DayCare Digest, Volume 1

Big news at daycare these days. Our little guy has moved from sleeping in the baby crib to sleeping on the toddler mat during nap time with the other toddlers. Officially, this has only happened once but the rumor is that it might be a continuing occurence. I can't help but look at this photo where he is hugging his precious blankie from his Auntie in Minnesota and wonder where the baby went. At the same time, we are all loving this toddler stage.

Let's Talk About Me!!

First of all, we've had a word explosion! Cal has lots of words! They are: ball, bubble, mama, dada, ock (for block and sometimes book), and at (for cat). Never fear, however, he hasn't left grunting and pointing behind...they are still good friends.

He is currently obsessed with his push toys. Back and forth and back and forth...occaisionally he falls when it tips over but he does pretty well overall. He loves watching storms and having papa imitate the rain. Also, he has started singing! Mama starts the first verse of a song that goes some thing like (or exactly like) this: Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. And his little voice sings ba....ba,ba...ba....ba and he grins with pride as we all cheer.


He has left bottle behind for a world of sippy cups only and HATES food with too much texture. He laughs when we laugh and even laughs at his own personal jokes. But, he isn't afraid to have a meltdown when the situation calls for it. Everyday we see more and more of our little man's personality emerge.

Boy Meets Ocean!

Cal's toes touched the ocean for the first time this weekend. We were lucky enough to meet up with friends for our first family trip to the Jersey Shore this weekend. Cal loved playing with sand and concentrated very hard on watching the waves, he really enjoyed the water as well. It certainly won't be the last trip this summer.

Happy Father's Day!

We enjoyed a glorious Father's Day in Pennsylvania with the Crowley Clan. Lots of good food, sunshine, and love for little C. And, he soaked it all up. To be fair, we all did, it was good pampering all around.

Happy Birthday Alaina!

Another little person turns 1! This party included water activities to help everyone beat the heat and humidity. As usual, our little duck loved it.

Graduation?

It's a bit confusing but, yes, we did go to a daycare graduation. Mostly to celebrate the 4-year olds that will soon head to kindergarten (they even wore mortar boards). But, mostly it was just a kid party...complete with the kid rocker Mr. Ray. A must see...for the 1 to 4 set at least.

Adventures in Spoonville!

So, maybe we shouldn't have started with prunes and we definitely shouldn't have bust up laughing the first time the spoon became a funny thing to hold between our teeth. But, so be it. I think these photos speak for themselves as to the success of our foray into self-feeding.

Out to the Farm!

Our family and two others share vegetables and fruit from a local organic farm and this weekend was our weekend to head out to the farm. Of course, it was over 90 degrees and HUMID so we were a bit hot. We got to pick our own strawberries and Callum couldn't get enough of shoving warm strawberries in his mouth. As you can see it was a wonderful and messy adventure!

Did I Mention it was Hot!!

So, we pulled out the baby pool and invited over Callum's good buddy Paige. It definitely helps beat the heat! They loved splashing eachother and couldn't stop laughing as they took turns splashing the other. Who knew we had such a water baby! Paige was reluctant to get in the pool at first but eventually got into it.

Uh-Oh!

Cal's new word is Uh-oh, it sometimes comes out more like Uh-Ah-Oh but is usually just a one hyphen word. It is much more fun to say that Mama or DaDa and is used mostly when we purposely drop food off the edge of the high chair or toys off the edge of the changing table Sometimes it's used for no reason at all.

The other major development in Cal's world is the forward facing car seat, hence the picture above. Woah, man! Car rides are fun now. It used to be the car ride was torture until we started driving and then it became tolerable. NOW getting in the car is fun because we can see more than the seat. Our primary reaction is to repeat "OH" over and over again while point at cars and birds and trees and who knows what else.