Highlights this month:
As in most other years October arrives, and it’s time to bring out the orange and black. Calan gets excited about unpacking our Halloween decorations and filling the house with pumpkins and giant spiderwebs. For the entire month, Calan makes sure that all pumpkins that light up, are properly turned on when he’s around the house. We also go through the decision-making process of what to be for Halloween. As usual, Calan makes his choice pretty fast, and sticks with it. Last year he was a cute, little penguin…this year, the more traditional “spooky ghost” was his choice. In the end though, he combined his ghost-outfit with a Frankenstein mask he received from Nanna… so, Franken-ghost it is!
It’s fun to see Calan get into the fall and Halloween spirit. In addition to getting the house ready, he made two trips to the local pumpkin patch, played at a pumpkin-carving party with the neighbors and attended the pre-school hay ride and harvest party. He also took part in a special pumpkin painting this year at home – based on the teal pumpkin allergy awareness movement, you paint your jack-o-lanterns with bright, teal paint to signify your house as “safe” for food allergy kids. Calan always loves to paint, and he got right in the action of “teal-a-fying” several pumpkins to start our new tradition this year.
As for Halloween itself, we continued an old tradition of sharing our night with our good friends Dea and Louis, and their son Beni. We enjoyed pizza, a fresh salad and some of Heidi’s yummy baked goods with them as we waited for the trick-or-treat outing to begin. Despite this repeated custom, one thing that changed this year was how outgoing Calan was during our trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Each year he gets a little more bold but it’s always been on the apprehensive side of the scale. This year, we could barely keep up with him at times, as he ran through the night as kids often do, going up to doors and ringing the bell. Then after saying the token “trick-or-treat” phrase and uttering a thanks, running down the driveway on to the next house. He had officially embraced the Halloween trick-or-treating in the childhood spirit any parent likes to see…. When we finally returned home, we traded his treat collection in…er… I mean the “magic jack-o-lantern” turned his candy into peanut-safe items, Calan eagerly dug into his treasures. After Dea, Louis, and Beni left for home, we went across the street to the Gonzaleses, where Calan had a chance to play with his buddy Camila. Evan, on the other hand, was simply along for the ride and did well given all the extra excitement and activity of the evening.
Calan
This month was definitely about routine more than anything for Calan. Aside from Halloween, there really weren’t any special events or happenings. School and buddy dates with Jake on Fridays, meet-ups with the Bailey girls on Wednesdays, along with violin lessons on Saturday kept him busy enough with “scheduled” events.
On the “emotional development” front, Calan continues to do better as we too continue to learn more about him and how to be better ourselves for him. As usual, the happy, balanced times are easy to enjoy. When he’s feeling frustrated, that’s when we’re truly tested as parents, and when he needs us the most. One aspect we started being more conscious of this month was how to ensure positive, quality time with Calan and when it takes place. Kids always love attention of course and thrive on it, but you can’t just take it for granted. Life is busy, especially with a infant on hand. It’s easy to go about the day and not actually have bonding moments of any length with your children. But with Calan, we’re learning that if you can deliberately sneak these in, even for 15 minutes, they can do wonders to his well-being and state of mind! To that end, we as parents, have stepped up a little on creating moments of dedicated, positive togetherness where we’re not rushing or instructing Calan, and not just nearby working on a household chore or an iphone. But a short, string of time where we are focused on him, in the moment and enjoying a fun activity together. For example, Dada used to always come home from work on Mondays right at 5:30, walking in the door only to let the sitter out the door, then move on to caring for Evan and getting dinner plans in motion. Making an effort to get home 15 minutes earlier and having the sitter stay an extra 30 mins. gives Calan and Dada time to just be and bond together. Besides the opportunity to have fun, the “dose” of connection time usually results in Calan being more patient when the time comes to get dinner eaten, help with Evan and get ready for bed later on. In general, these times of connection help the little guy more easily follow directions, especially when it’s something he’d rather not do. And of course this “special time” idea only works if the biological basics are in check, such as food and sleep!
Evan
Evan continues to gain healthy weight, looking pudgier every day. Sleeping throughout this month was still a little hit and miss. Good days and bad days…the bad days just ending in one tired baby after not getting in any lengthy naps. We discovered a couple tricks this month though to help Evan get to sleep later in the day. He usually mellows out when he’s tired, or even zonks out completely when being pushed in the stroller. Since he was having a hard time most days napping in the afternoon (unless being held on the couch!), Dada tried strapping the stroller to the treadmill in the garage and putting it on a slow speed. Like magic, a cranky Evan would be soothed and fall asleep within a couple minutes. It’s not ideal for the parent to have to stay close by, but good to use when an afternoon nap is sorely needed. In the evenings, Dada, Calan and Evan head out frequently for an evening stroll to help get Evan ready for an “easy” bedtime.
As for eating, Evan has been continuing his milk with rice added in the bottles when Dada feeds him. He also tried some more concoctions of “solid” food, such as peas, pears, bananas, and his favorite “pear-acado”, mushed up pear and avocado. (Yum?) We had to go easy on this stuff though, as his system is easily stopped up with the extra fiber. He’s definitely getting enough as he measured in at his four-month check at the 85th percentile for weight and 75th for height.