Calvin's Third Birthday

Last year, I was in my first trimester of my second pregnancy.  I felt terrible.  I didn't do much for Calvin's birthday, and I did even less for Christmas.  I think this guilt has been eating at me all year, and I overcompensated for his birthday this year.  His birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, so we decided to celebrate with everyone the Saturday afterwards.  On his birthday, we got him a giant cookie, blew out candles with him, gave him one gift, and took him bowling at the Fun Park (He beat me at bowling).

Here he is after he rolled his ball.

He loved watching the balls return.

On Saturday, I threw the biggest party I have ever thrown (not including RS activities-for them I had a whole committee to help me). We had pizza, jello, chips, salads, pop, juice, and veggie trays for lunch.  I'm grateful to those who brought food.  It really filled the meal out.  I invited most of Calvin's cousins to the party.  We had 16 cousins there.  It was pretty fun.  We had them color paper lunch bags to keep prizes in.  We played 'pin the car on the road' as our first game.  Then we ate lunch.  Then we had a punch wall.  I am kicking myself right now because I didn't get a picture of it.  I put Hot Wheels cars in plastic cups, stuck them in holes in a styrofoam board with tissue paper over them.  Then the kids punched through the tissue paper to find a car.  I did the order randomly by giving them raffle tickets.  Mark built a huge race track out of some brown paper someone gave to us. It took him an hour to build it, but the kids loved it.  We had races after the kids got their cars out of the punch wall.  Then we all played 'red light, green light.'  The cutest thing was when we played the second round, someone spilled a pop.  I called red light and the kids all stood perfectly still while the spill was being cleaned up.  After we finished that game, the kids tried to play another round on their own.  It was super cute.  Then we did a pinata.  We let the older kids use Mark's wooden sword (it has a special name, but I can't remember it right now) as the stick.  Calvin was nice and helped the other kids get candy from the pinata.  Then we opened presents.  Calvin didn't want to open them all.  He wanted to play with each present as soon as we opened them.  Our family knows him really well and got him cars and trucks, and he has loved his new toys.  I gave him his Ducky Momo.  I had him open it last, and by that time he wasn't interested in it anymore.  I should have had him open it first.   We also gave him a Cars activity book, a monster truck watch, a big yellow car, a new outfit, and some giant candy bars.  We had ice cream sundaes for dessert. Of course, I didn't take many pictures because I was busy directing the fun.  Our family is the best and everyone helped clean up and held Albric throughout the party.  Calvin is lucky to have such great relatives who love him so much.  

Albric is Five Months Old

Why does time seem to be speeding by?  Our sweet boy turned 5 months old yesterday.  He learned to roll over from his tummy to his back this month.  He loves holding and exploring new things with his mouth.  He even gets fussy if he isn't playing with something.  I pulled out the exer-saucer for him and he loves it.  I have started gelling his mohawk and it is adorable.  He has a bit of a cold now, and he doesn't really sleep through the night anymore.  But he does go back to sleep quickly, so I'm grateful for that.  He LOVES Calvin.  He watches him play and laughs at him.  It is usually when Calvin is doing something I think is annoying and about to tell him to stop.  I love kissing his cheeks, and he loves it when I do.  It is a great bonus getting a laugh out of him.  He is loving and sweet, and I wish he could stay this way forever.

Mohawk and Backwards Boy

Calvin fights with us when we try to get him dressed.  We were in a hurry yesterday to get out the door and he was not cooperating.  He was being silly and kept trying to put his legs in the opposite leg hole.  I went with it and just put them on backwards.  The same happened when it was time to put on his jacket.  Yes, I let him go out in public dressed backwards.  Also, I gelled the baby's hair into a mohawk and it is absolutely adorable.

He does not stand still for very long. 

