New addition to the family!

I'll have to rename the blog Calen and Bryce not since it is photos of both going forward. Our family grew last week with the arrival of Bryce. Calen is such a sweet big brother. He is so happy to have his brother around. One morning he even woke up and said "I want to go see my baby brother." We look forward to new adventures with the two of them together.

Christmas in the keys

Long time since I have blogged about the little man, so here is a photo from awhile back. We rented a house in the keys to get away for a bit and had a blast. A couple of days we went fishing off of a boat and Calen really enjoyed going fishing. It helped that we happened on a spot that had him catching a fish on his pole almost every cast! He caught more than I did! Of course, when it came to cleaning, Miami and I got to clean all the fish!

I figure Calen is permanently jaded with this fishing adventure. They practically jumped in our boat so that any future trip will not be as good.

17 June 2006 - At Del Mar Beach

With his best friend, Anya, Calen has a blast at the beach at Del Mar. There is a play ground right by the beach whereDada surfs so it is perfect for all types of activities.

In this picture, Mama poses with Anya and Calen on the shore. They are just finishing building sand castles. 

17 June 2006 - Uncle Steve with Sandia

Calen Loves watermellon (aka sandia). He really enjoys it here with his uncle Stephen. Mama is preparing the next cut so that no seeds touch his magesty's lips! 

11 June 2006 - Hunting Hot Air Balloons

OK, I am back in action after taking some time to try the Apply website, I am back to Blogspot/picasa combination that makes it so easy to blog.

Calen loves to see the hot air balloons. in this shot, we are lucky enough to see one as it is filling up and taking off. As you can tell, it was impossible to get him to look at the camera. It was all about the Hot Air Balloon and getting on it if he could. 

6 May 2006 - A Taste of Mexican Lime

We had dinner on the beach at a place called Zippers in San Jose de loe Cabos, Mexico. It is by a surf break by the same name. They served our meals with a little bowl of cut lime. Of course, Anya and Calen had to have a taste of the little fruits. You would think that one taste would have been enough but he went back for more. He is showing signs of his Mama because Steph loves sour.

Food was OK at Zippers, view and mood was pure surfer style. Steph gave it a thumbs down, I gave it a thumbs up. Get anything off the grill if you go.
http://www.bookit.com/travel_guide-m0gtc-Mexico-Restaurants-Bar_&_Grill-Zipper's_Restaurant-882.html 

5 May 2006 Vacation to Cabo, Mexico!!!

We went for a week to Cabo San Jose in Mexico and really had a fun time. The Beaches there are absolutely beautiful and the dry air keeps you cool by the pool or ocean. It was actually just starting to get too hot during the mid day to go outside. We stayed at a place called "Casa del Mar" in a one bedroom condo and enjoyed the ocean views and pool side location.

We tried an experiment by traveling with another family with a baby Calen's age. The experiment worked well and I think that we will likely try to travel with friends and other kids in the future. It had a couple of advantages. We trusted each other to watch after the kids as a group (more eyes are always better). We had common interests and common restrictions and common schedules. We understood when the baby came first and were all very flexible and not stuck with doing everything together

20 April 2006 Incline Viliage lake

We went to the NV side of Lake Tahoe for the www.koverroos.com board meeting staying at the Incline Village Hyatt. It is a stunning place and is now on the long list of places that Calen can say that he has visited. There was a beautiful beach to play on and a restaurant that views the beach and the lake. There was still plenty of snow to play with as well so plenty of snow men were built.
http://www.laketahoe.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

I learned the power of running creek water in soothing a baby. With Mama at the spa, Calen and I sat by the creek and relaxed, soon he was fast asleep in my arms after listening to the creek for 10 minutes and sitting quietly. Anyone that knows the be-bot, knows that a 10 min time of sitting quietly and then going to sleep is a blessing. 

April 16th 2006 Papi plays in Julian

This is another picture from our day trip to Julian. Calen ran around the steps over and over again playing with Papi and the rest of the family. He loved all the attention he was getting as well as all the new sights and sounds. He probably liked the little bit of apple pie ala mode that he was getting from Mama's milk as well!

That's right, friends of Calen years from now, he was still nursing at almost 2 years old!!! 

Mami and Papi come to visit

Calen had a great time with his Mami and Papi coming to visit him in San Diego all the way from Miami. This picture is in Julian, a small town outside of San Diego in the mountains that is famous for apple orchards and apply pies.

Calen loves to swing between two adults. He holds back just a little then collapses his legs and swings forward laughing. The only problem is that he does not necessarily warn the adults! That can make for a surprise sometimes. 

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!