18 Months

Last Saturday our baby boy turned 18 months! The time between his 12 months mark to his 18 month mark really flew by quickly. It just amazed me. The saddest part about this is now he is in nursery! I knew it would happen but it just really solidifies how old your babe is once he isn't causing havoc next to you for all 3 hours of church. 

 He is 30.2 lbs (90%ile), and 33 5/8 inches (85%). He has a pretty large vocabulary (about 30-ish words) and always knows exactly what he wants. He is also daily independent and has to do everything by himself or he gets all sort of angry. 

 His BFF is Emmeline. He spends about 30-35 hours a week with her, and when he isn't with her, he is always asking for "Emm.line". He loves to hold her hand when they're in the car, dump water on her in the bathtub, as well as try and help wash her hair.

His favorite foods are always changing; he is a great eater if we don't let him snack excessively, or too close to dinner time. Being confined in one place for long periods of time is not his forte, so even if he is still hungry he will usually say he is all done just to get out of his chair. With a lot of work he has gotten really good at listening to guidance like "Calvin, you can get down as soon as you eat the rest of your (blank)."

 He is mischievous and knows exactly what he is NOT supposed to be doing. In the picture below he is trying to throw his food through the hole and onto the floor without being caught. So much naughtiness.

The child got a wagon from his grandparents for Christmas and loves to go on wagon walks multiple times a day. Whenever he gets out of the car he dashes to the wagon and does a nose dive in and says "wagon walk!" over and over again. Half way through he usually wants to get out and pull the wagon himself.

Even thought it's probably a good thing, he hates TV. He says he wants to watch "George" and then will walk away after the theme song. Sometimes it would be nice so i could get a few things done....oh well. He loves books and his favorite books are "Moo, Baa, LA LA LA" and "Spot".

He got a "pa-packkk" recently and loves being able to carry around his little day pack. He is also a pro at saying "CHEESE" whenever I pull out my phone to take a picture.

He loves playing peekaboo

 Recently he discovered the joy of cleaning and LOVES to help me clean around the house. I do love that he understands cleaning so he can learn the importance of cleanliness in the home, but he also has to do everything, so vacuuming takes 25 minutes instead of 10, and scrubbing the toilet usually means mopping the floor right after. But thats ok:)

 Calvin is still a fabulous sleeper, going down around 7:30 and waking up at about 7 (unless he is teething, then he wakes up at 6:30. *sigh*). He takes one nap around 12:30 that lasts anywhere from 1:30-2 hrs.

About a week ago Robert put Calvin down as normal and 10 minutes later he  screamed "water" until we brought him his water bottle. Robert tried to get him to drink it but he just grabbed it, put it under his chest and curled up with it and fell asleep instantaneously. Three nights ago he screamed "moose!" until we brought him his moose (along with his blankets and water bottle). Last night we packed in his water bottle, two blankets, and moose for bed. Ten minutes later he screamed "owl!" Until we brought him his owl. Now he refuses to go down for a nap or bed until his has his two blankets, water bottle, moose and owl. He usually feeds his moose some of his water as he is laying there. It's adorable. 

Sometime in the last week this little munchkin has become a super high maintenance sleeper. 

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents, 5 sisters their respective spouses, and 5 nieces/nephews. Originally Robert wasn't going to come because of an exam schedule the Monday right after Thanksgiving, but they changed the schedule last minutes (much to his chagrin), and he was able to make it down to Vegas for my favorite holiday!

Calvin and I flew down the Monday before to spend some time with my sisters and their kids who came down from Idaho. I hadn't met my niece Eliza yet, so I was glad we got to have some bonding time. Calvin hadn't flown since the end of July, and his new favorite noun is "air plane". He gets so excited whenever he sees an airplane, so I was hoping he'd be a trooper for this flight, and he was! His favorite part was waiting to board and watching all the airplanes.

We got to my house by about 7 that night and after dinner Calvin was wondering around from room to room and found Eliza's travel bassinet..... I walked into the room and found him like this. My heart melted. After I took the picture he turned to me (I thought he was asleep), and said "nigh nigh mama".

We went to the Bellagio, the Children's Museum, and ran around like mad women trying to prepare for the Thanksgiving festivities. The children also bonded, pushing Emerson around :)

Our Thanksgiving day always starts off with a 5K run. This year I broke my PR (23:40) and took 2nd place for my age group. It was a great feeling! Calvin loved the race, and ran some of the way. Once he got to the finish line he heard the music and wouldn't stop dancing; it was a classic Calvin.

The Thanksgiving Feast:

Since we weren't going to be together for Christmas this year, we had our "Express Christmas" evening. We opened up our Pajamas from mom, had our white elephant gift exchange, and then went to Ethel M's christmas lights. 

 This is about the best you can do with 2 3 year olds, a 1 year old, a 2 month old and a 13 and 11 year old.

It was a fabulous Thanksgiving and I was incredibly grateful that this husband of mine sacrificed a lot of study time to spend the holidays with us! 

The Happiest Autumn

This Fall has been one of my favorite Fall's since I can remember. Having a little kid makes everything so much more magical. I can't even tell you how excited I am for Thanksgiving and Christmas with this child.

Celebrating the season with Calvin and friends has been an absolutely memorable. We went to pumpkin patches, halloween story times, Fall festivals, Halloween parties, Trick or Treating, and 'Meet the Turkey" days at our local park.

Andelin Family Farm
When Collette and Justin were here the week before Halloween, Collette and I took Darwin and Calvin to a local Pumpkin Patch. It was so well done, and the kids had an absolute blast. They even had a "train" made out of barrels!

Somersett Fall Festival
Calvin was able to experience his first costume wearing experience at one of our good friends neighborhood's Fall Festival. Calvin's favorite part was jamming to the music, but he and Emmeline were definitely the cutest pumpkins in the patch.

Halloween Story Time

This gem of a picture is the best we could do with a 3 2 and 1 year old.

Halloween
Calvin and I partied in the morning with some jack o lantern quesadillas. Later in the evening we went to our friends house and had a little party after we took the kids trick or treating. Our parting consisted of a lot of festive treats, chili, and Halloween episodes of Brooklyn 99 and Community. We are wimps.

We do love our friends, and holidays!!

Rancho San Rafael Meet the Turkey
Our last festive activity (before it snowed and turned the seasons from Fall to Winter), was a nice run down to our local park. We were going to let calvin play and enjoy the beauty of the colors, but then it turned out there was actually a Meet the Turkey event. Calvin had a lot of fun seeing the turkeys, but his favorite was definitely petting the bunny!

Happy Fall Y'all!