Playing in the Snow

My last post was just pictures, and I didn't take them yesterday.  I just got around to sharing them yesterday.  The first snow storm for this Winter started two days ago.  Calvin was super excited when he woke up to a blanket of snow.  We finally got our Blueberry back, but after a month and a half of borrowing a car, the borrowed car got super dirty.  When Mark went back to work after class yesterday, I decided to let Calvin play in the snow while I worked on cleaning out the car.  After the car was clean, I snuggled with Albric to keep him warm and enjoyed watching Calvin burn off some of his excessive energy.

He started by shuffling through the snow.

He found a shovel. 

He pulled a toy out of the car  as I was cleaning and found it was a great toy to hit the snow with. 

I zipped Albric up inside my jacket and put his Ferb hat on him.  He stayed pretty warm. 

No makeup, no filter.  The cold made me look good.   

Of  course we had to end the adventure with hot chocolate. 

Calvin thought it needed a lid. 

Playing In the Leaves

Ducky Momo and Rainbow Cuddles

I learned to crochet in August of last year.  Some of my previous work can be found here and here. Mark suggested that I make a Ducky Momo for Calvin.  I was really lucky to find a pattern here.  I started making him and realized that since I make my stitches really tight he was smaller than the original pattern said.  So, I got a bigger crochet hook and started again.  I finished him last week, and he is currently hiding in my closet waiting for Calvin's birthday next week.  Here are a couple pictures of the finished product.

In Mark's family, each individual person draws a name for someone else for Christmas.  Both of my boys drew girl cousin names.  While looking for crochet toy ideas, I came across this pattern.  I decided it would work well for both of our nieces.  I bought the pattern because I am making it twice, and it was worth it.  I finished this on Monday night, and Calvin thinks it is his, so it is hiding with Ducky Momo.  I might be convinced to make a third one because it is super cute.

Balioon Play

I love his laughs!!! 

Albric Rolling Over

This video is about 2 minutes long, but it is the second time he officially rolled over.  If you want to skip to the rolling, it is at 1:45. The first time was about 1 minute after his dad left to study for a test.  We were both watching him and got excited when it looked like he was going to roll over.  Our excitement distracted him and he wouldn't try again until after Mark left.  These days just about as soon as I set him down he rolls right over.  It seems like he really wants to roll from his back sometimes, and I think he may figure it out soon. 

Halloween 2016

I only got one good picture this year.  :(  Since Calvin's favorite show to watch this year has been Phineas and Ferb, we decided to dress us as characters from the show.  I had to sew something for everyone's costume.  Calvin was Phineas and Albric dressed up as Ferb.  Mark dressed up as the dad, whose name is Lawrence.  I dressed up as the mom when she was a pop star in the 80's.  My costume was the most complicated, and of course I didn't get a photo of it.  For Calvin's, I found some orange and yellow striped lace that I sewed into a shirt.  We also spray painted his hair orange.  Then he just wore blue pants.  I made Albric a pair of purple pants and a green 'wig' out of yarn.  The 'wig' took three days to do, but it turned out super cute, plus helped keep him super warm during trick-or-treating.  For Mark, I just found him a white polo and sewed an emblem on it and added a bit of maroon to the bottom and sleeves.  For me, I bought an orange wig, fabric for a bow, hoop earrings, a pink shirt, a jean jacket, and a sweater to make leg-warmers from.  I wore some leggings I already owned, and sewed myself a teal skirt.  It was fun to dress up, but most people did not know who we were.  Several people thought the baby was a chia pet.  We attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat and a family party and then went trick-or-treating on Halloween.  We decorated our trunk to look like the backyard on the show and put our Perry the Platypus on the 'grass.'  We went trick-or-treating with the boys' cousins.  Mark held Albric, and when it got a little chilly, he strapped him on and zipped his jacket over him.  In the dark, with only his head sticking out, people thought Albric was a doll.  I love doing family themed costumes and I hope we'll come up with something fun for next year. 

Calvin was pooped out after trick-or-treating.

This was our trunk all decorated.  (We still don't have our blueberry back, so this is really my in-law's trunk)