Callen at 10 months

Oh my goodness. It's April! Then May. Then he'll be ONE YEAR OLD! Not to mention my 30th birthday is somewhere in there, too. I just can't comprehend it.

Our sweetheart of a little man is getting closer and closer to walking solo. He's been cruising around the furniture for a couple of weeks now and in the past couple of days has started letting go of the furniture to stand unassisted for a few seconds before sitting down. He is also starting to lift his arms to be picked up, and I could swear that he's said "Hi" and actually meant it a few times now. He still loves banging things to make noise, is still obsessed with anything that spins, and has recently discovered his ability to throw and bounce balls, which he loves to do.

Seeing Audia and Callen's relationship developing is so much fun. They play so well together 95% of the time, and listening to them talk to eachother (well, Audia talks and Callen babbles) and shreik and laugh at eachother is one of my favorite things. Callen of course wants to be in on anything that Audia is doing which is ok with her most of the time. She also regularly initiates play with Cal by calling him over to her and playing with his toys with him.

Unfortunately Callen has been sick the past few days, and sick enough that I brought him in to the doctor yesterday to make sure that he didn't have strep or something more serious (diagnosis was Coxsackievirus, which he should be over in a day or two) but the silver lining is that I get an official weight for his 10 month blog post :-) Cal is now 23 lbs, 6 oz. Getting him to lie still long enough to measure his length at this point is a fool's errand so I will not even bother trying. I am pretty sure he is still off the charts in height as he seemed to grow out of his 12 month sized clothes overnight on Saturday and is now in 18 month size!

Snuggle Bug

This little man of ours is turning out to be quite the snuggler. As he's gotten older and more mobile and more independent (can you believe he will actually sit and play by himself for 10-15 minutes at a time? Even if we're sitting on the floor wanting to play with him? Me neither. His sister NEVER did that at his age,) he has also gotten more snuggley. When I pick him up out of his crib in the morning or after a nap, he almost always lays his head on my shoulder for a minute. If I sit down on the floor to play with him, the first thing he does is crawl over to me to lay his head in my lap before trying to use me as a jungle gym. He loves to lay down next to Audia when she's laying on the floor watching tv, too. And being the total snuggler that I am, it melts my heart. Every. Single. Time. It is no secret that Audia is super affectionate as well, loving to hug her family and friends and frequently asking us to snuggle with her. I feel so lucky to be blessed with such lovey kiddos!

 

Cal at 9.5 months

I waited to do Callen's nine month post until we had his well visit, which was today. Our BIG boy is still growing like a weed, and thankfully is still gaining weight normally even though he hasn't been huge into solids the way Audia was at this age. He's 22.5 lbs and 30.5", putting him in the 75th percentile for weight and off the charts yet again for height. His doctor told me that he is the size of the average 15 month old boy!

While he still isn't hugely interested in baby food or being fed from a spoon, he is hugely interested in anything and everything that we might be eating. The only caveat is that he be fed what we're eating from our fingers. The exception to this rule seems to be puffs and cheerios; he will eat them by himself no problem.

Our little man has been crawling 'normally' for a few weeks now, and just recently has started pulling himself up to stand and even transferring between objects while standing. Though he isn't technically cruising just yet, it is just around the corner!

Callen is OBSESSED with wheels. He loves spinning them with his hands and rolling anything on wheels around on the floor. He also has been huge into hammering things lately, and banging toys together to make as much noise as humanly possible. He also likes throwing balls and other small hand-sized toys.

It's a wheel!

Overall our happy, laid-back boy is still just that. He has gotten a lot better at letting us know when he wants something via whining, but he still amazes me daily with how easy going and happy he is. We certainly are lucky to have him in our lives!

Summer in March

Apparently we have basically completely skipped over spring in Minnesota this year. Although, with the mild winter that we had I suppose you could say that February was kind of our spring. Either way, with temperatures in the mid 70's for the past week, it's felt like summer around here and while I am a bit worried that this means that this summer is going to be a scorcher, I am certainly enjoying the warmer temperatures right now!
We've been getting outside as often as possible to take advantage of the beautiful days, and the kids, of course, have been loving it. I cannot wait to move into a house this summer so that I don't have to pack up a 30-lb diaper bag everytime we want to go play in the grass!

