45 weeks - Father's Day, BeckMan, and Pool Parties!

This week we hung out over at Sheryl's house and Cal "played" with his "cousin" Beck. More like Cal watched all the things that Beck can do, like run around, play with tupperwares, talk, eat lots of food, and go from room to room at the speed of light. At one point Cal tried to chase him by crawling, but then was distracted by tupperware and gave up. 

The pictures below are from a calm moment of the two boys watching some Baby Einstein in a chair together. 

We decided to meet up with some friends at a great spot in South Philly called Little Theater. It's a  class for babies with story telling, puppets, and music. It's fast paced and perfect for this age group. Cal was very focused on the teacher...hopefully this will be how he is in school!

We celebrated Matt's first Father's Day by going to Center City and having lunch at Max Brenner's. A super fun chocolate themed restaurant with rich hot chocolate and very very chocolately milkshakes. 

First, Cal gave Daddy a gift. Pictures of himself holding the letters, "D - A - D" - Thank you Pinterest for the great idea.

Matt was loving his Chocolate hazelnut milkshake, with Nutella. Mmm. He even let me take a sip.

Finally, the weather has been quite hot, so we bought Cal a baby pool for the deck so he could cool off with his friends. He had his friend Nina over and they ate bagels in the pool together and talked about life. 

Hey there!

More pool time with his buddies Teddy and Sophia.

44 weeks - 10 months - A visit from Megan Antis - and 3 videos!

My little guy looking handsome in his new onesie from Auntie Holly that she bought for him in Disney World!

Back to back friends visiting last week and this week. So much fun! This week my college friend and wedding planning, Megan Antis traveled all the way from Oregon to visit us. This being her first time in Philly, we had to see and do many of the classic Philly things there are to see and do! She had her first cheesesteak, went to the Reading Terminal Market, took pictures of all the historical sites downtown, saw Chinatown, went into lots of fun shops in Midtown Village, saw LOVE park (where a random Wednesday outdoor dance party was taking place), City Hall... you name it. We covered this city! Note: I'm finally becoming a little better at this tour guide business, now that I'm not afraid to parallel park or drive downtown anymore... ;) 

Here are some pictures of our fun.

"Now let me tell you a little story Megan..."

First bite of the infamous cheesesteak, direct from Dalessandros.

Cal and I "LOVEing" Love Park!

We stopped at Macy's for a coffee at Starbucks and I let Cal stretch his legs a bit on the marble floor. A group of European men walked by and said, "There's a baby on the floor. You don't see that often." 

Later, they walked back by and I had picked him up, and they stated, "Now the baby is not on the floor anymore." I guess Cal showed them something new. ;)

Cal just crawling around in Macy's, as we took a picture of the massive organ that exists inside. 

Here we are at the Liberty Bell. 

Taking an outdoor nap in his tent at Independence Mall while Megan took a look at the Constitution Center. 

Speaking of sleeping... how am I supposed to sleep at night with feet on my pillow?

Here we are at Elfreth's Alley - America's oldest continuously inhabited street. 

We took a quick trip to the Morris Arboretum to enjoy the native species of flowers and trees and.. groundhogs? Yes, they are everywhere.

Cal loved dipping his toes in the water. 

Megan and I went to grab some lunch and we came back to this sweet sight. Cal and Daddy taking a nap.

And here's my little babe with his hazely eyes. 

Lastly, there are some videos of Cal's latest mentionables. 

The first video is Cal showing off his new skill of standing, which he greatly improved since this video was taken.

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Next, Cal gives out a few kisses, in the most inefficient way possible. Who knows how he figured this one out. 

And Cal's latest obsession is saying "b" words... most are unintelligible, but this one is clear. He says bye bye! He loves to say it when I'm getting off the phone with someone and when Matt is leaving for work or if we are leaving someone's house. He's figuring things out!

