Hi folks! I’m back with another long-awaited post. Here’s the update:

I still have only 6 teeth, but there are others close to coming out.  Sometimes, my mouth just hurts and I have to cry a lot and have mommy and daddy hug me a lot.  Back at the end of January, my daycare closed, so mommy and daddy found me a new place to go.  It’s right near our house. I started there on Feb 2nd.  That night, when mommy and daddy picked me up, I had a fever of 102.6.  Daddy and I stayed home the next day, during which I did a lot of sleeping.  That day, my fever broke, and I started to feel better.  I went back to daycare Wednesday and Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday, I wasn’t feeling great.  Daddy went to his friend’s house to play cards and I stayed home with mommy. I threw up all over her.  Then I threw up in my crib. It was miserable. Thanks to mommy for making me feel better.  I went back to daycare on Monday and Tuesday, but Tuesday, I had some runny poos that exploded out of my diaper twice.  Mommy and daddy were both sick, too, so we all stayed home today.  Mommy and I did some napping. It was beautiful outside, so we went outside and I helped daddy clear up some snow and ice in the yard.  Let’s see, what else… the people at daycare are impressed with the lunches that mommy’s been packing for me.  They want her to do a presentation on nutritious lunches for the rest of the parents. I got a new pair of sneakers last weekend, they’re cool. And, possibly the coolest thing, I got a dividend check for my stock.  You see, Uncle Steve bought me a share of Disney stock for my birthday.  The other day, a check showed up at the house for me. Woo hoo! I’m goin’ to Vegas! Maybe not yet. As a shareholder, I’m also invited to attend the Disney annual meeting.  Haven’t decided yet if I’m going to go. They want me to vote to give the execs the opportuinity to give themselves raises and stuff without any supervision! Yeah, right! 

That’s about it, for now.  Here are a few pics…

February 8th: I was watching Wall-e with mommy and daddy. That’s a funny movie.

Same day, playing with one of my wooden spoons.

Feb 11: The other day, I figured out how to open the drawers in the entertainment center.  I like to just take everything out of the drawers and put it on the floor, or take things out and carry them around the house, so that DVDs end up in the kitchen and stuff.

That’s it for me.

Power to the toddlers!

-CPE

Well, it’s been four months since I’ve posted anything, primarily because Daddy’s been a slacker.  A lot has happened: my first Hallowe’en, my first Thanksgiving, my first birthday, Christmas number 2, I’m walking, I’m running, I’m talking a bit, and I’ve now got six teeth.  All of these things and more over just the past four months.  Many of them, daddy has captured on film, but he’s too lazy to edit them all and post them.  So, I’ll try to put some online, but they’ll probably be out of order so that I can get some current ones up for you all to see.

Thanks to those of you who have requested that I post more.  It’s nice to know that my public hasn’t moved on to newer babies. So, without further adieu…

 
January 6, 2009: Here I am running around in my sweet Puma tracksuit, whcih was a gift from Uncle Todd. He’s the bomb.

January 11, 2009: I love my talking Elmo!

January 17: Here I am in my dinosaur play tent, or, “the apartment” as mommy and daddy like to call it.  This thing is huge.  I can stand up inside it.  It’s shaped like a big dinosaur, and takes up a big chunk of the living room. Daddy likes to nap in my apartment.

January 19: I think I might like to be a butler when I grow up.  This broom is fun to carry around the house.  Maybe I like it because mommy and daddy have to sweep up after me all the time.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Peace out!

-CPE

Ugh, I’ve been ill lately.

It started back in late February or the beginning of March.  I got a cold, probably at daycare.  I started sneezing, then coughing, then I got a stuffy head.  Mommy and daddy were worried about me, so they took me to the doctor.   I went there a few times.  Mommy and daddy got some medicine to give me.  I guess daddy thought it was strange – he said that it’s weird that they can’t just treat my cold because I’m a kid, so they treat the individual symptoms.  First, I got this stuff that mommy and daddy put in a little machine that turned it to fog.  They held a tube near my face and I inhaled the medicine.  It took about 15 minutes every time they did it.  Sometimes, I slept through it.  Other times, I cried through it. So that was supposed to, and did, clear up my chest.

