A White Christmas Indeed

We just returned from a Christmas trip to Minnesota. Callum had a million new experiences, learned what feels like a hundred new words, and acquired a whole slew of new toys. Lucky guy. He got time with his auntie and uncle and grandma and grandpas and even great-grandmas. His Great Grandma Irene Scharmer has him perplexed with her touch-your-nose-and-out-pops-your-tongue routine. He is still working on it.

We started in Duluth at Grandma's house...
The little green train and yellow car he is holding have become an all-time favorite that can't ever be left behind.

We also travelled to Grandpa's house in Lakeland for all kinds of fun adventures.

And, even got to St. Cloud for the whole Quaal family get-together. Here I am (can you find me?) with my great-grandma and all of the other great-grandchildren in the Quaal family (and a few grown-ups). I didn't really understand the need for all the photo-taking but eventually lined up with this squirrely bunch for a monumental moment. If you and chaos have never met, this is the place to make that happen.
Merry Christmas all!!

This is fun, why?

We got our first (real) snow today and so spent a good 20 minutes bundling in the multiple required layers. As soon as we got outside I got this curious face.

Despite my attempts at demonstrating how fun snow is...snowballs hitting trees, etc. all Callum could muster was complaints about his mittens. So, after about 15 whiny minutes I gave in and we came back inside. He then spent the next 45 minutes watching the salad spinner spin, I'm not kidding. Who knew?

Holiday Extravaganza

Our same "breakfast crew" got together for a holiday extravaganza weekend this saturday and sunday. It started with a cookie baking and cookie exchange on Saturday. The hostess had cooked sugar cookies for everyone to decorate and I brought a "gingerbread" house (made of graham crackers) and candies for the little ones to decorate. In the end, parents did most of the decorating while the kids played and ran all over the place. We also got to exchange cookie recipes and taste test a czech holiday cookie and Pennsylvania oatmeal special. It was great fun.

Here are Callum and I working on the gingerbread house. Anyone who knows me knows that I got way too into this little activity. Cal mostly ate Vanilla wafers and watched me toil away.
The next morning we enjoyed a holiday brunch at a different house. Again, the little munchkins mostly ran and played; sang and yelled. Good fun. I'm pretty sure, however, that despite our elaborate efforts at different activities it all seems pretty much the same to the little tikes. Running, playing, eating, and practicing motor skills.

Sunday Mornings at Bagel Dish

For the past few months, we've had a standing date with two other daycare families. We are all up so early due to our handy-dandy live toddler alarm clocks that we decided to meet up at the local diner for breakfast. It's a popular place so we arrive before the crowd. After breakfast, we let the kids loose for play time at one of our houses on a rotating basis. It's been described by observers as "controlled chaos". It's great fun for the little and big people alike.

There was a time...

There was a time when my kitchen was just a kitchen and not a raceway or a dog kennel. And, my living room was just a living room; it had never been a train station, a truck-filled construction zone, a jungle gym, a kitchen, a dance floor, or an animal-filled farm. But, I don't really remember that time and it sounds pretty dull to be honest.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Over the weekend we got an itty-bitty Christmas Tree, put on some Elvis Presley Christmas music, and decorated the tree. Callum loves the tree and is working really hard on saying "Christmas Tree" though I doubt anyone but Kieran and I understand what is being said. Though, at 19 months old he is full of language...most of which is incomprehensible.

Favorites!

Callum is doing alot of talking these days and it is helping us get a handle on his favorite things (this smile, by the way, is a new thing. It is what happens when someone points a camera and says "SMILE". He does this great face scrunch-up, we love it.). Favorite foods: banana (mana) and pasta (pada)

Favorite books: Goodnight moon (moon) and Apple Book (Alphabet book with an apple on the cover) and Hop on Pop (ha-pa-pa-pa)

Favorite truck: A straight tie between garbage truck and digger

Favorite game: jumping on mama and papa then burying face into his

Favorite song: Could you be loved? by Bob Marley (ever seen a toddler dance to reggae, it is good stuff.)

Favorite color: Yellow (yey-yo) then purple (pa-puh), in fact everything is one of these colors.

Favorite object: Blankie!!!

Favorite question: Color? Color? Meaning: Can we color? Which actually means: Can we color for a little bit and then spend the rest of an hour putting the crayons into the box and then dumping them out again?