43 weeks - A visit from Kristen Burget

As soon as we got back from Connecticut it was time for my best friend Kristen to come visit us for a week! What a joy to get her all to myself and have her see Cal as a BIG baby, not just a tiny baby (see 4 week old post).  We hiked in the Wissahickon, explored the city, went to Morris Arboretum, walked around Manayunk and played at Pretzel Park, took a jaunt to Northern Liberties and ate at Frankford Hall. We also did a good bit of relaxing and talking (two of the things we do best!) Finally we had a girls night out where we went to a fun restaurant down the street and had some yummy drinks on the outdoor patio. The week went by too fast and I know Cal was sad to see Kristen go - he loved copying her noises in the car and singing her sweet songs in a very high voice. Fortunately, this trip we did not get ourselves into any compromising weather situations, and we planned things out a little better, so Cal was able to do well in all the situations we put him in. 

As far as Cal's developmental milestones go, he started standing on his own last week! I do not have a picture or video yet, but he throws his hands up in the air and lets go of whatever he is hanging onto and stands and then plops down. We first discovered this when we were in Connecticut. We left him alone in the Pack N Play for a few minutes in the other room and then heard. "Boom! *pause* Boom! *pause* Boom!" Much to our surprise, when we went into the room, he was pulling himself on the side and then standing and then landing on his bottom. Since then he has continued doing it more and more each day. Those little chunky legs are getting so strong! This week, he also started clapping! Yay! Again, no video yet, but he loves to clap for himself and also at random times. I mean really, when is clapping not a good idea? (Ok, I can think of a few times, but when you're a baby, any time is a good time.)

Cal! Watch out! That is so dangerous!

Love that sweet face!

His favorite scrunchy face - he sniffs at the same time. 

Just a little view of the friendship gate at Chinatown as we walked around town. 

Concrete Jungle.

Walking around Rittenhouse Square - such a beautiful day, love all the trees!

Snoozin' on our walk. 

Oh yes it's ladies night, oh what a night (oh what a night). 

Cal loved swinging with Auntie Kristen.

My big guy at Morris Arboretum.

The fernery, Matt's favorite building. 

Waiting for our food at Frankford Hall.

At Frankford Hall, we sat in a large open area with lots of picnic tables, and Cal kept looking around trying to catch eyes with whoever would pay attention to him. He gave out lots of smiles and little "Sss" noises. That little ham was loving all the atentnion. 

You just have to get vanilla soft servc with rainbow sprinkles when you go to Frankford Hall. 

"I hate this hat."

Hanging out on Kristen's back on our early morning hike. 

Saying good-bye to Kristen. :(

"What's going on in here?"

42 weeks - Memorial Day Weekend in Connecticut

Ever since Matt received The Whole Seed Catalog for Christmas, we've been pining to go to the Heirloom Seed Festival in Wethersfield, CT. Since the states in this region are quite close together, we figured out that it would only be a 3 hour drive, and thought it would be fun to make a whole weekend out of the pilgrimage. We found a great house on airbnb.com, where we stayed on the 2nd floor and were able to walk to some great restaurants and coffee shops (our favorite!) The best part of where we were staying was that it was only 5 minutes driving from the beach! Let me tell you, there was a mystery island that could only be accessed twice a day when the tide goes out, and the lobster rolls and shrimp po' boys were tops. Can it get any better than this? Well yes, it does. We went to the Heirloom Seed Festival and felt like we traveled back in time, as you can see in the pictures below. It was such a fun weekend away as a family and we look forward to creating many more great memories like this in the future. This post is going to be mostly pictures since we took so many!

On the road and Cal is snoozing away in the backseat. Mommy and Daddy are enjoying the quiet time. 

At a rest stop stretching our legs!

Here is the cute house we were able to stay at!

This is a picture of the pathway before the tide went out. 

Once the tide was out we headed off on our adventure! Cal was snoozing. 

Little sly guy sitting in his stroller.

Loving the beach as a little family of 3!

Ahhhh!

I am so funny.

Photo bomb.

So happy we made it to the island!

Getting ready to do his thing in the sand. 

Digging...

Really digging...

Whoa.

Hmm.

Land ho!

Just bathing in the sink.

THE BEST lobster roll and shrimp po' boy that is in existence. 

Just checking out the old fashioned bins that were filled with seeds of all varieties.

Where the heirloom seed magic happens.

This is just a little taste of what the employees of the seed company dressed like (see: man in brown pants and suspenders)