This kid

Oh my this child of ours ... what a little joy he is. I swear he gets cuter by the day. When he flashes me that toothy little smile and grips me around the neck to hug me I am like butter in his tiny little hands ... and he is now at the age where he knows it!

Calvin turned 18 months a few weeks ago and we immediately saw some big changes in his personality.

- My sweet little boy who has been easy cheesy to discipline is now ... not so easy. He is testing and pushing and some days I actually feel quite frustrated, a feeling that is rare for me to have toward my dear son. So we're working on it, but some days it is exhausting!

- He's saying some words! Favorites are: "no", "ball" and "bell" pretty clearly. He can identify about 60 animals and seems to know a lot of his colors, shapes and, of course, machinery (big into trains and planes right now).

- My current favorite is his ability to say animal sounds - the best are when he does the elephant noise and lifts his arm ;). He can also say "duuu" (for duck), that the sheep says "baa", the lion says "roar", the owl says "who-who" and the monkey says "ooo, ooo".

- He is learning the art of stalling ... he wants to read books, he wants different books, he wants to brush his teeth again, etc. The most consistent is trying to stall me by hugging me hard around the neck. He has learned that in almost any situation, I will let him hug me as long as he wants. Sometimes this works in his favor and sometimes he seems irritated that I don't fight back. Funny kid.

Here are some pictures of his most recent cuteness:

Blocks!


Anytime we tell Calvin that it's time to do something (bath, clean diaper, etc), he runs and hides. Upstairs he hides behind chairs or against a wall, but downstairs he hides in the towel rack, or my personal favorite, in the curtain.

The sun finally came out and we had a lovely morning at the zoo ... including a fun encounter with some beautiful giraffes!