Cal's Newest Trick

Having this baby around is SO much fun.

Here are some of the latest:

Cal has discovered his feet, and he loves grabbing them!

Cal has figured out how to pull of his socks, and does so often! (we now wear shoes to keep them on....)

Cal rolls over! See video.... (and ignore my talking in the background... gross.)

Guess who slept through the night last night??

that's right! little man slept through the night last night!!!

We went to Winston-Salem to visit a friend, and he slept for an hour on the way there and an hour on the way home, and then took a nap around 5. I woke him up around just before 8. We played hard for a few hours and then at 10, I started to put him down (later than I would prefer, but we will work on moving it up earlier...). We didn't hear boo from him until 6:00 this morning! I woke up at 5 freaking out because I hadn't woken up once in the night! haha (not to mention how "full" I was! OMG!

My goal was to have him napping in his crib (not exclusively; I don't mind car seat napping!) when we are at home (as opposed to his swing) starting when he was 4 months. He will be 4 months this Saturday and as I type this, he is in his crib.....and I think he may be sleeping! I really want to establish that the crib is for sleeping. It's so funny, now that he knows how to roll over (have I mentioned that yet??), he starts out on his tummy and then flip over to his back and just stares at the video monitor like, hey! did you see that?? too funny!

fingers crossed for a repeat performance tonight!!!!

SLEEP!

I made the mistake of posting on facebook the other night that I was going to let Cal cry it out a bit. You would not believe the responses I got!!!! (if you are one of the ones that posted a reply, ignore this post!). It was my own fault for opening the can of worms and I should know better. People just feel so passionate about the right way vs. the wrong way to get a kid to sleep.

The truth is, Cal has only slept through the night 2 times in his life. He usually nurses, falls asleep while eating and then I lay him in his crib. He then wakes up a few hours later, eats, and falls right back asleep again. Yeah, I wish he would sleep through the night, but I am not a basket case about it, I do not cry about it, and I am not worried that he will be up every night at 3 for the rest of his life.

It was my own fault for opening that can, and I enjoyed reading everyone's post, I just wasn't expecting everyone to respond like that! (for those of you not on facebook, a)what is wrong with you??, and b) I had 25 responses to my post!).

Long story short, lately, when I put Cal down, he wakes up immediately and then won't go back to sleep. I don't pick him up or anything, but I have been going in after about 10 minutes to pat his back and calm him down again.

This too shall pass and we will all survive! :)

Bowling in Arizona!

The TCU Horned Frogs were invited to the BCS bowl game, The Fiesta Bowl, in Phoenix, AZ.

We flew out on the 29th for 8 days, 7 nights....that's a loooong time to be gone with a baby! Each of our bags weighed just at 50 pounds! That's a lot of stuff to take!

Before we left, Cal had a little sniffle, but we didn't think much of it. Also, I should note, on the 26th, Cal slept through the night (I got wayyy more excited than I should have....it hasn't happened since!).

We made it out there fine, wish I could say the same for Eddie's bag.... we were delayed leaving DC, so we didn't get in to AZ until 11:45, AZ time, which was 1:45 am our time. We were pretty dead. Cal slept a lot on the plane, so he thought it was time to play when we got to our room!

Poor Cal...his snotty nose turned into quite the cough and one day he was just full on under the weather. We had the team doctor check him out, and he thought everything sounded fine to him. I was worried sick, of course! It's hard to have a sick baby and be away from home! We are buds with our pediatrician so I called her on her cell phone (!!! I am THAT mom!) and she was great-- told me to give him some baby tylenol and that really seemed to help him. We went into see her when we got back and it turns out he has a chest filled with "crap" and an ear infection. Poor little man.....

It was a great trip out there and we spent some quality time with Eddie's family. We even got a picture with 4 generations of Calvin Edwin Williamsons.... it was pretty special. The outcome of the game was a bummer, but the trip itself was fun.

Me, Eddie and Cal in our matching O-Line t shirts and Cal with his jersey. I love this one :)

The Williamson Family

Riding the bus to the game, riding like a big boy!

Calvin Edwin Williamson, I, II, III, IV!

Christmas Time

I hate that I have been so bad about updating the blog! I have been posting pictures to the MobileMe account though, so I am staying on top of that, at least!

Christmas this year was so special. Having a little one makes the holiday even more special. We went to the children's service at church on Christmas Eve, and even though Cal had not a clue what was going on, it was fun to watch all of the other kids about to pop with the thought of Santa Clause visiting them soon! My brother and Elizabeth stayed in town for Christmas so it was extra special to have them here with Jackson.

