Holiday Weekend

Everyone needs holiday weekends in their lives in order to bring some spice to the monotony of everyday schedules.  Of course, when you're a baby there is nothing monotonous about your every day - sure the naps are a regularly attended event, but there is so much to discover in the world that all other moments are already peppered with variety and change.  So even though Friday might have been a day of new discovery for Calvin, who found out that day how much fun it is to kick a ball around the house (do we have a soccer player?), Jon was more than happy to arrive home with the news that he'd been given Monday off - what a special treat!  And what did we plan?  Spring cleaning.  But the weather threw a wrench in our plans (the weather is another thing that knows nothing of monotony, especially in Michigan), so we spring cleaned all day Saturday while it rained and went about our usual church and music lesson schedule on Sunday, and moved our planned trip to the Detroit Zoo with Jon's parents and sister to Monday instead.  What a great choice!  Rain is perfect for spring cleaning, but not so perfect for the zoo, and vice versa with the sun that showered us with brilliantly warm rays come Memorial day.  Of course, between the good weather and the national holiday, the zoo was packed, but another bonus point for the Detroit Zoo over both Toledo and Binder is the amount of space - wide walkways and a plethora of exhibits really know how to spread out a crowd and the six of us had a great time, complete with a picnic lunch.  Calvin loved talking to, and showing off for, his aunt and grandparents.  And to our delight his interest in the animals grows with every zoo trip we take (which means that at this rate by the end of the summer he'll be trying to climb into their enclosures).  It was a great zoo trip, and we finished of our Memorial Day with a traditional summer meal - grilled hamburgers (Calvin had his mini-burger without a bun) corn on the cob, and watermelon (which Calvin LOVED), followed by a little swimming and a lot of bubbles.  Boy is it hard to return to the monotony of Tuesday.

Adding spice to our lives

Or at least to Calvin's.  We got tired of always feeding him just plain pureed fruits and vegetables, so we started adding some natural spices for him to try.  We started this afternoon with cinnamon in the applesauce and, though we were nervous about this transition, the introduction went pretty well.  Actually, we aren't at all certain that he cared one bit about the new flavor - he showed no real preference over bites either with or without the spice in them.  Oh well.  In general he seems awfully distracted these days when we are inside, but who can blame him?  Now that he's had a taste of playing outside in the yard and going to watch the ducks at the pond (which he invariably laughs at), why on earth would he want to play inside?  Seriously, the last few days it has really felt like spring, possibly even summer, finally arrived.  Of course, we can't really say "finally arrived," because it's still March and this is still Michigan.  Heck, around here spring can't really be considered late until June, so the recent days of sunny and seventy have been a wonderful treat.  Unfortunately, it looks like we will be saying goodbye to summer and hello to spring over the next week or so, but that was to be expected.  Calvin will just have to go back to being happy with his indoor play.

Calvin's trip to the big lake

Well, last weekend was Calvin's trip to the northern lands of relaxation, a.k.a. Cortney's childhood summer destination, and this week we bring you Calvin's trip to the western lands of beach fun, a.k.a. Jon's childhood summer destination on Lake Michigan in Holland.  On the way there we made a quick stop in Grand Rapids at our friend Sue's house - just long enough to feed the little man and get back on the road.  Then Calvin was a big hit at the cottage gathering in Holland, but was the cottage gathering a big hit with Calvin?  He really seemed to like the sand and the water.  Of course it's not like we threw him into the surf, but we did dangle his toes in the waves and press them into the waterlogged sand, an activity which really made Calvin go into deep thought mode.  But we figure that he enjoyed it because it triggered a 20 minute run of smiles and cooing that the whole family enjoyed - you can fool some of the people all of the time...
In any case, the day on the lake was enjoyable for all of us and there are lots of pictures in the "Calvin's ninth week album." 

A summer without a vacation...

is no summer at all.  That is why we decided to take the plunge and drive four hours in our Vibe with our three dogs and our seven week old infant to get to Harbor Springs, Michigan's center for relaxation.  We're not sure whether the plan would be considered more or less ambitious because we embarked on this trip at 9:15pm last Friday.  The point of travelling so late was to fit into Calvin's schedule, of course, since he now rules this household!  By leaving that late we were able to feed and bathe him and read him his bedtime story, all as usual, but then put him to bed in his car seat instead of his basinet, hoping he wouldn't notice and wake up.  We really lucked out and were able to drive straight through to Aunt Lonnie's without hearing a single peap from the little guy, or the dogs for that matter.  Whenever plausible this is clearly the way us to travel.

Calvin experienced a lot of new things.  We took him into Petoskey on Saturday to peruse the annual sidewalk sales and to pick out his baptismal outfit from The Circus Shop, a special children's clothing shop at which both Cortney and her mom shopped when they were younger.  On Sunday we took him for a walk through Harbor Springs and down to the marina to see the beautiful sailboats before the Regatta, and got to see a beautiful thunderstorm roll in, too.  On Monday we went back into Petoskey and took a walk through the marina there, and back into town for ice cream from Murdick's.  We ate lots of good food (which Calvin got to enjoy indirectly), and we enjoyed visits with people we don't get to see often - Aunt Lonnie, Uncle Smokey, and Helene.

Calvin must have enjoyed his first vacation.  How do we know?  The little guy was so enthralled he refused to take a nap!  We have heard the old saying about needing a vacation from your vacation, but now we understand oh so much more clearly.  He did sleep.  His nightime routine wasn't too off, and of course he slept through all of our excursions, but when we were trying to relax at home he demanded to be held by someone...anyone.  So vacation for Calvin meant constant attention and coddling.  We don't know what we would have done without three extra sets of arms (Nonnie, gram, and grandpa, that is).  Thanks to their help we actually returned home today feeling rested and ready to keep trucking through the days and nights of infanthood.

A pool party

Last night was Calvin's first trip to a pool.  Unfortunately for him it was only that, a trip to the pool and not an actual swim in the pool since he's a little young for chlorine and is still having some trouble with the skin on his shoulders.  But we weren't really there for the prime swimming anyhow, we were there for dinner.  Not as weird as it sounds, since we were joining Jon's bosses and their daughter and friends for a poolside evening complete with dinner from the country club.  It was beautiful and cool evening and both the food and the company were great, so we think Calvin had a nice time even without getting to go swimming.
In other news, we are finally experiencing baby meltdown.  Calvin's sleep schedule has been off for nearly a week now and sleep deprivation is starting to set in - for all three of us.  We figure it's about time since we hadn't experienced true lack of sleep yet, even when he was a newborn.  The real problem of the weekend, though, was that he was also having some trouble nursing, so we visited the doctor again today.  As always, Calvin wowed them with his rate of growth - he weighed in at 11 pounds, 3 ounces (a pound more than he weighed a week ago), and measured just shy of 24 inches.  Grow baby grow!  Obviously, nursing trouble or no, he is getting plenty to eat!  The visit did offer some hope of relief on all fronts and that relief is spelled z-a-n-t-a-c.  The pediatrician thinks that Calvin might be struggling with heartburn (guess he should lay off the chocolate and pizza...) so baby Zantac should help.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.