Calvin is 9 months old!

It is official. Cal has now lived longer outside of the womb than he was inside of it. He is now 39 weeks and 2 days old, also known as 9 months. He was so healthy today he did get his flu shot! And for the first time in months, I put him down, while he was awake, in his crib and he hasn't started crying, fussing, screaming, or needing cuddles and rocking to get him to fall asleep.

He is a curious little fellow. With his ear tubes it is apparent that he is hearing things much better. He reacts to even the smallest, background or everyday noise, and wants to investigate. Nick sneezing on the other side of the house merits him getting excited and crawling to find out what it was. He still doesn't like being alone and follows me, Ellie, and Nick around the house. Apparently he does the same thing with his favorite teacher at school. He is ticklish, especially his armpits (don't tell him I told you). His feet too. He is rather serious, or more serious than Ellie ever was. While he is pretty loose with his smiles and smirks, it takes some serious effort to get him to giggle or laugh. Ellie is actually really good at it.

What was that noise?

He has two top teeth coming in (yes, on top of dr appointments, surgery, ER, etc...he was teething). Tonight he tried black beans for the first time and seemed to really like them. He has now had a wide variety of fruits and vegetables; peaches are still, by far, his favorite followed closely by banana.

He will pull up on anything and everything, his favorite being people, to try and get into a standing position. This week he started pulling up on an object and then pushing it forward and "walking". It started at daycare, I think by accident. This morning Hobbes was treated to a little trip around the living room.

Wait...Cal, come back!!

Calvin and the doctors

Calvin is a healthy baby. He really is. However, we have spent more time than any of us have wanted to in doctor's offices and hospitals lately.

When Cal was born, during his first check-up his pediatrician heard a heart murmur. She recommended that a pediatric cardiologist should take a look. So the very next day, Cal was under the care of a cardiologist who diagnosed him with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) and a patent foramen ovale. Or in plain language, he had two holes in his heart. The cardiologist said that they were both small and thought that they would close on their own eventually. But still you worry. We had a checkup at 2 months and both defects were still there. However, at his 6 month checkup with the cardiologist (which was really at 7 months) the cardiologist determined that both holes had closed up on their own and he has normal cardiac anatomy.

One of his first colds went to his chest and he received an albuterol nebulizing treatment which really seemed to help. And so he was prescribed albuterol and we ended up purchasing a nebulizer to give him treatments pretty much whenever he got sick with a head cold. And while its not fun to get him to hold still during a treatment they always do seem to really help him. I have it figured out how to get a full treatment in him, and it usually involves restraining him in his carseat.

We have ended up at the doctor's office for colds, fevers, and ear infections. We have spent more time visiting with our pediatrician and her associates at the office than we really want to. I have become friends with the nurses who I have spoken to on a regular basis on the phone at the office...one even came in just to meet us one time when we were in the office. We really like our doctor, the other doctors in her office, and the nurses. And fortunately for us his doctor's office is across the street from his daycare and only a few minutes from my office and has a great pharmacy in the same building.  And he is such a happy baby, that even though he is sick, he will still smile, giggle, and charm the doctors and everyone around him.

The week before Thanksgiving Cal hadn't been feeling so hot. The Thursday before Thanksgiving he got sent home from school because he had a fever. And so he couldn't go to school on Friday, which was the day we went to the cardiologist and we got the great news that his heart was normal. Friday evening he woke up from sleep and I could tell something wasn't right. He was warm and he was coughing and he just wasn't breathing right it was too fast and too shallow. We did a nebulizing treatment, put him in a steamy bathroom, and even took him outside where it was cooler...nothing really seemed to help. Nick commented that it was as if he was having an asthma attack. So I packed him up and we headed to the ER. He was put on monitors where they identified that his oxygen levels were low and so we were admitted to the hospital. He got another nebulizing treatment and they diagnosed him with RSV. We spent Saturday in the hospital and got discharged later that evening. And over the next two weeks, Cal recovered to be 100% healthy (despite an ear infection) as we kept him home from daycare to make sure he was healthy for surgery.

