1 year!

on wednesday july 4th, our little firecracker turned 1.

his current stats:

weight: 19 lbs 10 oz = 25%

height: 29 in = 25%

 head circum: 45.4 cm = 45%

he still has his murmur. we are going to wait until january to have an echo done.

this past month cal:

- discovered stairs, and is now obsessed.

he would play on them all day if we let him.

he hasn't figured out how to go down yet.

- has also starting climbing other things.

- before our california trip, cal would only fall to sleep if i rocked him...

and he was still waking up a couple times a night and he wanted to be rocked to sleep.

i started baby boot camp with him when we got home.

i checked out a lot of sleeping books, but liked this one the best:

a few tips from the book i really found helpful:

- don't let baby sleep past 4pm

- progressive crying it out. (day 1 you wait 3 minutes before checking on them, then 5, 10. and by day 7 you go in every 30 mins if needed.)

- consistency is key

anyways, after much anxiety, i laid him down for his first nap, sang a little song and walked out.. and nothing happened! not one tear.. he just went to sleep. and honestly, he has done really well ever since!

 i am still in awe and have no idea how this happened.

i think it was a straight up answer to prayers.

- he still howls, spits, says mama, dada, nite-nite, and dah (ball).

 - loves to watch baby signing time. signs food, more, milk, and bird.

- plays hard and loves the dirt

. sometimes he gets two baths a day because he gets so stinky/dirty.

- good thing he loves the tub.

- monday mornings are his favorite day of the week, for one reason:

monday mornings from Whitney Asay on Vimeo.

- drinks 20 oz of milk / day.

- loves raisins, the crust on toast, lasagna, grapes, raspberries, watermelon.

our little cal boy is still as sweet as ever.

best. 12. months. of. our. lives.

swim lessons

last night was our last parent-tot swim lesson.

we have been going every tuesday night with sharsti, josh, and baby jackson.

here are some photos from this night:

 during swim lessons, we sang lots of songs, splashed, tried to blow bubbles and went under the water a few times.

one night, i dropped cal's swimsuit on the way out the door, so he swam in his speedo.

also, on josh's birthday, we went swimming at his cousins pool (the same pool he swam in here).

here is a cute video. i love how c is kicking his little feet:

swimming from Whitney Asay on Vimeo.

6.27.12

baby boot camp started today. after reading lots and after many discussions, we are teaching cal how to fall asleep on his own. he wakes up at night and can't fall back to sleep without me being there.. his little brain needs long stretches of sleep for development and it is important for him to learn this now, not to mention.. i think i am starting to have permanent bags under my eyes and i seem to have started twitching from lack of sleep.
so this morning, i had everything ready for the meltdown of the century. put c in the crib. handed him his teddy. sang twinkle little star. and walked out. and not a peep. no crying at all.. seriously? now, i know this is most likely a fluke but i will take it.
also, c turns 1 in one week. i am dying here. i am not ready for him to grow up. i swear he was just this little:

o my sweet sweet baby. this has been a fantastic year.

california

i have decided that if i want to blog, i have to do it late at night... when my boys are asleep and doing laundry would be too loud... (it is the chore that never ends.. it just goes on and on my friends)

this past week we went on a quick trip down to southern ca.

my mom recently finished teaching a really rowdy group of kindergarteners and needed to get away.

we missed our family at home, but were glad we took this opportunity to go.

i was nervous about driving with cal, but too excited to not go.

so we left on thursday.

c did great in the car.

pit stop in the st. george heat

we stayed in a hotel right by john wayne airport.

c loved the continental breakfast and playing with the ac in our room.

 friday we got up and went to the fabric district in LA.

 found some great fabric, and ate the most delicious tacos.

that afternoon was spent at huntington beach.

it was too cold to get in the water (though jared did)..

 cal didn't even try to eat sand...

and those wonderful creepers behind me, smoked us off the beach with their illegal drug usage. lovely.

that evening, we prettied up and went to a close friend's wedding reception.

it was so fun seeing a lot of our old ward friends.

we went and drove by our old house and talked about california memories the rest of the night.

saturday was a spontaneous trip to sea world! my favorite place ever! thanks mom!

hanging with aunt alisha in the hotel

 sunday we got up and headed home.

with a stop in primm for denny's.

mad props to this little bug who was a rock star most of the trip.

ducks

the other day, we made a random stop at nielsen's grove to see the ducks.

calvin pointed and growled the whole time.

ruff day

if you can't read the caption on his shirt, it says ruff night...

well today has been a ruff day here in the asay household.

6:50 - i hear c awake in his room, squealing and having a grand o' time.  i close my eyes and go back to sleep.

7:07 - he starts fussing, and josh gets up to grab him. i hear this, 'o.. my.. gosh. whit!' i immediately assume he had blown out all over his bed. but instead this is what we found:

this winner of a mom left the bag balm within the reach of his chubby fingers.. and he went to town. i wasn't too bummed until i noticed he got it all over his owl. 

i started the cleaning process by putting c in the tub.. and he basically bounced out of the water because that stuff is so greasy.

called poison control..

cleaned mr. owl...

stripped the bed..

wiped off all the crib rails..

the whole time, cal was following me around whimpering at my feet, wanting to be held..

a few minutes later, he was whining on the baby gate i had placed to keep him on one side of the hall, and crash he and the gate topple over.

o, and dad was leaving for work - something that gets c teared up on normal days.

so i put down the linens, and took c out for a walk.

we played a little and hooray it was nap time.

i threw all the blankets in the hottest cycle with some dawn dishwasher soap.

ran the cycle twice.. 

and left the binky in the balm.. (in fact it is still there)

fast forward through lunch.. more cleaning.. old folk's home.. to this evening.

c had swim lessons.

last week the weather was awful.. traffic even worse, and the night was not the best.

today was different.. i was determined to go to my rs activity after the lessons so i had dinner ready and we ate on the way.. picked up josh on time. got to the lesson on time, and even had the camera (which i am too lazy at the moment to download pictures from).

josh swam with cal.

c did okay. he didn't love it and josh kept commenting that c was drinking lots of water.

the drive home cal screamed till we got to j's car.

i went and took him out and he let out a huge burp.

we get home, i feed him some sweet potatoes and pears,

put him in his jammies.

let him play for a few minutes.

rocked him and gave him his milk..

he was almost asleep when he sits up and starts crying hysterically, 

and then he threw up everywhere.

not a little bit of baby spit up..

but gag me, this smells so horrid, projectile vomit.

right onto his blankets that i had just pulled out of the dryer, and on his teddy that somehow made it out of the morning massacre alive..

 time for another bath (his third for the day), rewash his sheets. scrub the carpets...

i took him downstairs to let him play while his room aired out..

he spills a glass of water all over his fresh jammies, and all over our stack of mail.

wonderful.

new set of pj's.

no more food.

the last clean taggy blanket.

finally this kid is asleep.

you win some, you loose some.

today we were with labron james and lost.