Dinnertime Antics

Here are a couple of videos from the last week featuring Calder at dinnertime. Sorry for the shaky camera work on the first one -- I was laughing too hard!


Orange Hands, Brown Face from courtney on Vimeo.

In this next one, Calder has his first taste of Tomato Soup. I love how he is smacking his lips in the beginning. At the end he's talking about how he's going to watch the movie "Cars" after he eats. Yes, we often bribe him with TV time as a reward for eating a good dinner. Hey -- it works!


Soup from courtney on Vimeo.

Best Friends

Sandhya has been staying with us since the arrival of her baby brother, and Calder is loving it. I especially love seeing them together in the mornings -- they are just so sweet to each other! Calder goes into Sandhya's room in the mornings and she squeals with excitement when she sees him. This morning, Calder even gave her a big hug (without any parental prompting!). Later, while they were watching The Wiggles, Sandhya walked over to Calder and said "Hand?" and held out her hand for him to hold. They stood there smiling, bopping to The Wiggles, and holding hands for several minutes. It was too cute!!!

Calder Meets Jaiden

Calder got to meet his baby cousin, Jaiden, yesterday! As we were walking into the hospital he said "Going see Uncle Sean, Aunt Vandana, baby cousin!!!" He loved Jaiden, and for some reason, he insisted on keeping a tight grip on Jaiden's sleeve the whole time he was sitting next to him.
Looks like Sandhya is still trying to figure this out...
Uncle Sean treated Sandhya and Calder to popsicles from the hospital's snack fridge! Calder actually scored 1 1/2 popsicles, since he dropped his first one on the floor midway through. He was about to have a major meltdown, but Uncle Sean quickly came to the rescue with a replacement!

Our New Nephew!

Our first nephew, Jaiden Navin, made a surprise arrival this morning at 9:37 am (3 weeks early!) He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. and was 22 inches long. So far he sleeps a lot and hardly cries!



The happy family!
The happy aunt!

A visit with old friends

Mommy's friends Lindsay and Marla came to visit this weekend! It was so wonderful to catch up with these two lovely ladies -- we don't get to see each other nearly as much as we would like!

Marla brought Calder's buddy Sam along, and the two boys had a blast together! Calder did a pretty good job of sharing his toys too.






Popsicles for good little boys!

Will his birthday celebration ever end?? Lindsay brought him a yummy birthday cupcake, which he devoured. Well, he devoured half of it, since that's all Mommy would let him have. Gotta keep those teeth healthy, right Dr. Lindsay??

Birthday Fun on the Farm

For Calder's special day, I decided to take him to visit a local farm. Unfortunately, the visit was not all that I had hoped (not even close). I had been talking up our trip to the farm for almost 2 days, and Calder was VERY excited, so I nearly panicked when we pulled into the parking lot, and ours was the ONLY car in the lot. Then, when I couldn't figure out how to actually get into the farm -- I really panicked. I really didn't want to spend the day driving around the metro area in search of another farm, so I double-checked their opening time (which was almost 2 hours prior to when we arrived) and eventually decided to walk down a road marked 'Service Vehicles Only'. After a very long, hot walk (of course, I forgot the stroller) we finally saw animals! What a glorious sight! Calder ran right over to the cows and waved at them and talked to them.
The highlight of the visit was when we met Virginia the cow. The park ranger who introduced us was the nicest guy...but he really had no clue when he tried to engage Calder in a long diatribe about all the different kinds of cows as well as the process of milking a cow. All Calder really cared about was petting Virginia -- which he eventually got to do. He even got to touch one of her udders!
All in all, we saw about 6 cows and 2 horses. I was really hoping for a little more than that, but I was going to take what I could get at that point. Calder repeatedly asked to see chickens, and I had to tell him that the chickens were taking a nap and we'd have to see them next time. It worked!

Outer Banks Beach Trip -- Part 2

One cool dude!


A pretty good shot of my 16-week bump!
Calder loved his beach toys!

Swimming with Nonna
It took four adults four days to finish this puzzle!
Making friends with a cat...
Loving the ocean!
Getting some help from Zaidy.
The three of us on the beach.

This may look like a smile, but he's actually on the verge of tears. He hated the hammock!

A boy and his digger.
Taking it all in with Daddy...

...and alone.

Looking so small in front of the house.




My absolute favorite picture from the trip.
Attempting a pose with Grandma!
Dave definitely did NOT hate the hammock!

