Calvin at 8 Months

Calvin you are now 8 months old.  You chose this month to do some pretty amazing things.  You are really able to crawl now.  You chase Daisy, your sister and your mom around the house on all fours.  Standing up is your new thing, you love to pull yourself up on anything available.  While you are really good at standing up, you are not very good at getting back down.  You have not yet learned the art of the graceful landing, so currently you either cry for your mom or I to put you on the ground, or you plop down very abruptly, which does not make you very happy.

Speaking of happy, you are happiest when you are with your mom.  She touches your nose and you smile and giggle.  It is really cute.  You are second happiest when you are eating.  Little man, you can really pack away the food.  We call you the bottomless pit.  Your meals generally contain the following, 20 or 30 rice puffs, that you eat while we are getting your meal ready.  A packet of what we lovingly call space food, which is a foil packet containing baby food.  Your current favorite is the salmon, which oddly enough is our least favorite because it smells like salmon.  We then cut up some fruit/vegetables for you, which you scarf down and finally you wash it all down with a couple of ounces of formula.  You are not a big fan of the bottle/formula combination, so it is a bit of a battle to get you to drink the formula.

Are you going to eat that?

You still are not sleeping through the night, usually you wake up at 2 AM and 5 AM for a night cap.  We are still waiting for some little teeth to appear, but the lack of teeth has not slowed down your food consumption.  Mom and I keep expecting them to appear any day.
Maria and you give us little hints at what the future will be like.  Maria likes to play with you, but does not like you to play with her things.  She will wrestle with you and poke you. You tend to retaliate by pinching her or pulling her hair, smiling the whole time.
We took our first family vacation this month.  We drove up to Dallas and stayed at Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park.  Your sister loved it and you tolerated it, and aside from the post vacation cold that you both got, the vacation was a success.

Indoor water park!

As for the day of your eighth month birthday, we didn't do much that was interesting.  The highlight of the day was mom making lemon poppy seed muffins. We are excited to celebrate your 9 month birthday, or as I call it "Longer out than in day".

Windows 8 So Easy a Toddler Can Use It

Last year at the Microsoft Build conference I got a tablet with Windows 8 pre-beta on it.  I was initially unimpressed, but two weeks ago I put the release version on the tablet and my opinion has changed.  Maria loves it, she uses it to paint pictures.  We love the fact that she gets to finger paint without making a mess.  Most of her pictures trend toward Jackson Pollock, but her pictures are fun to look at.  Here is a video of my 21st century digital girl.

Here is an example of our little artists work

Calvin at 7 months

Calvin turned 7 months old today, and he gave us an exciting present.  He can now crawl.  To be honest it is more of a protocrawl/low crawl given that he keeps his belly on the ground.  Earlier in the month Amelia and I were taking bets as to whether or not Calvin would crawl or walk first because he didn't seem to be very interested in moving himself around, so imagine our delight when he started sliding himself around on the hard wood floors.  The original motion was all arms, but he is now using his legs to move around a little faster and we wouldn't be shocked if he is crawling with his belly off the ground by the end of the week.

Aside from crawling, Cal is still not sleeping through the night, but generally he only wakes up once a night.  He often wakes up in the morning and plays with his toys for a while.  He coos a happy song and plays with the "Hungry Friends" book or his first preferred wubi, a longhorn with a pacifier attached. 

Cal is an eating machine.  Amelia has taken to making his meals, so he gets amazing concoctions like peas with corn, pears and spinach.  Amelia commented today that he is our all natural child.  He arrived with no epidural (unintentionally), he doesn't get/like formula and he prefers his mom's creations to store bought food.  He is our little organic granola/hippie child.

For his birthday we had our usual Sunday breakfast of Rudy's breakfast tacos.  We went to home depot and bought some mint to replace the potted plants that did not make it through the hundred degree days in August.  Later in the day we went swimming and he spent most of his time in the pool flirting with the life guard.  He would grin, slap the water and hit her with his blue lasers.  She would smile back and the cycle would start all over. 

All good things must come to an end

Today was a jam packed day for the Tylers.  We started the day off with breakfast tacos from Rudy's.  Amelia and Maria went to Locomotion, a local jumpy gym. Cal and I stayed home and watched the USA Men's basketball team win gold.  Both kids took a long nap simultaneously, which is unheard of in our home.  For dinner we went to Hyde Park Bar and Grill, where for the first time we put Cal in a high chair, which he took to immediately.  For dessert we had some ice cream at Amy's.  I like Amelia's homemade ice cream the best, but Amy's will do in a pinch.  When we got home, the closing ceremony for the London Olympics was on TV.   Maria loved the music and spent much of the telecast showing off her elite dance moves.

