I had a conference in Monterey at the end of October, so we packed up Calvin and roughly half of our wordly possessions and hit the road. We spent the first night in Santa Barbara, and Calvin got to explore a new beach:

Then we headed up to Monterey – we tacked on a couple extra days to my conference to make a little vacation out of it. We scored guest passes to the Aquarium (thanks so much, Kim!) and Calvin really enjoyed it.

The weather was very nice most of the time, and we went on lots of walks:

And of course we introduced Calvin to our favorite pub, the Crown & Anchor:

It was a good trip. Calvin traveled well – no major problems. But traveling with a baby is a lot of work and requires a lot of stuff! We had a good time but were all glad to get back home again.

Between getting caught up after traveling, computer problems, and sickness, I haven’t had the opportunity to update the blog. I have lots of pics and video to post, but I’m not going to get to it all tonight, so here are a couple of pictures of Calvin on Halloween to tide you over.

You can’t tell from the photos, but he glows in the dark!

Looks like we’re moving, doesn’t it? But we’re just heading out on our first big road trip with Calvin. I have a conference in Monterey, so we’re making a vacation out of it. Traveling with a baby involves a lot more stuff!

Let’s see, what’s new with Calvin? He’s slept through the night for the past two nights – woohoo! He’s waking up at 5:00 am, but it’s not too bad when we’re getting 6 or 7 hours straight, and he gets 10! Very nice. He’s still all over the map with his naps – some days he takes a couple of nice, long ones, and some days he won’t nap for more than 20 or 30 minutes. It doesn’t seem to correlate with how well he slept at night, either. We can’t figure it out.

All the walking is having an effect, and he’s definitely eating a lot more these days. We finally moved up from the small bottles to the big ones. He’s just starting to show an interest in feeding himself. Up to now he has stubbornly resisted putting any food substances in his own mouth. Handful of dirt? No problem. Bite of pancake? Hell, no! He eats off a spoon really well, but if we put cheerios or something in front of him for him to feed himself, he usually just plays with it. Lately we’ve given him a couple of biter biscuits, though, and he seems to like those. Of course, he has to pick the messiest possible thing to eat! They get really disgusting really quickly. Yum.

We try to get him outside a lot to explore and play. He loves to wander around and there’s only so much for him to do at our house without getting into stuff he shouldn’t. Eric takes him down to the beach pretty often, and we went down together last weekend.

Here he is destroying a sandcastle and practicing his oral hygiene (mmm….seaweed):

Of course, after all the playing, it’s time to clean up. The foot shower at the beach is perfect height for a baby.

But bath time at home is still his favorite.

For the second time, plans to take Calvin to a birthday party did not pan out. The first time, he napped through the party. Yesterday, the party was cancelled because the birthday girl came down with the chicken pox – poor Ellie! So, I took him over to my mom’s instead. He learned a little about Halloween:

And he played games with Grandma:

So, no birthday cake for Cal, but he didn’t seem to mind much. He always manages to entertain himself:

And he keeps us pretty well entertained, too.

One of Calvin’s top teeth came in the other day, and it looks like there’s another one on the verge. No pics yet – they are very hard to see, even when he smiles really big.

He’s trying to convince us that he’s all innocent and angelic:

But we know better:

Needless to say, we no longer have any toilet paper within Calvin’s reach.

He loves opening and closing doors, and he does a lot of “laps” – back and forth on the couch, back and forth between the bathtub and the bathroom door. 

He’s getting more vocal and expressive. He’s also pretty pleased with himself and his new skills:

Eric’s uncle Bob Mickelson passed away last week. He died of pneumonia after battling two types of cancer. We were fortunate enough to have spent some time with him in recent months, and are so glad he got to know Calvin a bit before he died.

Over the weekend, we went up to Running Springs for his memorial service and stayed overnight. It was a good trial road trip for Calvin – not too long a drive, but far enough to give us a good idea of how he’ll do on longer journeys. He handled it pretty well. As usual, he didn’t nap much during the day – way too much going on – but slept well at night and did fine on the drive up and back.

It was great to spend time with Eric’s Aunt Jan and some of his cousins and extended family. The service was a really nice celebration of Bob’s life, and I can say with all honesty that it’s the only memorial service I have ever attended that involved the use of a blow dart!

Calvin with Aunt Jan

Unhappy about something!

 Eric’s uncle used to say, “When  I die, bury me in a pine box and throw a big party.” I guess Calvin took him at his word:

The weather was hot and clear and we took Cal up to Lake Arrowhead village to walk around a bit. 

Calvin got lots of walking practice at Jan’s house. Lately we’ve noticed that he likes to carry something around with him when he walks.

I have more pictures and updates to post, but it’s late and I’m sleepy, so I’ll try to post again tomorrow. I will say that Monday was Eric’s 40th birthday, and though he didn’t want to make a big deal of it I thought I’d mention it in case anyone wants to send some birthday wishes his way. He makes 40 look pretty damn good!

Calvin is a budding filmmaker. You can see a sample of his early work below. So far it appears to be a little derivative, hinting of The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield. But he approaches the camera with confidence and is working to develop his own unique perspective – I think he has the makings of a great auteur.

Advisory: those who are prone to motion sickness might want to skip this one.