Callum {8 months}

Weight: 18 pounds, 6 ounces

Length: 28 inches

Likes: his brother and sister, sitting up, Ian's sunglasses, cheerios

Dislikes: peas, teething, night time sleep

Oh, this kid. He still sure is smiley, but there now usually is a tongue stick out out of the smile. Or hands stuck in the middle of the smile. I actually thought for sure he was getting a tooth a couple weeks ago. There was a white swollen spot on his bottom gums, but it went away after two days. So, it's still a gummy little smile for Callum. 

Callum prefers to sit up over laying on the floor. Maybe this is the reason he has literally made no effort to crawl. He hasn't even gotten up on his hands and knees while on his stomach. But, he can inchworm his way around a room…between scooting and rolling, he can get around decently well, if he wants to. But, often he just stays in one place. And, to be honest, I am perfectly happy with that…I mean, we have stairs in our new house, so yeah. Callum will stand holding on to my fingers for a decent amount of time, but he has yet to pull himself up on his own. 

Foodwise, Callum really has tried a lot of new things over the past month. I've gone from giving him single things at a time (like apples, carrots, etc) to giving him mixed foods. I also started giving him chunks of food to eat. He does really well with cheerios, blueberries and bread. He does a good job with his grabbing skills. Though I did catch him one time put his mouth up to the tray on his high chair and push blueberries into his mouth! 

Sleepwise…what sleep?! Callum does sleep…if he is being nursed. Nights aren't so stellar. He does great with naps though. If we are home, he will take two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and they are generally at least two hours long. But nighttime isn't so great. He tends to wake every hour or so. Though sometimes he will go a couple hours. All he wants to do is nurse to go back to sleep. I have started working hard at keeping him in the room and going back into his crib at night to hopefully help him sleep longer periods of time. 

Callum is starting to grow out of some of his 6-12 month clothing. He is wearing some 18 month stuff now. Again, I think a lot of it is do to length, specifically I think he has a longer torso. He is still wearing a size 3 diaper and that size still fits well. 

I like that Callum's hair is getting longer and thicker. It is starting to stick out over his ears and for some reason I find that really cute. It's like, he really has no need for a haircut anywhere except around his ears. 

Callum does really well just being sat somewhere with some toys and playing. Like he will happily play that way for 30 minutes. He also still really likes his jumperoo. He can really get going in that thing…it tires me out just watching him! Callum also does really well being worn in the ergo. I use it practically every day, when I am grocery shopping and now walking Connor to and from school. He is quite content in it. And if we are out and about around nap time, I just have to put him in it and bounce him around and he will go to sleep within a couple minutes. It's kind of like magic, that thing. And I love having him close, cuddled on me, so it's a win-win. 

For comparison's sake, Connor at 8 months and Isla at 8 months. It would appear that all three kids were around the exact same size at 8 months. Kind of funny. 

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Connor's First Day of School

It hit me on Sunday evening while I was getting things ready for Connor's first day of school. He is going to be away from me all day long. I started stuffing more and more stuff in in lunch box. I guess hoping that I could at least nourish him while he was away from me. By the time I was done, the lunch box was so full, I could barely zip it. 

This year, as a first grader, Connor got to participate in a school tradition where all the parents line the hallway and cheer and clap as all the kids walk through. As I was trying to get a confused Connor to stay in line while I ran inside, I couldn't help but feel both excitement and sadness over Connor growing up. In true Connor fashion, he literally refused to look at us or smile when walking past us in the hallway. And, in true Jessica fashion, I felt like I wanted to cry, but I didn't. 

After the hallway, I went and found Connor and showed him his classroom and let him play on the playground until the bell rang. Then I watched from the doorway as he went inside and found his new desk. He looked so big and grown up. I felt tugged and sad, but still managed to walk away before I was the last crazy mom still trying to look through the doorway. 

After what felt like forever, Isla, Callum and I made the trek back to the school to pick up Connor. He had a good day. Ate everything in his lunch, except for his sandwich. Not even one bite of it. He is excited that his class's theme this year is pirates. And he told me all about the reward/punishment system in the class…and how if you get in trouble enough, you end up in the principal's office. 

