Natural History & Annapolis

 We recently went to the Natural History museum as a family and had a marvelous time. Calder loved the little explorer room where he could examine butterflies under the microscope and touch all sorts of shells and skins. He loved the turtle shell and listening to the ocean in the seashells.

 The next day we went to Annapolis. Jason had only been there once about a year ago, so it was fun to go back again. We explored the pier and then went to a park to kill some time before we went to dinner. This is the second park we went to in Annapolis and we have been happy both times.

 Calder thought this large pay phone was a gas pump. He hasn't ever really seen a pay phone and the dial does look like the one on the gas pump.

  Then we went to Mike's Crab House. It was delicious as always. My only complaint is the lingering smell of crab. No matter how many times you wash your hands, they will smell like crab the rest of the day. It is so worth it though.

And, I'll leave you with a funny conversation we had the other day.

Cami [while rubbing Calder's feet]:  When you get married, you'll have a nice wife who will rub your feet every night.

Calder:  No, I want you to rub my feet when I get married.

Cami:  Ok.

Calder:  My wife can rub daddy's feet.

Haircut Party

 Calder and his friend Abraham both had very long hair and it was causing a lot of sweaty heads. So, Abraham's mom and I decided to throw a hair cutting party for the boys. We let them watch a movie and eat candy while we cut their hair. This is a good before picture. The boys spent the morning running around a very warm park. They got dirty and sweaty and then we took them to Costco. Oh and don't you love Calder's shorts? I just got them at the thrift store. You can see more pictures here.

 Look at the fear in his eyes. Calder hates the clippers but his hair was so long I had to use it for the back and sides. I used scissors on the top.

 Abraham's mom did his and I think they both look really good! Calder loves that it is cooler on his head. He loves that he can spike his hair again.

What's Going On?

 We've been having a great time lately! I feel good (finally) and the weather is beautiful (finally). I have been trying to have more days where Calder chooses our activities. This is us riding the purple bus that goes all over Silver Spring. It is free and it goes from our house to his favorite park. We ride it a lot. I don't honestly think it is much faster, but Calder loves it and that is all that matters.

 

This is Calder's favorite park. There are so many things to do here and it is always clean. We've met so many nice kids and moms here. 

And this is Calder and his friend Jack playing in the sand box. Jack is one of Calder's dearest friends and they play so well together. I love how they work together to make a sand castle or fix a problem. I hope they can be friends for a long long time.

I'll leave you with some funny quotes from Calder. 

"You're the best mommy in the whole wide city!"

Around 10:00 this morning Calder said: "I need my daddy because I love him so much."

On the way to the pharmacy.
Calder: I want a treat at the pharmacy.
Me: Okay, what kind of treat would you like?
Calder: Chocolate milk and a bike seat.

"So, boys have a penis and girls wear tights, is that right?"

"My tummy told me we are going to make pancakes and I'm excited"

"Someday when we're married we will have a hole in our ceiling". (explanation: both of Calder's favorite friends have holes in their ceiling. It drives him nuts that we don't. One is an attic and the other one is roof access in an apartment.)

 

Ikea Kids Day

A few weeks ago Calder and I went to Ikea for lunch. We didn't know it before we got there, but it was Kid's Day. They had free lunch for the kids as well as a bunch of craft projects and face painting. Calder decorated an apron and couldn't wait to get his face painted. 

He told the face painter that he wanted a garbage truck. She couldn't do that and suggested he ask for something else. So, he asked for a giraffe (his favorite animal). She said she couldn't do that either. We went through just about every farm animal after that and she turned each of those down too. She tried to talk us in to Batman but since Calder doesn't know who that is I didn't really want that. Finally we agreed on a tiger. She I have to hand it to her, she can do a great tiger. 

 Calder was perfect while she painted. He didn't move and he closed his eyes when she asked him to.

Building Museum

We've all been sick around here so I haven't posted as much because we haven't been doing as much. Thankfully we're all doing better and are back to our normal outings!

On Friday Calder and I went to the building museum. It was great. We are always happy to go there because it's quick, convenient and it's Calder's favorite. Here are some pictures.

Since the play room was busy, and they kick you out after 30 minutes when it's busy we got to see some other cool parts of the museum. They have an exhibit right now focusing on the Worlds Fairs of the 1930s. It was fascinating. I loved walking through and looking at all the cool things they had. They don't allow photography, so you'll have to come visit if you want to see it.

Santa's Workshop

 On December 23 Calder and I met up with my friend LuAnn and her boys to visit Santa's workshop. Every year Santa comes to visit DC on the Ellipse of the White House. This is also the site of the National Christmas tree, which is not a very attractive tree in my opinion.

 It was a lot of fun for the boys and we were lucky Mrs. Claus was there as well. Calder was pretty excited to sit by Mrs. Claus and have a picture. It was nice to be inside while visiting the Claus family because it was a bit chilly outside.

 Calder weathered it well though.