Then the nose snot came.  Mommy and daddy gave me saline nose drops to clear my nose, but that only worked temporarily.  Then they had to stick a thing up my nose to suck the snot out. I hated that, and screamed every time. Keep in mind that I don’t breathe through my mouth.  Every time I tried to eat (drink), I was battling the stuffed nose, which made it really difficult.  This also made mommy and daddy crazy.

Then, at the end of April, I got some other kind of sickness.  Thankfully, this one only lasted a day.  When I came home from daycare on Wednesday I ate, then threw up.  I spit up a lot, but this one had some power behind it.  I did the same thing later that night. Mommy thought I was sick.  Daddy thought it was just normal.  Mommy dropped me off at daycare Thursday morning and before she was out of the parking lot, I threw up all over Miss Nilda.  She came out into the parking lot and told mommy that I was sick and kicked me out of daycare until I was better. Mommy called the doctor and got an appointment for me for later that morning.  Daddy came and picked me up and took me to his office.

At daddy’s office, I slept a little, then pooed in my diaper.  Daddy smelled it and changed me.  Then I sat on daddy’s lap while he did some work on the computer.  I pooed again.  This time, it was a big one.  Daddy smelled that one, too, and so he changed me again.  When he opened my diaper, he started choking and made a gross face.  I could feel the poo up my back.  It was wet.  Daddy took my diaper off and started cleaning me up.  I felt funny, but I couldn’t tell him.  Then I pooed again – another big one.  This time, though, since I didn’t have a diaper on, it went free.  I felt better. Daddy said something I didn’t understand and looked like he was going to cry.  He ran and got paper towels.  It took him a lot of wipes and paper towels and time to clean me up.

After I was all clean, daddy took me to the doctor. Mommy met us there.  The doctor said that I had a virus, and it would go away in a few days.  I went home with mommy and daddy went back to work.  I only had one more bad poo after that.  The next day, I felt a lot better.  The virus must have been gone.  I’m glad it only lasted a little over a day.  I think mommy and daddy are, too.

I feel better now.

Daddy has a whole bunch of pictures of me that he has to fix so I can post them. Hopefully, he’ll get on that.

Baby power y’all!

-CPE

Hi everyone. I need to get you up to speed.

I go to daycare now. I started back on January 29th (that photo of me in my Patriots gear is from my first day of daycare). I go to a place that is run by the organization that mommy works for. It’s in the building next door to her office, which is across the city from daddy’s office.

I’m in the infant room with about 7 (I’m not really good at counting yet) other kids. I’m the second youngest. There are a whole bunch of ladies who take care of me. They feed me and change me and burp me and play with me and make me go to sleep. I have my own crib for nap time (we each have our own) with my name on it, but I generally like to nap in the swings. There are mirrors, and a seat with (fake) fish that swim in front of me, and there’s carpet for tummy time, and music and mobiles. I love mobiles. Lots of stuff in the room has its name on it. The crib says “crib”, and the mirror says “mirror” and they all say the name in Spanish, too, because some of the kids in the room with me have mommies and daddies who speak Spanish. Some of the ladies who take care of me speak Spanish sometimes, too. I’m looking forward to learning Spanish. Then I can teach daddy. He learned French in school. He says that’s useless.

Mommy usually drops me off at daycare in the morning. On a lot of the days, she drops daddy off at the park and he walks the rest of the way to work, then she drops me off. She usually stops in at daycare a couple of times during the day. Sometimes I’m asleep when she comes by. I’m always happy to see her, so I smile at her if I’m awake. Sometimes daddy drops me off in the morning, like if mommy goes to work early or later than normal. They take turns picking me up, too. If mommy picks me up, we often go to pick daddy up at his office before we go home.

One day when daddy picked me up, we brought a dog home, too. Mommy and daddy were dogsitting Jackson one weekend a few weeks ago, so we picked him up at the daycare building. He rode in the back of daddy’s car. When we got home and I started crying, Jackson followed daddy around (he was carrying me) and licked my head to make me feel better. It felt funny. Charlee sometimes smells my head, but rarely licks me.