We stopped by Connor's kindergarten class on the way out of the school. Connor gave Mrs. Pippin a huge hug and admitted to her he was crying last night because he missed her. She, in turn, gave me a huge hug and explained to Connor that it's ok to cry and we all get sad about change. As we were walking away, Isla said, "I can't wait until I am in Mrs. Pippin's class." Me either, girl. Me either. She is a gem. 

Now to get back in the swing of early bedtimes, early morning alarm clocks and long days without Connor around.

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Connor: Waiting can be hard. Waiting for friends. Waiting for school to start back up. Waiting to go to the store to spend the gift card that is burning a hole in your pocket.

Isla: Always in the window, in her little space, her little word. 

Callum: Has become very serious about food. He had a full blown meltdown when I took a piece of bread away from him. 

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."

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The Grand Canyon

^^ Connor wanted to sit on a rock so bad. We had to wait until we found a safe one before Ian took him to do it. Then he kept wanting to go out on the rocks! 

The Grand Canyon is so vast that it is almost hard to comprehend. It's not like you are looking and one canyon, one view. You are constantly seeing more and new things. Not to mention that the canyon stretches as far as the eye can see. It's one of those things that you just kind of stare at in awe.

With three kids in tow, we managed to walk about 3 miles of the rim. It really was a nice walk. Most of it is flat and it is paved. There is shade along the rim, as well as benches. It made for a good walk, especially since clouds came in after a bit, cooling things off. Plus, the further you walk from things like the visitors center, the less people there are and the more you can just enjoy yourself. When we were by the visitors center, there were all sorts of "smart" people that climbed over the fences and were hanging off the ledges to get pictures. One guy even dropped his water bottle…thankfully it was the water bottle and not him that went splat. It really makes you question how far people will really go for a picture. Especially since once you get away from the visitors center, there are plenty of safe rocks to sit on that have land under them, giving the illusion of a drop off when a huge drop off isn't really there.

After a bad experience the day before at Horseshoe Bend, I was glad for the slow, enjoyable pace of the Grand Canyon. The kids, especially Connor, really were troopers. I ended up wearing Callum and getting him to fall asleep. Then, Isla went in the stroller and Connor actually walked a fair distance before ending up on Ian's shoulders.

And we timed our trip just right. Literally as soon as we got back to our car, it started pouring. Of course, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have cared if it happened while we were out walking anyway, given how hot it was!

I really feel like our stop at the Grand Canyon was one of those things that I want to remember forever. It was a good day, void of meltdowns and minimal whining. We had an amazing view and really just enjoyed ourselves as a family.


Just to make sure you are all caught up on our trip, here's on our way there, Salt Lake City and Durango. 

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Durango

^^ The alpine slide at Purgatory. I remember racing my brothers down this very track. Even with a kid in my lap, it was still tons of fun…though part of me wished I could race Ian down the track and see who would win! 

^^ I wish I could have bottled up how proud Isla felt to go on this. She barely squeaked by on the weight requirement. I could tell she really thought it was cool that she got to do it all by herself. It made me so happy to see her be so happy and proud. After she got off, she told me her stomach "felt funny" when she went high up in the air. 

^^ There's a place where you are supposed to stop at the end of the slide. Connor didn't even slow. He just ran into the bean bag at the end, fast as can be.

^^ I remember Honeyville as this little shack on the side of the road. It's now quite the large operation on the side of the road. I was happy to see they still had it set up so you could view bees in their honeycomb, which is quite cool. And, they still had a ton of flavors of honey sticks, which the kids found cool. Oh, and they now have a distillery, so Ian may or may not have gone home with a bottle of honey whiskey. 

^^ Laying pennies on the train track. Something I did a lot as a kid.

^^ So imagine this moment. I drag all of us to the train track to smash pennies. I tell the kids how cool it is. I get them set up to wave at the train. About when the train was even with the kids, it started honking its horn. The kids freaked. Isla ran and tripped over Connor. Both were on the ground, trying to get as far away as possible, as quick as possible. Ian said the train conductor was laughing. I am sure the passengers thought we were horrible parents. Thankfully, the kids quickly got over it and were excited to go find their smashed pennies. 

