Memorial Day Weekend

Just like last year...

We headed out to get our feet wet with a few canyons. I literally mean "feet wet".

The purpose of this trip was to familiarize ourselves with pot hole escape. Well, really, when I say "us", I do mean Matt. :)

We went to the San Rafael Swell and camped out not too far away from Muddy Creek. If you dont know what I'm talking about imagine some where between Moab and Zion National Park in the middle of no where. Yes, the middle of now where. We did bring a port-a-potty. 

We headed out with these two friends.

Zack and Iara

 They're pretty cool and I really mean that, but I'll spare the details for another blog post. I'm sure I could post a list and provide good examples of how awesome and adventurous they are. Anyways...

They came out with us last year and this year too. 

Matt & I would take turns doing canyons because of Baby C. We certainly couldn't take him with us! At least not yet!  On the days where Matt did a canyon I went for little hikes. 

 

I found this....

 This is called the Muddy Creek. It goes on for MILES but it doesn't flow very fast nor is it very deep. I walked along this one day for a little while. 

 

 

 I saw this "Motel 6" right alongside the Muddy Creek. It was pretty creepy looking, even in the day.

And  on another adventure I found a MINE!

 

I was really tempted to go inside but I could see the headlines. "Mother with Baby Gets Trapped into a Mine." Or worse yet there would be no headlines and just a search and rescue party. I wondered how long it would take for them to realize I had gone into this mysterious  mine. I did go in about 20 feet but as I walked in the roof was getting shorter and shorter and I was too lazy to take the baby carrier off to explore more (or terrified to continue to explore deeper into the rock). When I told Matt about it he told me that he had actually read about the mine and the first owner of the mine made millions of dollars and then sold it for millions of dollars. The second owner, however, was not so lucky and made nothing off of the mine.

For our meals we needed fire wood. Matt looks pretty hardcore trying to chop up this tough piece of wood into sticks. He chopped at it for several hits and the thing didn't seem to budge. I began to wonder if it was a legit piece of wood instead of being made of iron or something.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day too! On our way back we stopped and took a moment to place some flowers on Matt's Grandpa's grave. We're certainly grateful for the holiday and for the opportunity we have to honor those that have already gone on before us.

New Heights

Um.... EEK!

What are my options for gates?!

Nine Months & Awesome

I always think of 9 months as the turning point where a baby can now claim they have had more experience outside of the womb than inside of the womb.

At nine months our little man can...
-Crawl super duper fast
-Tries to use just about anything to stand up (couch, mini tables, legs of tall chairs, grooves in the wall, etc)
-Does not like the blender but chases after the vacuum
-Sleeps until 630am
-Comes to us for comfort
-Eats a lot of veggies but the green veggies don't seem to sit too well with him (ie: avocado, peas, beans, etc)
-Sleeps in his own room

His room looks more or less like this. :)

For a while he went through a phase where he went under the piano to the kitchen.

He sits by the patio door like a puppy wanting to go outside.

This is under our table. He likes to climb up on this but unfortunately he can't crawl off of it.

                                                                                     

                                                        

It's Spring!

 It is AWESOME that the weather is warming up. Absolutely AWESOME. I can't tell you how nice it is to be outside again and not worry about wearing a jacket. I find that as soon as the sun sets past 6pm I am in my happy place. I love it best when it is still light outside at 8pm! I also love it when the sun is up by 7am. I feel so alive.

With the weather warming up it's time to think about gardening again. It's bitter sweet. I love the vegetables we get in the Fall but I HATE the weeding and the caring of the plants when they get bugs on them and the tilling of the earth to get the soil ready. Sometimes, I'm surprised I haven't quit yet. I tell myself about the feeling of empowerment I'll get when I make tomato sauce and can beans and live off of squash soup. Crazy, I know. I try not to think of the Farmer's Market and how I can probably just buy the produce for what it would be worth in sweating all summer outside doing weeds and spraying. It's the feeling of empowerment, right?

