month of trying new food. So far he's tried: carrots, peas, bananas, avocados, apple sauce, and sweet potatoes. He has these sweet potato puffs that he goes nuts over. When I bring out the container his eyes light up and he puts his arms out to the side and starts shaking his hands, he gets so excited!

Calvin eating avocados

One of the super funny things about Calvin is that he loves to get scared. Jesse and I will hide and jump out at him and he will jump and then start laughing really hard. Or we will make a scary face and growl at him he thinks it's the funniest thing.  He has also learned the "B" sound so everyday it's "ba bababa ba ba bababa". He looks straight into your eyes, lifts his eyebrows, and tilts his head like a grown-up would while trying to describe something. He has the most expressive eyes! His eyes smile before his mouth does. I love his sweet happy face.  I could be in the saddest mood, but when I get him out of his crib and I see that sweet smile and hilarious chirp I can't help but be happy. I love my little boy.

Calvin and his best friend Stailey

This month we also went on Calvin's first hike. We went to Butcher Jones around Saguaro Lake with my mom and my nephews.  He did so good, he loved being outside, but toward the end he got super tired so he slept the entire hike back to the car.

Here is Calvin's 7 month photo shoot:

I am the Luckiest

I over heard someone say "I'll be happy when..." and I got to thinking, I don't really have any of those thoughts of "I'll be happy when..." I don't have the grass is greener on the other side complex.  My life is pretty green. Greener than I ever could have imagined was possible. Let me back up for a moment. When I was young I thought that when you get married you just kind of deal with your spouse.  I thought that you pick a mate that you could stand being around for a long time, someone that didn't annoy you too much.  I didn't think that it was possible to have a life without yelling, arguing, criticizing, or depression of some sort.
When I got married to my amazing husband I thought that I just became the LUCKIEST woman in the world.  I have absolutely no idea how I got such an amazing husband. I married up. I married a nerd. A nerd who is under the impression that he married up (silly boy).  He has never raised his voice.  He loves to serve in every opportunity available.  He is the kindest person I have ever met.  He doesn't hold grudges or think unkind things about people.  He is smart, like really smart. Smart with computers, anything school related.  He is one of those guys that knows a good amount about a lot of things. He likes to learn new things, which is a rare trait.  He has an amazing voice and he plays the piano very well.  He is hilarious and I love even his stupidest jokes.  He makes me feel special.  He likes my cooking.  He is the most amazing dad to our sweet son Calvin. He plays with him and likes to read him stories.  He jumps at the opportunity to feed him new things.  He makes Calvin laugh. And what I love most, he loves me. I can be completely myself around him (the real me is kinda scary- stinky toots, a cackle for a laugh, sometimes questionable cooking, I'm super awkward). Anyway I hold nothing back from him and yet he still adores me.  It baffles me how I got to be so lucky.  I thought that I just couldn't be any happier. It wasn't possible. I just married the perfect guy for me my heart couldn't possibly hold more joy than that, and then we have our little baby boy Calvin.
Calvin melts my heart.  I love how his eyes smile as he chirps with laughter. I love how he reaches for me, even when he's not hungry or tired.  I love knowing that he is our son, we are a family and we always will be.  I love knowing that he is going to be such a good big brother someday (not anytime soon that I know of).  He seems like he is going to be so responsible.  I love how smart he is, he is learning so much so fast! I'm so proud of my son already. He has such a special spirit and I know that the Lord has big plans for my little Calvin.
Yesterday we have been married for three years. My whole life changed when I married and got sealed to Jesse.  I'm honestly the luckiest girl in the world. I have no idea what I did or how I did it, but I'm grateful.

