Painting

There is no question, Calvin is a boy after my own heart.  He loves to paint.  His medium is usually washable finger paint on paper, hands, even his feet and legs (clean-up is still pretty easy - I just carry him over to the edge of the kitchen sink and wash it all up there).  The whole painting process lasts about 15 minutes - 5 minutes each for set up, paint, and clean up - which makes for a lot of work and little actual painting.  But his little masterpieces are fun to see and I figure I'm building a foundation of art appreciation and creative development, so the extra work is all worth it!

Room to grow

Calvin's Shades

 (this was the restaurant's kid-sized milk)

 

The Charlottsville Half-Marathon

Last month Bryan ran his first half-marathon.  It was a hilly, scenic, 13.1 mile race through Charlottesville, Virginia, that Bryan ran with a couple of friends from Virginia.  Bryan finished the race in great time (1 hour 39 minutes, which works out to a 7 min 34 sec per mile pace) and with a huge smile on his face.  Or at least that's how I imagine it.  As he was crossing the finish line, I was encouraging our toddler to hurry (no small feat).  We were rushing along the 1-mile stretch from our hotel to the start/finish line with the worlds absolute worst umbrella stroller, mostly crowded, uneven sidewalks, and lots of street-crossings.  Needless to say, we missed the whole thing.  But Calvin and I met up with Bryan ("found daddy!") and our friends Brandi and Jared at the finish line and couldn't help but share their excitement.

We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying Charlottesville, which happens to be a really cool town with lots of cafes and little restaurants with outdoor patios under giant trees, a nice pedestrian mall that reminded me a bit of Boulder, CO, and plenty of people-watching and new experiences for our little Calvin.

On our last morning in Charlottesville we all wandered over near the University of Virginia campus and stumbled upon this great little restaurant called the Pigeon Hole... 

...where Calvin rediscovered how delicious grits are... 

... and we all had a great time.

More toys for Deuce

Deuce didn't really know what to do with all the puzzle pieces Calvin brought him the other day.  Calvin waited for him to (I'm guessing) either eat them or play with them.  Instead, Deuce held perfectly still and mostly ignored them - best not to encourage the strange behavior by the young pup, I guess.  Good dog, Deuce.