The Bigs

In all this Baby Cal news, let us not forget the other two.

Both big kids (now referred to as "the bigs" in this house) have been amazing with going from a family of 4 to a family of 5.

Daph could not be a more enthusiastic big sister, and she LOVES when I bring Cal to pick her up from school, basking in the big sister attention as her friends run to the door to see the cute baby. She is loving school, and already soaking up so much. Her teacher adores her and she seems to be friends with her entire class. She has endless stories about what happened during the day, and I relish the hour or two when I have her at the end of the day before the boys get home, when she is most likely to jabber to me about her life.

She continues to be a picky eater, preferring chicken nuggets, donuts, pepperoni lunchables or oreos to the traditional 4 food groups. She knows exactly how to push her brother's buttons and is also his best friend. She is an incredibly loving child and will tell me how happy she is I picked her up early, because she missed me and Cal so much. I thought I would feel guilty about sending her to school when I am off for maternity leave, but it has been so wonderful to watch her thrive in school and come home excited with new things to tell me.

Cooper continues to be amazing, is a major fan of all things cucumber, and has never heard a conversation that he doesn't think he should be a part of. Definitely one of the best things to have come out of adding Cal to our family is Cooper's 'Cal voice'. To understand this, you have to know that Steve has created a voice/persona for each of our children when they were too little to speak for themselves. He basically does voice-over work for the live action comedy occurring in our house.

So Cooper, wanting in on the action, created his own 'Cal voice". The persona is consistent with the one Steve created, but the voice is a little more high pitched and a little... British? It is like living with Ms. Doubtfire and having her speak on behalf of the 2 month old baby. In other words, our house is an odd place to be.

I didn't think it was possible, but Cal has brought Daph and Cooper even closer together. They are THE BIGS - a two person team and each other's best friend. They have always played well together, but with the baby occupying a significant amount of the time and attention of the parental units, they have been total troopers about turning to each other and embracing it instead of begrudging the situation.

The games they come up with are incredibly involved, confusing and impossible to comprehend to an outsider. I hope this is a foundation for a life long friendship and always having each other's backs.

We have been making an effort to spend quality time with the bigs, including bike rides, Pokemon Go and board games. Or, just listening. Seriously, if you are around Cooper there is little he likes more than to talk to you about Mine Craft or Transformers Earth Wars. It is a testament to how much I love that kid that I REALLY try to follow all that he says... I am not claiming that I do follow it, but I do TRY. And if he is not jabbering about his latest obsessions, he is probably singing a song by Fall Out Boy.

Steve had a meeting after school so I picked up Cooper and rather than go straight home, we all stopped and got cupcakes.

Not really a big deal, and just a pit stop between school and piano lessons.

But sitting there, with Cal in my lap and a Big on each side, with no makeup on, my hair a mess, rocking sweatpants and a shirt smelling slightly of sour milk , I felt happier than I have felt... maybe ever? It wasn't perfect, because perfect would have had Steve there with us, but it was pretty damn close.

And, a bonus picture:

For those who watch American Ninja Warrior, this is Daph's best Megan Martin impression.

Girlfriend was made to kick ass.

Week 11 Pics: Continuing Cuteness

Is it possible that perhaps these are coming later and later in the week because I am more and more in denial that this much time has already passed??? Either that or I am lazy or tired or busy or or or... ANYWAY...

Your bedtime is now closer to 7 than 9, which is actually quite nice, as there is much that needs to get done, and in theory I could be doing such things in the evening. Thus far, this new "down time" has been used to vegg out in front of the TV and maybe, in moments of great ambition, have conversations with your father, but SOMEDAY, some things may start getting done.

You give slobbery open mouthed kisses.

And your eyelashes have gotten darker.

You and your Dad have something known as "buddy time" at night, where he puts you in this rocking little seat, but you kind of stand/lean back in it (thus can never be left unsupervised in it), and you stomp your feet and smile and coo and laugh at one another. Even when you are mad, if he puts you down for buddy time, you will find yourself unable to resist smiling and will alternate between grumping and smiling.

Unfortunately, your reflux has gotten worse, and it is likely we will have to see if there is more we can do about it, but I have never met anyone more good natured while projectile vomiting.

Your Dad says you look like a gorilla, because you like to be stood up, lean forward and stomp the ground like you are about to charge. I am not sure what this means with respect to what we can expect from you in the future, but I predict great things.

Week 10 Photos: Hello Mr. Chuckles

Oh my goodness, child. There is good reason for the delay. You see, on Monday, we had a bit of water coming from the attic into Cooper's room. And by "a bit", I mean, enough that I had to one handed position a LAUNDRY BASKET to catch the dripping. Not a bowl, a LAUNDRY BASKET. And said laundry basket was several inches full of water a mere 3 hours later when the plumber came. The rest of the week was spent dealing with the fallout from that, culminating in the ceiling FALLING at about 5am this morning. Which, if you haven't heard a ceiling fall (and judging by the fact that you didn't even startle on the monitor, you still have not), it is LOUD. I nearly died of surprise. Your dad mumbled something, wondering if the noise had been the monitor getting knocked over, and it became very clear that our children inherited their father's deep sleep tendencies. To his credit, when he realized that the ceiling had fallen, he got moving.

But... on a lighter note! I pretty much daily send your Dad a Mr. Chuckles update and picture. Because you, sweet boy, wake up so incredibly happy.