Here’s a couple of pictures of me in my crib at home, before I left for my second day of daycare, January 30th.

I love my mobile.

That’s all I’ve got.

Be strong, brothers and sisters.

-CPE

Well, it’s been a long time since I posted, so I guess I should bring you all up to speed.  It was Christmas Eve last time I wrote.  Sounds like I’m about to confess something… but I’m not.

Christmas was quite an experience.  Mommy and daddy (m&d) gave me this cool outfit to wear.  It has antlers and ears. I got to meet great grampa, and Uncle Corey and Karen.  They sat down to eat with mommy and daddy, nana and boppa, and Uncle Todd, so I started crying to get mommy to hold me.  I do that a lot when mommy is getting ready to eat.  Usually, I make her feed me.  Then grammy and grampy came over and they brought great grammy, and Uncle Dave and Aunt Denise came over later.  Great grammy liked holding me. I also got presents on Christmas.  I got a stuffed animal reindeer and a bear, and a glowworm that plays music, and a few stacky toys, and a boat that lights up and plays music, and sunglasses, and Uncle Todd got me a velour Puma tracksuit. He’s cool.  It was a big haul. All that activity made me cranky, though.  I had a rough night.  A couple of days later, I got an outfit from Paula and John next door.  They’re really nice.  John helped daddy with all of that snow that we had before Christmas.  Charlee likes to play with their dog, Tobey. 

Nana and boppa stayed at the house for a few days to help mommy.  They held me a lot, and changed me when mommy was busy or tired.  Then they left and it was just me and mommy and daddy and Charlee again. I’ve had some visitors since Christmas: Mr & Mrs Jon came over and brought me a sweater and a hat and a pair of socks with orange stripes; Mary Claire came over a couple of days ago and brought me an awesome pirate stuffed animal with a cape, and a cool shirt with the name of my hometown on it.  That’s going to be tough to learn to spell.

I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and I weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces and measured 21 inches long.  That’s up 2 pounds from my last doctor’s appointment and 2 inches taller.  Daddy says my thighs are as big around as his.  I’ve got more hair than he does, though.  Mommy says my face is chubby.  On the plus side, my clothes are starting to fit better.

I’ve gone on some outings.  Mommy and daddy took me to the mall in the capitol.  I went to my first restaurant. Just as mommy was ready to eat, I started to cry and I made her feed me. Daddy was sketched out that mommy was feeding me in public, but he got over it, I guess.  I didn’t really give him a choice. Another day, we all went back to Target again, where, of course, mommy and daddy filled the cart around me with stuff. I went to Staples and Michaels on that trip, too. M&D took me to BJs to get a cart full of stuff, too.  The other day, mommy took me to work for almost a whole day. We weren’t supposed to be there that long, but mommy said that it was a cluster there – whatever that means – so we stayed longer than she expected. Mommy took me for a walk around the block in my stroller the other day, too.

As for what I’m doing on my own, well, it’s largely the same things I have been doing all along.  I’m developing some new poses for the carseat and the swing, filling diapers at a breakneck pace, eating more than m&d eat, and sleeping when it’s least convenient for m&d.  I like to torment daddy by waking up around 1am and screaming like a bunch of sorority girls watching the Shining.  The other night, I decided to only calm down if daddy went up and down the stairs with me.  After about 10 trips, he was not happy with me.  Mommy has to come and rescue him a lot, before he flips out.

This weekend, it’s off to mommy’s hometown, to meet more people. I don’t know what’s going to happen out there.  Mommy’s taking me out, and daddy will come out the next day. He has to work. He also gets a night of bachelorhood, though.  I’ll bet he sits and plays computer games all night.

That’s all I’ve got.

Be strong my brothers and sisters! Baby power!

-CPE

Hi everyone, Calvin here. Let me get you up to speed:

on Monday, the 17th, I had my first bath.  It wasn’t all that pleasant.  In fact, I was pretty unhappy throughout.  Mommy says we’re lucky to have the big slate sink because she can put my whole bathtub in there and wash me easily. I do have some nice towels, though.  This one has a hood on it, and a lion.    I like animals.  I have animals on the walls in my room, and stuffed animals, and animals on some of my clothes.

