Seven Months Old!

Today our little man turned seven months old. And he has developed a personality and changed so much even over this past month.

He has been loving his solid foods, except avocado and broccoli. Peaches and pumpkin are his two favorites. But broccoli...I have to trick him to eat that.






He is still rocking the top of the charts. We don't have an official weight and length measurement but unofficially he is "a big one!". I think he's over 21lbs, maybe even 22 lbs now.

He gives the best kisses.



We have rolled over! He is rolling from tummy to back. Well, I haven't actually seen him roll over but Nick and Ellie and his daycare teachers have. I have left him on his tummy and walked away only to find him on his back. He is also moving from a sitting position to his tummy. After a few very ungraceful belly flops complete with bumps to the head, he has figured it out. He can get up on all fours, but doesn't move forward, he is pushing himself backwards though. Today at daycare his teachers told me he developed another method of locomotion, hopping on his bum while he is sitting. Apparently he gets SO excited he starts hopping and moves forward!





We took him to Disneyland last weekend and he was amazing.
He is very social and hates being alone, unless he is occupied by a ball. He is very chill and easily entertained. He loves playing with stacking cups and any kind and size of a ball. His teachers all day he is their favorite baby and teachers in the next class up have already asked to be his primary teacher when he moves up. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is his favorite song and it will calm him down no matter what. He makes me and everyone around him laugh. He laughs, he vocalizes when you ask him questions and he gives high fives. He is pretty awesome.












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Exploring L.A. :: Orange County Discovery Center

So like back in August we took a family trip down to Orange County to go to the Orange County Discovery Center. We knew pretty much nothing about the Discovery Center except that it was a children's science museum. Oh! And that it was set inside of a giant black cube that you can see from the freeway.

Upon entering we immediately just started wandering and were a little overwhelmed. At first all the exhibits and activities seemed like they were aimed at an older age group than Ellie. Things were very physics based which were really interesting, except that its a little difficult to explain pulleys and the finer points of aerodynamics to Ellie. But she had fun exploring. And they say that children learn the most just by playing (I read that as experimenting) on their own terms.

Then we went upstairs and saw some more permanent exhibits which were more themed. An exhibit about hockey took up about 1/3 of the upstairs area. There was part of a Zamboni to pretend to drive and get up close with. An exhibit showed how the ice in the arenas is made. There were some uniforms so you can see how heavy they are (both dry and full of sweat...gross). There was also some games where you can either take penalty shots with a virtual goalie or be a goalie and deflect pucks which are shot at you.  Ellie didn't want to do either one of those, but enjoyed watching her parents don helmets and try their best. I did not miss my calling of being a hockey goalie by the way.

The museum also had the typical childrens science center stuff...buckets of Legos, dinosaurs, earthquake exhibit (maybe that's just a Cali thing), rock climbing wall, rocket launching (just air rockets, not a water rocket...because we are in a drought) and a couple things that looked like they would be really cool, but it wasn't working. The dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool. There was fossil hunting, and lift size stucco brontosaurus with cut-aways to show the blood circulation system, muscles, stomach, bones, etc.

There was a temporary exhibit about the 50 states. There was something to explore from every state. Some were actually really cool and fun and easy to teach a science lesson to a kid about. The first one and probably the most interactive for parents and kids was the one for Missouri where you built the arch. I can explain a keystone to a 5 year old like its nobodys business. The exhibit for Massachuetts was pretty lame and we were dissapointed...I mean a baseball diamond shaped mini pinball game, not cool enough. I think it was New Hampshire that had some cross-country skiing (in place) and Montana had kayaking. Louisiana had a cool interactive build-a-band and music mixing. I can't remember what Illinois had. Each little mini-exhibit was fun to explore and I'm pretty sure we checked out all 50 of them.