Christmas morning, I was (of course) excited about getting up and getting moving! Eddie's sister was in town from DC so we got up and opened gifts over here from Eddie's parents, and to each other. Cal was spoiled rotten from his Texas grandparents! He got all kinds of great stuff from them!

Afterwards, we headed over to my parents house where Santa was SO good to Cal! When we walked in, Jackson was already exploring his big gift, a power wheel jeep, all throughout the living room! Cal's big gift was waiting in the corner-- a jumperoo! He loves it! It was a great day and we were all spoiled. It really made me realize how lucky and blessed we are. All I wanted for Christmas last year was a baby, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have that come true....

Here are some pictures from Christmas/Christmas Eve:

Chris and Jackson, Christmas Eve at church...love this picture!

A new Christmas tradition: reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the grandkids (the Snuggie was a result of a dirty santa gift exchange....not sure that will be part of the tradition...)

Christmas morning in his new JUMPeroo! He was liking it! :)

And, how cool is Cal in his new sunglasses from his Aunt Carrie??? hhahaha

'bout time to change the background!

sheesh! Time to get rid of the Christmas themed background.... not crazy about this one, but it's better than red and green! I have some serious updating to do! I will just take my time and do little updates here and there. :)

14 week check up!

We had a check up this morning so that Cal could get his booster shots before we traveled to Arizona for the bowl game.

Some highlights:

Weight: 15 pounds, 3 ounces-- 75th percentile

Height: 24 inches-- just below 75th percentile

Head Circumference-- 90th percentile (he is going to be SUPER smart!)

So funny: we have been battling with his sleep lately and we have really fallen into a great routine. Our appointment was at 8 this morning, so we were up an attum pretty early. Cal got up at 5 to feed (sigh) and went back to sleep hard. I could NOT wake him up to get him dressed this morning! I put him on his back, took off his clothes, and rubbed his belly.... NOTHING would work! It was too funny, and so ironic that when I am trying to WAKE him, he is dead to the world! Here is a picture of him from this morning....

Since Cal is still waking up at least one time a night (again, SIGH), our doctor told us it would be okay to give him a bottle of water when he wakes up, to show him that he isn't going to get the good stuff-- ha. The trick about that is Eddie has to give him the bottle. If I do it, he can smell my milk and will be SUPER unhappy and just freak out even more. Can you see why I am loving this new plan???? We'll see if it actually works. Eddie is a super heavy sleeper and doesn't hear him most of the time, and in the morning asks me how Cal did during the night. So, I would end up getting up anyway.

Speaking of routines.... just like Stephanie said, we have fallen into a great routine! It is just so much easier when things are predictable. He was going to bed at 9, getting up around 3, and then sleeping until 6:30. He got a cold last week and we had several very very very rough nights with my boy up because he couldn't breath out of his nose, and that is tough when sleeping on the stomach. But we are getting back into that, as last night was great. BUT, we are leaving for Arizona on Jan. 29th. There is a 3 hour time difference. How is THAT going to work with our routine??? Will he be going to bed at 6 their time (9 here)? and what on earth time will he be getting up in the morning? For the third time in this post, SIGH. (haha-- I am so dramatic). It will be fine. I will just be pretty exhausted and will have to go to sleep at 6 at night when he does! Oh, and can you imagine me staying up to ring in the new year? That will be 3 am here!!! HA! I am an oooooold lady now.

Anyway.... I am SO thankful to have a happy and healthy sweet baby boy, who is now napping in his swing after a rough morning of shots :(

3 Months

Dinner with Santa

The Chapel Hill Country Club has a "Dinner with Santa" every year that is a huge hit. We walked in this year, eager to participate, and saw what seemed like thousands of kids running around. It was awesome! Santa came in and started singing and all of the kids just froze, staring. He walked over to a chair and kids were allowed to come sit on his lap and take pictures, etc. Of course Cal was too little to have any idea what was going on..... we did get some fun pictures of the night!

Me, Eddie and Cal (3 months). Cal kept trying to eat the Santa on his outfit....

Me and my brother, Chris, with our kiddos

Cal, meet Santa....

Miller was not too happy about Santa!

And Jackson was even more not happy about him!

Maybe Santa told Jackson he was naughty??

All of the excitement wore Cal out. He decided it was time to take a snooze...

We had the best time with everyone and really tried to enjoy every minute of Cal meeting Santa. We realized quickly that next year he very well could be like the other kids there that totally freaked out when they sat on Santa's lap. We loved that he had no idea this year! :)

Holiday Card... out takes

Here are some of the attempts of getting a Christmas card this year: