This week Calvin figured out how to climb up onto the couch by himself. Oh, joy.

The cushion at the end of the couch has been removed because Calvin also figured out that he could climb up onto the arm of the couch and get onto the computer desk. We are moving the coffee table out of the room because he’s showing other daredevil tendencies, like just walking off the couch when the mood strikes him and assuming one of us will catch him, even if we happen to be across the room at the time.

When he’s developing a new skill like this, he gets baby OCD – he just repeats the same actions over and over and over. He does laps on and off the couch. He climbs in and out of the laundry basket or the magazine basket or the tv armoire. It can be hilarious, but when he’s trying to do something we don’t want him to do, it turns into a contest of wills. Fun for everyone!

He’s also really into tossing or throwing things around. He entertained himself thoroughly at my office holiday party by tossing a flashlight around. He was cracking himself up – very cute. Here’s a video of him chasing a ball around at home:

He’s pretty good at entertaining himself. He has his clingy moments for sure, but he’s got a big independent streak. Right now his biggest frustration is that he can’t do everything he wants to do by himself. He’s very determined, though – he’ll have it all figured out before too long. God help us all!

Here are a few of the things that Calvin likes to play with:

The desk chair

The Swiffer

Purell container on the diaper bag

Dead leaf

Calvin turned 10 months old at the beginning of the month, and he’s a busy, busy boy. He rarely sits still – he’s constantly exploring or carrying things from place to place. He still loves opening and closing doors and he’s showing signs of becoming a climber. We figure we need to take advantage of all that energy and teach him to do some chores.

Something finally clicked and all of a sudden he’s feeding himself all kinds of finger foods – cheerios, yogurt melts, banana snacks and so on. It’s made it a lot easier to get through a meal, as we can put him in his high chair with some snacks and he stays entertained while Eric and I both eat. No more eating in shifts! Woohoo!

It also seems like his overall food intake has about doubled in the last couple of weeks. He slimmed down a bit when he started walking, but he’s putting some weight back on and his little belly is getting rounder. 

He still loves bath time, and since he loves to do whatever Eric is doing, sometimes he takes a shower in the morning, too. He’s totally fascinated by all of Eric’s projects and wants to get involved, so generally if Eric needs to get something done I try to get Calvin out of the house. We also finally put a baby gate in the hallway, and Calvin is not happy about that at all!

His hair is filling in, so he doesn’t look like a baldy anymore. It’s gotten a little darker, too. I don’t know how dark it will get, but he’s definitely not a towhead like Eric was when he was little.

The weather is getting a little colder, so we’ve been trying to get our barefoot boy to wear something on his feet, with very limited success. When I first tried a pair of shoes on him, I held him in my lap to get the shoes on, and when I tried to put him down he tightened up his abs and kept his legs straight out in front of him. He would NOT put his feet on the ground. Of course, it’s impossible to keep socks on him. He’ll walk around in them for  a couple of minutes, but as soon as he sits down he pulls them off. I got him a little pair of mukluks and those work well – they go higher up his calf so they’re not easy for him to pull off, but they’re basically just a sock with a sole and he can walk in them very easily. They don’t seem to bother him too much, but he’s generally happiest when he has bare feet, even on our cold tile. Crazy kid.

Calvin survived his first cold without too much trauma – there were a couple of rough days, but that’s about it. He thinks it’s hilarious when Eric and I blow our noses, but if you try to get near him with a tissue it’s like the world is coming to an end. That’s pretty typical, I think. Other than that he’s been in good health and we’ve all managed to avoid the swine flu that’s going around. That’s one more thing to be thankful for as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday!

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!