9 months!

Calin reached another big milestone on Saturday the 16th!  He is 9 months old!  After traveling all Saturday and a busy Sunday I didn't get pictures or an update done until today.  I can't believe it's been 9 months!  So crazy!  Calin is growing and learning so fast!  We are so happy to have him!

Here are some things about Calin:

(Stats to come...his 9 month appointment got pushed back to the beginning of April:( ) 

-Still loves to eat! His favorites are squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, avocados, and his Gerber puffs!  He also tried his first apple.  He loved chewing on it and with his bottom teeth would scrape a little off to eat.  He did pretty good! 

-Still is not a great sleeper.  Takes 2, occasionally 3, naps and is getting better at sleeping longer than 1/2 hour is I am there to help him get back to sleep.  

                                   

-He is still nursing, but only in the morning and evening feedings.  We have cut out his lunch and afternoon nursing.  

-The last couple weeks Calin has gotten really good at going from laying down on his stomach to a sitting position.  He has been able to do it for a while, but about a week and a half ago, right before we went to Oregon he got really comfortable with it and is doing it all the time.  He pushes himself up into a "stink bug" position and then swings his leg underneath him to sit down.  

-LOVES CARS!! He loves to play with his hot wheel cars, ride his little people car, and loves to watch cars drive by when we are outside.  I think his favorite place to be would be by a busy road or in a parking lot watching all the cars.  Maybe we need to take him to a race track!  He also loves to turn his big car over and spin the wheels.  Maybe he'll be a mechanic. 

 -Calin loves to be outside more and more and gets stir crazy being inside all day.  When he is inside he likes to find a window to look out.  He loves to go on walks, play on the trampoline, (this is a great outdoor play pen for him!  He can roll and crawl all over and I don't have to worry about him eating grass or bugs), watch cars, watch birds fly by (he is really good at spotting birds and following where they fly), he just loves to be outside! 

Happy boy enjoying the sunshine! 

We are trying to get Calin used to wearing sun glasses so he doesn't have to squint all the time.
It also will hopefully help so he isn't always sneezing form the bright sun! 

-He is staring to learn how to throw.  (Robby is teaching him)   He is getting the motion down, but has a hard time with the release.

-Can pull himself up on things to stand when he really wants to (it is still kind of hard for him) and is wanting to do it more and more.  The problem is getting back down...

 -He can pick up his food with his fingers and get it to his mouth.  It is pretty funny to watch though because he opens his mouth way before the food even gets close.

-He is still army crawling.  He does get up on his knees for a few crawls but then goes down to an army crawl.  I think he thinks he is faster that way!  He is getting very mobile with his crawling and is now following us from room to room around the house.  He definitely does not like to be left behind!

-Can say these sounds "ma ma", "da da", "la la"(very rarely), "ba ba", "na na"

-Likes to hold pens or Robby's i-pad pointer and "write" or trace things on books.  This keeps him entertained for a good amount of time at church! He has a book of shapes and loves to use the pointer to trace the shapes in the book. He has colored with crayons too and has made some beautiful pictures...however he doesn't like to stay on the paper...:/

-Has two bottom teeth and I think 4 (his top two and the next bottom two) are trying to make an appearance...boo to teething! 

-I'm sure there are many more things I am forgetting to write about, but hopefully they have shown up in other posts or will show up!  He just does something new every day and is constantly surprising Robby and I.  He often makes faces or sounds or does something that makes us laugh cause he is just so cute!  While we were in Oregon he had his pants in his hands after a diaper change and kept putting them on his head like he was trying to put them on..."I know they put things over my head when I get dressed, but how does this work!"  He is very entertaining and we don't know what we would do without him!  We love you little boy!

Spring Break

For Robby's spring break last week we made the trek up to Oregon again.  It is a LONG drive but totally worth the quiet relaxing time we have to spend there.  When I go home to LaGrande I feel like time slows way down, which was great!  No church callings to worry about, no laundry piles and dishes staring me in the face, wonderful dinners, and quality time with my family!  I love it! 

We left on Friday afternoon and stopped in Provo to have dinner with my two brothers.  I didn't get any pictures though. :(  It was fun to visit with them and meet Allie, Erich's girlfriend.  Then we got up EARLY Saturday morning to finish our drive.  Calin is such a good boy to travel with.  The last leg of the trip he is usually pretty restless and cranky, but aren't we all after being in the car for 12 hours!  

He got to drive all on his own this trip! (Christmas he had some help from Dad) ;)

We got to LaGrande Saturday afternoon and enjoyed visiting and giving Calin some time to play and wiggle.  Sunday we went to church and enjoyed seeing old friends and getting to have Robby sit with us instead of being on the stand!  Saturday and Sunday were still a little chilly and so Calin had to have the snowsuit on to  keep warm. 

                                               

Most of the days we were there we relaxed in the morning, took naps, went on walks around the neighborhood, visited the neighborhood park and other parks in town to swing and play, chased Mia around the kitchen, ate lunch with Grandma and Grandpa, another nap, sometimes another walk, and then played with Grandma and Grandpa in the evening.  

