Life on the homefront

 No window.

 New window.  Dan has installed new windows in the house.  All but three have been replaced and those will be done when it warms up again.  Now when the wind blows the window coverings don't move!

 I had to give Dan a haircut to get out the caulk that he had in his hair after a window fell out of the window hole and hit him in the head.  He was getting ready to secure the window with screws when it fell out. 

 Without prompting Calvin wanted to put his underwear on his head.

 

 Big boy.

 Little boy.

 Sleeping in his chair for nap time.  I'm sure you've all seen pictures of toddlers sleeping in funny places such as a highchair or standing floor but with his head on the couch snoozing away.  Calvin has never been one of those kids so this is as funny as it gets.  I did have a moment of panic when I went in to wake him up and didn't see him in his bed though.  He chose to sleep on the floor at least once and the chair a few other times.  I think he quickly realized that neither are as comfortable as his bed.  Even though he can get in and out of his bed freely he still likes us to put him in bed and take him out in the morning. 

Calvin wasn't feeling well this morning so he stayed home from school and we decided to make biscuits.  There was some extra flour in a bowl that I let him play with it along with the scraps of dough and he had a great time as you can tell by the big mess that was made.  Big mess = lots of fun!  

Warm biscuits!  Even though Calvin and I don't follow the directions exactly they always turn out!  I tried explaining how to slowly pour milk into flour while stirring but he's more of a dump it all in at once kind of guy. 

It's fun to look back at pictures of Calvin when he was a baby and see how quickly preferences were formed.  Even at four days old he liked to sleep with his arms behind his head and he still does.

Hammering the tree

For your viewing pleasure Calvin hammering the Christmas tree.  I'm still not sure why he thought he needed to hammer the ornaments but he did.  By the way, thanks Grandma for showing Calvin how you hammer your knife when cutting squash.  Here's a little part of a conversation Calvin and I had:

Calvin: Mom, I need a hammer to hammer my knife.
Me: Why do you need to hammer your knife?
Calvin: Because Grandma uses a hammer when she's cutting squash.
Me: I don't think you need a hammer to cut pears. 

The colors are a little washed out because I neglected to turn on more lights.  Oh well, not a big deal. Enjoy!

Advent calendar and Christmas tree

This year I made little paper boxes and stuffed them with small trinkets for Calvin's advent calendar.  So far the hits have been a tiny little cup in the shape of a puppy to drink out of, Mickey Mouse socks, and Uno.  Oh yes, the harmonica is also a lot of fun.  Not too surprisingly Calvin is better at the harmonica than I am.  Cricket is strangely drawn to Calvin when he is playing his instrument, as he calls it.  I took him to a concert on Monday night so he could see and hear people playing musical instruments.  He had a good time but his good behavior quickly turned naughty after the friends we were with decided to misbehave.  So we left and went to buy doughnuts.  Unfortunately he can talk me into pretty much any bad idea.  Sometimes I wonder who is really running this show!  Sorry for the digression.  Back to the pictures.  I made this tree and the ornaments for Calvin to decorate and play with.  I then said something about putting up lights on the tree so Dan and Calvin went to town.  I think this might be our only tree for the year! 

Halloween

Calvin chose to be a brown puppy this year for Halloween.  After making his decision he told me that he also wanted to be a gray cat.  If anyone asked him what he was going to be for Halloween his answer was always a puppy and a cat.  As you can see from the pictures above he was just a puppy.  A very cute puppy though.  With a very cute cow!  Dan wasn't going to wear his costume this year but he was talked into it.  Even though we didn't visit too many houses Calvin received a lot of candy!  Most houses gave him at least two pieces and some even gave me and Dan candy too.  We had fun walking around the neighborhood, eating candy, and meeting some new neighbors.  As we were walking around we could hear creepy organ music coming from a house a block away.  We were going to go investigate but by that point we were all cold and just wanted to go home.  We got home in time to hand out candy to a few kids that stopped by.  Now to go hide all the candy from myself Calvin.

