It Would Seem.

... That I have a renegade on my hands.

(This is a picture of my Calvin "stuck" on top of the bean bag)

Calvin has officially figured out how he can escape his crib (that is, until I lowered it..).
It all started innocently enough.
Fed him, gave him a little milk before I put him down for his nap.
I heard him fuss a little- trying to resist the urge to just fall asleep. And all of a sudden I heard a THUD and Calvin freaking out! So I head over to his room and I hear him at the door, crying!

... ???


Of course, I enter his room and there he is. On the floor and NOT in his crib.
He'd figured out that if he stands on his crib bumper, it gives him a little height. He then lifts himself onto the crib railing between his hips and bellybutton and leans forward so his weight carries him out of the crib, onto the floor.

I am SO relieved that he didn't get hurt the first time he did it! It could have been so much worse than him just crying.
My Calvin is fearless!

See The Resemblance?

It happens on a regular basis now that I'll trip onto one of Calvin's pictures from when he was only a few months old and say something like "HE WAS SO LITTLE!" to David in my squeaky sad mom voice.

I was looking through some of the pictures and I zoomed in on my Calvin's face. I finally see the resemblance between Calvin and someone from my side of the family (Everyone always tells me how much he looks just like his dad)! 

He looks like my sister, Andrea (find her blog, here)!! 

And don't even TRY to tell me that he doesn't. 

Just look at these pictures of Andrea and I when we were little girlies. 

Click to enlarge the pictures.

Beach Day!

I know this is post is rather late. After all, we did get back from Indiana LAST Friday. But upon finding my little digital camera, I found pictures from the beach that I totally forgot about. Anyway, we attended Silver Beach in Michigan and it was gorgeous! I wasn't at all fearful of Calvin's reaction to the water.. He's been a water baby since day one. As soon as we put his little feet in the water I could see that his little mind was working and wanting to go further out. Of course, I couldn't let him out of my grasp, but he kept doing that back-arching thing that babies do when they want to get away. He kept putting his face in the water like, wanting to see what was down there and then, finding out that he couldn't breathe down there, would come up sputtering water!

If it wasn't so cute, I would have stopped him. But he was so excited!
We got there in the morning and soon the afternoon sun had heated up the sand so much that my toes and heels were all blistered from trying to cross the sand. Oy.

I think the best part of the whole thing was watching Calvin have fun in the water and in the sand (although we were still finding sand in his fat rolls 2 days later).

(p.s. The first 2 pictures did not come from my little digital camera, they were pictures from David's camera that I stole... heh heh.)

More To Come

Pictures of our visit to Silver Lake in Michigan
and our Amish Dinner Party!

Also, one of these days I will rant about my recent trip to see "Eclipse". I will say that I did get a really good laugh out of the whole thing. I love going with people that have a good sense of humor.

CALVIN IS ONE YEAR OLD!!

It's finally come. The day I've been dreading for a whole 12 months..
Calvin's birthday.

Well, I shouldn't say I've been dreading it. I only say that because now he's going to look more like a toddler to me than a tiny little baby (Noooooo!). He is so stinkin' big! Anyway, we got to plan a fun little birthday party for Cal with all the cousins in Indiana! Don't worry, we did decide to get a pinata since he is partly Mexican. Calvin was a huge mess. It was so cute to watch him tear through his cake. He was seriously covered in blue frosting by the end of his party (well, him AND his balloon). His bath that took place post-party turned the bath water blue. *The water was much bluer than it looks in the picture.

This whole time while the party was going on, I felt like I was trying to savor every moment. His sweet smiles, his "singing", and how happy he was when we sang him "Happy Birthday". It was the cutest thing ever. I mean, every mom thinks their baby is the cutest.... but mine really is the cutest.
I've been told that as sweet as the pictures are and as much fun as it is looking at them, inevitably, years from now I'll take out the pictures to look at them and be so saddened by how little and innocent he was. I can only hope that he doesn't turn into one of those toddler terrors.
I can't say it enough. I just love this boy more than I could ever say in words. He is my heart.
Happy Birthday, my Calvin.
I love you.

Indiana Indiana Indiana!

