Two Years Old!!

Calin is 2 Years Old!! 

We tried to get him to hold two fingers together but it didn't work out.  This looks like he is one...;) 

Weight: 26.01 lbs (25%)

Height: 33.86 in. (35%)

Head: 18.4 in. (8%)

How did our little baby boy get to be 2!?? It is so crazy to me that it has already been two years with this wonderful little boy!  Calin is such an amazing little boy and we are so proud of him and the fun little boy he is growing up to be!  

There are so many things I could say about our little 2 year old, he definitely keeps us on our toes! Mostly though, I am amazed every day at how smart he is and the things that he is able to do.  I'm going to try to list all the amazing things our little boy does and as much as I can about him, so this may get a little long! ;) 

-Can spell his name.  Also, if you spell out "dad", "mom", or "clara" he can tell you what it spells.

-Can count to 12 on his own and knows that "teen" numbers come after that but doesn't get them in the right order, but does know that 20 comes after 19.  

-Knows all of his colors and even can distinguish and tell you if something is "light blue" or "dark blue".  Also, if something is kind of an in-between color he will say "orangish yellow" or "greenish blue".  It's pretty cute.  

-Is starting to recognize letters.  His only letter he can get almost always is the letter c.  I think he'd have them down by now though if I worked with him more on it.  

-Knows a square, triangle, circle, oval, rectangle, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, and trapezoid.  

-He can find the words on a page of a book and knows that they are letters.  

-He memorizes books and I often find him "reading" or reciting parts of books as he is looking at the book or even while he is playing with something else.  It amazes me how quickly he can pick up on a book and memorize it!

-He loves books!!! He likes "reading" them and being read to.

-He is a great eater most of the time as long as he is in his high chair (so he isn't up/down and all over the place).  He eats pretty much anything and everything as long as that's what everyone else is eating too.  He definitely has his favorites that he loves to eat (noodles-especially Ramen noodles-, tortillas, teddy grahams) and we sometimes have to work a little harder to get him to eat his fruits and vegetables, but most of the time he does great! 

-He puts many words together and can speak in almost complete sentences.   "jump high to the basketball hoop like that"  "I missed again"  "want to go outside and do some jumping" 

-He confuses pronouns and says it the way we say it to him.  So when he is talking about himself he says "you want a drink of water".  When he is talking about someone else to that person he'll say "want to come with me".  He also refers to himself in 3rd person and says it how we would say it.  So if he wants something he might say "want to go to the park Calin".  He states it like how we would ask him "Do you want to go to the park Calin?"  It often can get confusing, but is also really cute because of how it ends up coming out sometimes! I will be proud once he starts figuring it out correctly, but I will miss him saying things like this!  

-Often when he says something is "big" it is also "scary".  "That big scary truck".

-He is still very snuggly especially after he wakes up in the morning and after naps.  He will come and sit on our laps for a little while while he is waking up a little more.

-He likes to give hugs and kisses.  He will give them most of the time when you ask for them, but the best are when he just comes over and gives us a hug or kiss just because he wanted to.  These are much more rare, but we love it when they do happen!

-Clara however, gets smothered with kisses and hugs all day long whether she wants them or not.   He also loves to hug kids around him, especially those that are his size.

-He has become a little more aggressive in the last month or two and will give other kids a "hug" and then pull them down to the ground.  He also will push or pull if he wants a toy or another kid is in the way of what he wants.  This has been a VERY frustrating behavior and we are working on it and talking about it every day.  Hopefully it is just a phase and it will get better soon and he can learn to play nice!

This is the face he gets when he is mad or when I'm telling him to stop doing something.  

-He does ok with sharing toys after we talk to him and remind him, and convince him that we can take turns.  Some days are harder than others, but I do think he is getting better.

-Likes to play with blocks, duplos, animals, balls, cars, books, but especially likes to have someone playing those things with him.

-Likes to color and is quite the artist.  He can draw a circle, triangle, moon, line, sun, swirls, sometimes a square or rectangle, to actually look like those things, and then lots of other things that are not as recognizable.

-He talks on his play phone and always says "hello, we welcome you today".