First day of the new school year

Calvin has moved to the three, four, and five year old room at his school.  The transition to the new room was very smooth thanks to him being slowly introduced to the new room the week prior to the change.  Also, all the teachers seem to know all the kids in all the different rooms.  Not sure how they mange to remember so many names but it sure helped that Calvin was already familiar with his new teacher on the first day in his new room.  He seems to like the new room and all the new work that he gets to do.  I've noticed that his counting skills and his reciting of at least part of the alphabet has improved in just the short time he's been in the room.  Sometimes just a change of scenery can help break through a plateau! 

Happy Birthday!

I can't believe that Calvin is 3! Calvin's birthday celebration started off with a trip to the dentist. This was a rescheduled appointment otherwise I would not have taken him on his birthday! Anyway, he was a champ. He let the hygienist clean and floss his teeth. He was doing really well until he actually tasted the toothpaste and then he didn't want any more to do with teeth cleaning. He powered through and let her finish despite the taste. We'll see how he does next time when they take x-rays of his teeth. For some reason I've always hated this part of going to the dentist so I hope he doesn't pick up on that when I prep him for it.

Next stop, Target! We picked up a few necessities and snacks to share with Dan at work. Calvin loves visiting Dan at work but I think it's mostly because he keeps a ball on his desk.

Later in the evening we went to Panchero's for dinner, then a park to run off some energy, and then ice cream! Strangely enough Calvin only ate a bite or two of his ice cream before he was off to explore. That's okay though because we had driven to get ice cream so he wouldn't get his usual mile walk home to burn off the sugar. Calvin thoroughly enjoyed his balloons, party hats, and later not-so-noisy noise makers. Turned out that what I thought were noise makers didn't actually make noise. Oh well, he enjoyed playing with them anyway.
Calvin thought it was great fun to make the balloons wear his party hat.




Dan and Calvin wearing their matching 3 t-shirts. Calvin also sporting stickers from our morning activities. Most of the pictures I took turned out just like this one. Dan looking at the camera and Calvin watching the neighbor kids.
Playing with the straws from Chinese yo-yos we found at Target.

Busy, busy, busy

I'm not exactly sure what we have been up to lately but we sure have been busy. In May Dan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary by taking Calvin to Wisconsin Dells for a night. We were supposed to go out for dinner on our anniversary but my friend who was going to watch him called to tell me that her youngest had just been diagnosed with pink eye and that she hadn't started his medication yet because the pharmacy was out of it and had to get it from another branch here in town! We had a nice family dinner at home that night. We did get to go out to dinner alone about week later which was nice. Anyway, if you ask Calvin what he did at the hotel in Wisconsin Dells he will tell you that he played basketball and went down the bird slide. He needed someone to catch him at the bottom of the slide but the slide was small enough that he could walk up the steps and go down it without help. He'll probably also tell you that the outdoor pool water was really, really cold. He might also talk about the duck that was swimming in the pool with him.

Calvin and I go to a different park each Monday with a group of friends. He has gotten much braver going down the slides, climbing the ladders, and swinging. I wouldn't be so nervous about his climbing but he is easily distracted and wants to watch other people rather than watch where is feet are going.

We've gone to a couple of LumberKing baseball games down in Clinton, IA. Both games were fun to watch but it sure makes for a late night when we finally get home. Maybe in a couple of years Calvin will actually be interested in watching the game for more than a few minutes! Probably not though. Anytime he sees a sport being played it makes him want to play it. He'll ask to watch baseball and not more than 2 minutes later he will be playing baseball. We spent a lot of time playing tennis during the French Open. He finally understands hitting the ball back and forth and will ask to do that with me. I think our record is 4 hits in a row. Pretty good for a 2 year old!

We took a tour of our neighborhood fire station not too long ago. Calvin loved it! Every time we drive by the station (pretty much every day) Calvin points to it and says "That's the fire station we went to." Or something like that. He also points to fire hydrants and says that Kenny (the fire fighter who gave us the tour) opens up the hydrant to get water out. He is also asking to go back.

Calvin doing his "work" after nap time the other day. If you haven't read "Little Blue Truck" you're missing out on a really cute story!

Spring

Calvin lined up all the eggs for me to find.  When I was pretending to look for the eggs I must have asked where are the eggs because Calvin ran over to the eggs, pointed at them, and said "right here."

Finding his eggs.