Slip Sliding Away

Today, Maria and I went out on our usual Tuesday Daddy daughter night.  We went to Costco to get a couple of things and then had dinner at Firehouse subs.  Kids eat free on Tuesdays and kids get a little fireman's hat.  Maria had a blast wearing her fireman's hat and best of all she got to eat some Oreo cookies that came with her kid's meal.  After dinner, we went to Maria's favorite playground and she did something that is very unusual.  Maria is best described as an incredibly cautious child, she doesn't like slides.  She refuses to go down them.  At the playground she ran into another little girl who not only would ride the slide, but would ride backwards screaming with glee the entire time.  I can't say for sure that it was peer pressure, but Maria decided that she likes riding down slides and climbing back up the slide. 

Calvin future Olympian

The Olympic Opening ceremonies were today. How better to celebrate the best athletes in the world coming together, than to sit on the couch eating pizza.  The opening ceremony got various reviews from the Tyler's, Amelia did not much care for them. I (Chris) thought they were as culturally relevant as the  Beijing ceremonies.  Whereas the Chinese made the statement "We are up and coming", the Brits said that "We are responsible for culture".  I did think that Danny Boyle should have gone with John Cleese over Rowan Atkinson as the comedy relief.

 The only Tyler that got any exercise tonight was Cal who happily bounced with wild abandon in his exersaucer.

Calvin at 6 months

Calvin is half a year old today. He went to the doctor and is 50% in height, weight and head size, which we like to refer to as perfectly average. As a parting gift the doctor gave him 3 shots and he handled them like a champ. Although later on in the day it got real emotional in the Tyler household as both Maria and Cal fought taking a nap.

Cal has begun to eat solids, his favorite is peas with carrots and corn, but he has tried squash, zucchini, peaches and sweet potatoes. He is truly a Tyler in that he can always eat. This month he has begun to verbalize and regularly seems to want to talk to us.  Cal has moved to the bathtub for his bath and still finds anything Maria does hilarious.

Happy half year birthday, little man!

You got served

So far two has been a fun age.  Maria does have moments where she can be a real terror and we do experience the rolling on the ground screaming fit a little more often than we would like.  For all the frustrating moments there are ones like this where she decides to put a swim diaper on her head and dance. 

Maria at the playground

Every Tuesday Maria and I go out for daddy daughter night.  Most of the time we do something that needs to be done for the family and then we do something fun.  This week we went to home depot and then out to a park and then to Mandola's where she got some mint chocolate chip gelato.

Maria is ready for her basketball scholarship

Today we got on Craig's List and found an exersaucer for Calvin.  His favorite thing in the world is to bounce.  While it is a good arm workout, he is nearly 18 pounds so we decided to let him do his bouncing as a leg workout for himself.  We found a family that was selling the model that we wanted and they also were selling a play set.  Maria doesn't really have anything like a slide at the house so we purchased both and the video below is Maria enjoying her new play set.

P.S.  Calvin spent an hour happily bouncing in his exersaucer.

So close to crawling

It seems that Cal is very much like his sister in that he wants to get moving by crawling.  He is doing a great job of holding himself up when his sister isn't pushing him down.

Singing and dancing

I believe the answer to sustainable renewable energy source must be associated with a two year old.  After a pizza dinner Maria bounces and sings for the camera.  I love the look Cal is giving her in the background.

Calvin Month 4

Dear Calvin,
Welcome to your fourth month on the outside.  In the last month you have really started to grow.  You are now nearly sixteen pounds.  We are getting a great arm workout carrying you around, which is still your favorite thing in the world.  You love being upright and at he same height as your mom and dad.
You still are not fond of riding in the car, generally you spend the entire trip screaming, although in the last week you have been doing better.  The doctor says that you are 50% in all of your stats, which is hard for your mom and I to believe because you seem so heavy compared to your sister at 4 months.

You are prone to getting upset and when you do, you have a high pitch wail that is reminiscent of a tea kettle going off.  In spite of the fussiness you give great smiles and a goofy laugh.

We love you very much Cal!

Maria's Bubble Bug

As a treat for Maria I got this little bubble blowing bug toy.  It moves around and when it hits a wall it turns around.  Maria loves to watch it roll around in the house and on the deck.