On Saturday, Nana and Grandpa came over. They’re going to stay a while to help mommy out. At least that’s what they say.  Judging by what’s happened so far, they came to hold me.  They hold me a lot. It’s nice.  Uncle Steve and Sarah came down for a day, too.

I’ve got some moves that I like to do when I’m in the papasan and the carseat.  Mommy gives them names.  There’s “rollercoaster” when I put both hands up, “I have a question” when I just put one up, this one is “air guitar”   and there’s “he shoots, he scores”   .

Today is Christmas Eve.  I’m resting up.  Here’s a picture of me napping in my swing. Daddy had a tough time with that picture because I was in motion and the lights were off in the room.  You can see my reindeer with Christmas lights shirt, though.

So that’s it for now.  I’m sure there will be lots of pictures taken of me tomorrow.  I hear that it’s a big deal that it will be my first Christmas.  Great Grandpa is coming over, and Uncle Cory, and Grammy and Grampy, and Great Grammy, too.  I’ve never met Great Grandpa, Uncle Cory, or Great Grammy. That should be fun.

Merry Christmas everyone.  Say hi to Santa for me.

-CPE

You people are lovin’ me.  People keep telling daddy to get me to update my blog.  Let’s see, I last wrote something on Dec 6th, my 1 week birthday.  What has happened since then?

On Friday, Dec 7th, mommy and daddy took me to get a Christmas tree.  We went to Target first.  I like Target. Mommy and daddy seem to like it, too. We drove far to get the tree.  It was somewhere near a late 19th century mill. There were a lot of trees.  I don’t know how mommy and daddy picked one.  We walked down aisles of trees and suddenly they stopped at one.  All I saw was green.  5 minutes later, they had looked at a few more, but went back to the second one.  They call it “tree b”. While we were there, all of this cold, white stuff started falling from the sky.  Mommy called it snow. Mommy put my canopy up so the white stuff didn’t land on my face, but it was neat nonetheless. When we got home, daddy brought our tree inside the house.

On Saturday, Dec 8th, Uncle Todd and Jenn came down to meet me.  They were nice.  Uncle Todd held me for a long time.  Here’s a photo.

On Sunday, I watched the Patriots game with daddy. Mommy dressed me up in my Patriots hoodie for the occasion.  Thankfully, they won.   They picked the Steelers apart. It was like they were toying with them at times.  That bonehead Steeler guy had to open his big yap. Dummy.

On Monday, we all went to the library again. Mommy and daddy needed movies. The library is quiet.  There’s always this weird guy there sitting at a table right in the middle of the main aisle. He’s been there both times that I’ve been. Daddy says that he’s been there every time daddy has over the past 6 months.

On Tuesday (12/11) I had a checkup at the doctor.  I weighed in at 7 pounds 6 ounces, up from 6lb10oz at birth.  The doctor said that I look healthy. She also said I’m cute. She said that at the hospital, too.  That time, though, she said that she usually doesn’t say that to parents. Apparently, I’m quite the stunner. I guess I don’t get that from dad. After the doctor’s visit, we went to Target again.  At the mall, though, I got my picture taken with Santa.  I look like I’m hammered.  I don’t know if Santa has ever held a baby before. So then we went to Target.

I turned 2 weeks old on Dec 13th.  My celebration was fairly low key.  Mommy and daddy took me to Target again.  We were supposed to pick up our Christmas cards, but some website messed up and they weren’t ready.  Mommy was tres unhappy. On the plus side, I think mommy and daddy bought me a Christmas present.  I was pretty much asleep through the whole Target experience, but I think I heard them talking about it.  Of course, I can’t see more than 18 inches yet, so even if they did get something for me, it’s not likely that I would have been able to identify it.  I do know this: every time we go to Target (which is fairly often) the wagon gets crowded. When we left the store, it was snowing again.  This time it was snowing hard. It took us a long time to get home. I was unhappy.  Mommy was unhappy that I was unhappy. Daddy was unhappy with the other drivers.