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Our Little Inquirer

We recently had Audia's end-of-year parent-teacher conference and it is so cool to see how far she's come this school year! Because of her age and the standard cut off for the 3-4 year preschool classes being one week before her birthday, she was in a special class at her school for kids that turned 3 between September 1st and December 31st. The class is a little lighter academically than the standard 3-4 class, and she will be the oldest in her 3-4 year class next year. But, I digress. As a first-time mom, as well as a person who really doesn't have much comparison when it comes to what is 'normal' for a 3 year old, I have felt like it has been difficult to gauge whether or not she is actually advanced in the areas that I feel like she is. Namely, her vocabulary and how incredibly inquizitive and insightful she can be. (Just this morning, out of the blue, she said to me, "Callen sure is quiet this morning, mom. I hope he's feeling ok!") So, it was really nice to hear from her teacher how advanced she really is in these areas; that her ability to look ahead into the future and also to look at the 'big picture' and ask very specific questions is, in fact, impressive for her age. It was also fun to hear that she makes it her job to make sure that everyone gets a turn with the toys in the gym and that she plays well with everyone in the class, boys and girls alike. Sometimes I find myself lost in a maze of worrying about this, that, and the other thing with her behavior and development and to hear from her teacher that she is doing really well makes it easier to step back from the worry and relax a bit. She is so compassionate, and helpful, and bright, and just downright funny. I feel like now that I know that she is doing ok, and even excelling in areas, I can enjoy all of those great qualities a little more freely.

My Gorgeous Girl

How could you not want to photograph this sweet face all day long?

The past few months Audia has been very anti-camera. Anytime I bring out my camera or phone, she hides her face or turns around so I see the back of her head. I haven't pushed the issue with her; if she says she doesn't want her photo taken, for the most part I've obliged. So it goes without saying that when she asked me out of the blue to take some pictures of her, I went a little crazy with it. We had a lot of fun doing a little photo shoot, with me calling out emotions for her to mimic and her doing her best to do them between giggles. Here's just a small sample of the shots that I got.

Callen at 8 months

Sheesh! I can't believe we're halfway through February already! We've been pretty busy over here at the CB household between Audia's preschool, eye doctors appts (a different doctor, who actually managed to figure out what's going on with her eye!), and learning how to write her name and Callen's teething, raspberry-blowing, and quickly increasing mobility.

Cal's 8 months already! Home-taken measurements again this month. He's still 21 lbs and is now 30.25" long! In 12 month sized clothes already, I regularly get surprised reactions and 'Wow! he's a big boy'-type comments from strangers when asked how old he is.

-While he is showing much more interest in eating baby food these days, I am a bit concerned at his inability to keep food in his mouth. Early on we noticed that he had tongue tie, but since he wasn't having any troubles latching on and breastfeeding the doc said not to worry about it. Now, however, it seems that it might be posing a problem so we have an appointment next week to discuss his having a lingual frenectomy.
-Along the same vein, he is just now starting to blow raspberries and babble a little bit. Tongue tie can cause delays in speech because of the restricted movement of the tongue (he cannot actually stick his tongue outside of his mouth) so I can't help but feel his delay in babbling is related to this also.
-He is getting so close to crawling 'normally,' and is starting to get up on his knees to reach things on the couches, coffee tables, or toys that are in buckets.

-He still thinks his sister is the most fascinating and most wonderful person on the planet, and also loves to chase Fievel around, grabbing his tail and fur. We are very lucky to have a cat who is not only patient, but actually seems to willingly walk up and sit down next to Callen to let him 'pet' him.

-Our Cal has 7 teeth now, with number 8 just starting to break through a day or two ago. He has been teething since Christmas, so I am hoping this is the last one for a while. Teething has caused quite a disrruption in his sleeping habits, so it has been nice the past couple of nights to only have him waking up once or twice.