Growth spurt

Calvin seems to have recently hit a growth spurt. We don't have any exact numbers, but he has recently gained enough height that we need to baby-proof another foot of vertical space in the apartment. He's also gotten good at climbing onto blocks, boxes and low tables. He's less adept at getting down, but here is a successful dismount.










Here are his favorite activities of the moment (with links to videos where available):
1. Dancing. He'll dance to any music or to anything resembling music.
2. Eating. Mandarin oranges are a new favorite and he's fared well on recent restaurant trips.
3. Putting things into other things, taking them out, putting them back in, taking them back out...














4. Talking on the phone (or pretending to).
5. Befriending strangers. He's caught on that when he smiles at people, they'll often smile and wave back. It's very charming.














6. Headbutting. This is a terrible development.

Thirteen Months

Today, Calvin becomes a teenager. He's tied the record for youngest person ever to 13 months, which is pretty impressive. (He shares the record with about half of all people born in February - 393 days.) Like any teenager, he's rebelling by growing weird hair and putting himself into physically dangerous situations. Also, he got a job pushing an ice cream truck.

Here he is going down a slide at the one-year birthday party for his buddy Owen, who is soon to join him among the precocious thirteen-monthers.











Rather than poorly embed our videos here, we'll just link to them. Here's Calvin working on his spoon skills. Note his rebellious hair style, a mullet of sorts. I try to shame him out of it by telling him he looks like Terry Bradshaw.

Here he is putting himself in bodily danger by climbing on some boxes. And here he is wearing sunglasses indoors like some kinda jerk.


Here's Calvin with his ice cream truck. No customers yet. I think it needs a refrigeration unit.

We survived year one!

A year ago, we were insanely tired, but crazy about our new baby. We are still insanely tired and still crazy about Calvin, but he's practically a grown man now. A grown man who pretends he's in a Coke commercial when he drinks form a sippy cup:














He's still working out some of the details of sippy cup use. For Calvin's birthday, we had a bunch of people over to our apartment and some refused to honor our "No gifts, please" request. So Calvin's had quite a week wearing cool new clothes and playing with new toys. Here he is enjoying a plush car.














Calvin loves to give hugs and playfully wrestle with others. On a possibly related note, another child at daycare recently chomped down on Calvin's hand, leaving some tiny teethmarks.











At birth, Calvin was in the 97th height and weight percentiles. At one year, he's hovering down around the 45-50th. So his mom's genes might be kicking in. The doctor did declare him "perfectly proportioned."

Here are some videos (not right-side-up, and poorly formatted for this blog--sorry, we are working out the kinks of getting videos off of our phones) of Calvin lifting a palm frond and playing in the park.

The final days of infancy

Calvin is fast approaching his first birthday. He's matured a lot in the last few weeks. In the new year, he's gone from a crawler to a walker. Here's a video of a short walk taken last week. He can now walk the apartment from end to end.



His maternal grandparents recently visited and got to see some major progress on the walking front. He hijacked grandpa's BlackBerry and very nearly sent his first email.











Calvin is having a love affair with doors and hinges (that I've warned him will end badly). Our apartment has french doors that keep him busy. He opens and closes them, looks through the windows, and tries to slide things under them.














Other minor milestones: first successful sitting in a restaurant high-chair, first pair of shoes, and moving up to the "young toddler" room at day-care. So three days a week, Calvin is hanging out with some very mature one-year-olds.

Any recommendations for a first birthday celebration?

Calvin in the new year

Our Christmas was a subdued affair. Calvin didn't get as into the ripping open presents as we thought he might, but he's definitely loving all the boxes that are around.



As a safety precaution, he licked most of the presents before we opened them.











In non-holiday news, Calvin can now push his stroller around the apartment sans-parent. And he is occasionally taking a step or two, but still prefers crawling.














He enjoys playing with the clear drawers of his dresser--pulling out clothes, putting them back in, and sometimes hiding a Cheerio for me to find later.

Holiday preparations are underway!

Tree? Check. Presents? Check.














Christmas sweater? Check. Elmer Fudd hat? Check.














So we're covered, right?

LA is currently in the middle of a week of non-stop rain. We've started strolling around the apartment with Calvin behind the stroller, holding on. He appears quite happy in this new position.

Travels and Turkey

Well, more than 10% of Calvin's life has elapsed since the last post, so here are the major events!

1. In mid-November, we made the drive up to Northern CA to visit some relatives. Calvin enjoyed the plush hotel bed, drinking water from a glass with Great Aunt Maggie, and being walked down the Santa Cruz wharf by an entourage.

































2. Calvin took his first step the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and his second step the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Both were accidental, occurring in the standing-to-crawling transition. He is yet to take a third step, but he now stands for "extended" periods of time (5-10 seconds).

3. Calvin has 4 visible, sharp teeth. He sometimes clicks them together, which makes me wince.

4. For Thanksgiving, we went to the Boston area. Calvin got to meet friends and relatives and two very friendly dogs and experience cold. A great time was had and Calvin behaved well on his second cross-country round trip.














5. Now we're back in LA without any travel plans for several months. Calvin is testing the limits of our childproofing, babbling constantly, and generally enjoying life.