-We often call him "Mr. Calin" and call Clara "Miss Clara".  I often hear him calling her "Mr. Clara".

-Calin does much better being left with babysitters these days.  He goes to nursery (sometimes cries a little at the beginning) and does well the whole time in there! However, when we are gone I usually find that he has held on to the same toy or book while we are gone.  I think this is his way of comforting himself when he is feeling sad or vulnerable.  He will also do this when we are around when he is upset or tired.

-Wants to share food with Clara but we told him he can't because she doesn't have any teeth.  He always says we need to "go at the store and buy some".

-Knows when he has done something wrong and already knows how to put on the sweet charm (mostly when he colors on something he shouldn't).  He will come over to me all meek with a little smile and I immediately know he did something.  He is such a good boy though and will tell me what he did wrong and then he will often tell himself to go to his room, walk there on his own, and then come out and say sorry and give me a hug.  (Can you tell he's had to do that a lot!?) He is so smart and knows what to do, but is just a normal impulsive two year old and momentarily forgets not to do things.

-Loves to clean with a cloth or wipes.  He ALWAYS wants a wipe to wipe his hands and face, the furniture, whatever he can find to wipe and clean. I hope this sticks around!

-Likes to attempt to blow his own nose.  Lately he makes this throat gurgling sound to sound like he's blowing.

-He loves to go to the park and especially likes to go down the slides.  One evening I took him over there while Robby was at meetings at the church and he just ran up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide over and over until we left.

-Likes to play with his soccer and basketball.  He uses them for both sports.  He loves to shoot with all his balls in his little basketball hoop in our basement and also loves to take the balls outside and throw/shoot/kick them all over.

  

 -He is absolutely Daddy's little boy.  These two are two peas in a pod!  They love to spend time together.  Calin lights up when Dad gets home and is inseparable from Dad from that point on.

-Anywhere Dad goes, Calin goes with him.  Anything Dad does, Calin does it too.  Anything Dad says, Calin repeats it.

-Calin has a huge repertoire of songs that keeps growing and growing.  A lot of that is thanks to Dad. They sing together at night in the rocking chair before Calin goes to bed.  He learns the songs that Dad sings with him.  I started doing it with him as well (the few nights that Calin will let me put him down instead of Robby).  He picks up on the songs really quick and will sit in our lap and sing along. Those moments of singing songs with our little guy have got to be some of the best!  His most recent favorite was "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".  He also recently learned "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes home" to sing to Dad on Father's Day.  They are also practicing "Puff the Magic Dragon".  While Calin is playing or eating and a lot when driving in the car I hear him singing a song that he has learned from me or Robby.  He also sings a lot when going down for a nap or when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap.  I love that he loves to sing so much!  It brightens up our house! 

 -Calin loves to watch things around him and quietly investigate and take things in.  I think once he figures out the word "why" we will be hearing that a lot!  He is so smart and loves to know what is going on around him.  

-He loves to have a plan/routine and stick to it.  He is very good to follow through with things if it is part of our plan.  This is often how we can get him to do something he doesn't want to.  Such as "First we'll change your diaper, then we will eat breakfast, and after those two things then we will go to the park".  He will repeat the plan back to you and makes sure we follow through with all the things we needed to do.  

-Calin still LOVES his cars.  He loves to drive them on the couch, the floor, the windowsill, and race them on the many different tracks we have around our house.  He also sometimes likes to line them up or arrange them by color.  

The pictures below are a perfect representation of Calin and his cars.  He is often found holding as many as he can in one hand and playing with more in the other.   I'm so glad we captured this on camera!

-Calin especially likes to race cars and play cars with Dad.  Many mornings when he wakes up,  he asks for Dad and I have to tell him Dad is at work.  He will often reply with something along the lines of "When Dad gets home then we can play cars"!  I'm so glad they both love it so much together!