 

Christmas in Utah 2011

For Christmas this year we took a trip to Utah to visit Jesse's family.  We were able to take a plane but I was quite nervous about how our new little baby would handle the trip.  We took a car trip to California in November and Calvin did pretty good then so I shouldn't have had anything to worry about but I did anyways. I'm not sure why I was so anxious about the flight, but everything went smoothly and Calvin was the same happy boy he always is.
The trip was lovely; full of family fun and games, cute traditions, and even a little mistletoe action.  On Christmas Eve all of the aunts, uncles, and grand kids re-enacted the nativity.  Calvin was the youngest baby there so he got to play the part of baby Jesus and did a fine job.  I think he liked the little manger more than his own crib, despite his legs hanging off the side of it. He just laid there and smiled as all of the other grand kids were gathered around adoring him.  I love my little angel son.
Jesse's sister Mirinda MADE us an awesome AT-AT for Christmas (AT-ATs are the big, four-legged walkers in The Empire Strikes Back).  She is so ridiculously talented! We are trying to impress the importance of Star Wars on Calvin at an early age. The goal is to have a good collection of toys and memorabilia going for him the time he understands how awesome Star Wars is.  Some parents set up college funds in order to help their kids to get a head start in life; we're making sure he has a good Star Wars collection. I think he'll have a leg up on everyone.
My favorite Christmas gift was visiting my mission president.  He and his beautiful wife returned from the Chile, Osorno mission back in July and I swore I would go to their homecoming no matter what.  However, I had a 3 week old baby and c-section and it just wasn't realistic to drive 11 hours so this was the first time I was able to visit them since I was a missionary.  We visited with them and their adorable family. I just love them.  They are such Christ-like people and make me want to do better just from being around them.  I enjoyed reminiscing about old mission companions and it made me miss being a missionary and being so involved in the Lord's work.  They are probably coming to Arizona in March so I am counting down the days
Such a wonderful Christmas!  I'm so grateful for such loving family and friends that make life so sweet and full of joy.
Jesse, Calvin, and I did our own little Christmas a couple days after we got home from Utah.  Calvin got a lot of new puff cereal and fruit mush to try out.  It fun to see him try new things and how insistent he is about getting more of whatever food we introduce to him. Jesse got me a drawing tablet for Christmas.  I am so excited to start researching and learning how to do digital paintings and whatnot.  Digital paintings are cool but I'm most excited about the whatnot.
This Christmas couldn't have been any better.  I love the Christmas season and I'm always a little sad when I have to take down all my glittery decorations.
 Preface: There are a lot of pictures, I'm sorry.  I just loved them all. 

Jesse setting up the Lego train.  Calvin is very interested.

Helping dad put up Christmas lights

Jesse and his a cappela boy band group were invited to sing at the temple for Christmas, they sang seven songs and it was beautiful! They also sang at the Higley Community Christmas Concert, but it was in a chapel so I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures but it was so much fun.  "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear" Elf

I was hoping for a white Christmas up in Utah, but it was just cold.

He didn't love the cold ground

Chirpy baby

The whole Pettit Family

My amazing mission president and his sweet wife

The Nativity

Everyone putting on costumes

Jesse bet Carissa she couldn't fit her head through a child sized tunic.  As she proceeded to prove him wrong she got stuck and Jesse started tickling her. She didn't love that.

Jesse's role was the donkey that brought the Kings to the baby Jesus.  Someone asked why all three kings were on one donkey.  His brother said the three wise men were going green this year so they were sharing a donkey.  Jesse said that he was an especially environmentally friendly donkey a "pre-ass"  We all had a pretty good laugh at Jesse's silly jokes.

We came back into the room to find Calvin playing with the other cousins toys.

