Sibling

That's right, a sibling for Calvin! My due date is on Thanksgiving. I have been very nauseous and if I am sick for the same amount of time that I was with Calvin then on June 2nd the nausea will go away. In the meantime, I have been eating a lot of watermelon and saltines with cream cheese. That's the flavor of the week anyway.

Competition

I was at Seagull Book today and I saw they have new tithing banks for kids. I am very familiar with the old selection. The cardboard one, the plastic one, and the modern tin one with color illustrations and a lock! I might be biased, but it was clearly the best one on the market, and yes, I get royalties on it and love it. So, NO! I am not happy that there is copy cat bank that is also tin, with a lock and key, and color illustration and less expensive! (smaller though) You can see them here. Just don't buy the copy cat.

Park

Whenever we go outside to play at some point Calvin will start running down the sidewalk yelling he is going to the park. It's the perfect size for him because the only thing at this park that made me nervous was the gap between the play area and the yellow swirl that seemed to big for him.
The other day he was getting better and better at climbing up the swirl without my help and eventually he got to the top, and pulled himself over to the play area. He was SO proud of himself, and even though I was scared he was going to fall, I was proud of him too.

Fishing

Yesterday we checked out Salem Pond. It was so pretty and a perfect day. Calvin had a blast and was very interested in watching (and helping) Brandon fish. I would love to see his reaction if Brandon really caught something. I guess we'll have to go back.
Do you love the super long basketball shorts Cal is sporting? It is his most frequently requested clothing item. It's his "daddy" shorts, because dad wears basketball shorts too.

Off to Russia

My little brother was in town for a few days before he entered the MTC. It was so fun to see him, and Calvin loved having him here. We don't get to see Chad very often since he lived so far away, but that didn't stop Calvin from crying when we said good-bye. No one else was crying, but as soon as he realized how far away Chad was getting Cal screamed "Cha! Chaaaaaaaaa!" It was so dramatic I had to laugh. It's not like Calvin has anyway of understanding that he won't see him for 2 years. I hope Chad felt loved.
When Calvin woke up from his nap later that day he asked for Chad and I told him he was at the MTC now to be a missionary. Calvin pointed to himself with both hands and asked, "and me??" I told him when he was as big as Chad he could go to the MTC and be a missionary. Later when Brandon asked Calvin about dropping off Chad he put out his bottom lip and said, "Cha. sad." I guess he is still a little upset about saying good-bye to uncle Chad.

What makes my day

Funny things Calvin has said lately:

Instead of just saying "no" he tells me, "no way" Like this morning when I asked him if he wanted to take another bite of cereal, "no way."

When I was getting out of the shower and someone knocked on our front door he yelled "come in" about 50 times before I got myself downstairs.

Sometimes when Calvin wants me to play sports with him I'm lazy and sit on the floor while shooting hoops or hitting golf balls. I guess that's no longer acceptable because now he tells me to "geh up!" He kind of shrugs his shoulders and jumps while he tells me this.

At the end of a hymn at church Calvin will say "done" or "the end"

When I tell him to come inside from playing in the dirt, he explains he can't because he is "working"

When Cal comes into a room you are in he will say either "hey" or "hi" in a dull voice like he's super cool. Which, he is.

He wanted to go outside at 9:00 at night and I told him it was too dark outside. He told me he would wear a coat.

Qubo

We don't have any kind of cable, just what I thought were basic stations. However, Canada is basic too I guess. Some of you may be familiar with Qubo, which is the only all-cartoon station we get. Cal's favorites are BG and Jacob Two-Two. I have to say, the art for Two-Two is kind of cool. If we tell him BG or Two-Two isn't on he'll respond with "check". He doesn't trust us that we know they're not on, now we have to check. oh he is funny. And he tells us when things are funny too. The other day he was looking at a picture of a bald eagle and he pointed at the beak and said, "teeth, funny". I don't know what was funny about it, but I sure like seeing him laughing and telling me what he thinks is funny.

Pictures

I just posted a pile of pictures, some of which include "before", "the mess", and a few "after" pictures of our new home.

Egg hunting

When Calvin woke up on Easter morning we brought him downstairs and told him their were eggs with candy in them. Since "canny" is a common request from him that he doesn't always get, he was stoked. He didn't bother carrying his basket around, but preferred to run and find a handful of eggs, run and put them in the basket, run and find more (and announce it), and run back to the basket, and so on. It was very entertaining to watch and it's too bad you couldn't have seen because we are still in a house of boxes and chaos so I have no idea where the camera is. Maybe next year.

Naming

Calvin has named his favorite basketball. He calls it "Orange". You might think he is just saying the color of the ball, but no, his orange ball that is exactly the same except it has black basketball lines is not referred to as Orange. That ball is not acceptable when looking for a ball to shoot with, only Orange will do.