-He is an ok sleeper.  Most nights he sleeps from around 9:30 (we get him ready around 8:30 and we try to put him down/get him to go to sleep earlier and it's never worked out in our favor) until about 7 or 8.  More often then not he wakes up at least once every night where he needs us to go in, settle him back in and he goes back to sleep.  There are also quite a few nights where he does not go right back to sleep and he's up for an hour or two.  I'm hoping it's due to teething and that this will eventually get better!  Robby goes in with him most nights if he's up since I'm usually up with Clara.  So both Robby and I have someone to get up with! ;) 

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, smart, handsome, loving, silly, teasing, fun, and helpful little boy.  He is fantastic and I don't remember what life was like before we had him in it!  I am grateful every day to be this boys mother and only hope I can help him become as great as I know he can be.  

We love you Calin and are so glad we have such a great 2 year old!

Three Months Old!

Clara is 3 Months Old!! 

It seems crazy that we are already at 3 months for Clara! It has gone by way too fast!  It also seems like she has been with us always.  Funny how time works like that.  About a week and a half ago I looked back at Calin's 3 month old post and had a mini panic because a lot of the things Calin was able to do at 3 months Clara wasn't even close to being able to do.  However, in that last week and a half she has blossomed and is doing all kinds of new things!  Funny how they all of a sudden figure things out! 

Here are a few things about Clara right now: 

-Eating about every 3 hours.  Sometimes goes a little less or a little longer.  

-Sleeping most nights from about 10 or 11 until 5 or 6.  She will wake up around then to eat and then will go back to sleep for another few hours most mornings.  

-Her fussy nights are not really as fussy anymore.  She does pretty well as long as we are holding her or she has a pacifier.   She is just awake until 10 or 11 I can't seem to keep her asleep if I put her down earlier.  

-She has rolled from both front to back and back to front.  She's only done front to back 2 or 3 times and back to front about 5 or 6 times, but she can do it!   She actually rolled back to front before she roller front to back.  She wouldn't ever stay on her stomach long enough to get close to rolling over! ;) 

-She still really dislikes being on  her stomach.  In order to get her to hold her head up I have to prop her hands underneath her.  She will stay up for about a minute max and then drops her head and face plants it into the blanket and lays their face down squirming, whining, and kicking her legs around until she eventually gets really mad and starts crying.  

-She is wearing 0-3 month/ 3 month clothes but they are starting to get smaller and we will probably start putting her in 3-6 month clothes.  

-She is grabbing onto things around her; her clothes, blankets, my hair, toys that are within her sight when on her back (usually a rattle or on her play mat with toys hanging over her). 

-She is starting to enjoy books a lot more.  She likes to sit up on your lap and read more than she likes to lay down to read though.  Lately though if she is getting fussy on her back and we read her a book she is not as fussy anymore.  

Really mom? More pictures? 

-Very happy and smily! She pretty much always has at least one smile for anyone who smiles at her.  She has the cutest smiles for everyone, but I still think her best smiles she saves for Dad! 

-She has been pretty stingy with her giggles.  We have managed to get a few tiny little giggles out of her when we do really little bounces on the bed or the trampoline with her laying on her back.   

-She likes to talk and imitate our talking when we talk to her.  I love her little babbles! 

-She can frequently be found drooling or blowing bubbles lately.  

-She still loves Calin and lights up whenever he is around.  If she is fussy she can often by calmed down by hearing or watching Calin.  It's a good thing she likes him cause he is a lot handle these days! 

Getting some Calin love. 

Cute siblings! 

"If you are going to squish my face, I'm going to eat your nose!" 

 We sure do love our little Clara!  

Trip to LaGrande!

At the end of May we took a trip to LaGrande to go to Josef and Summer's open house and then to spend the week with my parents.  It was a great trip!  Now that we were "pro" flyers I was not too worried about the flights on this trip.  However, we did have to drive to Vegas, and then once we got to Boise we had to drive the rest of the way to La Grande.  So I knew we were in for a long day.  And that is was, but we made it and it all turned out just fine! 

There is some construction going on in the gorge on the way to Vegas so I planned quite a bit of extra time that morning that we left.  I also didn't know how Clara's eating schedule would go and how long it would take us to get from economy parking to get checked in.  So, because of all these factors I planned an extra hour and a half more than we probably needed.  We got to the airport in plenty of time and so when we got to our gate we were 3 hours early...oops.  It was good though cause it gave us time to get some food and feed Clara and let Calin run around after being in the car.  