Sorry everyone for super lack of blogging lately. David and I have finally made the trip out to Indiana to visit David's family. In case you're wondering, the flight was perfect! As soon as we felt the plane taking off, Calvin dozed off until about a half hour before the flight ended.
This last week, David got fried by the sun because we've been out at the pool nearly everyday since we got here! Calvin LOVES water. He kicks his legs in the pool and tries his very hardest to escape his little floaty tube to get into the water in the pool! Not only that, but he loves sticking his face in the water and it is the funniest thing ever when he comes up sputtering because he's got water in his eyes and mouth.

On Saturday we took a trip to Ohio for CEDAR POINT! I've heard stories from David and from a few others about the furious speed and height of some of these roller coasters. I was totally nervous by people saying things like "I totally blacked out on one of the rides once!" or "One of the rides hurt our backs SO bad that we had to leave the park early!"

Uh.. No thanks.

I seriously felt sick after having gone on "Magnum". I got off the ride and my head was spinning, my stomach felt like it was going to come up and out of my throat at any second. But all of the rides were not like that. Overall, I enjoyed myself. I knew that David would enjoy himself. Calvin had a blast! What was more fun than going on the ride, was seeing Cal's reaction to the ride. I know he probably won't remember being at Cedar Point when he's so little, but he still enjoyed himself and I had fun watching that. And the next day was a LONG ride back from Ohio.

FINALLY.

I finally asked David how to get pictures on this laptop. There has been a lot that I've needed to blog about that I've been slacking on.

First and foremost, My Calvin! :)

(My tiny week old Calvin with his Aunt Andrea)

This little boy has been growing so quickly. It's like one minute I look at him and then I do a double take and he's on to his next "trick". Most recently, he's been practicing walking more. I think he's been figuring out that walking can get him where he wants to go a little faster. So these tiny steps have been getting bigger and more confident and faster. I am so in AWE of my little boy! He's getting so quick!
And he's now been climbing things!
I'll hear Calvin fussing in the next room. Not really crying, more like whining. And I'll find him up somewhere that he's climbed up on top of, but he can't quite figure out how to get back down!

He turns ONE in 11 days.

How is that even possible?
Wasn't it just last week that I brought him home from the hospital? He was just a tiny newborn baby. Small, fragile, kind of squished looking because he hadn't quite filled out yet. I cannot believe that he's almost a year old!
Before I know it, not only is my little Calvin growing up.. but he's a person who eventually will have their own opinions, morals, favorite bands, best friends, broken hearts. It just blows me away.
To think that I CREATED something so beautiful and complex. It's so unbelievable.
Not just that. But it almost makes me cry thinking about the person I was before I was a mother and the person I am now. I am so different in so many ways. And my little boy, who can barely say a word, who is barely learning to walk, can have such a tremendous effect on me.

I am so amazed.
My heart is so full.

Nothing Better.

(One day this will be ME.)

I LOVE a good workout.

(Like you didn't already know that about me..)
The last few weeks have been really hard for me to work out. I've either been totally drained of energy, or I just plain don't feel like it. I think I may have just gotten a little burned out from exercising almost 3 hours a day 6 days a week.. Yeah... I think that may be it.

Anyhow, I decided that I have to get my energy back up! It's driving me crazy that I went from an exercise freak to a couch potato in what seems like no time at all. And frankly, exercising at home does very little for me. The peer pressure of being in a gym for some reason helps me to not only finish my workout, but go a little harder every time.

The point is, I've had to make some HUGE effort to finally get off my butt and exercise again! The yoga classes at Gold's are tough! The first instructor I went to was pretty good, but the next night, I went to this other guy's class and he totally kicked my butt. Seriously, I think I'm more sore than when I went to a power pump class with my sister in law, Sarah,  for the first time. Oy.
But I've finally worked myself up and choreographing new songs for Zumba.

I'm glad to feel excited about exercising again. I love the feeling of the sweat coming down my face or when my hair starts to stick to my neck and forehead and my muscles start burning. There is nothing better than that. :)



(TANGENT: I'm sorry for the sudden lack of pictures... I have no idea how to get pictures from my camera to my laptop now. Usually, I can try and figure something out. But I am a little inept when it comes to computer gadgets and things of that nature. I promise to solve this problem soon. )