Back to School

It's been a fun summer in the Green house, but like most fun things, summer break has officially come to an end. I start back to work tomorrow, and the kids come Wednesday. It's been a fun summer and a blast to get to stay home with Callum. I'm definitely not looking forward to returning to the days of a 5 a.m. alarm.
Callum's preparing for school, too by catching up on some summer reading.
I'm also proud of the way he's been working hard on his words and learning what school is like from Brother and Sister Bear (and he's so smart he can even read upside down!). Too bad he doesn't realize that he's not going to school with Mommy.


Overall we haven't done anything special the last month or so. We just returned from a weekend visiting family in Louisville, and otherwise we've been relaxing and doing little things around the house.
Here's Callum's official 9 month pictures with Hey Hey, just a bit late on the posting :). They were taken on his nine-month birthday though! His check-up went well, too. He's 18 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long and everything else looked great according to the doctor.

We've also realized how uneventful Callum is when trying new things. We started giving him a sippy cup and he instantly picked it up without a problem. So much for the funny moments of watching him figure out what to do with it!
Bath time is still one of his favorite activities.
He's not much of a cuddler, but he does give great hugs!

And just because we think he's the cutest thing still (and we're totally not biased at all!), here are some good shots of him from the past few days.

Friends and Food

It's been a busy last few days in the Green house, so I'm trying to do a better job at keeping up to date on here. We've been blessed to have some fun, quality time with friends recently. My friend Luana, whom I worked at summer camp with, was here to visit in between a conference and a wedding. I haven't seen her in six years (I can't believe it's been that long!) and it was so much fun to be able to catch up. It reminded me how fortunate I am to be able to be close friends with her even though we don't get to see each other very often, although Scott and I are already trying to figure out when we can visit her in Australia.

We were also able to spend some time with our friend Carrie, and Callum got some great reading attention, which he loved as usual. He's so fortunate to have such a great godmother!

As many of you know, food is an important part of being a Green. So far, minus not liking apples initially, Callum has easily proven himself to be a worthy green. He loves eating food, especially veggies. Avocado and peas are probably his current favorite, although this weekend he was able to try a new food. Beets! We have been receiving batches of vegetables as part of a CSA program, and he tried some of the beets they gave last week. He loved them, although now since he thinks he can feed himself, it definitely makes for a large mess!

A June Recap

As usual, I'm only posting for the second time this month, so we'll start out with the standard Hey Hey picture. I'd have to say, the 8 month picture is one of the best so far. I guess Callum's making up for last month.
We also got a couple of other good pictures during the photo session.

A couple of weeks ago we babysat Hayden while Andy and Brooke went birthday shopping, and Callum was fascinated by his cousins. Hayden wasn't that interested in him, though, as you can see.
We finally got a good picture of Callum with both of his cousins. Not an easy feat to get all three sitting still and mostly looking at the camera, so I thought the picture turned out pretty well. Too bad Reegan didn't get the memo about wearing orange (although her little dress was pretty cute)!

Reegan sat on the couch taking everything in and wasn't really moving, so finally Callum decided she must be a toy to play with.
It was cute though when he decided to hold her hand.

He obviously loved Reegan a little too much and had to be rescued from grabbing her face. Notice the look of terror she has. Poor girl. Although since she's now at least the same size as him, if not bigger, he might as well get the shots in while he can.
Callum also enjoyed his first swimming experience. He was a bit tired and looked like he could fall asleep lounging in the water, but otherwise he loved kicking around.

Summer here we come!

Summer break is finally here! These last few weeks of school went way faster than I thought they would, which is a plus, but now it's already June and I'm still processing what happened to May.
Callum at 7 months--he definitely doesn't like cooperating for the photo shoot anymore and prefers to eat Hey Hey instead.

When Callum wants to do something, he definitely doesn't want to do it slowly. For a few days he would sit by himself for maybe a second or two before toppling over. Then one day a couple of weeks ago, he suddenly decided he liked it and has been sitting well ever since.

It's definitely nice knowing I get to be home with him for the next couple of months!

These last couple weeks have been crazy busy in the Green household--I'm just trying to survive until next Friday. So I'll update as best I can--sorry for the boring post.
While Callum has been eating rice cereal for a while now, he is now officially eating baby food. I've been making my own and so far it has been super-easy. Although he wasn't sure of the food the first day or two, he now eats it like a pro and only screams when it's all gone.
He definitely wasn't afraid to pull out all of the dramatics for squash. The initial bites came complete with horrible faces and gagging noises:
Excuse me, waiter. Could I get some help here?