And in the end it was all worth it to meet the man himself. I have to admit, this is the best looking Santa I've ever seen. The beard is real and even had a little glitter in it. He definitely looked quite comfortable in the suit. Calder was a little nervous but thankfully LuAnn's boys went first so he was okay with it. Although his wish list changed every time we talked about it he told Santa he wanted a train. Santa asked if he wanted a Thomas or a GeoTrax. Calder said GeoTrax even though neither of us have even seen such a train / track system. I love that Santa knows more about the toys available than I do.

Lately

 We've been doing all sorts of fun things. Calder enjoys looking at the calendar and choosing activities for our week. If you ask him what day it is, he will tell you Thursday. It's an odd favorite day, but I guess he likes it. Ooh, I just realized Thursday is the day we occasionally go to Jason's work for happy hour. Maybe that is why it's his favorite.

On Sunday we went on a fun nature walk. We all enjoyed the beautiful fall colors and the crisp fall air.  This is the only decent picture I got of my boys. All well.

Here are a few things about Calder these days.

• He knows about half of the alphabet. I made a felt Happy Birthday banner a few weeks ago and he quickly learned all the letters in Happy Birthday. I've been working on a few more with him while I attempt to make a felt alphabet as fast as I can. I love how he can recognize them anywhere and tell me which ones he knows. 
•  He is an expert negotiator. When I told him his favorite jacket was dirty he asked if since he was just going for a walk around the block could he just wear it for a little bit and put it back in the dirty clothes hamper. How could I argue with that? He also likes to negotiate on food. If he "eats just a little bit more maybe he can have some candy." Yeah, that one never works.
• He has discovered newspaper ads and likes to show them to us while telling us he basically wants everything. He has stopped asking for things for his birthday and Christmas. Now he just asks if he can go to the store and buy it. 
• His sleep has been really weird for the last few weeks. He often wakes up for an hour or two in the middle of the night and just wants to talk. I think it may be time to transition from a 7:00 bedtime to a 7:30 or 8:00. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm totally open to anything!
• If you ask Calder where his daddy works he says "Peem Coot" in the cutest way. He also says daddy makes purple money. It's awesome.

Calder is 2

 Calder is two.  I don't know how this happened. He is changing from a baby to a little man. In honor of such we had a "Little Man" themed birthday party.  I think we all had a lot of fun and I love how everything turned out. I made mustaches and bow ties for everyone. Calder chose to wear his favorite hat. For the mustaches I traced mustache shapes onto felt, cut two per mustache, hand sewed around them and attached elastic to keep them on. They were so fun! I made up the pattern for the bow ties but am willing to share if anyone is interested.

 We used the club room in our building, which is a great spot for a party. There was a lot of eating and socializing. I didn't really plan games but we did have a few toys for the kids to play with.  The ages were such that this was all we needed.

 I painted a shirt for Calder to wear.  He loves his #2 shirt and requests to wear it a lot. He gets excited about anything I make for him. I wish this could last forever.

We had lots of adorable guests. Some happy, some not. 

 

 Calder successfully blew out his candle. I didn't practice this with him so I'm glad it worked. As I type this and look at the pictures I realize I only put one candle in the cupcake. All well.

 My friend Liz took the most amazing pictures.  I couldn't even begin to choose a favorite. Thanks a bunch Liz, you really are amazing!

 I love these pictures.  These kids are adorable and I'm so glad they took time out of their busy schedules to come.

 It was awesome that Jason could be there for the party.  We'll take all the Jason time we can get around here.

I'm so happy to have such an awesome little man.  He makes my days so much more fun and I can't imagine life without him. 

New Friends

We had the most enjoyable playdate today. There is a little girl in Calder's nursery, named Emmeline, who is very much his equal. They always want the same toys and they tend to fight a bit but they give lots of hugs. They spent 3 hours giggling and running, playing and jumping this morning. It was so fantastic. They ate lunch together and jumped on his bed. She also seemed to convince Calder that pooping in the toilet is the cool thing to do. Thank you Emmeline.

Calder has been begging for all his old friends, cousins and mere acquaintances to come over and play at his house. He was one happy kid today and we have plans to play again soon. I'll make sure to take pictures then.

Potty Training

This post contains quite a bit of potty talk. If you're easily grossed out, you may want to skip this one.

Potty training has gone really well this week. I did the 3 day method and I feel like it has really worked well for Calder. He was ready and interested. The first day was rough but he certainly got it the 2nd and 3rd. He often doesn't want to go to the bathroom and will say "No go potty" which tells me he needs to go. I do my best to patiently remind him to let me know when he does need to go to the bathroom. He eventually comes around and says "Go potty". We then run to the bathroom. He hasn't had a pee accident for quite a few days and he even went pee at Target on Friday. It's not ideal for him to wait so long but I'm hoping he will start to want to go sooner.

Pooping is another story. He does not want to poop. He has successfully pooped in the toilet many times but he has also pooped in his underroos a few times as well. He just doesn't want to go and then waits so long he has an accident. I've increased his fruit and veggie intake to avoid constipation. Has anyone else had this problem? Any advice? I would say his current track record is 60% in the toilet.

Yesterday after pooping in the toilet he looked at it and labeled it "Big brown dinosaur poop".

