Baby Name Suggestion

I'm not looking for any. :) I just wanted to share the ones Calder has come up with over the last few weeks.

Girls: Elizabeth, London, Girl Will, Holy Cross (named after the hospital we're delivering at) and my all time favorite America Worker.

Boys: Calger. Yes Calger. He wants a Calder and a Calger.

It's a good thing we don't let three year olds name babies.

Announcement

I have been meaning to announce this for a while but I wanted to catch up on blogging first. So now that I feel caught up, we have news. 

I'm due June 5 and will be 16 weeks on Tuesday! Woohoo. I'll get around to taking a belly picture soon. I know someone will ask for one. :)

Santa

 Calder got to visit Santa twice this year. The first was at the ward Christmas party. For weeks he was talking about what he wanted from Santa. The most common thing was a collection of coloring books. When it got down to the moment to tell Santa what he wanted he told him "a drum". 

Santa was wonderful. He asked if Calder had been a good boy this year. If he helped his parents and picked up his toys. It was really sweet to hear Calder give very serious answers.

The second time he got to visit Santa was at the Ellipse in DC. Every year UL provides Santa's workshop and free pictures with Santa. Calder loved visiting Santa again. This time he stuck with his answer of wanting a drum. Santa asked if he wanted anything else and Calder said "nope, that's it." Can anyone guess what Calder's getting from Santa this year? Our neighbors will be thrilled.

Thanksgiving & Grandma Kate's Visit

 Jason's mom came to play during Thanksgiving this year. It was so fun! We had we had great weather and a wonderful visit. Calder invited each of us to ride the slide with him. (We don't insist he wear a helmet at the playground but he rode his bike there and just didn't want to take it off)

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and somehow didn't manage to take any pictures of it. Jason brined and cooked the turkey. It was wonderful.

 The day after Thanksgiving we decorated the tree. Calder loved it this year. He put all his ornaments on the same branch.

 This is Calder drumming on a piece of paper with some wooden spoons. Do you think the kid could use a drum?

And some more drumming. Calder is so creative. He can use just about anything to make a drum or any sort of toy. I love it.

The Move

 This was by far the easiest move we've ever had. I started packing three weeks ahead, which is a little too early. There were long stretches where I couldn't pack any more until the move got closer. Next time I think 10 to 14 days will do. We just moved from one apartment to another apartment in the same building. Thankfully we didn't have to rent a truck or go outside at all. It took 47 minutes from start to finish to get all of our things from one apartment to another. We had wonderful help and it was so easy.

 Here's a little recap of Calder's size from every move we've had since he was born. This was June 2010 when we moved from Columbus, Ohio to Maryland.

And this is from June 2009 when we moved from Chicago to Columbus.

2011 Christmas Card

Here's the Christmas card from this year. I can't get the wording to work out right, so I'll at least get the picture up. This is from our trip to Spain.

Halloween

 For Halloween this year Calder changed his mind about 15 times. At first he wanted to be a garbage man (again) and then he switched to a fireman, then to a few other things. Then he heard his friend Megan was going to be Tigger and he became adamant that he wanted to be Pooh. Thankfully it stuck and we got a costume from the thrift store for $3.00. He loves his costume and really loved having his face painted (thanks Grandma Kate).

 We went to the pumpkin patch to get his pumpkin. He loved walking out to the field and actually picking his pumpkin. He did not love taking the seeds out. He only reached his hand in once. After that he requested a spoon.

 He chose a very traditional triangle eye face.

 At the ward trunk-or-treat he got some vampire teeth. He loved wearing them with his Pooh costume and "scaring" his daddy. I think we have enough candy in our house to last through Easter.

Tonight I took him around to some apartments in our building. He was so brave and said "Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween" at every door. He also did all the knocking. That is a big deal for our shy kid. I really appreciate the way our building handles trick or treating. They give everyone signs to hang on the door if they want trick or treaters. If you don't, you just don't hang up the sign. It is so simple. There were quite a few people who participated but not a lot of trick or treaters, so people were excited to see Calder. They gave him two or three pieces at a time. He was thrilled.

Calder turns 3

 A few weeks ago Calder turned three! Jason and I are so into this kid, it's crazy. I love the age he is at now and feel so blessed to have such a wonderful child. He is smart, creative, kind, gentle and very sweet. I can't imagine life without him.

 He was showered with gifts from friends and family and was the happiest little boy. He chose to have a Curious George themed birthday party. It was fun to decorate and plan. He had banana cake with cream cheese frosting at his birthday party and yellow cake with chocolate frosting for his family party on his actual birthday. They were both delicious but I especially enjoyed the banana cake.

 This sweet boy went to the doctor and had 3 shots. It was the first time he has cried for shots since his two month appointment. He was nervous and sweaty the whole appointment. I felt so bad for him. He has always taken doctor appointments like any other fun activity we do but not this time. Thankfully the frequency of shots slows down. He is in the 75% for height at 38 1/4 inches and 50% for weight at 33 pounds. Right on track with where he's always been.

I love the idea of doing an interview every year just asking what they like to eat and what they are into. Here is Calder's third birthday interview. He has been shortening his answers in general when I ask him questions, so that is why he says his favorite food is Macaron instead of Macaroni & Cheese. He says his favorite color is red in the movie but hasn't chosen that for any other time. He quite prefers orange over anything else.

Madrid

Oh Madrid. I really loved how beautiful Madrid is and how beautiful the architecture is. I think I slightly preferred Madrid over Barcelona because it is so pretty but we enjoyed the things we did more in Barcelona so I guess it's a toss up. Either way they were both beautiful cities and provided great entertainment. 

 Plaza Mayor. A fun plaza right by our hotel. There were many restaurants and street performers. One of them was a guy who pretended to be missing his head. Calder thought it was rather funny.

 These are just random streets that we loved.

 Retiro Park. This was a beautiful park with well groomed gardens and a fun little lake. You could rent a boat and float around the lake but it was quite small and we weren't really sure what we would do with our stroller. It was okay though. We ran around and then as we were leaving we found the playground.

 The lake at Retiro Park.

 A beautiful church by the Prado Museum.

 The Royal Palace. This is the most beautiful building inside and out. I loved our tour of the inside and all the amazing rooms. I can see why the royal family doesn't live here anymore. I mean, you can't mess with George III's bedroom or study. And it is really close to the city center. I wish we could have taken interior pictures.

 We watched the changing of the guards in front and it was quite the production. There were over 100 horses and 400 soldiers. It was also quite long. Calder got a bit bored.

 This is the Temple De Debod. It is an ancient Egyptian temple. The hieroglyphics were really cool and it's hard to believe it is they started constructing it in the early 2nd century BC.

 The garden at the Royal Palace.

 Us in front of Almudina Cathedra. We didn't tour this one because honestly, it was way too expensive and neither of us were all that interested.

 The park behind the Royal Palace.

 Our hotel. It was really a sweet place to stay and so close to everything. Jason did an awesome job with our accommodations.

 We saw two protests while we were there. One was about public schools and the other was this one. I think it was about labor laws. They were nothing but efficient though. There were tons and tons of people but they were very well controlled by the police and there were street sweepers following along behind to clean up the mess. It was really great. You can tell how long the line of protesters were because in the first picture it was light and it was getting rather dark by the time they finished walking by. We were eating dinner at a restaurant at this point, so we just popped out to take a picture or two and then went back to our meal.

This is the cutest candy shop I've ever seen. The decor is all gold and the little boxes you fill with candy are also gold. It was very fancy. Calder and I had a taste of a raspberry candy and it was amazing.