Christmas Eve in Balboa Park

Calen had an absolute ball playing in the park the day before Christmas. He road the Ferris Wheel, on a plane on a ride that was made for just kids, and on a train.
He especially liked the train ride. The train was miniature but still very realistic and had about 400 yards of track and a tunnel with lots to see along the way. 

Christmas with Anya

This photo is from Christmas day. Calen's best friend, Anya Pierce, came over to play. Here they are with his new trains and toys playing at our house. Anya is dressed in an adorable red dress and Calen is sporting a cool new shirt that Uncle Stephen gave him. Christmas day events included getting a new red wagon and going for a walk in it, opening presents, playing, talking to family from Marietta and Miami, playing in the park, and generally having a great time and getting tons of attention!

Calen loves to play with trains and tools.

What a happy boy! Calen loves to play with two types of toys all the time.

The first type is trains (and trucks). He has a Thomas train set from CostCo that he just loves. Thomas, the blue train in his left hand, is his absolute favorite and goes with him almost everywhere.

Tools are a very close second. He now has his very own tool set, though he still likes to play with DaDa's tools any time he gets. He is especially fond of this hammer in the right hand. He watched us build some Ikea stuff and was fascinated by the hammer. 

The HI professional photos finally arrive!

We finally got the photos from our last day in Hawaii photo shoot out on Waikiki beach. These were taken on October 24. It is tough to get a photo with everyone looking at the same time so it took about 100 photos to get the great pics you see here.

Calen is a regular surf baby. He really loved Hawaii! So did Steph and I, time for a vacation... 

Steve and Laura Come over to play

Somehow Laura missed the camera's view last night, but here are a couple of pics of Uncle and Calen playing Thomas the Train, and one of Calen about to give Steve a big kiss!

Calen is actually quite the little kisser these days and freely plants a big one on anybody that asks. Be warned, they can be a little wet at times!!!

And yes, you can read from this entry that Thomas the Train anything will likely be a good present for Calen. He gets so excited around trains. The train/truck sign is to pump one arm up and down vigorously (think trying to get a trucker to honk his horn and you got it). As you can imagine, he uses that sign alot to get us playing with his train set! 

Opening doors...

"I can open doors now" Calen told me today through doing just that. It is crazy how fast he is growing and how intent he is to get into the objects that he sees Steph and I using.

This door is the door to my office. It is a total wreck right now because we are still unpacking. Lots of great little things to play with!!!

Though it may look like a look of "oh no I got caught!" it is actually far from it. He was trying to get my attention to help him with the door. He was not taking no for an answer! 

Calen and Casey

Yep, two of a kind! Coming out to greet dad in the new house in Carmel Valley.

Christmas tree shoping

This is the second time the bebot will have a real tree at home. We picked out a giant 4 footer to be right at his level. We also figure that he wont hurt himself when he eventually pulls it down!

Again in the baby Ughs.... 

FIRST SNOW

We went up to Tahoe with Brad and Trish in a motor home and ended up at Sqaw Valley where Calen got to be in snow for the first time.

He was super excited about it and did not want to leave it. Steph got him some great winter clothes that were perfect. Check out the baby Ughs! He was a regular little snowboarder! 

sliding!!!

I am trying the collage function with Picasa. Thanks again to Google and their great tools for making this possible.

Calen is a really big fan of the slide and will go to great links to get to the top. His desire to slide got him to climb ladders, steps, chains, and bridges. This is two pictures in one. One at the top of the slide and one heading down! 

Calen in HI fruit.

You will have to excuse me for being out of order but I just downloaded a bunch of photos from Hawaii and had to post this one. We are in Kona and Calen is in love with lichie fruit and coconut milk! Just one lichie fruit would last for at least 5 minutes. I just wish I got a photo of it in his mouth. It barely fit, but he did not mind! 

Second Haloween!

At last minute Steph decided to get this awesome blue furry cookie monster costume for Calen. He didn't care about the costume that much but everyone else sure did. He was the cutest little guy at the outdoor mall where we trick-r-treated. All the girls and moms were just crazy about him!

We loved picking out candy from the bags. Lucky for us it was the colors and the sounds that were actractive and not the candy inside. He'll know better next year!!! 

Calen and Casey are a regular Calvin and Hobbs together now. Of course, Casey is the lick monster and Calen is always at Casey's side ready to receive another lick to the face. At first Casey was a little annoyed at Calen's presence but after a few weeks of getting plenty of treats from Calen directly (thank goodness from Greenies), Casey is not a big Calen fan. Not to mention the increase in walks that Casey gets because of Calen!

This is a bit of an old photo, back in the La Mesa house I think in early Feb of this year (05). Always after Casey's paws, Calen pauses from his pursuit to look up at the camera!

Calen at the photographer

This is a bit of a back dated entry, but I just set up Hello and Picasa to do photos directly to blogs and wanted to test the functionality. This is a photo of calen from his first time at a professional photographer. It was a really fun experience for everyone. Seiji was his name. It was more like what you see on TV than what I remember from childhood. No more boring poses with everyone dressed in church closes. We just hung out, acted natural, and work on getting Calen to smile as much as possible. 

Calen in the morning.

Calen is an early and a very happy riser in the morning.  He wakes up, nurses, and playfully speaks to us in his cute baby language.  "Hi DaDa!"  It is a fun way to wake up in the morning for both Steph and I.  All smiles and laughing in the safety of waking up between is parents every morning.  The family bed was tough at first, but gets more fun and rewarding as we go.