Calvin & Carlow Commentary

Carlow just turned 5 months on Monday, in another month he’ll be ready to start eating mashed foods! Wednesday was his first night in his own room in the crib, which was rough. However, last night he slept through the night and Angie had to wake him up at 6:30am! His was a happy and we were happy, especially since he’s just sleeping in his PJs now; no sleep sacks, pacifiers, etc. It will be nice to have more time at night, since he and Calvin have the same bedtime.

Speaking of Cal, he has a ear infection at the moment. His last one was almost a year ago so I guess you could say he was due for another. His favorite things to do lately have been coloring on the dry erase board/coloring books, building with Duplo blocks, racing Hot Wheels and watching Curious George.

Work has been busy as I update all the Calendars to the 2018 year information. I’m really looking forward to going ice fishing the weekend of February 20th. We also booked our annual trip to the cabin in Alexandria for mid June. We met some new friends down our street (which have a daughter at the same daycare as us) at the Children’s Museum last weekend, hoping to get together again soon.

Happy Holidays

Finally getting around to posting a quick update - things are crazy at work since it’s our “busy season.” Major work burnout lately, I’m really looking forward to the holidays and having a nice break. I’m officially taking over as lead of our department on December 18th, so I’m also anxious to find out what my new rate of pay will be etc. Anyway, sitting here at work blogging about work is not fun, so moving on…

Carlow is getting ready to start daycare next Wednesday! Can you believe he’s going to be 4 months old soon? Calvin will be have a little brother at “school” with him now. Carlow has been sleeping quite good the last week or so, only waking up once during the night (7pm - 5am). That is subject to change of course, especially with the challenges of sleeping at daycare etc.

Calvin used the potty at daycare for the first time yesterday! In fact, he went twice and had a dry diaper for most of the day. They are continuing to offer the potty more and more so hopefully he is on the path now. He is really excited for Christmas this year and has a lot of fun reading about Santa and singing holiday songs. Next Thursday is the holiday program at daycare, it will be fun to see him sing with his friends!

Belated Birth Blog

Sometimes it’s hard to put the care and effort into writing a blog that tells the story of a life-changing event like the birth of a child. However, as most of you already know our second child was born unexpectedly while we were vacationing in August. Perhaps not writing as poetic of a blog post and waiting until now reflects a bit of the second-born way of things as parents. It’s not that the event(s) are any less meaningful the second time around, it’s just we’re so busy now we can’t pause to appreciate them as they happen.

Carlow James McDonald is already almost 2-months of age, but it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating his sudden arrival in Alexandria. To make a long story short, we were two days into our stay when Angie’s water broke. The next thing we knew, we couldn’t leave the hospital and active labor was just a few hours away. Everything about the second labor and delivery was different this time around. We were in a different hospital, with different staff and miles from home. At the time, we felt anxious and unprepared, especially considering Calvin didn’t have a clue what was about to happen. Looking back on it now, it really couldn’t have gone much better. Angie was able to labor effectively and have a natural birth, and besides having Carlow spend one night on the light table, we were on the fast track. Now a family of four, everyone was happy, healthy and relaxing at the cabin for one last day of vacation. Pretty amazing, actually. 

Every day since Carlow was born has been busy, to say the least. Calvin gave up his pacifier about two weeks ago, which caused some distress, but everything seems to be going well for him again. Carlow has already grown out of his newborn-sized clothes and seems to get bigger everyday.