Up and down these A LOT while waiting to board! 

However, by about 2 1/2 hours in Calin had had it.  We thought it was just about time to board the plane when they announced a delay.  It ended up begin about another 45 minutes before we got on the plane.  By then Calin was SUPER grumpy and having a really hard time.  We were so blessed though and we got the one extra seat on the plane so Calin could have his own seat instead of sitting on Robby's lap.  We finally took off and gave Calin some more snacks and as we took off and he ate he dozed off.  He climbed onto Robby's lap and slept the whole flight! 

Yea for a nap for both these boys!

Clara had just eaten before we boarded so she played for a little while and then took a little nap.  

We finally made it to Boise and headed out to get our rental car.  We got out to the car only to find that we had to play tetris to get all the suitcases, stroller, car seats and people into the car.  We finally managed with the front passenger seat full of bags, and me in between the two carseats in the back.  

Riding through the airport in Boise. 

The drive went well, but I did read Baby Bug and Highlights books to Calin pretty much the entire drive.  At that point my head was throbbing, we were starving, and everyone was ready to arrive in LaGrande! We made one stop in Ontario to get some food and feed Clara.  Then we finished the day of traveling finally!  It was great to arrive in LaGrande and see everyone!  

We had some dinner, visited, and let Calin play with all the new exciting toys at Grandma's house.  Then we settled Calin in to his sleeping bag bed on the floor (he thought that was pretty cool).  I stayed up and visited with everyone until Josef and Summer arrived and then fed Clara and settled her into the crib. The kids did good and both slept well in the new environment.  However, at about 6:00 am they were both up and Calin was up, ready for the day, and making quite a lot of racket.  I don't think all his uncles and aunts were too appreciative of being woken up quite that early on their vacation. 

The rest of Saturday was busy as we got ready for the open house.  We made a trip down to the farmer's market to pick up some strawberries for the open house.  I love fresh Oregon strawberries!  They were delicious! 

We helped my mom prep food and get set up as much as we could in between taking care of Calin and Clara.  The open house went great and the food was delicious!  We had some delicious BBQ meat, pasta salad, fruit, lemonade, and a TON of really yummy desserts!  Robby and I were lucky to stay through the week so we got to keep enjoying all the delicious food for leftovers all week!  I forgot to take any pictures, but stole these from Summer's Facebook.  (Thanks Summer!) 

Loved these lanterns filled with flowers! 

Erich and Allie at the open house. 

The guests of honor! 

After the open house,  we cleaned up quick, I fed Clara and then all the adults except for my mom rushed off to see Les Miserables at Eastern.  My mom stayed home with Clara and Calin.  Thanks mom!  They both did great and my mom was able to bring Clara over at intermission so I could feed her.  So glad LaGrande is so small so we can do that!  The show was great and it was a lot of fun to get out for the night! 

All the siblings at the show.  They took this while I was out feeding Clara so Robby and I missed being in the photo. 

Robby and I at the show.  It's not often we get out without kids.  

Sunday we hung out at the house all morning (everyone got woken up early by Calin again!).  Then we went to church at 1:00.  Calin finally fell asleep towards the end of sacrament meeting and so we just went home after that.  Then after church the whole family went out to the base of mount emily to take some family pictures.  It was a really pretty area.  Minus the tick we found on Clara and then on Robby it was a great outing! 

That night we celebrated my mom's birthday a day early since everyone was leaving the next morning.  It was nice to actually be there to celebrate with my mom in person! 

Monday morning we all got up and went to the annual scout pancake breakfast my Dad was helping with for Memorial Day.   After breakfast all my siblings took off to make their way back to Utah.  We went out to see the memorial day flags at the graveyard.  It was much colder than I expected and rather windy and sprinkling a little.  All the flags were cool to see with so many of them up all in one area.  

The rest of the week we made lots of trips to the park, hung out at the house reading books and playing with grandma and grandpa.  Calin had a few favorite books that everyone had to read over and over for the whole week.  His favorites were "Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear",  "One Was Johnny", and "Spot Sleeps Over".   I think everyone read "Polar Bear" to him about 50 times, so probably 200 times throughout the week. ;) 

In the mornings he would get up early every day.  He often went outside to help feed Mia.  He also went out to help grandma water.  Calin also enjoyed getting up in the mornings and playing with the kitchen and "cooking" us breakfast.  He loved the plastic plates and silverware and carried them all over the house with him all week.  He also enjoyed playing with the dinosaurs, duplos, and train set.  

