Two teeth in one week

Calvin has been working on his teeth for many months now and it hasn't been fun: drool that pours out of his mouth like a faucet that won't turn off, pain and fever that comes for days at a time, the need to put everything in his mouth and chomp down to find relief. It took Calvin eight and a half months to get teeth, and less than a day to figure out how to bite. Oww!His two bottom teeth are now in, and I'm sure there are more soon to follow.

Halloween

Astronaut Calvin T. Hoke

With everything going on, we've had a hard time finding time to keep up with our normal chores, let alone get ready for Halloween. Fortunately Grandma and Grandpa Hoke found the astronaut suit months ago, which was a perfect Halloween costume for Calvin, and Grandma Theilen was in town Halloween weekend and helped with the last minute details.

Daycare started the holiday weekend off with a halloween party after school on Friday. Lots of kids showed off their awesome costumes - our favorites were the astronaut (of course!), the tiger (Ronin), and a toddler Birdman (Denver Nuggets basketball player).
We carved pumpkins at about 5pm on Halloween day (right after I swept the porch for the first time in probably 6 months), and we got them outside and lit just before our first trick or treat-er showed up. The pumpkin on the left was mine - the stem formed the nose, which looked cool until it got dark and you couldn't see it. Mom carved the scary one in the middle. And the pumpkin on the right is Bryan's tribute to Hera, who had passed away a couple weeks before.

Among the kids roaming the streets after their bedtime in search of chocolate was Calvin. We went to two houses - our two immediate neighbors - and Calvin was pretty impressed with all the lights and kids and darkness (with summer and daylight savings and an early bedtime, Calvin was hardly ever outside at night).
Everyone was impressed with his astronaut costume, even if his giant baby belly bulged out over the belt.
After all the trick-or-treating fun, Calvin spent some time working on his teething with the TV remote, and then called it a night.

Calvin changed daycare and found a friend

Back in mid-September, Calvin changed daycare. There were lots of things that bothered us about Calvin's old daycare that I won't elaborate on here. If anyone wants to talk daycare pro's and con's, just let me know! But let me just say, there is a HUGE difference between daycares that on the surface seem very similar. Anyway, we love, love, love our new daycare.
Now, Calvin eats while sitting in a baby-sized chair at a baby-sized table, and it is so fun to watch. Here, Calvin's main "teacher", Sandy, is feeding him butternut squash. Yum!In Calvin's room there are two other babies who were born within a week of Calvin: Ronin and Didi. Over the past couple of months, Ronin has become Calvin's best-est closest friend. It's really amazing how much these two babies like each other. So, everyone, meet Ronin (on the left). These two babies keep each other company, laugh at each other, and tackle each other in the slow-motion crawling sort of way that 8-month old babies do. One day Sandy found Calvin and Ronin sitting together, Ronin's face and hair drenched in Calvin's slobber while Ronin held onto Calvin's face and gnawed and drooled all over Calvin. I guess everything goes into a baby's mouth, including your best friend's face. Of course, they were both teething at the time, so drool was extra abundant. Sandy even got a picture...... and it's up on the refrigerator in their room. So funny!For Halloween, Calvin was an astronaut and Ronin was a tiger. Bryan and I agreed that it was fitting for Calvin's best friend to be a tiger.More about Halloween in the next post.