You continue to take fairly short daytime naps, and yet when I see you squirming on the monitor and it is time for me to fetch you from your room after one of these brief interludes, I am so excited to see you again. I literally start to miss you after about 10 minutes.

Thus, your nickname: Mr. Chuckles

You are a goober.

I took you in to my office to meet my co-workers. You were immediately whisked out of my arms and shown off. You danced in the lap of my favorite paralegal, showing your excellent judge of character.

We continue to force tummy time on you, and sometimes you even like it.

Your siblings continue to LOVE you, and as you have grown more interactive, you seem to find them entertaining at times - those times being when the volume is not at 10, and they are not touching your face...

You have taken your focus/attention span to a whole new level, and track noises around the room. You get very frustrated if someone you are focusing on is not focusing on you, and will bark at them until they look at you.

I found a ticklish spot, at the upper squishiest part of your thighs, and your dad exploits it.

In certain lighting your hair takes on a real reddish hue, and you are my fair skinned Irish baby. I hold my breath that your eyes will stay blue.

You love to be held, and would be happy to be carted around 99% of the time, though that other 1% of time on the ground you demand so you can go crazy on your mat. You like to be held facing out, unless you are tired, in which case you will rest your head on my shoulder and grip my shirt in your tiny fist while you rest, sometimes even falling asleep on accident.

You are so much fun, and truly a blessing.

Girl Time: Playing Hooky

You have been loving kinder, but today was the first of the many completely bizzare field trips your school insists upon that seem not educational and unnecessary and make your over protective parents weary as it would involve riding a bus in Houston traffic and being in an unknown place with a large group of kids and a proportionally small number of adults. 

We actually might have relented and let you go on this one, even though we couldn't chaperone, because at some point we have to exhale and let you go a little, and you SO want to ride that stinking school bus. Seriously, last year your father or I either kept you home (with us or a sitter) or attended all the field trips with you, and you would kind of roll your eyes and huff when you had to strap into your carseat in our car while the other kids piled onto the bus.

So, we probably would have let you go, but apparently Cal trumps bus ride, and you begged to skip the field trip and hang with me and Cal at home. 

I warned you that you might be bored as much of our day is spent eating and napping, but you could not be dissuaded. 

And while there were moments of quiet playing your Kindle or watching a show while I rocked the baby, there was also lots of giggles and chit chat as you helped me with chores or entertained Cal.

Here we are all shoving our whole fists in our mouths, a la Cal:

You are getting so big, and I feel so lucky that you still like to spend time with me Cal...

Cal: Month Two

Well, Cal, it has been two months ALREADY. Can you believe it? I both can and I can't. I mean - time is flying such that it seems unreal... but you are sleeping better through the night, so I know something has changed.

Other changes: We have figured out your issue with bathtime... it was too lonely before. Now you take a bath in the BIG bathtub, but with either your Dad or I, and you LOVE it. We sit you up and you enjoy a good soak. Then we lay you down on our legs, so you are only partially submerged, and you can kick, kick, KICK your legs in the water. YOU LOVE THIS. You smile with anticipation when you get in the bathroom. You stomp your legs with excitement when you are waiting to dive in.

As previously mentioned, you sleep through the night pretty good now. Granted, you still wake up once between 10PM and 5AM for a snack, but putting you back down is quick and painless (knock on wood), and this is VAST improvements over where we were a month ago.

Obviously, your smiles are a new thing with this month, and they get more frequent and are starting to be coupled with near belly laughs. We can tell you are right on the cusp of really letting loose... hopefully any day now!

You have a wide range of noises you can make now. You still snarffle, but you really coo, squeal, bark and chat.

You have an attention span now. We needed to move some furniture, and we were actually able to place you in your chair and have you entertain yourself with a baby Einstein video for 15 minutes. It was shocking and oh so very helpful. While I don't plan on planting you in front of the TV on a regular basis, this is a valuable piece of information - to know you can be distracted and contented by the big screen TV in moments of true emergencies!

We truly cannot remember life before you. You are an esteemed member, leader in fact, of the Calvengers (a crime fighting squad Daphne invented where you kids help fight bad guys and keep us safe).

Our days have settled into a little bit of a routine... though far from predictable minute to minute, the days follow this general pattern:

Wake sometime between 4:30 and 5:30AM to eat, then back to sleep. Wake again at around 7AM and I bring you into bed with me for a snack and a snuggle and we doze some more until about 8. Then we get up and start the day... for about 45 minutes, at which point you are EXHAUSTED from the long day you have already had, and it is nap time. From then until about 2:30, you take naps ranging from 45 minutes to 3 hours (with wakings ranging from brief to 1.5 hours). Then we get Daphne and, if possible, try to squeeze some time in at the park (staying in the shade, of course, as you are as pale as the rest of us).

You had your 2 month appointment. You are 11 pounds and 11 ounces (43rd percentile for weight). You are 24 inches tall (93rd percentile in height). In other words: Perfection. You were very accommodating, letting the nurse hold your legs down for the shots... until she stuck needle 1 of 3 in your thighs, at which point you became PISSED. But then, as soon as it was over and I picked you up, you calmed right down. One tough dude.

I don't know what else to say to capture how we all feel about you that isn't captured in the three simple sentences Cooper wrote about his Summer for a writing assignment. He said: