Six Months: Happy Half Birthday, Calvin!

I can hardly believe that our little Calvin is already a half of a year old! He has gained so much personality since he was a newborn, and I just love it. He brings so much joy into our lives it's hard to imagine life without him. We didn't have a doctors appointment this month, but we had a WIC appointment (don't judge) two weeks ago and he was 26.5"  long (59%) and weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz (33%). It looks like he will be tall and thin like his dad.

He has grown out of almost all of his 3-6 month clothes, except his jeans which still fit him perfectly. He is in most 6-9 month clothing, except for the brands that run 6-12 month are still a tad big (but we make them work:).  In the last month he has gone from a purely milk diet to eating three meals a day with us. He LOVES eating real food, and it's the cutest thing when he chews. He copies us, so he even learned how to chew with his mouth closed. The only thing we have found he absolutely hates are bananas and mushy oatmeal and rice cereal (he is my son...since those are the only two foods I don't care for). He also hates any baby food.

He is a little toothless wonder, although it seems like a few days a week we think he is going through a "teething" phase (drooling, chewing on hand, extra tired, fever, etc), but then nothing comes through. He is a rolling machine, he can't be contained. The first thing he does when I put him down in his room is roll over to his dresser and prop his feet up and talk to himself. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. That how I find him most mornings when I go and get him. He sure does love talking to himself. He is getting really good at sitting up. I usually have to put pillows around him because he will flap his arms when he gets extra excited (.....which is ALL the time), and flop over.

 Calvin is incredibly predictable. He wakes up between 6:45-7:15, naps at 9:30 and 1:30 (and sometimes 5). He nurses at 7 (when he wakes up), 11, 3, and 7:30/8 when he goes down for the night. He is taking two hour and a half naps and a cat nap around 5, or just two 2 hour naps a day. It really just depends on the day. He sleeps unswaddled now, and I usually find him like this after he wakes up. And to the bottom right you can see him double arm flap. He does it ALL the time. I really am surprised he hasn't injured himself, or broken my glasses.

Calvin also started becoming really sensitive to noise. He has to know where it's coming from or he will just keep moving around till he finds it. When I walk into his room to get him from his crib he will roll around and arch his back until he can see who is coming in....and then he smiles and flaps his arms (yeah, it really is a thing). When we are at home, or around people he knows he is all smiles, giggles, chatter and very interactive. Whenever we go somewhere new he just stares, tries to touch everything, and hardly cracks a smile, no matter how hard people try. It's pretty hilarious. 

He is still our little champion sleeper. Robert usually puts him to bed around 7:30, and once he is in his crib he will talk to himself for about 10 minutes and then fall asleep. Every once in a while he will wake up around 3am and sing to himself for about 30 minutes and fall back asleep. It's pretty cute, but I think it'd be cute if he didn't wake us up with his loud chatter :). He stopped doing his worm crawl because he realized rolling is faster, but a few days ago he also realized rolling is less precise. So now he rolls and then scoots to get exactly where he wants to go.

We just love this little man more and more each month!!

Five Months

This little ham of ours reached five whole months on the twenty third! We were tucked away in a cabin for Christmas so that's why this update is a few days behind. No doctors appointment this month, but just looking at those adorable little thunder thighs, we are assuming Mr. Calvin Wixom is doing just great in the growing department. 

Calvin is just filling our lives with more joy than we thought possible. We went in for his four month shots a little over two weeks ago (yes, a few weeks after his month appointment, but there was a problem with the immunizations), and Calvin was a doll. First the nurse had to give him a vaccine that was a gel he had to drink and it took him about 5 minutes to get it down because every time she stuck it in his mouth he would just start laughing so hard then the nurse, Robert and I would all start to crack up, which made Calvin start to laugh harder. After that vaccine came the shots. He let out a 10 second wail then started laughing again. It has definitely been my favorite memory of Calvin thus far. 

 Big news in the development area: Calvin (as of two days before he turned 5 months) started on solids! We tried waiting as close to six months as we could, but after doing to "ready marker tests" we decided he was ready! He would also have a melt down at the dinner table if we didn't let him have some of our food. So far he loves chewing on tomatoes, cucumber sticks, bread (his fathers son :) and he loves loves loves a sweet potato hummus my sister made for our Christmas Palooza (recipe coming up on Everyday Veggies in a month!) and some grilled squash my aunt gave him. We tried two different "baby" purees and he didn't really love them. He ate them, but more reluctantly. So, I am glad we are going with a more Baby Led Solids route.

 He sleeps partially unswaddled now....as in he starts off the night swaddled and by 7 am when he wakes up, his swaddler is on the other side of the crib. The other morning I woke up and turned on the monitor to check on calvin and found him tummy sleeping, cuddled up with his blanket and sucking his thumb. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. He also has this new thing where inorder for him to fall asleep we have to put one of his Aden and Anais blankets on top of his face so he can grab it and either rub it on his face or chew on it. Silly kid.

He is still eating every 4 hours, taking 2 2 hour naps a day and a 30 minute nap around 5:30 and then sleeping from 7:30/8 until 7 the next morning (except while the past week while we were at the cabin, but that was just a teething nightmare I never want to remember).  All I have to say is that boy definitely thrives on a routine. 

He has most surely gotten more smiley and interactive with people but is still very curious and has to touch everything. He is getting better at sitting up, but usually ends up practically folded in half and needs help sitting straight up again. He laughs whenever Robert talks to him in a British accent and whenever I sing "Sleepy Little Bunnies" to him. 

We just love this boy more and more each month and are excited to see what changes next month brings us!

Calvin's Blessing

At the end of October, when we went to Las Vegas, we had Calvin's baby blessing! We decided to go down to Las Vegas to save the hassle of over 25 people having to come up to Reno on our behalf. We had the blessing on Saturday morning at my parents house, paired with a nice luncheon and lots of family.

 First of all, can you even handle the adorableness in these pictures? The first picture is Darwin, and the one just above is Emerson. They are three weeks apart and I just can't even handle them. They are pretty darling.

A little post blessing relaxing. My nephew Ernie is 12, only a few years younger than Layne. It's a lot of fun to have him around. And he, obviously, likes to hang out with his awesome Aunties.

Later on in the evening my mom had a photographer come and take blessing pictures of Calvin, and then a "grandma & grandsons" photoshoot. She was blessed with 5 pretty incredible grandsons! 

The picture above is the only full size one I have received. My mom has the disc, so the pictures below are the poor quality/grainy pictures from online :/.

Calvin just stared the whole time, no smiles (as seen above). Once the photographer left and he was just hanging out, he was all smiles. Ham.