On Friday, Dec 14th, I continued my falling apart at the seams routine.  This time though, I lost something , but gained a belly button. Then I took a nap.

The weekend  was pretty chill.  I did a lot of sleeping, eating, and diaper filling.  We went to the library, the hardware store, CVS, the grocery store, and the milk farm on Saturday.  Mommy wanted to stay home Sunday because it was supposed to be lousy outside.

Yesterday, daddy went back to work all day. Mommy’s friend Michael came over to meet me.  He’s a tour guide on busses. Cool! Today, mommy and I made cookies. Mommy says we’re going Christmas shopping tomorrow. Fun!

There – now you’re all caught up.  Hope you enjoyed the recap.

Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!

-CPE

I’ve updated my blog from that boring layout that daddy gave me.  Hope you like the new look.

I’m a week old today (actually, later tonight, when I’m sleeping to fuel up for the morning wide-awakeness)!

Many of you have been telling mommy and daddy that you want to know what’s going on with me and wonder why I haven’t been blogging. Well, there are a few reasons. I’ll blame it on daddy, though. You see, I’ve made two trips outside, which have taken up some time, and daddy won’t show me how to turn the computer on yet (I may be smart enough to type, but switches still confuse me. They look the same when they’re on or off.)

Here’s a picture of me and grandpa that was taken on the day I came home, last Saturday.

Since then, I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping. Here’s a close-up of me sleeping

sometimes, I sleep with daddy, and sometimes he sleeps, too, like this:

Sometimes, I sleep with mommy, and she sleeps, too:

and sometimes, my new friend Charlee joins us. She’s still curious about me. I don’t think she knows quite what to think about me.

You might get the feeling that mommy and daddy sleep too much. Ha! I’ve got them right where I want them. I let them sleep off and on during the day and early night, but then, around 2 am, I come alive. I cry and scream and fuss until they hold me all through the morning. I think they like it, because they have long discussions about who is going to get to hold me.

On Monday, mommy needed to get out of the house, so I got dressed up and we went to the library. I don’t have a library card yet, so I couldn’t take anything out. Mommy and daddy took out some books and movies, though. On the way home, we stopped for ice cream. Mommy and daddy like ice cream sundaes.

On Tuesday, mommy and daddy took me to the doctor. The ladies there said that I’m doing well.

Yesterday, we went back to the hospital so mommy could buy something. We stopped so mommy could get something at White Electric again (she must really like that place). Then we went to mommy’s office and saw her friends. Then we went to daddy’s office and saw his friends. We were there for a little while while daddy did some work. I slept.

I have been spending most of my time sleeping, eating, and just sitting awake in my papasan while mommy and daddy wait for me to sleep. I’ve also gotten quite good at gripping things, like fingers. Here’s some of my most gripping (hey, my first pun!!) work: and

So, that’s about it. I’ve got to go get some sleep so that I can be up all night with mommy or daddy. I think it’s mommy’s turn tonight.

- CPE

the suspense is killing you, isn’t it?

Today has been a big day. Lots of new things.

After the sun came back, daddy woke up. I went back and forth from mommy to daddy, and over to the baby room a couple of times, and I ate a little, and tore through a few more diapers. Then daddy started packing up all of our stuff. He left for a few minutes, and mommy tried to change me into a new outfit. It was too big though, so she put me in a onesie and wrapped me up nice and snug. I did get a new hat, though. It’s nice. It’s red and it has a reindeer on it. This is me in the hat, ready to go home.  Mommy’s wearing her “spicy number” shirt.  From what I hear, there’s some sort of holiday coming up and I’m like a present. I guess this holiday has something to do with the color red.

After she dressed me up, mommy put me in some kind of chair with a handle on it and we left the hospital. mommy carried me on my first time outside! It was big out there.