Unfortunately I spent two different evenings hanging out at hospitals since my dad was in the hospital and then my Papaw had surgery (on his birthday, even), but I'm happy to report that both of them are doing well! Callum had fun hanging out with his grandpa at the hospital, although he did try to play doctor and take out the IV lines once.

While high-pitched yelling is still his favorite mode of communication, he has started to babble and say da-da a lot. I still wouldn't be surprised if his first word resembled something like Lola, since he's fascinated with her. She's still uncertain of him at times, but is starting to come around.

Last weekend we went to Brownsburg to get professional pictures taken of Callum and of all of us together. They turned out amazing! Go to http://gracephotography.zenfolio.com/p247739482/slideshow to check them out.
Bath time is still one of the most favorite activities!

Our Little Peanut!

Last week Callum turned six months old!

In some ways it seems like he has been with us forever and it's hard to imagine a time in our lives where he wasn't present. On the other hand, it's amazing to look back and see that we've made it through six months of being new parents. I always imagined I would love being a parent and having kids of my own, but life with Callum has been way better than I would have ever imagined. Overall he is such a joyful, happy baby. He is very laid back unless he is hungry or needing a nap. With a hug and a smile, he makes any day better.

This past weekend, Scott and I traveled to Evansville for my friend Marie's wedding, so Callum was able to have his first sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Green's house. While we missed him terribly, we know he had a great time with his grandparents and Aunt Shannon. He also got a visit from his Great-Aunt Nancy and Great-Uncle Art and experienced his first Kentucky Derby (although Grandpa said Callum did not do a very good job of watching the race, so it's a good thing Callum didn't bet on a horse).

On Monday I took Callum to the doctor for his six-month checkup. She said everything is looking great and he's meeting the milestones he should. He's still our little peanut, which on the plus side means we get lots of use out of our outfits before he outgrows them! It also makes it easier to carry him around easily. He's in the 5th percentile for weight at 14 lbs., 10 oz., and was also around the 10th percentile for height at 26 inches.

Poor kiddo, though, is too short to really enjoy his jumper still. If he leans carefully and stands on his tiptoes, he's able to just barely reach the floor with one foot. We might try putting something underneath so he can actually enjoy it before he's old enough to be running around.


Rolling is more his style of transportation, although we've had a couple of mishaps in the crib when he gets himself stuck in a corner on his stomach and cannot figure out how to roll back the other way without hitting his head.

Callum definitely loves eating time, and gets frustrated when he cannot feed himself. He loves to try, though! He usually doesn't do too bad of a job with putting the food in his mouth as long as I put the food on his spoon for him.

April!

Eeek! Where has the time gone? Every time I think I'll do a better job posting, life gets in the way and I totally forget. Let's see if I can catch up to present without boring anyone too much.
Life in the Green house has been pretty routine overall lately. Callum is now 5 1/2 months old and is growing so fast! He loves eating cereal, and the last few days he's been staring longingly at anything he could possibly put in his mouth to eat, so much to the point that he drools while looking at it. He's also definitely not a babbler, but instead prefers to scream to get his point across. He definitely takes after his dad in the loud department. Often it's an entire body experience for him to talk, in which he flails his arms and kicks his legs to emphasize his point.

Here is a delayed standard 5 month picture with Hey Hey. He definitely does not look very happy, but we'd already had to postpone it a couple of days and he refused to sleep through church, as usual.
The lack of sleep didn't keep him from trying to eat Hey Hey though:

I enjoyed having a week off for spring break at the beginning of April, and it was great to hang out with Callum all day again. We were able to do some shopping and meet up with my friend Carrie D. in Columbus which was fun. Scott had Good Friday off, so we were able to have a nice three-day weekend together. Scott went in to Callum's room to get him that morning, and he had rolled onto his stomach in the crib. He's not doing it very often since he hates his stomach, but he has at least proven he can do it if he wants.
We had a nice Easter. It was definitely one to remember with a boy going into diabetic shock and two women passing out during the service. After church, Callum seemed to enjoy his Easter basket and his new toy and clothes that came in it:
Callum in his cute Easter outfit:

He tried to cheer on Butler as loud as he could for the Final Four, but the screaming just didn't quite work since Scott's Cardinals weren't in it (that, and the fact that the game was on after his bedtime, but I'm sure he cheered in his sleep).
He loves playing in his activity seat and deciding which toys to eat:

What a smile! If he's this cute when he gets older, we're in big trouble!