June
The first weekend, Mom & Dad came in town and the 4 of us went to Grants Farm for the first time. Jeff stayed back and dug our new patio extension. We went over to the Dehners for dinner that night and drank way too much wine. Built in babysitters cannot go to waste!
Weekend 2: Cal and I were supposed to walk in the Koman 5K with 70 thousand other St Louisians but Cal came home early from the sitter the day before with a fever and a cough. We did our own 5K around the neighborhood. That night Jeff and I had the most spectacular dining experience for my birthday - Stone Soup Cottage. Breathing treatments and prednisone occupied the next few days.
Weekend 3: Birthday Extravaganza!! The backyard party went off with only a few hitches (thank you air conditioning repair man for making an off duty call at 5pm on a Saturday). Mom, Dad, my bro, his GF and her son all had a sleepover at our house. Early Sunday morning, Father's Day and Cal's b-day, we hit the zoo.
Weekend 4: Jeff had the "Brick Olympics" (don't ask) all day long so Cal and I go some major QT in. We were supposed to see Passion Pit earlier in the week but Jeff contracted the whooping cough from Cal. Okay, it wasn't really the whooping cough. It was a just a bad cold. I got to have a girls night on Monday and saw Wicked at the Fox. It was wicked awesome.
July
Weekend 1: ROAD TRIP! I had a 4 day weekend at work for the holiday so we busted out of town and headed to Springfield on July 1st. We had yet another birthday party for Cal, went to the Brightstravaganza, spent the actual 4th out at the Miller homestead and had a little people swim party before departing on Monday.
Weekend 2: Friday night started with the MoBot Members Family Picnic. Joining the Gardens as members has been the best money ever spent. The Lees came along and we brought fried chicken. Cal had his first popsicle which resulted in a sticky, cherry mess. On Saturday, Jeff's parents had their annual employee pool party. This year was a bit more relaxed, less people, more family. Sunday we celebrated July birthdays at Deweys. Yea for beer and pizza!
Weekend 3: No rest for the weary...my parents came back up to watch Cal and we went to the lake with some of Jeff's college buddies. I spent so many weekends at the lake in high school and college. This really made me miss it. Jeff and I started devising a plan to buy a "fixer upper" at the lake in several years and turn it into our retreat. We'll see how this pans out....
So that brings us to this weekend. As much as I would love to hide out in our house away from the 95 degree heat, we can't because we have to go look for a new car. The 'ol VW Touareg has done us wrong for the last time. Never, I repeat never, buy anything but a Jetta or a Beetle from VW. You will be gravely disappointed if you do not take this advice. Passat owners - you are allowed a little leeway, but only a little.
Onto to more important things. As much as I know that the 3 of you who read this blog have been wondering what we've been doing the past 7 weekends, I will try to focus on the most interesting man of the house. Cal has had some major developmental breakthroughs over the last few weeks. Let's list them (since this seems to be the only way I can collect my thoughts):
Walking!! - Cal is the fastest Frankenbaby this side of the Mississippi. Apparently he took his first real steps at the sitters right around his birthday but neither Jeff nor I saw him until July 1 so we have declared this the first day he walked.
Eating - God has blessed Cal with Jeff's metabolism. He will eat until we literally have to take the food away and then grumbles at us when we do. And he will eat anything except for cottage cheese and non-fat refried beans. The kid has a pretty sophisticated palate. Some of his more unusual favorites include hummus, guacamole, garbanzo beans, Thai noodle salad and tofu. He's totally into feeding himself and 'sort of' has the hang of a spoon. Sort of.
Attitude - Homeboy can melt down with the best of them. He gets frustrated easily (I tell myself it is because of his off the charts IQ) and when something is really under his skin, he will attempt to bite the nearest victim. This resulted in his very first time-out at the sitter's yesterday. Jeff and I have been tossing back and forth what kind of disciplinary tactics we want to employ. It appears that we may have to use them frequently.
Talking- Cal has always been a very expressive kid but lately we can tell that he really wants to spit out some serious words. We have the standard mama and dada. I can interpret bottle, milk, book, and Annie (or Nini, as he calls her). He also knows a few signs such as more, done, and milk. The rest is just very sophisticated gibberish. He will rattle off some sort of crazy monologue and then look at me or Jeff like "why aren't you idiots responding to me"? I'm sure its frustrating for him which is why we starting incorporating several signs.
Our best attempt at a Fathers Day/1st Birthday picture