Soon, the biggest man I ever saw named Leo came out and got in the car with us. Daddy held me in the front seat, while Leo got in the back seat and strapped part of my chair down. Apparently, he was working hard on it. Mommy was asking him questions. Then Leo snapped my piece of the chair into the other piece that he had strapped down to the seat, and he said goodbye and left. Mommy and daddy got in the front seat and we went away.

We stopped for a while at some place that mommy called White Electric ( ). She came out with a cup that she was happy to have. Stephanie brought her one of those cups yesterday, too. She must really like that stuff. Then we drove a long way. We stopped someplace else and mommy got out again. While we waited, the sun was in my eyes, so daddy held up a red hat with a P on it to make shade on my face. When mommy came back, she said that was cute. Then we drove a short way to a place that mommy called “home”. I guess this is where I’m going to stay.

When I got inside, nana and grandpa and Uncle Steve were there, and I met someone called Charlee. Charlee sniffed me and breathed on me. Her nose is wet and she smells funny and she’s furry. She looked at me for a little while, then went away.

I got to see my new room, too. It’s cool. I like the orange walls and the animals and letters designs. I’ve already used one of my swings. That’s cool. It swings and makes noises.

I was a bit unhappy, so mommy changed me for the first time in my new room.  Of course, everyone had to watch.

We’ve been hanging around all afternoon. I napped for a long time on grandpa while mommy and daddy went on an errand and then took a nap. We’ve been watching football, too. Uncle Steve was disappointed to see BC lose to the Hokies.

So that’s about where we stand right now. I just ate, and now I’m going to rest some more.

Have fun out there.

-CPE

I was a little tired and somewhat cranky yesterday afternoon, so I didn’t blog. You’ll understand why in a minute.

Yesterday afternoon was a time to say goodbye and hello. Just after noon, my first visitors showed up. Jael, Stephanie, and Terri (from mommy’s office – whatever that is) came to visit me. I guess they came to see mommy and daddy, too, but they wouldn’t leave until they saw me, so obviously, I was the reason for the visit. Unfortunately, I was not in the room when they showed up, so they didn’t get to spend as much time with me as they would have liked.

The reason that I was not home is the big goodbye of yesterday – I was upstairs bidding a fond adieu to a portion of my boy parts. You know, it’s a little weird that mommy and daddy made this decision without consulting me. I mean really, they didn’t even ask. All of a sudden, a nurse came in, asked them if they wanted it done, and when they said yes and answered some questions, off I went. Thanks for the consult there, people. The nurses gave me some medicine before what I like to call “the incident”, so I was a little out of it for much of the afternoon and into the evening. Daddy squirmed when he saw what they had done to me. I heard him tell grandpa later, though, that he saw a picture of it in a class beforehand, so the shock was lessened.

Here’s a picture of me before the incident. 

Anyway, let’s put that behind us. I came back and hung out with the ladies – I like this hanging out with ladies thing, by the way – for a while, and then they left and we all got moved up to the 6th floor of the hospital.

Right then, grammy (daddy’s mommy) showed up. Daddy left, and she came in. Grammy couldn’t get enough of me. She held me for a long time while she talked to mommy. Then daddy came back with grampy. He seemed to like me, too. He held me for a little while, too. They took a lot of pictures. I barely remember what was going on because I was really tired and sleeping a lot while they were there. Then they left.

Soon, nana and grandpa (mommy’s mommy and daddy) came in with Uncle Steve. They drove from far away to come see me. That was nice. Apparently, nana was happy to see me. She was crying a little bit. They stayed with us for a while, and they took a lot of pictures. They all took turns holding me. I was still pretty zonked by the medicine, so I only remember bits and pieces of their visit. They left after it was dark.

Nighttime with mommy and daddy was a blur. This was when I started to get grumpy. I was hungry, but still hadn’t gotten the hang of the eating thing. I’ll blame it on the medicine, because I thought I had it down pat earlier in the day, before the incident. I went back to the room with the other babies for a little while and then came back to mommy and daddy when I got hungry. Daddy was asleep for a long time, and he was making some really loud, really strange noise. It wasn’t crying, but it was just as annoying. I had some alone time with mommy. She fed me and changed me and cried a little, and we took a few very short naps.

to be continued…