Calvin loves his new awesome AT-AT

Calvin 6 months

 Oh my sweet baby boy Calvin is 6 months old.  I was about to publish the post and I looked away for a few seconds and with just a few pats on the keyboard and Calvin had erased my entire post. I guess he did not approve.  I can't believe he is already 6 months! Isn't he supposed to still be a newborn? We took him to the doctor for his 6 month wellness check up and he had LOST weight! He is at 14.8 lbs. What a turd! I mean I tell him all the time that I want him to stay little but he is the same weight he was at 3 months old.  So we are trying to fatten him up.  I'm feeding him every hour and a half to two hours.  He's starting to eat cheerios. He doesn't quite have the finger dexterity to feed himself yet but he's getting there. We have started feeding him carrot mush too.  I'm personally hoping that the carotene from the carrots will give him a bit of color, because knowing who his parents are he is doomed to have pale white skin for all of his life.
He is starting to sit up on his own, well it's more of a balancing act, but he does it well. He is such a happy boy! He laughs and giggles all the time, he chirps like a Cockatiel.  He will often grab my face and then let out a big happy chirp, it warms my heart. He loves playing peek-a-boo and gives a good deep stomached laugh whenever we "re-appear".
He has always been a really extra good sleeper.  Ever since day one he has only wanted to wake up once in the night to nurse and that's it. As of late he is getting up about an hour after we put him down and he doesn't want to go back to sleep. He is also getting up 2 more times during the night to nurse.  I know I'm pretty spoiled to be complaining about getting up 3 times during the night, but it's a big change!  He get's really grumpy when we leave his room. He has the whole Trust verses Mistrust stage going on and so it's hard to find that median between comfort and helping him learn to sooth himself.
 He's such a sweet baby, I'm grateful to be his mom and watch him learn so quickly.  He makes me happy.

 

Sitting up all by himself

 Here is Calvin's first taste of carrots

 

Apparently Calvin REALLY likes limes 

Bachelors in Family and Human Development

Yay for me!!! I finished school and now have a Bachelors degree in Family and Human Development!  I am the first person in my immediate family (excluding in-laws) to get a Bachelors Degree.  It's always been a goal of mine to get a degree. I remember growing up and not being able to imagine my perfect wedding but instead contemplating what my major would be in college.  I settled on interior design when I was in grade school but then learned that I had to be good at math for that and I knew at a very early age math was not for me. In Junior high I really wanted to be a chef.  I still like cooking a lot but it became more of a fun, personal thing rather than something I wanted to go to school for.  In high school I wanted to become a psychologist.  I wanted to help people through their problems and help them realize that they are worth more than they think.  I wanted everyone to know that they are special. But during my junior year of high school one of my friends committed suicide and it really took hit me hard.  For one reason or another it never occurred to me that if I chose to become a psychologist that it would be a possibility that one of my patients would take their own life and honestly I don't think that I could handle it. After high school I went to Mesa Community College and got an Associates degree in Art.  I figured that was a safe bet - I liked art. Back then, I was working full time as a photographer and I was loving life. After graduating with my AA degree I went on a mission and when I got back, I took a semester off, got married, and dove right back into school. ASU was good to me: they accepted all my transfer credits and even allowed me to test out of a few Spanish classes.  It was time to choose a real major. I love photography but I felt like I already had a wonderful education from working at Still Life Studios.  The only other thing that I really really wanted to do in life was to become a mom and raise awesome babies so I chose Family and Human Development as my major.  I did all my switching back and forth between majors when I was a kid so when it came time to really choose, I was ready. I loved the classes I took! I think one of my favorite classes was Child Development. It covered everything from conception to age two. I found the different stages that kids go through fascinating.  I love being able to apply the things that I have learned to my own parenting style and it's fun to have my own little science experiment (CALVIN!!). I love looking back at my old textbooks to get a bit more insight into what to do at this stage of development.  It's been such a blessing in my life and I can only imagine it will be more and more useful as my child(ren) get older and more plentiful.
I chose not to walk with my graduating class since earning a degree was more of a personal goal (although you may feel free to send me a graduation gift, *wink wink*).  I'll do a little happy dance when it arrives in the mail and that will be it.  Oh, and I'll probably convince Jesse that we need to celebrate and go have a yummy dinner someplace nice (like Applebees, haha, j/k, gross).

Brig's Baptism

 One of my oldest nephews (Brigham) turned eight in November and he got baptized over Thanksgiving weekend! Brig is such a wonderful example for his younger brother and sister.  One of his cousins gave a talk about baptism and she recalled a conversation between some of the younger cousins about what it felt like to be baptized.  Soon after that conversation one of those cousins got baptized and described her baptism as feeling warm. The other young cousin exclaimed, "I knew it!" I looked over at Brig and he had a big smile on his face and was nodding in agreement.  It made me tear up.  I love seeing him make such good choices in following God's plan for him.  There was such a sweet spirit there and I'm grateful that I was able to be there to enjoy it.