10 Months

At 10 months…

He can crawl faster than anything

He frequently pulls himself up to our coffee table and just slaps it with his hand

He prefers to climb on top of things and to be taller than his surroundings

He has lots of hair and may need a hair cut

Once we open the fridge door to get something out he drops whatever he has and tries to use the fridge drawers to climb up to the top.  He seems really fascinated with the fridge and the garage. Similar to seeing the fridge door open as soon as we open the garage door he drops whatever he is doing and crawls as fast as he can to the garage door.

He has now been to 4 states in his short little life.

Can walk but needs the assistance of a taller person and does much better when both hands are being held instead of just one.

He loves to climb stairs! This is the most terrifying of all his tricks. 

He stills has NO TEETH apparently the longer it takes for the teeth to come in the better quality the teeth are. They could have just told me that to make me feel better.

  

Aline Graduates!!

*This most may or may not contains LOADS of photos*

Headed up to Boston to see my sister Aline graduate. It was a proud moment for all of us. This girl now has her Masters in Theological Studies. Go Aline! Wahooo!!
 

My mom made Baby C this little graduation gown. The ribbon says: "My Auntie is 

smart."

 

 I'll be honest this graduation was a little unusual than most I have been to. Maybe because it's the Divinity school, but all of these guys came in singing "This Little Light of Mine" gospel style. It was entertaining and set a good mood for the event. They had a "pre-graduation" the day before as well  where they had different beliefes stand up and discuss their versions of "good bye" or "good luck". People read prayers from other faiths, psalms from other faiths, songs, poems, etc. Aline read Docterine and Convenants secions: 88: 118-124

 118 And as all have not ^afaith, seek ye diligently and ^bteach one another words of ^cwisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best ^dbooks words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

 119 ^aOrganize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

 120 That your ^aincomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with ^buplifted hands unto the Most High.

 121 Therefore, ^acease from all your light speeches, from all ^blaughter, from all your ^clustful desires, from all your ^dpride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.

 122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let ^anot all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be ^bedified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.

 123 See that ye ^alove one another; cease to be ^bcovetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.

 124 Cease to be ^aidle; cease to be ^bunclean; cease to ^cfind fault one with another; cease to ^dsleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be ^einvigorated.

 So proud of my little sister!

Oprah was a key note speaker too at a different ceremony. What she said was: "Congratulations! Now that you've done this... go contribute to your community!" Inspirational. :)

Wahoo!!

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.