A few of my favorite Cal videos.

I love you, and I love YOU, and I LOVE YOU!

A little impromptu playing of the piano with the toes.

You are my sunshine...

The Garden - 20 months

We recently acquired a garden plot about 10 minutes from our house and Cal and I have been working hard to clear the weeds away, spread compost and mulch, and get everything prepared for planting. Cal brings his little shovel and watering can, and gets to work each day we go. He looks for "wormies", centipedes, roly polys, and even one day we saw a snake! Yikes! His gardening vocabulary is growing, and you may even hear him say he's a "gardener." Here are some pictures from our garden days so far.

All good gardeners must stay hydrated and wear a hat for sun protection.

Making sure the stakes are in the right spot.

Great work Cal! (

 This is a bit of a sad story. Notice photo #1 shows a face of joy and excitement of his new found wormie friend, and then photo #2, shows his look of despair after he pulled on his wormie friend too hard and he broke in half. The photo below these two shows Cal's decision that it was just an accident and it will be okay, two wormies are better than one.

 Matt and I pounded the metal posts into the ground and Cal did the heavy lifting by carrying fencing material around.

 

It's best to use tools that are 3 times your size.

 Don't want to forget that water bottle!

 Cal was so lucky, his cousins and Uncle Mike came to visit our garden plot.

"Lena, I'm so glad you're here!"

Tackle Uncle Mike!

Next step, plant the seeds! Updates to come. This will be a great summer!

17 months - Holiday Traditions

17 months and super silly!

What's that over there?

Who me?

Goodness, I keep thinking each month that it really can't get any better than it already is, and then it does! Granted, Cal has been a pretty awful sleeper most of his life, which can sometimes be the pits, he is a super guy during the day. He loves to be goofy, laughing and running around without a care in the world. He sometimes gets impatient when it comes to food, but overall he's so cheery. He's an observer in new groups, but once he's been in a situation or a location a few times, he runs around like he owns the place!

This month he has taken an interest in cleaning, which is great! He watches me in the kitchen and mimics me using the dust buster and wiping down the countertops. He is starting to mimic more short phrases - "Tell me" "oh man" "oh no". His little voice is just so precious. A yucky thing this month is that he had a stomach bug that lasted a couple of days with one night of throwing up 8 times... blech. His vocabulary continues to increase and often times his new vocabulary stems from the books we read, but sometimes it's just from an interest he takes in something new.

Words, oh those words
TV (ugh.. for how little he watches it, he knows the word all too well)
"mote" - Remote (sensing a theme here?)
snow
snowing
Santa
buckle
stuck
bee
truck
help
fox
ready
dark
back
"mahmah" - banana
"moomoo" - smoothie
baboon
"oh man"
"Die" - Dan (his uncle)
Laura
blocks
shirt
bib
stars
pop
orange
bite
cereal
bath
yes
ornament
garland
"Kebin" - Kevin
Bill
Angela
"Sessi" - Lexie (his little buddy)
"Wi - Wi" - Winnie (Lexie's dog)
stop
llama
Nina


Cal's first visit with Santa - Success! He was not afraid of the white bearded man, but he'll save his wish list for next year.

We went into Center City and enjoyed the Macy's Light show, which I think we will make an annual tradition.

Then at the Comcast building in Center City we saw the Holiday Spectacular on their massive LED screen. 

We continued on with the annual tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree with Mike and Kim and Dave and Sheryl (missing Ross and Leah this year :( ) and all the cousins. We found the perfect tree, which we learned was lopsided once we got home, but had a great time decorating it together and Cal surprisingly didn't try to knock it over once we got everything up.

Cal wanted this tree.

Here is our Christmas card! After many outtakes, I was able to get this picture of Cal wearing his homemade Santa suit.

Just like last year, we participated in the Chestnut Hill holiday parade with our friends. I made the banner, and we had a great time braving the cold weather and waving at the onlookers.

Cal and the Phillie Phanatic - according to Matt he will never be a Phillies fan.

Cal and Lexie enjoying the scenery.

The whole crew

One day Cal got a fat lip by slipping and falling on the hardwood floor. He looks like he got into a boxing match, yet he's still smiling!

Cal's favorite thing to do is look at his picture of all his friends. He sits in his chair and says their names and points to each one smiling.

Zoo adventures with Lexie and Angela.

Cal made friends with the lion cubs and they thought he was one of the pack.

Hiking in the Wissahickon with Daddy.

Grandpa Jim and Grandma Roth came to visit and read the grandkids a story.

Matt's friend Kevin and Cal enjoying from french toast.

                                             

Matt's friend Kevin came to visit and threw Cal around.

One of Cal's favorite Christmas presents was from my sweet friend Holly. It's a tent with two tunnels and he truly can't get enough of it.

Christmas in Pittsburgh

Our annual Christmas tradition is to spend Christmas in Pittsburgh with the Roth family. We were so blessed that Matt was able to have 2 whole weeks off of work for the holidays, so we were able to stay a whole week and enjoy some much needed family time with Grandma and Grandpa Roth, Uncle Dan and Aunt Laura. Cal loved every second, waking up extremely early every morning, fearing that he may miss out on special family time. Don't worry buddy, all the lights were off and no one  was downstairs! He didn't quite understand the concept. Minus our sleepless nights, we had a great time and LOVED seeing Cal's joy in opening presents and enjoying the festivities that Christmastime brings. 

Started off with a 5 hour drive to Pittsburgh and a napping Cal who would only stay asleep with my hand next to his head.

Aunt Laura reading one of Cal's new books to him.

All ready to go outside!

One of our favorite places to visit is the PPG building where they have a great display of trains, gingerbread houses and Santas from around the world. Cal was enthralled with the trains and wanted to touch all the gingerbread houses.
 

We found out that our Morris Arboretum membership was reciprocal with the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, so we had to check it out! So many large birds of all kinds flying around and walking around all around us. Cal shouted "caw caw!!" very loudly and many people turned around wondering what kind of "bird" made such a loud sound.

  

 We visited Phipps Conservatory with the family and Cal smelled many flowers (one of his favorite things to do) and ran on every path that he could.

Sniff Sniff

We loved the PPG building so much we visited twice!

Cal loved going on a little hike with Grandma and Grandpa Roth at CHP.

 And for his latest trick... fish lips.

We love you Grandma and Grandpa Roth, Aunt Laura and Uncle Dan!