We saw deer on a lot of our walks!  

On Monday evening we went to check out Grandma at her bell choir practice.  It was fun to see, however Calin had mysteriously scratched his finger right before we went and so was not super happy and kept trying to pull the band-aid off which would just make it hurt again.  So we didn't stay long but it was fun to hear some of the movie theme songs they were doing! 

Tuesday was Robby and I's second anniversary.  That night my mom watched Calin while Robby and I enjoyed a nice dinner out just the two of us!  It was great to have some time together to celebrate! Thanks mom! 

During the day we went to Riverside park to have some variety in our park visits.  Robby and I enjoyed the big swings!  We don't have swings like that in St. George. :(   Calin enjoyed the new park and had fun on the swings, the merry-go-round, the slides, and checking out all of the different features at the "castle" themed park! 

I love the faces I get in all his swinging pictures!  

Glad Robby can handle the spinning merry-go-round.  I would have gotten sick! 

Calin loved this cool swing! 

During our visit I got to visit with some high school friends who are living La Grande.  I didn't get pictures with everyone, but did get a few cute ones of my dear friend Amanda and her cute little daughter Eilie. So excited for her to have another little baby soon!! So fun to catch up with everyone! 

Neither of them wanted their picture taken...this was the best I got. 

Here are some other pictures of things Calin enjoyed during our spring break visit to Grandma and Grandpa's!  

Calin had a love/nervous relationship with Mia.  He loved to be around her, but also
got a little nervous when he would reach to pet her.  It was pretty cute! 

Calin would just army crawl around the kitchen following Mia. 

Unfortunately he couldn't keep up. :( 

Every once in a while Mia would come over and sniff Calin
but mostly she was nervous around him and would run away. 

Loved playing (or banging) on the piano with Grandpa. 

Had lots of fun playing and reading stories all week with Grandma! 

Loved watching out the window watching all the cars drive by. 

Cute picture of mom and Calin! 

Chewing on an apple with dad! 

One day we visited my parents at work.  Grandpa gave Calin this golf ball to play with and
he did not want to let it go the rest of the day.  He even fell asleep with it! 

Hanging outside on the deck with Grandpa.

It was a wonderful week!  Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! We had a great time!  We made the long drive back home over Friday and Saturday.  We had a nice stop in Salt Lake and visited with my Aunt Karen and did some shopping for some new cute clothes for our growing boy.  When we got home Calin was so excited to get out of the car seat and roll and wiggle around on the floor.  Robby and I left him playing in the living room playing while we started unloading the car.  We turned around to come inside and look who had followed us outside!  This little boy is on the move! 

Twins again!

Parker came to play again the Thursday before we left for spring break.  We love having him come visit!  I was a little worried because I was watching him for a longer stretch this time, but for the most part the boys did great and we had a lot of fun.  It was nice when Robby got home to help though! I was quite pleased that I was able to feed both boys, get both boys to take a nap (even if it was short) and keep them happy for the majority of the time!

I did learn that Calin needs to learn how to share.  Calin was playing with his cars (he had 3 of them) and Parker got curious and wanted to come over and play too.  I gave Parker a car to play with that Calin wasn't playing with.  However, Calin looked over and saw Parker with the car and army crawled his way over to grab the car from Parker.  Guess we better start teaching him to share his cars!

Caught a picture of Calin going after Parker's car. 

The boys on a walk in the bike trailer that becomes a stroller!  

End of February

I have been majorly slacking in my blog posting this past month!!  A big part of that in February had to do with this:

We had our New Beginnings night for young women's and it took up the majority of my time for the last few weeks in February! These were just a few of the decorations for our "Wearing the Right Shoes" program.  It turned out great! We got a lot of our ideas here and here.  So glad other people are creative and come up with good ideas so I can use their awesome ideas! ;) The girls did a lot of the program and did a great job!  It was so nice to hear from them and to watch them be able to step into the leadership roles!   I have such an awesome group of young women to work with!  It is such a blessing to serve with them!

Other than that, the end of February brought nice weather here in St. George.  It was great to be able to take Calin out and spend time outside.  We have been going on bike rides with the new bike trailer, going to the park to kid watch, (Calin loves to watch the other kids play and just wiggles trying to figure out how to be  part of their action!) playing on the trampoline, swimming at Great Grandma's pool, and trying to be outside every day!  Calin gets so stir crazy if he doesn't get out and about!

Calin is such a happy baby!  I love having him around to entertain and keep me company all day!!  Here are some pictures to enjoy! A lot of them are from my phone so are not great quality...

Happy after eating! 

Loved playing with his car seat for a while! 

Such funny faces from this boy! 

Happy boy at the park! 

Enjoying investigating the grass. 

He loves to pick up one piece and play with it. 

Enjoys playing in his box! 

So happy riding his rocking horse! 

Playing at Great Grandma's after swimming. 

Riding in the bike trailer!  

Dad came to the park with us on a Friday!  We love having him home on Fridays!