random thoughts

Calvin is now 3 months old. He's a little smiler and grins all the time. He has moments of crying but there is usually something I can do about it. He kindof giggled for the first time today - I was tickling his neck. He's a pacifier baby. He needs to have it when he's sleeping. I hope this isn't going to be an annoying issue. I turned him to sleep on his tummy when he was about a month and a half old. He slept SO much better that way. He didn't really care much for swaddling. I would just guess he's around 16 lbs. He's wearing 6 month size clothes and moving up from a size 2 to size 3 diaper this week. Crazy. He already feels like a hefty strong child. Dave thinks he is going to be crawling before Violet. She crawled the day she turned 7 months old. We'll see. Violet ... what can I say. Her new phrases she says now are: "I need that" and "I want this...or that" and "do it again!" and "help me" (which means I want to help you but she gets her "you" and "me" mixed up) and "read a book". She's putting together lots of sentences. She says "mama's hair all wet" and "Mama get Calvin's pacifier". She either prefers "hold you" which she pronounces "holdjyou" on the toilet or the potty seat when she goes to the bathroom. Sometimes she resists going potty - but all we have to do is start reading one of books and she gets interested right away. The other day we were in the car and she saw some birds. She said "airplane!" and I said to her "no, actually, those are birds". She must have taken note. The next morning, she looked out a window and saw something in the air, and started mumbling something like "birds! no, its an airplane!" haha! She still eats a bowl of oatmeal every morning. She asks for it. "OBO!" enthusiastically. Her favorite thing lately is to watch her letter video. Elmo is becoming less of an obsession. The says "vetters!" - it is The Letter Factory by LeapFrog. She knows all the sounds all the letters make. She can say her entire alphabet through including the "now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me" part of the song. The LMNOP is more like "llalalalalalala...o...p" She also likes to show Calvin things. She says "oh, Calvin! look outside at the train!" more like "taw-wah, train! train go bye bye!" She's a very sensitive child. She neeeeds to know exactly where I am. If we're in a crowd or with other people in a house, I can't even go to the bathroom or change Calvin's diaper without her coming with me - the idea of me leaving her is devastating. I go to MOPS and the workout at Orchard Hill and leave her in the child care area - and she freaks out, demands to hold my hand, tells me she has to pee, ANYTHING to try to stay with me. Its so hard to leave her when she's screaming. The child care helpers tell me that she calms down quickly and starts to play with the other kids, which is good news. I just don't like creating that unsettling feeling in her. I think she's mostly "day-time" potty trained. She tells us when she has to pee and poop and goes on the potty all the time during the day. She still wets the bed during naps occasionally and always wakes up with a wet diaper. I hope time takes care of that. The other day, she told me in the bathroom "no pee in underwear - pee on the potty". And when we pray with her at nighttime, she "takes turns" with us praying and her prayer is this "help me pee and poopy - aaaamen!" She loves to look at pictures of family members. She recognizes Aunt Carrie, Uncle Josh, Austin, Nay-Nay (Renee), Uncle Tim, Aunt Debbie, Kala, some of Sean and April's kids, Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jon (mago and magon!) and Aunt Rachel (Aunt Eee-aww) and Uncle Jay and Molly. When Dave comes up from work during the day to take a short break or use the bathroom ... she says "daddy's all done!" but then Dave says "no, daddy is just taking a break." She says "taking a break!" And when he comes up, she enthusiasically runs to the door and excitedly says "Daddy ALL DONE!" I think she knows the difference between being all done and taking a break. Favorite foods: chicken strips dipped in ranch, broccoli, peas, cheese, bananas, fruit snacks (hoot-nacks!), pizza, peanut butter and jelly, rice, bread, and milk. She's 29.5 lbs.