^^ Bar D Ranch is a ranch where you have dinner, then watch a musical/comedy show. The kids did great before hand. There was an amazing playground and the kids really enjoyed it. We also rode around on the little train they had. But, the show really wasn't geared for young children at all, so the kids were rather antsy during it. Finally, when we moved and gave them space to run around (they chose to collect pinecones) they were happy. 

A little back story, my family went to Durango, Colorado every year in the summer for y-e-a-r-s while I was growing up. The last time we went, I was 17. The place holds a lot of memories and fun times for me. It was nostalgic being back there for me. And it was crazy to think of me doing the same things with my kids that my parents did with me. Unfortunately the campground we always stayed at is now a housing development. But, we still drove around in it while I reminisced.

It was nice having a few days in one place on our trip. We could take each morning slow, pick one or two things to do during the day, then hang out at our camp site in the evening. And, don't you worry, Ian was all up to speed on the local coffee places, so we hit up one in particular a couple times.

I will say, Durango gets major points for restaurants being kid friendly. We went to a brewery, Steamworks, that gave the kids chalk to draw on the ground with. And we went to another restaurant, Grassburger, that had a little kids play area…that I affectionately referred to as a corral, as it was fenced in. It really is little things like this that really help make a meal enjoyable for the parents!

After the first couple days of our trip, we switched the sleeping arrangement around and had the kids sleep in the bed of the trailer and Ian, Callum and I slept in the front on the couch and dinette. I will say, this worked out much to our advantage. Not only did Connor and Isla start sleeping better. But then, Ian and I could watch a movie together after the kids were asleep. It almost felt decadent not having any housework or work-work to distract us and us just sitting around watching movies for a few nights in a row. In fact, I kind of wish we were back there now…enjoying the cool night air, watching a movie, all the kids asleep…


Just in case you haven't already seen the other posts from our trip, here's on our way there and Salt Lake City. 

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Connor: There is just something so special about this guy to me. He tries to be helpful. And there is just something about every single time he grabs my hand when we are walking.

Isla: Oh this girl is full of life. She finds an umbrella and won't let it go. She wants to take it everywhere, whether appropriate or not (hello, small public spaces!).

Callum: I thought for sure he was getting a tooth. A spot got all inflamed and turned white, then within two days, all was back to normal. I'll enjoy the toothless grin while I can. 

 "A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."

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Salt Lake City

After two full days of travel, a day in Salt Lake City was just what we needed. Given that the kids really needed downtime outside of the car, running around doing touristy things wasn't an option. Then again, that isn't really us. How we spent the day is really a representation of how we travel. 

Ian researched local coffee roasters and we stopped at one to start our day. Then we headed to Wheeler Historic Farm. I found it online and was excited to see there is a farmers market there on Sunday. While at the coffee shop, the worker was talking to us about our day and said, "Yeah, there is a small farmers market there." So imagine our shock when we get there and not only are the grounds huge, but the farmers market was ginormious. Like at least five times bigger than the one in Modesto. And there was so much fun stuff to look at…and eat. Isla saw the face painting and wanted to do it. While the lady was doing it, I complimented her and she said, "the paint really does all the work." But I am pretty sure paint in my hands wouldn't come out on someone's face like that, so I am going to say she was talented.  Also at the farm had a three story play structure. Ian, Callum and I rested in the shade, while Connor and Isla ran off some energy. 

After we left the farm, we headed downtown to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. It was a super nice children's museum. Like it may top the list for children's museums I have been to. It had a lot of exhibits I had never seen before, was very interactive and super clean. As a plus, it is cheaper to go on Sundays and was practically empty. We spent probably five hours there and you could easily spend all day at it.

We stayed at the children's museum until dinnertime. We stopped at another coffee roaster on our way back to the campground. We made dinner, then the kids enjoyed the campground pool. It was a good down day that really helped the kids get out a bunch of their wiggles before another big day of travel. 

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