Watering grandma's plants. 

Playing outside with Grandma one morning. 

This is one of my favorite parks in LaGrande.  They totally redid a couple years after I graduated and it is a really cool park.  It looks like a big castle and has a lot of really cool features, decorations done by a lot of elementary school kids, musical pipes to play, a really nice toddler area, a big sandbox, "secret passageways", and lots more.  It is just a great park and I think it was really great for Calin's age.  He could do a lot of the things there and had a lot of fun.  I think it helped that there were so many of us there to run around and play with him.

Grandma and Grandpa chilling with Clara and watching the action.  

Tuesday night I was able to go out to dinner with some childhood through high school friends Hilary, Haley, and Kristin.  It was so much fun to go out for a couple hours kid free and be able to catch up and visit!  I love these girls, but we missed having Malia there! 

Then Wednesday morning we got together at my house with the kids so we could meet them and let the kids play together.  It was so fun to visit again and be able to meet all the kids!  It's so crazy how much our lives have changed from when we were little, to high school, to now married and with kids!   It was especially fun because Calin and Paxton are really close in age and so are Clara and Stella.  It will be fun to do it again soon since they will have playmates whenever we can get together! 

Calin and Paxton playing with the kitchen.  

Playing 'Hide an Go Seek" with Robby.  

They were both having a great time! 

Then they enjoyed running and jumping on this bean bag together! 

All of us and our kids!  Love these girls! 

Thursday my mom had to leave in the afternoon to go to a conference, but we enjoyed a few last activities with her before she left.  We went to the library to go to story time and also checked out some books.  

Calin liked driving in this! 

They had these mini shopping carts so the kids could go "shopping" for their books!  So cute!! 

Picking out some books with Dad. 

Grandma and Clara

Reading "One Was Johnny" with grandma before she had to leave. 

Wednesday night we went swimming with Grandpa and Grandma, but shortly after arriving we had to get out due to some poop in the pool.  Gross! However, they gave us a free swim so we went back on Thursday afternoon with Grandpa after Grandma left.  Calin loved going down the slide over and over! 

Robby got to enjoy lots of down time with the kids since he didn't have to work and didn't have any projects to work on! It was great to spend lots of time with him!

Reading stories with the kids! 

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Bath time with Dad!

Spending some time with grandpa before we left. 

Friday morning we got all packed up, took one last trip to the park, and then loaded up and headed out for our long trek back to Utah.  The trip back went ok.  We started out with our drive to Boise.  Calin was entertained reading lots of stories, singing songs, eating snacks/lunch, and playing "where's Calin?" behind his hat over and over and over again! He also took a nap which helped kill a good portion of the drive! 

Leaving La Grande. :( 

Me and Calin in the backseat. 

Playing "Where's Calin?!!" 

We made it to Boise in perfect timing only to find out our flight was delayed a little more than an hour.  :(  It was much better to keep Calin entertained and happy in the Boise airport than the Vegas one though.  It was much calmer and he could roam around a little more freely than when we were at Vegas.  

Once on the plane we were lucky again to have an open seat for Calin.  He did pretty good eating snacks, coloring, and reading stories with Robby.  

On the plane in his very own seat! 

Once we made it to Vegas it was a little crazy for a while.  We grabbed a cart (very useful!) and made our way to baggage claim.  It then took us a little while to find our way to where the parking shuttle picked us up.  We looked pretty ridiculous with all our bags, kids, car seats, and stroller.  Calin was just glad to be free! 

We finally made it back to the car, loaded everything back in, then headed to get a late dinner and feed Clara.  Calin was still doing Polar Bear and is still doing it now weeks later!  He sure did love that book!  

It was such a great trip to see my parents and spend time with our family.  I am sad it is so hard to get home and wish we could go more often!  Thanks Mom and Dad for a great week!  We miss seeing you!