Calvin before his music program at school.  All the kids were asked to bring a white t-shirt and this is what came home!  Each class had a different color shirt but they were all tie dyed.  I thought it was a great idea and it looked really good when all the kids were standing up on the stage.  The kids did a great job!  Some of the older kids actually sang/shouted their songs when it was their turn to sing.  I don't think anyone in Calvin's class actually sang other than the teachers.  One of the teachers told me later that the kids would belt out the songs when they were in their room practicing.  None of the kids cried or ran to their parents which just amazed me.  The teachers did an excellent job preparing the kids for the program!  The music program was professionally recorded and we bought a copy of the DVD.  We'll have to have a movie night next time we are all together.  Then everyone can see Calvin and hear the laugh he got from the crowd! 

All the eggs.

Calvin helping plant the garden in front of the garage.

Dan and Calvin working hard.

All the plants nicely placed where they are to be planted.  Too bad I didn't get a picture a few minutes later after Calvin "helped" me move all the plants.  He thought he was being such a good helper by moving the plants back onto the grass.  Hard to get upset when he thought he was being nice!

This is what we get when Calvin gets a hold of the camera.

Feet by Calvin.

Easter eggs

Calvin and I dyed Easter eggs earlier this week to take to an egg hunt that he had been invited to by some friends. I didn't get any pictures of the actual dying process because close supervision was necessary after a rough start. I had opened the packet of dye tablets and asked Calvin to put one tablet in each of the cups he had set out earlier. When I came back inside from checking on the cat (all of 10 seconds later) I found Calvin flinging purple spit onto the floor. He had put the purple tablet in his mouth and found it to be rather disgusting so he grabbed it out of his mouth and dropped it onto the floor. Luckily, our night only got better from there. Anyway, he had fun dunking the eggs and grabbing them out of the cups with his hands. He had even more fun smashing eggs together when we were done cleaning up.


The finished product. Two missing...
Right before he smashed the eggs together.
Poking a hole into an egg.

Showing me his eggs.
If I had only been a second faster with the camera. This is his face after throwing his head back and howling with laughter. He thought it was so funny to smash the eggs together.

Spring update

Calvin has been learning about shadows and had a lot of fun with his one morning when the sun was streaming through the windows.
Tried to get a good picture but this is all he would give me!

We have certainly been taking advantage of the amazing weather we have been having recently. All Calvin wants to do is "play outside" and "go to park." The schools are on Spring Break so we have been able to go to the elementary school (the "park") during the day all week. If we aren't there we are in our driveway/backyard playing baseball, soccer, basketball, or digging in the garden. We also have been loving the extra daylight in the evenings because we get to stay out longer. Here's hoping that this beautiful weather lasts through the Spring right into Summer!

We had Calvin's first parent/teacher conference last week. He's doing well in school and his teacher reports that they enjoy having him in class. When asked what he hopes to do at school Calvin's answer is usually "play puppets." His class has finger puppets that he just loves to play with. He still enjoys puzzles and reading books with the assistant teacher.

Potty training has begun! Well, it did a few weeks ago but we've had a set back. Within the first week Calvin wasn't having any accidents and was even waking up dry at nap time and in the morning. Recently his new game is to tell us that he needs to go potty but then refuse to try. He has found a button to push and he pushes it a lot!

We are remodeling our downstairs bathroom/laundry room. Once everything is done I think it's going to look really good but right now it's a disaster. Not much left to do but there never seems to be enough time to get much done at once. Hopefully this weekend will be productive.

Kitchen redo

Old counter top.
Old sink.
Old plumbing and water filter system that hadn't been kept up while the house was on the market so we decided to get rid of it.
Calvin eating breakfast. He saw the camera on the table and insisted that I take photos of him. Most were blurry though.
The old sink hole. Nice and rusty.
Calvin helping.
Cutest helper ever.
More helping.
While Calvin was using my little cordless screwdriver he thought I should use his and set it on the counter top for me.
New plumbing. Notice that the garbage disposal moved from right to left.
New gleaming white sink. I love, love, love this sink. The left side is so large I can set a 12 inch frying pan flat on the bottom of the sink.
New counter tops. So much nicer. The pictures really don't do them justice.