Hug or Tackle?

Hugs from courtney on Vimeo.

You decide.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy

Well, it's official -- he's two! I can hardly believe it. It's truly amazing how fast time flies when you have all this growing up to do. :)

These are two of my favorite pictures from today. This one is literally the only picture from today where he is looking at the camera and smiling (he is very very busy these days, and cannot be bothered to look at the camera). Incidentally, this picture also shows my complete lack of skill in the party hat department. Calder and I wore these hats around the house for a good 45 minutes before I realized I had folded them completely wrong. You'd think the fact that the instructions were still visible might have clued me in...

More birthday pictures and the rest of the beach pictures coming soon!

Bob The Builder

Songbird from courtney on Vimeo.

Bob the Builder is one of Calder's newest favorites. Here's his singing debut with the Bob the Builder song. Translation: "Bob Builder, yes fix it, Bob Builder, yes can!" Those are (more or less) the words to the show's theme song.

It wasn't that long ago when I would ask Calder to sing along to a song in the car and he would respond "No, no, no, Calder doesn't sing!" I'm glad he changed his mind.

Outer Banks Beach Trip -- Part 1

So far we are really enjoying our week at the beach this year! We've had great weather every day, except for one cloudy/overcast day. Just thought I'd post a few pictures of the first half of the week. (WARNING: I'm having major alignment issues with this post. I've been working on it for almost 45 minutes, and I give up!)

Calder LOVES the beach. He loves digging in the sand as well as splashing in the ocean. We've spent about 2 hours there each day, and he is so busy enjoying himself that he barely makes a peep (except for crying 'No!' when it is time to leave.)




































We have fun chasing bubbles on the deck in the mornings...


Calder is also enjoying the time in the pool! He could not wait to get into his little floatie car -- he started climbing in while I was in the middle of blowing it up! Remember when he first used this last year? My, how he has grown.

And, last night we threw a little 'Thomas the Train' themed birthday party for the little guy! I made this little train cake - each train car is a separate little cake. Calder got to choose which car he was going to eat, and of course he chose the one with the most frosting. :) He wasn't crazy about us singing Happy Birthday to him, but he loved his cake and of course, the presents!

Puzzle Mania!

Lately, Calder has been completely obsessed with puzzles. More specifically, barn puzzles. We actually have two large barn floor puzzles. We keep one in the living room and one in the family room. When Calder is in the puzzle mood, he will complete one puzzle, stand up and declare "Underoo!" (translation: "Other Room!") and run into the other room to complete the other barn puzzle. I have to say, he is quite good at these puzzles (as well as the countless others that we have)! They are designed for the 3+ set, and with just a little help from Mommy or Daddy he has them done in no time.

Separation Anxiety Update

I may live to regret this post...but we seem to have cleared the separation anxiety hurdle! That's right -- it has now been 2 straight weeks of day care drop-offs without as much as a single tear. No, Owl Babies didn't do the trick, and neither did The Kissing Hand. It was a cardboard drum. Calder's teacher, Mrs. Johnson, is quite creative and she makes all kinds of toys for the kids out of everyday items. So, she recently made a drum out of a round cardboard container, covered it with ABC's, and it was love at first sight for Calder. It's the very first thing he picks up each morning when we enter the classroom...and he's so busy marching around playing his drum for his friends that he doesn't think twice about Mommy leaving.

Now, there are two reasons why I could regret making this announcement. 1 - We're just about to leave for a one-week vacation, and adjusting back to day care once we return might not be the easiest thing. And 2 -- About a week after we return from vacation, Calder transitions into the 2-year old classroom. In general, I'm not worried about the transition -- he's already spent a lot of time over there and he loves Ms. Yolanda, the main teacher. My biggest concern? They don't have a cardboard drum...

Achoo! and lots of giggles

Even More Laughter from Hope Bailey on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy this adorable video. Landon is hysterical as Calder pulls all of the letters off of his chalkboard/magnet board while saying 'Achoo!'. (Makes sense, right?) Thanks to Hope for the video!!

New Favorite Food

Calder has a new favorite food -- cucumbers! Yes, I know! A vegetable! (I just learned that cucumbers are 96% water by weight, but they do also have a fair amount of nutritional value.) Ok, so they don't exactly top blueberries or ice cream on his list of favorites, but I'd say they rank pretty high! Yay!