Past Few Days

Just thought I'd post a few pictures from the past few days.  I failed to charge the camera battery for Thanksgiving, so we don't have any pictures from the day.  We had a wonderful meal with Travis' dad and his wife's side of the family.  Travis' grandma Helen was in town...we'll be going over to see them tonight before she heads back home, so I'll get some pictures of her with the boys.

Hunter posing for the camera

Hunter and I (geez, I look tired)

Calvin sitting up (love that smile)

Hunter trying out the graduation cap

Kids can sleep in the strangest places

Tummy time for Calvin

Starting to decorate for Christmas

Calvin's Stats

I almost forgot to post Calvin's stats from his doctor visit today:

Weight: an even 12 pounds (could have been more had he not been sick over the weekend?)

Length: 23 inches

Both numbers are in the 50th percentile.

Calvin had 3 shots today and has been sleeping since about 4pm - it's now 11:30.  Are we in for a long night?  I hope not!

It was REALLY cold this morning.  Calvin has grown out of his little baby hats (maybe they never really fit well to begin with) so I found this one that was Hunter's at some point.  It's a little too big...we told Calvin he looked like a little bank robber.  Hunter then quoted Transformers (another of his favorite movies) "Don't talk to me!  Don't talk to me criminal!"  (only it comes out more like 'cram-nal').

Today

Calvin Carter Christensen, 2 months + 1 day old

Feeling better today so we can take more smiley pictures

I discovered that Calvin prefers not to wear clothes

Hunter doesn't like to be left out during picture taking

All smiles

See, I do have a neck

Last Week

What a sick week - literally.

It all started last Monday when Travis was settling Hunter in the car to go to Auto Zone (he needed yet another part for his pick-up).  I was inside making a cake and they came back in the front door, Hunter crying.  He had gotten sick.  It was all over the front of him and I guess all over the car - I don't know, thankfully Travis cleaned that up, but I guess it went all over the back of the driver's seat (Hunter sits on the passenger side).  So, I had Hunter spit out his gum (yeah - somehow he managed to keep the gum in his mouth despite throwing up twice) and up to the bath he went.  

So, long story (somewhat) short, he got sick a couple more times that day, nothing happened Tuesday but then Wednesday (or maybe Thursday) was 'a shitty day' (my description of the day to Travis when he innocently asked me how my day was).  So, you may be able to guess from the pun, but if  you can't then I'll just say things were coming out the other end in both boys.  There were a lot of diaper changes and 3 baths between the 2 boys.  

Hunter resting on Wednesday

Thursday or maybe it was Friday, I woke up not feeling too well, got sick a couple of times, but luckily was able to get a fair amount of sleep (Hunter is pretty independent and plays well or watches a movie while I'm in and out of sleep on the couch - while Calvin cuddles with me) and I was mostly better by evening.  So, Travis was also sick Friday and Saturday, unfortunately he still had to work, and things are kind of starting to pick up for him, not they ever really slowed down much, so he was in bad shape (thanks, babe for working so hard through anything to provide for us). 

Calvin started getting sick Friday evening.  He was vomiting everything he ate, I called the ask a nurse thing to see if I could do anything for him - that took forever trying to get the Dr. to call me back (at the nurse's suggestion).  She just told me things to watch for and keep trying to get him to eat.  I 'slept' on the couch with him while Travis was covered in every blanket in the house from like 9pm on (the earliest I think he's EVER gone to bed).  Saturday Calvin was better, no longer vomiting, but still kind of weak and tired.  

Sunday, everyone was better, just tired and not much for appetites.  Sunday also marked Calvin's 2nd month with us.  Wow!  These 2 months have gone fast!  Calvin goes to the doctor tomorrow, so I'll post his stats then.

Pictures on Sunday - Calvin Carter, 2 months old

Gift Bags

A piece of advice (for myself, and anyone else who wants it):

If you are going to a baby shower, or giving a gift to a new baby, you should use wrapping paper.  DO NOT USE A BABY GIFT BAG!  I know they are so cute, but please - refrain yourself.  I don't always use wrapping paper, usually because my gift is purchased on the way to the shower and put together in the car (since I always put things off until the last minute - a bad habit I need to change).

Anyway, if you can't use wrapping paper, the next best thing is to use a generic gift bag, not one specific to baby.  Why you ask?

I cannot tell you how many baby gift bags I have in my closet from when Hunter was born and that I've added to since Calvin was born!  At quick count (without digging too deep) I counted 24.  Thing is, I don't know 24 people who are going to have a baby so those bags will remain in my closet and maybe even move a time or 2 with me (since I never throw things away - another bad habit to change) until someone has a baby (perhaps I'll give a gift for my grandchildren in these same bags and I can say, "your daddy got a present in this bag when he was born").

I did get some generic gift bags - a blue and green stripe one, a Pooh and friends one, a Carebear one - that I can use again for a kids birthday or other gift.  God bless the ones who bought those bags! 

Think of me if you're going to a baby shower.  Either think of my closet full of baby gift bags and say to yourself "I need to wrap this gift," OR, even better, swing by my house and shop my closet - my gift bags are FREE and you're welcome to them! 