Least Favorite question: Nap? Meaning: Do I really have to take a nap?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Crowley this year. Unfortunately, the camera died just after taking family photos so we didn't get shots of Callum with his grandparents. We shared a great meal, a great game of scrabble and lots of Callum admiration all around. The poor guy, however, had a rough cough and we ended up heading home early on Friday, after he spent most of Thursday night snuggling with Papa, to make it to the doctor's office. How is it they always get sick over a holiday? Turns out he has bronchilitis so we are waiting it out and seeing quick improvement.

A serious case of the sillies

Callum is full of jokes and laughs these days. On top of playing 'bye mama' he's got silly sounds and funny walks and games like 'sit on teddy', which are hilarious...well, toddler hilarious if you know what I mean.

Ready or not here we go

We did decide we would find out the gender of our baby this time around, for some reason it just felt right. We had some pretty strong gut feelings this time. They peeked out at us during our first visit to the doctor when the doctor and mama both referred to the 8-week old little shrimp as a 'he' for no apparent reason. Then at the 13 week ultrasound the technician told us her prediction. So, it was no surprise to find at our 20 week appointment this Thursday that we are indeed having another boy! Maybe it was because we were ready for it but whatever the reason, we couldn't imagine it any other way. So, please join us in celebrating our great new news!!

Not so sure how I feel about this game...

Callum has a new game and it's called "Bye Mama". It consists of saying bye to me and then either shutting a door between the two of us, ducking out of view, or just walking backwards while watching me. He's gets an amazing sly smile while he's doing it and it is really funny because he TOTALLY doesn't mean it. In fact, he's even more attached to my hip these days. It's just him "trying on" a bit of independence, I suppose. And, even though I still get lots of love it is a little glimpse into a day when he won't actually need me and I'm not sure how I feel about that!

Raking! It's never taken so long or been so fun.

We have a tremendous tree in our front lawn that spends the spring and summer full of gorgeous leaves that add beauty to the neighborhood and shade to our home. And, then in fall all the leaves drop and blanket our lawn and our neighbors. While we don't mind so much our neighbors do occaisionally grumble a little. Well, this weekend it was becoming clear it was time to get out the rakes. Of course, little C loved to help out. Above the guys get ready for the big task.
Here is his filling the leaf bag, one by one. Phew. It's hard work, which is why he soon resorted to pointing out other places we could start raking (which included our grumbly neighbor's lawn, kind of ironically).

And, eventually, taking a break to practice standing up while drinking from a sippy cup. This technique is far more difficult than setting the cup aside in order to stand up. It is, apparently, not nearly as fun or challenging for our little man.

Getting Ready to go Home for the Holidays

Prepping the little guy about the trip back...

It's a Zoo in here!

Kieran's uncle and cousin came from Ireland to visit his parents in Philadelphia for a few weeks so this Saturday we headed into the city to see them. We met up at the Philadelphia Zoo just two days after the Phillies baseball victory in the World Series. It was great fun to see the animals, catch up with family, and grab a bit of baseball fever.

Happy Halloween from a scary dragon

Or so they say...You can probably tell by the photos Callum was not exactly thrilled to be stuffed into a dragon costume. It could have been because the costume, a hand-me-down, was way too small and mama's attempts at sizing it up were not particularly successful.

Rather than do any real trick or treating (since we weren't too excited to try and manage a sugar-hyped toddler) we spent time with our buddies Paige and Sophie, of course. As parents, we were all stopped in our tracks when the first 'twos' moment surfaced. All three of them vying for the same toy and yelling MINE! It was quite the chorus. I can see the future...

So Far

Me and my babies. (The bundle-to-be is around 17 weeks.)

Wanna see my moves?

It's official! Callum is crawling!! He truly crawled for the first time this weekend. So, we will be able to jot in our baby book...walking..12.5 mos. getting up to standing..around 17 mos. and crawling..nearly 18 mos. Exactly opposite! The best part of his new found abilities is that he completely randomly decides to exercise them. Such as in these photos at Barnes and Noble. Where he would grab a book off the shelf and pretend to browse it just so he could get down on his belly and then crawl a bit only to stand up, grab a new book and start all over.

This is what happens when..

you combine a toddler in gymnastics class that is just learning the crawly-climby's with laying out an airbed for grandma to sleep on.