Ellie had some doozies of ear infections and got tubes in her ears in December 2009, at almost 10 months old. Apparently its genetic. Cal had several ear infections in a row this fall, and most were pretty nasty. Every time we ended up in the doctors office for a cold or for a check-up he had an ear infection and it usually was described with adjectives such as, bulging, colors of a tequila sunrise (which I'm pretty sure ear drums shouldn't look like), nasty, must be painful...never anything really nice to say. Cal was constantly pulling on his ears and it was painful for him to lay on his back, so much so that he if he was asleep he would wake up and cry in pain. On December 4, Calvin had tubes installed in both ears at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. It was almost de ja vous to 5 years ago to when Ellie got hers back in Boston. It has only been a few days but it is obvious that they don't hurt anymore and that he is already hearing better.

It has been a long couple months. After more than two weeks out of daycare he is now back and we are all happy to have him there again. Now that we know his heart is normal and he has ear tubes, we will just have to keep him free of head colds that require the use of the nebulizer.

He gets his flu shot tomorrow because he is finally healthy enough for it.

School Pictures

We got school pictures back for both kids a couple weeks ago and they are both fantastic!

Ellie looks beautiful. Her smile is radiant. Her eyes sparkle. Her hair is brushed.




Calvin's is something only a baby could pull off. It just captures him in that moment and his personality. All the adorable rolls and chubbiness are shown off in all their glory. His face, although not smiling, is one of puzzlement and wonder as to what is going on. And the onesie with the fake tie is the cherry on top.



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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday with friends and family. The note above is from Ellie to Aunt Susu (who did not make it to Santa Barbara for turkey with family and was missed).

And once again we didn't take any photos...and learning our lesson last year, and it being Cal's first Thanksgiving you would think we would have been all over it with the photo documentation. But, sadly we were not. And so we rely on the photos from others, mostly Cousin Jimmy.



Ellie helped set the table, including the writing of name cards for the place settings. Jim brought his talents as a mixologist to mix up the beverages for our dinner. We had store bought stuffing and a pumpkin pie (we missed Susie). But I did make rolls as usual! Grandma Pam rocked an awesome turkey and Nicks family recipe for green bean casserole. And we had the usual family recipe sides of mashed potatoes and Claire's cranberry sauce. It was an awesome meal.

Despite individuals dealing with pneumonia, ear infections, sleep deprivation, and acute levels of stress, it was a nice family get together.

And Cal really seemed to enjoy his Turkey vegetable dinner. Really, I promise he did.







Happy Thanksgiving!

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Calvin is 8 months old!

How did that happen? How did Cal become 8 months old already?!? Time is definitely going by fast. In fact, when uploading photos today for this blog post I realized there was some awesome stuff that we did when he was 5 or 6 months old (like go to Disneyland!) that we haven't posted about on here. We will...eventually.

If you can't tell in the photo above, Cal isn't feeling too well. He had been sick for a while and so last Monday Nick took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with two ear infections. After a couple days on the antibiotic all was better. But then he stopped sleeping and it was obvious he was uncomfortable. So back to the doctor we went today. Ear infections are still there, so we started a more heavy-duty antibiotic. Hopefully this helps, but I was told to call the pediatric ENT and get Cal in for an appointment. Fortunately, we know one and like him from when we first moved and Ellie still had her tubes.

Normally he is a really happy baby with lots of smiles. He is pretty laid back, but still hates to be alone. In fact, now that he is crawling, or crawl-scooting, his main objective is typically to chase down me or Ellie or Nick if we walk away from him. He can move pretty fast. While he is still dragging his belly...its only going to be a short time till he is actually crawling. And when he does, we are really in trouble because if he goes any faster he will be able to keep up with us! We decided it was time for the baby gate so Nick pulled that out of the garage today.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Our Halloween wasn't just one evening, or even one day. Oh no! Halloween lasted for about a week in our house. Everything started last weekend with Nick taking the kids to Ellie's school's Fall Festival, then trick or treating at KidSpace, then Ellie wore her costume to ballet, and then, on Monday, the kids were costume models on KTLA (see Nick's post below). Of course for all of these activities, except the KTLA morning show, Ellie wore her 50s girl costume and Cal went costume-less. Both Ellie and Cal got to keep the costumes they wore on the KTLA morning show, which meant that they each had multiple costumes for Halloween!!

