To Calvin, who is three months old today

It is hard to believe that another month has passed us by.  In the past month you have grown so much and in so many ways!  Physically you have gotten much bigger and stronger.  You are now just shy of fifteen pounds and twenty-five inches!  You regulary push yourself up on your hands while on your tummy now, can sit up with minimal assistance, and will pull yourself into a standing position while holding onto our hands.  But it is your mental growth that continues to catch us off guard and awe and amaze us.  Over the past month you have become far more involved with the world around you.  You no longer just stare at your toys, now you talk to them, bat at and grab them, and put them in your mouth.  You also have favorites, like the yellow giraffe, the blue elephant, Baby Whoozit, and, definitely, The Bear!  You also have favorite games that you like to play, like "fly Baby Calvin, fly!"  Of course, having favorites means that you are beginning to remember, and it has been a wonderful gift to see your face light up with the smiles of recognition!  Another delightful gift that you have given us has been the gift of your conversation.  Your coos and gurgles have become more varied and expressive, and you love to converse, not just with us but also with the dogs and with your toys.  It has been an exhausting month of amazing growth for all of us, so it's a good thing that you made one final accomplishment in the last two weeks - sleeping through the night!  We'll say it again (and probably again), we love you more every day.

 

Getting on up there in days

Calvin turned 91 days old today, that also being 13 weeks, or one day shy of 3 months.  To mark the occasion we took more comparison shots.  By our estimate (using a scale that measures to the tenth of a pound, and a measuring tape from our sewing box) he is 14.3 pounds and 24.75 inches.  Since he doesn't have a doctor appointment until October we won't be able to verify that, but we do know that he is growing.  We think you can even see his mental growth in these pictures (these days, smiles and thumb sucking as opposed to sleeping or blank stares).

2 weeks     vs.     8 weeks     vs.     13 weeks 

3 days    vs.     7 weeks      vs.     13 weeks 

Where's the remote?

Hmmm....can't seem to find the game on this TV.

Hey, can you get me a bottle while you're up?  (or maybe he's just trying to show off how he can sit up a little)

Grabbing, swinging, chewing

Last weekend it was his thumb, today it was a rattling toy named Tiny.  To what do we refer?  Both the thumb and Tiny have now been forced into Calvin's slobbering mouth.  The thumb found its own way there, but we're not sure that Tiny would have chosen such a fate on his own (or maybe he would have - his package specifically listed grasping and chewing as his favorite activities).  But, whether Tiny enjoyed it or not, we were very excited to see Calvin grasp and swing, then pull the toy toward his mouth so we could mark another milestone on our calendar (we don't keep a calendar for our own events anymore...). We do admit that we helped him find Tiny by touching the toy to his flailing hand - try as he might, his wild batting isn't focused enough yet - but the grasping, swinging, and mouthing was all Calvin.

And... we have a thumb sucker. (redux)

Last December (Dec 19) we were very excited to blog the news that "Rasberry," at fourteen weeks, was an avid thumb sucker.  We'd just had an ultrasound that clearly showed the-baby-we-now-know-as-Calvin contentedly sucking his thumb.  At the end of the entry we vowed to stock up on pacifiers early.  Funny thing about that - he does always want to suck  but he will rarely take a pacifier (although he enjoys gnawing on them if you hold them in his mouth).  But today he relearned the self-soothing technique that he so often enjoyed prior to his birth.  And he is just suddenly good at it again, too!

We also want to share with you his new bedroom upgrade.  Our friend, Amy, made him a really cool pillow rendering of his name.  She paid us a special visit last week to bring it to him and we finally got it upon the wall today.  It really makes his room look cool and it also adds a lot of love!