Pancakes!

I have been teaching my Financial Literacy class about tax and tipping.  We have been practicing using restaurant scenarios and the menu I have been using is for a breakfast cafe.  After 3 days of talking about bacon, orange juice, muffins and waffles, I decided that it was time for some breakfast for dinner.  Cal loves feeding himself, and the pancakes were a big hit!

Prospect

Sometime last year, when Cal was nothing more than a thought and a wish, I was reading stories online about the creative ways women told their husbands that they were expecting.  I got sucked into the madness and soon found myself the owner of a onesie, with no baby to wear it.  It was simple:  white, short-sleeved, with the word PROSPECT written across the chest in gothic-ish type. A nod to Sons of Anarchy, our favorite show to watch together.  I hid it as soon as it came, and, when we did concieve, found myself too excited for an elaborate reveal (shaking him until he woke up was sufficient).  The shirt was thrown into the rapidly growing pile of baby stuff and eventually made its way into the closet, where it sat until it fit my sweet baby boy on the day of the season premiere.  Look how far we have come.

Kissing Summer Goodbye

I am pretty sure that going back to school at the beginning of this year was much harder than returning from maternity leave...at least it feels that way.  I was pretty sleep deprived back then!  Cal has such a personality now, and I really enjoyed the time with him.  I was in complete denial about school startign right up to the last minute, and as such Cal and I spent Labor Day weekend at the lake, pretending that it was just another summer day.

Chilling in the hammock

Floating and watching the boats

Sink bath to wash the lake off

Sweet and serious

Making a mess at Grandma's

9 month stats (almost a month late)

I kept putting off this post so I could get a picture from my mom (she takes all of Cal's month pictures when she watches him), but the beginning of the school year has made me both busy and forgetful. You will have to make do with this shot taken during his appointment.  He loves that damn crinkly paper!

The stats:
Weight: 22 pounds (70-something percentile)
Height: 30.5 inches (>97th percentile)
Clothing size: 12 months mostly fits, he swims in 18 month

He also got the first dose of his flu shot.  With Billy and I both working in germ incubators, plus Cal going to daycare twice a week we figured that we need all the help we can get!

Up, Up and Away

When Billy and I are both home in the morning, one of us gets up with Cal while the other gets a few more precious moments of sleep.  We then bring the freshly diapered babe up to wake the other up.  Because of this, Cal has started to think that Billy is upstairs whenever he can't see him (like when he is at work).

I was cleaning up toys the other day when I heard Cal say "Da da da da da" and then the squeak of the bedroom door opening.  Because we have stairs that go up to our room, I ran over to see this:

And then this:

And pretty soon it was like this:

I am in trouble.  So much trouble.

We celebrated his new skill with some gnocchi (thanks to a GFF mom for the idea - I never would have thought of it!) It was a hit, even if it was messy.

Gymboree

I love Groupon.  Of course my bank account does not, but I do and try lots of new things because of it.  Yoga?  Sure (and I love it!).  Bootcamp?  Why Not?  Bread? Spices? Bring it on!

I jumped at the chance to buy a Groupon for Gymboree.  It seemed like something fun for my very active boy.  Because I taught summer school, I put off using this Groupon until the very last day.  Turned out well...August had 5 Mondays, so I got 5 classes; it lasted until my very last day of summer and there was a summer special that allowed to you to attend unlimited classes for the month - BONUS!

We went every Monday for our regular class and dropped into a few Open Gyms and other classes. Daddy evem came with us once,  It was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of growth in Cal's gross motor skills.  I loves crawling through the tunnels and up the ramps - he would chase a ball anywhere!

I wish I could say that we were continuing, but I just can't justify the cost.  $60 a month is a lot, especially when I am limited to evening only classes. 

Some pics of the dude in action: