The past few weeks...

Warning: Prepare for a long post filled with tons of cuteness.

I can't believe summer has already come to and end. Dave started back to work today, which means that Calvin and I will be home by ourselves for the next two weeks before I start back to work.

Work. More on that later.

We've had quite the fun and exciting last couple of weeks. First off, Calvin took his first dip in a pool, which I'm sure will be followed by many more dips and long afternoons as he gets older.

 We dressed him to prevent sun damage, of course!

 He didn't like it when I submerged him up to his waist, so I ended up sitting on the edge and dangling his feet for a bit. I was nervous about having him so close to water, so I had all of my friends stay around me and I didn't stray from the shady step. All in all, he was only in the water for about 10 minutes, but it's a start!

The next day, we attempted our first extended car trip down to Houston so that Calvin could meet his future best friend,  Luke Young. Don't they both look enthused to meet one another.

 Luke was just precious and he felt so little compared to Calvin. Luke had a bit of a rough start, spending almost a week in the NICU, but you wouldn't know it looking at him. Such a brave and strong little guy. And his mom is pretty awesome, too!

 Best friends holding future best friends.

Luke: 3 weeks                Calvin: 9 weeks

 Calvin did really well on both legs of the trip. We only had to stop once on the way there. And on the way home he slept the whole time (about 4 hours) so we just drove straight home. It was great. We'll test his car abilities again in a few weeks when we go to Arkansas, but more on that later.

 I'm so thankful that Lauren and I had this experience to go through together. While we both had very different experiences, the Lord really allowed us to grow closer together in a way that we hadn't experienced in a long time. She truly is my bestie and we love her family dearly. Now...we just need our other bestie to jump on the child bearing bandwagon and produce some wives for our men!

This has become our new trick for keeping Calvin occupied while we need to do something. I can plop in him his "seat" and turn him towards the window while I'm cooking dinner, changing laundry, or just need to give my arms a break. We've really started to see a difference in his periods of contentment. I can let him sit by himself for a good 30 minutes now before he needs interaction, needs to change positions, or needs a pacifier. I can remember thinking when he was two or three weeks old that he couldn't just sit and be content, but now I realize he was way too young for me to expect that of him. Little tiny babies need interaction almost 24/7...I'm thankful for this time now when I can leave him be for a few minutes and continue on my daily routines.
We've also had our first few occurrences of Calvin "sleeping through the night". Twice now he's gone a good 6 hours before needing to be fed. Once from about 11 to 7, and then last night from 9:30 to 4:20, and I woke him up at 4:20 to be fed because, well, let's just say mama needed to feed him and leave it at that. But, I'm sure if I had let him sleep he wouldn't have continued to sleep even longer. I'm hoping these nights will become more common as I prepare to go back to work.

Work. Sigh.


Dave has the uncanny ability to capture Calvin's little face perfectly in pictures. He just seems to know exactly when to press the shutter button on his iPod. Here are a few of the good expressions he's captured in the past few weeks....

I've got a lot more to write about and share, but will stop here for now.  I'm sure in the next few days I'll need to get a few things off my chest and revisit the blog, so stay tuned!