Sea of Eggs...

15 April 2006. It is the day before Easter and our home owners association and some local businesses set up a massive Easter Egg Hunt at a local park. Calen was hard to hold back and waited impatiently for the hunt to start. It did not take much coaching to get him to go after the eggs.

The Easter Bunny was there as well, but Calen was having nothing to do with the giant rabbit. He sat in his lap for all of 10 seconds before he gave us the sign that the Rabbit was persona non grata.

Once again the Radio Flyer All Terrain Wagon (http://www.radioflyer.com/atw/atw.html) that we bought at our local Ace Hardware Store (www.acehardware.com). We use that instead of a stroller now because he seems to prefer to be able to see us on walks and to have his stuff ready at hand.


 

Make a Snow Man...

April 9 2006. The is the last set of photos from Big Bear weekend trip. Calen loves the snow and now, like Playdoe, he knows that it's main purpose is to make things. He is especially fond of making a Snowman and asks DaDa to make one pretty much as soon as he notices a patch of snow anywhere.

Pictured here is a snowman that we made out on the deck. Calen loved it! 

Cuttie Pie...

Wow, is this kid cute or what! 

Snow, the delicacy...

April 8 2006. We just can not seem to keep the snow out of his mouth. The more we try, the more determined he is to eat the stuff. At least we are not near the city for this meal!!!

Usually it only takes one mouth full to get the idea and he moves striaght on to making balls and snowmen and snow doggies as well. 

Weekend in Big Bear

7 April 2006. Thanks to some generous friends, we spent last weekend in Big Bear and there was plenty of sun and snow to hike, ski and play in.

This picture was from the first day in the mountains. We went right outside and started a hike. Calen could barely stand being in the back pack with all the snow to play in and before we were 100 yards in the forest he was out of the pack and making a ball with snow.

As you can see from the smile, MaMa was really enjoying the outdoors as well. 

Visitor all the way from Hawaii

21 March 2006. Calen had a friend come over all the way from HI. His name is Kia Noa (calm sea) and he met Calen at his first Gymboree class in Oahu. Again, the step2 up and down roller coaster does the trick. They loved going on it together.

We really miss Hawaii. Dada especially misses the warm weather, beautiful ocean, and ohana style life. It was good to see friends from there in San Diego. 

Big bite!

30 March 2006. Calen loves to take big bites of his favorite foods. Every once in a while we have to ask him to show us how much is in his mouth before we can give him more to eat. If not, he will get to the point that he just can swallow and then spits the whole mouthful out. Of course, Casey, our dog, does not mind him doing that at all.

In this picture, I think he was eating bread, but I'm not totally sure. 

The emperors new clothes...

31 March 2006. Getting dressed is starting to become pretty hard to do. Calen is a little picky about what he wears and when he wears it.

We have a new tactic that is really working well. When we buy new clothes, we make a really big deal about how cool the clothes are and how nice he looks in them. Usually, this will mean that he will actively want to wear the clothes and will put them on quicker and easier.

The opposite is equally true. If you don’t want him to wear something, make it somehow uncomfortable the first time wearing it and make a bad face when you look at him. For Calen, he might as well be wearing a swarm of bees in that case!!! 

Yummy...

1 April 2006. We feed Calen very healthy, natural and organic foods. His pallet is pretty broad because of that and some of his favorite foods are broccoli and bananas. The yogurt that he is eating in this picture is probably the favorite of all. It is the Yo Baby brand. We get it at Jimbo's, Henry's, and Whole Foods markets. All organic, made from whole milk and sweetened lightly with vanilla or fruit this yogurt is awesome. As you can see, Calen can’t get his mouth open wide enough!!! 

In the drawers...

2 April 2006. Parents everywhere, yes it is possible to live your lives semi-free of those annoying child safety devices, but you do have to pay the price of having some fun, cleaning up, and keeping a very close eye on your baby.

We have found that it really is OK to have Calen get into most of the drawers and cabinets in all the rooms of our house. There are only a couple of things that he can hurt himself with and most things are just interesting and new. I think that child safely devices have there place, but that they are used more for the convenience of the parent to keep things clean, than for the safety of the child.

Our general rule is, if he can't break it, hurt himself, and the mess is easy to pick up, then he can have access to it. Of course, sometimes Steph and I have a different interpretation of that rule!!!

Calen loves to reach into drawers like this that are above his head to see what he might find. While some of our cabinets are safety locked, many are not so that he can have fun in the kitchen exploring while MaMa works on meals.

This set of pictures really caught him in the act! 

Strawberries!

2 April 2006. Calen loves them as you can see in this picture. He is absolutely crazy about strawberries. If this Blog posted sound, there would be a link to an audio file because it is so cute to hear him as for "Straaabrry!"

On this day he ate three giant ones and then laid back in his wagon and relaxed with a full belly. 

Calen and Anya in the Radio Flyer Wagon

2 April 2006. A budding relationship is beginning between Calen and Anya, the first daughter of friends. When we told him this morning that we were going to see Anya he was very excited and did not fight getting shoes on or changing his diaper. He wanted to get going so that he could play with his friend.In this set of pictures you see Calen pushing Anya in our Ref Radio Flyer ATW wagon. For all you parents out there that dont easily get your babies into a stroller, the Radio Flyer is for you. This is the smaller version, but I recommend the bigger one. We put pillows in the bottom and Calen lays back and goes to sleep if he wants. But when he does not want to ride, he always wants to push or pull the wagon. He loved pushing Anya today as you can see by the smile!