Ellie's favorite exhibit and something we spent a lot of time at was the life-skills, pretend play, kids get to do adult things with child size things. The best part of it was a pretend grocery store where the carts, while real carts, had computers and screens in them. Depending on your age or what level you wanted to play the "game" you got different questions and had to "shop" the different departments to find the items and scan them with your barcode scanner. Of course the questions and tasks had to do with being environmentally friendly (which is more wasteful, buying single serve milk or a gallon? which product is better for recycling the packaging?). Ellie loved it and after doing the 4-6 age group questions (find the donut packaging that holds the most donuts) she did the elementary school level. There was also a game where you had to sort "products" that came by on the conveyor belt by plastic, garbage, green waste, or plastic. She really enjoyed that as well until it got crowded.

So there was nothing there for Cal except for some awesome lights to stare at. He was happy though. He took a couple great naps and was chill for the rest of the time. I think we all had fun and will probably go back, but maybe we will wait till Ellie (and Cal) is a little older. The whole museum seemed to be aimed at the advanced 6-12 age group. And we will probably try and coordinate our next visit on one of the days where if you have a BofA card you can get in for free. Until next time Orange County...

Calvin's Six Month Update

Today we took Calvin to get his six month portraits taken. It was such a fun photo shoot and we got so many great pictures! He was so cooperative and happy it was awesome. And so I figured that I probably needed to do a six month update...so many things have happened just in the past month!



So the statistics, the little man is over 20 pounds and just over 26 inches tall. He definitely is a chubby little man and seems like he is twice the size of other babies at daycare. But he is healthy and happy.

In gross motor skills he is now sitting. He started sitting confidently and without support around 5.5 months old. It has opened up a whole new world to him. More toys to reach and put in his mouth. More things to see. Ellie plays with him more on the ground. He has not rolled over yet (back to front or front to back). Our pediatrician says no to worry, given that he is a bit on the larger/chunkier side it'll be much more difficult for him than the tall lanky babies. He has gotten on his side and up on his knees a few times, but not rolled over. As he really doesn't like to be on his back I think he will roll from back to front first. He loves tummy time. He will hang out on his tummy for as long as you will let him. But on his back...not when hes awake. He will yell and cry to either sit or be on his tummy.

He has a couple of teeth. His two bottom center teeth have come in. They came in one right after the other so it was a few days full or restless sleep, drool, and gnawing on anything and everything. They both arrived over Labor Day Weekend (around 5.5 months old).

The kid totally has a preference for certain toys. I don't remember Ellie really caring that much or having a preference about toys, besides her beloved red blanket and Sophie the giraffe, at this age. Cal on the other hand, he loves anything that is ball-shaped. He gravitates towards them at school and at home he loves playing with spherical shaped toys...such a boy!

He is thriving in daycare. He really likes to be there; everyday at dropoff he gets really excited to see the toys, friends, and his teachers. We are so happy to have found this daycare as all the teachers are fantastic and caring. Everyday as I walk him into the Piglets Room teachers we pass on the way always say hi to him and smile. So he is all smiles and laughing the whole time! I have been told so many times by various teachers that he is the happiest, cuddliest, most easy-going baby.

We have started solid foods with him. Again, on Labor Day Weekend (he was sitting and had teeth so we figured it was time to start solid food) we started with bananas. After bananas we added rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, avocado (not a fan just like his sister), applesauce, and peaches and nectarines. He is still eating like a champ. His favorite solid food is probably peaches/nectarines (homemade and I just pureed the peaches and nectarine that we had together).

Photo courtesy of his older sister

He is probably one of the happiest babies around. He doesn't fuss very often and when he does you know exactly what is going on. Either hes been on his back for more than 2 minutes, has a full diaper, hungry, or overtired. But other than that, he rolls with all the craziness that is our household with Ellie.

Six Months Old!

Today is Calvin's half birthday; the little man is six months old. He is sitting, has two bottom teeth growing, and is eating solids foods...but that's all for another post. Lets just enjoy some photos of the little man with a very big tiger.















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