On Halloween itself, Ellie took her 50s girl costume to school for a party in her after school program. Apparently she had a blast, but she was ready to continue the fun once she got home and was very excited to go trick-or-treating.

Cal's daycare also had a little Halloween party. There was a little costume parade and then a little get-together, which obviously was more meant for the parents of the Piglets class than for the kids. I was fortunate enough to be able to go. When I got there, just minutes before the parade was supposed to start, Cal was sound asleep in his crib. I, not wanting to miss out on the fun, woke him up and quickly got him into his Pooh Bear costume. We had fun and it was fun to see all the other kids all dressed up as well.

As soon as everyone was home we ate dinner and all did a costume change. Ellie got dressed in the Tinkerbell costume (with light-up wings!) and Cal got dressed in the pumpkin costume that I had made Ellie for her first Halloween, complete with hat by Grandma Pam. We did some photos by the fireplace before heading outside.

Ellie of course was awesome. Striking poses that she thought a fairy would do.

Cal on the other hand...he was not took keen on his hat, or looking at the camera. But eventually we got one of him.

And then we had to get one of both of them together.

We went trick-or-treating with some friends in our neighborhood, just a couple blocks away from our house. Ellie got quite the loot. She even got a full size Snickers bar! It was good fun and we were all home by about 8pm. Of course Ellie got to pick out her token one piece of candy. Cal wanted some too...but, we were able to keep his hands out of the pile.

It was a great and very successful Halloween. You will notice that we did not carve any pumpkins. Nick, last weekend, kept asking Ellie if she wanted to carve pumpkins but she decided that she didn't. Oh well. There is always next Halloween when Cal will enjoy carving pumpkins a little more than he would have this year.

Hope everyone else had a great Halloween!

Daddy's Flying Solo -- Long Weekend Edition

Ann had both kids several times when I was back in Chicago enjoying my Cubs season tickets -- and now it was my turn, as she spent the weekend at a work conference in Washington, DC.

It's tough simultaneously taking care of a little guy who doesn't like being alone, and an, at times, strong-willed little girl.. but we really did have a great weekend. For the most part there were happy moods all around.

Things began Saturday morning with a trip to Ellie's school for their Fall Festival fundraiser. Ellie met up with several friends for face painting, jumpy house time, lots of games, some people-watching, and lunch -- which included a candy apple dessert!










(Oh! Ellie also got run over by a mini Mars lander, courtesy of the folks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is just up the road in La Cañada. Pretty cool!)







After an afternoon at the Fall Festival, we went off to a playground to burn off all that sugar energy. Cal enjoyed getting down on the grass.




The night was capped off with a trip to In-n-Out. Cal tried reaching for everything Ellie and I had. Kid's got good taste.


On Sunday morning we headed over KidSpace, a children's science museum right near the Rose Bowl here in Pasadena, for its special Halloween Hunt. Ellie trick-or- treated in the museum's garden area, while Cal trekked along with me in the backpack. What made this a little different was the fact that most of the people handing out the goodies were dressed as scientific historical figures. Not every day you get Smarties from Einstein.. or a glow-in-the-dark centipede (next stage of evolution?) from Charles Darwin. Ellie and Cal did well playing together on the road & train track construction mat.




















After that.. it was time for ballet. Ellie did a great job rehearsing her "pirate dance" for her upcoming performance. And Cal practiced crawling.
















Yogurtland was our destination of choice after all that. Cal was jealous that he only got to eat his Peas, Spinach, and Pears baby food.




And.. we're not done yet! The weekend fun spilled over into Monday morning at KTKA, where the kids played key roles in the annual KTLA Morning News Halloween costume segment. You can watch the video here.














It was a busy, but fun (long) weekend!

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