Crafty

Back in early 2007 my friend Annie and I decided to start doing craft project days.  I think we only had 2 or 3 such days, and I also did a couple with another friend, Sara Nally, as well.  Anyway, back then we (I) had great ambitions of it being something we'd do once or twice a month and invite a lot of friends to join us.  It would be fun to do different crafts and things, but mostly I was looking forward to the company of other adults - more specifically female adults.  I spend a lot of time with my boys, and I love every moment of it, but sometimes I need some kid free time and having something like a craft day is a great way to hang out with old friends, meet new friend and enjoy the company of other adults.  

Our first craft day we made sock monkeys

I'm now in the process of organizing another craft day and I have high hopes for this one.  Hopefully our first day will be this Saturday, I have a few people interested in coming.  Rather than everyone doing the same project, we're just all going to do our own thing.  I had started this rag quilt for Hunter about a month ago...well so far I've only got part of the squares cut, and that's it.  So I'm hoping if I can get a day where the kids are gone and I hang out with other ladies who are motivated to finish a project I can get it done soon.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of crafting days and any completed projects!

Fall

So, we got a letter from our wretched property management place yesterday (what now?):

"recently, a visual exterior inspection was performed for your home that you are renting...and the following conditions were noted:

***All leaves must be cleaned up from property

Please take the necessary actions to ensure that these item(s) are remedied immediately."

Hello, people!  Have you not noticed that it's Fall, and like Travis so observantly pointed out, it's been raining for like a week.  

Okay, so I know they're just doing their job to help make sure 'their' properties look decent.  I'll have you know I went out and raked the $h!t out of those leaves today; the first one on our block to do so, and we don't even own our house.  While I was raking I was super glad we didn't live on a large amount of land with a lot of trees.  Wait, but if we did we wouldn't have CC&Rs to oblige by...we could park the FedEx truck in the driveway and NEVER rake leaves.  I dream of living outside of the city.

While I was out raking leaves Hunter was riding his bike on the sidewalk and Calvin was inside sleeping (yes - I did check on him often).  Anyway, Hunter rode his bike down to the neighbors house and I couldn't see him behind the car in the driveway.  I yelled at him to come back and I hear him riding back and yelling "Dory, Dory, where are you?"  He comes around from behind the car and says "oh, there you are Dory!"  Now, clearly my name is NOT Dory - what is he talking about?  "It's from Nemo."  So it is.  

He quite often reenacts scenes from movies; he's quite an actor, it really amazes me.  It started about 7 months ago, he got the movie Snow Buddies for his birthday and he started doing the part where the kid crashes on his dog sled and telling us to say "oh no, Adam (the boys name), wake up!"

Hunter's current favorite movie is Cars and he'll recite many lines from the movie, he also likes to sing the songs (which cracks me up hear his attempts, especially that of "Sh-Boom") and the other day I found him lining up his toy cars and reenacting various parts of the movie.  

So today when he was 'looking for Dory' I wasn't shocked, it was just another thing to add to his 'résumé' of acting parts.

Getting Out

So last night it occurred to me that I had not left my house (except to get the mail) since Saturday night.  That's 4 days of being confined to the house, no wonder I was getting irritated and somewhat depressed.  Though in those 4 days of being home I had managed to get some cleaning done so I guess there is a plus side.  Anyway, I decided that today we needed to get out, after all I'm sure the boys needed it as much as I did.

We got up when Travis was leaving for work, both of the boys had baths and we were out of the house by 10:30 (that's pretty good if you ask me).  We drove out to the FedEx terminal which thrills Hunter because we drive on Gowen Road passing the airport and Gowen Field.  He was telling Calvin before we left the house that we were going to see airplanes and tanks.  Hunter was extra excited when we got off the freeway and he could see the "P.U.S" (that's UPS to you and I) airplane.

So, at the FedEx terminal I applied to be a 'helper' meaning I'd be able to ride along with Travis and help him with his route.  We're thinking that if I can do this with him when I'm not working during this peak that we may not have to hire anyone else to drive and it may help financially (anything we can do, right?).  Travis' concern is that we'll want to kill each other after riding around all day together...maybe, but we'll just have to see - it's worth a shot anyway.  

After that we had a stop to make by my friend Annie's work to drop off some Pampered Chef stuff her boss had ordered and then it was off to grocery shopping.  Is it sad that I enjoy grocery shopping because it gets me out of the house?  Since we were in the area, Hunter thought we should visit Nana's work (yes, he does know that WinCo is by Nana's work and he also had to inform me that the Home Depot that is there is NOT the one his dad took him to the other day, it was a different Home Depot - wow that kid is smart).  

After leaving my mom's work Hunter said, "thanks for taking me to visit at Nana's.  I had a good day."  See, he really did need to get out of the house as much as I did.  Let's not go 4 days again!

Day One

Daily there are a million things that happen that I can't wait to share with people.  Out of nowhere Hunter says something like "word" or "this is amazing."  Some things shock me in good ways, others in not such good ways (like when he repeats the bad things he hears others say.  He'll repeat ANYTHING so be careful what you say around him.

Now that I have a second son to watch grow up, I decided I need to somehow start keeping track of things like this since I can hardly remember what happened 10 minutes ago (is that a mom thing?).  I figured if I start a blog and actually use it, this might help me to recall things in the future when I'm telling others about it, or even when I'm telling my own boys about some of the amazing things they said or did.