Ghost Hunter Calvin

One of Calvin's favorite things to do is to watch the shadows on the ceiling from the ceiling fan.  When he is in a bad mood we can set him on his changing table and he will calm down and smile.  When he first started staring up at the ceiling it was a little disconcerting because we couldn't tell what it was that he was looking at.  We kept wondering if latter in life we would hear him say "I see dead people".  Gulp!

High, High up in the sky

In an effort to get out of the house a little more for Maria's enjoyment and our sanity, we headed out to the Zilker Park kite festival this weekend. Cal slept through most of the festival.  Maria loved all of the kites up in the sky.  We were even able to prevent her from getting hit by the kites that were falling from the sky.  The kite festival is a little chaotic in that there are people and kites everywhere. That chaos can be a little stressful if you are trying to protect a 20 month old and a newborn, but we did just fine.  It was a really nice day to get out!

Calvin: Month 1

Hey Calvin- today you are 1 month old!!! Yeah!!! So far you have been mostly a good baby but your cry is like nails on a chalk board. You like to be held- a lot- I mean- a lot, a lot. Maria is super sweet to you and I hope that continues. She really likes putting things on you while you are in your swing. She also likes to pat you but she isn't always so gentle. We have to keep an eye on her when she is with you. I'm trying to remember all the things you have done in your first month of life because believe it or not we haven't just been sitting around the house like we did when Maria was born. You've been out shopping with us on multiple occasions.

 Since we are having such a mild winter we go out on walks whenever we can. You are ok with being outside but you really like bouncy stroller rides or riding in the car. On February 11 we had big family gathering at Nanna and Gramps' house in Driftwood to celebrate Nanna's birthday. You met all your cousins and aunts and uncles on my side of the family for the first time. You've even met some of our friends! You eat like a maniac and sleep quite a bit. You wake up about every 2-3 hours during the night to eat. Daddy wakes up with you to change your diaper and I feed you. This is all kind of a blur to me because of the lack of sleep. My parents took Maria for one night and we only had you at the house. Wow- what an easy night that was! Having just one child is so much easier than 2! We love you Calvin but please take it easy on the crying because it is seriously loud and annoying.

daddy gave your first bath!

our little soccer hooligan!

happy birthday nanna!

On the day that you were born. . . .

before

Welcome to the world Calvin Piers Tyler! Here is what happened- the story is pretty quick so don't blink! We checked into Seton Main hospital about 8AM. We got settled into the labor and delivery room. There was an admin nurse that went over a bunch of questions with us. There was a training nurse and her instructor that gave me an IV port. Dr. Gooch came in about 9AM and broke my water, started a pitocin drip about 15 minutes later. About 9:30AM I started having regular contractions. About 10AM I asked for an epidural. About 10:10AM the nurse came in to check on us and to get the epidural started. This is when things got interesting. She checked me and then said she would be right back. She came back into the room about 10:15AM and much to my dismay informed me there was no time left to give me an epidural because I was already at 10cm. The look on my face must have been priceless followed up with "chris- whatthefuckamigoingtodo ican'tdothiswithoutanepidural!".
I only had about 3 minutes to panic because the next contraction I had was a pushing contraction she told me not to fight it- to go with the flow. 3 minutes later the head nurse in charge was in the room telling me not to push and at the same time telling Dr. Gooch that if she was going to deliver this baby that she better run, Calvin's head was already out. The nurse in training was in the corner of the room looking like a deer caught in headlights (probably similar to my look when I found out there would be no epidural). My doc got into the room just in time to catch the rest of Calvin. His official birth time is 10:25AM. The lady next door to me asked for an epidural at exactly 10:25:01AM. The first piece of info we got was the baby was a boy. The second piece of info we got was that he weighs 9 pounds 5 ounces. The third piece of info we got was that he was healthy with all of his limbs, 10 fingers and 10 toes. The rest of the info I got is TMI but let's just say, Calvin is a big baby that came out very fast. . ..

The rest of the day was spent recovering and staring endlessly at our handsome baby boy. My parents brought Maria to the hospital later on in the day. She was very interested in meeting Calvin for the first time. She was very sweet and gentle with him.

my parents, maria and chris went to eat dinner at waterloo ice house and brought back my free chocolate shake! this my new favorite picture of chris and maria.

The first night with Calvin was about as smooth as it can be with a newborn. Between him being checked out, me being checked out, him needing to be fed and nurses dropping in, there wasn't much sleeping going on.

this is chris changing one of the 6 poop diapers that calvin made on the first day.

I can't help but feel blessed- somewhere, sometime in my life I made some kind of good karmic choice so I that ended up with 2 sweet, beautiful healthy children- at least for the time being....