A Soccer Star in the Making

Untitled from courtney on Vimeo.

Check out Calder's crazy soccer skills!! A few kicks in the backyard with Daddy and he's already off and dribbling. Watch how he easily blasts through the pack of defenders!

Great-Grandma Bird

Calder and Sandhya spent some time getting to know Great-Grandma Bird. Sandhya hopped right up onto her lap with a few cheerios.
Calder, however, wasn't crazy about sitting on her lap...but he would sit next to her while watching Elmo! He even learned to say her name -- 'Mamma Birt'. That night, as he was trying to go to sleep, I heard him practicing her name over and over. :)

More weekend fun!

On Sunday, we met up with Mommy's friend Kelly at a park for a picnic, a walk, and some time at the playground.






















Calder waving to the ducks as they swim away!








We even saw a swan! It kept swimming back and forth in front of us.

Later, we went to visit Marla and Sam and had a great time-- but our visit was way too short! We are looking forward to when they come to visit us this summer.

Family Reunion

We enjoyed a wonderful day on Saturday reuniting with my extended family. The kids had a great time playing outside and my Aunt Sharleen even set up a little Easter egg hunt for them!
Jacob the little tree hugger!
Calder getting to know cousin Kelly. He made a game out of throwing the ball down the stairs and then dragging an adult down with him to retrieve it.


Reese and Sandhya became fast friends!











We also took the opportunity to celebrate Ella's 5th birthday with a little bit of cake!

Long Michigan Weekend

Calder and I spent a long weekend in Michigan visiting with lots of family and friends. Calder and Sandhya enjoyed some park playtime and a fruit picnic!

Calder entertaining himself with the gate at Grandpa and Grandma Peggy's house.

20 Months Old!

At 20 months, Calder is obsessed with all things animals. (That's a tiger puzzle piece in his hand.) It started with our trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo a few weeks ago, and gets more intense each day! You can often find him yelling 'zoo!' or 'animals!' as he carts around his plastic animal figurines.
He's also still very much into "helping" mommy and daddy. We painted our bedroom this weekend, and he really wanted to help. Fortunately, he was content to use a roller brush without the paint! (Notice that even while painting, he's still holding onto his little leopard figurine!)







The other big new thing is that he's starting to consistently string two words together. The most impressive occurrence of this was when we pulled up to the library last week. He took one look at the building and said 'New books'! Not only did he string those two words together for the first time, but he recognized where we were! :) And his latest two word combo? "Home Depot". Dave taught him that this morning before their father/son trip to the home improvement mecca.

Little Buddies

Our friends Drew, Aileen and Will came over to hang out for a bit on Saturday. Calder looks like a giant compared to Will in this picture -- but I'm sure Will is going to catch up in no time!

Hey, Drew and Aileen -- you better add a riding toy to that list of new toys to get! It looks like Will is ready to take off!

A trip to the park

We met up with Calder's friend Charlotte and her mommy at a local park on Friday. Calder and Charlotte enjoyed climbing, sliding and swinging as well as a wagon ride by the lake.
The static cling on the slides was insane!

My sweaty boy, once we returned home. It was a beautiful morning, but it was actually a little too hot!

A day for the history books...

Let this day go down in history as the day that Calder's dinner consisted of both meat and vegetables - and he ate it happily (and messily) with a little help from ketchup and mustard! We think it may have been the influence of our friend Mike who was joining us for dinner -- I think we'll have to have him over more often!











Things got a little silly after dinner...

Later, Calder showed Mike his favorite little resting spot.

Mmmm...Sherbert!

Calder ate his dinner really well on Friday, so he got to have a scoop of sherbert for dessert! He picked up the whole scoop with his spoon and went for it!

Isn't he so handsome with his new haircut?

Radio Flyer

Calder enjoyed one of our warm spring days with a relaxing ride in his new wagon.
Later, he let Lucky have a turn! Lucky liked the wagon ride just as much as Calder!

Happy Birthday Julia and Abigail!

We celebrated Julia's 3rd and Abigail's 1st birthday with them this weekend. Calder and Julia were like two peas in a pod -- running all over the yard holding hands and hugging!
Can you count how many chins Calder has??
That's a big cake for a little girl!!
Abigail digging in! She liked the frosting a lot!

Calder missed his nap due to the party...so we took the first signs of a meltdown as our cue to exit. This was the scene 3 minutes into our ride home...

Pittsburgh Zoo

We had a great time at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium this weekend. It really is a fantastic zoo! I couldn't believe how close we were to the animals! Here's our family photo op at the zoo entrance.
Calder giving Zaidy a high-five!
Checking out the penguins with Zaidy...


Check out how close we were to this tiger! I didn't even use the zoom for this one. If it wasn't for the thick glass wall separating us, we could have reached out and touched him. He seemed to like all of the attention, since he tended to hang out right by the glass wall.

We love hand-me-downs!

We received some great hand-me-downs last week! My boss (and friend) gave Calder this adorable giraffe costume. I'm not sure if it'll still fit this Halloween, so we decided to break it in early with a little dress-up fun! Calder insisted on going outside as soon as he put it on. Thanks Joan!

I love the look on his face in this picture. The boy across the street was shooting hoops and Calder was in total admiration. He just stood there and stared at him for several minutes. Deep down I think he really wanted to join in, but he was content just to watch this time. I'm sure the neighbor boy was wondering why this giraffe-baby kept staring at him!


Beet! Beet! from courtney on Vimeo.

This video is a little long, but it shows how happy Calder was to receive this bus. It was given to us by my friend Mary whose kids have outgrown it. I think I've mentioned before -- Calder is obsessed with buses. He didn't come out of it for at least 30 minutes, and he's still excited each day when we come home and he sees his bus through the window! Thanks Mary! Beet Beet!

Don't Spill

Untitled from courtney on Vimeo.

Yeah, right. Of course he spilled. I'm just glad we were in the kitchen!

Chez Calder

Untitled from courtney on Vimeo.

Calder started off by practicing his drumming skills on my pots, but then decided he was up for a taste test...

Sweetness

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. It just fills my heart right up. My brother and I are so incredibly fortunate to have such happy, healthy, beautiful, sweet children.

Slumber Party!

Sandhya stayed over last Saturday night while her Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a night out (and a morning off). :) She got ready for bed first, then helped deliver PJs and a diaper to Calder.
They enjoyed some quality playtime together by taking turns riding and pushing...








sharing crayons...
...and sharing hugs! Ok, so Sandhya wasn't so into the hugging. And, yeah, those are my fuzzy socks Calder is wearing. Don't ask.

After the kids were tucked in...I made cookie art!