*sigh*

Anyone know the best way to wash throw up out of a pillow? poor Calvin. what a night.

Crazy continues...

I will spend this week packing and cleaning as much I reasonably can. Then I will fly to WA for my grandpa's funeral, come home, and sign papers to close on our house. Then we will have only a few days to pull up carpet & tile, then put down new carpet & paint so we can move in. And clean the house. oh yeah, and while we do all that, we will finish packing and cleaning our apartment. Yesterday doesn't seem so crazy anymore. But the wonderful part is that in the end - we will be living in a house! Contrary to what my niece might tell me, I do know what it's like to live in a house and I am looking forward to it.

Sunday Adventures

Today was full of surprises. Calvin slept in and we woke up when Brandon got a text to see if he was going to his morning meeting. We forgot about day light savings.
It's my sister's birthday so we had her over for some crepes. Calvin was so excited since he heard it was her birthday, he keeps yelling BIRTHDAY! He just knows it means good food.
Some of our neighbor's kids were coming with us to church today, (ages 2, 3, and 6) while their mom went to the hospital. The oldest girl made sure her little sister remembered to put on underwear, which she claimed she was. Fortunately, she dragged her back inside to make her put some on, because she really wasn't. The little boy was buck naked when we arrived and ready to head out the door, but his mom quickly got him dressed, mostly in boy clothes. But the shoes took too long to find so he sported some pink boots.
Sacrament meeting was far from dull, as you can guess with Cal + three. Everyone went to their classes and had a good time, except Calvin. Things were fine until he decided to climb up on a chair where a girl was already standing. She shoved him off and he face planted onto a toy chest before hitting the ground. Bloody lip and bloody nose and LOTS of crying. I think everyone in the building knew someone was injured. Luckily Brandon was in the hallway right outside the nursery. We grabbed some paper towels for the blood and took him outside. He cried for awhile, then the blood slowed down, and when we promised him cookies when we got home he stopped crying.
Afterward our friend was home from the hospital, but needed some rest so the three kids played at our house. We threw together some grilled cheese and sides and tried to keep them from locking bedroom doors. Later we cleaned up the mess and has some company over for dessert. Crazy day! I'm ready for bed.

Personal style

Calvin has decided he is old enough to decide what he wears now. Yesterday and today he has insisted on wearing his swim shorts instead of pants. At least spring weather is coming (I hope!)

Family Tree

Brandon and I have been checking out the new family search website the past few weeks. (not because there is the TV show about family history, but that was cool too) I was excited to find out all the Russian and Ukrainian ancestors I have since my little brother just got called to serve a mission in Russia.
When Brandon was looking at his line we were getting excited to see Counts and princesses, I kept hoping we would see a king, but after a few dozen of them from several European countries the kings were even getting boring. Then we found Charlamagne and Julius Ceasar, etc. etc. Every kind of royalty there is, and bishops too.
Brandon wants to know who messed things up in the family and why we don't live in a castle in Europe right now? That's his motivation for family history.

update: the next day we looked at some more lines on my family tree and found more kings and Constantine and more famous people. Maybe when you go back that far you have thousands of ancestors so a handful of them are bound to be Kings? The first name we saw that we recognized from Brandon's family tree was King Coel and his wife "the Fair" who lived in 125AD. I'm guessing there is a closer relation than that, but I like thinking that we aren't related until the 2nd century.

Geneology

This show looks awesome. What a great way to inspire people to learn about their ancestors.

Junk

It's that moving time of the year when I need to go through my clothes and boxes of things to decide what I can chuck. I came across this shirt. Yes, it is ugly. very ugly. Do I ever wear it? no, not really. But I had to run SO far to get that shirt, how do you get rid of it? I guess that's what spouses are for.

Translation

Calvin is at the age where he says a lot of stuff, but it takes parent intervention to understand a lot of it. Some examples are:
down = phone
butt = button
man-ah = snowman or snow or play dough (because we make snowmen out of play dough)
walky = thank you
He used to say "tank tu", and before that he said "tanks", we are kind of going backwards on this one. I think walky is a version of "your welcome"?

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Ditch the workout, join the party

My zumba instructor is so amazing the news is going to come to her class. So many people come to her class she has to teach in the gym now instead of the dance room to fit everyone. It's crazy. I am debating if I should go to class that day. It would be fun to see the excitement, but do I really want to risk being on TV while dancing like a fool? If I do go, should I buy some cute, new work out clothes? Also, if I go, and you see me on TV, keep this in mind: If I look ridiculous it's because that's one of the new songs I haven't gotten down yet. If I look awesome it's because that is the one song I bought on itunes and practice at home. And if they have the camera on me while saying "zumba is for all shapes and sizes" I am never going again.