Adventures in the Pumpkin Patch

It was another gorgeous and sunny weekend for us, with just a bit more of a chill in the air. We were lucky enough to have Grandma Crowley in town to play with us and Paige and her family organized a day out to a pumpkin patch. And, what a pumpkin patch it was...with petting zoos (yes, multiple!) and hay rides and straw jumps and corn mazes and, oh yeah, pumpkins too. Mama even got to enjoy her guiltiest pleasure...deep fried oreos (don't judge until you try them!).

We are continually amazed at how well Cal and Paige get along and have similar personalities. They are so excited to see eachother but are good at giving eachother space and sharing toys. They are also both really good at letting the world know when they are DONE and it is time to pack up and head home. It's such fun to watch them continue to get along and enjoy eachother so well. It's kind of hard to tell in this photo but they are holding hands as they tromp through the patch together.

The best part, of course, of the whole day was the hay ride led by a tractor. Callum was mesmerized and we had to sit as close as possible to the tractor and both he and Paige just stared as it tugged us along. In the excitement of everything, we all forgot to even bring home pumpkins! But, who needs pumpkins when you have memories like these, right?!

Callum LOVED having his grandma around and kept repeating 'ga-ma, ga-ma, ga-ma' and bringing her books and toys. Even now, a few days later he is still wondering where she is and looking around the house for her. At one point, he nearly tripped over my legs as he bypassed me to give grandma his teddy bear. I'm still licking my wounded ego.

October is just the best bloody month!

The weather was sunny and warm all weekend with the leaves in peak fall season. Perfect for our annual trip to Philips Apple Farm! The above quote came straight from Papa as we wandered the orchard and couldn't be truer. In addition to taking home loads of apples and a few pumpkins, we got to see LOTS of tractors, which little C couldn't get enough off...seriously, it was difficult to get him into the apples!

Hard to beleive the difference a year can make, here he is last year sitting amongst the pumpkins.

And this year, lifting them!

Discovering Me! (and other milestones)

It was our week to pick up vegetables at the farm so this Saturday we all hopped in the car ready to enjoy the sunny weather and the changing leaves. While we were driving Callum starts talking away in his car seat. He says "mama" and points to me; says "papa" and points to Kieran and then says "cow-cow" and points to himself! He did it over and over again he was so proud and excited to know himself!

It also seems that after making over the hurdle of learning to stand up on his own, his agility has taken off. This past week he started climbing the stairs and manuveuring on and off his riding toys. It might not seem like much to parents with 'climbers and crawlers' but this has been a real challenge for our little guy. He still prefers is we help him with these things but when we refuse he can do it himself.

10 Reasons Cal is going to make a Great Big Brother

Our 17-month old little guy is going to make a great older brother for lots of reasons but these are the top 10 most important ones:

1. Safety Conscious: He is very good at picking up small objects off the floor or ground and giving them to us, especially tiny leaves and seeds and rocks. He calls them a-bit.
2. Auditory Skills: He can identify a train (trey, trey, trey), airplane (a-men, a-men, a-men), school bus (ga-ba, ga-ba, ga-ba) and bus (ba, ba, ba) just through sound. This is always handy for an older bro, right?
3. Verbal Development: He rarely says a word once, it usually has to be repeated a few times...great for helping a baby develop verbal skills.
4. Help Staving Off Hunger: He's really good at dropping food off his high chair tray, which will leave lots of extra for a crawling baby.
5. Alternative Communication: He has the ability to completely stuff his mouth with food and then sign for 'more'. Again, a useful skill to pass on baby sign language.
6. Love of the Arts: He loves music and is sure to pass this on with his constant requests for either Baa, Baa, Black Sheep (Ba, ba!); I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee (bum-ba, bum-ba, bum-ba); or Itsy-Bitsy Spider (is-see, is-see, is-see all while holding his hands with his fingertips touching).

7. Positivity: He loves to clap and say "yay!" after a song ends, even if it's muzak at the grocery store.

8. Creative Endeavours: He will likely pass on a great ability to improvise. For instance, bulldozers, which are great fun are hard to pronounce so he just calls them am-ama. Why not?

9. A love of reading! He loves to read and frequently asks to have a book read to him. At the same time, he knows when enough is enough and you just have to skip a bunch of pages, close the book and say ba-bye.

10. The ever-important mischief: He will know how to help his younger sibling get up to a bit of trouble. He's just figured out that you can really freak out the parents if you go in the pantry, shut the door, and stay really, really quiet...they don't know where you are!

He'll certainly come up with more older brother tricks of the trade between now and April, but this seems like a good start.