Time with Ava ... and company

A busy week at work for Mom & Dad meant some good quality time with Ava. Really, with Grammy, Papa, Uncle Ryan AND Cousin Ava, but let's be honest ... it's all about Ava.

Spending a couple of days downtown Chicago, Grammy planned and provided fun opportunities for these two, and Uncle Ryan took time off of work to enhance the experience.

They beetled around town, visited a museum and strolled through Lincoln Park Zoo.

And while they wouldn't have done any of it

without Grammy, or had nearly as much fun without Ryan, the time together served to increase the bond between these two little ones.

I mean, c'mon, they hold hands without encouragement!

Bath Time with Pooh Bear

Poor Bear is still a beloved member of our family. He has taken up permanent residence in Calvin's bed and goes back and forth to school each day for nap time.

Needless to say, he requires frequent washing. Fortunately he's washing machine compatible.

I usually scrub him with a brush before sending him for a spin. But this time, as Calvin was hopping into the tub, I thought that Pooh Bear might just want to go for a swim, too.

Turns out he did. Just look at that water! Poor Cal had to rinse off afterwards.

Pooh Bear is especially cuddly after he's washed properly and "nice and warm" from the dryer.

Ready for another week.

Ouch!

A scratch on Cal's palm warranted his first band-aid. No blood, but the removal of a couple of layers of skin leaves poor little nerves exposed.

The kid was crushed. And although the band-aid provided a little cushion, it didn't help all that much. So we propped him up on the couch for a little R&R with Pooh Bear and a snack.

Fortunately the pain didn't last long. Before I knew it, we had moved on to happier topics: glasses.

Back in the Pool

I had hoped to get back in the pool with Calvin before summer, and before our little little one arrives at the end of June. When friends of ours said that they had signed up for a swim class at the YMCA, I broke my one-activity-at-a-time rule and hopped on to that bandwagon, too.

Yay! Back in the pool!!

For kids Calvin's age, swim instruction consists of water acclimation, getting kids used to the water. Well, this is not an issue for our little guy.

Perhaps it's because we took this class when he was six months old, or maybe he's just naturally drawn to water, but if Cal can get his toes -- even better, his whole self -- into the water at any time, there's no holding him back!

As first time parents were easing their first time children into the water, Calvin was jumping in, fully engulfed, and working hard to land anywhere BUT in my arms.

Our teacher (who remembered us from nearly two years ago) suggested that we put Cal in a life jacket and give him a little freedom. He loved it!

So each week he straps on a life jacket and hops in the pool. I'm not sure that he's learning much but he loves our 30-minutes in the pool each week.

He spends most of his time jumping in, kicking and paddling back to the side of the pool, climbing up the ladder to get out, and hopping back in.

And his mother, at eight months pregnant, loves this independence!

There's Juice in There!

Quite innocently, while eating a clementine today, Calvin looked up at me and said, "There's juice in there!".

Brilliant little boy. He's right!

Then he proceeded to line up his pieces "like a couch".

I love to see this little guy's mind at work.

The Sign of a True Artist?

When music class ended we found something else to do on Tuesday morning: art class!

The class is open to two and three year olds, and our wonderful teacher, Ms. Carol, knows just what to do with these little ones; we're never in one place for too long.

Class begins with "circle time". We sing a few songs before listening to a short lesson on the daily topic. So far we've covered birds, butterflies, wild flowers, and spiders.

Once we learn about our subject, its natural habitat and the like, we're on to the art! We've assembled a bird's nest and fashioned a bird, painted a butterfly, planted a flower in a hand-painted pot, and strung up our own spider web.

I have to admit, it's tempting to help Calvin with these projects. They're meant to be just beyond his abilities, (I use the scissors, for example) but he holds the paint brush, chooses the colors, and applies paint where he will.

His artistic ability really showed itself during the spider web project. We were meant to make an orb web, symmetrical and roundish. The matrix was laid out for us, we were meant to apply a long string to it. (This is what one student created, with the help of her mom.)

Calvin wanted nothing to do with it.

As I applied dots of glue as a guide for placement, he wadded up the long string and mashed it all onto the paper at once. (This is Cal's.)

Ms. Carol was by our side, on cue. "Good work, Calvin! That's beautiful!"

I think her encouragement was just as beneficial for me as it was for Calvin. As someone who values playing by the rules, I would have preferred a symmetrical orb that more closely resembled the teacher's example. But Calvin's is beautiful, and I love that the spider web we took home represents my little boy's desire, intuition ... artistic eye, even.

I fulfilled my role and applied the glue, ensuring that Calvin's brilliance was captured just as the artist intended.

A Boy and His Berries

Knowing how much Calvin loves berries -- strawberries, blueberries, and especially raspberries -- Grandma arrived with the gift of a raspberry bush of his very own.

We searched the land for a good place to plant it. (Where, oh where, could this thing survive in spite of Calvin's Mother's amazing ability to kill plants?!)

Once settled, Grandma went to work. Calvin ate berries as a promise of good things to come, (notice how he puts one on his finger before popping it in his mouth?) and I took pictures.