Calvin seems to really enjoy being outside. The other day we went to the garden (we participate in a community garden since we dont have any spots near our home) to bring in new soil and to till it up. Calvin was pretty content just hanging out in his Pack-n-Play. He likes it when we stand him up and he can move around the side of it as he watches us work. He can't get up by himself but he can hold on for a long time. He loves being in the grass too. Sometimes when we're inside and he gets fussy I'll take him outside and we'll lie in the grass together. He touches the blades in his hand and then makes his way to dead leaves. *Whoa!* I'm keeping an eye out for dead leaves and when I think there are none Calvin surprises me by picking it up and trying to get it into his mouth. It's like he has dead leaf radar. :)

8 Months

I am just grateful that my son has survived 8 months! Is that the kind of thing a good mother should be grateful about? Sometimes I feel like there are more ways to screw up than there are otherwise. I still check on him in the middle of the night to see if he's still alive.

It is so fun to see how he is growing and what types of things he is fascinated with too. When I think about the milestones he reached last month I'm surprised about what he has accomplished. He is on a role... or rather "roll".

For 8 months:

-Wears 6 months clothes (can still fit into some 3-6)
-Loves to smile at strangers. LOVES IT.
-Can push himself backwards
-Matt & I like to believe that he understand what "give me your hand" means, because when we say it he sometimes gives us his hand. It could also be the fact that we are reaching out to him that makes him give us his hand---but still he knows our cue!

-He prefers to be standing up.

-He pushes himself backwards. This causes a problem when he pushes his legs underneath the couch and he realizes he can not move any more or when he pushes himself so that his legs are around the leg of a table and he can't push backwards any more.

-He loves to stare at you while you're eating and on occasion protests if you do not give him anything to eat either. He does a little grunting sound as he watches you feed yourself. This kid LOVES, LOVES, LOVES food.

Pumpkin

-He is eating lots pumpkin right now because I still have quite a few pumpkins left from Halloween. I'm glad he's eating it because I certainly would not! Pumpkin? Gross!

-I'd also like to say he loves to eat plastic bags, if I would let him. I'm wondering if someone makes child proof plastic bags. My son loves to yank on the bags and loves to put them in his mouth.

Animals

Yesterday we went over to my Grandma's for dinner. I snuck Calvin out and with my sister's camera  took a few shots of my adorable son. (I can't get over him!) He was tired and wasn't interested in smiling or looking at me as I cooed and spoke in a ridiculously high pitched voice. I was practically selling my soul for a good smile, but I got nothing! However, Tiger the tabby made it look so easy.

I have to share these because I feel they capture what happiness is for a 7 month old.

Casimir Pulaski

Did you know that the first Monday of March is Casimir Pulaski Day? True story. In Illinois school is out and I'm sure it's a bank holiday too!

Who is Casimir Pulaski? I looked it up in Wikipedia to find out myself. He was polish and saved George Washington's life. He is one of 7 to receive honorary US citizenship.


The Saturday before Matt was listening to Sufjan Stevens and a song he wrote about Casimir Pulaski Day. (Click here to listen to it.) Matt was curious about the story behind the day and looked it up. He thought it would be fun to celebrate it by passing out rice krispie treats and giving
the song on a CD to friends. I figured "why not?" It sounded like a fun idea. So that's exactly what we did, but we decided to record ourselves reading from Wikipedia, about Pulaski, just for kicks too! :)

Does it sound egotistical that not only did we want to make our friends listen to a song that we like, but that we also wanted to subject them to our reading voices?

Our ideas escalated when we thought it would be even cooler if we doorbell ditched people as we left a plate of rice krispie treats and a CD on their door step. We thought it would be more fun if our friends had to listen to the CD to figure out who it was that left them treats. As a result, we chose to not lable the CD or the plate of treats with our names on it. (I was worried people would then not eat the rice krispie treats.) Upon delivering we realized we didn't have a enough time so we ended up ringing doorbells past 9pm. One particular friend received her treats after 10pm. Needless to say, we scared a few friends too.

You ask, "why rice krispie treats??" Um.... because Matt likes them?

  

Sunday morning Matt made these fun shapes! I like the shape more on the right, but Matt didn't think anyone would be able to recognize what it was. Doesn't T-Rex just scream Casimir Pulaski?

Calvin posing with the CD we made.

We didn't know how to pronounce Casimir Pulaski so while reading his named on our recording we  we just inserted this audio recording, which is why we named the CD "Happy _________ Day!"