22 Months

I LOVE this little boy. He gets sweeter by the day. I love that he tries so hard to please and is very good at expressing what he wants or needs.

Here are a few tidbits about him right now:

• He LOVES black licorice and calls it Grandpa Mike Candy.
• He can correctly identify bulldozers, backhoes, cranes, excavators (I love it when he says it), and diggers.
• He is still obsessively into garbage trucks, garbage removal and recycling. He knows which bins to put every item into when we recycle.
• He knows all his colors and enjoys using them to describe things all the time.
  
• He loves to ride the Metro and gets so excited. He must hold the pole on the train.
• He eats Special K or Raisin Bran for breakfast every morning.
• He has started using his imagination all the time. It is so fun to hear the things he comes up with.
• He sleeps in a twin bed.
• Today when he hurt his leg he asked me to have Daddy come home from work to kiss it.

20 Months

Calder is 20 months old today. It has been a life altering month. He has adjusted so well to moving and vacationing thus far. Hopefully he continues to be this flexible as we continue our vacation and move.

This month Calder has been copying just about anything we say. He often pauses for a long time if he is about to say a hard word. If you ask what he wants for his birthday he will say "bike". He is very social once he knows other people but starts out a bit shy. He likes me to hold him, a lot. Only he says "hold you" instead of "hold me". He likes to sleep and will ask to go night night when he's tired. He is so gentle. He likes to stroke my hair and play with my earrings.

My favorite words that he says are:
park (pakkk)
backhoe (aphoe)
basketball hoop (babeball hooooop?)
Calder (Dalder)

Our Columbus Friends

Even though we knew we wouldn't be in Columbus very long we made some really close friendships. I love how easy it was to make friends and feel comfortable with these kids and their moms. We miss you all tons! Calder asks about his friends a lot and we frequently look at pictures of them.

These cute little girls are Grace and Alexis. I love their moms. They were the best visiting teachers and we sure had a lot of fun together. Anna (Grace's mom) helped me line out a running schedule so I can do a 5k at the end of June. She was also great at giving advice and just listening if I were having a problem or concern. She is so smart and genuinely kind. Daiane (Alexis' mom) made us homemade black beans from Argentina and is such a fun girl to talk to. She also throws AMAZING parties. I'm going to miss you ladies.

This is Amy and her son Will. They were our first Columbus friends and we have many great memories. Amy is such a relaxed mom (in a good way). She taught me that it is okay to chill and let your kid be independent sometimes. She was always willing to meet us at COSI or wherever we felt like going. Calder LOVES Amy and would often ask to hang out with her. I miss our weekly outings and I miss Amy.

This is Archer. His mom (Cassie) was my sewing buddy. We made the cutest stuff. She was also my shopping buddy. We bought the cutest stuff. Our boys were just starting to play well together when we moved. I'm really going to miss them.

Packing (again)

Yep, we're packing again. We are moving in less than two weeks and I feel pretty good about the packing progress. Our living room is overrun with boxes but it feels good, you know?

I've been pretty ruthless about purging this time. If I don't like it or haven't used it in the last year, it doesn't get to come. And as I pack more I get more selective. I guess you should always pack your favorite things first.

Every time I move I stress about having too much stuff. I'm always worried that it won't all fit in the truck and I will be standing there opening boxes trying to get rid of stuff. I'm also worried the generous people who help us move will think ill of me for having so much stuff. So I purge and I purge a lot. I love it when people walk in and say "oh, that's all". I get great joy in knowing I don't have anything I don't use or doesn't serve a purpose.

Our boxes are pretty much shot. There are a few that are held up by tape alone. This will be the last move for these boxes. They've served us well. We've had some of them for the 6 years we've been married. We won't have space next year to store them and they really aren't worth storing anyway. Lets just hope they make it through one last move.

It's a little sad and a little fun you can watch Calder grow from year to year as he sits on mounds of boxes. He has definitely changed while we've been here in Columbus. I promise I do put pants on the kid every once in a while, just not on days when he sits on boxes apparently. It will be fun to see how he changes in DC.

Calder & Deebo Go For A Walk

Calder Plays the Drum (box)

Calder Style

Calder is far more stylish than his parents. Actually he's probably more stylish than both of us combined. This is what he wore to church today.

He insisted on the jacket and the tie. He has insisted on wearing ties to church for the last six months or so. I think it's mostly because Jason always does. The shoes were my choice since his other (more appropriate) ones are a little tight and very worn. Believe it or not he got a lot of comments about his awesome outfit. I think this second picture looks like a band album cover. You know, something like Weezer or OK GO.

Not only does Calder have awesome fashion sense, he takes good care of his stuff. We had been outside and his shoes got a bit of mud on them. I told him he couldn't wear his shoes because they were dirty and would get dirt all over the house. He immediately grabbed the diaper bag, found a wipe, and proceeded to clean his shoes so he could wear them.

He also makes sure Jason hangs up his jacket instead of draping it over a chair. He just says "UH-OH Daddy!" over and over again until Jason takes care of it.